Doing God's work, one step at a time

The word discipline brings with it many presuppositions. We must discipline our children. We must discipline ourselves. We must practice the disciplines as Christians. Most commonly, we look at the word discipline as having negative connotations. Being disciplined is no fun…in fact, it’s hard work. Kids love to taddle on each other. I don’t know what it is about it, but for some reason, it seems to give them a satisfaction knowing that someone else is in trouble besides them. My girls are no different…it’s always a constant battle of Dad, she hit me! Mom, she’s spitting at me, she looked at me, she touched me! Sometimes, however, it is something much more serious; like playing with scissors, teasing the dog, throwing a cat, or running out in the middle of the street. When these come, it’s a serious matter that needs to be looked into. One time a schoolteacher wrote a note to go home with one of her students. The note read: “Dear, Mrs. Jones, your son, Jimmy, is a smart boy. He’s on

Every week I come up and preach about things we can improve on. Sometimes it’s hard even for me to hear the words that I say. As you know, I record the sermons so I can send them to those who didn’t attend, couldn’t attend or live far away. I also take time during the week to listen to the sermon for myself. Not only so I can improve my preaching, but because I need to hear every word I’m preaching too. But aside from the fact that we need to become better people, better in our devotion to God, obedience to his word and more loving to his children, sometimes we need to go back and hear a message of encouragement. Today’s sermon is just one of those messages. I pray as we explore this passage, your faith is renewed, the reason you came to Christ in the first place is reignited and the fire blazes once again. Today we are going to talk about faith. Open your Bibles to Galatians 2:11-21 and follow along with me! 11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he s

If I asked for a show of hands of people who loved Osama Bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (9/11 terror plot architect) and Mohammed Atta (the ringleader of the hijackers) I bet there wouldn’t be a single hand out there that went up. These three men were a part of the group that, 10 years ago, sent our nation cascading upside down. They caused the single most death and destruction in an attack on US soil in American history. These men were obviously not loved very much by Americans. Would you think I’m a terrorist if I told you that I weep for these men? The passage we’re going to read today commands us to love these men and other terrorists like them. We are told by none other than Jesus himself that we should love our enemies…not hate them. 43 "You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He causes His sun to rise on the

Have you ever felt like running away sometimes? Have you ever been going down a path that seemed like the right thing to do, only to find out you were headed in a direction you were never intended to go? A while back, Sherri was driving the girls to one appointment of many that day, naturally, she was trying to get to all the appointments on time with a fussy child in the back seat. Trying to calm her down and remember where this office was, her mind was going in too many directions at once. So, she was driving down the road and realized she just passed the parking lot for the doctor’s office she’s heading to. So, she quickly made a right turn on the road along the parking lot to get into the parking lot from a different direction. Unfortunately, with all the chaos her mind was experiencing, she did not realize the road she turned on was a ONE WAY STREET. Which would have been okay if she was going the direction of the ONE WAY street, but she was actually going towards the direction of