Anabaptist – chris cribari blog

Photo Cred: (1) | Updated: 5/4/2026

Sermon Prep

This was an insanely busy summer for our church given roughly 12 people were leaving for our Taiwan mission trip in July and that meant a lot was riding on those who stayed behind which included me. This time in particular was mostly leaders or faithful laity which left me with a couple core leaders to steer the ship for a few weeks. To take the pressure off of everyone, I volunteered to teach 3 weeks in a row and that was rough since work wasn’t slowing down either. In fact, it was my best month to date in the new role but the workload was a lot.

But before those 3 weeks in a row started, I began mapping out how to approach these sermons at the beginning of the month. I treated it as a trilogy since there seemed to be a through-line in the messages I was covering that spanned the spiritual journey. This one focused on sanctification, the next one justification, and then lastly glorification. That birds eye view helped me approach each message and tackle them one-by-one. We were also doing the sermon series through the Simple Grace book by Shawn Reinsel again so that familiarity was super useful too.

In hindsight, I don’t think my teaching thrives when I go back-to-back weeks, unless the series or section of scripture demands more attention. In this case the through-line made sense, but it revealed to me that I do my best preaching as a complimentary and occasional voice in our church. Not as someone who leads our church in God’s word and teaches on a weekly basis like most pastors do at most churches. I think I’m more in-line with a guest teacher or a leading a catechism/Sunday School. Anyways, here’s the YouTube recording and the notes for this message:

Sermon Notes

Opening Prayer

Father God, lead us this morning as we search the scriptures. Thank you for your Son whose sacrifice is our salvation. Would you speak through me, in spite of me, and beyond me. May you, Holy Spirit, dwell within us as you teach us today. Amen.

Intro

Story of defeating the Blazing Inferno Spider Mech in MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf.

“Grace is the free, unearned and undeserved favor of God given through Jesus Christ that pardons sin, empowers righteousness, restores relationships, and transforms the entire person. A divine gift and an active presence that renews the soul.” – Andrew Morrison, Reunion Church

Main Point

Sanctification is the ongoing process of the Holy Spirit shaping the soul to be like Christ.
The Spirit empowers spiritual growth by his grace alone through faith and good works.

Grace and Sanctification | Galatians 3:1-5 + Galatians 5:7-8, 16-25 (NRSVue)

“[1] You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! [2] The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? [3] Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? [4] Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing. [5] Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by you doing the works of the law or by you believing what you heard?”

Paul was correcting the churches of Galatia who fell into legalistic works without faith.
- Judaizers in Galatia taught that Christian growth required the Mosaic law.
- Paul said “if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” – Galatians 2:21b (NRSVue)
  - See Romans 8:1-4 and 2 Thessalonians 2:13 for more.

“[7] You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? [8] Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you… [16] Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. [17] For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. [18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. [19] Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, [20] idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, [21] envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. [22] By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. [24] And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [25] If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.”

The Galatians began to receive God’s grace through faith which inspired good works.
- Over time, they fell into the lie that it was their good works that saved them.
  - Putting the cart before the horse thinking what enslaves them saves.
    - The Mosaic law doesn’t deliver us from sin, but damns us.
- The law pressures us to perform, while grace produces good works organically.

“[14] What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? [15] If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food [16] and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?… [26] For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.” – James 2:14-16, 26 (NRSVue)

Our good works are a natural result of our cooperation with God’s grace as we trust him.

Why It Matters

Sanctification isn’t powered by our efforts, but by the Spirit who empowers our growth.
- God’s grace doesn’t just save us from sin, but molds us to be more like him.

“[21] “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. [22] On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ [23] Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’” – Matthew 7:21-23 (NRSVue)

We’re children of God (justification), but overtime we become more godly (sanctification). Just as we go from infants to adults, sanctification operates the same.

Power Text

“[11] For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, [12] training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, [13] while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. [14] He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.” – Titus 2:11-14 (NRSVue)

Christianity is relational, not ritualistic. There’s no formula. We just humbly trust God.
- St Anthony the Great puts it best: “The truly intelligent man pursues one sole objective: to obey and to conform to the God of all… For knowledge of God and faith in Him is the salvation and perfection of the soul.” – “On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life,” in The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 1, trans. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware (London: Faber and Faber, 1979), 329.

Outro

Sanctification is the spiritual journey where we learn to not achieve, but abide in Jesus.
- Justification is the beginning, glorification is the end, and sanctification is the path to get from one point to the other. The dotted line between A and B.
Like the Galatians, we get distracted and forget that grace got us here in the first place.

Your Sanctification Story

Who was I in 2017?	Who am I in 2025?	Who will I be in 2032?
20yrs old Sin: alcohol, porn PMCC, then LifeGate Volunteer Single, nokids Anabaptist Deconstructing faith Content creator Learned apologetics Aurora, Colorado	28yrs old Sin: anger, lying Reunion Church Pastor Married, 1yr old baby Protestant??? Reconstructing faith SaaS sales Learning history Reunion, Colorado	36yrs old Sin: pride, workaholic New Church or RC??? Pastor??? Married, 1-4 kids New convention??? Deconstructing faith PT writer; SaaS sales? Learn Greek/Hebrew New place or state???

What’s your sanctification story? Where has God’s grace guided you?

Final Thoughts

After my first of three messages, the reception was surprisingly excellent and some people were saying it was my best message yet which is always encouraging. In my opinion, we also had some of the best Table Talks in our church’s history. What especially stood out was the sanctification story activity with a lot of people saying they loved it.

