https://austinwduncan.com/sermons Messages preached at Crosswalk Church, with the full text. en-US Austin W. Duncan Fri, 11 Sep 2026 10:02:22 GMT https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/when-wealth-takes-the-stand https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/when-wealth-takes-the-stand James 5:1-6 reads less like financial advice and more like a courtroom scene, and this teaching follows that image closely. The abrupt "come now" and the prophet's word "howl" set the tone, then three exhibits are examined: rotted riches, garments eaten quietly in storage while workers cry out for withheld wages, and gold that supposedly cannot corrode yet already has in God's sight. The point is not that money is evil but that hoarded wealth stops being neutral and starts testifying. "Laid up treasure in the last days" is read as moral urgency rather than prophecy chart, echoing the rich fool of Luke 12. The application turns to affluent hearers who compare sideways and never feel rich, weighed against global and historical measures of wealth. Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT James 5:1-6 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-divided-heart https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-divided-heart Starting with a missed alarm and a thermostat war with a roommate, this sermon presses James's question about the source of quarrels and finds it not in tone, email, or traffic but in cravings that have grown teeth. Desire becomes demand, demand becomes damage, and even prayer gets recruited to cosign our plans, which is why some unanswered prayers are mercy rather than neglect. James raises the stakes further: selfish craving is not only a horizontal problem but covenant unfaithfulness, and worldliness can wear church clothes. The teaching then turns on verse 6, insisting that James moves from sin to grace before he moves to commands. The text breaks off as Proverbs 3:34 is introduced. Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT James 4 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/flip-the-scoreboard https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/flip-the-scoreboard Opening with the nervous energy of a job interview, this teaching names the way life becomes one long attempt to prove our value, then sets James 1:9-20 against that instinct. The first movement examines the lowly brother who boasts in exaltation and the rich man whose life wilts like a wildflower, illustrated by the joyful Cornish tin miner Billy Bray. The second separates trials from temptation, tracing the pregnancy language of verse 15 and the frogs who begin crossing a quiet road, with counsel to stop blaming God and name the harmless-looking habits in the dark. The third turns to the Father of lights, unchanging and generous, whose character makes us quick to hear and slow to anger. Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT James 1:9-20 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/those-who-didnt-miss-him https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/those-who-didnt-miss-him A post-Christmas sermon on Luke 2:22-38, opening with the Chick-fil-A "First 100" overnight campout as a picture of what we rearrange our lives to be present for. Working through the passage, it examines Simeon as "righteous and devout" (dikaios and eulabes), his active waiting (prosdechomenos) for the consolation of Israel promised in Isaiah 40, and the Spirit's leading him into the temple at exactly the right hour. Simeon's peace comes from seeing Jesus rather than fixed circumstances; his warning to Mary about the sword and the fall and rising of many shows that Jesus forces a decision and exposes hearts. Anna, widowed and worshiping with fasting and prayer, shows that pain need not become identity. Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Luke 2:22-38 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/fear-isnt-final https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/fear-isnt-final Preached the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when leftovers are gone and the grief, tension, and fatigue are not, this message walks through Mark 16:1-11. The women come with spices and a practical question about the stone, and their limited expectations are never scolded. God has already moved the stone; resurrection arrives as news, not advice, an announcement of something done rather than another instruction to keep. Verse 7 lands hardest: the messenger says "and Peter," grace naming the failure it means to restore, and Jesus goes ahead into ordinary Galilee, into Monday. Verse 8's trembling and silence are treated as human rather than faithless, with first reactions distinguished from final directions. Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Mark 16:1-11 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-king-who-couldnt-save-himself https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-king-who-couldnt-save-himself Mark's crucifixion account is traced through five successive rounds of mockery: the Roman cohort with purple robe and thorns, the road to Golgotha where Simon of Cyrene is compelled to carry the beam, the crucifixion and the dividing of clothes, the passersby wagging their heads, and finally the religious leaders. The recurring point is that the taunts were unwittingly accurate. Their sneer that he saved others but cannot save himself is treated as the gospel in a single line: not powerlessness, but refusal to abandon sinners. Historical background on scourging, crucifixion, and the wine mixed with myrrh grounds the horror, and Psalm 22 shows the plan behind it. It closes by naming us as soldiers, passersby, and demanding skeptics, then setting the two criminals side by side as the choice before every hearer. Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Mark 15:16-32 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/plastic-faith https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/plastic-faith Working through Mark's sandwich structure in Mark 11, this teaching treats the barren fig tree and the temple cleansing as a single diagnosis. Because fig trees advertise fruit with their leaves, a leafy tree with nothing on it is a false sign, and Jesus' curse becomes a living parable of Israel's religious system. The temple scene fills in the picture: the Court of the Gentiles, meant as prayer space for the nations, had been swallowed by commerce, and Jeremiah's "den of robbers" names it as a hideout where sin feels safe. Application is direct and personal, naming public prayers with no private life, curated social media, unread obedience, phones, and crowded schedules, with a ten-minute Prayer Margin Plan offered as a reset. It closes on the withered tree and Jesus' unexpected turn to "have faith in God." Mon, 08 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Mark 11:12-33 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/seeing-clearly https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/seeing-clearly Opening with a warm story about reading glasses and multiplied corrective lenses, this teaching asks whether our spiritual sight needs the same kind of help. It sets Mark 8 in its geography, showing Jesus deliberately ministering in the Decapolis, a region observant Jews avoided, then works carefully through the feeding of the four thousand: Jesus' compassion, the disciples' baffling failure to remember the earlier miracle, and the details of order, thanksgiving, partnership and blessing. The seven baskets are read alongside the twelve of the earlier feeding as a hint that God's provision reaches beyond Israel. The text then turns to the Pharisees demanding a sign, distinguishing honest evidence-seeking from fault-finding, and lands on Jesus' grief and flat refusal. Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT Mark 8:1-26 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/delivered-and-sent https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/delivered-and-sent Opening with C.S. Lewis on the twin errors of denying demons or being fascinated by them, this teaching sets Mark 5 in its context: Jesus deliberately crosses into Gentile territory of tombs and pigs, unclean ground no religious Jew would touch. The desperate condition of the possessed man is drawn out from the Greek terms Mark uses, including a word normally applied to taming wild beasts. The demons' cry recognizes Jesus rightly yet brings terror rather than salvation, and their answer "Legion" is read as evasion rather than a name. The drowned pigs are explained as proof of the demons' destructive intent and of the worth Jesus places on one man. A modern conversion account illustrates that no one is beyond Christ's reach. The material breaks off partway through the confrontation section. Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT Mark 5:1-20 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/a-broken-man-before-a-boundless-gospel https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/a-broken-man-before-a-boundless-gospel A locked studio door and an unlocked upstairs window open this walk through Mark 2. Capernaum is packed, the door is blocked, and four unnamed men refuse to accept the barrier as final. Working through the construction of a first-century roof, the teaching draws out what their determination shows about faith: it is not passive agreement but committed action, closer to hesed than to sentiment. Mark highlights their faith, not the paralytic's, which leads to honest reflection on carrying others to Christ without believing for them. Then Jesus surprises everyone by forgiving sins first, addressing the deeper paralysis and calling the man "son." The piece closes as the scribes begin to object. Sun, 16 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT Mark 2:1-12 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-voice-in-the-wilderness https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-voice-in-the-wilderness Beginning with a personal story about an eighteen-month engagement delay, this sermon moves from ordinary waiting to Israel's four hundred years of silence after Malachi. Mark, once a quitter Paul refused to travel with, is the man God chose to write the first Gospel, evidence that God works through people who have failed. The historical setting is drawn vividly: believers gathered in the catacombs around 65 A.D. under Nero's persecution. From there the text is opened phrase by phrase. "Beginning" echoes Genesis. "Gospel" borrows imperial language announcing a new emperor, so Mark's first sentence is a treasonous claim that Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord. John the Baptist then appears as a walking Elijah, baptizing the religiously qualified and pointing away from himself. Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT Mark 1:1-8 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/hope-out-of-darkness https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/hope-out-of-darkness Opening with a missed sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, this Advent message argues that dawn comes whether we position ourselves for it or not, and that God chose the darkest season for us to celebrate the Light of the World. The bulk of the teaching sits in Isaiah 9, giving careful background on Zebulun and Naphtali: their exposed northern location, their history of partial obedience in Judges, and the Assyrian invasion that would scatter them. From there it moves through the broken yoke and Gideon's shattered clay jars, the past-tense certainty of "have seen," the harvest joy of verse 3, and the personal "to us" of verse 6. It closes by unfolding the four names, reaching Prince of Peace and shalom as wholeness. Mon, 02 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT Isaiah 9 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/fired-up-from-anger-to-action https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/fired-up-from-anger-to-action Starting with traffic, AAA aggressive driving figures, and a bizarre road rage shooting, this message argues that anger is universal and that the real question is what we do with it. Psalm 37 supplies the framework: the Hebrew words for burning, raging, and flaring nostrils show anger's escalating momentum, while verses 3 through 8 lay out a countering progression of trusting the Lord, doing good, delighting in Him, rolling the burden onto Him, being still, waiting, and loosening the grip. Righteous anger over injustice is distinguished from the envious, pride-driven anger of Cain and Saul. Paul's warnings in Ephesians 4 about not sinning and not giving the devil a foothold reinforce the point, along with the caution that outward calm may only be hidden anger. Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT Psalm 37 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/never-give-up-never-surrender https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/never-give-up-never-surrender Preached as part of a "Back At It" series, this message takes up the fear that returning to faith after drifting is too steep a climb. Paul himself says he has not arrived, and that admission becomes the doorway: the journey of faith is ongoing, and the goal is direction rather than perfection. Two kinds of humility are distinguished, the sort that quits because it will never measure up, and the sort that keeps practising. From there the text turns to what must be left behind, both the accomplishments Paul counted as rubbish and the failures that make us hesitant, followed by the runner straining toward the finish. Illustrations from Galaxy Quest, a violinist, and a coin collection carry the points. Direct questions press listeners to name what they are clinging to for identity. Mon, 02 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT Philippians 3:12-16 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-153-fish-wake-up-call https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-153-fish-wake-up-call Aimed at anyone who has quietly let their walk with Jesus slide, this opening message in a series on returning uses seasonal transition and Michael Jordan's two-word comeback as an entry point, then turns to John 21:1-14. The disciples, still reeling from crucifixion and resurrection, go back to fishing because it is what they know. That retreat to the familiar becomes the launching point for what the preacher calls the "muscle memory of sin," the ingrained habits and self-reliance we slip back into, with Romans 7:15 as evidence that even Paul fought this. The answer offered is sanctification, retraining spiritual muscles over time. The teaching then shows Jesus taking the initiative from the shore, unrecognized, calling out and filling their nets in an echo of Luke 5. Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT John 21:1-14 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/joshua-a-faith-that-conquers https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/joshua-a-faith-that-conquers Standing with Joshua before Jericho's double walls, this sermon takes God's promise "I have given Jericho into your hand" as already settled and asks why we keep staring at the walls instead. Three lessons unfold from Joshua 6. First, faith trusts God's plan rather than our own: marching and shouting made no military sense, but God's ways are higher than ours, and the preacher illustrates this with his own years of unpaid design work that eventually opened a church position. Second, faith is proven by obedience, like taking the medicine a trusted doctor prescribes, since obedience positions us for blessing and grows our faith. Third, the ark at the center of the procession shows faith keeps God's presence central. The manuscript breaks off partway through this point. Mon, 08 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT Joshua 6 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/moses-from-contentment-to-calling https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/moses-from-contentment-to-calling Beginning with self-help promises and Gallup numbers on declining American contentment, this sermon argues that contentment is not found by looking inward but is a byproduct of God's humbling work. Moses supplies the pattern. He settled in Midian and was content, and only then did God speak from the bush. Contentment, though, is not complacency; Moses' string of excuses shows fear dressed up as humility, and God answered each one. Complaining is contentment's enemy, seen in Israel grumbling three days out of Egypt while Moses turned to God instead of griping. The final movement points to John the Baptist's word to the soldiers and to Jesus' own simplicity, submission in Gethsemane, and teaching on worry in the Sermon on the Mount. Mon, 01 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT Exodus 2-3 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/enoch-a-walk-that-ends-in-eternity https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/enoch-a-walk-that-ends-in-eternity Beginning with a story about driving the wrong way down a Texas interstate, this sermon argues that we need direction and that walking with God supplies it. Enoch appears as an ordinary man with a wife, children, and daily responsibilities whose life is summed up in one phrase. The wickedness surrounding him is sketched through Lamech's boastful violence in Genesis 4 and God's assessment of the earth in Genesis 6, making Enoch's faithfulness a deliberate refusal to drift with the crowd. Three marks of his walk are drawn out: intimate friendship rather than box checking, consistent obedience joined to faith, and three hundred years of perseverance. The closing section names the rewards: pleasing God, present peace, and being taken straight into eternity. Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT Genesis 5:21-24 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-lords-supper https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-lords-supper Communion has often been taught as a quiet moment between the individual and God, and that story, while sincere, may be missing part of the picture. Working through 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, the teaching divides the passage into the problem (verses 17-22) and the pattern (verses 23-34). Corinth's divisions, factions, gluttony and drunkenness at the love feast turned a gathering meant for the good into something detrimental. Two marks of healthy gathering are drawn out: all glory and attention on Christ, and mutual edification rather than consumption. The pattern then begins with remembrance, looking back to the bread and the cup Jesus instituted, noting that he gave thanks even as betrayal approached. Illustrations from Enstrom's photograph Grace and a mishandled communion plate keep it grounded. Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/apocalypic-hope https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/apocalypic-hope Working from a pretribulational framework, this session sets out three groups in prophecy, the Gentile nations, Israel, and the Church, and insists they be kept distinct. Jesus' word in John 14:1-3 is read as the first New Testament disclosure of the rapture, with the practical charge that believers live daily expecting Christ's return. The seven-year tribulation is then surveyed under its several biblical names: the seventieth week of Daniel, the time of Jacob's trouble, the day of the Lord, and Zephaniah's day of wrath and thick darkness. Plagues and world wars are set alongside it for contrast. The teaching then turns to the man of lawlessness, tracing key texts in Daniel, Matthew, and Revelation, and stops in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 on the coming apostasy, a falling away from the faith supported from 1 and 2 Timothy. Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Multiple texts (Daniel, Matthew, 1-2 Thessalonians, Revelation) https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/triumph-and-tribulation https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/triumph-and-tribulation Opening with the failed 1988 rapture predictions, the message argues that eschatology has become the neglected and slightly embarrassing corner of church teaching, even though the second coming may be the most frequently referenced doctrine in Scripture after salvation, and nearly every New Testament moral command is tied to it. Whatever camp a believer occupies on timing, hope should rest in three certainties: souls secure, bodies raised, earth remade. From there the preacher turns to the Olivet Discourse, treating the birth pangs as intensifying signs before a seven-year tribulation, and explaining the abomination of desolation as prophecy with both a historical fulfillment in Antiochus Epiphanes and a future one in the Antichrist's temple self-worship. Speculation about the Antichrist's identity is firmly refused, and Nebuchadnezzar's golden image is offered as a pattern. The text breaks off mid-illustration. Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Matthew 24:15-25 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/renewed-vision https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/renewed-vision Preached on the last day of 2023, this sermon starts by honoring the congregation for not quitting on Jesus after a hard year, then walks through the sevenfold refrain of Revelation 2 and 3, "to him who overcomes," listing each promised reward including the hidden manna and the white stone with a secret name. Rather than a push-forward goals message, the sermon turns to Psalm 16:11 and its three parts: the path (God's moral law as pleasant boundaries, plus Christ as the way in John 14:6), the presence (2 Corinthians 3 transformation one degree at a time, becoming a kind of person rather than keeping a checklist), and the pleasures forevermore. Cites Psalm 119:103-105, John 4, Matt Chandler, and Ernest Shackleton's family motto: by endurance we conquer. Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT Psalm 16 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/in-the-waiting https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/in-the-waiting Opening a series called "The Good King" after a study of Saul's reign, this Advent sermon works through Isaiah 9:2-7. It notes Isaiah's use of past tense for future events, a certainty like a child's confidence that Christmas morning will come, and traces the promised light breaking the yoke, staff and rod of the Assyrians, with "the day of Midian" recalling Gideon's army cut from 32,000 to 300 so no one could credit the victory to men. The passive voice signals a battle already won. Teaching follows on "a child is born, a son is given" as humanity and deity, the hypostatic union, John 1:1 and 1:14, J. I. Packer on incarnation, and John Miller's threefold reveal, redeem, reign. Closes with Christ's four names as gifts, beginning with Wonderful Counselor. Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT Isaiah 9:2-7 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/anchored-in-faith https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/anchored-in-faith Opening with a storm at sea and the steady light of a lighthouse, this teaching turns to Colossians 3 and treats Christ as the reliable point of reference amid competing voices. Setting the mind on things above is given practical shape through daily time in Scripture and cultivated gratitude. From verses 5 through 9, sensuality is examined in four parts, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, and evil desire, with covetousness exposed as the same misplaced appetite fixed on possessions and named idolatry. