Jr.'s Sermons

Imaging serving and immediately summon feelings of obligation, of duty. But Paul speaks of Christian service as freedom – a freedom to slavery. Love is the key – when we serve out of love, our service has no bounds. When we serve out of love, no...

As Catalyst looks to the future, how do we love more intentionally? We must follow the model Jesus gives us in the incarnation - leaving our comfort zones to inhabit the world of those who are not like us.

Catalyst creates spaces where everyone can embrace their God-given calling. How will we love in the next 10 years? How will we grow? How will we serve?

Ghosts are stories of regrets – spirits that haunt the living because they have “unfinished business”. In truth we are the haunted houses. We carry round unresolved issues from our past. By comparing two biblical Sauls – the King and the...

Zombies are mindless creatures who follow their most basic desire - to eat and eat and eat. They represent our fear that humans are most basically animals driven by destructive instincts. We distrust our cravings, our loves. But Scripture tells us if...

The Werewolf is a person who has a beast living inside them. We know what that's like: to have something inside us, something we try to control. But just like the monster stories, no matter how hard we try, the Wolf gets out. And our sin doesn't...

Vampires scare us because they are creatures that live by taking life from others. Our culture encourages this sort of behavior, but we know it’s death for us. We find freedom in the way of the cross – Paul shows us that God is not a taker, but a...

When there's a screen between us, it becomes easier to ignore our humanity. On one hand, we bully, shame and blame online much more readily than if we are face-to-face. On the other hand, because of this culture of online shaming, we rarely express...

We don’t naturally think about technology from a theological perspective. But since everything is spiritual, we must learn how to approach technology with God in mind. While the first questions that come to mind about screens in particular is a...

We're taught only to be friends with those who can benefit us in some way. Even the Ancient Romans valued this kind of friendship. But Jesus shows us a different way: to engage in friendships for what you can GIVE, not what you can get. When we love...

Though faith begins as an exciting journey, it often crystallizes into legalism. We become convinced God only works through particular, narrow forms of faith. John Cage's unique musical experiment, 4'33" is the soundtrack for Jesus' conversation...

We all desire to fit it somewhere. We spend a lot of time developing social "currency" so we can earn our place. But as God tells the Corinthians, the life Jesus offers us is upside down. God doesn't value what the world does. Our currency is...

When we've been hurt, revenge feels good and right. But taking revenge only feeds the cycle of violence, turning victims into victimizers. Forgiveness offers us a way to break the cycle and find life.

Our desires often cause us anxiety as we wonder how to satisfy them. Do we have enough... money? ...love? ...success? ...faith? Jesus promises us that when we orient our desires by seeking God's kingdom first, we find how our lives make sense.

Everyone faces crises of faith. In those moments, we can’t help but wonder if faith is like a kids’ magic show – just smoke and mirrors. But the difficult questions of faith can be a gateway to a deeper reality, a faith that can only be...

Billy Idol tells his pregnant sister that today is a nice day for a White Wedding. In doing so, he flaunts the purity culture that tells his sister her worth comes from what she's done. His attitude is a picture for us of how God rescues us: we are...

The song "Pompeil" by Bastille is about what it feels like to live through the End of the World. When our world is rocked by tragedy, we tend to look backward, to idealize the "Glory Days" of the past and pine for what we've lost. But God's...

Shame keeps us from embracing the love God offers us. Much like Roberta Flack, we fear exposure, convinced that someone who knows us as fully as God does can only despise us. But Jesus promises that anyone who comes into the light of his presence...

We’re taught to be suspicious of our desires, to rule over them and subject them to our minds. But our desires are the core of who we are, since we’re created in the image of a God who is love. The practices of fasting and feasting help us orient...

We're taught that complete freedom is the path to happiness. But as Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" reveals, that path leaves us isolated and alone. Psalm 119 celebrates the freedom we find in pursuing commitment, not running from it.