Sermons

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Scripture: Exodus 25:8-9 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: October 9, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

In the closing section of Exodus (chapters 25-40) God speaks once more to His people and they receive an incredible announcement: God is coming! Yahweh will dwell among His people! The Lord whose power was displayed in Egypt, whose holiness was reflected at Mt. Sinai, would now reside in the desert. God would dwell like His people, among His people, with His people. Get ready then, God is coming.

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Scripture: Exodus 20:1-21 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: September 18, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

After encountering a holy God upon the mountain, the people now receive His Ten Commandments. Patterned after other ancient treaties, the people are about to enter into a covenant relationship with Yahweh. They will be His subjects and He will be their Great King. With the very first words, God reminds His people that the commandments are given in a context of grace. He has not saved them because the kept the law. Instead, they ought to keep His law as a response to His salvation. He has not rescued them because they are holy but so that He might make them holy. The Ten Commandments begin with gospel and grace before law and obedience. These ten words reflect the beautiful moral character of our God and call us to the way of life that leads to fullness of joy.

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Scripture: Exodus 18 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: September 4, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

Seeing Moses bear the burden of the whole community by himself, Jethro sits his son-in-law down to offer some fatherly advice. The task of leading this people is too great to fall on one man’s shoulders and will only lead to a worn out people and a burnt out leader. Instead, the people can best be served with a plurality of leaders who share the weight of leadership. Moses heeds the advice and chooses capable and qualified men to partner with him to lead God’s people. Though this wisdom comes from Jethro's lips, it is wisdom from the heart of God. Share leadership is the pattern that Jesus and the Apostles hand down to the church as well. 

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Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: August 21, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

The people set up camp but come across a familiar problem. There’s no water and they’re thirsty again. Having seen God rain down wonder bread from the sky, there’s no way the people can do anything but trust Him right? Wrong. In fact, the people intensify their complaints and it looks like Moses has a bull’s-eye painted on his chest. While the people pick up stones, Moses is directed to pick up the staff that had wreaked havoc in Egypt. Judgment is about to fall. Who will it fall on? Moses? The people? Neither. In His incredible grace, God allows the rock to be struck and provides for His people again.

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Scripture: Exodus 12:1-32 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: May 22, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

Nine times the Lord showed His power to Pharaoh. Nine times Pharaoh hardened his heart and his grip over the people of Israel. Yahweh promises one more plague that will bring this contest to an end. A final plague will sweep through the land claiming the lives of all the firstborn. There's just one problem. Israel is in as much danger as Egypt. They are in idolatry and sin as much as the Egyptians and deserve judgment and death as much as they. What will distinguish them from their neighbors? What mark do they have that they should be passed over rather than struck down?

Blood. Not their own, but the blood of a substitute killed in their place for their sins. An innocent will die in the place of the guilty. Thousands of years later, Jesus would declare Himself to be the true Lamb, that because of His shed blood, God would pass over us in wrath and visit us in mercy. 

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Scripture: Exodus 7-11; Romans 9 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: May 15, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

Pharaoh refuses to repent and free the Hebrews because: A. Pharaoh hardened his heart. B. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. C. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Sso which is it? It is D. All of the above. Throughout the probationary plagues a patient God was allowing time for wicked Pharaoh to repent, which He never did, which God ensured by hardening his heart, while holding him fully accountable for his hardness of heart. Pharaoh’s heart is a case study in a mystery we all struggle with, but a faithful biblical theology must allow for the realities of both free will and predestination, both accountability and election, both destiny and choice, and a sovereign, just, loving God who superintends all of it for His glory.

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Scripture: Exodus 7-11 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: May 8, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

How do you get the attention of the most powerful ruler and nation in the world? God had an idea. In fact, He had ten. Ten plagues were unleashed upon Egypt in order to educate the people that Yahweh is God and there is no other. These signs and wonders served to assault the false gods of the Egyptians and to execute judgment upon unrepentant Pharaoh and his people. Simultaneously, they were to accomplish a great salvation for the people of God. God was willing to destroy in order to save. In much the same way, Jesus would be destroyed so that we might be saved. Through His terrible judgment, we experience a wonderful salvation.

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Scripture: Exodus 6:14-30 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: May 1, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

The epic tale of Exodus is interrupted to give us, of all things, a genealogy. A family tree. A long list of funny names that we hardly recognize. Yet while it would seem an intrusion to us, it serves a great purpose. When you come across a genealogy in the Bible, the automatic response is to skim over it or skip it altogether. After all, what purpose could it serve? Yet today, we'll learn that not only do these lists give us historical information, they serve us with important theological information. They tell us about who God is, what He is like, and what His doing in the world.