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, foul speech, and lying come next, illustrated by a story about Jonathan Edwards' daughter. The teaching then begins unpacking the virtues believers put on, working through compassion, kindness, humility, and meekness. Mon, 16 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT Colossians 3 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/faith-like-a-child https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/faith-like-a-child A sermon on Matthew 18:1-9 that opens with the "donut dilemma," an inner argument at a bakery window, to frame the universal battle between desire and what we know we should do. The preacher supplies context from Matthew 17 (Jesus predicting his death, the temple tax paid from a fish) and from Mark 9:33 and Luke 9:46, which reveal the disciples had been arguing on the road about who was greatest. Peter is imagined boasting; Brian Regan's "me monster" gets a nod. Jesus answers not with words but by placing a child among them: the issue is not greatness but entry. Childlike traits named are simplicity, trust, dependence, and sincerity (Latin sincerus, free from pretense), illustrated by Jack Johnson testing songs on schoolchildren and a list of blunt "kids' instructions on life." Pride is traced as a slippery root, with Zac Poonen quoted: "Sin came through the pride of Lucifer, and salvation through the humility of Jesus." The millstone warning of verse 6 grounds a call to protect childlike faith in others. Mon, 04 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT Matthew 18:1-9 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/a-call-to-persevere https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/a-call-to-persevere Continuing a series in Jude, this sermon works through verses 17-25, beginning with the phrase "But you, beloved" as the alternative pathway for believers facing threats from within the church. The insider threat trained for at the Pantex nuclear facility near Amarillo illustrates Jude's warning about those given trusted access. Three practices for keeping oneself in the love of God are drawn from verses 20-21: building up in the faith (sanctification, edification, the parable of the two foundations), praying in the Holy Spirit (with Romans 8:26 on wordless groans), and prosdechomai, continually watching for Christ's mercy. A marriage class lesson and a story about buying an engagement ring 18 months early reframe love as action, not feeling, echoing John 3:16. Verses 22-23 distinguish compassion toward the wavering from firm rescue of the unrepentant, with Proverbs 3:5-6 on prayerful ministry. Mon, 03 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMT Jude 1:17-25 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/defending-the-faith https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/defending-the-faith A pastor opens a short series on Jude by reading out nineteen hard things that have hit his household since COVID: cancer diagnoses, a father in a coma, car wrecks, a flooded house, dogs nearly dying. The point is not sympathy but recognition that trouble arrives unscheduled and piles up, and that most listeners could write a similar list. From there the message turns to Jude's opening line, where the author identifies himself by two relationships: brother of James, and servant of Jesus Christ. The Greek doulos means slave, and the preacher presses how uncomfortable and how honorable that title is, placing Jude alongside Abraham, Moses and David, and contrasting it with a culture that prizes answering to no one. Christian maturity, he argues, shows up in the third word of the letter. Mon, 26 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMT Jude 1:1-16 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/behold-the-lamb https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/behold-the-lamb A Palm Sunday sermon that turns away from the Passion narrative to John 1:29-51, where John the Baptist points to Jesus and says "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." The sermon counts seven titles stacked in this one passage (Lamb of God, Son of God, Rabbi, Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, King of Israel, Son of Man) and notes that "Lamb of God" appears only in John's writings, in this verse and in Revelation 5:12. Against the claim that John the Baptist invented the phrase, it traces the lamb through Isaiah 53:7, the Passover lamb of Exodus 12, and the ram provided for Isaac in Genesis 22. Illustrations include high school nicknames, R. C. Sproul's account of a scholar reciting Christ's titles for thirty minutes, the Arch of Titus, and quotations from John Donne and Tim Mackie. Mon, 27 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT John 1:29-51 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/who-are-you-inviting https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/who-are-you-inviting A sermon on Luke 14:12-14, set at the Pharisee's Sabbath banquet just after the healing of the man with dropsy. The preacher notes Luke's 19 meals and the charge that Jesus was a glutton, then argues that inviting the poor, crippled, lame and blind amounted to economic suicide in a culture where banquets were networking events built on reciprocal invitations. The central question: if your life were a banquet, who is on the guest list? Drawing on Ecclesiastes 3:11, Psalm 17:15, Psalm 90:4, James 4:14 and Mark 8:35, plus Luther on vocation as the means God uses to answer daily-bread prayers, it asks three questions about career: service or self-enrichment, use of skills for the less fortunate, and leveraging work for the Great Commission. Examples include pro bono law, dental mission work, and the Giving Keys company. Mon, 27 