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Suffering and the Glory of God - Part VI
2008-02-17 17:08:00
Part 6 of the “Suffering and the Glory of God” sermon series. Part 6 is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:28-30 addressing the themes of God’s effectual calling, foreloving and predestination and how it relates to suffering and faith. This sermon was originally preached February 17th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. Listen to this sermon…        Read this sermon…
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Communitas Christus
2008-02-13 01:09:00
Community. The ancient Christians identified themselves as a community with the symbol we use for our logo at The Resolved Church, what looks like the letter “P” on top of the letter “X.” They are the first two letters of “Christ” in Greek. Today there are all kinds of different communities…geographical communities, ethnic communities, sports communities, virtual communities and on and on. But what is community? Why do we need it or want it? Everyone is looking for it even in the most individualistic pursuits. A common unity. The sense of belonging. For many Christians community is a culturally combative thing or it’s a pretty non-existent thing. What kind of communities of Christ (communitas Christus) are we to have and how do we approach that at The Resolved Church? (more…)

Suffering and the Glory of God - Part V
2008-02-10 20:19:00
Part 5 of the “Suffering and the Glory of God” sermon series. Part 5 is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:29 addressing the theme of God’s good purpose in conforming believers into the image of Christ. This sermon was originally preached February 10th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. Listen to this sermon…        Read this sermon…
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Varieties of Vengeance
2008-02-05 15:10:00
If you are a guy, then you like shoot ‘em up, blow ‘em up, car chase, hand to hand combat, action packed movies. At least if you are a guy like me you do. Action movies are almost therapeutic at times. I suppose that has something to do with us all having ADD and maybe it has a little bit to do with our lust for vengeance, the desire to get back at the world for all the wrong it has handed us. (more…)
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Suffering and the Glory of God - Part IV
2008-02-03 18:50:00
Part 4 of the “Suffering and the Glory of God” sermon series. Part 4 is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:28 addressing the theme of how God works everything together for good for those who love him. This sermon was originally preached February 3rd, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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Lost in Translations
2008-01-30 00:32:00
In 2003 a movie came out starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson called “Lost in Translation.” Now I don’t know if Bill or Scarlett read the Bible or not. The movie was about the sense of alienation, loneliness, and confusion we experience sometimes. Perhaps you have felt this way when it comes to Bible translations and wondered why there are so many different Bibles? (more…)
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Suffering and the Glory of God - Part III
2008-01-28 00:15:00
Part 3 of the “Suffering and the Glory of God” sermon series. Part 3 is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:26-27 addressing the theme of prayer and how God’s Spirit groans in us. This sermon was originally preached January 27th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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A Strong Upper-Cut
2008-01-22 20:29:00
The sentence that begins with “Yeah, but…” We know it too well. The boxing match of the mouth. How well do you receive criticism? How well do you give it? I was recently in a conversation with someone about this and thought I’d let you in on my thoughts… (more…)
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Suffering and the Glory of God - Part II
2008-01-20 20:33:00
Part 2 of an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:18-25 addressing the theme of suffering and how God’s Spirit enables us to groan and wait for new bodies in a secure hope. This sermon was originally preached January 20th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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Lyrics in a Headband
2008-01-15 21:33:00
The Bible instructs that Christians are to be driven in our hearts by the Bible’s words as the very words of God. The perspective is that Scripture (the words of the Bible) has everything to do with every part of our life. To try and illustrate this, the Bible uses analogies and says to tie the words of the Bible on your hand, between your eyes, and put them over the door of your house (Deut 6:5-9; Prov. 7:2-3). The ancient Jews and some orthodox ones today took those instructions literally and wore “phylacteries” or “tefillin.” (more…)
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Suffering and the Glory of God - Part I
2008-01-13 19:49:00
Part I of an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:18-25 addressing the theme of suffering and how natural evil relates to moral evil in the plan of God’s glory. This sermon was originally preached January 13th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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Thee and Thou
2008-01-08 18:54:00
Recently we had a good question put in the doubts box. The question was why some of the songs we sing use archaic Shakespearian language that normal human beings living in San Diego do not use, like “thee” and “thou.” We use up to date Bible translations so why not the songs? That is a good question. (more…)

