Sermon: Christ is Coming

Christ is Coming Revelation 1:7 December 20, 2020 It was early in November that I saw my first sign of Christmas. There on someone’s Facebook video was a Christmas tree in the background — two weeks before Thanksgiving! It was shortly after that Raye Jeanne and I began noticing that Christmas lights started appearing on […]

Sermon: Christ Has Come

Christ Has Come Revelation 1:4-6 December 6, 2020 A truck driver was driving across a town but something appeared to be wrong — every time he stopped at a red light or stop sign, he would jump out of his truck running around it and beating the side of it with a baseball bat. Someone […]

Fellowship with God

This post was originally published June 3, 2013; it is being republished today because the theme fits this past Sunday’s sermon so well. The term “fellowship” is used regularly in the context of the church (do non-believers use the word?). Often the word is used synonymously for “food” or “feast,” as in, “be sure to […]

Sermon: Fellowship and the Cross

Fellowship and the Cross 1 John 1:1-4 November 29, 2020 Many years ago (while in seminary) I was an evangelism trainer on a team of people from our church who went out weekly to share the gospel. One of the people on my team was a good friend from seminary. As we were headed back […]

Sermon: Thankful Hearts Giving Thanks

Thankful Hearts Giving Thanks Colossians 3:15-17 November 22, 2020 Rudyard Kipling is one of the most well-known British writers from the 19th and 20th centuries. He penned many poems and such classic stories as How the Leopard Got His Spots and The Jungle Book. His writing made him famous and wealthy. A newspaper reporter approached […]

You need perseverance

Near the end of his life, John Calvin suffered from tuberculosis. In his weakened condition his doctors urged him to rest and adopt a slower pace in his work. He refused, saying, “Bear with me, that God will find me watching and busy at His work until my last sigh.” So the doctors and his […]

Think hopefully, not wishfully

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, “Finding Hope When Everything Feels Hopeless.” The thesis of the post was that people today feel hopeless and need hope. But hope “feels increasingly elusive,” with COVID, the election, winter, and more weighing on people’s minds. Author Elizabeth Bernstein suggests that hope “guards against anxiety […]

God’s merciful use of sin

You are aware of the saying, “You can be anything you want to be; you can do anything you want to do, if you just try hard enough.” I am intentionally working to burst bubbles and change thinking when I say, “Bologna.” That saying is just wrong. Completely wrong. And foolish. And deceiving. And hopeless […]

Promises, Promises

We are used to people breaking promises. We assume politicians — Presidents, Senators, Representatives, State legislators, city councilmen and more — will break their promises. We know that some marriage vows being given in earnest this year will be broken in years to come. Promises to children for vacations and days away (“Six Flags!” and […]

Have you considered God’s kindness — and severity?

The most popular cultural conception of God is that He is loving. The idea is that He is a God of all (and only) grace, overlooking the foibles, peccadilloes, and even most severe sins because He is too nice to be mean. He is so loving that He could never be angry. This perception is […]

What do you want?

D. A. Carson told the story of Lillian Guild who was driving one day with her husband and noticed a recent-model Cadillac at the side of the road with its hood up. The driver explained with some embarrassment that he was in a hurry to get to a business meeting and that while he’d seen […]

Sermon: A Servant of Scripture

A Servant of Scripture Psalm 119:121-128 June 21, 2020 Private Harry Cole was a private in the British Army that was retreating to Dunkirk in 1940. He penned a letter to his mother and family during the retreat, but his regiment was overrun by the Germans and he never made it to Dunkirk and did […]

Today is a day for thankfulness

Today is a day for thankfulness. Every day is a day for thankfulness. Every circumstance is a time for thankfulness. That’s not my opinion. My (personal and fleshly) opinion is that most days are for grumbling, complaining, disputing, and arguing. I do not naturally gravitate to thankfulness. I naturally move towards ingratitude and discontentment. But […]

Sermon: Thanking God for the Past…

Thanking God for the Past; Trusting God for the Future Philippians 1:3-11 June 14, 2020 Sometimes it is hard to give thanks for the circumstances and people of our past. That’s not just true in the past three months, but it’s also true of life in general — illness, unexpected deaths, financial hardship (poverty), broken […]

Sermon: Walking Worthy by Preserving Unity

Walking Worthy by Preserving Unity Ephesians 4:1-3 May 31, 2020 I have always loved, and often used, the saying, “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as quickly as I could.” Similarly, I wasn’t born in the church, but I got here as quickly as I could. Since childhood, I have always attended […]