Tag: cerebral palsy

1 John: Love One Another | 9-28-25

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Updated: 5/11/2026

Sermon Prep

September of 2025 was a brutal and horrible month all around in our community. One mom in our community ran away from her husband and took her kids without the husband knowing. Navigating that stressful family situation was already tough enough on it’s own. Earlier in the month, my older brother John flew out from Texas to Colorado to intervene on a friend who was potentially suicidal. That intervention of sorts did end up being productive and those two actually got to meet up with their old youth pastor, which was great on it’s own.

For me though and for our church immediately before this message one of our own passed away after shortly entering hospice care. Her name was Heidi Jean Foster and she was Julie’s daughter that for years fought cerebral palsy. She had decided on her own earlier in the month to skip another high-risk surgery and instead in her own words, “wanted to go home to run and see Jesus.”

Given her condition, her mental cognition was similar to a 5 year old and yet she was 44 years old. Before her decision was made to go home to be with the Lord, it was difficult for loved ones and medical staff to know what to do for her because of this fact, along with increasingly complicated procedures to keep her alive. But to respect her decision the wonderful medical care team, her mom Julie, Bethany, her sisters, and myself mapped out what end of life care would look like for Heidi. It was my first time doing that side of pastoral ministry, but I believe we made the best decision in how Heidi’s hospice care would carry her to her last day.

Heidi was born on September 10th, 1981 and died on September 28th, 2025. She loved her unicorn stuffed animal, Jonathan from our church who visited often, and of course puzzles. She was loved and to this day is missed by our whole community.

As a pastor, it’s never easy losing one of your own and for me this loss was the same. Given she passed away early Sunday morning everyone on our core team now knew and that factored into how I taught this message. Returning to preaching after 2 months off was nice to go with an easier passage of scripture.

1 John 4 is fairly straightforward, so when I’m given a more directly applicable message I like to find a new way to teach it and details that bring out the richer meaning of the text. In this case, I drew on cross references on how to love one another and a couple study Bibles I have on hand. In the end, I think it shaped up well approaching it from this angle. Here’s the YouTube recording and the my notes below:

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 older brother flying out to CO last week, so that he can see old, family friend and help him.

Main Point

  • We are most like Christ when we love one another just as Jesus loves each one of us.

Love One Another | 1 John 4 (NRSVue)

“[1] Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. [2] By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. [4] Little children, you are from God and have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. [5] They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. [6] We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. [7] Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. [8] Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. [9] God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. [11] Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. [13] By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. [14] And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. [15] God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. [16] So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. [17] Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. [18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. [19] We love because he first loved us. [20] Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. [21] The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

  • This chapter has two halves → 1 John 4:1-6 (spirits test) + 1 John 4:7-21 (Christian test).
    • John contrasts biblical love with cultural norms of conditional and reciprocal relationships common in John’s day and unfortunately we still experience today.
  • Spirits test is the confession that Jesus is fully God and fully man (i.e. hypostatic union).
    • Inspired by OT method of testing prophets in Deuteronomy 13:2-6 and 18:15-22.
    • Potentially modified the secessionist opponents’ own slogan as the spirits test.
      • “John excludes the Gnostics, especially the Cerinthians, who taught that the divine Christ came upon the human Jesus at his baptism and then left him at the cross, so it was only the man Jesus who died.” –  NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition (Grand Rapids; Zondervan, 2020), 2220, note on 1 John 4:2.
  • 1 John 1:5 (light), 4:7 (love), and 4:24 (spirit) are Johannine formulas describing God.
    • The term Johannine scholars use to refer to John’s theology and writing style.
  • 1 John 4:13 implicitly defends the idea that salvation can’t be lost because the Spirit of God makes a permanent dwelling with those who humbly trust him with their life.
    • μένομεν (menomen) = we abide/dwell/remain; the “we” is God and us mutually.
    • Our assurance of salvation is the gift of the Holy Spirit himself dwelling within us.
      • “How can we know God lives in us? John gives a fourfold answer: (1) if we love one another (v. 12), (2) if we have been given His Spirit (v. 13), (3) if we can confess Jesus is the Son of God (v. 15), and (4) if we abide in the love of God (v. 16).” –  1 John 4:12-16 note, in The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Faith Edition (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008), 1702.
      • All Christians behave like Christ, believe in Christ, and belong to Christ.