Resolved to Grow and Build in Love (Part II)
2008-01-06 17:51:00
An exegetical treatment of Ephesians 4:11-16 addressing the themes of knowing Jesus, immaturity, and how to confront one another. This sermon was originally preached January 6th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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Why I Say “Jesus” a Lot
2008-01-02 08:47:00
Yes.  I say “Jesus ” a lot.  Yes.  It is intentional.  Why? 1. Everything is about Jesus. Mt. 5:17; Lk 24:27 Of course there is a right way and a wrong way to understanding how everything is related to Jesus. For example… My computer right now is sitting on a table while I write. Jesus was a carpenter. So my typing is related to Jesus because he made tables. WRONG WAY! I am typing right now. Typing is the communicating of thoughts. I am unable to think right because of sin. But Jesus died for me so that I might be freed from sin and begin to think clearly. Thank you Jesus for not sinning, for thinking clearly, and dying for my sin so that I  might think like you. Thank you for giving me a Bible which tells me how you think. RIGHT WAY! 2. I like the way it sounds. Mt 1:21 Jesus is yeshua in Hebrew which means “the LORD saves.” When I say Jesus I think, the LORD saves…he saves me…and somehow the sound of the sy...

Christmas Greetings
2007-12-28 20:25:00
Hello everyone.  One of the great benefits of being a Christian is that when you share one of the gospel truths with someone, God will often present a situation where he shows you the reality of that truth in a very vivid way. I had one of those moments on Christmas Eve. (more…)
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The Peace of Jesus (Advent 2007)
2007-12-23 23:03:00
An exegetical treatment of Luke 2:8-20 during the fourth week of Advent addressing the theme of peace in the angels candle. This sermon was originally preached December 23rd of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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MTV, Against Me!, Joy and Jesus
2007-12-18 23:00:00
One week ago MTV named Against Me! the artist of the week and Spin Magazine named their latest album released in July, album of the year. Against Me! is a punk band doing very well right now and since musical artists are the quasi prophets of the day I thought I’d see if they had anything to say about joy since we’ve been talking about joy and Jesus lately. (more…)

The Joy of Jesus (Advent 2007)
2007-12-16 21:20:00
An exegetical treatment of Luke 2:8-20 during the third week of Advent addressing the theme of joy in the shepherd’s candle. This sermon was originally preached December 16th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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Kanye vs. Jesus
2007-12-11 23:39:00
Last Sunday was the Bethlehem Candle of Humility in the second week of Advent. I started off my sermon talking about Kanye West. I bring up Kanye because this last week of advent was about the humility of Jesus so I thought it would be good to see how Kanye stacks up. (more…)

The Humility of Jesus (Advent 2007)
2007-12-09 23:48:00
An exegetical treatment of Philippians 2:6-11 during the first week of Advent addressing the humility, the theme of the Bethlehem candle. This sermon was originally preached December 9th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
More About: Jesus , Humility

