Tag: Sermons

Lost and Found

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This week as we continue in our series, Leverage, we are talking about the why behind Jesus’ call for us to use our resources for the sake of those around us. Through a story about a shepherd with a lost sheep, Jesus helps us see that the why here is intimately connected to the character of our God. Let’s dig into this vital truth together.

Lost and Found

I lost a sock in the wash the other day. I finally found it Wednesday night. The first thing I exclaimed when I did, though, was, “Oh great, now this will mess up my illustration for Sunday.” For a full two weeks there, though, if you were to go and open my sock drawer, you would have found one sock neatly folded and lying on top of the rest of the rolled pairs underneath it. I’ve lost socks before, but they usually turned up faster than this one. As it turns out, it got stuck in the arm of my light jacket. Since the last time I wore and washed it, though, it got cold and it just sat in our coat closet with the sock sitting in its sleeve until I put it on Wednesday and made my happy discovery. I’ll confess, though, as much as that one, lone sock lying on the top of the pile bothered me every single time I opened my sock drawer, I didn’t invest much time searching for its sole mate. It was just a sock after all. If I didn’t ever find the match, I would have eventually thrown it away (at which point, of course, I would have immediately discovered the other one). I have other pairs. And, when those wear out, I’ll just buy a new pack. I actually look forward to doing that every few years. There aren’t very many things that feel better than a brand-new pair of socks. 

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How to Be Great

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Today we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series called, Leverage. Over the next four weeks we are going to be working through Matthew 18 where we find Jesus giving a lot of focused attention to how life in the kingdom of God should work. He starts here at the beginning of the chapter with a discussion on what it looks like to be great in the ways that matter most. Let’s tune in together and see what He has to say.

How to Be Great

How do you move something heavy? Well, nowadays, if it’s big enough, you get a big piece of machinery and use that. For smaller things that don’t merit heavy equipment, you call some friends to help. A couple of years ago we got a new TV stand from Sam’s. Seeing it in the context of the enormous store did not give me a proper appreciation for how big it really was. After we bought it, I drove the family home so I could drive back to Sam’s with all of the seats down in the van and pick it up. I should have known what I was really in for when they loaded it into the van directly off of the forklift they were using to carry it…so that they didn’t have to carry it. It fit…barely. Once I got it home, and went around to the back and started pulling at the box to get a sense of what I was in for. I couldn’t budge it. So, I got on the phone and called TJ and Kevin who, much to their credit but as no surprise at all, came right over to help. The three of us did a further assessment of the box. Then they each got on the phone to call for more backup. I think we finally managed to get it into the house with four of us working together with lots of grunting and sweating. I don’t think it has moved much from the place we set it down since that day. 

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Growing Requires Growth

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Last week we started a two-part look ahead at what God is planning in the year ahead of us as a church. What we talked about then was the fact that if we want more people to be able to experience these plans with us, that’s going to take our invitation. This week, we shift the focus back to ourselves just a bit to look at what we have to be doing if that invitation is going to be worth making. In short, we have to be growing. Today, let’s talk about why this matters so much. But first, let’s do a bit of celebrating of what God has done in the last year.

Growing Requires Growth

We’ll get to our message this morning in just a bit, but can we take just a second here at the beginning of our time and make an important observation? It has been a good year in the life of First Baptist Oakboro. God has been faithful, and we have experienced His kingdom’s growing in our midst. That’s a bit of an abstract idea, though. I mean, it’s one thing to just say something like that. Anybody can say something like that about any organization at any time. The Titanic was proclaimed unsinkable right up to the moment that she hit that iceberg. So, let me pour a bit of concrete on that idea for us this morning. My hope and prayer is that in hearing all of this, you are left more excited about our future than you were when you walked in those doors a little while ago. 

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A Timely Invitation

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Happy New Year! As we get started on this brand-new adventure, we are going to spend a couple of weeks taking a look at what God has been doing in our midst and how we can experience more of that together. Part of experiencing more of that means honestly addressing the cultural situation we are facing. If we are going to grow God’s work in this culture, there is something specific we will need to commit ourselves to doing. Let’s talk about that today.

A Timely Invitation

The culture around us is changing. That’s a pretty bland start for a sermon, so let me explain what I mean. I mean, the culture around us is changing. Clearer now? In a sense, that’s always true no matter when or where we live. Culture is not a static thing. It is constantly moving and morphing and mutating from one thing to another. It ebbs and flows like the tides. Because of this, if you look at it in just the right light, it always appears we are on the precipice of a great shift even if in reality, we are sitting squarely in the middle of a movement. Of course, you can’t see that until long after the fact, so that’s not a terribly helpful observation in a given moment. 

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Grace Upon Grace

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Merry Christmas to you! Blessings to you and your family as you celebrate this special day together. We’ve been talking all this season about Jesus’ coming and the difference it makes in our lives and in our world. There’s one last wonder to marvel over together today: God sent Jesus to save us when we were still in our sins. We weren’t worthy of it. We didn’t deserve it. We hadn’t earned it. But He did it anyway as an act of pure grace. Let’s bask in the glory of that grace as we reflect together this morning on just how good this greatest of all gifts is. As one last note, this will be the only post this week. We’ll get back on our journey through Exodus starting in the new year. I’ll see you then!

Grace Upon Grace

This is a fun day, isn’t it? I mean, it’s Christmas Eve. Who wouldn’t be happy on a day like this? So, on this happy and joyous occasion, I thought we would take a little mental field trip. Doesn’t that sound exciting? Where are we going on this great and special day? Close your eyes for a moment, climb in the mental church van with me (the fun thing about mental field trips is that we can all fit in the same van together without anyone having to worry about being squished in the back), and let’s take a little drive over to one of yours and my favorite places to visit: the DMV. 

Anybody’s eyes pop back open in shock there? 

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