The Beach Church Va Podcast

James Brockway

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  1. 5d ago

    The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Proper 15)

    A Reading from the book of Isaiah 56:1-8A Reading from the book of Psalms 67:1-7A Reading from the book of Romans 11:13-24The Holy Gospel Reading Matthew 15:21-28 A Sermon By Bishop ChrisSermon transcript:Let's pray together, shall we? Father God, we're so thankful this morning as we come to your word. We pray now that you would open our hearts and open our minds by the power of your Holy Spirit that we might know your heart, we might know who we are, and most especially that we might know your son, Jesus. It is in his name we pray, amen.Please be seated. Well, if we haven't met yet, my name is Chris. I'm the Bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic.My wife, Catherine, is here with me as well. It's my second visit to Beach Church, her first, and it's just great to be here. Thank you for the warm welcome and the kindness you've shown us.You know, there are seasons of life when faith is very easy to talk about. Your prayers are being answered. The things of life all feel settled around you.It seems as though God is very near and the path ahead seems clear. You can tell what God is up to. And then there are the other seasons, right? A medical diagnosis comes that you weren't expecting.A child goes off the deep end. A relationship breaks down that you'd had so much hope in. A prayer you've been praying for months, maybe even longer, well, it seems to go unanswered.We ask God for help and heaven seems silent. It's like the heavens are brass, as though your prayers go up and they bang off some kind of a ceiling. And it's often there that real faith emerges.Do I still trust Jesus when I don't understand what He is doing? Do I still come to Him even if He doesn't immediately give me the answers I'm hoping for? Do I want Jesus Himself or only what I hope Jesus will give to me? That's where we meet the woman in the gospel lesson today in Matthew. Her faith is tested and it is proven triumphant. And in the end, Jesus says something to her that He doesn't even say to His disciples, great is your faith.And as we're going to see, there really are two tests that are taking place in this passage. The woman is being tested. Will she continue to seek the mercy of Christ? And the disciples, they're being tested also.How far do they believe the mercy of Christ extends? And before the story's over, both of those questions, they're going to become questions for you and for me. So let's start with a little context. We wanna think about what is happening.Verse 21 tells us that Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Now, what you need to know is that this is significant because Jesus is leaving the Jewish territory. He's heading out into a Gentile land, a non-Jewish region.Before this event, almost immediately before, Jesus had been in a terrible kind of conflict, as so often happened with the Pharisees and with the scribes. They were accusing Him and He in turn turned the tables on them and accused them of elevating their traditions to have as much weight or perhaps even more weight than God's word itself. They were concerned with external purity, with the way things look, with religious observance, but Jesus told them that the problem that we have, the deeper problem, is the problem of the human heart.It's from the heart, He says, that all of the evil thoughts come and the impure words come and the defiled actions, well, that's where they come from. And now almost immediately, He encounters someone whom most people in Israel would have regarded as unclean, impure, defiled. She's a Canaanite woman.She's a Gentile, she's an outsider. Her people are enemies of the people of Israel. That's the historic and immediate context.This is what it says in verse 22. If you're following along in a Bible or an app, you don't have to, but I'm gonna walk through the text. Behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David.My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. So she's desperate, her daughter is suffering. And if you're a parent, even a grandparent, you understand something of what this is like, because there's no pain like watching your child suffer.For a parent, you'd rather take the pain yourself. You would rather carry the illness yourself. You'd rather absorb it than stand there, well, unable to do anything to help someone you love.One of our children has had illness at various times in her life. She was bedridden from age 14 to 18. And as much of a champion as Catherine was for her healing and getting her care, there wasn't a lot we could actually do.And I can tell you, I felt helpless. And I was so frustrated so many times because I couldn't fix it. The Canaanite woman is in a place like that, except her daughter is being demonized, we're told.So whether that's manifesting in illness or mental health issues or some combination of those things, we don't know. What we know is she's desperate. And