Sermon: What Can We Eat? (Pt 5)

What Can We Eat? Answers About Liberty (Part 5) Romans 14:19-23 July 4, 2021 If one country wants to demonstrate its appreciation for and friendship with another country, they do what people do when they have friends: they give gifts. But what do you give a country that has everything? That was the question the […]

Sermon: What Can We Eat? (Pt 4)

What Can We Eat? Answers About Liberty (Part 4) Romans 14:13-18 June 27, 2021 Have you noticed how many times a day you are given warnings? Among my favorites On a cup of coffee — “Caution: Contents Hot” (yes, isn’t that the point?) On a Dremel rotary tool: “This product is not intended for use […]

Sermon: What Can We Eat? (Pt 3)

What Can We Eat? Answers About Liberty (Part 3) Romans 14:10-12 June 20, 2021 There are many things that can destroy the unity of the church. Among the most effective tools that Satan uses is the tool of hypocritical pride that takes the form of judgmentalism. Whenever we think we are superior to others in […]

Sermon: What Can We Eat? (Pt 2)

What Can We Eat? Answers About Liberty (Part 2) Romans 14:1-9 June 13, 2021 Seventy-seven years ago, 76 POWs held at the German Stalag Luft III camp fled that camp through a tunnel they had dug under the camp to a location outside the fence of the camp. They had actually dug three tunnels — […]

Sermon: What Can We Eat?

What Can We Eat? Answers About LibertyRomans 14:1-4June 6, 2021 One of the great themes of Romans is the freedom the believer has in Christ: for he who has died is freed from sin (6:7) But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the […]

Some principles for regathering Christ’s church for worship

Here is the news for which our church has been waiting: we are planning to regather for corporate worship on Sunday, June 14 at 11:00 a.m., Lord willing. We have been thinking about, desiring, and planning for regathering for corporate worship for three months (since about 30 seconds after we made the decision to stop […]

Sermon: No Condemnation! (Pt 3)

No Condemnation! (Pt. 3) Romans 8:1-4 September 2, 2018 It wasn’t long after we were married, that Raye Jeanne observed my curiosity about everything. On one occasion a massive storm moved through Dallas, where we were living at the time, and tens of thousands of residents lost power. Our home was without power for several […]

Sermon: No Condemnation! (Pt 2)

No Condemnation! (Pt. 2) Romans 8:1-4 August 26, 2018 Several years ago, author Brett McKay wrote on his popular blog site, “The Art of Manliness,” that he learned the skill of picking locks. After learning the basic principles and being given the tools, he picked his first lock in two minutes. He says this about […]

Sermon: No Condemnation! (Pt 1)

No Condemnation! (Pt. 1) Romans 8:1-4 August 19, 2018 In my closet I have a bag of letters. Most people would not be interested in those letters. They are cards and notes that have been kept in that bag for over thirty years. But they are a treasure to me. They are the correspondence Raye […]

Sin is not liberating

Sin is not liberating. People will say it is liberating. Advertisers will attempt to convince you it is liberating. Those who engage in habitual sin will assert that Christians who follow the way of Christ are in bondage and enslavement. Sinners will smile, laugh, and appear joyful when engaging in sinful behavior, asserting that they […]

Thanks be to God for freedom

While on vacation a number of years ago, we turned on the hotel television to watch the morning news and were greeted with images from France. President Clinton was honoring fallen veterans on Omaha Beach. Crosses — lots of crosses (some without names) — marking a sea of graves of men who never made it […]

Really free

Today, on independence day, we like to celebrate freedom in America. And we do know a great many freedoms — like freedom of worship and freedom to speak the gospel and freedom from the harshest kinds of physical persecution. But those are not the greatest freedoms. The greatest freedom we know is the freedom we […]

When in doubt…

I was probably about 10 years old. I’d gone to the store with my folks, and I wandered off to find something of interest to me. Following my norm at that time, I found the baseball cards and books. Not only did they have baseball cards, but they had a clear-pack strip that contained the […]

Good news

There’s good news. And then there is the best news. This is the best news about the good news (from Romans 6). How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (v. 2) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead […]

A question of liberty

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul explains the issue of liberty and freedom for the Christian — when is it permissible to exercise a freedom and when should practicing a liberty be avoided? There are numerous questions to answer in determining whether or not to use one’s liberty, and I thought it helpful to make it […]