Tag: Sermons

The Life of a Servant

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What does it mean to serve the Lord?  Have you ever really thought about that?  Followers of Jesus are told we are to serve Him, but we don’t often think about the details.  As we continue our series, The Characters of Christmas, Mary’s story gives us a pretty comprehensive picture.  Check this out to see what the picture of serving the Lord looks like.  

The Life of a Servant

So, last week we looked at the story of Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah that his barren wife would conceive and give birth to a son.  In this, we saw that God’s promises are not fulfilled solely by the boldly miraculous or the faith superheroes, but instead, are made manifest when God moves in the lives of people very much like you and me. I have to think that the story of Zechariah’s encounter with Gabriel in the Temple would have spread pretty quickly. I mean, as far as we know, God had not spoken in a public way to His people in about 400 years at that point. Let’s be honest: We have trouble imagining 400 years period.  Four hundred years is just about how long there have been permanent, successful colonies of Europeans in North America.  Jamestown isn’t that far from here.  You can go up to Williamsburg and see the remnants of that very first settlement in 1607.  It’s a pretty neat museum and recreation. 

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Worship and Surrender

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In this fourth part of our series, Pursue: Chasing God in a Godless World, we move in a direction that is perhaps unexpected given the assumptions of our culture.  When Asa and the people were busily moving in the direction of God against the grain of the culture around them they did something most people wouldn’t have done then or now.  As for what this is and what it means for us, keep reading to find out.

 

Worship and Surrender

Have you ever used a Chinese finger trap?  Unless you’ve spent the last 30 minutes stuck in it and are waiting to get loose, grab the one you were handed this morning as you came in.  Go ahead and stick your fingers in it.  Now, try and pull them out.  The natural reaction when you stick your fingers in and can’t immediately slide them back out is to pull harder.  But, as perhaps you have already discovered, pulling harder won’t get your fingers out of the trap.  There are times in life like that, aren’t there?  Times when more pressure isn’t going to get the job done.  There are situations in which we have to learn to stop fighting if we’re going to manage to get anywhere good. Read the rest…

Live Courageously

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This past Sunday we ventured into part three of our teaching series, Pursue: Chasing God in a Godless World.  One of the truths we need to embrace if we’re going to do that is that sometimes it’s hard to do.  So, what do we call it when someone does the right thing even though it’s hard?  Keep reading to find out.

Live Courageously

Our culture loves heroes.  Superhero movies have always been popular, but the last few years have seen their profiles rise to epic proportions.  For many moviegoers, the wait for the next Marvel film is agonizing.  I recently read a quote from Kevin Smith, a director popular among the nerd culture, who said that given the choice, he would rather see the next Avengers movie than direct another movie ever again.  This past Wednesday evening I couldn’t even begin to count how many little superheroes I saw running around here.  Since the year 2,000, sixteen of the 40 highest grossing films have been about super-powered individuals in one way or another.  If you add films about heroes more generally (like Star Wars or Harry Potter) that number goes up 28 and you could probably make a good case for adding a few more to that list. Read the rest…

Calling on God

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In this second part of our new series, Pursue: Chasing God in a Godless World, we deal with a bit of reality.  The reality is that sometimes we get as prepared as we can be for the challenges that a godless world might throw into our paths as followers of Jesus and they just don’t seem to matter.  What are we supposed to do when that happens?  Keep reading to find out.

Calling on God

Do you remember a time when you felt completely overwhelmed by some situation you were facing?  Now, it’s one thing to feel like that when you came into a situation totally unprepared.  But it’s a bit scarier when you have prepared really well.  It’s scary to realize the challenge is going to be even beyond what you thought it might. Read the rest…

Pursue Godliness

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This past Sunday we kicked off a brand-new series called Pursue: Chasing God in a Godless World.  For the next few weeks, with the story of King Asa in 2 Chronicles 14-16 as our guide, we’re going to talk about this very thing.  How can we be bold followers of Jesus in a culture where such a thing isn’t nearly as acceptable as it once was?  In this first part we lay the foundation for what follows.  If we’re going to run after Jesus, it’s going to take looking like God.  Thanks for reading.

Pursue Godliness

This past week was an anniversary of sorts, although probably not one you’ve ever heard of before.  Fifty-five years ago this past Friday, Walter Ciszek was released from prison in Soviet Russia and returned to the United Stated after more than 20 years in captivity.  As a young man in the 1930s, Ciszek, a Catholic, felt a call to ministry.  Specifically, he felt a call to the mission field.  So, stepping out on his faith, Ciszek headed for the U.S.S.R.  He was in Poland training for the work to which he had been called when Russia invaded.  Recognizing how perilous was the situation he was facing in Poland, Ciszek did what any bold, young missionary would do in his position, he head further east to serve in the Ural Mountains in central Russia.  In 1941, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison—much of it in solitary confinement.  While serving this sentence, he was sentenced to an additional 15 years in the Gulag, several years of which included hard labor.  Even once his hard labor term was complete, however, he was still held as a prisoner, now forced to work as a mechanic. Read the rest…