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Calvary Evangelical Free Church

Calvary Evangelical Free Church

著者： Calvary Evangelical Free Church
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Listen to our latest weekly messages from Calvary Evangelical Free Church located in Rochester Minnesota. Find and watch the corresponding sermon video in our Calvary Sermon Archive, https://www.calvaryefree.church/sermons/ or on our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@calvaryefcrochester Calvary’s Mission is to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus who live out passion for Christ and compassion for people. Learn more about Calvary at https://www.calvaryefree.church/im-new/ and view what we believe at https://www.calvaryefree.church/about/mission-values-beliefs/© Calvary Evangelical Free Church キリスト教 スピリチュアリティ 聖職・福音主義
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  • Love One Another

    Love One Another
    2026/06/21
    Our love for fellow believers, or the lack of the same, has eternal consequences. Good morning. Forty-five years ago, on May 17th, those of you that are Norwegian know the significance of that date, I preached my first sermon at Calvary. Calvary was a lot smaller then. We met in southeast Rochester we had about 150 people who attended on a regular basis. And I was actually a pastor at the time, a small church in southeast Minnesota. And we did what was called a pulpit exchange, where the pastors went to a different church to preach for that particular Sunday. So, I was invited to preach here at Calvary. And I remember the passage that I preached on was Ephesians chapter five, verse one, be imitators of God as dearly loved children. And I talked about the fact that children love to imitate. And they learn, in spite of our efforts to teach them good manners. As part of my message, I asked the congregation, I’m going to ask you to do a couple of imitations. First, I’d like you to tell me, what does a cow say? (Moo.) That’s pretty good. Pretty good. Better than the first service. Here’s another easy one. What does a cat say? (Meow.) Okay, now here’s a little bit harder one. Imitate God. Imitate God. That’s a much harder challenge, isn’t it? Well, today we have a challenge placed in front of us from the book of First John. First John 3 verse 11, where he says we should love one another. When Linus told his sister Lucy that he wanted to become a doctor, she laughed and said, you a doctor? That’ll never happen. You know why? Because you don’t love mankind. Linus replied, I love mankind. It’s people I can’t stand. First John 3:11 says, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. And as we look at these verses this morning, I would like to suggest that our love for one another or the lack of the same, has eternal consequences. Our love for one another, or the lack of the same has eternal consequences. Our passage is First John 3, verses 11 through 15. We’ve been preaching through First John since April, we’ll be going to the end of the summer. The verses will be on the screen as I share from the message. But if you don’t have a Bible with you, you can take one of the seatback Bibles. The passage is found on page 1022. Now, this passage builds on the one that Pastor Kyle preached on last week when John wrote these words in verse ten. By this it is evident, who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. And John in verse 11, contrasts that with what should be true of us as followers of Jesus. We should be known as those who love one another. Now note I always, when I’m studying the Bible, I like to look for words that are repeated or words that are used in contrast. And we have both in this passage, in these five short verses, he uses the word love three times, the word hate twice and the word murder or murderer four times. Another pair of words that are used in contrast, he uses the word life twice and the word death twice. Now, as we look at this passage this morning, I would like to observe three truths that should be true of every follower of Jesus. The first truth is that we should love one another. First John 3, verse 11, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Now John has referred to the message earlier in his book, in chapter one verse five. He talked about the message that we have heard from him, that God is light. And he also referred to that what you have heard from the beginning in chapter two, verse 24. It’s been suggested that what John is talking about here is when these people, John’s audience, first heard the gospel message. When they first heard the gospel message, it was emphasized to them that they should love one another. Now, I remember when I first heard the gospel message. I actually grew up in a family that went to church every week. I prided myself on knowing the Bible and knowing the stories from the Bible. But it really didn’t make a difference in my daily life. Life just went on. And yeah, something that we did once a week, but so what? Well, when I got to college, I had a friend from high school who went to the same college. We were going to a state university. And he shared with me that he had just written a 92-page paper on the deity of Christ. This is again, at a state university, and he had written this paper for one of his college classes. One, I could not believe that he had written a 92-page paper, and he had written on that subject matter. But he went on to share with me how I could know Christ personally. He shared with me what was called the four spiritual laws. I don’t know if Campus Crusade still uses those, but that’s what he used to share the gospel with me. And he said, you can know God personally ...
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    26 分
  • The Practice of Sin