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Scripture: Exodus 5:1-6:9 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: April 17, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

So what's going to have to happen to get all the slaves out of Egypt? Let's see. Raise a deliverer. Check. Call him through a burning bush. Check. Give him an incredible revelation of who God is. Check. Convince everybody to get on board with God's plan and God's chosen deliverer. Check. Check. Walk straight up to Pharaoh, tell him to let God's people go, get him so angry that he makes the work harder on the slaves than ever before, and have all the people hate Moses. Wait a minute...what? Things turn ugly in a hurry. But you know what? God said they would! In God's redemption, things may often get worse before they get better. This week we remember that to accomplish redemption for us, things got really bad for Jesus before they got really good for us.

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Scripture: Exodus 1:1-14 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: March 13, 2011 Series: The Gospel According to Exodus

The Bible is not a textbook. If you want to know what faith means, there is no glossary in the back with a definition. Instead, the Scriptures point you to Abraham that you might learn what it looks like to have faith. When the Scriptures want to explain words like salvation, redemption, and deliverance, it points to the story of Exodus. Do you want to know what it means to be saved? Read Exodus. Today we begin a new series and consider the shadows of the gospel from this Old Covenant book. As you watch an enslaved people, suffering under brutal slavery, hopeless under the hand of a cruel enemy, being set free by a mighty and gracious God, you are being prepared for Jesus and His gospel. The Gospel According to Exodus begins today.

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Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: December 12, 2010 Series: Being the Church

A famine in Judea had the church planter Paul playing the part of a fundraiser. The Apostle committed to raising funds to help alleviate the suffering of Christian brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. So how would Paul convince the Corinthian Christians to give towards this effort? Would he employ guilt or appeal to their emotions? Neither. Instead, Paul points the Christians of Corinth to the gospel. He calls on them and us to remember the generosity of Jesus, for the gospel will provide the motivation and the marks for true Christian giving.

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Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: December 5, 2010 Series: Being the Church

Every member of Seven Mile Road Church is in full-time ministry. Jesus has entrusted us who have been reconciled to the Father with the ministry and message of reconciliation. It is now through us that God makes His plea with the world that they be reconciled with Him. The Apostle Paul likens Christians to ambassadors, men and women who have be appointed as representatives of the King to deliver His message of peace. Today we consider our identity as missionaries in Jesus' mission.

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Scripture: Hebrews 12:18-24 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: November 21, 2010 Series: Being the Church

In the course of a lifetime, a Christian will spend countless hours gathered with other Christians for corporate worship. If we're going to invest so much time and energy doing this, it would be wise to consider why we do it. Why do we gather? What is the purpose of corporate worship? Today we'll consider the corporate worship of God's people in the Old Covenant to better understand the corporate worship of God's people in the New Covenant. May God give us eyes to see that He is inviting us to something glorious as we gather for worship.

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Scripture: James 1:18-25 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: November 14, 2010 Series: Being the Church

Look at yourself in the mirror. Now look away. Do you remember what you look like? Of course you do. How could you not? Well James says that those who hear God’s words and fail to do them are like those who stare at themselves but forget what they look like. And that kind of amnesia can be devastating for your soul. The Bible pleads with us to be a people who are hearers and doers of the voice of God written. If we are going to be the church, we need to be believers who grow in our faith and receive God's Word by doing what it says.

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Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-8 Speaker: Siby Varghese Date: November 7, 2010 Series: Being the Church

How do you become a member of the Church? After having spent the last few weeks considering the nature of the Church and the Biblical rationale for membership in the local church, today we turn to consider the marks of a church member. We begin at the beginning. Members of the Church are believers. Today we look at what it means to be a believer and what it means to believe the gospel of Jesus.  

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Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: October 24, 2010 Series: Being the Church

Would anyone buy a foundation with no home built on top? Or cuddle up with a head that was disconnected from the body? Would adoption work if you chose to have a relationship with dad but not his other children? Of course not. Yet this is precisely how many people relate to Jesus' Church. We'll take a relationship with Jesus, but we'll pass on a relationship with His Church. The Scriptures have no language for Churchless Christianity. Instead, the Bible makes a big deal about the Church. Some have suggested that the New Testament has no less than 96 different metaphors, analogies, and images to describe the Church. Today we consider three of them. When Jesus brought us to God through the Cross, He made us His body, His brothers, and His building.

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Scripture: Various Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: October 17, 2010 Series: Being the Church

Perhaps you grew up going to church your whole life. Or maybe you’ve never been to one before. Either way, what if church wasn’t a place you went? What if it wasn’t about a religious thing you did once a week? What if it was something different altogether? Today we kick off a new preaching series on Jesus' Church and consider what the church is and why it's important.