so she cries out to Jesus, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me.And then comes one of the difficult passages in a very difficult section of Scripture. Verse 23, but he did not answer her a word. She comes to the right person.She asks for mercy. She's even asking for somebody else. And Jesus is silent.And this is the first test of her faith. And there are times when the test of faith is not that God is absent, it's that he seems to be silent. You pray, you ask, you wait, and nothing seems to change.Over the years, as a pastor, I have seen people come to God. They're in the middle of a crisis that causes them to start seeking outside of themselves. An addiction has taken hold.A marriage has fallen apart. A child is in trouble. Financial hardship has arisen.The circumstances don't seem to change and the frustration just, ugh. It's usually, you know you're in that place, because you're up at 3 a.m. Or somewhere in that region of the night. And sometimes the real question becomes, do you still want Jesus if he doesn't fix the problem? If the marriage is not restored, do you still want him? If the diagnosis doesn't change, is he still enough? And if life doesn't go back to what it was or what you hope it would be, will you still trust him? In other words, do you want God? Or only what you hope God will give to you? And the remarkable thing about this woman is that Jesus' silence doesn't send her away.No, in the test of silence, she does not quit. She keeps coming. She presses closer.I think she gets louder. And perhaps some of you are living in that place today. You've prayed, you've asked, you've waited.God seems silent. Don't run away. Hold, get people around you.Grieve, ask, cry, seek the Lord. Because sometimes tested faith is simply faith that stays. Now, it's at this point in what's happening that the disciples enter into the picture.Verse 23, and his disciples came and begged him, strong word, saying, send her away, for she is crying out after us. She's making a scene. It's noisy, it's public, it's out in the open.This is not behind closed doors. People are watching. They're in Gentile territory.The disciples are already uncomfortable and now there's a scene and they want it to stop. And Jesus says in verse 24, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Mind you, Jesus is speaking to the disciples.The woman's there and she's listening in, but right now he's shifted and he's speaking to them. And I think this is where the disciples test begins. It's happening right in the middle of her test.Now, Jesus has come as Israel's Messiah. That is who he is. That is what he came to be.He's come as a fulfillment of God's promises to the people of Israel, all the way back to Abraham. And there's an order to the unfolding of salvation history to the Jews first, to Israel, and then through Israel's Messiah, blessing to the nations. We heard that in that reading from Isaiah.In Isaiah 11, it says, the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord so that even the Gentile nations will look to the Messiah, the non-Jewish people. So when this Gentile woman calls son of David, we tend to miss that. What she's doing is she's actually appealing to him based upon God's covenant with the Jews, but she's not part of Israel.She has no covenant status that she can point to. She cannot say, you owe me this because of who I am in your people. Verse 25 says, but she came and she knelt before him saying, Lord, help me.Notice the change. There's no argument. There's no explanation.There's no claim being made. She knows she has no status before the Jewish Messiah, but she does have three words. She does have three words, doesn't she? Lord, help me.And there are moments in life when the deepest prayers are often the shortest, right? Lord, help me. Lord, have mercy. Jesus, I need you.And sometimes you just groan. You know what I mean? If you haven't groaned, you probably will if you live long enough. And she kneels.Now remember, her people are watching her do this. Her neighbors are there. They don't believe in Jesus.They don't want to have anything to do with the Jewish guy who's there, this Messiah. He's their people's enemy, at least the people he's from. And her kneeling, it absolutely matters because humility, that is at the very heart of worship, right? You're either on your knees or you're on the knees of your heart.The scripture says God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. She doesn't bring her spiritual resume. She doesn't tell him she deserves his attention.She doesn't argue her worthiness. No, no, no, she just comes empty-handed. And that's how every one of us comes to God.We haven't earned his mercy. We haven't lived well enough. We haven't prayed hard enough.We come because he's merciful. He is rich in mercy. I shared this earlier, and it's one of those moments where God so got a hold of my life in the everyday.And so it comes out a lot. When we were teaching our children to pray when they were young, you know, a natural place to do that is at the dinner table. I

