St Marcus Mke Sermons

There is a big difference between preparing for Christmas and preparing for Jesus. It’s easy to prepare for a single day and then move onto the next, but Jesus doesn’t come for just a day. He comes to stay.  Based on Luke 3:1-20.  If you’d like to leave an offering or monetary donation to our ministry please click here: https://tinyurl.com/stmarcusgive

Many of us wrap up the Thanksgiving celebration with a viewing of a favorite holiday classic like It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, or Elf. This is an unofficial acknowledgement that we are transitioning on to an important time of year. The historical church calendar has traditionally done something similar. There is a fall-time recognition of the End Times, before we turn the page back to the beginning, Advent, when we process the coming of the Promised Messiah. The bounce between 2nd Coming and 1st Coming is a believer's balance of the "Already...but not yet" experience of being God's people in the wilderness of life. This week we study Romans 13:11-14 under the theme of "Look What Time It Is!"

This week we'll be studying Numbers 12:1-16, under the theme of "Miriam & Aaron Oppose Moses." After slandering Moses' wife, Miriam and Aaron get a firm reminder to be content in their calling, submit to God's will, and honor God's choices, even as they experience God's grace. SERIES SUMMARY: The Book of Numbers picks up at Mt Sinai, roughly where the Book of Exodus ended. The task before the nation is to take possession of the Promised Land. The Israelites are counted and resume march. But…they begin incessantly grumbling at the hardships of the wilderness and leadership of Moses & Aaron. In this series, we're going to see how discontentment with life, distrust of leaders, and disbelief in God’s promises complicates life unnecessarily; and, if left unrepented, could even prevent blessing of the  Promised Land. We'll also see God's patient, undeserved, unfailing love for his people. If you’d like to leave an offering or monetary donation to our ministry please click here:

This week we'll be studying Hebrews 12:4-13, under the theme of "Enduring Discipline." Throughout this series, we've said the Hebrews were new Jewish converts to Christianity, who were reconsidering the faith due to present hardship. As the author of Hebrews has made logical points to persuade them to not give up, his final major argument is that the hardship a Sovereign God allows in our lives is akin to a loving Father's discipline. It comes from a place of love. And it aims towards a place of our betterment.

By holding on to the Truth of God's Holy Word, we experience the freedom of no longer being slaves to sin. Based on John 8:31-36.

This week we'll be studying Hebrews 11:1-3; 13-17, under the theme of "The Nature of Saving Faith." The author of Hebrews reminds us in this chapter of the "heroes" of Israelite history. These were heroes of faith more than heroes of faithfulness. None of them was saved by their own righteousness, but by a righteousness that came by/through faith. This confidence in God's promises of life eternal then led to them acting courageously in this life presenting a powerful pattern for us.

This week we'll be studying Hebrews 10:19-27, under the theme of "Keep Moving Forward Together." The modern western world champions the idea of individual autonomy. Its two most devastating lies then are 1) that we can save ourselves, and 2) that we can do a relationship with God by ourselves. But the writer to the Hebrews teaches the necessity of meeting together, the danger of deliberately sinning against this, and the identity that unites us in the Church.

This week we'll be studying Hebrews 9:11-22, under the theme of "The Shedding of Blood." Many people today like the idea of a loving God, but the moment you start talking about bloody sacrifices, they perceive it as an unnecessary and barbaric holdover from ancient, violent people. But what is blood? Why were blood sacrifices necessary for God's people? What is the role of Jesus' bloody sacrifice, and where does blood fit in regarding us as living sacrifices? This text takes us back to the necessity of blood sacrifices, the Great High Priest's blood sacrifices, and how allowing ourselves to be drained of some life can still mean life for others today.

This week we'll be studying Hebrews 4:1-13, under the theme of "Entering God's Rest." Despite our basic needs of life being met in historically unprecedented ways, the average person today reports being more anxious, more isolated, and less rested than at most moments in history. God offers a deep, powerful, soul rest for those who are interested. But it's on his terms, not ours.

