Sermon Archive

The Three “R’s” of Right Relationship

As you remember how far you have fallen, the knowledge of the hope to which you were called opens the door for true repentance. It is sin that breaks the relationship. It is unconfessed sin that keeps that relationship broken. You and I know far too well what happens when someone sins against us and we know what it is like when that offense is never resolved. Yes, we have the responsibility to forgive even if the offender never acknowledges their sin. But forgiveness given is never forgiveness received if the offender never confesses their sin. Thus, as we know the forgiveness given to us in Christ Jesus, we should never fail to confess our sins to Him for when we hold onto our sin we abandon the love of God first shown to us. This is the issue that Christ has with the congregation in Ephesus. They were good, but they were not good as confessing their sins. They were not good at embracing the love of God and receiving the gifts that God desired to give.

View Sermon

Here I Stand

You are going to be challenged to reject this faith. Your friends, your enemies, some folks who you greatly respect and want their approval, will tell you that believing in a God you can’t see, and confessing the death and resurrection of Jesus as the only way to have forgiveness of sins and eternal life, is foolish. More than one will tell you that you can’t trust the Bible to be true. And someone will try to tempt you to live a life that denies God’s holy ways of life. Someone will try to get you to take stuff into your body that will only harm it. Someone will tell you that you can do stuff sexually with your body that is outside of God’s holy will for you. Someone will say you can do what you want to do anytime and anywhere. You’ll be challenged to reject true faith and true life.

If you say, “Here I stand, this is what I believe”, you may stand alone. You may be rejected.

View Sermon

But As For Me…

Joshua was looking for a commitment and so am I. I pray that you will say again, or for the very first time, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

If anyone has had the influence in a family to make such a commitment it is usually the mother. Mothers, grand-mothers, aunts, or others that assume that great place in a family, are to be applauded!! They have allowed many folks through the ages to say, “But as for me and my household…”

View Sermon

Harassed and Helpless

In our world which is too often nameless and faceless and anonymous, the Shepherd, the Good One, Jesus, knows His sheep, individually, and they know Him. You are not one of a million, or a billion. You are you. He knows you. In John 10, the Good Shepherd chapter, Jesus says, “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger, in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice. (John 10:3b-5)

View Sermon