  2. Aug 9

    Service after the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 1

    A Reading from the book of Jonah 2:1-10A Reading from the book of Psalms 29:1-11A Reading from the book of Romans 9:1-5A Reading From The Holy Gospel Of Jesus Christ - Matthew 14:22-33 A sermon by Rev Mother VivianIt began innocently enough. I was on the phone with my good friend while I was waiting for my car to be serviced at Firestone. We talked about many things, but one of the things we spoke about was that I had shared with her an audio link to a Bible experience interpretation of one of the Psalms that was not simply read, but it was kind of half preached and half sung, a style familiar to my church upbringing, but was unfamiliar both in genre and culture for my friend.Even so, my friend loved the link and thought that maybe I could sing like that, a thought I totally disagreed with. But the things we talked most about on that long Firestone phone call was the fact that she could not shake the impression that the Lord was calling her into ordained ministry. Now the problem was we had both grown up in traditions that women could only serve in certain roles, and that was not one of the roles that we could serve.Yet she could not shake the feeling that the Lord was calling her to a place that she was told that this was not for you. And so by the end of this conversation, we were both going back and forth our thoughts, she said to me that she would put her name forward as a candidate exploring ordained ministry. So she would know for certain that the voice that she felt she was hearing in her spirit was not just her voice, but the voice of the Lord.And after making this monumental decision and telling me about it, she lightheartedly added, and if the Lord wants me to be a minister, and if I'm ordained, I want you to sing, preach that song at my ordination. And so I lightheartedly agreed thinking this would not occur, and I would not, this conversation would long be forgotten. And I was wrong, very wrong.So years later, my friend would call me to invite me to be the psalmist at her ordination to read the psalm that she had picked, and it was that psalm that we had talked about, that we had not talked about again until that conversation. It was as loving of a dare as only a friend would do. And so when I hung up the phone, I thought to myself, why oh why oh why oh why did I tell my friend, even lightheartedly, oh I'll do that, no, because that was not something, I don't have a voice for that, that's not something I can do, but, and then to do it in front of all the people who were important to her, in front of her bishop, God and country, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no.But then I thought about my friend, she was a chaplain's wife, a Navy chaplain's wife, she raising five children, and so she was balancing going to seminary, and balancing those roles, and she comes finally to this sacred moment. So in light of those things, and because I love my friend, so out of love for my friend, and out of my ever-loving mind, I would pray, preach, sing, preach Psalm 29 to the best of my ability. Since then, the Lord loves surprising me with Psalm 29 whenever I'm in a faith-stretching moment, moments like going to Kenya, and you notice that Psalm 29 was a verse, was a Psalm for the day.For this is not only my first beach sermon, it is also the first anniversary of my very first visit to beach church, the occasion of Jimmy's ordination to the priesthood. And our first impression, Terry and my first impression of beach church, that this was a church on fire for the Lord, who loved the Lord, who loved one another, and who loved their pastors, and we were 100% right. So at this year of firsts, first year anniversary, I want to thank you beach church, because you have been so good to Terry and myself, opening the doors of your hearts and your fellowship to Terry and myself.It has been quite a year since then. Psalm 29, first two verses, ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory, do his name, worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters, the God of glory thunders, the Lord over the mighty waters, the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is majestic.The majestic, powerful voice of the Lord rules and reigns, not only over the cosmos, not only over oceans and seas, the rising and falling of kingdoms, but even over the turbulent waters of our lives. We might know this in our heads, but what is our response when the voice of the Lord calls us out onto those waters to join him in work that is impossible without his help? Today's lectionary readings with Jonah and Peter offer us three pictures of disobedience, of begrudging obedience, and growth through obedience to the voice of the Lord. So bad news first, disobedience.The voice of the Lord told Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh, and that voice prompted Jonah to arise and go in the opposite