Category Archives: Sermons

#BeUMC Part 2: Grace

This Sunday, I’m continuing my #BeUMC sermon series with a sermon on the United Methodist understanding of grace. Grace is commonly understood as God’s forgiveness of our sins. In the broader, biblical, (and United Methodist) understanding, grace includes the forgiveness of sins. But a better, more comprehensive, working definition would be that grace is a combination of God’s power and God’s love at work in the world, seeking to redeem all humanity and all creation. My text will be from Ephesians 2:1-10 with a nod to Philippians 2:12.

#BeUMC Part 1: Love Reigns

This Sunday, I’m preaching the first in a sermon series titled “What’s So Great About Being United Methodist?” or, to go with the denomination’s social media campaign, “#BeUMC.” Our beloved denomination hasn’t had the easiest time of it lately, but there are many reasons for us to stick with it. Reasons both theological and missional. This first sermon will feature one of the reasons theological, focusing on our belief that love is God’s reigning attribute. My text will be 1 John 4:7-21. I’ll be referencing John Wesley’s interpretation of this passage, but I aim to preach a sermon of interest to United Methodists and non-United Methodists alike.

Here’s the key quote from Wesley’s Notes on the New Testament:

God is often styled holy, righteous, wise: but not holiness, righteousness, or wisdom in the abstract: as he is said to be love: intimating that this is . . . [God’s] reigning attribute; the attribute that sheds an amiable glory on all his other perfections. [1]

[1] John Wesley, Notes on the New Testament, 1 John 4:8.

Worship — Sunday, June 19, 2022

I finally managed to overcome technical difficulties and get this video uploaded. This was my final sermon. (Services were not recorded on the Sundays I was gone.)

If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.

If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do that by clicking on the link in the Vimeo logo above and then selecting download.

You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.

Previous worship services can be found at abilenefirstumc.org/onlineworship/.

Worship — Sunday, May 22, 2022

If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.

If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do that by clicking on the link in the Vimeo logo above and then selecting download.

You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.

Previous worship services can be found at abilenefirstumc.org/onlineworship/.

Worship — Sunday, May 15, 2022

Our apologies that this video begins later in the service (at the time of the children’s message). If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.

If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do that by clicking on the link in the Vimeo logo above and then selecting download.

You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.

Previous worship services can be found at abilenefirstumc.org/onlineworship/.

Worship — Sunday, May 8, 2022

If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.

If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do that by clicking on the link in the Vimeo logo above and then selecting download.

You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.

Previous worship services can be found at abilenefirstumc.org/onlineworship/.