Renew EPC: Sermons

"Is It True" - 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 - Nathan Edwards

How can we know the resurrection of Jesus is true? We can know its truth if we ask the question "What if it didn't happen?"
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. How might you engage someone who says: “it doesn’t matter whether my faith is ‘true’ as long as it helps me feel good and comforts me”?
2. The resurrection means Christianity is a faith that can be fact-checked. Do you think this aspect is a strength or a weakness? How can you use this aspect to share the faith with honest skeptics?
3. Which piece of evidence for the resurrection did you find particularly persuasive? Why?
4. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14. How does the fact of the resurrection change the way a Christian faces grief?
5. Read 1 Corinthians 15:30-32. How does the fact of the resurrection change how we can face hardship?
6. Consider an area of anxiety, uncertainty, hardship in your life, how does knowing confidently you belong to the Risen Lord affect your response to that situation?

"The Upside Down" - Genesis 3:11-24 - Nathan Edwards

The result of Genesis 3 is that we live in an upside-down world. Discover what is our only hope we have to navigate our fallen world.
Personal Reflection Questions:
1. What happens to our view of the world if we believe Genesis 3 describes the way things always have been?
2. Which of the six consequences of the Fall is affecting you the most today? What will it mean for you when God removes this?
3. Where have you seen the incalculable cost of sin in your life?
4. One of the costs of every sin is that it violates your neighbor. How does a private, “victimless” sin violate your neighbor?
5. What does it reveal about the nature of God that amidst his proclaiming punishment for our sin He also makes a promise to save us?
6. Where have you seen the beginnings of the new creation in your life in Jesus?

"Where the Blame Points" - Genesis 3:6-13 - Nathan Edwards

What is the good news in our fear of blame?
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. Do you have a memory of trying to get out of blame as a kid? How did it go?
2. Why do you think Adam received the most blame even though he was not the one who ate first?
3. Compare God’s command in Gen 2:16-17 and Eve’s recollection of it in 3:1-2. How do the differences change the command? What lesson does this teach regarding knowing God’s Word?
4. Why do you think we prefer to think of sin as mistakes or temptations that come upon us, rather than choices from the heart? Where does Mark 7:20-23 say our sin comes from?
5. Read Romans 8:7, how does sin make us hostile toward God?
6. Why couldn’t God have just overlooked Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden? What would happen to justice if God did not judge?
7. How does God’s gift of justification through Jesus Christ give us relief from the blame that falls to us?

"What's Wrong with the World?" - Genesis 3:1-7 - Nathan Edwards

What has broken our world?
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. Read Psalm 73:2-5, 11-14. How do you see the slitheriness of sin in this passage? Consider: How is God’s goodness questioned? How is God’s judgment doubted? How is God’s Word judged?
2. Read 2 Timothy 4:3-4. In a world with internet algorithms, news stations, and social media designed to accumulate teachers who tell us what we want to hear, what must we do to resist being led astray from God’s Word by our itching ears?
3. If someone were to ask, “why do you make such a big deal about sin?” How would you explain its seriousness?
4. Eve spoke of ‘God’ as opposed to ‘the LORD God,’ showing a subtle distance developing. What are some subtle ways you find yourself growing distant from God?
5. How can you use the good news of Jesus to close the distance sinful desire creates between you and God?

"Perfect Match" - Genesis 1:27-28 & 2:15-25 - Nathan Edwards

God designed marriage to reflect His love to us.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. If someone were to argue Genesis 2 is only about a similar partner not a complementary partner, how might you show from the text the importance of complementarity?
2. How can we (as a church, as individual Christians) better witness to our culture the goodness of Life-Making in marriage?
3. How does celibacy outside of marriage communicate the highest honor, value, and love to our romantic partners?
4. For the married: “Marriage is about dying for one another, as Christ died for us.” Where has this happened in your marriage? What is an area that still requires you to die for your spouse?
5. For the single: “We are all made to need help. We are all made to help” Where are you being called to be a helper? How is this an opportunity to reflect God’s love?