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT Luke 14:12-14 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/everything-is-ready https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/everything-is-ready Opening with a story about surviving a spicy family dinner, this message argues that shared meals are about fellowship, not food, and that Jesus uses exactly that image for the kingdom. Working through Luke 14, it pauses on Jesus' counsel about seating and humility, then dwells on the picture of heaven as a lavish celebration rather than clouds and harps, drawing in the wedding at Cana as evidence that Christ's ministry restores joy. The three excuses offered by the invited guests are examined and dismissed as implausible and finally insulting. The host's decision to fill his house with the poor, the lame, and strangers from the roads exposes second things put first. The teaching closes as it turns toward the hard saying about hating father and mother. Mon, 20 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT Luke 14:15-24 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/hope-remains https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/hope-remains Zephaniah's message makes more sense once you know his moment: Josiah, crowned at eight, seeking God at sixteen, purging idols at twenty, reopening the temple and the neglected Law at twenty-six. Into that revival God sends a prophet with two charges. First, idolatry, including Baal and the child sacrifice of Molech, which is traced forward to covetousness, comfort, control, approval and money as the modern equivalents. Second, complacency, the flat assumption that God will do neither good nor ill, illustrated by Kierkegaard's parable of a duck grown too fat on barnyard corn to fly with his flock. The wrath language of chapter 1 is read honestly, then set against the fourfold "before" of chapter 2, God's ample warning and call to seek Him. Mon, 28 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT Zephaniah 1 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-new-standard https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-new-standard Satan wants us to look back on our lives and only see our mistakes, failures, and shortcomings. God wants us to look back and just see the cross. When we feel like we're not enough, it's Christ that says, "So what? I am." It's God's desire that we align ourselves with Him. To be vertically true. Mon, 17 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT Luke 14:12-14 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/wont-you-be-my-neighbor https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/wont-you-be-my-neighbor A sermon on Luke 14:12-14, the verses skipped over in the Great Banquet passage, where Jesus tells his Pharisee host to stop inviting people who can reciprocate and instead invite the poor, crippled, lame and blind. The preacher notes Luke's 19 meals and Jesus' reputation as a glutton (Luke 7:34), then argues that first century banquets were networking events, making Jesus' instruction look like economic suicide. Framed by the question 'Am I making any real difference?' and Ecclesiastes 3:11's eternity set in the human heart, it asks who would be at the banquet of your life, and works through three questions about vocation, drawing on Martin Luther on God providing bread through farmers and bakers, plus examples of pro bono law, volunteer dentistry, and the Giving Keys company. Mon, 05 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT Luke 14:12-14 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-climb-to-the-top https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-climb-to-the-top Success, power, and achievement form the final idol in this series, and the hardest to spot because it comes wrapped in virtue. Drawing on Nathan Hatch's 2009 address about students flooding into lucrative majers they were never gifted for, and about a "professionalization of childhood" that teaches identity is what we accomplish, the message names the danger of a life built on measurable results. Luke 10 supplies the picture: Martha distracted by preparations while Jesus sits in her home, Mary choosing what is better. The point is not that Martha's work was evil, but that good things made ultimate crowd God into a corner. Comparison and discontent are named as symptoms; reordered priorities as the answer. Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT Luke 10 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/for-the-love-of-money https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/for-the-love-of-money Opening with Kyle Idleman's image of a god who died in September 2008, this sermon traces the idol of money from cattle and animal skins through Horatio Alger's self-made-man myth to modern portfolios and credit cards, quoting Mark Twain's notebook line that all men worship money. The core work is Luke 12:13-21: a man interrupts Jesus' teaching on confessing Christ to demand his share of an inheritance, and Jesus answers with the tenth commandment and the Parable of the Rich Fool. R. C. Sproul on coveting, John Tillotson on being wise for a moment, and 1 Timothy 6:10 support the reading. Twelve self-references in three verses, zero acknowledgments of the giver. A borrowed Florida beach house illustrates ingratitude toward God's resources. Mon, 25 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT Luke 12 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-family-man https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-family-man Opens with the story of Pam from C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, whose devouring love for her dead son Michael leaves her telling her brother that no one, not even God, has a right to come between them. From there the sermon moves to Kyle Idleman's bicycle wheel (God as hub, not spoke) and his "top button" illustration, Augustine's "disordered loves," and Luke 10:27. The main text is Genesis 22, where Abraham binds Isaac. Notes that verse 2 contains Scripture's first use of "love," and its echo in John 3:16. Argues God's greatest gifts are His greatest tests, with a personal illustration from the preacher's journal about meeting his wife Cassy, plus a 2007 Barna survey where only 19% named God their most important relationship. Mon, 18 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT Genesis 22 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/exposing-the-golden-calf https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/exposing-the-golden-calf Starting with the Ten Commandments and Luther's observation that every other command is broken only when the first two are, the case is made that idolatry is the root sin worth addressing directly. Idolatry is defined simply as valuing something more than God, and the danger is located not in carved statues but in good things quietly elevated to ultimate status: body image, productivity, being needed, wealth, family, romance, achievement, even suffering. Each is named with the telling sentence "life only has meaning if..." and each is granted its legitimate biblical worth before being called a poor god. A lawn-and-weeds illustration sets up the series framework: surface idols are only the visible growth, and four root idols lie beneath, to be taken up in the messages ahead. Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT Exodus 20 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/enough-is-enough https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/enough-is-enough Opening with a national survey question, "Do you think religion is good for society?", the message argues the question is incoherent because "religion" as a category covers everything from harmless custom to child sacrifice. That sets up Elijah on Mount Carmel. Working through 1 Kings 18:19-39, the preacher notes archaeological evidence of rigged Baal altars and why Elijah insisted on no fire, then lingers on Elijah's "sanctified sarcasm" as he mocks a god who might be thinking, relieving himself, travelling, or asleep. Idolatry drives people to self-harm, and eventually enough is enough. The rebuilt altar and the falling fire bring Israel to confession. The application turns Elijah's question about limping between two opinions on the hearer, asking what sits on the throne of the heart and what has actually been placed on the altar: marriage, finances, career, time, talents. Mon, 13 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT 1 Kings 18 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-road-to-redemption https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-road-to-redemption A sermon tracing Peter from Matthew 26:31-35, where he insists he will never fall away, through his three denials in Luke 22, to his restoration in John 21:15-17. The pivot is the Greek word anthrakia, a charcoal fire, used only twice in Scripture: at the denial and at the breakfast on the shore. The preacher walks through the agape/phileo exchange, noting Jesus drops the comparison the second time and switches to phileo the third, and counts three denials answered by three confessions and three commissions. Jeremiah 17:9 on the deceitful heart frames the problem, illustrated by illusory superiority, driver self-ratings, and the 1991 survey book The Day America Told the Truth. Closes on owning sin rather than regretting exposure, and on love for God preceding service. Mon, 25 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT John 21:15-17 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-wonder-of-summer https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-wonder-of-summer A sermon on the "summer" season of life, addressing a habit most Christians share: leaning hard on God in trials but drifting from Him when things go well. Psalm 139, called the Crown of the Psalms, supplies the corrective, and A. W. Tozer's line that what we think about God is the most important thing about us frames the whole. Verses 1 to 6 yield five things God knows: what we do, what we think (God cares about sins of the spirit as much as sins of the flesh), where we go, what we say, and what we need. Verses 7 to 12 turn to omnipresence, with Jonah, Moses at the burning bush, and John Stott's remark that the psalmist's question expresses joyful astonishment that escape is impossible. Includes Luke 12:7, Psalm 19:14, and a West Texas car accident recounted as evidence of God's protecting hand. Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT Psalm 139 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-secret-of-christmas https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-secret-of-christmas An Advent sermon on Matthew 1:1-17, the genealogy most readers skip. The preacher opens by naming the gap between knowing Christmas is true and feeling it, comparing familiarity with the incarnation to growing numb to West Texas sunsets, and acknowledging those facing Christmas with grief, loneliness, or disappointment. He explains why Matthew the tax collector, trained in public registries, began with a family list Jewish readers would have read as proof of identity, tribal inheritance, and blessing. Borrowing Marvin Rosenthal's Marine rifle-range analogy of targets at 200, 300, and 500 yards, he treats God as the archer of Psalm 64:7 hitting three bullseyes: the right line (Genesis 12:1-3, 2 Samuel 7:12-13, Genesis 49:8-10) and the right time (the fourteen generations). Quotes Spurgeon on the condescension of God having a genealogy. Mon, 20 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT Matthew 1:1-17 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/overcoming-the-thieves-of-joy https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/overcoming-the-thieves-of-joy Working verse by verse through Philippians 4:1-9, this teaching opens