Want to know why sorrow is the least know "deadly sin"? It was struck from the original list. However, when sorrow takes control of our minds, it has a deadly effect: pulling us from the present and stealing our joy. This message will consider variations of sorrow, the reality of depression, and importance of wisdom--sorrow's counter-virtue--in managing our emotions, eliminating our excuses, and expanding our life narrative.

To say our culture has an unhealthy concept of sex is an understatement. Sex drives movies, marketing, and magazine sales. It has reshaped public education and self-perception to the point that even sixty-year olds are encouraged to retain their sex appeal with the right diets, outfits, and skin care products. Sex is central to the American experience. Like the Corinthians, we rarely blush, unless, of course, we're talking about the "old-fashioned, outdated, repressive institute of marriage." Today we are. More broadly, we're talking about the deadly effects lust and humanizing virtue of purity.

Miracles are hard to believe in our secular age. We are trained to be skeptics, to view the world as a closed and often cold system. If God ever existed, he left us long ago, thinks the skeptic. But Jesus gives us a glimpse of "God with us" and engaged in powerful acts of healing, restoring, and welcome. He has authority over nature, demons, sin, and death. These are evidences he is Messiah, Son of God. And we should let the evidence address our inner skeptic, so we see the world buzzing with divine life.

I love America, but out political discourse has become deplorable. Negative polarization has pushed us to extremes. Rather than listen to others and seek for common ground, we villainize those on the opposite aisle. This is sad. Worse yet, in many ways the church has traded her public witness for political power. This sermon looks at the politics of Jesus and the apostle Paul, a history of evangelical missteps, and ways we can recover our public witness as God's people.

Do not be deceived: Civil rights gains did not erase racial tensions. They have been simmering for decades, and the spotlight on police shootings has amplified tensions. Nearly one year from the anniversary of George Floyd's death, cries for equality and the end of racism persist. Meanwhile, a swell of "fragile" and "privileged" white people have begun to wonder if they are bigots or victims of reverse bigotry. In other words, our world is a mess. Fortunately, the Bible teaches that we share a common ancestry and our God loves the nations impartially. The gospel is public news for all peoples, and racial reconciliation is one evidence of the gospel at work. Indeed, we have work -- tough, messy, emotional, just work -- to do.