Peace Mennonite Community Church

Simple Grace: Sanctification | 7-13-2025

May 4, 2026May 5, 2026Posted in SermonsTagged 2 Thessalonians 2:13, Anabaptist, Bible, Chris Cribari, Chris Cribari Blog, Christianity, Galatians 2:21, Galatians 3:1-5, Galatians 5:16-25, Galatians 5:7-8, God, Halo, James 2:14-16, James 2:26, Jesus, Judaizers, LifeGate Denver, Matthew 7:21-23, MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf, MechAssualt, Mission Trip, On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life, Peace Mennonite Community Church, Reunion Church, Romans 8:1-4, Sermon, Shawn Reinsel, Simple Grace, St Anthony the Great, Taiwan, The Philokalia, Titus 2:11-14Leave a comment

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.

1 Corinthians: Live Free, Diet Hard | 3-30-2025

April 30, 2026April 30, 2026Posted in SermonsTagged 1 Corinthians 8, Bible, Book, Chris Cribari, Chris Cribari Blog, Christian Creed, Christianity, Corinthian Creed, Deuteronomy 6:4, Ephesians 4:1-6, God, Jesus, Marc' Antonio de Dominis, Peace Mennonite Community Church, PMCC Thrive, Proverbs 7:7-9, Reunion Church, Romans 14:1-3, Romans 14:15-21, Sermon, ShemaLeave a comment

Updated: 4/30/2026

Sermon Prep

Coming off the heels of the last message, I was very intentional in my prep to shorten my sermons moving forward. To avoid getting lost in the sauce and keep the main thing the main thing. So when it came time to preach this message, I gave myself some unwritten rules. First, I used to allow my sermons to extend beyond 3 pages to fit whatever the topic was for that message, yet with this one I intentionally kept it to strictly 3 pages. I also limited myself to 1 quote from someone outside of the Bible and also cut down on the biblical cross references too.

To this day, I still follow these unwritten rules when teaching and so much so that I have it down to a science. For instance, I know that for every page of written text in my notes, that’s about 10 minutes of preaching material. I use the exact same sermon framework every single time which our teaching team calls the Reunion Standard. I think this has helped me more accurately measure the failure or success or a sermon versus before I taught at Reunion Church when I would loosely follow a 3-point public speaking structure I learned in college from my Public Speaking class.

Lastly, between this message and the last one we were finalizing moving out of my in-laws place and for the first time having our own space as a family. Our baby girl was almost 6 months and God orchestrated this beautiful new place for us to live once I finally decided to be open to renting again. Weird how when we humble ourselves, God almost always has something for us. Either way, here’s the YouTube recording and the notes for this message below:

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

PMCC Thrive small group with Adam, Elijah, and Jeanette.

Intro

Learned the importance of loving others in spite of knowledgeable differences.

Main Point

A conviction is a moral belief and personal preference with spiritual significance.
- EX: drinking, fast food, movies, music, politics, religion, smoking; social media.
The convictions of your faith matter, but unity among Christians matters more.

Live Free, Diet Hard | 1 Corinthians 8 (NRSVue)

“[1] Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. [2] Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge, [3] but anyone who loves God is known by him. [4] Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists” and that “there is no God but one.” [5] Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— [6] yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. [7] It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. [8] “Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do. [9] But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. [10] For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? [11] So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister for whom Christ died is destroyed. [12] But when you thus sin against brothers and sisters and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. [13] Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never again eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.”

Food in this context wasn’t just a meal, but was often sacrificed to idols and pagan gods.
- Civic, religious, and social gatherings were all connected in Corinthian culture.
  - Business, networking, politics, and religion were one and the same.
  - Feasts or parties were where you wanted to be seen, where you would make business deals with patrons, and even socialize with friends.
  - A patron was someone who helped clients financially and legally by way of their influence, power, and wealth. Clients had to prove their loyalty.
Some knew it’s just food, but not all so love vs belittling them (1 Corinthians 8:1).
- God knows all things, so there’s no need to be a know-it-all to weaker believers.
  - Don’t just know about God, but be known by him and remain in him.
In verses 1, 4, and 8 Paul uses Corinthian slogans to explain his argument.
- Verse 4 combines one of these slogans and Scripture (i.e. Deuteronomy 6:4).
Early Christian Creed (1 Corinthians 8:6)
- A creed is the rule of faith and the symbol of faith. This means a creed is both a set of beliefs affirmed aloud and an outward action that brings us together.
  - A modern example would be singing worship songs out loud at church.
The phrase “is destroyed” can be translated as “destroys himself,” which is an indirect middle implying that weaker Christians bear some responsibility (1 Corinthians 8:11).
- If a weaker Christian struggles with alcohol, then why are they at a bar?
- Read Proverbs 7:7-9 (NRSVue)

“[7] and I saw among the simple ones, I observed among the youths, a young man without sense, [8] passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house [9] in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.”

Why It Matters

Their conscience matters more than your convenience, so use wisdom with convictions.
Sacrificing freedoms can save faith for weaker Christians. It’s us for them, not versus.

Power Text

Read Romans 14:1-3, 15-21 (NRSVue)

“[1] Welcome those who are weak in faith but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. [2] Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. [3] Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat, for God has welcomed them… [15] If your brother or sister is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. [16] So do not let your good be slandered. [17] For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. [18] The one who serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and has human approval. [19] Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. [20] Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong to make someone stumble by what you eat; [21] it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.”

The strong-minded believed that those who thought they needed to observe food laws were weak-minded and looked down upon them as inferior for lacking knowledge.
There’s more to life than convictions, so build up the Christian who may be struggling.

Outro

Read Ephesians 4:1b-6 (NRSVue)

“[1] I… beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, [2] with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, [3] making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: [4] there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, [5] one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

Let love guide your public decisions when exercising your convictions and rights.

