John Sypert

Who Does What Around Here?: An Overview of Congregationalism and Elders

[display_podcast] Our church is in a season of adding another elder, so we’re spending a few weeks talking about elders and their relationship to the church. Two weeks ago we discussed what elders do. We learned that they teach, govern, and shepherd the church. Last week we talked about the qualifications for elders, examining 1 Timothy 3:1-7 in order to see who can be an elder. Our topic this morning is how the ministry of the congregation and the ministry of the elders fit together. I’ve adapted this material [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T16:58:50-06:00December 2nd, 2018|John Sypert, Sermons|

1 Timothy 3:1-7 | “Who Can Be An Elder?”

[display_podcast] God’s People Are Like Sheep The Bible, in many places, describes God’s people as sheep. This isn’t a flattering description, but I think it’s an accurate one because we’re unstable and erratic creatures. We’re prone to hurt ourselves. We’re not as smart as we think we are. Our lives are messy and broken. This is good news by the way. Many people think that the gospel means something like this: if I clean up my life, then God will accept me. But that’s not the gospel. The gospel says: [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:14:09-06:00November 25th, 2018|1 Timothy, John Sypert, Sermons|

An Overview of Elder Ministry in the New Testament | “What Do Elders Do?”

[display_podcast] The Construction of Our House When someone wants to build a house, they must start with the foundation. Then they build the walls and the roof and do the plumbing and electrical and everything else needed to make it livable. Once all the building is done, they move in and fill the house with all their stuff. When I think about our church, about what God has done in my four short years here, I think we’ve laid the foundation and are now in the stage of building the [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:09:21-06:00November 18th, 2018|John Sypert, Sermons|

Ephesians 6:21-24 | “Grace Through and Through”

[display_podcast] The End of Our Study of Ephesians This is the thirty-first and final message in our study of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. We have spent most of this year studying what both Catholics and Protestants view as one of the most influential letters in the New Testament. The great French Reformer John Calvin said that Ephesians was his favorite letter. The great Scottish Reformer John Knox had his wife read him Calvin’s sermons on Ephesians while he lay on his deathbed. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great British [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:12:43-06:00November 11th, 2018|Ephesians, John Sypert, Sermons|

Ephesians 6:10-13 | “Strength through Armor”

[display_podcast] Naturalism Lacks Explanatory Power Many in our day think that there are physical explanations for everything. The materialist, or secularist, argues that every phenomenon that we experience can be explained by physical processes. The reason they think this is because they assume that the world and the universe are only made up of material or physical elements, that the only things that exist are physical things, that the universe, and your life, can only be understood through the study of physical processes. In this worldview, there’s no room for [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:19:02-06:00October 28th, 2018|Ephesians, John Sypert, Sermons|

Genesis 2:1-3 | “What Is Work?”

[display_podcast] Last week we studied what Paul said to slaves and masters in the church at Ephesus (Eph. 6:5-9). Because slavery in the New Testament era wasn’t what we commonly think of as slavery, we said that it’s fair to think of his instructions to slaves and masters as instructions to employees and employers. The main point of that text was that God cares for how employees and employers treat one another. There should be mutual respect and fairness among bosses and their workers. Each should remember that God [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:22:04-06:00October 21st, 2018|Genesis, John Sypert, Sermons|

Ephesians 6:5-9 | “Work for Jesus”

[display_podcast] Slavery in America Perhaps the darkest blot on our nation’s history is the institution of slavery. For over two hundred years, millions of people were kidnapped from their homes in Africa, put on boats, and brought to the New World to be slaves. Our nation was built, in many ways, on the backs of slaves. Chattel slavery in antebellum America was horrific, cruel, dehumanizing, evil, and demonic. It created racial divisions and strife that still reverberate through our nation. Unfortunately, many Christians in the southern United States used [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T18:01:37-06:00October 14th, 2018|Ephesians, John Sypert, Sermons|

Ephesians 6:1-4 | “Rules for Kids and Parents”

[display_podcast] New Rules for an Age-Old Game In our study of Ephesians, we’ve learned that chapters 1-3 are Paul’s outlining of what God has done to save his people and create a new people, a new society, made up of Jew and Gentile. We’ve also learned that chapters 4-6 are Paul’s instructions for how the church should live in light of their new position in Christ (4:1, 17, 5:2, 8, 15). Our calling into union with Christ reshapes our lives. It doesn’t remove us from our earthly responsibilities. Rather, [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T18:05:26-06:00September 30th, 2018|Ephesians, John Sypert, Sermons|

Ephesians 5:28-33 | “A Union that Reveals a Mystery”

[display_podcast] Symbols that Point to Something Bigger Our culture is full of symbols that point to something bigger than the symbol itself. The White House is more than a house. It represents presidential power and authority. The royal family in England, though a real family, is a symbol of English history and nobility and decorum. Madison Avenue is just a street in New York City, but it’s a symbol of the advertising industry. Hollywood is just a suburb of Los Angeles, but it points to an entire industry. AT&T Stadium [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T18:07:09-06:00September 23rd, 2018|Ephesians, John Sypert, Sermons|

Ephesians 5:25-27 | “Husbands, Love Your Wives”

[display_podcast] God Created Order The world seems dominated by chaos in almost every place we look. But chaos and confusion wasn’t God’s original plan for his creation. As we learned a couple weeks ago, Genesis chapter one starts with a dark and formless world (v. 2) and then explains how God sovereignly created and ordered the world. On the sixth day, God created mankind which consisted of “male and female” (vv. 26-27). The distinction between the sexes is a good gift from God our Creator. God created men and women [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T18:09:08-06:00September 16th, 2018|Ephesians, John Sypert, Sermons|