Tag: Sermons

A Slice of Pie

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Getting through conflict is always tricky, especially family conflict. One of the best navigational tools to help us in this effort is something we see put on display in the life of Jacob just before his reunion with his estranged brother, Esau in their story in Genesis. While Jacob’s approach is rooted in having a correct understanding of who God is and who we are, we often talk about it in terms of dessert. Let’s talk about resolving conflict, pie, and how to get relationships right.

A Slice of Pie

I grew up in Independence, MO. My hometown has several claims to fame, but the most recent and well-known is that it was the hometown of President Truman. Truman still looms large over the medium-sized city that still feels like a small town in many ways. The First Baptist Church I grew up attending has an address on Truman Road. It is just a couple of blocks up from the Truman Home where he lived before becoming President and afterwards until his death in 1972. If you look down another street that goes out from the church you can see the Truman Library about a mile up the road. My high school and undergraduate institutions were both named for him. Reading about half of his classic biography by David McCullough was required in my college history class. It was pretty much all Truman all the time for me. 

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Playing Favorites

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Sometimes the conflict we find ourselves facing in our families isn’t directly our fault. Instead, it’s the fault of somebody up the generational line from us who did some accidental tinkering along the way that resulted in things being where they are. One of the most potent sources of this accidental tinkering is when parents (or grandparents) play favorites with their children and grandchildren. This sets up the subsequent generations for all kinds of frustrating seasons of conflict. Let’s talk about how this can happen and what we need to do about it when it does.

Playing Favorites

Julie Andrews lent her voice to some of the most iconic movie songs ever. One that has always been among my favorites is “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. In attempting to distract and reassure her nanny charges during a thunderstorm, she invites them to think about their favorite things. We all have favorite things. For instance, my favorite pie is pecan pie. (That’s not to be confused with pee-can pie or pee-cahn pie; those are different.) My favorite baseball team is the Kansas City Royals, who are in the midst of one of the most dramatic season turnarounds in baseball history. My favorite professional football team is the Kansas City Chiefs. I promise we will be magnanimous as we continue to outshine the Patriots’ dynasty in every way. College is all Kansas, of course. My favorite super spy is Ethan Hunt. My favorite drink is probably a cherry limeade from Sonic. My favorite book is probably still C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, but his The Screwtape Letters would be a close second. Marvel is superior to D.C. Studios on the big screen in every way, and not even James Gunn will fix that. But in the animation department, D.C. owns everyone and it’s not close. 

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What’s Mine Should Be Mine

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We all love talking about our rights. We like having our rights honored and respected. When something should be ours, we want that thing, whatever it happens to be. Not getting our rights recognized can lead to conflict. Big conflict. This happens out in the world, but it also happens in our own families. In this second part of our teaching series, Stormy Waters, we are talking about the conflict that can arise in families when different members feel like they aren’t getting what is theirs by right. Let’s look at how we can navigate these stormy waters with a look at how Abraham had to navigate his own family drama. Read on for more.

What’s Mine Should Be Mine

We hear a lot of talk about rights these days. Political candidates of various stripes assure us that if elected they will be tireless in their fight for our rights. People claim to have rights to all sorts of things. Sometimes the government itself tells us certain things are within our rights as citizens. Our Constitution was only ratified when it got paired with a Bill of Rights, a set of things the Founders declared were inherent to citizenship in this nation and which cannot be taken from us by any state actor. In the opening lines of our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson declared life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to be among a set of unalienable rights from our Creator that are common to all people everywhere. These are things we can claim as our own simply by virtue of being human. 

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Differences Don’t Have to Divide

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This week we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series called, Stormy Waters. For the next few weeks, we are going to be talking about how to navigate family conflict without losing our minds. Family conflict is hard. It can be some of the messiest conflict we ever have to face. Thankfully, the Scriptures give us some helping wisdom on how to make it through without losing ourselves or our relationships. In this first part of our journey, we are starting where so many of our conflicts start: with differences. You’re not like the other people in your family, and occasionally that leads to conflict. Let’s talk about how to navigate it.

Differences Don’t Have to Divide

I love my sister. But we are not the same. For starters, she’s my sister. That fact sets us apart pretty well by itself. But the differences run much deeper than that. We didn’t like or excel at the same sports or activities growing up. We didn’t share the same tastes in music. Her friends sometimes made me want to move out when they visited. My friends and I once snuck into her room after a sleepover when there were like four of them on her big bed, and lifted up one side of the mattress so they all slid off the other side, one after the next on top of each other. That is to say, my friends drove her crazy too. We watched different TV shows. We had different interests. She would occasionally try to do things that I did before her (probably because I was her big brother and she wanted to be like me), but I would give her such a hard time about not doing whatever it was like I did that she didn’t tend to stick with those things very long. She quickly found her own things, and I don’t blame her. 

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So Much Winning

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This week we had the joyful opportunity to celebrate baptisms as a church. That’s always a major highlight for us (it’s kind of in the name as a Baptist church). So, rather than starting a new teaching series, I decided to explore just why the Gospel these folks have publicly embraced is so good. With a look at Paul’s celebration of the glory and majesty of God’s love for us in Christ, we talked about how great it is that His love for us doesn’t ever quit. May these words be an encouragement and blessing to you.

So Much Winning

Have you ever quit something because it was hard? I mean, I know that’s not something we generally want to admit in polite company, but I suspect most of us have at least one story. When I used to play NBA Jam on my Sega Genesis, I had a perfect record. That’s because anytime it looked like I was going to lose, I just hit that power button and started over. Perhaps a bit more significantly than that, I used to play the trumpet. I played for about a year. I was actually doing okay with it, and was having fun…but then I got braces. Let me tell you: Trumpets and braces are not a very good combination. I still remember how much that hurt. I put up with it for a few weeks, but then the school year came to an end, and I was able to pick a new instrument for the next year. I quit the trumpet and went with drums. It didn’t look like it would hurt as much as the trumpet. Plus, I had seen how much fun the drummers were having in the back of the band. It was way more fun than we were having in the trumpet row. Also, it didn’t hurt. Did I mention that?  

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