... know how excited we are at our house. That blessed event will take place here in the church at 4:00 on the afternoon of June 18, and we invite all of you to share in our joy on that occasion. As Kim and I have been working on the ceremony, Kim had ... And the only thing more mysterious than those particular questions are the specific vows the church invites the couple to make to each other. I, John, take thee Kim to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or ...
... then is not a condition but a process." (J. A. Davidson, Perspectives and Prejudices, "Christian: Noun or Adjective", Pulpit-Digest, July August 1983, page 18). So, it is a legitimate question: How Christian am I? How Christian are you? In an earlier sermon in this series on The ... his case with the Apostles, and gave him a job to do. "The same thing happened a few years later with John Mark. When Paul and Barnabas were a missionary team, Mark went along as a junior assistant. But, along the way, Mark ...
... -- boy, did we sing. And I read the passage from I Thessalonians, Chapter 4. Let me read a portion of that for you -- verses 13 - 18: "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do ... and new life. It took place in a primitive rural Baptist Church here in the South in which they still practice foot-washing. John Wallhausen was there and told the story: "Delmar always sits in the front row. His body is crippled. He sits on the ...
... because Abraham has been chosen to do righteousness and justice and he must know." Listen to the Lord speak to Abraham (v. 20 of chapter 18): "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have ... for the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Men like Thomas Jefferson, Samuel and John Adams, James Madison, George Washington, Patrick Henry and Alexander Hamilton were enormously influenced by the moral and ...
... small Presbyterian church, a woman lingered near the back of the building. Obviously, she had some agenda. She confessed that her 18-year-old daughter had given birth to a child out of wedlock. She added reluctantly, "Well, it should be baptized, ... were standing with the young mother. Tears of joy coursed down her cheeks. The scripture lesson read earlier in the service was from 1 John 4:"See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God . . . If we love one another, God abides ...
... at ages 2 and 4 were in a near-fatal auto crash. In the same year her son Sterling suffered three heart attacks. Then on March 18, 1991, her youngest son Peter, at the age of 27, and having battled chronic depression for 10 long years, walked to a pond about a mile ... , there came another blow that almost crushed the life and faith out of her. She received the horrifying news that her son John, a cabinetmaker who loved to play the violin, and his wife Nancy, a woman who came from a closely knit farm family ...
... captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. -- vv. 18, 19 Then, sitting down in the manner of a rabbinical leader, he declared, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (v. 21 ... of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world" (John 4:42). By God's grace, we ought to be able to speak in the same way. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of our human ...
... the beauty of the earth (3:11), food and drink and prosperity (10:19; 9:7), and wise and proper government (10:16-17). But above all, enjoy the work that God has given you to do (2:24; 3:22; 5:18-20), as verse 13 of our text says, for the "night comes, when no one can work" (John 9:4), even death. Ecclesiastes is also a humble book, however, and in verse 11 of our text, it sets forth the traditional Wisdom teaching that finally human beings cannot know everything. Above all, they cannot know all the ways of ...
... to stay in the pastorate, Ben reflected on the life of Christ. Then his eyes fell on this verse from the New Testament: John 17:4. At the end of his life Jesus declared, “I have finished the work I was sent to do.” Suddenly Ben ... Harper Stevens, UniversityUnitedMethodistChurch, www.chapelhilluumc.org/clientImages/25311/Sermons/humblecourage.pdf. 2. (Nashville, TN: Everywhere Press, 1998), p. 18. 3. Tim Hoerr, Thank God It’s Monday! (Nashville, TN: Everywhere Press, 1998, p. 32). 4. Craddock Stories ...
... also. The end to which we move in our thirst for holiness is purity of heart. The Puritan divines labeled this heart-work. John Flavel, a 17th century English Puritan, put it in this perspective: the “greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to ... in 1968 to about 47% today. Are we going to them? Seventy million individuals in the United States are under the age of 18. Are we going to them? Nearly one million foreign-born people immigrate to this country every year. Are we going to them? Thirty- ...
... kind of days in which you are called to exercise your ministry. In a recent international conference on preaching, John Stott said, “In today’s culture, you cannot be a popular preacher, and faithful.” I think he is right ... other of God’s say-sos . . . so vital to you personally and so absolutely essential in your proclamation of the Gospel. In Isaiah 1:18, God said, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Because ...
... to drop off any items that they had stolen over the years. Rust was inspired by the example of British pastor J. John, who placed such bins in his own church. The response has been surprising. The week after Rust’s sermon on the eighth ... you have been carrying and handing it over to God. “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow . . .” (Isaiah 1:18) It is interesting to me that the closer one feels to Christ, the more acutely aware one may be of his or her sinfulness. Bad people ...
