All the Sermons

Luke 2:22-38 Listen Link:  http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw Forgive the buzz on this one. I had a cold and my voice was way down. One of the odd little quirky things that Kathy and I like to do from time to time is walk through old cemeteries and read the tombstones. Sometimes there are interesting little tidbits of information or a verse of Scripture that give a hint to what kind of person lies beneath our feet. Often, however, there is just the name, the date born and the date of death with just a dash between. The dash represents the whole life lived between the two dates, so it would contain most of the interesting information, but it is hidden from us. All we can do is pick up little clues that can be gleaned from the names, dates and from the other tombstones around the one we are looking at. If there are a cluster of stones all containing the same last name, then we may be able to figure out the family relationships; who was the parent...

Luke 1: :46-55 Listen Link:  http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw Often when a person receives an unexpected blessing, or a wonderful answer to a prayer we might hear them say, “Somebody up there likes me!” That sentence conveys a sense of having received a reward for good behavior, because presumably that would be why somebody up there likes me. And why not name the great benefactor? Why talk as if you don’t know who sends the blessings? Well, I guess a lot of people really don’t know. Anyway, I don’t think any unwed mother who ever received news about an unplanned pregnancy ever said, “Somebody up there likes me!” But Mary says, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” The focus is definitely not on herself as the person being liked! She if focused on God and God is not just a somebody. She knows God and she knows that he is her Savior. He is the Mighty One,...

Scripture:       Zephaniah 3:14-20 Listen Link:  http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw What is your image of God? Some people picture a sort of a Santa Claus looking old man on a throne, smiling down on you. Others see the same picture except that he scowling. When you think of God the Father, what words or pictures come to mind? Creator, Holy, maybe you think of the pillar of fire? How about a raging storm? Brilliant light flashing all around a giant throne over wheels within wheels? Burning bush? Still small voice after a fire, an earthquake and a great wind? How about judge of the whole earth? These are all biblical images of God the Father. What emotional words do you associate with God the father? Is that where you locate wrath and judgment, angry with sin, jealous? Or do you tend toward love, grace and forgiveness? I know I prefer to think of his love for the whole world that motivated him to send his one and only...

Reading Jeremiah 33: 14-16 Listen Link:  http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw Have you noticed that the sanctuary is pretty bare of Christmas decorations? Unlike many of our stores that are already celebrating Christ with all kinds of decorations and sales, we are holding back. The Advent season is used by the church to build anticipation of the great celebration of the arrival of God in the form of a man who would live a sinless life and turn the world right side up again. We are not just celebrating a famous birthday. We are celebrating the moment that God showed up in the neighborhood and moved in to be our next door neighbor. Jesus is our Lord, the Righteous Savior. Thanks be to God! He has fulfilled the good promise he made to the people of Israel and Judah! Jesus is indeed a righteous branch sprouted from David’s line. Mary is a descendant of David, and wonder of wonders, so is Joseph, the adoptive father of our Lord. God made all the arrangem...

Scripture: Acts 6:1-7 Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw As I begin my message about fruitful organizational structures it seems fitting to begin with a farming parable. That’s because the Bible does that. It uses farming illustrations to talk about fruitfulness in ministry. You know, the sower sowed the word, and some fell on good soil and it bore a crop, thirty, sixty, even a hundred fold. Also, “You reap what you sow.” This all leads to the conclusion that the fruit we are getting is exactly what we are planting, if we are planting anything. As organizational people say, “Your system is perfectly designed to give you the results you are getting.” So here is my parable. To get a good crop, the farmer works in partnership with God. God makes things grow. But the farmer has to plow the field, plant the seed, water and maybe even fertilize it. There is plenty of work for the farmer to do as he works within God’s will to ...

Listen link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw Hebrews 13:7-17 I like sailing. When I was in high school my friend Bill and I would go sailing. His family owned one of the smallest sail boats you could get, a little sunfish. It wasn’t much more than a kayak but you sit on the upper part and only put your feet down in the hole where kayakers sit. The sail was only about 8 feet tall and the boom was only about 18 inches above the so-called deck. When the boom was swinging over from one side to the other you really had to duck out of the way. We had a lot of fun sailing in that little thing out on Hudson Bay in Long Island Sound. It was the ocean, salt water, but in that protected area the waves were never very big. It was more like a large lake. Anyway the sailing we did was just for fun. Never any place to go in particular and nothing to do but sail for the fun of it. Even with that, only one person could be the leader, in charge of navigation. Bill...

Listen link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw Reading: Romans 12:1-8 This message is actually a very good next step after the heartfelt worship message from Oct. 25. Sacrificial and generous living and giving can be called embodied worship. What we do with our time and talents and finances is really the best expression of worship because if worship is only what we say and sing on Sundays then all we are doing is paying lip service to God and that can’t be called worship if it is not backed up with our sincere behavior. God doesn’t like lip service. I quote Isaiah 29:13, The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” I know that none of us want to be insincere in our worship. All of us want to be faithful in stewardship. The problem comes in what we typically think is good enough compared to what...