Why It Matters

  • God’s love is at its best and perfected when we love others as we’re told to do by God.

“[34] I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” –  John 13:34-35 (NRSVue)

  • God might be invisible, yet he’s seen when we love one another as siblings in Christ.

“[43] “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ [44] But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [45] so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”” –  Matthew 5:43-45 (NRSVue)

  • Love is part of the greater litmus test of whether or not someone is a genuine Christian.
    • Just as we need to have right belief (orthodoxy), we also need to have right behavior (orthopraxy) and right belonging (orthokoinonia). This is the test.

Power Text

  • Behavior: “[10] For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.” –  Ephesians 2:10 (NRSVue)
  • Belonging: “[24] And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, [25] not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” –  Hebrews 10:24-25 (NRSVue)

Outro

  • The spiritual journey requires all of you and the whole self as you walk the way of Jesus.
    • We do as he did and live as he lived, which includes loving our friends and foes.
      • So be like Christ and love not just your own world, but the whole world.

Final Thoughts

Surprisingly give the background for this sermon, the delivery and day of had lots of laughs. It was actually one of my funnier sermons by happenstance and not intentionally on my part. Although, I was a dick the way I handled baby Penny grunting which made Azzy laugh. It was fun and we all laughed, but I handled it wrong and misread the situation from the pulpit. Given preaching feels like mere minutes and is such a blur I missed that whole context altogether. But we made things right after service.

The sermon was very well received once I sat down to do Table Talks. I think it was a great sermon, but very trying times as everyone in church seemed to be going through something in September. Like life in general, a church community has ebbs and flows too.

There’s highs and lows in the life of a church, which this month was a low for us all. That low would bleed into the fall with my next topical teaching, but we’ll cover that in the next sermon recap. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

1 Corinthians: Cross Wisdom | 1-19-2025

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Updated: 4/14/2026

Sermon Prep

This message holds a special spot in my heart simply because of the season of life I was in as a new Dad. I was fresh off of my paternity leave, which ended on January 5th and I returned to work the next day. The prep for this sermon also began on January 6th and I chipped away at it slowly for two weeks. If I remember right I was nervous coming back and spent extra time prepping this message. Not because I was nervous about the content like my last message on Bathsheba and Uriah, but I was nervous about being rusty preaching-wise.

Everything was flipped upside down in a good way with becoming a Dad, so it felt like the teaching muscles were tight from inactivity. Learning how to be a parent with my Glory those first few months up in the doorless loft of her parent’s house was a special time. We had our own little nook to figure out how to raise our little girl. As per usual, I put aside any spare time at work or at home to write this message.

At work, the excuse was my infamous office hour, which really meant that because I was the best person in the department I had the freedom to do what I wanted with that final hour of the day. It was a luxury that really only my peer Simon who sat next to me knew about, but a freedom I earned with a lot of hardwork and grit to be at the top of the department. With all that said, my sermon notes are below and the sermon on YouTube here.

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

  • Bo Eason former NFL QB and CA family celebrity connections sharing worldly wisdom.

Intro

  • Jumping off of Andrew’s message last week, we’re going to learn about what unites us.

Main Point

  • Now there’s worldly wisdom, but Christians are united by true wisdom.
  • The cross of Christ is true wisdom in a world filled with fools.

Fool’s Talk | 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (NRSVue)

“[18] For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. [19] For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” [20] Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? [21] For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. [22] For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, [23] but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, [24] but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. [25] For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. [26] Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. [27] But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; [28] God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, [29] so that no one might boast in the presence of God. [30] In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, [31] in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

