For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been taking a look at the Lord’s Prayer. Since this is a prayer that is quoted by people both young and old, I thought it would be interesting to find out how children pray the Lord’s Prayer. I heard about one child who actually thought God’s name…
Shaped BY the cross into the shape OF the cross
Sermons by Alan Smith
Last week, we saw that the disciples of Jesus came to him with a request, “Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11:1). And Jesus responded by giving them what we often refer to as the Lord’s Prayer. He said, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily…
The 11th chapter of the gospel of Luke begins with these words: “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray…’” (Luke 11:1) The disciples had been with Jesus for months, maybe even years at this point. They had…
Last Sunday morning, in our Bible class, we talked about one of the attributes of God, the fact that God is eternal, which means that God has no beginning and he has no end. He is from everlasting to everlasting. And while it boggles our mind to think about it, God is totally…
There have been times in my life when Sunday School lessons have been more frustrating than inspiring. Every week, since the time I was a little kid, there have been these lessons filled with biblical heroes, champions of God, great men and women of faith. And it’s not that I didn’t believe those accounts…
John Denver used to tell a story about a man who was invited to a fancy banquet. He arrived wearing simple clothing, and was told to leave the room and go to the kitchen for a handout. The man left, went home, got dressed up in fancy clothes, and then came back to the…
The story is told of a father who was driving down the road and his 5-year-old son was in the backseat. And the boy says, “Dad, how do you spell God?” And his father is thrilled. Because he thinks to himself, “Finally! After all those nights reading Bible stories, going to church, being a…
This is our third Sunday here in this new building, and there are times when I wonder if the Israelites must have felt the same way when they entered the land of Canaan. You may recall that when the children of Israel left the land of Egypt, God promised that he would give them…
Those of you who are mothers, I’m sure you can relate to the story of the mother who put her 5-year-old son to bed. And, after a few minutes, she heard him call out, “Mom, can you please bring me a drink of water?” And she said, “Now you had your chance when we…
This morning, I am absolutely overwhelmed as we gather together for the very first time in this building to worship God. I am overwhelmed with God’s goodness, overwhelmed with God’s love, overwhelmed with God’s provision. This part of our journey began in March of last year when we became aware of this two-acre…