Sermon Archive
Isaiah’s Peace - Chasing Away Anxiety
By: Dr. Robert Petterson
Dec 18, 2011
St. Augustine famously said, “God has made us for himself, and we will be restless until we find our rest in him.” Isaiah lived some 700 years before the Advent of Christ. But this ancient prophet’s world was as relevant to us as tomorrow’s headlines. Like us, he lived in times of high geopolitical anxiety. Like us, he knew that God was secure on his throne and history was his story. He knew that his God would triumph and that his people would reign in glory. But he also saw that the near future was rough sledding. We all want the Rapture without the Tribulation; to bypass Babylon and go straight to Holy Jerusalem. But the season of the cross always precedes a resurrection and ascension to glory. It did for our Savior, and it will for us. Yet Isaiah found a peace that chases away the darkness of anxiety, and he passes it on to us as a Christmas gift that reveals the secrets to finding perfect peace in a restless age.
Habakkuk’s Joy - Chasing Away Terror
By: Dr. Robert Petterson
Dec 11, 2011
C.S. Lewis wrote, “Sometimes I wonder if the pursuit of pleasure is nothing more than a substitute for joy.” History teaches us that when nations are on the brink, terror is most often anesthetized by pursuit of pleasure. When the Babylonian army was laying siege to Jerusalem, the doomed inhabitants held dinner parties on their rooftops to watch their executioners preparing their destruction. Habakkuk knew that this holocaust was God’s judgment on his people. He was angry at the sin and stupidity of a culture gone crazy. But the prophet was also embittered and terror stricken by the impending doom. We live in an age when people pursue pleasure rather than God, even as disaster looms. As Christians, we might feel like Habakkuk. Neither the pursuit of pleasure by the wicked, nor the grousing of the righteous brings joy. But Habakkuk discovered joy that chased away the darkness of terror. He teaches us how we can find the same during this Advent Season.
Hosea’s Love - Chasing Away Unfaithfulness
By: Dr. Robert Petterson
Dec 04, 2011
Is any pain more excruciating than betrayal? If you have been wounded by unfaithfulness, you’ve descended into the darkest darkness. There is no season that mocks the wounded heart more than Christmas. Yet the Advent story says that God has come down to experience your pain. But do you feel his pain? Some 700 years before Christ, the northern tribes of Israel abandoned the God who passionately loved them. Like an adulterous wife, they ran after foreign gods. So God called Hosea to prophesy against them. But first, he commanded him to marry a whore. This is R-rated stuff: The Prophet and the Prostitute. The old man loved his wife, but she ran after other men and had their babies. Finally, she ended up enslaved to a pimp. It broke the old man’s heart, but he searched until he found her whorehouse. He paid the steep price to redeem her and bring her home. God wanted Hosea to experience firsthand his pain. He also wants us to feel the same pain for the lost that caused him to send his Son to earth to redeem us.
Korah’s Hope - Chasing Away Despair
By: Dr. Robert Petterson
Nov 27, 2011
Rock band Switchfoot’s most recent album Vice Versa captures both the angst and hope of Christians in a crazy world. The title track laments, “Every blessing comes with a set of curses,” while questioning, “Where is God in the earthquake? Where is God in the genocide?,” and prayerfully pleads, “Tell me that you’re there.” It speaks of broken humanity looking for the miracle of hope. The sons of Korah were the praise band of the Jewish temple. They wrote the songs that made God’s people sing. But in Psalm 43 they composed a lament as gritty as Switchfoot’s Vice Versa. They were hostages in a strange land, far from home and temple. Their captors scoffed at their dreams, and hope flickered like a spent candle in the wind. Yet, when they got a vision of the Advent of the Messiah, hope took wing. From them, we discover how to grasp hope to chase away the darkness of despair.
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