direction. Scripture states twice that Jonah's disobedience was Jonah's attempt to literally run away from the presence of the Lord. Now Jonah would be familiar with the voice of the Lord because he was a prophet, and he is mentioned in 2 Kings 14.25. So as a prophet of the Lord, familiar with the voice of the Lord, certainly he had read King David's words in Psalm 139.King David writes, Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, Sheol, the place of the dead, you are there. Now if Jonah didn't know these truths before he started running, he certainly would testify of them when he prayed those words in this morning's Old Testament lesson.Now Jonah's disobedience to the voice of the Lord quickly set him on a downward spiral. Scripture says that he went down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into the deep waters at the roots of the mountains, he would call it, and finally down to the belly of a fish. And what I had not considered until I started preparing this message is how Jonah's disobedience to the voice of the Lord not only hurt him, was costly to him, but was also costly to others.Sin rarely remains a private matter. When we disobey the Lord's voice, others are also negatively impacted. In the storm that Jonah's disobedience stirred up, the ship, the cargo that was on the ship was lost because the shipmates were throwing them over the side trying to save their own lives.Jonah's disobedience to the Lord's voice jeopardized the Ninevites' lives. Without a prophetic warning, the people would be destroyed, and annihilation, we later discover, that would have been A-OK with Jonah. So, for whatever reason, Scripture does not say, after three long days of being slowly digested in the fish's gastric juices, with his life fading away, as we read this morning, Scripture says, then Jonah remembered the Lord, and it was then he prayed.In our Old Testament reading, Jonah comes to this conclusion. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. Those who pay regard, those who cling to, cherish, pay attention to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.In the word steadfast love that we translate in the English, in the Hebrew, is a beautiful word describing God's love, hesed, covenantal, faithful, and generous love. Hesed has so many definitions, it's such a beautiful love, because it's God-sized love. So this verse could very well read, it's on the screen, those who cherish vain idols forsake their hope of experiencing God's love.So how could we possibly have an awareness of God's hesed, covenantal, faithful, generous love if we're looking for that love everywhere else? It's just like that old song, looking for love in all the wrong places. Jonah finally surrenders himself to God's will at the end of today's Old Testament lesson, and the Lord tells the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land. Jonah's response toward the voice of the Lord then changes from disobedience to begrudging obedience, the second point of this message.The same good friend I told you about earlier once sent me a comic strip based on that famous footprints poem, the poem where the poet reflects on their walk with Jesus as seeing two sets of footprints on the sand side by side most of the time. In the comic my friend sent, Jesus explains, where you see one set of footprints is where I carried you. In the second frame, that long groove is where I dragged you, kicking and screaming.Jonah heeded the voice of the Lord with begrudging obedience, kicking and screaming. Why was Jonah dragging his feet? It could be two reasons. If the Ninevites repented and God relented from judgment, as he has a right to do, Jonah might lose credibility as a true prophet because the destruction he proclaimed to the Ninevites did not come to pass.Jonah might have been concerned about marring his sterling reputation as a true prophet speaking the voice of the Lord. But Jonah also had a stronger concern. The Assyrians he was called to minister to were known for extreme cruelty and for being without mercy, and they acted that way toward his people, the Israelites.The Assyrians were the archenemy of Israel, the Assyrians, the Ninevites were at the capital of Assyria. Jonah wanted to see God's vengeance on the Ninevites. He did not want God's mercy to be put out on the Ninevites, and this explains why Jonah had been dragging his feet since the book's opening sentence.Now, as Jonah feared, Ninevites responded to Jonah's one-sentence warning with deep lamentation, repentance, and fasting. The king got down from his throne and commanded everyone, even their livestock, to fast, to repent, and to pray to the God that Jonah spoke of. Now, normally when a prophet proclaims a message and the people respond positively to it, it's like, mission accomplished, thank you, Jesus, or thank you, Lord, if they go in the Old Testament.But that didn't happen here. Instead, Jonah didn't just get angry. The text in the original He

