Object: Some barbells or some kind of weight-lifting equipment. Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to learn some very important ways to teach others about God and Jesus. I brought along with me some exercise weights that I know you have seen before. [Hold up one of the weights.] Do you know what people use something like this for? [Let them answer.] That's right, they use weights like this to make themselves strong. Every day someone takes this and lifts it a lot of times until their arms and ...
If the truth be known, most of us would have to admit that we walk a very fine line between believing and not believing. There are times in our lives when, yes, we do seem to believe all these things we say about God when we read the Bible and sing the hymns in our own churches. There are even times when we’d say, yes, we feel close to God, whatever that means. But there are also those desert times in our lives when we wonder whether or not we believe any of it at all anymore: God, Jesus, the church, ...
(Note: perhaps I should preface this sermon with a brief explanation for Web page readers of the events which occurred in the week preceding the writing – specifically, on one particular day of that week. A long-time church member – a dear, sweet lady in her late 70’s – had been hospitalized with a severe infection. While in the intensive care ward of the local hospital, she suffered cardiac arrest. The attending physician was able to get her heart restarted, but only after a delay of several minutes. ...
"You will not want for yourself your neighbor’s house; you will not want for yourself your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s." Exodus 20:17 With this Commandment we come to the end of the "Words" that God spoke to his people at Sinai. The warning that he gave that we should not long to have for ourselves that which belongs to our neighbors serves to cap off, and bring to a conclusion, this handful of directions for living. We ...
We thought you might like to see the oral style in which Wayne Brouwer prepares his messages. INTRODUCTION (1) In 1976, Gail Sheehy wrote a book about the changes we go through in our lives. She called it Passages (Bantam, 1977). And it opens with a scene from one of the most terrible days in her life. She was a news reporter in Northern Ireland. She’d been sent there to write a story about the women: what they were doing; how they were coping with life in the middle of a war zone. She says she was ...
Everybody who thinks you could have done better than James or John, raise your hands. "If I worked up the nerve to ask Jesus to do anything I ask him to," most of us probably think, "I'd have done a lot better than their lame-brained request. Sitting next to Jesus when he comes into his glory -- what nerve! I'd have asked for something much more worthy -- an end to war, or a cure for cancer, or at least for wisdom. Good grief, what was Jesus thinking when he recruited those two?" Maybe we should call it ...
A young man who had made it big had been away from home a long time traveling to exotic places all over the world. He had not been very attentive to his widowed mother. His conscience began to bother him and he decided to do something about it. He sent her a unique gift, a rare South American parrot for which he'd paid $1200. Well, time went by. Two weeks, three weeks, and he heard nothing. And the fourth week he called. When he got his mom on the phone he said, "Did you get the bird I sent you?" "Oh yes ...
Some things that happen in our world just ought not to happen. A mother decides that she does not want her newborn baby, so she wraps it in a blanket and leaves it beside a rural road. Fortunately, the baby is found by someone passing by before it dies but the ants have already begun to bite it. A community puts its trust in a man and elects him to public office. Then he uses his position to enrich himself by taking bribes and favoring the businesses of his friends. Famines occur in impoverished parts of ...
It's impossible to travel "chic-ly" [stylishly] when you travel with children. I don't care how beautifully matched your luggage; I don't care how organized you pack. Even if you get your kids those cute little rolling suitcases, you will still arrive at your destination with a messy entourage of unpackables. Depending on the children's ages and infatuations, these may be stuffed animals (think Beanie Babies), cars and trucks (think Matchbox), or beeping, blinking boxes (think GameBoy). The one constant in ...
It is probably the most well known Bible verse in the world. It has probably been preached on more by the greatest evangelist of modern times, Billy Graham, than any other single verse. Of course, I am referring to John 3:16. There may be some of you who do not know it, so here is what it says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NASB) I want you particularly to pay attention to three key words in ...
Imagine picking up the Sunday paper, opening it and reading in giant letters, Jesus Christ Will Return In Two Weeks. What would we do? How would we react to this astonishing information? I think there would be two basic reactions. Some of us, out of fear, would change our lives immediately. The Lord is coming and we are not ready. We might start going to church more often, probably every day. Prayer would become a much higher priority in life. We would pray not only in the morning and evening, but many ...
Paul’s Present Situation The Christians of Philippi were deeply concerned about Paul. They cherished a warm affection for him; they knew that he was now in custody awaiting trial and that his case was due to come up for hearing soon before the supreme tribunal of the empire. How was he faring right now? And what would be the outcome of the hearing when once it took place? How, moreover, would its outcome serve to advance the gospel throughout the Roman world? Paul knows what is in their minds, and he ...
29:1–4 Here alone is Ariel a name for Jerusalem. It means “God’s lion,” but a similar word means “hero” in 33:7, while “Ariel” sounds the same as a word for the hearth around the temple altar where animals were burnt in sacrifice (see Ezek. 43:15–16). So we hear Isaiah lamenting “God’s lion” or a hero or the altar hearth, and we are not helped a great deal by the next line that makes clear that the term refers to Jerusalem, which David had once besieged. Parabolic communication is again at work. Isaiah has ...
