All the Sermons

John 4:23-24 Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw This is has been a difficult assignment. I found it very difficult to write anything meaningful about worship. It is as difficult as trying to define love. This is because it really is a matter of the heart. It is as difficult as trying to describe what it’s like to fall in love to someone who has not had that experience. Nothing I say can really give you a clear idea of what it is really like to fall in love or to worship God, until it happens to you. But when it happens, you will know it is what it is. I can describe worship activities in the same way that I can describe courtship activities. In courtship, you might take her out to dinner, bring her flowers, say nice things about how much she means to you. You can say and do all kinds of things that make it look like you are really in love. But you might just be going through the motions to get something else. This is a harsh example, bu...

Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw Acts 2:42-47 I want to tell you how I related to the Christian Community before I first became a Christian and then after. I remember being in church with my mom and brothers. Mom was the Sunday School teacher. Back in those days we had little suits and stiff hair. That means my mom used some kind of hair styling gel or something so that when she combed our hair it would stay where she put it. She may have even used her own hair spray for that. I called it stiff hair because that’s what it felt like up there on top of my head. There was Sunday school and there was worship and there were some meals together. I really have no recollection of actual events put on by the church. That doesn’t mean the church wasn’t doing it, just that it is not in my awareness. What I do remember is the sanctuary. In fact, I think they had rounded pews and a balcony. Sort of like here. I know the pews were made of dark b...

Micah 6:8 Glove and stones skit, with Kathy’s help.  I put five stones, a child’s beach pail and a glove on the front edge of the pulpit. I told the congregation that the stones represented an unjust mess that would have to be cleaned up. I then commanded the empty glove to put the stones back in the bucket. Of course it did nothing. The point is that the glove is dead and useless unless it is filled with a living force that moves it. In the same way, a human beings are dead in sin and useless to God until by faith they let the Holy Spirit in to give a new life. Then we can obey God. This healthy missional marker is another one that reminds us that the church does not exist for our sake. We are already saved. We ARE the church, and our job, our mission, our purpose in life is to save others. Just like a glove exists for the work it is called to do and for its usefulness to the owner, we exist to do God’s will for the sake of the lost. We are not an end in ourselves. The peop...

You can listen here: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw  Focus: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Today is world communion Sunday. The Church of Jesus Christ has spread out to the ends of the earth, just as Jesus said it should. But how well do we remain aware of that fact, our connection to it and the role we play in support of it?  Today the majority of Christians all over the world celebrate communion with us on this same day to express our world-wide unity in Christ and in His spirit. It’s a big wide world. And it’s a small world after all. Advances in communication and travel mean that we can go farther faster and even make half way round the world long distance phone calls a lot more easily than just a few decades ago, and sometimes at no cost. Thanks to Facebook I have friends all over the...