Tag: Sermons

However You Want It

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This past Sunday we continued in our series, Bible Stories to Make You Squirm. In this fourth part we looked at a story that’s hard, not because of something God does, but because of how utterly depraved we are. What do we do with a disturbing story that ends in a hopeless place like this? Keep reading to find out.

However You Want It

Film makers are creative folks.  They are artists.  Some of them cross the line over into being artistes.  Usually those are the ones who give us films that nobody goes to see unless they consider themselves fellow artistes.  The rest of us just like movies.  But, because they are generally artists, they are creative.  They don’t like making the same movie over and over and over again if they can help it.  But, when the culture likes a certain type of movie—superhero movies at the moment—they have to make the films that will attract the dollars that will allow them to make more movies.  Occasionally though, someone will get an idea that goes well outside the box of the norm while still within the general parameters of what people will pay to see. 

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A Letter to My Sons

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This past Sunday was Father’s Day. As a dad myself, it was a chance to get a bit reflective. What would I tell my three boys if I had the chance? Here’s what I said.

A Letter to My Sons

There are occasions in our lives that prompt us to do some deep thinking.  For me at least, days like today are one of those times.  As I was preparing for this morning, I began thinking about what I would like to say to my sons if I had the chance.  You know, one of those deep, parental wisdom speeches that they won’t want to sit and listen to until I’m lying on my death bed and they’re hanging on my every word.  As I grow in my experience as a parent and Noah and Josiah and Micah grow up some of what I have to say to them will probably change, but hopefully not much.  As it turns out, there isn’t children’s church scheduled for today which means they’re stuck in here and have to listen to this.  Well…I can’t make them listen—when I figure that out I’ll let you know just after I patent it and retire—but they’re at least going to be in the room while I’m saying it.  Anyway, as something a bit different this morning, I’ll let you in my head and heart for a few minutes and then we’ll all go out and celebrate Father’s Day together. 

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The Cleansing Flood

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This week we continued our series, Bible Stories to Make You Squirm, by looking at one of the most well-known stories in the whole Bible. What could possibly be problematic about a story that every knows and is used in baby nurseries all over the place? When you look more closely, a whole lot. But, when we look more closely, as before, we’ll find that there’s more here than meet’s the eye. Keep reading to see how this all unfolds.

The Cleansing Flood

Have you ever gone back as an adult and watched a TV show you remembered from your childhood only for it to seem like a totally different show than you remembered? Over the years with our boys I’ve tried a few times to take them back into my childhood with some of the cartoons I loved to watch. Some of these have been enduring classics like Looney Toons or Tom and Jerry. Scooby-Doo was a hit for a while with them. But on occasion, as I have tuned into something with them, I’ve been left wondering what my parents were thinking letting me watch this or that. More probably they just didn’t know I was watching it.

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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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