living for eternity today

Tag: Sermon (Page 2 of 3)

Dandelions don’t produce apples

Ok so that title is a little odd but if you think about it for a second and give me a few paragraphs I’ll hopefully explain.

As a pastor I believe that many people think they can become more like Jesus if they’re close to Jesus people. We can go to church or even memorize a bible verse or two. But we don’t really want to go through any major shift in our way of thinking or living.

There’s a story in the Bible where Jesus says I am the vine, you are the branches. This is pretty powerful. He doesn’t say I am the vine, all you need to do is be close. We are the branches. We need to be connected to the vine. All too often we act like a dandelion planted by an apple tree and expect to be able to produce apples. Dandelions just don’t produce apples!

And if we’re comfortable being near Jesus but not changed by Him, then we will never bear fruit for him either. Jesus says that for us to bear fruit we need to be connected to His word. That means we need to dive into, drink deeply from the message of the Bible. It’s not enough to be comfortable with a little being enough. It’s not ok to think we’ve spent enough time with Jesus or to excuse our time with Jesus because we weren’t feeling into it.

If you’re feeling like a dandelion planted by an apple tree then it’s time to start drinking deeply of the water of life. Fill yourself with the things of God. Read his word. Worship in person if at all possible. Surround yourself with people who bring you peace.

I pray this message is helpful for you as you attempt to connect with the things of God that you might produce the fruits of God to reach the people of God.

The Final Four

How To Stop Your Family Life Becoming A Battle Ground — NOT SO SMUG NOW

I’m pretty sure there are times in all of our lives when we get something so engrained into our minds that it’s hard to see it differently. Well this week I had a bit of an Aha moment. The lightbulb really went on for me when I was looking at some things I’ve seen a million times before. So why didn’t I get this one until now?

If you’ve ever heard of these things in the Bible called the 10 Commandments, then I would venture to guess that you’ve probably fallen into the same mindset when you think about them. But I’d like to stretch your mind a little, and help you see them from a little different angle.

Well, this week we were looking at the four remaining commandments in our series when it dawned on me. These all have a similar focus. Admittedly, their topics are not related at all but when you lay them side by side they really all deal with contentment.

Contentment is a tricky monster. It’s so easy to fall into the comparison game. But the danger of comparison is that we lose contentment. Take a few minutes and listen to this week’s message to where you fall on the contentment scale.

The Final Word: Fulfilled

In this week’s message we spent time looking again at the final word of Jesus from the cross. Through Lent we often pick around at the seven last words of Jesus, but this year we look at just one word. The word in Greek is tetelestai, which means it is finished. The amazing part of this word is that when we really break it down, this word has 6 different meanings for us today. Each week in this series we’ll look at a different meaning of this simple yet profound word.

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Betraying Eyes

Throughout the season of Lent, those 40 days leading up to Easter, we gather on Wednesday nights for an extra time of worship and contemplation. Generally we take a theme of sorts and weave these weeks together. At the church I serve, we are journeying through the moments of Jesus’ life and looking at significant events through different eyes. This week we see things through eyes of betrayal.

It’s not a fun idea, I know! No one wants to be known for betraying anyone, much less betraying God. This week we take a look at a man named Judas. He is best known as the one who handed Jesus over to be arrested and killed. Judas traded Jesus for a friendly kiss on the cheek. How awful is that!

What would cause a man who followed Jesus so closely for a little over three years to turn on this man so quickly and for seemingly so little pay? What would make him do this? And how would Jesus react when it happened?

These are the questions we address in our Eyes on Jesus series focusing on Betraying Eyes. Take a few minutes and listen as we unpack the night when Jesus was betrayed and see just how Jesus will respond to this horrific moment.

The Final Word: Accomplished

The weeks leading up to Easter are known by church people as the season of Lent. This time of year consists of the 40 days, not including Sundays, that go from Ash Wednesday up to Easter morning. The purpose of this time of year is to provide time for reflection and mediation and a re-centering of our lives around what’s most important.

Let’s admit it. By now the diligent work you started back in January with those New Year’s resolutions is for many of you a thing of the past. It’s great to have a quick check in time here in the first few months of the year to get us back on track again. Lent could very well be that time to help you refocus on the things that are most important.

Through these weeks of Lent at Living Word Galena, where I serve as pastor, we’re focusing on what Greek word. It was a word that Jesus spoke while on the cross. As a matter of fact, it was the final word that Jesus spoke from the cross. That word is tetelestai. It’s a funny sounding word but it simply means it is finished. But more than just it is finished there are six different angles we can take when evaluating this word. Each week through the season of Lent, we’ll look at another one of these perspectives of it is finished and see what that means for us today.

This week our focus was on the idea of accomplished. What did Jesus accomplish for us? Why did he need to accomplish it? What does it mean for our lives today that Jesus did what he did? The short version of this message is that back in the Garden of Eden when Adam ate that forbidden fruit, he really jacked up life for all of us. He sinned and his sin made me a sinner. I know it sounds crazy but check out the message to hear more. But more than Adam making me a sinner is the reminder from our message:

What Adam did in the fall, Jesus undid on the cross. Share on X

So there you have it. Jesus accomplished something far better than Adam ruined. Give the message a listen and join us each week as we look at another aspect of what it means that Jesus finished it on the cross.

What Mr. Bill Taught Me About The Magi

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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Adventually Love

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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Why Was Jesus Called The Word?

In the start of the Gospel of John, we read a peculiar little account. But before we dig into the meaning of the first few verses of this book, let’s take a quick glance at why this book exists in the first place. In the New Testament of the Bible there are four letters known as Gospels. These four books account for the life of Jesus from different perspectives. They certainly say the same thing just with different thrusts. Matthew is writing to Jewish people who were expecting a king so he writes mostly about what Jesus said. Mark is writing to Roman people who saw Jesus do some pretty amazing things, so he’ll focus on what Jesus did. Luke writes to a guy named Theophilus, and he’ll spend his account focusing on what Jesus felt. And not to be left out, John writes to anyone and everyone, and he’ll focus on who Jesus was.

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You get what you deserve!

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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Red Letter – Forgiving

It’s a simple fact that I can’t give away someone I haven’t first received. I have to have it in order to give it away. I know that sounds pretty simple but so often we fail at sharing something because we haven’t properly invested in it ourselves. This week at Living Word Galena, we talked about forgiveness. The idea was that I’m only going to forgive as much as I’ve been forgiven. If I don’t value my own forgiveness, then I’m not going to forgive others well.

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