Doing God's work, one step at a time

You can’t just pick and choose what parts of the Bible you want to believe; it’s either all or nothing! How many times have you heard that saying? This week, I was on Facebook and ran across something on someone’s wall. Actually…multiple somethings on their wall. Seeing this led me to an actual web page on Facebook called “Religion Poison’s Everything”. On this page was a picture of someone holding up a sign quoting Scripture. (show photo) By the way, this is being held up at a protest wanting to allow gay marriage. What they are trying to do is use Scripture to point out things that we are apparently ‘cherry picking’ to quote what we believe. When we look at Scripture, we can’t ‘cherry pick’ them to prove what we want. We must look into the context and be sure of the true meaning behind what we are studying. If we do it correctly, the Truth comes out. Anyone can make any Scripture say what they want. Getting the Truth however, takes time. Today, our Scripture is going to be Galati...

Before you kiddo’s disappear to Children’s Church, I have a question for you. How many of you are scared of the dark? It’s ok to raise your hand, I know two that should go up immediately. I was terrified of the dark as a kid. Still am. Just for kicks, how many adults are willing to admit they are scared of the dark? What is it about the dark that kids are scared of? What makes you scared of the dark? What is it about the light that is comforting? One of the replies I’ve heard is that you can see what’s going on. Do you ever have the feeling that something is watching you or following you? It’s a creepy feeling. That’s what I feel when I am walking in the dark…outside or inside…more prominently inside. That is the best way for me to explain to you what I feel in the dark. I feel like someone or something is following me. It’s just eerie. Today in our Scripture, Paul talks about being sons of the day vs. sons of the night or darkness. It’s going to be 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. If you w...

“Take the Moral High Road.” How many times in life have you heard that saying? Well in my family, we hear it a lot. Just take the moral high road. If you respond to them, you’ll only lower yourself to their standards. Believe it or not, when I was a kid, I got teased a lot. I was constantly being made fun of for one thing or another. In grade school, it was how I was dressed and the grades I got. In middle school I had braces and just gotten glasses. In high school, I was on the golf team and in the band, which in my town was considered nerdy. I was constantly being razzed, ripped on and ridiculed. On the other hand, I had lots of friends too. I quickly became accustomed to hearing my parents say the words, “Ryan, just take the moral high road. Don’t give in, don’t be mean back because you’ll only lower yourself to their level.” As a kid, it’s not what you want to hear. I mean, I didn’t even fully understand what that meant. All I knew was that I wanted to retaliate. But better judgmen...

If I said that forgiveness is hard, I bet everyone would agree with me. Forgiveness isn’t something that we should take lightly either. It is an important factor in our walk in Christian faith. When the Moravian missionaries first went to the Eskimos, they could not find a word in their language for forgiveness, so they had to compound one. It turned out to be the word Issumagijoujungnainermik. It is a horribly formidable looking assembly of letters. To you and me, it looks like gibberish. But it is actually an expression that has a beautiful connotation for those who understand it. It means: “Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore.” Forgiveness even in our language doesn’t do enough justice to the action that it requires. It can be the hardest thing for us to do. Today we are going to tackle this subject. Matthew 18:21-35 is our Scripture for this morning. Turn there, and we will read. "21 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how many times could my brother s...

On my mom’s side of the family, holding grudges is common practice. For that reason, I haven’t spoken to my mom’s parents in 20 years. Not by my choosing initially, because they choose to write us off. But after a while, I began to grow the same attitude back. These days, I have no idea whether or not the grudge is still there from them to us…but I know I have to be careful in my attitude and thinking, because it can still rear its ugly head because of the pain of the past. Holding a grudge is a dangerous thing. It’s contagious and an evil practice. Not only that, the guilt that lives within can destroy a person. Today’s sermon is a two part sermon. We’ll talk today about holding grudges and next week, we’ll look into the solution for grudges; forgiveness. Our scripture for today is Genesis 50:15-21. If you would, please read along with me. 15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, "If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he w...

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...