Learning to Love the Church

Dan Kent calls us to love the church as the people of God. He does this by identifying two real issues that hinder people from embracing the church and then he shows us how to overcome these obstacles as we engage the God who engages us.

Greg Boyd explains what the doctrine of the rapture is and why it is problematic. He then offers an alternative perspective, one which aligns with the call to live in love as Christ loved us. 

In this sermon, Cedrick Baker calls us to worship through song. In doing so, we open our minds to remember the goodness of God and his work in our lives, and we increase our faith as we walk with Jesus. Singing aligns us with the work of God and leads to dependence upon the only one who can deliver us.

Revelation opens our eyes to see the empty promises of empires and systems that proclaim eternality and permanence. However, the reality is that they all fade and fall. In this sermon, Greg Boyd challenges us to set aside our hopes in these empires, and place our hope on the only kingdom that will last, the kingdom that is found in the cruciform king. 

This sermon by Dan Kent names what it means to be trapped by the culture of Babylon and the path to escape it. The Babylonian way compels us to pursue more while never having enough, while the cruciform way of Jesus offers us a gift that we cannot work to attain.

God’s judgment is a common topic throughout the Bible and even in popular culture. But what does the Bible mean by divine judgment? Does it mean God smites us when we go too far? In this sermon Greg Boyd invites us to see the divine judgment or the wrath of God in a different light. God’s judgment actually means that sin possesses its own repercussions—you might say that the wrongdoing ricochets. This is how divine wrath works because this is how God designed creation. 

Greg concludes the Love Does series with a look at Paul’s statement that love rejoices in the truth in contrast with not delighting in wrongdoing. He then connects the contrast between truth and wrongdoing to demonstrate how right relatedness is truthful and how this is the way we live in love. 

This sermon by Greg Boyd shows us that love is more than simply not wronging others. The love of God actually means that we are not delighting or celebrating the wrongdoing. The motivations of our heart are shaped by love and therefore produce the fruit of loving action. 

Love does not keep a record of things done wrong and love believes the best of others. Sandra Unger names how difficult it is to walk in these two aspects of agape love. She names how keeping a record of wrongs undermines love and provides insights into how we can move away from this all-too-common practice.

Cedrick Baker invites us to look at love in action as extreme measures for the welfare of the other. Reflecting on the extreme measures of the Incarnation and the Cross, we are called to bless the other at cost to ourselves.