  3. Aug 2

    The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 13)

    The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 13)A Reading from Nehemiah 9:16-21A Reading from Psalm 78:1-16A Reading from Romans 8:35-39The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 14:13-21A Sermon From Rev Dr Pastor Jimmy

  4. Jul 26

    The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 12)

    A Reading from 1 Kings 3:3-14A Reading from Psalm 119:121-136A Reading from Romans 8:26-34The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 13:31-33, 44-50Sermon by Rev Dr Jessica Fulton Lee

  5. Jul 19

    The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - Goldie's 99th Birthday - God Bless Her! Seapoint Students Discussion On Spiritual Formation

    Daily Midday Prayer - Goldie's 99th Birthday - God Bless Her! Seapoint Students Discussion On Spiritual FormationThe Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Proper 11)A Reading from Psalms 86:1-17A Reading from Romans 8:18-25The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 13:24-30, 34-43 Presentation by Rev Dr Pastor Jimmy

  6. Jul 12

    The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, or the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 10)

    A Reading from the Book of Isaiah 55:1-13A Reading from the book of Psalms 65:1-13A Reading from the book of Romans 8:7-17The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 Sermon by Rev Dr Pastor Jimmy. Transcript:Picture this, the spring of 1980. Mount St. Helens has just erupted with devastating force. Entire forests have been flattened.Rivers have changed course. Hundreds of square miles have become a gray wasteland. And scientists were predicting that it would take generations for life to return.Yet surprisingly, in only a few years, something unexpected happened. The ecosystem and the life that was underneath the burnt soil began to produce seeds that began to sprout. Small plants emerged where no one thought life was possible.Elk returned, birds nested, streams filled with fish. The landscape had not simply been repaired. It had been transformed from the inside out.Now, the seeds had always possessed life within them. But the ground first had to become capable of receiving that life. And that's exactly what our passages painted for us today, this picture of understanding the difference between barren soil and fruitful soil.It's not human effort, but it is the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit, who transforms enemies of God into beloved children of God. Let's think about that for a moment, what that looks like in our lives. All these passages that we have read today help us understand what it means to have a heart that bears fruit, to have a heart that bears fruit.Isaiah tells us that God's word is like rain falling upon the earth. Jesus tells us that God's word is like seed that is scattered upon the ground. Paul tells us why some ground bears fruit while other ground remains barren.It's important to know that the issue is not ultimately the seed. The issue is the soil. And even deeper than that, the issue is who transforms the soil.If we aren't careful and we become a little more undisciplined in our thinking, many people could begin to think that Christianity is about becoming a better version of yourself, being the best you that you can be. But Paul says something much more radical than just try to be a better version of yourself. He says that Christianity is not self-improvement.It's resurrection. And we understand this to be true by what he says in Romans 8, which is the bulk of where we'll be today in Romans 8. And I want you to think about verses 7 and 8. And I want you to think about this point that Paul is making in trying to develop this idea of having a heart that bears fruit. The first thing he says in verse 7 is that the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God.First thing we need to understand is that the natural heart cannot produce spiritual life. The natural heart cannot produce spiritual life. Paul was very aware of this.And he wrote intimately about this. That is to say, in my flesh, right? Me, inside, dwells no good thing. The natural heart cannot produce spiritual life.Why? Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. Paul is speaking in absolutes here. He doesn't say that the flesh is indifferent.Some people are indifferent about things, right? Some people are more passionate about things. They're more absolute about things. Paul isn't just saying that the flesh merely struggles with God.He uses a word that says it is hostile. It's the Greek word ekthra, which means enemy. It means hostility.It means war. He's saying that the mind that is set on the flesh is at war with God. The mind that is set on the flesh is in hostility with God.This is not just indifference. This is war. And this should remind us of our covenant language that we understand about our relationship with the Lord, that humanity isn't just wandering from God.It's not as if we've just lost our way. Our compass is bent towards ourselves. Our compass is bent.Humanity isn't simply wandering from God. Humanity is in rebellion against Him, in rebellion against Him. Think about Genesis 3 when the fall occurred.Do you think that it's appropriate, because many people do, that Adam and Eve were merely deceived? They were like, oops. I had no idea that we weren't supposed to eat of that fruit or that what would happen. The woman gave it to me, God, and the serpent deceived us.We see the language, and we sometimes think that they were just