Hands of Vindication

Wednesday March 24, 2021 Text: Matthew 27:15-26 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Lent Passages: Matthew 27:15-26

In an attempt to absolve himself of the guilt of what he knows full well to be the murder of an innocent man Pilate washes his hands before the crowd of people and claims, “I am innocent.” As far as grand symbolic gestures go this one is terrible. As if washing your hands with water

Return To The Kingdom

Sunday March 21, 2021 Text: John 18:28-38 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Lent Passages: John 18:28-38

“Missed it by that much,” that is what Don Adams as Maxwell Smart from “Get Smart” used to always say. Barely missing something can be a terrifying thing or a frustrating thing. People in severe accidents who come out unscathed sometimes have trouble moving on with their lives as they keep reliving the scene. They

Hands of Brutality

Wednesday March 17, 2021 Text: Matthew 27:27-31 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Lent Passages: Matthew 27:27-31

Hands of brutality, we usually just call them bullies, there really is not any other word for them. Already condemned to death the roman soldiers nevertheless feel the need to bully, mock and even physically beat Jesus. They were bullies, professional bullies. That is what the Roman government was for that matter. The roman government

Return To Humility

Sunday March 14, 2021 Text: 1 peter 5:6-10 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Lent Passages: 1 peter 5:6-10

Peter learned humility when he trusted in his own strength and failed. Nevertheless Jesus established him in his power.

Hypocritical Hands

Friday March 12, 2021 Text: Mark 14:55-66 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Lent Passages: Mark 14:55-66

Black hat, white hat, Good Guy, Bad Guy, evil, righteous. In lots of movies, it is pretty easy to tell who the bad guy and the good guy are. The good guy looks good, the bad guy looks evil. But there are movies in which the bad guy looks good, metaphorically, and sometimes literally, wears

Impetuous Hands

Wednesday March 3, 2021 Text: John 18:4-11 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Lent Passages: John 18:4-11

Considering the theme of today’s sermon. Many might be wondering if we are going to spend the whole evening speaking about preschool kids. Little kids do have a tendency to be impetuous. Some of them at least like to jump in and start doing things without even thinking about it. I think of the story

Return To Truth

Sunday February 28, 2021 Text: Matthew 26:57-68 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Lent Passages: Matthew 26:57-68

The eighth commandment (some call it the ninth the number doesn’t matter) teaches us not to bear false witness. We have the ultimate example of this in our text today. The chief priests paid people to purposely tell lies in court about Jesus so that they would have an excuse to put him to death.

Hands of Betrayal

Friday February 26, 2021 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Lent

In our sinfulness we so often betray even those we love the most. In our sinful we refuse to forgive those who have betrayed us, even though we can not possibly claim to be any better. But Christ accepted betrayal by the Father and death for the sake of those who had betrayed him. The hands of Judas as well as the betrayal of our own hands are washed clean in the blood of Christ.

Return To Prayer

Sunday February 21, 2021 Text: Matthew 26:36-45 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Lent Passages: Matthew 26:36-45

There are some skills we learn as children that we ought to cultivate throughout our life. Unfortunately, we allow many of these skills to fall by the wayside. One such example would be learning to keep a food dairy in high school. It would be good to do a better job keeping track of the

From the Mountain Top

Sunday February 14, 2021 Text: Mark 9:2-9 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Epiphany / Transfiguration Passages: Mark 9:2-9

From the Top of the Mountain Jesus Shows Us - The Valley - The Goal - The Glory

Speaker Pastor Matthew Ude