    The Practice of Sin
    2026/06/14
    Those who are a new creations in Christ, who are born again by the grace of God, will live in repentance and righteousness. Those who only claim to be Christians, but are not actually transformed by God’s grace, will be exposed by their sin. Well, I’ve talked to a lot of you who have become part of Calvary in the last few years. And sometimes I’ll ask, what made you decide that Calvary was the place for you? And almost to a person, the answer has something to do with how carefully and seriously we handle the Bible. And I’m glad we’re known for that. I’m glad this. This church is known for its handling of Scripture. I, for one, think it would be a huge waste of time to come to church or to go to Bible study and not hear the Bible plainly taught. It’s God’s word. It is the tool that the Holy Spirit uses in his hands to form us and to shape us into Christ likeness. I don’t want to be shaped by human opinion. That’s not what I want to be shaped by. You don’t need my top three ways to have a great life this week, right? You don’t need that. What we all need is to look fully and honestly into the mirror of God’s Word. See who we really are. See our need for God’s grace in Christ, and learn to apply the gospel so that we are transformed by it. You need that. I need that. We all need that. That’s what we need. Keep that in mind this morning. Remember that we all agree that that’s what we need. Because today we’re looking at a passage of First John that teaches the weight, the origin, and the soul crushing devastation of sin. John teaches this to a group of Christians who might be tempted to think that sin is not that big a deal. And we live in a time in church history, the United States, 2026, when people who would claim to follow Jesus also treat sin like it’s not that big a deal. They don’t see the acceptance of unrepented sinful patterns and practices in their lives as evidence that they don’t actually know Jesus. They have learned to excuse and tolerate and even embrace their own sin as something that is just part of who they are. They’ve incorporated a certain amount of sinful behavior into their walk with Jesus, never even considering that if you’re engaging in unrepentant sin, you can’t be walking with Jesus. This morning, John is going to sort people spiritually. I believe this passage is going to sort us spiritually as well. Those who are a new creation in Christ, who are born again by the grace of God, will live in repentance and righteousness. Those who only claim to be Christians, but are not actually transformed by God’s grace, will be exposed by their sin. I had a weird prayer this week and a strange prayer for our church. I prayed that a lot of you would be exposed. Not by me, not by my preaching, but by the Word of God that we have all gathered here this morning to hear, because we all agree to take the Bible seriously. We’re in First John chapter three, beginning in verse four this morning. This passage is filled with statements of fact, all of them intended for us to self-diagnose the state of our own soul. And I have framed this passage into four statements about sin. And the first statement is simply that sin is lawlessness. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Now, the first thing we need to do with this verse, and with the rest of this passage, is make an important distinction between committing a sin and making a practice of sin. You can see that the ESV translators here use the word practice twice: a practice of sinning, practices lawlessness. If you look up in your Bible to chapter two, verse 29, you’ll see that these phrases here parallel a phrase there that says everyone who practices righteousness. Now that word practice is a translation of the word does. Okay. The word is does, this person does righteousness, does sin, does lawlessness. And by adding the word does to sin, it gives it sort of a prolonged or ongoing meaning. He’s talking about a chosen direction, what we might call a lifestyle. He’s not talking about a sin committed by a Christian that is followed by confession and repentance and reconciliation with others, and restored fellowship with God. That would actually be part of the practice of righteousness. John is talking about someone who commits sin habitually without repentance, regardless of whether that person calls himself a Christian or not. That is the practice of sin. And this is a very helpful distinction. As long as we remember that there are many sinful lifestyles. Okay. It’s fine to think that way, but we got to remember how many there are. We tend to use the phrase sinful lifestyle only to describe things like LGBT matters or sex outside of marriage or criminals, or things like that. But let me tell you, church, being an angry and controlling person is just as sinful a lifestyle as any of that. Seething bitterness toward another person is a sinful ...
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    36 分
  • Children of God

