All the Sermons

Scripture: Colossians 3: 12-21  Three retired guys were discussing their funeral arrangements. Then one of them asked a good question. He said, “Say, what do you want people to say about you at the funeral? What kind of stuff would you want to hear if you could?” The first one, a retired Dr., suggested that it would be nice to hear people appreciate how much he cared for his patients. And it would be nice if people recognized his contributions to medical research, so that he would always be remembered with admiration, sort of like Jonas Salk is remembered for polio vaccine. The next guy was a retired lawyer. He talked about some of the more important and difficult cases he had seen through to a just end, and hoped people would appreciate how hard he had worked as a public defender. But then he added, “You know, more important than any of that would be to know that my wife and my kids loved me. I’d love to hear them say that I was a good husband and a great dad, with lots of lov...

Scripture: Romans 12:1-8 I have a new take on this message and what it means to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.” When you make an offering, the offering on the altar does not receive the blessing. The offering is not for itself. It is for another. Just as Christ offered himself for our sakes to save us, so we are asked to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, but not for ourselves, rather our offering blesses those who have not yet been saved by the message of grace. So, when the passage speaks of “true and proper worship,” I think we need to realize that the phrase doesn’t really refer much to what happens on Sunday mornings in our church services. Surely, we do want to worship the Lord in our church services, and there are proper offerings we bring on Sunday morning. But we must also realize that when we offer ourselves as living sacrifices in the way that blesses others, then it is all about what we do in relationships with other people around us, especially those who...

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14-17 What is your attitude towards aliens, that is creatures from outer space? Would you like to meet any? Doesn’t our culture generally assume that we have a natural, innate fear of non-human creatures that are visiting us from outer space? All the movies I have seen about aliens either has them as hostile invaders we should be afraid of, or harmless visitors we start out being afraid of until we get to know them better. ET phone home? Or does anybody remember “My favorite Martian?” And even in those friendly alien movies, only a few people know its friendly and just about everybody else acts out of fear and wants to destroy it right? So, in general, our culture says that the world hates alien creatures who are in our world but are not of our world. So then, how do you process information like this? “They are not of the world any more than I am of the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. As you sent me into the world, I have se...

Ephesians 6:18-20 Probably you have heard the saying, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Do you realize God doesn’t believe in that? God invites us to work with him and help him do his kingdom building work. We should rejoice that he gives us such a high privilege!! We should feel like the little girl in the old Shake and Bake commercial. This is so many years ago now I won’t be surprised if you don’t remember how many times we heard her say, with a big smile, “It’s shake and bake, and I helped!” My focus here is on her obvious joy at having been in the kitchen. That’s how we should feel about our work of supplication. “It’s God’s Kingdom, and I helped!” That’s how God wants it. And we should want it as much as that little girl in the commercial. You may have noticed that today’s text is taken from the ending portion of Paul’s discussion of spiritual warfare and the importance of putting on the armor of God. We have heard lots of sermons about putting on the armor...

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...