Shows
Out of ExileFEED EXPIRING – Advent Sermon: “Trading Away Our Glory”
This is the audio (37:57, 26.3 MB) of a sermon preached at Center Church (EPC) of Grove City, PA, on November 27, 2022. The main texts are Genesis 1:26–31; 2:7; and 3:1–11. You can also watch the service on YouTube.
This was my first sermon as pastor of this church! As I have shared previously, soon I will no longer be sharing all my sermons in this podcast feed. Here are new links to follow my work:
Audio/video of lectures and talks: https://thinkhardthinkwell.com/category/podcast/feed
Weekly services of Center Church (EPC), mostly my sermons: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdS...2022-11-2800 minOut of ExilePLEASE UPDATE PODCAST FEED
New links to follow my work:
Audio/video of lectures and talks: https://thinkhardthinkwell.com/category/podcast/feed
Weekly services of Center Church (EPC), mostly my sermons: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdS3H6sJL_Sv_whbHB3SOzQ
Personal website: thinkhardthinkwell.com
Archive of past sermons: thinkhardthinkwell.com/sermons
Church website: http://www.centerchurchgc.org
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As I have shared in the last few months, I am transitioning from serving as a professor who is involved in ministry part-time, to serving as a full-time pastor in a church. This is a huge change for me, but...2022-11-0900 minOut of ExileSermon: “I Am the Bread of Life” (John 6:25–71)
This is the audio (49:10, 38.0 MB) of a sermon preached at Center Presbyterian Church (EPC) of Grove City, PA, on September 18, 2022. The main text is John 6:25–71. You can also watch the service on YouTube.
This was my candidating sermon at this church. Immediately after the service, a congregational meeting was held, and the church voted (on the recommendation of the Session and the search committee) to call me as pastor! I am very blessed to have received this call, and will probably blog about the details soon. For now, I will say that we hope to move out to...2022-10-0400 minOut of ExileSermon: “We Are Members of One Another” (Ephesians 4)
This is the audio (37:24, 11.9 MB) of a sermon preached at Klaipėda Free Christian Church, on August 14, 2022. The main text is Ephesians 4.
The sermon was translated back-and-forth into Russian, for the benefit of Ukrainians who have joined our church since February. (Older Lithuanians in our congregation know Russian, and younger Lithuanians understand English.) I took this audio from my phone, which was in my breast pocket–so you might not hear Liubava’s translation. Since the scripture was up on the screen in English, I asked her to read in Russian–so you will need to use an Engl...2022-08-1900 minOut of ExileSermon: “Those Who Sigh and Groan” (Ezekiel 8-9)
This is the audio (51:13, 46.8 MB) of a sermon preached at Kaunas Free Christian Church, on May 15, 2022. The main text is Ezekiel 8:1-15 and 9:1-11. An excerpt:
Our passage for today is one that has been rattling around in my head for the last two years, and I’m finally collecting my thoughts to say something about it. It’s kind of like an expose, a bit of “hidden camera footage” that shows what the religious leaders of Israel were doing in secret, in the Jerusalem temple, in its last days before it was destroyed. They thought that they cou...2022-05-1600 minOut of ExileSermon: Sage Gibson on Mark 5:25-34
This is the audio (30:08, 26.9 MB) of a sermon preached at Klaipėda Free Christian Church, on April 3, 2022, by one of my students, Sage Gibson. The main text is Mark 5:25-34.
Sage completed a course on the Book of Isaiah with me in Fall 2021. We continued to work together on an article based an idea in a paper she wrote for that course. The article is under review with a journal; we decided to preach sermons based on our studies for the article, which is about the use of Isaiah 63-66 in Mark 5.
I’m enormously pro...2022-04-1700 minOut of ExileSermon: “I Stretched Out My Hands All Day Long” (Isaiah 65–66)
This is the audio (43:17, 99.1 MB) of a sermon preached at Klaipėda Free Christian Church, on March 27, 2022. The main text is Isaiah 65:1–9, 12–15; and 66:1–6.
Have you ever had an experience with a toddler that you knelt down, held out your arms, and waited for the child to run to you to be hugged—and instead the child runs past you to someone else? (This can also happen with dogs!) No one really takes this personally when it happens, because—children are children! But if, let’s say, you’re an uncle or an aunt, and a child ignores you like this...2022-03-2800 minOut of ExileSermon: “Hide the Fugitives!” (Isaiah 15:8–16:5)
This is the video (22:16, 145 MB) of a sermon preached at Klaipėda Free Christian Church, on March 13, 2022. The main text is Isaiah 15:8–16:5. The sermon follows on my report of a trip to Western Ukraine, to bring supplies to fellow Christians from Zaporizhzhia, and to bring back refugees to Lithuania. An excerpt:
The church is Jesus’s household, his kingdom on earth. We should absolutely be a place of refuge for refugees and those fleeing for their lives—just as the Davidic kings of ancient Judah could be a safe place for Moabites and others from all over the wor...2022-03-1300 minOut of ExileSermon: “Oh, That You Would Rend the Heavens!” (Isaiah 63:7-64:12)
This is the video (45:43, 573 MB) of a sermon preached at Kaunas Free Christian Church, on February 13, 2022. The main text is Isaiah 63:7–64:12.
The prayer in Isaiah 63–64 is a great example because the faithful prophet knows what his people need: they need God to change their hearts, and they need God to be near to them. It is passionate, and thoughtful, and based on God’s promises to his people. It’s also beautiful for us to think about how God answered this prayer: including in ways that his people did not expect.
Enjoy hearing the sermon in both...2022-02-1400 minOut of ExileSeminar: “Images of Healing, Healing Images”
Fragment of a terracotta statue of a god. U. 16993; BM 122934. (Ur)Walker & Dick 1999, “The Mesopotamian mis pî Ritual”
This is the audio (34:04, 31.2 MB) of a [virtual] talk I gave on January 28, 2022, entitled, “Images of Healing, Healing Images.” It was my honor to address a group of professors, physicians, researchers, and graduate students at the Yale Program for Medicine, Spirituality and Religion (YPMSR), at the invitation of Prof. Ben Doolittle: a physician, a professor, a researcher, and a pastor in a local church.
Here is the abstract:
This presentation explores the concept of the “image of God” fou...2022-01-3000 min