with two women in the Philippian church who could not get along, and notes that Scripture never tells us what the fight was about. That silence becomes the point: churches split over petty things, and Thom Rainer's survey of absurd congregational conflicts drives it home, while the shallow but interlocking roots of the redwoods picture how believers hold one another up. The second half traces Paul's path to peace, gathering the single, submissive, spiritual, and secure mind from across the letter, then unpacking rejoicing always, gentleness toward everyone, watchfulness because the Lord is near, and the command not to worry. Paul wrote it in chains. Sun, 14 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT Philippians 4:1-9 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/joy-in-perspective https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/joy-in-perspective Opening with a homeowner who decides to stay put after hearing his own house described well, this sermon turns to Paul writing from Roman imprisonment. Paul's letter is striking for what it does not say: no complaint, no appeal for pity, but a report that everything happening to him has advanced the gospel. The teaching walks through the arrest in Jerusalem, the years of Roman custody, the storm, the shipwreck, the viper, and sets that alongside a preacher's own discouragement over a leaking kitchen floor. The hinge is verse 20. Because Paul expected only that Christ be honoured in his body, whether by life or death, no circumstance could sink him. Expectations shape attitudes. The message then begins unpacking how God used Paul's chains, noting that God has always worked through unlikely instruments. Sun, 10 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMT Philippians 1:12-21 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/living-in-the-vine https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/living-in-the-vine Working carefully through John 15:1-11, this teaching asks why Jesus chose a vine and answers from the Old Testament, where Israel is the vine God planted and looked to for justice and righteousness but found none. Against that backdrop Christ's claim to be the true vine lands with force. Fruit, then, is not first a tally of souls won or money raised but the inward graces of the Spirit named in Galatians 5, and the piece calls for honest self-examination on that harder test. Pruning follows: drawn from the author's own horticulture study and from Psalm 119 and Hebrews 12, affliction is vinedressing rather than punishment. It closes on abiding as dependence on Christ through the Spirit. Sun, 05 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT John 15:1-11 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-church-of-the-open-door https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-church-of-the-open-door Shifting the question from whether a church is perfect to whether it is faithful, this sermon works through the sixth letter of Revelation, addressed to Philadelphia. It sets the scene in a pagan wine-trading city on a Roman road, then unpacks the threefold description of Christ in verse 7, tracing the key of David back to Isaiah 22:22 and arguing that holy means divine, true means authentic, and the keys mean authority no crisis can overturn. The open door of verse 8 is read as opportunity and service rather than salvation, with Paul's language in 1 Corinthians 16 in support. A personal account of waiting years for a call into ministry illustrates that God opens doors and supplies strength to the weak, while our part is faithfulness to Scripture and to Christ's name. Mon, 30 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT Revelation 3:7-13 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-message-and-the-messenger https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/the-message-and-the-messenger Paul writes into a Corinthian church divided over its ministers, a division rooted in pride and in misunderstanding both the message and the messenger. Working through 1 Corinthians 4:1-6, the first mark of a true minister is faithfulness: to God, to His Word, to His calling, and to His people. Two images carry the weight. Paul's unusual Greek word for servant means underrower, the slave at the lowest bank of oars, which cuts against elevating ministers. And the steward, like Joseph in Potiphar's house, manages what belongs to another, feeding the household from the master's stores rather than his own invention. Quotations from Erdman, Stott, and Briscoe fill this out. The pressing application, drawn from a pastor's question during the author's own seminary plans, is that every Christian entrusted with Scripture bears the same charge. Mon, 12 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT 1 Corinthians 4 https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/sustained-by-the-faithfulness-of-god https://austinwduncan.com/sermons/sustained-by-the-faithfulness-of-god Opening with Oliver Cromwell's demand that his portrait include his warts, this message treats 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 as Paul's honest portrait of a badly broken congregation. Corinth is set in its context: a wealthy trade city with temples to many gods, prostitution built into its worship, and a reputation so bad that its name became a byword for debauchery. The church's divisions, sexual sin, and lawsuits are named plainly, with the warning that the danger is not the church being in the world but the world getting into the church. Yet Paul still calls these people saints and sanctified in the present tense, and gives thanks for grace given, for enrichment in speech and knowledge, and for lives that confirm their testimony. Personal stories from a Las Vegas internship reinforce that no city is too corrupt for God to save. Mon, 07 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT 1 Corinthians 1:1-9