Books, books, books…
2007-12-06 00:25:00
If any of you have ever been to my office you will normally see a large pile of books next to my computer. This pile contains the books I am currently reading. I usually tend to have my finger in about five or six books at a time. I thought I’d give you a glimpse of what I’ve been reading lately. (more…)
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The Hope of Jesus (Advent 2007)
2007-12-03 01:30:00
An exegetical treatment of Galatians 4:4-5 during the first week of Advent addressing the theme of the prophecy candle. This sermon was originally preached December 2nd of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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Planting a Church Together
2007-11-28 21:07:00
Yesterday I heard news that one of my pastor friends who planted a church right around the same time we did finally gave up and ended up sending all the people to another church. After hearing that I couldn’t help but think about us, The Resolved Church , and where we are at and where we are heading as a church plant. (more…)
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The Gospel Mission
2007-11-26 01:34:00
An exegetical treatment of 1 Timothy 2:1-7 addressing the theme of how people come to believe in the gospel. This sermon was originally preached November 25th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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My New Daughter
2007-11-12 17:02:00
Hello everyone, We’d like to announce the birth of our new daughter, Adina Rain Smets! So many of you have sent congratulations in the form of texts messages, voice mails, emails, cards, presents, food and everything else. Thank you so much! You are all amazing and we love you all a ton. Amy and I are super excited and enjoying being new parents and getting to know our daughter. It is a lot of work and lack of sleep but so worth it because Adina is freaking adorable. During this special time while Amy is recovering from giving birth and together we are figuring out life with Adina, Duane is taking two weeks off work both from the group home he works and from pastoring the church. In six weeks Amy plans to return to work and do hair a couple days a week. We have been flooded with so many calls, the best way to get ahold of us right now is through email or text message.. Eventually we’ll get back to all of you and start having people over to come meet Adina. Above...
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A Season of Newness
2007-11-07 00:59:00
As of today, no baby yet. But new life is on the way for sure because I don’t think my petite little wife can get much bigger! I’m sure I could easily be charged with that subjective trap where you think of everything through the lens of your own personal experience but I believe that new things are in store not only for me in being a dad but also for us as a church. Three Sundays ago I preached a very difficult sermon for us all which basically took an honest look at where we are as a church plant. It was difficult because I don’t like being the bad guy but as I’ve personally told several people, if I didn’t preach it I wouldn’t be doing my job and I would be a good pastor. The response, I have to say has been very encouraging. Several people are excited and have really stepped up in regards to serving Jesus’ church and there are a number who have made some strong resolutions to live their lives differently. It is awesome to hear ab...
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A Season of Newness
2007-11-07 00:55:00
As of today, no baby yet. But new life is on the way for sure because I don’t think my petite little wife can get much bigger! I’m sure I could easily be charged with that subjective trap where you think of everything through the lens of your own personal experience but I believe that new things are in store not only for me in being a dad but also for us as a church. Three Sundays ago I preached a very difficult sermon for us all which basically took an honest look at where we are as a church plant. It was difficult because I don’t like being the bad guy but as I’ve personally told several people, if I didn’t preach it I wouldn’t be doing my job and I would be a good pastor. The response, I have to say has been very encouraging. Several people are excited and have really stepped up in regards to serving Jesus’ church and there are a number who have made some strong resolutions to live their lives differently. It is awesome to hear ab...
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Desiring God
2007-11-05 00:42:00
An exegetical treatment of Matthew 5:6 addressing the theme of Christian hedonism and spiritual discipline. This sermon was originally preached November 4th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)

Reformation Day and Anxiously Awaiting
2007-10-31 23:11:00
Happy Reformation Day! Yes, today is Reformation Day. It is Reformation day because on October 31st, 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg and ignited a storm that brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to the forefront of the church, culture and the mission of the world. To read Luther’s 95 theses or other things written by Martin Luther, go to this website: http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_c ategory/Luther-Martin On another note my daughter is due to be born in five days. They say only 5% of babies are born on their due date. Which in my mind means that she is going to be early because I want her to be. I mean, she’s all done in there, so why not just come out now, you know? I seriously lack the fruit of patience, bad. So I am pretty distracted this week as Amy and I anxiously await this new addition to our family. But at the same time and am exhilarated today as I pause to contemplate and cherish the sublime truth that I am ju...
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The Five Solas (Reformation Day 2007)
2007-10-29 01:10:00
A historical theology sermon addressing the five solas resulting from the Protestant Reformation, that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone, revealed in Scripture alone, all for the glory of God alone. This sermon was originally preached October 28th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. (more…)
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