Our first sermon series of the year is about losing more of ourselves so that we can get more of Jesus. We typically start our year with resolutions and goals and empty promises. But if you’re like most of America, you’ve already given up on those resolutions and replaced them with the same old way of doing life.
Continue readingCategory: Messages (Page 12 of 41)
Today is Epiphany and it was one of Mr. Bill’s favorite days of the year! If you’re not sure what Epiphany is give me a minute and I’ll explain. But first Mr. Bill was a great friend and my personal mentor. He walked with me through some pretty rough stuff and always pushed me to be stronger in my faith. Unfortunately for me he was called to heaven a couple of years ago. It’s unfortunate for me because there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of the impact this man had on my preaching and teaching. But it’s so fortunate for him because he is where he longed to be! He’s living the Epiphany life!
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Why do we celebrate Christmas? Why do we gather around a tree with our family and give each other gifts? Why is it ok for a large man in a red suit to invite children to sit on his lap and no one finds that wrong? Why is it that we tend to fill our churches on Christmas more than on the Sunday after Christmas? This week in our Adventually series we address the idea of love by asking the question why.
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As children we focused on getting presents! And it really was all about the presents and the bows and the stockings and the fun new toys. But as I got older, I started to act like Christmas was still about the presents. Just in a little different way. I started to treat Christmas like it was all about how much I could give to my family and friends at Christmas time. But that’s not the point either.
Continue readingThis year as we journey toward Christmas we are looking at Christmas from different angles. Our theme is It’s all about the presence. Yes I know. It’s a fun play on words. But it should get us thinking a bit. We live in a world that thinks Christmas is all about the presents when in actuality they’re just a few letters off! So if Christmas is all about the presence, can we have Christmas without all of the normal stuff?
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It’s pretty easy to give words to Jesus. It’s way to simple to twist the words of the Bible to make them say just about anything we want. Over the past few weeks we’ve touched on just a couple of these statements that Jesus never said but we kind of think he said. The goal of the series was to show that we should be glad Jesus never actually said them! This week we wrapped up the series with the realization that life isn’t fair and that’s probably a good thing!
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Growing up I went to church just about every Sunday. I didn’t have an option. My parents even made me acolyte (fun church word for light the candles). The pastor asked me to read the readings when no one else was around to do them. And over and over the message that was taught, often unknowingly, was that the more time we spent with Jesus the better our lives would become. This message has gotten so prevelant that pastors are preaching it and writing books about how to have our best life now with little mention of Jesus anywhere at all!
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I still remember the day. I was driving from Cincinnati back to Marysville and I was going down State Route 38 almost to London. When around the curve he came. It was a State Highway Patrol doing his job but man I really didn’t want to see him that day. I was traveling at a slightly elevated rate of speed (very politically correct way of saying I was speeding). And as soon as I saw him I knew it. I felt that feeling we get when we’ve been caught. It’s when the heart jumps into our throat and we just want to vomit. Then it happened, his lights turned on and he did a u-turn right there in the middle of that two lane road. Ugh! I was caught. Remorse set in.
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This week is a pretty special week for those of us who are in the Lutheran Church world. This week, if you’re following a church calendar of any kind, you’ll notice was the week of the reformation. Now this isn’t something we go around talking about everyday so perhaps a quick history lesson is in order.
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We’re five weeks into his series now and things are really getting exciting with the Red Letter Challenge! Just a few short days left and a Sunday of celebration and the challenge is done. But I’d be remiss if we didn’t address what this whole thing has been about to begin with. I mean if I’m being honest it all comes down to this week in my mind. This is kind of the pinnacle of the entire series.
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