... Saul. You remember the story. The crowds chanted, “Saul has killed his thousands; David has killed his ten thousands.” (I Samuel 18:7) And Saul was consumed with envy and hatred. He chased David all over the wilderness, seeking to take his life. On ... David, let our religion affect how we regard those who would do us wrong. The whole world might be changed. 1. John A. Redhead, Jr., The Past Speaks to the Future--50 Years of the Protestant Hour (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995). 2. Newsweek, April 24, 1995, ...
... God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong” (Mark 12:18-27). The Futility of Self-diagnosis Not too long ago I had a physical ailment. Like any red-blooded American male, I knew what was ... to open His life to you and give you life, for our Savior said, “…‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death’” (John 8:52). In Jesus there is strength for those whose unbelief has denied them access to the power of God. For those with no ...
... medicine. We may need to hear the disturbing stories of Deborah and Jael to shake us out of our complacency and realize that we can do more than we think. As we do what we have to do to fight injustice, God is with us. 1. Clinton McCann, Judges (Louisville: John Knox Press, 2002), pp. 18-19. 2. Brent Salsgiver, "Setting Captives Free," Christian Social Action 15.6 (November/December 2002), pp. 3-7.
... for peace, but, as Paul said, "If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all" (Romans 12:18). The next step is actually to become a peacemaker. Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God" ( ... to him and the words that say, in German, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32). The chapel itself is a witness to the possibility of reconciliation. In a few weeks, when we again hear the scriptures read in ...
... hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world - therefore the world hates you" (John 15:18-19). Be ready for abuse. It comes with the territory. Remember that unless some are willing to pay the price of taking decisive action, history will stagnate or be taken captive by those who are willing to pay the price. Unless we, who are committed to the loving ...
... he was single-minded and thus he over-emphasized some things, and he neglected other things. So other reformers came along like John Wesley, the founder of our tradition, to build on Martin Luther. It may be that the world Luther helped to create, which ... is believed by historians that when he was living in Eisenach with his aunt, he developed his talent for music. When Luther was 18, his father sent him to the University at Erfurt. In those days it was the most prestigious university in Germany. Luther went ...
... the world. However, if we are honest, our motivation for communal prayer may be less clear and altruistic. We should recall the famous parable of the publican and the sinner (Luke 18:9-14). Jesus was very clear that the rich publican, while he did all for show on the outside, was unacceptable to God, while the sinner, who realized his faults ... will one day find God and eternal life. 1. Paraphrased from "Joseph's Ark," in John Aurelio's Colors! Stories of the Kingdom (New York: Crossroad, 1993), pp. 68-69.
... to Guyana, where he could wait for the end-times by creating a community that would live as if the end-times had already occurred. On November 18, 1978, Jim Jones and 911 of his followers ended their end-times waiting by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Other apocalyptic communities, from Mother Ann Lee's Shakers to John Humphrey Noyes' Oneida Community, sublimated their end-times energies into crafting Shaker furniture and Oneida silverware. Jesus' words to his disciples this morning warns us against such ...
... into the spiritual system. But Jesus goes on to add another layer of redundancy to this Greatest Commandment by citing Leviticus 19:18: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Genuine love itself is a redundant system of feedback loops. Anyone who seeks to ... different, unique accounts of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection? Why do we have multiple epistles--letters from Paul, John, James, Titus, Peter--each one an early disciple with a repeating, unrelenting, redundant message of God's abundant ...
... Christ. Using a unique phrase the Pauline text implores these Ephesians to know this truth "with the eyes of your heart enlightened" (verse 18). One of the most popular praise songs of recent years has been "Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord" (1997, CCLI Song No. ... look, there are people who are throwing in the towel or at least hitting our hope with wet blankets. Here's John Peterson, of the W. Alton Jones Foundation: "A hundred or more novel chemicals are swilling around in our bloodstream, chemicals which, ...
... they will lay hands on you and persecute you” (v.12), language that recalls Jesus’ own fate (Luke 9:44; 18:32; Acts 8:3). Likewise, Jesus declares that both the religious and political authorities will participate in these persecutions, for “ ... power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that his speechless opponents were “not able to resist his wisdom.” Likewise, when John and Peter confront the opposition in Acts 4:14, those adversaries found they “had nothing to contradict.” But you can win and ...
... planning appears almost embarrassingly transparent to our twenty-first century savvy sensibilities. Quite obviously James and John could never have mastered some of the more Machiavellian machinations that define corporate structures and hierarchies ... illustrating that the hand and the heart must be bound together. It has been said that the greatest distance in the universe is the 18 inches that separate the head and the heart. Let's see if we can travel that distance. [Put your hand on your head, and then ...
... them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.” (2) John Lennon of the Beatles was a searcher. He never completely found what he was looking for, and it’s easy to see why. Remember his song ... 1999 MercyMe. 4. Contributed. Source: Time magazine, 1‑24‑2000, p. 18. Cited by Help 4 Sunday/Whirlwind Resources. 5. Cited by Rev. Richard E. Stetler, http://www.stmatthews‑bowie.org/Worship/Sermons/2004/sermon_09_26_04. ...