Sermons by “Rev. John R. Larson”
Something Missing?
Something’s missing!! Do you know what it is? Joy. Joy is missing. I remember a few years ago I preached a sermon that meant a lot to one of the worshippers. Life wasn’t very good at that time for them. They were going through a bunch of frustration and they didn’t have much joy. They counted how many times I used the word joy in my sermon. She said to me upon leaving the service, “Do you know how many times you mentioned “joy” in your sermon?” I didn’t, but she did. It was missing from her life at that time and she wanted it once again.
View SermonFirm To The End
At the end of all His warnings Jesus speaks the word, “And he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Mark 13:13b) Firm to the end. Keeping a faith in our God until life’s end. Holding to a confession that doesn’t disappear before we leave this world. Jesus is concerned that they would give up their faith. It is like Jesus in John’s Revelation who would say, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10b) Firm to the end.
View SermonAlways Enough
You know what He gives us enough of? Faith. It took faith for that woman to give Elijah stuff to eat. There was only a little flour. There was only a little oil. But it never went empty – God provided. But the thought of always having enough is not just having enough money or food or drink, it is having a conviction in God’s goodness on our behalf.
View SermonBlessed?
So, what makes the hard moments the good moments? God. When we acknowledge that we are spiritually poor and empty, that we have no answer for our troubles and our sin and guilt, then we are in a good place. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Something had to happen between the poverty of having no answers to having God’s reign and rule, His grace, in our life. It is God. Having God, trusting in Him, resting in Him is what makes such poverty in things of soul so blessed.
View SermonThe Best Thing About Money
But for each of us, there is something that keeps us captive, makes us slaves, takes away the fullness of life. Jesus, the greatest treasure, desires us to know His grace, the richness of His love and calls us daily to follow Him. He seeks to destroy the false gods so the rule of the true God, the only God, can reign in us.
View SermonUgly and Beautiful
Jesus is the burden bearer. He was a magnet for all the sins we have committed, the sins of silence, or the sins when we should have been silent, the sins we have committed and the sin of failing to have the strength to do what was right. The burden bearer, Jesus, makes us holy, pure, cleansed, whole, right. We are restored and completed by the death of Jesus and by His resurrection
View SermonGift Shop First
I urge you to go to the gift shop. Trust in Jesus. Receive His gifts. Let Him be extravagant to you. Take it all in. AND, then, be the gift shop. Freely receive, freely give. The disciples were recipients and givers. That must be us too. In the epistle for today Paul says, “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thessalonians 1:2-3)
View SermonPowerful and Effective
Prayer is powerful and effective because God is powerful and effective. We pray with the faith that God will give us. We pray asking that God will provide His best and wisest answer in His best and wisest time. Prayer is powerful and effective because it grows our faith in a wonderful God who cares for us. It teaches us to wait and believe and trust. It allows us to say with ultimate confidence, “Lord, Thy will be done.”
View SermonThe Final Word
Who has the final word? God does. Now, we fight that. So often we want to make every decision. We want things our way. Remember what we read, “{It} is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” Let’s not let our self determine how we live, how we make decisions, how life will be. Let God do that. Let God have the final word. We call that trust. We call that faith. James says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
View SermonThe Best; The Worst
Words can cut and hurt and kill. But words can make people alive. Jesus, on the cross, gave words of life, as He was dying. “Father, forgive them.” “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” His words heal us. And words, our words, can change the lives of others. You can speak a word of grace and forgiveness to someone who doesn’t deserve such words but needs them. You can encourage, build up, make someone strong with words.
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