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Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: September 19, 2010 Series: Specials & Stand Alone Sermons

Osama Bin Laden appointed Ambassador of the United States. Impossible? Well, that’s the closest thing to the Jewish terrorist once named Saul becoming a Christian Apostle named Paul. Just mentioning the Gospel sends Paul on a theologically loaded, doxologically dripping tangent where he recounts Jesus’ profound impact on his life. To him, the Christ-hating, Christian killing, chief of sinners, was extended undeserved mercy and unlimited patience. And there’s only one response to such a reality – praise. Right theology always leads to exuberant doxology. If the Church is going to stay on track, the good news that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief of them, needs to be explicit not assumed, clear not confused, and loved not lost. 

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Scripture: Jonah 4:5-8 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: August 29, 2010 Series: We Are Jonah

Jonah has finished preaching to the great city of Nineveh. Mission accomplished. Now he can finally go home - but he doesn't. Instead he builds a shelter outside the city and waits to see what would become of it. Perhaps their repentance will be short-lived. Perhaps God will destroy the city after all. Even now, Jonah doesn't have God's heart for the city. And so God pursues the prophet's heart through a vine, a worm, and the wind. God displays His great power in ruling over all of His creation to accomplish His great purposes and fulfill His great plans. Today we consider the truth that God great and God is sovereign. His invisible hand is at work throughout Jonah and through history accomplishing His will for His glory and our good.

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Scripture: Jonah 4:1-4 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: August 22, 2010 Series: We Are Jonah

The last chapter of Jonah takes an unexpected turn. While God is exceedingly pleased and happy with Nineveh's repentance, Jonah is exceedingly displeased and angry. The prophet's heart looks nothing like the heart of the God. Jonah is grateful for God's mercy and compassion when it is extended to him. Yet when it is poured out on Nineveh, Jonah despises God. Jonah is a hypocrite. There's more Gospel work than needs to happen in Jonah's heart - and ours.

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Scripture: Jonah 4:1-4 Speaker: Siby Varghese Date: August 15, 2010 Series: We Are Jonah

At the end of Jonah 3, the vilest, meanest, wickedest city on the plant repents and turns to God. Revival breaks out in the city from the greatest to the least, from the king to the commoner. So you would expect that chapter 4 begins with a party hosted by Jonah celebrating the mercy of God and the success of his mission. Instead, you read that Jonah is angry - angry enough to die. Jonah hates Nineveh and hates that God would be merciful to them. For Jonah, God belongs to us, not them. Grace and mercy are fine if it's being poured out on his people, but it is despised if it is poured out on those people. God is still working on Jonah and his racist, exclusivist heart. God has redeemed the city, but there's more to redeem in Jonah!

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Scripture: Jonah 3:1-10 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: August 8, 2010 Series: We Are Jonah

Picture the man standing in the middle of the city with the cardboard sign. The one who's screaming about the end of the world and the coming judgment and the need for people to repent and turn to God. What do we do with that guy? We ignore him, or brush past him, or mock him. His message is hardly ever heard or taken seriously. Yet in Jonah 3, the prophet goes to the metropolitan city of Nineveh, preaches a 5 word sermon about coming doom, and the entire city repents! Revival breaks out in the city from the greatest to the least, from the king to the commoner. God accomplishes a great change in the city and does so through an unlikely messenger. Today the city of Nineveh gives us a good look at repentance and what it is and what it is not.

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Scripture: Jonah 3:1-3 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: August 1, 2010 Series: We Are Jonah

Jonah's story has three major players. The leading role is played by God. In supporting cast, you have Jonah the prophet and the city that he has been called on mission to. This week we introduce the great city of Nineveh. The city that Jonah, the religious moral man hates, but God loves. Together we'll consider our view of the city, God's view of the city, and how we might respond and relate to the city.

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Scripture: Jonah 1:17-2:10 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: July 25, 2010 Series: We Are Jonah

At the end of chapter one, Jonah has been tossed overboard and thrown into the raging sea. He descends to the depths. Sinking. Drowning. Dying. Jonah has been brought the end of himself. He cannot save himself. And in his helpless and hopeless state, he cries out to the Lord. He remembers God. And God saves him! The Lord appoints a great fish to play the part of a submarine for His prophet. And from there, Jonah offers a prayer of thanksgiving and praise to the God who brought him up from the pit and gave him new life.

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Scripture: Jonah 1:1-16 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: July 18, 2010 Series: We Are Jonah

The story of Jonah begins with a man who runs from God. Fortunately, that's not where the story ends. In God's great mercy, God pursues Jonah. He chases after him, though He does so in a ferocious fashion. God hurls a great storm at Jonah's ship and will not stop until Jonah is hurled into sea. Yet what appears as condemnation is actually God's mercy. Jonah hides but God seeks. Jonah runs but fortunately God pursues. 

