Mark 1:21-28 Jesus’ New & Improved Message The word ‘new’ can mean a couple of different things, can’t it? For example, a new car means just that… it is new. It is fresh off the assembly line; we even talk about a ‘new car smell’ that vehicles have. A new microwave is the same way… it simply means a new one, just out of the box to replace the old one that quick working.   more...

1 Corinthians 7: 29-31 1)Love Your Life 2)Love the Life to Come More You know, as I select which one of the lessons to preach on each Sunday, I’ve never had the nerve to preach on the one we’re hearing about this morning. Let me read that first verse again and maybe you can see why I haven’t. Paul wrote, From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none. I don’t mean to sound flippant, or   more...

John 1:43-51 “Come and See” Well, the NFL playoffs are in full swing; the line-up for the 46th Superbowl is being set. And companies are lining up to turn over big sums of money for some advertising, for the chance to have their product or company featured in a commercial. All of the 30-second slots, which sold for a record $3.5 million, were gone by Thanksgiving. Most companies can’t afford that…   more...

Acts 16:25-34 What Must We Do to be Saved? 1) Believe in God’s Grace 2) Live in God’s Grace There are those times in life when we realize we are really in trouble. Maybe it’s a time when we have had an accident with dad’s car, and we’re trying to decide what to say when we call him. Maybe it’s a time when by accident or error we have cost our boss some big sum of money.   more...

Hebrews 2:10-18 Jesus Christ, Our Brother 1) He’s just like us 2) He’s nothing like us “It’s not fair!” How any oldest siblings have said that over the years? How many oldest brothers or sisters have seen the way their younger siblings seem to get away with an awful lot more than they did, and they comment on it, “It’s not fair.”   more...

1 Peter 1:23-25 - Something that Never Wears Out The calendars are being taken down, scribbled full of notes from the last year, and probably simply discarded with the trash. I heard a public service announcement reminding us to check batteries in our smoke alarms… they can go dead and render those alarms useless. My car battery is barely holding on, it’s probably not going to give me too many more starts. The Christmas tree was awfully dry, and now it’s sitting in our backyard waiting for a bonfire.   more...

Christmas Homily Galatians 4:4 “When the time had fully come…” The father calls out, “Hurry up, it’s time to go!” The student taking a test asks, “How much time is left?” A football team trying to stage a fourth quarter come back asks the same thing, or maybe it’s the worker waiting for the long day to end. Our lives revolve around the idea of time, don’t they? And it’s no different with Christmas. Timing is everything here too.   more...

2 Samuel 7: 8-11, 16 The LORD Establishes a House for You “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest!” Sound familiar? If you recognize those verses, maybe you are wondering if I’ve lost my calendar…   more...

John 1:6-8, 19-28 It’s Not Me! Perhaps you read the theme for the sermon this morning, “It’s not me!” and you remembered a time when you heard such words spoken, or said them yourself. … we hear the sound of breaking glass from the next room, and the children come running saying “It wasn’t me!”   more...

Isaiah 40:1-11 Prepare the Way for the Lord, 1) by getting rid of what’s in the way 2) to receive the Lord’s blessings 3) sharing the Lord’s blessing. Well, the weather has turned cold… and I guess since it’s December, that’s only fitting. Soon enough it will be Christmas, and for many, they’ll be wishing for a white Christmas… they’ll be hoping for some snow.   more...

Mark 13: 32-37 Be on guard! Be alert! While the cat’s away, the mice will play. That expression is one we’re probably familiar with, and we realize it isn’t talking about cats, or mice. That expression reflects the way that human beings need to be kept an eye on.   more...

Matthew 27:27-31 27 Christian Education Helps Us See Jesus for Who He Is 1) He is our King who saves us 2) He is our King who shows us how to live, and especially to love Education is an important thing. Without education, people can continue in mistaken ideas, often based only on what they can see.   more...

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 We Are Different, and that Makes All the Difference 1) Different in our view of Jesus 2) Different in our view of death 3) Different in our view of life Have you ever played one of those simple games with your children, perhaps printed on a place mat in a restaurant or something, where they give you four or five images, and then you have to tell all the differences between them?   more...

Matthew 25: 31-36 What’s Judged on Judgment Day? 1) Good works, as evidence 2) Good works, as essential Every now and again in the news we see nice stories…stories about generosity, stories that tell about people who have been blessed with a lot, sharing a lot. For example, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, last year gave $100 million to the school district in Newark, New Jersey.   more...

Galatians 5: 1-6 1) Grace is free 2) But grace moves us Grace, unless it is free, is not grace. That’s a catchy expression isn’t it? I wish I could claim to have written it, but Saint Augustine is the one who did so.   more...

Philippians 2:1-11 United in Christ --- The way our government works is an interesting thing... comprised as it is of people from different political parties   more...

John 10:14-17 “There’s Other Sheep Out There!” I’m sure we have all seen or can imagine a scene in a movie..... “Go on without me! Save yourselves!”   more...

Matthew 18:21-35 - Be Merciful There the man was… walking in the dark, tripping over things along side the road, trying to remember how far the last mileage sign said a town was. more...   more...

How do we determine someone’s identity? .... That’s what God was doing in the text before us this morning... making himself known to his people, to be a blessing to them.   more...