Sermons categorized under Esau

If I Should Die Before I Wake

The stories of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph show us what faith looks like at the end of life. Here is one mark of genuine Christianity. When you come to the end of your earthly journey, you still hold on to what you believe. Because Jesus died and rose again, we can face our own death with confidence, knowing that the Lord will not abandon us when we need him most.

The Blessing of a Believing Spouse

God may arrange things so that your faith bears vast fruit in the years to come. Your legacy will be most clearly seen after you have gone to heaven. Sarah never lived to see the world-changing impact of her faith in God, but we still remember her 4000 years later and honor her example.

Let’s Bring Back the Holy Kiss: Rediscovering Real Love in the Family of God

“Greet one another with a holy kiss” (Romans 16:16). In some ways Romans 16 appears to be one of the least-interesting chapters of the New Testament. It consists mostly of Paul’s greetings to a long list of people in Rome. At first glance that doesn’t seem to offer much that would interest us today inasmuch […]

The King Has Come!

We begin with the words of Flannery O’Connor: “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” Truth is truth whether we like it or not. The fact that I personally may object to the truth doesn’t matter. Those things that are objectively true remain true even if I doubt them or […]

God’s Freedom

While studying Romans 9, I was struck by Paul’s question in verse 14: “Is God unjust?” In our hearts we already know the answer. God is not unjust. But oftentimes he seems inconsistent. The very examples Paul chooses seem to uphold that inconsistency. He chooses Isaac over Ishmael. He chooses Jacob over Esau. He loves […]

God’s Word Has Not Failed

For many people no question seems as puzzling as the problem of unanswered prayer. Why is it that some things we pray about are never answered? We could all spend hours remembering times when we prayed and prayed, often with tears, only to conclude in the end that our prayers had not been answered. —Every […]

Prophet on the Run

The Bible doesn’t sugarcoat the truth about its heroes. It gives us the whole story, the good news and the bad news at the same time. When the Bible describes the great heroes of the Old Testament and the New Testament, it tells us about the unvarnished truth about their struggles, their temptations, their difficulties […]

Experiencing God’s Love

A man was having a hard time getting out of bed one Sunday morning. “Get up. It’s time to get ready for church!” He just grumbled and replied grumpily, “I don’t want to go to church today. Those people at church don’t like me. I don’t want to go.” She persisted, “You have to go.” […]

Hope for Tomorrow: How God Keeps His Promises

This is the 19th and final sermon in the series on Genesis 1-11 that we started in late April. Almost five and a half months later, we have come to the end. In bringing this series to a close, I feel as if I should congratulate the congregation for your patience and your perseverance because […]

“How Sweet Are Your Words”: Learning to Love the Word of God

This year at Calvary we are attempting to read through the entire Bible together. For those who are on the “Bible Bus,” today we are reading Genesis 25-26 and Matthew 13. That means we are reading about Isaac and Ishmael and the beginning of the story of Jacob and Esau. Plus we are reading the […]