Sermons
The Hardest Thing You’ll Ever Do
The hardest thing that you’ll ever do is also the best thing you’ll ever do. The hardest thing is forgiveness. And the best thing is forgiveness. The word forgiveness means “to release”. It is just the opposite of keeping. You don’t bear a grudge. You don’t keep the anger and bitterness growing. You do the hardest thing that you can ever do – you forgive. You release that grudge, that hatred, that anger, that pain, and forgive another for what they have done. You’ll be free again. Your life will have peace. St. Paul, treated very poorly by quite a few people in his life wrote, “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong.” (I Thessalonians 5:15)
View SermonGod’s Little Ones
Do you want to be great? Do you want a place in heaven? Then your confession of your need for God has to be your foundation. I can’t fix myself, and you can’t either. I can’t make my life right. I can’t clean up the mess that I’ve made. I’m broken. I’m mortal. I’m a child. I need a Savior. I need Someone who can fix, heal, clean and make me immortal. Jesus takes a child and puts them right in the middle and says, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” It is like when Jesus says in John 3, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (Verse 3) To get into God’s reign you have to start over.
View SermonGetting It All Wrong, Or…
Pastor Ginkel, in that same e-mail that mentioned Gerideane, had this little word of wisdom: 1,000 years from now…
…it will not matter at all whether
You lived in a mansion or a shed; You ate steak or cold cuts; You drove a Cadillac or an Escort; You had a doctorate or signed your name with an X
…what will matter a great deal is whether
You believed in Jesus as your Savior from sin; You remained faithful to Jesus until death; You witnessed to Jesus by word and deed; You earnestly prayed for souls and Kingdom growth.
View SermonGod’s Plea
Therefore!! What a little particle in the English language. He bases his plea on everything that he has said to this point. He built up his argument and then gives his appeal. If God is going to ask that you give yourself totally to Him then He, first, had to give Himself totally to you. He did. Jesus, willingly, sacrificially, gave Himself fully in body and mind and soul to you so that you would be God’s child. You would be forgiven and healed from all your soul-pain and that you would be certain of life on earth and life in heaven because Jesus gave His life for you. Therefore is a great word. It tells us about Jesus and what He has done.
View SermonSurvey Says vs. Spirit Says
Now it’s no longer a game of “Survey Says.” There are no points available for being a popular answer on the board that some people agree with. The game has changed from “Survey Says” to “Truth Is.” Jesus wants to know, “Do you know the Truth? Do you know the one and only, RIGHT answer? And praise God, they got it right! I mean the disciples rarely get things right in the Gospels, getting rebukes like, “O ye of little faith!” or “Get behind me, Satan” so we need to lift them up when they get it right. Peter is the first to speak up: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And ding, ding, ding, Jesus says, Yes, that’s the correct answer. “Blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah. Flesh and blood, like random surveys, has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”
View SermonTo Us? To Him!
The motive, I hope, is not self-glory, but love for others. I am asking you to support this project in many ways. I want you to be in prayer that this renovation would be used for decades to come so that children and youth and adults would come to a vibrant faith and would grow in that faith. I pray that as those who have skills in music and singing can grow in their love for God, they would share their enthusiasm and faith with us. Verses 14 and 15 of this psalm read, “May the Lord make you increase, both you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” The psalmist’s concern was for the hearer and for those coming later.
View SermonJob and God
There are many people who live without a belief in God. Without God, no one is in charge. For some, despair has arrived and stayed. There is no anticipation for the future. No God. No hope. No order. Only chaos.
View SermonMuch With Little
See. We are little. There isn’t much to us. We are just a broken piece of pottery. Common. Lowly. We use the word “Sinner” to sum up how little we are. God uses that word about us, too. But remember – God does much with little. Like Barclay said, “Little is always much in the hands of Christ.” But we are more than just broken pottery – we have a treasure. The treasure – Christ, our greatest treasure. Jesus is our Savior. He died for our sins. He rose for our victory and for our eternity. Jesus changed everything for 5,000 hungry men and some women and children, with the words, “Bring those 5 loaves and two fish to me” – “Bring them here to me.” He is not done doing miracles when we, and others, are brought to Him.
View SermonThe Kingdom of Heaven
Do you consider yourself the treasure that the man or merchant in the parables pursues and purchases? You should. You are. That is how God looks at you. But it doesn’t have anything to do with who you are or the wonderful things you have done. It has nothing to do with the sticker on your minivan telling the world what you once were. In God’s eyes you are the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of greatest value. As my friend, Phil Johnson, told me 20 years ago, “God can never love you more and He will never love you less.”
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