Sermon: Living to Please God, Pt. 2

Living to Please God, Pt. 2Hebrews 11:4-6March 20, 2022 A generation ago, Charles Schultz helped us identify the nature of happiness: Happiness is a thumb and a blanket (Linus) Happiness is an umbrella and a new raincoat (Lucy) Happiness is having a friend (Charlie Brown and Snoopy) Happiness is sharing (Linus and Snoopy) Happiness is […]

Sermon: Living to Please God

Living to Please GodHebrews 11:4-6March 13, 2022 A year ago, Sirin Kale, a journalist for the British newspaper The Guardian, wrote: In the past fortnight, I have bought the following items online: a hideous cat tree that takes up most of my living room, a lavender pillow spray, two scarves, a pair of gloves, two […]

Sermon: Living…by faith

Living…By FaithHebrews 11:1-3March 6, 202 We live in an unjust world. This is the hospitality center for Slavic Gospel Association in Irpin, Ukraine, where I stayed two years ago. And this is now one of the roads that leads to that house. The war against Ukraine has grieved many of you; it provokes me to […]

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 […]

Sermon: Failure and Faithfulness

Failure and Faithfulness Romans 11:11-16 June 28, 2020 The past four months of COVID-19 and unrighteous killings and riots have led to many questions, and few answers. Many questions have not just been asked about our political leaders, but also about God. All the questions about God might be summarized by three questions asked by […]

The usefulness of God’s faithfulness

God is faithful. Those three words carry an infinite weight of meaning. To say, “God is faithful” means just that — God is constant; He is always what He is. The meaning is not just that He is faithful to us, but that He is faithful to Himself. He is faithful to always be what […]

God is Faithful

A few evenings ago, my doorbell rang and it wasn’t a neighborhood child selling band candy. It was a young man selling a service that he was convinced I needed. It is a service that I purchase monthly from another company. But he promised that his company would be more reliable. At less than half […]

He is faithful

My wife and I had been married only a few days when we moved into our first home — a 50-year-old, 600-square-foot, unfurnished apartment. We had just finished unloading all of our worldly possessions from a single 4-foot by 6-foot trailer when our new neighbors came to invite us to dinner. The initial conversation went […]

When others leave the faith

I heard it again Sunday morning. While visiting another church (a “kindred spirit” church that I frequent as often as I can when I am on vacation on a Sunday), I heard of two more men who are in the process of leaving the faith. They are turning their backs on what they know is […]

God is faithful

God is faithful. We believe that. Or at least we say we believe that. But, most of us still struggle to rest in God’s faithfulness each day. Near the end of both of his letters to the Thessalonians, Paul reminded those readers of God’s faithfulness. We do well to remember those reminders, as well as […]

Dreaming of faithfulness

Have you ever had a dream? I have… When I was five, I dreamed of being a garbage man. When I was ten, I dreamed of being fifteen. When I was fifteen, I dreamed of being a baseball player. When I was twenty, I day-dreamed. When I was twenty-five, I dreamed of finishing school. When […]

Sunday Leftovers (6/26/11)

Tychicus was a faithful servant (lit., “deacon”). Don’t read over those words too quickly, assuming that it is a standard and ordinary commendation for a friend. Only two men in the NT receive this commendation, or the similar “faithful slave” — Tychicus (Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7) and Epaphras (Col. 1:7). This, then, is a remarkable […]

Faithful men and a faithful God

“And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,…” (Heb. 11:32-33; NASB) One man had a weak faith. One was a weak […]

God is faithful

It was my first real job. Every morning I would get up early, go down to the corner, and pick up a bundle of newspapers, fold them, bind them with a rubber band, put them in my canvas carrying bag and deliver them. On only the second or third Sunday, I showed up at the […]

Today’s Quote – Christ’s Adequacy (Pascal)

Blaise Pascal, Pensées: Do little things as though they were great, because of the majesty of Jesus Christ who does them in us, and who lives our life: and do the greatest things as though they were little and easy, because of His omnipotence. (HT: CQOD)