All the Sermons

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:13-15 I have something to give thanks for. Over the past week, on three different days, I found money on the front lawn of the parsonage. First day, 2 $1 bills, second day, one $10 bill! Third day one more $1 bill for a total of $13!! They say money doesn’t grow in trees. But maybe it grows on lawns! And if you want to claim it’s yours you’d better have a good story! I have to tell you something about the word thanks. I often wonder where words come from. To me, “thank” sounds a lot like “think.” So, I began to wonder about whether thank could be the past tense for think, in the same way that “drank” is the past tense for “drink” So, I looked it up, and I was right. “Drink” is to “drank,” as “think” is to “thank.” Or, it used to be any way. We all know the word thank is not used as the past tense of think anymore. Today we say, “I thought about it.” I would never say, “I thank about that.” So, then you have to wonder, why do we use the words “thank” an...

Scripture: 1 John 1:5-9 The First Covenant Church in Cadillac once hosted a New Year’s Eve party. It was special. It was hosted by the local Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous groups. So, it was a “dry” party, a safe place for those in recovery. About 30 or so people came, from as far away as Traverse City, to celebrate the New Year. I also managed to encourage about ten members of my congregation to be there with them. One member, who had previously been married to an alcoholic husband, understandably exclaimed that she would never again go near “those people.” However, God moved in her heart and she did attend and was blessed and encouraged to see that some of “those people” can change! One thing that they did at the party was to make it official, so those who were on probation could get credit for going to a meeting. So, they conducted AA meetings for part of the time. It was really funny when the leader said, “Raise your hand if this is your first AA meeting.” I look...

Phil. 4:4-8 You’ve heard of the power of positive thinking. It’s in the Bible. That’s where it came from and one example is right here in Phil. 4. Paul practiced what he preached too. One of the popular children’s stories is from the book of Acts in which Paul and Silas were singing praises to God late at night. They couldn’t sleep because they were in chains and in pain from a cruel beating! In that situation, they could have been crying and complaining about how unfair it all was. But instead, even though they were in jail, and maybe even because they were in jail, giving thanks for the honor of suffering for Jesus, they spent some time singing praises to God most high! It’s important to realize that we have very good reasons to have a positive attitude. It’s not just a mental trick. There really is good science behind the observation that positive thinking tends to lead to a healthier life. But pop psychology usually leaves God out of the equation. They say things like, “Being ...

Scripture: Matthew 6:25-33 Probably many of you have seen this illustration before or heard of it. I decided to go ahead and do it right here because it is a powerful illustration. First, I take an empty jar and fill it with these rather large rocks.  Is the jar full?  Well, it is full of rocks, but it not full. Next, I add some pebbles that fit into the spaces between the rocks. Is the jar full? It’s fuller, but really there is still quite a lot of room in there. Look how much sand I can pour into the remaining spaces. Is the jar full? It really does look full now. But watch. Quite a bit of water can still fill the spaces between the grains of sand! So, what’s the point? When this illustration was first presented to a classroom, the first answer that one student blurted out was, “No matter how full your schedule looks, there’s always room to squeeze in a little more!” That’s a natural conclusion from following the steps in this process. But the actual point of this illus...

Daniel 9:4-19 Try to imagine how you would deal with these circumstances. What would it be like if you were just a young teenager when you were kidnapped by a hostile enemy and deported hundreds of miles away from your homeland. How would you handle that grief and stress? Imagine you had to walk all the way, no cars or planes to take you there, just a rough guard to push you along. At least you are not alone. Some of your friends are also captive. Thoughts of escape float through your mind, but the armed guards and the hostile terrain convince you to forget about escape.  This was the fate of the prophet Daniel, 2700 years ago, in the Middle East, at a time in history in which pagan armies had no idea of any Geneva convention or civil rights and they couldn’t have cared less if you tried to bring it up. They would likely just run a sword through you for mentioning anything of the sort. It was a dangerous time to live.  Worse for the Jews because God had warned his belove...