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Scripture: Jonah 1:1-3 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: July 11, 2010 Series: We Are Jonah

The story of Jonah begins with Missio Dei - the mission of God. The merciful heart of God longs to save the sinful city of Nineveh. Nineveh was renown for it's wickedness. Yet God is renown for His mercy. And so God calls Jonah to be His missionary and deliver his message of mercy. Only, Jonah runs. He flees from the presence of the Lord and heads in the opposite direction. We are Jonah - for we too run from God in our sin. Today we consider why we run and consider our idols and the sin beneath the sin.

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Scripture: Jonah 1:1-2 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: July 4, 2010 Series: We Are Jonah

Perhaps you’ve heard the story before. A man swallowed by a whale who lives to tell the tale. But here’s the thing. There is so much more to the book of Jonah. In fact, Jonah is not a story about a great fish at all. The whale is just a prop in the narrative. It’s actually a story about a great God. A gracious God who relentlessly pursues rebels. A sovereign God who rules over everything for His glory and our good. A missional God who, unlike Jonah, loves the city. A merciful God who pardons the prophet and the pagans. A patient God who seeks the self-righteous religious and the sinful irreligious alike. In entering Jonah’s story, we get a better look at God’s heart and ours as well. That’s because this story is our story. We are Jonah.

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Scripture: Genesis 1-3 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: June 20, 2010 Series: God, Marriage, & Family

On Fathers Day, we turn our attention to address the men. What does it mean to be a man? Today we turn to the wisdom of God in the Scriptures to cast a vision for Biblical manhood and masculinity. Men and women were created in the image of God and reflect the unity and diversity of the Godhead. Like our God, we were made equal but different, and that is very good.

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Speaker: Siby Varghese Date: June 13, 2010 Series: Specials & Stand Alone Sermons

What is truth? Is there meaning to life? Is there a God? These are questions that plague many in our city. Today, Siby Varghese shares how he can sympathize with skeptics, atheists, agnostics, and more because these questions plagued him too. Together we’ll listen as Siby shares his own spiritual journey and how he discovered meaning in Jesus. His own quest for truth has given him a burden for engaging others in their spiritual journey. Through Doubt Night, Siby is leading a dialogue in our city about matters of life, faith, doubt, truth, meaning, and more.

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Speaker: Jim Varghese Date: June 6, 2010 Series: Specials & Stand Alone Sermons

Throughout June, we'll be highlighting some of the missional works that God is doing in and through Seven Mile Road. Today, we hear from Jim Varghese and the work of Bombay Teen Challenge. Since 1990, BTC has worked to rescue and rehabilitate destitute and desperate people living on the streets and in the red light district of Mumbai. Their work includes fighting against human trafficking and stopping sexual slavery. Today we’ll hear some stories from BTC and listen as Jim Varghese shares how the Lord called his family to get involved and how we might do the same.

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Scripture: Galatians 4:1-7 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: May 16, 2010 Series: Christ Crucified

This week we consider the glorious doctrine of our adoption as sons through Christ crucified. It is one thing to cleanse someone from their filth, or to pay their debt, or set them free, or even to declare them innocent. And while God does all these things for us through the cross of Jesus, it is still more precious to be brought home as the children of God. Through Christ, we now have a new Father, a new Brother, and a new family.

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Scripture: John 12:27-28 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: March 28, 2010 Series: Christ Crucified

Why did Jesus die? It’s a simple question and if you’ve ever been to church or Sunday School you’re sure to know the answer. Whatever words you use, the basic answer always comes back – for us. That’s right. That’s true. But could there be another answer. A higher answer. This Sunday we explore the idea that while Jesus’ death on the Cross was for us, it was first for God. Jesus died for our redemption, but more so, He died for God’s glory.

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Scripture: Matthew 16:13-20 Speaker: Ajay Thomas Date: September 13, 2009 Series: Talks With Jesus

The opinions surrounding the identity of Jesus were as varied in his day as they are in ours. The crowds in Israel were buzzing about Jesus the carpenter turned itinerant preacher. Is he Elijah? Jeremiah? John the Baptist back from the dead? Amidst the multitude of possible answers, Jesus steers the conversation away from public opinion to a personal one. "But who do you say that I am?"

Peter, one of the disciples, replies with a stunning, beautiful, Spirit-revealed confession of just who Jesus is. It's a powerful confession. In fact, Jesus promised to build his church upon it. As we launch Seven Mile Road Church today, we rest on the same confession Peter made then.