  • Paul was in his ministry prime as this letter was 20 years after his conversion.
  • God is beyond time so we’re saved, being saved, and will be saved (1 Corinthians 1:18).
    • “It is a mark of them that perish not to recognize the things which lead to salvation.” – St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians
  • Paul paraphrases Isaiah 29:14 (1 Corinthians 1:19).
    • Corinth was known as a melting pot and often called a mother to many cultures.
    • Aelius Aristides once said that on every street in Corinth one met a so-called wise man, who had his own solution to humanity’s problems.
  • Scholar = expert in Mosaic law; debater of this age = Greek Sophists (1 Corinthians 1:20).
  • “To those that request a sign, the Church offers one: the Cross! The Cross is to be adored, for wherever the sign may be, there Jesus will be” (1 Corinthians 1:22).
  • “[Jews] expected a triumphant, political Messiah [;Greeks/Romans believed] “it was unthinkable that [a crucified] criminal could be the world’s Savior” (1 Corinthians 1:23).
  • Calling is used here as God the Spirit guiding us to trust him (1 Corinthians 1:24-26).
    • “εὐγενής (eugenēs) refers to… being born into nobility, wealth, or power with an emphasis on the privileges and benefits [of] that position” (1 Corinthians 1:26).
  • “Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom; do not let the mighty boast in their might; do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23b-24 NRSVue)
    • See 1 Samuel 2:1-10, and Luke 1:46-55. “Jeremiah calls upon the wise, the strong, and the wealthy not to trust in their resources but in their knowledge of the true God-and so to boast in the Lord. Paul addresses the same three areas of human pride.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).
    • See 1 Corinthians 2:14-16. The Greek words psychikos (ψυχικὸς) and pneumatikos (πνευματικῶς) Paul uses to contrast the natural and the spiritual.
    • God the Spirit is often associated with power and wisdom. The Gospel can only be revealed by the Spirit himself.

Why It Matters

  • The word fool is mentioned 6 times; wise is mentioned 13 times (1 Corinthians 1:18-31).
  • As Os Guinness lays out in his book, Fool’s Talk, that there’s 3 types of fools in the world:
    • Fool King -> Jesus (Isaiah 53)
    • Fools for Christ -> The Foolish (1 Corinthians 4:10)
    • Fool of Proverbs -> The Wise (Psalm 14:1)
  • Corinth needed to hear that in complete humility, Christ was crucified and resurrected.
  • In a world full of wisdom, it’s us fools for Christ that know God’s free grace saves us from our sins.
  • By humility and faith we can accept this free grace.

Power Text

  • We need to trust in God’s resurrection power.
    • EX: family, marriage, politics; work.
  • Human wisdom isolates others, yet the wisdom of the cross unifies all people.
    • Death is the great equalizer, yet so too is the cross of Christ.
  • Unity brings belonging, yet division brings loneliness.
    • “I’ve discovered the more spiritual a person becomes, the less denominational that person becomes. The less divisive that person becomes.” – Skip Heitzig

Outro

  • Only God’s power can stop the woes of the world and bring us together.
    • “There is a loneliness that only God can fill… and the cross is the answer.” – Billy Graham, 1974
  • Just like it was 50 years ago, life is lonely without the living God.
    • EX: Julie loving Heidi.
  • You can either cling to Christ trusting him or tell him to piss off out of your own wisdom. Those are the choices.

Final Thoughts

This new year literally brought a new me and that bled into changing my sermon studying and sermon structure. First off, I utilized a lot of quotes from the NET Bible Full Notes Edition and the Orthodox Study Bible to round out this message. I would’ve used quotes from the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, but someone stole it from my porch when it got delivered. I was pretty salty about that, but of all the things to steal I hope at least they read that Bible.

Too many quotes to be fair if I’m being objective about my sermon notes, but I think what I did quote was quality stuff. My coloring scheme I used here stuck with the rest of my sermons moving forward. I to this day still use blue for quotes outside of the Bible and green for quotes within the Bible. Anything from me isn’t highlighted.

Looking back at it over a year later with my 18 month-old sleeping upstairs as I write this blogpost, in my mind this message aged really well. I jotted down feedback as I like to after each message to improve my craft and this one was received strongly by Reunion Church. The ending given Heidi and Julie were having another medical episode at this time was quite emotional and as you can see above compared to my outline, I spoke from the heart.

For context, Julie’s daughter Heidi had been battling one thing after another due to complications from her cerebral palsy and that month was no different. I used Heidi and Julie as my Gospel analogy, which everyone at church really resonated with once we gathered for Table Talks. Heidi might be home now as she passed away later on in 2025, but here at Reunion Church she was apart of our home. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.