This Sunday we begin a new series, “Cross Current: Living Out of God’s Grace in Difficult Circumstances,” based on Paul’s book to the Corinthians. This sermon is an excellent way to reframe your thinking about yourself and the coming year. Corinth was a wealthy decadent port city located on the trade route between Asian and…

In the second sermon in the series from I Corinthians, “Counter Current: Living Out of God’s Grace in Difficult Circumstances,” Pastor John Leonard explores what Paul considered a high priority crisis in the Corinthian church. The church was full of problems from blatant sexual sins to doctrinal heresy. But the foundational problem Paul addresses their…

In the continuing series on First Corinthians, this weeks sermon, “The Foolishness of the Cross,” examines I Corinthians 1:17-31. The people of Corinth, like many of us, were only partially converted. Their minds were not aligned to the meaning and power of the cross. Some instead blend their Christian thinking with the surrounding culture. In…

It is widely acknowledged that the Corinthian church was filled with problems from the very common to the outrageously scandalous. With this in view, it is interesting to note the foundational problem Paul chooses to address: division. Nothing undermines the witness of the church like division and ensuing cliques. In this continuing sermon in the…

Show me your leader and you will reveal the priorities of your heart. The characteristics of leadership that we applaud, we also emulate. Paul knew this and in his concern for the unity of the Corinthian church, he turns his attention to the characteristics of leadership that are worthy of emulation. They are radically different…

We live in a pluralistic society where making judgments of others is viewed with almost universal disgust. One of the ways Christians live against the culture is how seriously they take sin in themselves and in the church. In our ongoing series, “Cross Current,” Pastor Leonard preaches from 1 Corinthians 5 on the controversial topic…

In the ongoing series, “Cross Current,” from the book of 1 Corinthians, Pastor Leonard addresses the challenge of sexual immorality by affirming the importance of our embodied lives (I Corinthians 6:9-20). If you’ve ever wondered, “Why does God care about our genitalia?” this sermon has the answer. Our bodies are intimate sanctuaries of God so…

All of us face difficult circumstances in life from time to time, from money problems to problem marriages. We are all tempted to punt, sometime on third down. In this ongoing sermon series on living “Cross Current” from our culture, Pastor John Leonard examines 1 Corinthians 7:1-24, where Paul tells us to remain in the…