There are two actors in this scene of John’s gospel: Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus is not a popular figure in the gospels. He appears only a couple of other times in John’s record. The last picture of him is in John 19. He and Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus after He was crucified in order that He might have a decent burial. One of Rembrandt’s most famous etchings portrays that scene. The limp, dead body of Jesus was slowly taken down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea, dressed as the ...
Good morning, and Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers and grandmothers and mother-figures in the congregation this morning. Parents, both mom and dads have the hardest job in the world, and this world would be in a horrible shape without their love and sacrifice and perseverance. Of course it is not easy to be a Mom. In a TikTok video, a woman named Nicole DeRoy explains one of the challenges of motherhood. She says, “My kids wanted to know what it was like being a mom, so I woke them up at 2:00 a.m. to ...
It is said that Winston Churchill never liked talking to subordinates. He always wanted to go to the top because he figured that was the only way he could get any action. So, as the story goes, when Churchill went to heaven, he met St. Peter at the gate and said, “Who are you?” When Peter said, “I’m St. Peter,” Churchill said, “To hell with you, get God!” How did poor Peter get this job in the first place? It all started with the story recounted in this text when Jesus renamed him “Rocky” and gave him the ...
Scott Peck became famous when he wrote his first book entitled The Road Less Traveled. The first sentence in that book is a perceptive commentary on life — simple and direct: “Life is difficult.” For some, that is an understatement. For all who are alive and aware, it is an experienced truth. Life is difficult. Jesus would concur. Listen to him in verse 24 from our scripture lesson: “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able....” A long time ...
I don't usually recommend the books I have written, and I'm certainly not going to begin now. But I need to tell you about this one. I'm sure none of you have ever seen it. It was edited by the staff of Upper Room and this special edition of it was given me when I left the Upper Room to come here as your pastor 10 years ago. It's a beautiful thing as you can tell, handsomely bound, with embossed silver printing of the title on the shelf-back and cover. All of it was a surprise to me. You can't imagine how ...
Paul’s Direct Warning: To Become Circumcised Is to Be Divorced from Christ 5:2 Now Paul turns up the heat with a direct address—Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you. No longer using Scripture, Paul states forthrightly: if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. The options are clearly laid out: either circumcision without Christ or Christ without circumcision. While Paul has referred to the “circumcision group” (2:12) as those who are opposed to the “truth of the gospel” ...
The Nature and Importance of Faith The mention of the importance of faith in the last two verses of the preceding chapter leads naturally to this famous chapter on faith. It is impossible to know whether the author is making use of a source, which he now takes over in part or totally, or whether he is composing a fresh catalogue of heroes on the model of existing examples. Extensive reviews of the history of Israel had been composed to substantiate a warning or to provide encouragement, and some of these ...
Taking God to Court 23:1 One can hardly call Job’s words in chapters 23 and 24 a response to Eliphaz’s third speech. Job takes no notice of his friend or his argument, but he begins instead to consider the feasibility and benefit of bringing God to court so he might hope to find just resolution to his complaint. In chapter 23 Job reflects, at first confidently but ultimately with increasing terror, on the difficulty of locating God and securing his presence for the legal proceedings. 23:2 Job says, my ...
A popular expression in our culture expresses exasperation in the face of trying to govern other people’s behavior, particularly those with very individual preferences, goals, agendas, and initiatives, who have no interest in being governed. Throwing their hands up in frustration, leaders trying to command such individuals into a group with a common goal may exclaim: “Trying to work with this group is like herding cats!” What does the phrase mean? It reflects on the “independent” nature of cats (often in ...
“My Way!” We all know the famous song by Frank Sinatra that delighted Americans across the country and became the signature song of Sinatra’s career. It is also the quintessential song of self-actualization and self-reliance that often defines American culture. Did you know that the song’s lyrics were not written by Sinatra at all but were written by Paul Anka and set to music based on a French song called "Comme d'habitude" composed in 1967 by Claude François and Jacques Revaux? Did you know too that ...
Tell me, what do you think of yourself? How do you feel about living with you? You know, the precedents aren’t too encouraging. A man that we call Saint Peter cried out: "O, Lord, keep away from me, for I am a sinful man." A man whom we call Saint Paul had the words wrenched out of him: "O, wretched man that I am." And the great king, David, cried out in the Psalm: "I am a worm" - I am a worm! - "and no man." Or make it more contemporary. A teenage girl in my study stated her problem honestly: "People don’ ...
John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14, Acts 7:54--8:1a, Acts 17:1-9, 1 Peter 2:4-12
Sermon Aid
Russell F. Anderson
Theme For The Day: Come into me. In the Lutheran/Episcopal First Lesson, Paul has been secreted out of a couple of Greek towns. He leaves word that Paul and Silas are to come to him as soon as possible, so he can continue the work of building up the Body Of Christ. In the Second Lesson, Peter urges his readers to "Come to Him (Christ), a living stone ..." and become living building blocks in the church. In the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that no one can come to the Father but by him. Theme For Sermon ...