Sermon: The King’s authority

The King’s AuthorityMatthew 9:1-8November 28, 2021 I have a friend who — right before he gives his opinion on what I should do — likes to say, “If I were king for the day…” I think he means that jokingly. I think. What would you do if you were king for the day? Poet Judith […]

“Whatever happens to us…”

“Whatever happens to us, let us always assure ourselves that we have good cause to praise our God, and that even if we are poor and miserable in this world, the happiness of heaven is enough to appease us, to sweeten all our afflictions and sorrows, and to give us such content that we may […]

The King’s care of His people

No matter how personally wealthy a king is, no earthly ruler provides for his people. Rather, every earthly king seeks provision from his people through taxation. Political rulers don’t give to their people; they take. [And by saying that, I am not suggesting that the “taking” through taxation is wrong — it isn’t, as Rom. […]

Sermon: The King’s Father

The King’s FatherMatthew 6:9-15November 14, 2021 King George VI ruled as king of England for about 15 years in the first half of the 20th century before he died in 1952 from coronary thrombosis. He was immensely popular, as was his wife, Queen Elizabeth. Yet as popular as she was, when George (“Bertie”) died, she […]

They said it better than me: Contentment

Several years ago I read the soul-satisfying book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs. After I finished the book, I typed up a number of quotations from that book that were particularly helpful to me. I came across that file again this week and found my heart encouraged as I read through […]

Christ the King

The history of the world is that in many (most? all?) nations, the people want leaders and “kings” different from the ones they have. A few hundred years ago, the United States didn’t want England’s king to be our king. And a few thousand years ago, Israel didn’t want God to be their King (1 […]

God’s provision for sexual temptation

It is no revelation to say that we live in a sexually-provocative culture. The clothing and entertainment industries are highly sexualized, romance novels with sensational covers abound, advertisers use sex to sell virtually every category of product, news programs are filled with sexual content that would have been considered inappropriate for airing a generation ago, […]

Sermon: The King’s Blessing

The King’s BlessingMatthew 5:1-12November 7, 2021 The last 100+ years have seen some of the most atrocious leaders and dictators in the history of the world: Adolf Hitler, who ruled Nazi Germany in the 1930s-40s was responsible for the incarceration or death of between 15-20 million people during the Holocaust, and responsible for a total […]

Sermon: The Gospel of God

God’s GospelSelected Scriptures in RomansOctober 24, 2021 I preached the first sermon in the series on Romans on May 10 — in 2015. That was 6-1/2 years ago. Now, not every sermon in those years has been from Romans. I counted, and today’s final sermon is #161 — an average of 10 sermons per chapter. […]

Those brackets around Romans 16:24

There are a few places in the Bible where there are brackets around verses. One of those places occurs in Romans 16:24 — Those brackets indicate, according to the editor’s footnote in the margin, “Early mss do not contain this v.” That is, this verse is absent in the oldest Greek manuscripts of Romans. How […]

Sermon: Remember Our Glorious God

Remember Our Glorious GodRomans 16:21-27October 3, 2021 We don’t write as many letters as we used to write. But we still write often to others in emails. And if you write enough of them, you may have an automated “signature” that you use. Or you might try to be creative with your sign-offs. Often, I […]

Satan Will Be Crushed

This world is filled with trouble. Every person suffers and every person inflicts suffering on others. We all have trouble with our physical bodies that fail us with as mundane things as forgetting to mail a bill to as weighty a problem as contracting Lou Gehrig’s disease at age 40. We all have struggles with […]

Sermon: Watch Out

Watch OutRomans 16:17-20September 26, 2021 Despite our best planning, our sincere desires, and our extensive efforts not everything always goes according to our plans. That’s true at work, in our homes, in our relationships, with our leisure activities, with our retirements, and even in our churches. When churches are loving, hard-working, enduring, truth-teaching, and grace-giving […]

Those Lists of Names

My wife has a fondness for ancestral archaeology. She likes pouring through lists of names and making familial connections. She enjoys the hunt for ancient connections (“did you know that we have a family member who…?”) and is even more excited to find “unknown” family relations in our generation and even in our area of […]

Sermon: So Many (Ordinary) People

So Many (Ordinary) PeopleRomans 16:1-16September 19, 2021 In Elmer Bendiner’s book, Fall of Fortresses, he recounts an air raid of Kassel, Germany, in the plane for which he was the navigator, the B-17 Tondelayo. More than three decades after the event, he and the pilot met to remember the war together. Eventually they talked about […]