ignorant, like blissful creatures that were naive, and then they got caught up in the course of things. But in reality, what happened is they knew what God said to them, and they rebelled against His words. And ever since that moment, humanity has this thing about us that when we hear God's word, we have a tendency to want to rebel against it, to say, I don't think that's what that means.Maybe it means something else. Did God really say it like that? Maybe He meant something different. Jesus begins to address this in His parable and why it is so startling, because He identifies that the seed is perfect.The gospel of Jesus Christ has come to us and is complete. We talked about the gospel Wednesday in our confirmation class, and it's such a beautiful concept that as we grow in the Lord, the gospel continues to grow in us, that the depth of the gospel and the truth of the gospel continues to grow in us. The seed is perfect.And the sower is perfect, according to what Jesus has revealed to us. Yet what do we see in the passage that Reverend Vivian read for us? Three out of the four soils remain fruitless. The seed is perfect.The sower is perfect. Yet three out of the four soils remain fruitless. Why is that? Why do they remain fruitless? Why do three out of the four of them remain fruitless? It wasn't because they lacked, or the seed lacked power, or the soil lacked life.Isaiah says very clearly, and we read that today, and Ninon read that for us, that my word shall not return to me empty or void. Some translations will say. And for years, people have debated what that means.And some hear that and conclude that every person who hears scripture must, therefore, be converted. We also have references in Romans where it says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. We know that faith is produced and received through the proclamation of God's word.That's why the gospel is the good news. But what is truly being said here in Isaiah 55? We need to understand that Isaiah's point is not that every time somebody hears scripture, that they're going to be converted. What Isaiah is saying here, that God's word always accomplishes God's purpose.God's word always accomplishes His purpose. Sometimes, to them who receive it with gladness, His word brings salvation. But to them who reject it, who are in rebellion against the truth of His word, it judges and brings judgment.Regardless of its salvation or judgment, His word never fails. It will be life to those who receive it, and it will be the judgment against those who reject it. The failure is never God's word.It is always in the human heart. Either we receive His word with gladness, or we reject it and close ourselves off to it, therefore condemning ourselves. But what does the scripture say? There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.The spirit cannot produce, or the human heart, the natural heart cannot produce spiritual life. But what does the spirit do for us in helping us develop this heart that bears fruit? If the natural heart cannot produce spiritual life, we have to understand the alternative to it, the antithesis of it, the juxtaposition of it. If the natural heart cannot produce spiritual life, the second point to understand in us, understanding what is being said here about having a heart that bears fruit, is understanding that the spirit creates what the flesh never could.If you read verses 9 through 11 of Romans 8, you see this point that the spirit creates what the flesh never could. So again, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile towards God. But what does it say in verse 9? But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. He's showing them that you used to be at odds with God. You used to be hostile toward God.You were in rebellion against him. And this is one of the most overlooked doctrines in Christianity. I don't understand why, but it feels that we often lean towards just segments of it without understanding the fullness here.Because Paul isn't saying that the spirit just helps us. I mean, we read the fact that he's a comforter, he's a helper, right? He's the paraclete. He's the one that comes alongside us.And we understand that, but he's not just saying here that the spirit helps you. But he's saying that the spirit is in you, that you are in the spirit. Understand that if you are in the flesh, then you are in hostility towards God.But if you are in the spirit, then now you are in a different realm. You're in a different realm. You see, Paul's already developed this in Romans 5. We know that Adam inaugurated one humanity, the concept of him being Adam, right? The human humanity that he represented this paradigm.And when he fell, all humanity became susceptible and corrupted. That's why when Christ came, he inaugurates another humanity. There are only two humanities.We are either in Adam and therefore have our minds set on the flesh, or we are in Christ and have our minds set on the spirit. Either you are in the spirit or you are in the flesh. It's not about just self-improvement.It's not about just creating a better version of yourself. Christianity is not about just making better moral choices. That you should just do better.Do better. Paul is saying instead of that, he's talking about an entirely new creation, which affirms what he wrote to the church in Corinth that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. And it echoes what the prophet Ezekiel says that I will remove the heart of stone and put in a heart that I can mold and I can shape.See, God doesn't polish the stone. He replaces it. He repla