    Children of God
    2026/06/07
    To understand ourselves better, our future better, and our God better, we must abide in the Lord. Why abide? Because Jesus is coming back! Well, good morning church, and good to be with you today. I was having a chat. He doesn’t know I’m about to say this. I was having a chat with my friend Philip recently, and we were talking about this truth. Parents of young children, I listen up, I want to help save you some money. Your kids don’t care where you travel in the world, so long as there’s a pool. Right. See, when I was growing up, my dad was a teacher and therefore had, you know, a modest salary. And look, my, my parents gave us a lot. And it was wonderful. And when we were older, we did some of those more exciting trips. You know, we did the Disney thing. We even did Europe when I was in high school. Super cool. So I’m not, I’m not in no way am I disparaging. What my parents provided for me was amazing. But I’m going to be honest, one of my favorite family memories was when we got in a conversion van with my grandparents, my sister and I and my parents, and we drove 30 minutes away to a mid-range hotel and spent the weekend eating peanut butter and jelly and swimming in the pool. And what I mean is like, I’m not talking the fancy pools, you know, with the slides and the splash pads. Like some of y’all. It’s too fancy. Do you know what I mean? We’re talking like a 20 by 30 pool in a Comfort Inn. You know what I’m saying? And it’s honestly one of my greatest memories as a child. Like, why is that okay? So maybe when you’re six, your world is kind of small. You know, you don’t have big expectations for vacation. Fine. But I think there’s something deeper going on there. It’s because I didn’t need thrills. I didn’t need roller coasters. What I really wanted was to spend time with my people. I just wanted to swim with my dad and sit next to my mom in a restaurant and talk with my grandparents and belt out Disney songs in the back seat with my sister. You know, a whole new world. Okay. Anyway, that was not in my notes. Just kind of happened. Here’s the idea. We just wanted to spend time together, or to use the phrase that we’re going to see in this passage today. But also we’ve seen earlier in this letter from John that we have. I just wanted to abide with them. I just wanted to dwell with them, spend time with them. That’s what I wanted to do. So what is abiding? We’ve encountered it a little bit throughout the letter, but here is one commentator’s definition. To abide is to stay, remain, live, dwell, abide. To be in a state that begins and continues, yet may or may not end or stop. To abide in Christ is to follow his example of a life obedient to the will of God. As we look back into this letter of First John that we’ve been traveling through a little bit, we see abiding used in several different ways and referring to several different ideas. John is using this repetitive language, presumably on purpose to make a point. Let’s look at some of this repetition briefly in verse ten. He says, whoever loves his brother abides in the light. So he’s talking about abiding in the light. Then in 14 the Word of God abides in you, or in 17 the will of God abides forever. These are all different forms of abiding. Twenty-four, what you heard, the gospel, let it abide in you. And. And if it abides in you, you too will abide in the Son and the Father. And then last week we heard about this anointing that you received abides in you being the Holy Spirit being within you. And then right at the end of 27, you see John make this turn. He says, so I’m going to give you an imperative. Now, if you are abiding, abiding in all of these things and all of these things are abiding in you, then what are you supposed to do? You’re supposed to abide in him. And that’s what we’re going to see moving forward here. There’s a second contextual piece, though, that we need to understand before we jump into our passage for today. And that’s the idea that I need to make sure it’s very clear, because we’re going to talk about being a child of God here. And I want it to be understood that not every human who walks the face of this earth is necessarily a child of God. Now that gets confusing because God as creator made every human. So in that way, he’s a father. And that does make sense. But that’s not the way that John is using it here in this letter. He is defining who is in the family of God and who is out of the family of God. Or as my systematic theology professor used to say, who are the innies and who are the outies? Knowing whether or not you are a child of God is essentially important to your life, to your future, and your eternity. And so what John’s been doing throughout the letter so far is he’s been making a claim about who’s in and who’s out. In chapter one, verses seven through nine, he says, those who walk in the light are in the family of God. ...
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    36 分
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