Great response overall. Even with what felt like half of the church was on the Taiwan trip, those who remained had a great Sunday service. Of the three messages in this trilogy, this was by far and away the best from my perspective and the congregation’s perspective. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Photo Cred: (1) | Updated: 11-18-2020

About a year ago when I worked at Staples, I had a conversation on faith that was fantastic with one of the coworkers on my sales team. It was one of those moments you pray for and ask God for the awareness to know when one of those moments is happening. As Christians, we call this discernment. The ability to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and what he is doing in the present.

Oddly enough, this conversation was initiated by her when she rolled by my desk and asked a few questions about my faith. This was pretty common because she did this with everyone as an extrovert and loved chatting with everybody on the team, but the subject of our conversation was brand new. It was something we never talked about before and I was very excited to have this conversation because I’m always waiting for these moments to happen.

Unlike most people, I have a different motivation for why I go to work. It’s not for money or the type of work I’m doing necessarily, but rather comes down to a very simple question: what spiritually needs to be done here? That’s my motivation that guides everything I do at work and in life overall. Every day and every moment guided by that simple question. On this day during this moment, I knew what spiritually needed to be done. I needed to answer her question, but not the one she was asking.

When someone is searching their own soul, they tend to discover holes within their worldview. For my coworker, this hole within her worldview was related to her experience with Christianity as a person who grew up Catholic. Her being a Hispanic American that grew up within the family’s strong Catholic tradition lends credence to the idea that maybe her faith wasn’t genuine. Maybe this routine of rituals never actually meant a real relationship with God himself. Maybe the faith she thought she had with its rules and regulations never materialized in her adulthood into something real.

The Conversation

The conversation started with her asking, “You’re religious, right?” and I said yes. She then asked if I was Christian or Catholic. I said I was both, which compelled her to ask how I could be both. I replied that my theology is predominantly Catholic, but my convictions are predominantly Protestant. For instance, my theology is inspired by the Jesuit school of thought called Molinism, but I align a lot with the Anabaptist movement as well. I’m a clear mix of these two different sides of Christianity after studying both for myself.

This answer seemed to resolve her surface-level questions, but now it was my turn. I asked “You’re Catholic, right?” and she said yes. She explained that she grew up Catholic, but doesn’t practice the faith like her family does. I followed up with my next question, “Why not?” and that’s when the real questions came to the surface.

Here she shared how the showy stuff never clicked with her, but that she knows that there must be something like God because she has experienced him growing up. She heard that I was Christian and just wanted to know if what she experienced was real. This is a question we should all ask ourselves. Is what I’m experiencing God or is this something else?

The Scale of Faith

I don’t remember everything that I shared with her, but I do remember the crux of my point. Essentially, faith in God is a scale that’s balancing between evidence and experience. In general, the Christian life is a strange combination of undeniable evidences and unexplainable experiences.

Like my former coworker, we too experience things that we cannot explain and yet know intuitively that this must be God. Likewise, we also observe and measure things in life that logically lead us to God. We all in one way or another experience God and have evidence that God exists in our reality. The key is finding the balance between these two components for a healthy Christian faith.

An Evident God

When we focus too much on evidence, we drown in the rabbithole of not knowing enough. Put simply, you will never know enough about God or be able to define him anymore than he has defined himself for us. As King Solomon put it, “there is nothing new under the sun (2).” There is no secret knowledge that remains undiscovered about God that we can find.

He has intentionally given us all we need to know about him and yet leaves it hidden for us to discover for ourselves. Many avenues in fact from history to mathematics or philosophy and science, but none of them leads to the full knowledge of God. If we knew everything there is to know about God, then he wouldn’t be God. Like any person you come across in life, you will never know everything about them and the same can be said of God.

Then again, faith requires evidence. It’s demanded by our minds trying to make sense of the unknown in the best way that we can, so this doesn’t mean we throw out logic and reason. Instead, this just means we search until we find the edge of knowing God and admire the mystery that stands before us. When we know God and are known by him, then we will know who we are and what we were made to do.

The God Experience

With experience, we find ourselves in the murky waters of the abstract and what has been felt in the fleeting memories of our unique moments with God. It’s not meant to be explained because these moments are to be lived in and felt with all our being. It’s the knowledge of being there that counts and not the incalculable details of the moment.

Why do some dream of Jesus and immediately become Christian, despite every reason to remain a part of their current faith? We don’t know and that’s because it’s not our experience to explain. It’s not our story to tell, but their honor to tell it as a critical piece to the unfinished puzzle that is their life in Christ. These experiences with God are once-in-a-lifetime and at the same respect unforgettable.

Conclusion

Her experience could very well have been God. She didn’t need to doubt it per se because only she would know if it was genuinely a God moment. With discernment, I believe what she shared was a God moment and affirmed it as such to her by the end of our talk.

What I left her with was a challenge: “You seem to know what it’s like to experience God, but is God evident in your life? Before you write off God or your faith from your childhood, look at it again and see if there’s anything to your faith. Could this really be true? You experienced it, so now it’s time to find out if there’s evidence.” Our boss walked by and that’s when we got back to work, but I still hope to this day that she takes the time to reevaluate her faith.

Was the experience truly God or something she made up? Could God be evident in her life? If Jesus is a real person, then is what he said true? Those are questions that only she can answer for herself.

I can’t change minds, but I can compliment critical thinking with the best case for the Christian faith. That case starts when we examine the scale of faith to see if evidence and experience meet at the cross of Christ. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Footnotes

Free stock photos · Pexels
Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NASB)

Tag: Anabaptist

Simple Grace: Sanctification | 7-13-2025

The Scale of Faith: Evidence + Experience