playnext.fm

Alma Church of Christ

Kaelin Schaper - A Cold Cup of Water 3-23-2025

·33 min·3 clips
Kaelin Schaper challenges Christians to give a simple cold cup of water in Jesus' name when they leave the church doors.
The episode is a sermon by Kaelin Schaper at the Alma Church of Christ. He opens by stating his goal to encourage listeners to engage with people outside church doors in the name of Christ, using the metaphor of giving a cold cup of water. Schaper references Jesus calling believers the light of the world and Peter's summary that Jesus went about doing good. He argues Christians have the same anointing and Spirit, enabling them to do good works and share the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation. The core of the sermon is an exegesis of Mark 5, where Jesus heals a demon-possessed man in the region of the Gadarenes. Schaper notes Mark focuses on one man, unlike Matthew who mentions two, to follow his story. He describes the man's hopeless state, living in tombs and breaking chains. After Jesus casts the demons into swine, the local people beg Jesus to leave, but the healed man begs to stay with him. Jesus instead tells him to go home and tell what God has done for him. Schaper explains the man obeys, proclaiming throughout Decapolis. Later, in Mark 7, Jesus returns to Decapolis, and people now bring a deaf man to him for healing. Schaper connects this shift to the healed man's testimony softening the region. He then extends the narrative beyond the Gospels, citing church historians Eusebius and Epiphanius who record that Christians fled Jerusalem to Pella in Decapolis during the Roman siege in AD 70. Schaper suggests God used the one man's testimony decades earlier to prepare a refuge. He concludes by urging listeners not to belittle small acts like planting seeds or giving water, as God gives the increase, and offers an invitation for obedience to the gospel.

As heard by us

A cold cup of water frames a measured call to make Christian compassion visible beyond the church doors.

The sermon uses a cold cup of water as its plainspoken center, placing it alongside Jesus' teaching about a lamp that gives light to the whole house.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

When a small kindness feels too ordinary to matter, this sermon gives your cold cup of water a larger place in following Christ.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on
Apple PodcastsSpotify
Play clips from this episodeMore from Alma Church of Christ