  7. Jul 5

    Episode 62 - The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 9)

    A Reading from the book of Zechariah 9:9-12A Reading from the book of Psalms 145: 1-21A Reading from the book of Romans 7:21-8:6The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 11:25-30 A Sermon by Dr Rev Pastor Jimmy Transcription:You may be seated this morning. This weekend we celebrated our Independence Day right yesterday and the 250th anniversary or birthday anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Now throughout the weekend Americans have remembered the courage, the sacrifice, and the perseverance that gave birth to our nation. I made my kids watch the Patriot yesterday. Yeah, yeah they're nine now so they're mature. I wanted them to know freedom ain't free. But one of the greatest threats to the American Revolution did not come on the battlefield. It came after the war was nearly won. In the spring of 1783 the British had effectively been defeated. The surrender at Yorktown had taken place nearly two years earlier and peace negotiations were underway. Victory was in sight. Yet in Newburgh, New York, and this has been called the Newburgh conspiracy, something dangerous was happening. The officers of the Continental Army had gone months, in many cases years, without receiving their promised pay and they had sacrificed their farms, their businesses, their health, and many had buried friends along the way. And so frustration slowly turned into resentment. Anonymous letters began circulating throughout the camp urging the officers to stand against Congress and some even proposed using the army itself to pressure the new government by force. Think about the irony. After surviving years of attacks from the British Army, the greatest danger to the Revolution was no longer outside the camp. It was inside the camp. And so on March 15th, 1783 General George Washington entered a meeting with these frustrated officers and he appealed to their honor, their sacrifice, and the fragile future of the nation they had fought to create. And near the end of his remarks he reached into his pocket and quietly pulled out a pair of reading spectacles. Many of his officers had never seen him wear glasses before and as he unfolded them he apologized and said, gentlemen you must pardon me for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country. The room fell silent. Many hardened by years of war were moved to tears. The conspiracy had been dissolved.A potential military coup had vanished and the Revolution survived because the battle within the camp was overcome. Now history teaches us something profound. Sometimes the greatest danger is not the enemy outside.Sometimes the greatest battle is the one inside. And this is precisely what Paul is teaching us in the book of Romans. We know that Paul has spent the last seven chapters explaining the gospel, that Christ has died for sins, that we are justified by faith, and that we have peace with God and we have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection. And yet there's still a war. There's still a war not merely around us. Paul says it is within us. It's within us. Paul writes, I delight in the law of God in my inner being but I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind. Now notice what Paul is saying here. He's not just saying another, you know, a difference of opinion or two thoughts. He uses the phrase waging war. In the Greek that word he uses is painting a picture that there is a complete and total separate force, a military operation that is taking place against the law of his mind. That it's not just that he has different thoughts, that he has an entire war, a military installation that is attacking him, that is created for the sole purpose of conquering his mind. Paul is describing an invasion and not merely bad habits that he's trying to break, that there is an invasion taking place in his mind. And it's created to overcome him. This is not simply poor choices. This is the lingering power of sin, seeking to reclaim territory that Christ has already conquered. This is the work that we know sin does in our lives and because of that many Christians become discouraged because they assume that once they come to Christ they didn't think that they would struggle with sin anymore. They thought that the struggle with sin would disappear. But it lingers. Paul teaches us exactly the opposite, that the struggle itself is evidence that something has changed. Before Christ we sinned comfortably. We didn't have any issues sinning. After Christ, if we are in him, and Scripture says if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. If we are in him we cannot sin comfortably. It bothers us. Why? Because we've been made new. Right? It feels like warfare now that we're in Christ when we have these desires and we have these urges and we feel tempted. Augustine famously described the humanity after the fall as being curved inward upon ourselves. That we are now naturally bent towards self rather than toward God. Martin Luther echoed the same truth and John Calvin described remaining sin as an enemy that still inhabits the believer even though its reign has been broken. That distinction is important for