The great King and ordinary people

In the genealogy of Jesus there are many names that are foundational to the nation of Israel and even to our own faith in Christ — names like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, Solomon, Joseph, and Mary. But near the end of the list of names in Matthew, there are a series of people about […]

The King’s Humility

Below is the text from the message I gave last night at our Christmas Eve service. A few years ago I listened to Walter Isaacson’s masterful biography of Albert Einstein. I am not really scientifically inclined, but I thought the story would be interesting. It was — Einstein was a fascinating character. Along with the […]

Sermon: The King’s Arrival

The King’s ArrivalMatthew 1:18-25December 19, 2021 My parents and I were born in Canada (I got to Texas as quickly as I could, though); and I suppose it was the influence of being part of a British Colony that led my mom to always be more than a little intrigued by the British monarchy and […]

Sermon: The King’s Future

The King’s FutureMatthew 24:29-41December 12, 2021 On January 1, 2000, the Wall Street Journal looked back at some predictions that had been made over the previous 100 years about what life would look like in the year 2000. There were a few errors in judgment: In 1950, Popular Mechanics surmised: “The housewife of 2000 can […]

Sermon: The King’s Kingdom

The King’s KingdomMatthew 13:44-52December 5, 2021 In our political process, whenever there is an election voters want to know in advance, “If you are elected what will you do?” “What will life be like under your leadership?” We want to know if taxes will be raised, if there will be new liberties granted, or if […]

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 […]