Category: Sermons

Job One

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This past Father’s Day I issued an encouragement and a challenge to dads.  If we take the Scriptures at face value, we are the ones primarily invested with the responsibility of passing on our faith to the next generation.  In what follows, I talk about how exactly to do it.  Thanks for reading.

 

Job One

As most of you know, I am a Kansas City Royals fan.  I know…this has been a tough summer.  But three years ago, it wasn’t.  Three years ago was the best summer to be a Royals fan since…well…the summer before (there’s even a children’s book about that one that is on the shelves at home).  But before that you have to go back 1985 to find one of comparative excitement.  As for the summers in between, I’ll be honest: They were pretty rough.  There were four seasons when we lost more than 100 games (for my non-baseball fans that’s a notable mark of having had an exceedingly bad season)…three of which were back-to-back-to-back.  There were many more when we were just generally bad.  The badness occurred at pretty much all levels from the top of the organization to the bottom. Read the rest…

The One Thing

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This Sunday I focused my attention specifically on the graduates we were honoring.  If you’ve got a graduate in your life, this is a great message to share with them.  Even if you’re not a graduate, though, this is a message you need to hear.  In what follows I offer an answer to the question of how we can be prepared to give a reason for the hope we have in an increasingly non-Christian context.  Thanks for reading.

The One Thing

I don’t know about you, but new things always make me at least a little bit nervous.  I thrive in environments that are stable and consistent.  I can tolerate a little bit of change…a very little bit of change…but it’s got to be within preset limits.  Beyond that, I’m outside my comfort zone.  Perhaps the most nervous I have gotten at various points in my life is when I have started a new job.  I remember starting work at OfficeMax in seminary.  The first week was nice because I got to sit in the back office and take training courses on the computer.  They were functionally meaningless since I didn’t remember any of them once I left the room and in any event I learned everything I needed to know while I was actually doing it, but I did get to spend the whole first week hiding out.  Once I hit the floor, that’s when things got scary. Read the rest…

Keep Standing

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In this final part of our Esther teaching series, Stand Up: How to Fight Injustice, we are reminded that since injustice never sleeps, we can’t either.  Over the course of this conversation I offer four ways we can make sure our lives are always ready to fight injustice.  Keep reading to find out what they are.

 

Keep Standing

Last weekend was the annual Relay for Life Walk event.  While it has gotten pared back a bit over the years, the original vision for the event was for it to last for a full 24-hours.  One of the original slogans that accompanied the all-night walk was that we could walk throughout the night because “cancer never sleeps.”  The big idea here is that cancer is always on and so we must be also.  We must be ever vigilant to halt its life-stealing advance.  Because it never takes a day-off, we can’t either.  This kind of militaristic sentiment works for a while, but eventually people start to get tired.  Sometimes the very advances to which their support of cancer research has contributed allows some folks to relax a bit and let up on the pressure.  It’s tough to stay motivated to support a single cause for a long period of time. Read the rest…

Stand Up and Speak

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In this second-to-last installment of our series, Stand Up: How to Fight Injustice, we reach the climax of the story.  Esther finally acts to confront the king about the genocidal decree he signed on behalf of his evil advisor, Haman.  And yet, unlike most stories we tell today, the fate of the Jewish people was not resting on Esther’s shoulders alone.  The same goes for our own battles against injustice.  We need to confront it, but then we need to step back and let the One with the power to make things happen take the reins.  Keep reading to see how this goes.

Stand Up and Speak

Do you remember Harry Potter?  Although I didn’t read the series until I was in college during the summer with not nearly enough else to do, The Sorcerer’s Stone was first published the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of high school over 20 years ago.  The final book, The Deathly Hallows, was released 10 years later.  It’s difficult to overestimate just how big the cultural impact worldwide of those seven books have been.  The adventures of “the boy who lived” have captivated the imaginations of a whole generation; multiple generations in fact.  With a dedicated theme park at Universal Studios, plays, and a new trilogy of movies that precedes the original series, the legacy will continue as long as there is money to be made. Read the rest…

Stand with Humility

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In this fourth part of our series in Esther, Stand Up: How to Fight Injustice, we finally get to the action Esther takes to battle the gross injustice facing the Jewish people in Persia.  But, the exact nature of her action really isn’t all that important.  Rather, it’s how she goes about it that matters most.  Keep reading to see just what it is she does that makes her plan so effective.

 

Stand with Humility

I was born in what some would call the Golden Age of cartoons.  While they weren’t making new episodes, I had all the classic Looney Toons shows available to me.  But I came of cartoon age with the truly classic versions of Batman, Superman, Justice League, the X-Men, and Spider-Man.  I grew up loving superheroes—a love that is now being richly rewarded on the big screen.  The rewards are coming mostly from Marvel Studios which by next May when the fourth Avengers movie releases will have given us 25 movies over the span of 11 years, all telling one, big, overarching story.  It’s a little like the comic book world’s film version of the Bible.  And indeed, the latest Avengers movie has crossed the billion dollars in ticket sales mark faster than any other movie.  I’ve seen it: It was amazing.  It is not a standalone film, however, so I am eager as can be to catch part two next May. Read the rest…