Nathaniel From Timfam

Christmas is wonderful, but it definitely makes us ask if we're doing enough - do I have enough gifts, nice enough gifts, have I given enough. John makes us ask the same question and points to a different answer - making the fruit of a new person. A sermon based on Luke 3:7-18

Somehow, Christmas manages to bring out some of the most romantic stories of our lives. How? Check out the source of love. A sermon on December 8th 2024 based on Philippians 1:3-11

For Christmas to be real for you and me, we have to see we lack. We might want all kinds of things. But the fact that God sent his Son, not a pot of money, not a new set of laws, and not a new family, means that we don’t just want all kinds of things. We need something that we have no idea what it is. Real Christmas means you say I lack. I lack and only God can give what I need. A sermon on December 1, 2024 based on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

It can be easy to be thankful for the good and easy people in our lives. Most of us have to plenty of project people - imperfect people who we work and live with. Can we be thankful for them too? Sermon on November 27, 2024 for Thanksgiving 2024

Whether we know it or not, recognize it or not, we want to be right. We are desperate to be right. We are eager for the day when we will be right forever and shine. A sermon on November 17th, 2024

Do I actually want to go to heaven? For so many people, heaven doesn't actually seem like a good place to be. We have to learn to long for a distant country that we've never been to and have no idea what it is like. If it is a great place, you can learn to like it. Sermon on Isaiah 35:1-10 on November 10th, 2024

I've seen plenty of examples of the destructive effect of marriage. Nevertheless, God says and shows that marriage is the path to flourishing, for most people. A sermon on genesis 2:18-25 on October 13.

Being loved does some great things for us. But it isn't easy to be someone who can be loved. It means being vulnerable and dependent. That's what someone else has done exactly right for us. Sermon on Sept 22, 2024, 1 John 4 and others.

Christianity has something to give. Whether you know it or not, feel it or not, or even have the right thing, whatever sickness, hardship, or trial you run up against in life, the gospel gives you something to give. A sermon on Act 3:1-10 on September 8th, 2024.

Kids know the importance of giving honor and glory to someone else. They boast about their parents at school. We give glory and honor to things to by our lives - perhaps to money, or family, or our career. But do we honor good things? Do we glorify the right things? And what could it do for us if we honored someone else who honored us first! A sermon on Deuteronomy 4:1-9 on September 1, 2024.

Our age pressures us simultaneously to be both filled with faith and to turn away from faith. We aren't going to get away from that pressure. The only thing we can do is press into it. We can do that because Jesus pressed on to push back against sin, death, and the devil. A sermon on Hebrews 11:24-28 on August 25, 2024

The solution for days of wild weather is not to try to tame it, control it, or somehow think we are gods. It is to get a king who is truly as wild as the weather is. A sermon on Mark 4:35-41.

All of these things are part of our reality. We know that the world is loved and loved to death. * We know that such love is the very essence of God himself. We know that behind history there is the witness who is the great witness of all things right. We know that the above the values that we hold to is the one who values us. There's something that you and I can say in every situation. And that's the resurrection reality that God wants for you and I today. An Easter sermon on March 31, 2024 based on John 20:1-18

A good life has to navigate the stages and transitions of life. Relationships are central to both the stages and the transitions. One relationship needs to stay at the center. June 25, 2023, Sermon 2

We say good things about the importance of relationships, but we're wired personally and culturally, in so many ways, to resist relationships. In order to love, we will rebelieve relationships. Matthew 19 June 11, 2023

There are a number of practical reasons to be part of a local congregation. It is frequently difficult to be part of congregation and go through the experiences, on a regular basis, that will really form us into God's people. But Jesus was crushed so that even if we are hard pressed, we will never be crushed and destroyed. He is a foundation so we are better built. 1 Peter 2:4-10

There are so many good things in our world, but there is plenty too that we'd like to be rescued from. There is an offer to make us new people in this world; and there is an offer to give us a new world. But Christian salvation offers us salvation as a new person into a new world. It's better than we could imagine. Acts 2:32-41

After the disciples thought they saw Jesus dead and risen, the whole thing almost came to a halt for various reasons. They were stuck in the mess of their time. They were changed, and they went forward with fresh confidence and boldness. Will we get past all the mess of our time, or we will be stuck for our own reasons? Peter assures we can receive the mark of "genuine". We can pass the test. 1 Peter 1:3--9

Everything in life has results and consequences. Some we like, some we don't. If we go to school, we can probably get a job and make a living. If we find a spouse, we can have kids. One action had more consequences than anything else in life - the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus lives, _____________. How do you fill in that blank? John 20:1-18

The struggle with evil, with pain, with difficulty, with challenge is real. We sit and wait for deliverance, freedom, and liberation. While we sit, we eat. This is food for the fight. Not burgers, but the food of Christ, the true Passover Lamb. Mark 14:12-17 Maundy Thursday 2023