This week we'll be studying Hebrews 2:5-18, under the theme of "Sharing Our Humanity." God did not hover above earth giving us advice on our problems. He came down in the person of Jesus, experienced life with us, and overcame death for us. He now compels us to similarly enjoin ourselves to the hurt of others in order to bring God's grace and power into their lives. If you’d like to leave an offering or monetary donation to our ministry please click here: https://tinyurl.com/stmarcusgive

This week we'll be studying Luke 16:19-31, the story of The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus, under the theme of "God, Our Helper in Life and in Death." If you’d like to leave an offering or monetary donation to our ministry please click here: https://tinyurl.com/stmarcusgive

This week we'll be studying Jonah 4:1-11 under the theme of "God's Compassion to Jonah." Most people can tell you there's a fish that swallows a man in the Book of Jonah. Fewer can tell you Jonah goes to Nineveh in chapter 3. But very few can tell you how the book ends, why it's a cliffhanger, and what the major lessons of the book truly are. This week, in the final chapter, God disciples a self-righteously wayward spiritual child, reiterates his love for humanity, and creates in us a longing for a prophet who doesn't sit outside a city hoping for its destruction but goes outside the city to die for the city.

This week we'll be studying Jonah 3:1-10 under the theme of "Jonah Listens to God." God graciously recommissions Jonah. And Jonah reluctantly carries out his mission with a relatively simple message. But God's Word is effective in ways we can't understand. A nation turns from its violence. And God teaches us important things about the necessity of suffering for saving, the ministry strategy of city, and the ULTIMATE JONAH who entered a city not simply to prevent it from dying, but to die for it. If you’d like to leave an offering or monetary donation to our ministry please click here: https://tinyurl.com/stmarcusgive

This week we'll be studying a combination of Jonah 2:1-10 under the theme of "Jonah Prays to God." Having run away from God and God's will as central to his life...having endured a self-inflicted storm that threatened the existence of everyone in his boat...and having been thrown overboard to experience the chaotic  rock bottom of the sea, Jonah is finally ready to pray to God. Sometimes it takes a lot for us to truly open up to God. Experiencing our failures and God's undeserved goodness certainly helps.

This week we'll be studying a combination of Jonah 1:1-17 under the theme of "Jonah Runs From God." Jonah, a prophet of God, had a simple message to give to the city of Nineveh. But he refused to give it. Why? It wasn't the fear you might suspect. Rather, Jonah had a pride, and an idol, of religious nationalism that prevented him from loving humans the way he should. What does it look like for modern people to run from God? And what does God do about it?

The Big Idea this week would be to recognize we don't DESERVE relationship with God, but nonetheless HAVE relationship with God by grace, and therefore we're learning to LIVE out of that relationship with God in anticipation of knowing we'll experience it fully in eternity.

This week we'll be studying James 1:12-18 & Exodus 20:17-21 under the theme of "The 9th & 10th Commandments - Controlling Desires." In a society that teaches children to "follow your heart" as a life-operating principle, it's not surprising that a word like "COVET" has nearly dropped out of our vernacular entirely. But it's impossible to understand why you do what you do unless you can get to the bottom of why you desire what you desire. Coveting, the last of the commands, is about controlling our desires.

This week we'll be studying 1 Timothy 5:9-15 & Exodus 20:16 under the theme of "The 8th Commandment: Constructive Speech." Words can be the most powerful weapons in the world. We must take care to use them in the way the God who spoke the universe into creation uses his words - i.e. constructively. And we're saved and motivated to do this by seeing the Word who became flesh take a verdict of condemnation in our place so that we can have an affirmation of grace.

This week we'll be studying Luke 12:13-21 & Exodus 20:15 under the theme of "The 7th Commandment: Stewarding God's Stuff." The counterintuitive wisdom of gaining by giving is completely foreign to fallen humans from birth. Jesus spends LOTS of time in the Gospels talking about money - what he does & doesn't want us to do with it. But it's all with the intention that giving fits our design, and brings unique and lasting blessings.

This week we'll be studying Matthew 5:27-30 & Exodus 20:14 under the theme of "The 6th Commandment: Navigating Sex & Marriage." By God's design, sex is like a nuclear power in its capacity for good or evil. It can literally create life or destroy life. Only when we submit to God's will do God's gifts ultimately serve as blessings.