"A Promising Arrangement" - Genesis 2:7-17 - Nathan Edwards

Why do we live in a moral world?
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. Share your favorite and least favorite responsibility in your life?
2. How might you use the existence of moral values to challenge the sufficiency of naturalism as a worldview?
3. What difference does it make to our faith to believe in a historical Eden and a historical Adam and Eve?
4. C.S. Lewis spoke of universal morals: “What was the sense in saying the enemy were in the wrong unless Right is a real thing which the Nazis at bottom knew as well as we did and ought to have practiced?” (a) Do you agree with Lewis that Right is a real thing, i.e. that objective moral values exist? (b) How might you graciously defend objective moral values to someone who believes in relativism?
5. The prohibition of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was an object to teach trust in God’s Word above all. What are some ‘authorities’ that we can put above God’s Word? How can we self-check whether God’s Word is our ultimate authority?
6. Read Romans 6:23. How is the gospel different than “do good enough and you will live”? Where does the news “Christ has fulfilled where I have failed” give you relief and joy today?

"The Seven Days" - Genesis 1:3-2:3 - Nathan Edwards

Are God’s days of creation the same as our days?
Questions for Personal Reflection
1. What’s the longest day you have worked? What were you doing?
2. How has the debate on the days of creation affected you? What issues make the “days of creation” so contentious?
3. The EPC motto is “In essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, in all things charity” a. How do you determine an essential from a nonessential? b. Read 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. What does Paul say is the issue of “first importance” c. Do you think the days of creation should be an essential? d. What does showing charity on this issue look like?
4. Read Genesis 1:26: Do you think our image of God is identical or analogical? What are some of the similarities? What are some of the dissimilarities?
5. Read Hebrews 4:1-6. What words indicate God’s seventh day continues? How is God’s day of rest analogical to our own?
6. You meet someone who says they want to believe the gospel but can’t get past the conflict between the Bible’s 6-day creation story and their scientific understanding of the age of the earth. How might you help them through this obstacle?

"Time is Sacred" - Genesis 2:1-3 - Nathan Edwards

In a very good creation time is God-centered.
Questions for Personal Reflection:
1. Where are you feeling the pressure of time in your life?
2. Gandalf said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is _____.’” Consider the blank filled with “ours” vs. “given us.” Which meaning more reflects your default view of time? Why do you think culture prefers us to view time as “ours”? How does our view of time affect how we decide to use it?
3. Read Colossians 3:23-24: How do these verses motivate quality and integrity in your work? How can we use the quality and integrity of our work to be a witness to God?
4. What are some signs we may be idolizing work? Idolizing rest?
5. God’s Sabbath blessing offers us time to (1) recharge (2) release and (3) rejoice. Which of these do you feel most in need of today and why? What might help you receive the fullness of this gift in your Sabbath?
6. Read Hebrews 10:23-25: What does weekly congregational worship do for being faithful with the time given us? Share an example of being stirred up to love and good works by the fellowship of believers?
7. Read Matthew 11:28-30. What burden or labor do you specifically need rest from? How can trusting in Jesus lift this burden and give you rest? 

"The World We Were Made For" - Genesis 2:4-25 - Nathan Edwards

Why do we desire things to be perfect?
Questions for Personal Reflection:
Share a time when you wanted something to be ‘just perfect.’ Why do you think your expectations were so high in this situation? As you reflect, do you see any connection between this situation and one of the five aspects of paradise?
Of the five aspects of paradise, which one stirred your longing the most this morning? Why was this aspect so meaningful to you?
Read Exodus 33:15-19 and John 6:66-69. How do you see the wonder of God’s presence in these passages? What can we learn from these passages to grow our own wonder of God?
Why do you think loneliness is so prevalent in our culture? What do you think needs to be true about a church to be a remedy to loneliness?
What responsibility do we have individually for this? Why is it impossible to be in sin and in Paradise at the same time? Engage the five aspects in your answer.
Read Luke 23:38-43. Jesus welcomes a serious sinner into Paradise with Him! What does Jesus do to offer this gift? What does the thief do to receive this gift?

"The Image of God, Part II" - Genesis 1:26-31 - Nathan Edwards

What is our purpose?
Questions for Personal Reflection
1. What are some ways you see our present culture struggle with a sense of purpose?
2. Consider the work that you do: How does it keep the world functioning and flourishing? How should this awareness affect the way we view our work?
3. Why do you think creation care has not been as much of a priority politically among evangelicals?
4. The US birthrate has recently fallen from 2.2 to 1.7, which is below replacement level (i.e. the population will decrease if this continues). Do you think Christian marriages should seek to push against this trend? Why or why not?
5. Read Genesis 1:28 and Matthew 28:18-20. How are these mandates complementary? How is disciple-making a part of fulfilling Genesis 1:28?
6. “As sin separates us from God, it also separates us from our purpose-filled life.” How have you experienced the truth of this statement in your life? How has believing in Jesus restored your purpose?
7. How might you lead a person feeling purposeless to consider the gospel?