Guerrilla Christianity

Sermon #263

We are three weeks into our series "When God Speaks."  So listen up (Are You Listening?).  God has a clear message to us.  But now we come to an important instruction left to the people of Israel (and to us) about speaking in God's name.  When someone speaks in God's name, how do we know that it is really God's word?  Well in order to know that, we need to know the nature of God.  And so we hear a word from Moses in Deuteronomy, a dire warning for those who would speak in God's name and a good word for those who would receive it.

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Recorded at Hudson UMC on January 28, 2018 (Originally published February 17, 2018)

S.D.G.

February 2, 2024

Old Testament: Malachi 3:1-4

Psalter: Psalm 84

Epistle Lesson: Hebrews 2:14-18

Gospel Lesson: Luke 2:22-40

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.

Sermon #589

Today we are looking at Jesus preaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, and the astonishment of his hearers, that he teaches as one with authority and not like the scribes.  Suddenly there is an interruption to the service; a demon-possessed man confronts Jesus and Jesus casts out the unclean spirit.  What does all this mean for us today?  First, that Jesus performed miracles such as this to demonstrate that he has the authority by God to speak to the scriptures.  After all, it was ultimately God himself who is the author of scripture.  And secondly, that there is a spiritual battle being fought over the souls of people even today, and that every affliction which the modern world has termed a disease or some sort of chemical imbalance has at it's root a spiritual element as well.  

Mark 1:21-28

Recorded at Hudson UMC on January 28, 2024

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S.D.G.

Sermon #428

Here in the 21st Century we have seen an onslaught of attacks against the Bible and its authority.  But what we see in the reading from Mark today, as Jesus taught in the synagogue from God's word, is that God's word is the ultimate authority, because it is God speaking directly to us.  In God's word there is an undeniable power that transcends mere words on a page.  The Bible is the most read, most widely distributed, most translated book in human history, and it has been supernaturally preserved in its entirety because it is what it says it is: the word of God.

Mark 1:21-28

Recorded at Hudson UMC on January 31, 2021 (Originally published on February 3, 2021)

S.D.G.

January 28, 2024

Old Testament: Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Psalter: Psalm 111

Epistle Lesson: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Gospel Lesson: Mark 1:21-28

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.

Sermon #262

God calls to us but he does not reveal his message to us until we are ready to listen.  So what is God's message to us?  All throughout the Bible, God has a single message that repeats over and over again, and that is to turn away from our sin and turn back to him.

Jonah 3:1-5,10

Recorded at Hudson UMC on January 21, 2018 (Originally published February 13, 2018)

S.D.G.

 

Sermon #588

[This sermon was preached on Facebook Live from the Hudson UMC Parsonage Office, due to icy conditions in Salem County, on January 21, 2024.]

As we continue our "Following Christ" series and exposition of the Gospel according to St. Mark, we come to the calling of four fishermen, a familiar account in which Jesus says to them, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."  Not only do we see the immediacy of the response to follow Jesus, we also see an example and pattern to follow in evangelism.  After all, the first directive in the call to discipleship was to make more disciples (fish for people).  And so we see how we are to both cast our nets and mend our nets, and how we can do that in a world that is resistant to the gospel message.

Mark 1:14-20

Recorded at Hudson UMC Parsonage on January 21, 2024

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S.D.G.

It's hard to believe that this is the 500th episode of this little podcast called Guerrilla Christianity.  As I write this, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Arlington, TX, on a training trip for Amazon, and I thought it would be a good idea to commemorate this event with a special episode in which I pontificate, ruminate, and reflect upon eleven seasons, ten and a half years of ministry, and five hundred episodes of preaching the gospel.  

Recorded at Residence Inn, Arlington, TX on January 21, 2024

S.D.G.

Sermon #427

As we continue to look at the ways that God interacted with us through Jesus Christ, we come to the missional calling of four disciples who previously were not learned Biblical scholars but fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.  This calling is different from the calling we saw last week in that last week's calling was to discipleship, and this is a calling that is giving these men a mission and a task to complete - that of fishing for people.  And what we see in this narrative is that, as fishers of people ourselves, we are called to cast our nets often for a catch, and to mend our nets often so that they can be effective at bringing people to Christ.  

Mark 1:14-20

Recorded at Ebenezer UMC on January 24, 2021 (Originally published on January 25, 2021)

S.D.G.

January 21, 2024

Old Testament: Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Psalter: Psalm 62:5-12

Epistle Lesson: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Gospel Lesson: Mark 1:14-20

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

S.D.G.