us because sin remains but it no longer rules. Sin remains but it no longer rules in our lives. Perhaps someone needs to hear that today. Maybe you're discouraged because you continue battling the same temptation. You struggle with the same stuff over and over again and you're trying to overcome it but you can't overcome that temptation and you wonder whether your struggle means your faith is weak or whether God has abandoned you. I need you to listen carefully this morning. Dead people do not fight wars. Living people do. If you're fighting against the flesh and every single day you are fighting to live for the Lord, know this, that you are not weak in your faith and God has not abandoned you. That struggle is evidence that God has done something in you or else you could just keep on doing what you're doing and nothing would matter. Being new in Christ changes things. Your grief over sin and your grief over the temptation or maybe giving in to those temptations is not evidence that God has left you. It's evidence that the Spirit has awakened your heart. That's why Scripture says godly sorrow leads to repentance. Worldly sorrow leads to destruction. The battle itself points to new life. But then Paul asked one of the most honest questions ever recorded in Scripture. He says, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Who will deliver me from this body of death? Notice Paul doesn't ask what program will deliver me from this body of death. What discipline will deliver me from this body of death? What strategy will deliver me from this body of death? Or what self-help book will deliver me from this body of death? He simply asked, who? Who? This is important because Christianity is not just about techniques. Although we have form and fashion to our worship, why do we have form and fashion to our worship? Because it's supposed to be geared toward a person and not us. And so we gear our worship and we pattern everything around Jesus Christ. And Paul immediately answers this question, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then, and I love how on the screen you could see this continuity because we think sometimes because of the chapter and verse demarcations in our Scripture that there's a break in thought. But oftentimes you have to read into the next chapter to understand or to read above the previous chapter to see how the context is connecting everything together. So I want you to think about this. We're finished in chapter 7 and Paul is teaching us this, that our help to overcome this body of death is only through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then he says in verse 1 of chapter 8, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He doesn't say there's less condemnation. You still got a little, you should be, you still be guilty, feel guilty about things, but there's less condemnation. Not delayed condemnation like, you know, just you wait. One day you're gonna get what's coming to you. You might be okay now. It's not possible condemnation where we live in fear that one day he's still gonna, he's still gonna tell us, I remember what you did. No, he says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why is that? It's not because we've been perfect. How many have been perfect? No one's been perfect. All of us have fallen short of God's moral law. Paul tells us that in Romans 3 23, right? We all fallen short of God's glory. It's not because we finally got in our lives together, although we're trying and we still got work to do. We still have work to do. This matters and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because Jesus Christ has already borne the condemnation that belonged to us. He bore our shame. He bore our shame. Our verdict has already been rendered at the cross and every Sunday that we confess our sins, we are asking him to continue to pour out his mercy and grace in our lives because we still need him. We still need his work, his mercy, and his grace in our lives and we come honestly before the one whose mercy never fails. What did the psalmist say, right? Slow to anger, abounding in and faithful steadfast love. He abounds in loyal love. His love is enduring and after our time of confession we often hear the declaration of God's forgiveness that he's faithful to forgive those, right? He's faithful to forgive. Why do we hear those words every Sunday? Because the gospel announces something objective. Do you all know the difference between subjective and objective? Objective is not dependent upon someone's opinion. It's not dependent on circumstances. Objective is without bias. The gospel in our lives announces something ob

  8. Jun 28

    Episode 61 - The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 8)

    A Reading from the book of Isaiah 2:10-17A Reading from the book of Psalms 89:1-18A Reading from the book of Romans 6:1-11The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 10: 34-42 Sermon By Rev Dr Pastor Jimmy

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Information

  • Creator
    James Brockway
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    68
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 by James Brockway
  • Show Website
    The Beach Church Va Podcast