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First Principles Recap

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These past two weeks, I’ve been preaching on the First Principles of Christ and how we incorporate those into our lives. Here are the two sermons:
2/1/26 – The First Principles (Colossians 2:6-10)
2/8/26 – Renewing Our Mind (Romans 12:1-2)

The big idea is that on the heels of trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and identifying with Him and His people through baptism, we step into this way of living that goes with following Christ. Of course this means that there are new truths to learn, but there are also new ways to behave, new allegiances, a new philosophy to live by. In short, believing in Christ means all things have become new.

I hope these sermons help you as believers to have firm footing as you live for Jesus.

Baptism – The Next Step

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Baptism

My 1/25/26 sermon at Crestview was on this snowy weekend in Hutch. Many churches canceled and we even cancelled everything except for the Sunday Morning gathering. The sermon, Baptism–The Next Step (Matthew 28:16-20), dug into how baptism grounds disciples who have trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Our end goal is for disciples to continue following Jesus. The link above has questions for small groups and sermon notes, as well as a transcript of the sermon. I hope it proves helpful in helping you as a follower of Jesus.

Into 2026 We Go

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I’m a little shocked that I haven’t posted since the middle of October, but there is an explanation. Since my last post, my life has changed somewhat dramatically. I was preparing to preach on the weekend of October 28 when I was dealing with shortness of breath and a racing heartbeat. My doctor wanted to do a heart cath and when that was run, blockage was found and so I ended up with a stent and a new course in life. I began cardiac rehab pretty aggressively and have been trying to adjust rhythms (and there were some holidays in November and December :).)

I’ve preached pretty consistently through all of this, so you can find audio/video on the church’s website. I usually begin each year with a sermon on the importance of prayer, then follow up with one on the importance of the Bible. Then, this year, we are beginning a series on elementary principles of our faith. So, that brings things up to the here and now.

The sermon that launched our Week of Prayer was from Acts 13-14. On the heels of an update from some of our international partners, I concluded with a call to prayer and fasting. The church worked through prayers of Ephesians 1 and 3 during our Week of Prayer devotional.

Then, the sermon on the importance of God’s Word was a topical sermon that explored a few texts to bring everyone together around the basics of what the Bible encourages: how ordered learning from God’s Word, grounded in elementary principles, leads to maturity for our church family.

Finally, yesterday, I preached the first of the elementary principles on the Gospel message. If you’d like to go deeper, one of our elders developed a worksheet to examine Gospel proclamation in the book of Acts:

Gospel in ActsDownload

So, I hope this helps you drill down with clarity and move with progression into 2026.

Wrapping Up Colossians

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I haven’t updated here in a few weeks, so I thought it would be helpful to post a couple of content pieces on wrapping up Colossians.

On October 5, I preached on Living the First Principles Together from the book of Philemon. It’s really fascinating what Paul is doing in writing this short letter to Philemon. Many traditions view it as all forgiveness and might miss what Paul is doing in the context of the Colossian correspondence. We know that Philemon had a church in his house, and, according to Colossians, Paul is writing for a very specific purpose. Having outlined the world’s first principles and the first principles of Christ, Philemon and his relationship with Onesimus offer a very practical way to see what it looks like for people to live these principles together.

On October 12, I returned to Colossians to wrap up all that Paul is doing at the end of the book. He’s hoping to help them Move Forward Together. Bringing Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon together reminds us that Paul is a very coherent thinker, trying to mobilize the churches in Ephesus and the Lycus Valley to avoid losing sight of the mission God has for them. I hope these sermons help encourage you in the way of Jesus and His apostles.

Weekend Recap – The World’s First Principles

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My 9/22/25 sermon at Crestview, The World’s First Principles (Colossians 2:1-3:4, 9-11), is now online. There are so many things that came out of this sermon for me personally. The notion that the world system offers reasonable arguments, philosophies, traditions, and elementary principles that may drag us away from Christ provokes actions that center us in Christ. The calling to put on our new selves in Christ and not give in to the religious, political, and cultural ways that culture influences us matter.

I hope this sermon helped guide you into a deeper love and desire to make your life all about Jesus.

Middle Letters Continue: Into Colossians

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Our 2025 series on Paul’s Middle Letters (at Crestview), turned the corner from Ephesians to Colossians this past Sunday. I preached Colossians 1:1-2:5 in my sermon “Walking in God’s Plan.” Not only did this sermon serve to introduce us to the book, but it’s an amazing section of Scripture demanding that we give our lives wholly to Jesus. Ironically, the timing of this sermon came as I was reading “plausible arguments” online about what this past Sunday should emphasize. I think most of us walked away encouraged by centering our morning and attempting to reposition our lives on Jesus. I hope it encourages you.

