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…
Shaped BY the cross into the shape OF the cross
Sermons on Sin
I heard a humorous story recently about Willie Nelson, the country singer. As the story goes, during the 1970’s, Willie bought a golf course just outside of Austin, Texas. He said the great thing about owning a golf course was that he could decide what was par for each hole. He pointed at one hole…
I heard recently about a preacher who had a conversation with a woman. This lady was in her early 30s, was very attractive. She had previously been married but at this point in time, she was very much into the singles scene. But she had just become a Christian, she had just started going to…
You’ve probably noticed that things have changed a lot in this country over the past couple hundred years. One of the things that has changed is how we punish people when they commit a crime. My guess is that it’s probably been quite a while since you’ve seen someone punished in stocks or pillories like…
Have you ever had somebody say to you, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news, which one would you like to hear first?” With a show of hands, how many of you would rather hear the good news first? OK, how many of you would rather hear the bad news first? Research shows…
I heard a story recently about President Calvin Coolidge. As the story goes, he returned home one Sunday afternoon after attending morning worship services. His wife was unable to attend, so she asked her husband what the preacher’s lesson was about that morning. He said, “Sin.” His wife asked for more details and Coolidge said,…
This morning, I want us to pick back up with the study which we began back in January, going through the books of the Old Testament one by one, getting an overview of each book, and then looking at one of the key themes in that book. We’ve been using videos from The Bible Project…
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…
In November 1985, Weekly World News reported that there was a very wealthy married couple in Switzerland who got into an argument. It started when the husband cancelled a vacation. His wife expressed her “disappointment” by pouring baking soda into her husband’s fish tank, killing his entire collection of rare tropical fish. The husband responded…
For whatever reason, Christians often seem hesitant to talk about sex, especially from the pulpit. But God is the creator of our sexuality. He created it for us to enjoy. Sex is a gift from God….