You may have seen this in the news this past week. There was a 17-year-old boy who became the youngest person ever to fly solo around the world. He landed on Wednesday in Bulgaria, which is where his journey began five months ago. Originally, the plan was for the trip to take about three…
Shaped BY the cross into the shape OF the cross
Sermons by Alan Smith
A few years ago, there was a poll that asked people the question, “If you could change one thing about your life, what would you change?” And the interesting thing is that almost everyone who responded to that poll gave an answer that related to their physical body. I wish I was younger. …
I’ve learned over the years that most Christians have a favorite Bible verse. If I were to go around the room this morning and ask you what your favorite verse is, some of you might say, Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Others might say, Romans 8:28, “We know…
This morning, in our study of I Corinthians, we finally get to chapter 14. And our topic this morning is going to focus on spiritual gifts, especially as they relate to our time together in worship. Back in chapter 12, Paul closed out that chapter by telling the Corinthians to “earnestly desire the best…
When Mozart was a young man living at home with his father, it is said that he enjoyed playing a trick on his father from time to time. After a night out in Vienna with his friends, Mozart would come home to find his father fast asleep in bed. Mozart would then sit down at…
So far, in I Corinthians 13, we’ve taken a look at what love is, what love is not, what loves does and doesn’t do, and this morning, we’re going to close out the characteristics of love by looking at what love always does. I want to share with you a love story that will…
Many of you know that Sueanne and I enjoy playing games. We enjoy board games and we especially enjoy playing computer games together. And whenever you play multiplayer games, there are two different modes that you can play. You can either play cooperatively, like Sueanne and I do, where you try to work together…
We had a bit of a scare here at the church building last Sunday. Late Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call from one of our neighbors here in Spring Lake telling me that there was a fire on our property with smoke billowing into the air, and a fire truck was on the…
Have you ever seen on the internet where someone was trying to follow a recipe they saw on Pinterest or some other website but their version didn’t come out quite like the picture? And what’s humorous is our culture has adopted the phrase “nailed it” to describe those results when that’s really the opposite…
Russell Herman was a carpenter who lived in the state of Illinois. When he died at the age of 67, his will included a staggering list of beneficiaries. He left instructions for two billion dollars to be given to the city of East St. Louis, another billion and a half for the state of…