Tag: Sermons

Passing the Torch

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Yesterday was Mother’s Day and if you have a mom in your life, I hope you celebrate her with gusto. She deserves it. We celebrated moms in our own way here at First Baptist Oakboro including this conversation about how we can structure our families in such a way as to make the passing on of the faith from one generation to the next a safer bet than it sometimes is. Keep reading to find out how.

Passing the Torch

One of the national highlights when a particular country gets to host the Olympic Games is the Olympic Torch.  Each Olympics, the climax of the opening ceremonies is the lighting of the Olympic Torch.  The main flame is always lit by a smaller torch that has usually been on a journey across the host nation.  It has been passed from runner-to-runner, hand-to-hand, until it arrives at the Opening Ceremony and accomplishes its intended aim.  The journey the torch takes, though, is not one that any single runner could accomplish as a solo venture.  It must be handed off or it will eventually fall to the ground.  Our lives are a little like that.  We can only carry ourselves and the things that are important to us so far before they have to be passed on to someone else.  If we don’t, everything we count as dear will eventually fall to the ground and be left there where it will eventually be trampled and forgotten.  Now, just because we have designs on passing what’s important to us on to the generation that follows doesn’t guarantee a smooth or easy passing, but making no such plans guarantees that nothing will happen.  

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You Want Me to Do What?

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This past Sunday we kicked off a brand-new teaching series called, Bible Stories to Make You Squirm. If you are the kind of person who believes the Scriptures should have some kind of a place of authority in your life, you are left with a thorny problem: There are some stories in there that are just downright uncomfortable. If they are there on purpose and for our benefit, what are we supposed to do with them? In this series, we’ll explore several of these hard stories and begin to see that all Scripture really is for our benefit. Even the hard stuff.

You Want Me to Do What?

Have you ever watched or read something that just wasn’t good?  It’s not necessarily that it was bad, it just wasn’t good.  You just didn’t enjoy it.  I remember watching Adam Sandler’s Punch Drunk Love when I was in college.  If you’ve never heard of it, you’re better off for that.  It’s a dark comedy about a socially awkward guy falling in love.  It was awful.  The credits rolled and all of us gathered in my friend’s living room watching it looked around at each other and as almost the same time said, “We can’t have that two hours of life back.”  I remember reading Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court when I was growing up.  A book combining science fiction and medieval adventure should have been an easy winner.  It was all I could do to not put it down and find something better to read.  If I wasn’t such a perfectionist about finishing books I probably would have.  The thing about reading a book or watching a movie that isn’t good is that you can always just walk out.  There are some stories, though, that are harder to ignore. 

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So What Is a Baptist Church Anyway?

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This past Sunday we spent some time talking about who we are as a church. What does it mean that we are a Baptist church? What is it that sets Baptist churches apart from others? Keep reading to find out.

So What Is a Baptist Church Anyway?

Have you ever stood in line for something without really knowing what the line was for?  You just saw a bunch of people standing in line and figured it was the right place to be?  Maybe you were at a theme park somewhere and thought the line was for a particular ride, but you weren’t totally sure.  Did you ever get to the front of the line only to discover that you really meant to be somewhere else?  One time Lisa and I went to a concert and did this.  We arrived, saw a line, and promptly jumped in it.  As it turned out it was the will call line and we already had our tickets.  Fortunately, a nice staff member came out and sent everybody over to the correct line before we had waited very long. 

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The Resurrection Changes Everything

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Yesterday was Easter Sunday. Resurrection Sunday! We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead in style at First Baptist Oakboro. I wish you could have been there with us. Using the words of the apostle Paul to the believers in ancient Corinth as our guide, we spent some time reflecting on just why the resurrection is such a big deal. Also, this is running earlier today than it usually does and is in place of the usual Morning Musing. This will be the only post this week. It’s Spring Break in our house and we are enjoying some time away. See you next Monday!

The Resurrection Changes Everything

So, I love Monty Python.  That may tell some of you more about me than you wanted to know.  Meanwhile, others of you are thinking, “Who’s Monty Python?”  Monty Python was a British sketch comedy troupe popular in the 1970s.  The most famous member is comedian John Cleese, who has since had a pretty good film career in a whole variety of movies.  In addition to several different TV series, they also released a handful of movies.  The most well-known of these was Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Personally, I’ve watched that one enough times that it’s not very much fun to watch it with me because I say most of the lines right along with the actors all while laughing hysterically.  You can borrow my copy if I’ve gotten you curious.  In any event, one of their most famous sketches is called “The Spanish Inquisition.”  Let me play a little clip of this for you. 

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Full Contentment

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Having a life of meaning available to us is one thing. Living a life of meaning is something else. One can lead to the other, but the connection is not automatic. In this final installment in our series, Finding Meaning, we talk about the secret of not just having, but living a life filled with meaning and purpose. Keep reading to find out as we wrap up this thought-provoking journey.

Full Contentment

One of the things I have actively encouraged you guys to be doing is spending daily time in the Scriptures.  This is something I’ll keep encouraging and keep encouraging and keep encouraging because of how utterly transformational this practice is to the life of faith.  You simply cannot be a consistent, faithful follower of Jesus without regularly engaging with the Word of God.  It’s just not how it was designed to work.  And so you know that I’m not just saying you should be doing this without actually doing it myself, this past week I was working my way through Genesis 2-3 and I read something there that when I sat down to start working on this message came rushing to the front of my brain.  It was one of those cool times when God makes a connection between two different ideas in the Scriptures written by different authors living in different cultures separated by centuries of time that you just wouldn’t have made without Him.  The original thought struck me enough that you may have seen it on my blog this past week if you follow me there.  All of those entries, by the way, come out of my own quiet time.  If you ever want to know what I’m reading at the moment, it’s all right there for you.  I just want you to know that I’m in this with you. 

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