“embrace a mutual unity in things necessary; in things non necessary liberty; in all things charity.” – Marco’ Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato, Croatia

Final Thoughts

In retrospect, the changes I implemented in my sermon prep turned out great. The message flowed well and the congregation resonated with it too. Although I did have a major blunder by mispronouncing Shema as schema which was corrected later that day by my father-in-law Kenny. He knows a lot more Hebrew then I do and my notes just autocorrected the word and I didn’t catch it, so that was embarrassing.

It also was a huge benefit to this message in particular that I had recently finished the chapter of my book on convictions, so I was very versed in this topic. Overall, it was received well and the Table Talks were good. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

How Should Christians Talk?

December 4, 2017May 27, 2019Posted in TopicalTagged 1 Samuel 20:30, Chris Cribari, Chris Cribari Blog, Christianity, Colossians 3:8, Colossians 3:9-11, Communication, Curse Words, Cuss Words, Cussing, Ephesians 4:29-32, How Should Christians Talk, John 14:6, Judeo-Christianity, Language, Luke 13:31-32, Luke 9:7-11, Mark 10:13-16, Mark 6:14-32, Matthew 14:13-14, Necessarily True, Peace Mennonite Community Church, Speech, Swear Words, Theology, True, Truth1 Comment

Photo Cred: (1) | Updated: 5/27/2019

Within Christian circles, there has been a long and great debate over how we believers should talk. Whether that be with others in social settings, before a congregation at a church, or even by ourselves. There are many sides to this discussion and I think for the sake of brevity, I will outline the more popular sides before giving my two cents on the situation.

Some say that according to such passages of Scripture as Ephesians 4:29-32 and Colossians 3:8, we should not swear or say anything remotely close to “those” words. This is because Paul the Apostle, the author of both Ephesians and Colossians, follows up both passages with a contrast between the old sinful self and the new sanctified self (2). His frequent mention of this spiritual duality puts a special emphasis on outward distinction from how the rest of the world operates. This should presumably include the way we speak.

On the flip side, there are other believers who insist that because the Bible itself and some of its most famous historical figures used swear words (3), like Paul, that we should have the freedom to use them too. Many on this side refer to such passages as 1 Samuel 20:30 and Luke 13:31-32 where people like Jesus seem to use curses towards others as a way of describing them or of telling the truth of a certain situation. They argue that because these heroes of the faith use these sorts of words, that we too should have the freedom to use them as well in the proper context.

Several months ago, I was apart of a great community group at Peace Mennonite Community Church called Thrive and the discussion for one night revolved around “unwholesome” speech. At the time, we were going through the book of Ephesians and this particular night was focused on the latter half of chapter 4. We all gave great and thought-out answers, but today I’ll just share with you my input with the group that night.

There are many passages in the Bible that to me are more profound than other passages because they give insight to who Jesus was during his quieter moments in His 3-year ministry. Moments like that in Mark 10:13-16 where Jesus explains the Kingdom of Heaven to both His disciples and the children that wanted to be there with Him. But the moment that I referenced in this small group was from Matthew 14:13-14.

In this passage of Scripture, Jesus has just received news that one of His dear friends, John the Baptist, has been killed by King Herod. After hearing the awful news, Jesus goes away to a secluded place in Bethsaida and travels there by boat (4). The disciples and apostles went with Him, in order to rest and eat. Not long after arriving there, the crowds showed up and this is the beginning of a more famous part of His ministry where He feeds the 5,000 with loaves of bread and fish.

Now what interests me most about this passage is how Jesus responds to the death of a friend during a very busy and exhausting portion of His ministry. He removes Himself, along with His disciples and John’s closest followers to seek rest. When thinking about how the followers of John the Baptist must have felt during this horrible tragedy, I then turned my focus to what Jesus must have been thinking and/or saying about His good friend. That friend being the very one who baptized Jesus and was there at the very beginning of His ministry.

To be more precise, how did Jesus talk to others, to Himself, or even to His Father in Heaven about His deceased friend while He was on that boat headed to Bethsaida? Was He angry and because of that, spoke curses concerning the situation or towards King Herod? What was His attitude and response? How did He handle the situation?

Branching out even further, how does Jesus speak about you when talking to the Father? How would He talk about you? We should talk, whether in social settings or by ourselves like Jesus would talk in social settings or just by Himself. We should talk to one another and when talking to ourselves like Jesus talked when He was on Earth.

It would appear that the thread that links the way Jesus spoke about anything was that it had to be necessarily true. Necessary in that it needed to be said in that moment of time for that specific situation about those certain persons, places, or things. It also had to be true because Christ Himself claims to be the truth (5), so He cannot do otherwise then speak the truth. In more simpler terms, he said it as it is and/or said what needed to be said.

In fact, this seems to be the pattern with every single word Jesus has ever said. He always only said what was necessary and true. Nothing more and nothing less. Sometimes, it would be blessings onto His most faithful followers and other times it would be curses onto those who knew better than the way they lived. Everything that has ever been said by Christ had to be said the way that it was said and it was always true.

But can the same be said of us when we speak? Do we say what is necessary and true or do we find ourselves saying a bit too much and a bit too little? I think we can all agree that we are the latter. We seem to always say too much or too little, but we never seem to tell the truth enough. We never seem to say what needs to be said. So before you ever ask yourself if you should say this or that word and this or that phrase, ask yourself if it is necessarily true.

Just as the tongue has the power to build up and destroy the subject that stands before it, so too do you have the ability to speak the truth or a lie. To speak life or death and praises or curses. Whatever encounter you find yourself in next, pause and ask yourself this question: is what I am about to say necessary and true? With that said, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Footnotes