All the Sermons

Psalm 90 The reason this psalm is so popular for the Sunday before New Year’s is that verse 12 says, “Teach us to number our days; that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” The day in our culture when we pay attention to number of days is New Year’s Eve. We count down to the second and celebrate the hanging of a new calendar. We want it to mean something! Calendars have increased our awareness of the passage of time and have given us definite ideas about one year coming to an end and a new one beginning. We tend to want everything to mean something so now we make New Year’s Resolutions on the day that most significantly symbolizes a fresh start. We dream of big changes and set new goals. But strangely, the first half of the psalm is mostly about our failure to accomplish anything of significance. We are just dust. We only last a moment, while God lasts forever. We make God angry because of our sinful ways, so that we are afflicted and moan under the pain of his punishing judgments. T...

Isaiah 9:1-7 Are people still walking in darkness today? I am sure you know that the church says yes to that one. We are talking about the ones who live in the spiritual darkness and bondage to sin without being aware of the freedom they could have in Christ’s grace, mercy and forgiveness. They do not seem to realize that there is more to life than this life on earth. So many are totally blind to the possibility of an eternal life that is lived forever with the consequences of the choices that are made in this one. If they do hope for eternal life, they most often pursue a kind of pie in the sky image of the all forgiving God who does not require sincere faith in Jesus, or discipleship in his way, or any repentance for sin. Not only that but in their darkened hearts they often do not know how to live according to the wisdom that brings true joy and peace with deep and loving relationships in this world. The evidence for this is the epidemic of fatherless children, divorce, abuse a...

Isaiah 64:1-9 The waiting room. Think of all the people who could be waiting in the doctor’s office for their name to be called for their next appointment. There could be all kinds of reasons why they are there and what they are waiting for. Maybe a diagnosis, maybe a treatment plan, maybe a pronouncement of healing. It might be for a minor injury, or it might be to find out whether the dreaded cancer has struck, or struck again. It can be a fearsome, formidable thing, this waiting at the Dr.’s office. And even if we know there is nothing seriously wrong, still we just don’t like the waiting! The Advent season is also all about waiting, waiting for God to come. What will it be like when he comes? What will he say to us? When will he come? In our text today, Israel is waiting, back in the days when her prophets were announcing her guilt and judgment. More fearsome than the doctor is the wrath of God. The message of this Old Testament text is, you think you’re okay with God. But ...

Luke 10:25-29 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Once upon a time, people knew their neighbors. They talked to them, had cook-outs with them, and went to church with them. In our time of unprecedented mobility and increasing isolationism, it's hard to make lasting connections with those who live right outside our front door. We have hundreds of "friends" through online social networking, but we often don't even know the full name of the person who lives right next door. (From an onlin...

1 Corinthians 16 The whole relationship between pastor and people depends on united, continual prayerfulness. When ministers and people become conscious of the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit that comes from their prayer, then the church will begin to know what Pentecostal, apostolic Christianity is.  That was a quote from Andrew Murray a South African writer, teacher, and Christian pastor. He lived from May 9, 1828 to January 18, 1917. His father was a Dutch reformed missionary to South Africa from Scotland. His mom was of French Huguenot and German Lutheran descent. So when he was talking there about Pentecostal, apostolic Christianity, he was not talking about what people today usually think of when you hear the word “Pentecostal.” He was talking about the kind of spiritual movement of God that was happening all over the Roman world with the leadership of St. Paul the Apostle. Andrew Murray believed, as I do, (and as Francis Chan does, for those of you in Sunday ...

                    1 Corinthians 16:1-4 The Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw Don’t you just love fundraisers? Do you see now that the Christian Church has been doing it since the beginning? Of course, we’re not the only ones. I learned that even in Corinth the Greeks and Jews had ways of caring for the poor by asking the wealthier members of each community to pitch in and help out the less fortunate. Paul would want the Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit and the love of God, to show themselves to be even more compassionate than the unbelievers around them. This collection was taken up on behalf of the Church in Jerusalem that was struggling with poverty for reasons such as a local famine and the persecution of Christians that made them ineligible for help ...

1 Corinthians 15:34-58 Now you can also listen here! http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw This has been a pretty rough couple of weeks. In fact the whole year so far has been too busy with more than our fair share of funerals.  But that is really why I am very glad that God in his planning, has us on these resurrection texts these past two weeks. Our best defense against the pain and sorrow of death is to remember that it is not as final as it appears to be. Death is swallowed up in the victory of Christ and becomes nothing more than a necessary gateway to a new and immortal life! Our good shepherd leads us through this valley of the shadow of death and onto glory! Although I wanted you to hear the triumphant conclusion first, thank you Michelle, in today’s longer text we cover several more issues related to our resurrection, which is granted to those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and live to obey him as his disc...

1 Corinthians 15:12-33 I wish Phil Raker were here today. That’s because my sermon title is actually a triple pun. Can you figure it out? First of all, I will be speaking of a number of things Paul brought up in this text, matters having to do with resurrection; resurrection matters. Second of all, I will be sharing Paul’s point that it really matters to us that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead; resurrection matters! The third meaning in my pun has to do with the Biblical truth that the resurrection of the dead is a physical resurrection, to the material world; resurrection matters because it is about matter! And guess what, I actually sent an e-mail to Phil on Thursday to see if he could figure it out and he did! In exactly the same order I just gave you. He put it this way: 1. You're talking about the things of resurrection - those could be referred to as "resurrection matters". 2. Resurrection makes a difference - it matters. 3. Our eventual resurrection wil...