No Cruise Control

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In my sermon today (8/31), I had a part where I spoke of the need to apply truths to our lives. I suggested that there is no cruise control in the Christian life. We love cruise because we can relax and not focus like we might when we are more engaged. But in a passage like I had this morning, telling us to fight against evil forces of wickedness in this world, dress ourselves in the truths of God’s plan, and pray/unite for the sake of the mission. We would prefer an easy option but being a part of God’s plan positions us to do difficult things. A quote I’ve been enjoying from Taylor Bauman lately is “It’s simple, but it’s not easy.” Living for Christ has this flavor to it.

After the service, someone said it reminded them of the “Handle Hard Better” speech from Kara Lawson:

At any rate, I hope all of this encourages you to step into God’s plan. It’s totally worth it.

July 2025 Sermons

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I returned from my study leave in June and began a new series of sermons, which started in July. I wanted to link to them from here, so that the appropriate links are seen.

God’s plan relates to His people being on mission – the Church being on mission.

Here are some sermons that dug into this:

7/6/25 – Building Our Lives on God’s Plan (Ephesians 3:8-10)

7/13/25 – God’s Plan Arrives (Acts 18:18-19:20)

7/20/25 – God’s Plan Provokes (Acts 19:21-20:1)

7/27/25 – God’s Plan Encourages (Acts 20:17-38)

There are more sermons to come in this series, but I wanted to share these here as we continue to make progress.

A Deep Dive on Thinking About Applying a Sermon or Sermon Series

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Over on the Facebook, I posted three different posts recently all around a different kind of Sunday morning experience. Crestview was wrapping up an 8 week series on the Upper Room Discourse and how that related to our practice. When John is recounting Jesus in the Upper Room, he’s providing readers some unique information compared to the other Gospel writers and helping them see what kind of life they would be characterized by. Themes like loving one another, abiding in Jesus and what He was teaching, the Spirit teaching them and bringing to mind what Jesus taught, as well as the glorifying of Jesus were some of the big themes that came out of this section.

My first post related toward applying God’s Word related to Cal Newport’s work, Deep Work. Michael Vos summarized a part of Newport’s research in this way:

Unfortunately, Deep Work is consistently elusive in the world we’re in…but there is hope (based on what Newport is finding), you can train your brain to focus (or set up blockers on your phone). The appeal I made at Crestview on that Sunday related to more “deep work” as we consider what God is saying in His Word, but there are applications galore for those of us seeking to give thought to serious things. I eneded asking, “How do you pursue deep work in the things you most deeply care about?” If we really believe that Jesus Himself is shaping us as His people, for me, this requires a commitment to engage my mind fully to not only achieve understanding of what He’s saying, but also to put implement that into life.

Post two related to Bloom’s taxonomy, which is consistently found in the fields of education.

On this particular Sunday morning, I pointed out that most of what we aim for a Sunday morning in typical church gatherings is the bottom two parts of this triange. We’d be shooting for the moon if someone actually applied what we said and used that information in their lives. And, what I’m dreaming of is that I would be so affected by the truth of God’s Wod that I would be able to move to those top rungs of Bloom’s taxonomy. The content is not recalled or understood, but I’m making connections between what else I’ve seen to what new moves need to be made for lasting life-change.

Finally, I connected to Scripture itself. As I mentioned that morning, Jesus encouraged us to follow Deuteronomy 6 and love the Lord our God with all our heart, MIND, soul, and strength (I’m emphasizing mind for these purposes). Romans 12:1-2 fleshes out the idea of lives distinct from the world that are given to worship, including people like us, who are “being transformed by the renewal of our mind, that by testing we may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” And, on study leave, my friend Randy challenged me with 1 Peter 4:1, “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking…” We know the mind of Christ leads us to live differently. This word, translated as “same way of thinking,” captures a complex state of mind, intention, or purpose (see my screenshot of the word study below). And, like we saw with Deep Work or the Taxonomy, we are being invited to have our minds shaped to live in very distinct ways. So, how is your mind growing to live in light of the things you would give the highest value to?

I take all this to be pointing me to understand that our problem is doing what the Bible is teaching isn’t that we need more information or that we’re mentally incompetent. The issue seems to be around taking time to consider what this means in the deepest parts of our lives. There’s often a disconnect between who I am in church gatherings and who I am out there. And, for me at least, I want to lead by shortening that gap, with the life-changing truths of the Bible affecting everything that I am.

How do you think about Biblical application? What might it look like for you to more deeply consider God’s truth so that your life is changed?