The Training of the Twelve, Pt. 1

  “The Training of the Twelve” Pt. 1Luke 9:1-11December 14, 2025 It’s Christmas season.  And there is a common question being asked these days:  “Do we have enough?”  E.g., Do we have enough food? Do we have enough cookies? Do we have enough gifts? Do we have enough decorations (lights on the house, tinsel on […]

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The Tale of Two “Daughters”

  “The Tale of Two ‘Daughters’”Luke 8:40-56November 30, 2025 Pain is universal.  Suffering is common.  Illness, though frequent and normal, often surprises us.  Death is one out of one.  We recoil against all of these.  And God uses pain, illness, and death to sanctify us.  Samuel Rutherford wrote that believers should “praise God for the […]

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Praying for Our Enemies

There are statements by Jesus Christ that are known as His “hard sayings.”  They are not hard because they are hard to comprehend.  They are hard because they are hard to do.  They are counter to our fleshly desires.  They are strongly counter to our fleshly desires.  We are naturally resistant to doing what He says. […]

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Rejecting God?

James Smithson was born in 1765 in France, the son of Hugh Percy (Smithson), a prominent and wealthy English duke, and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie, a direct descendant of King Henry VII.  A life of prominence would have awaited him apart from one other significant factor — his parents were not married at the time […]

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Why Christ Wept

  Imagine a young man who is in love with a young lady.  He has been saving and planning and one evening he pulls a box out of his pocket and asks the young woman to spend the rest of her life with him and exposes a gleaming ring in that box.  And she bursts […]

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Have you worshipped this Christmas?

And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord,And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” (Lk. 1:46-47) These familiar words introduce one of the great Christmas hymns — Mary’s poetic response to the announcement of the birth of Jesus to her by the angel (vv. 26-38) and the following affirmation from Elizabeth (vv. 39-45). […]

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Sermon: The Birth Announcement

The Birth Announcement Luke 2:1-20 December 22, 2019 Earlier this year, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle had a baby.  While babies are born every second of every day, this birth captured the attention of royal followers around the world.  Like many other parents, the birth was first announced by Harry and Meghan on social […]

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Christmas Joys

Below is the text of the message I preached this evening at our Christmas Eve service:  “Christmas Joys” (Luke 2:25-35). It’s a little late to send a letter to Santa with your gift requests tonight.  But people have been sending in requests for a while now.  It’s usually just children that send in their wants, […]

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Sermon: “O Foolish Men”

“O Foolish Men…” Luke 24:13-35 April 1, 2018 A pastor in California tells the story of a secondhand store in California that resells wardrobes of “the stars” of Hollywood. If you have enough cash, you can buy something worn by your favorite actor and play your own role, pretending to be that star. A number […]

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He came with peace

The following is a manuscript of the Christmas Eve message I gave tonight. You may also download a PDF, video, or audio of the message. Perhaps you heard about the massive headline on the front page of the New York Daily News the day after the shootings in San Bernardino, CA. A page-long headline surrounded […]

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Sermon: One Grateful Man

“One Grateful Man” Luke 17:11-19 November 22, 2015 It’s one of my (several) favorite Peanuts cartoons: Linus is shown sitting at a table, pencil in hand. In the second panel the paper he was writing on is crumpled with his expected exclamation, “Rats!” In the third panel we see a trash can surrounded by numerous […]

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