Sermons
1 Corinthians 8.1-13 January 29, 2012
Have you ever built something with your own two hands? Many years ago I built models, mostly airplanes. Some of them turned out better than others. Sometimes I just wanted to get the model put together. I couldn’t wait to have it done so I could fly it around the room. Those did not turn out as well as the ones I took my time on. Because sometimes I did take my time and make sure everything fit together nicely. I took my time and painted the model well. I took my time with the decals. I was enjoying the process of building. Instead of only trying to finish quickly, I was putting some love into the work. The end results showed whether I focused on the building process or only on the completion.
As Christians we are in the business of building up believers, that is, building up each other. We want our faith and the faith of other believers to grow. To do this we build with love.
Jonah 3.1-5, 10 January 22, 2012
Forty more days and Las Vegas will be destroyed.
If that was the whole message today, most of you would be a bit disappointed. Forty more days and you will be overturned is not the message you came to hear. It does not sound like a message of compassion. It sounds more like an ultimatum. It seems more like a threat.
Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned is the message God gave for Jonah to proclaim to the people of Nineveh. This was a message from a God who shows compassion. In this account we will see how our God shows compassion by sending his word. We will also see how our God shows compassion by forgiving sin.
Sermon 1366 John 1.43-51 January 15, 2012
The Epiphany season, that time between putting the Christmas tree away and taking your sweetie out for a nice Valentine’s Day dinner, has traditionally been an evangelism season. The Gospel lessons during the Epiphany season show us that, by his powerful teachings and by his powerful deeds, Jesus is truly the Son of God. They also show how Jesus Christ, God’s Son, can change lives.
It’s a natural for evangelism. As Jesus gathered his first followers, he still goes out and gathers followers. Back then and still today, he is relying on us to urge others to
Acts 16.25-34 January 8, 2011
Christmas is over. The new year has begun. Resolutions have been made and maybe some of them have been kept for the whole year so far, eight days! I’m not much into resolutions myself though I will give you some suggestions later for resolutions this year. Most resolutions are to start doing something or to stop doing something. Start exercising. Stop eating fast food. Start spending more time with family. Stop staying up too late. These are good things. Making good on resolutions may even give you joy in life. But not always and not forever. Life can throw things at us that we have no control over. Life can take away our joy if joy is built on what we do. There is a better joy, a deeper joy, a joy that persists even when all earthly hope is gone. Jesus gives this joy and it comes to all who believe in the Lord Jesus.
Sermon 1365 Luke 2.25-40 January 1, 2012
I’ve been in the ministry for over a generation now. I have to tell you, I am starting to marvel at the human race. Before, when I saw, say, a Catechism student, all I would think of was how to reach him? How to make him do his memory work? Would I win the inevitable battle of wills?
I don’t do that anymore. I look at your sons and daughters and wonder, “what is this kid going to turn into?” “What are they going to become?” Being more concerned about them than about me, it is easier to reach them, they do their memory work—on their own schedule—and there’s no more battle because I don’t start them.
I’m not saying I’m aged, like Simeon, nor am I saying everybody who gets older looks at things the same way I do. The lion expects everyone to roar, and, unfortunately, some people in old age stay as self-centered as they were in youth.
But Simeon wondered that as he held the baby Jesus. We should, too.
Sermon 1364 John 1.1-14 December 24, 2011
“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,” the lisping child actor sings in the Christmas TV special. We laugh, because the child singing the song would have to be a rodent for his two front teeth to grow in that fast.
We overhear a prayer from little Suzie. “And Jesus, please tell Santa to bring Goldie a pillow so she can go to sleep.” Goldie is her fish and someone told her fish don’t sleep. She thinks it’s because Goldie doesn’t have a bed.
The incongruous. The contradictions. The ludicrous juxtapositions that take place at Christmas. One side always cares so much. The other side cares not at all.
It’s not a tired old cliché lazy screen writers drag out. These inner contradictions are built into the Christmas story. A young couple finally straggles into town. She is heavily pregnant and goes into labor. Their delivery room a cattle shed, the baby’s first bed a manger. Yet the friendly beasts show him more love than the inn keeper. They give him their manger, their wool, their songs to lull him to sleep. Angels, the most glorious of God’s created beings, appear to shepherds, the most humble of people, and announce the birth of a Savior in Bethlehem. Then they give glory to God and sing of peace to a war-torn world that has learned nothing except how to hate and kill.
But still the child sings. Still Susie prays. Still we listen to the Christmas story, because