WOW!! Powerful sermon and definitely NOT written by YOU but by the Holy Spirit in you!!! I'm very touched! And, just for the record, it would have been much easier to have let the candy issue go by. I would have loved to have just shown you the grace without the consequences!!
5th message in our series: Putting the Pieces Together: a Journey toward mature discipleship*. Where were you when President Kennedy was shot? When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded? When the September 11 terrorist attack happened? We are in our 5th message in our series: Putting the Pieces Together: a Journey toward mature discipleship. Today we are exploring the topic of embracing grief and loss. The events I mentioned as I opened are certainly giant focal points of national grief and loss; not only did most of us experience them, but we remember them vividly. Besides national events, many of us have experienced devastating losses, such as the death of a child, premature death of spouse, disability, divorce, rape, emotional or sexual abuse, irreversible cancer, infertility, shattering of a life-long dream, suicide, betrayal, let down. But those aren’t the only things that affect us. We all experience so called “insignificant losses” such as graduating high school/college ...
These days there is a growing trend of “spiritual but not religious.” Another way of saying it is: “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” While I agree that I hear from God in different (sometimes unusual) ways, and often while I’m running alone, that is only one small segment of my spiritual life. The truth is those who think they can live the Christian life apart from others are simply deluded. I’ve heard an illustration that fits; a pastor went to the home of a church member who hadn’t been to worship in a while, one of the “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian” crowd. The man invited the pastor in, and they went and sat in front of the fireplace. Silently, the pastor took the fireplace poker and pulled a hot coal out of the fire and onto the hearth. As they watched, it slowly changed from red hot to white to black as it cooled off. Without saying a word, the pastor again took the poker and slid the coal back into the fire. Im...
Luke 12:13-34 I think that the hardest things for pastors to preach about are sin and money. It’s hard to preach on sin because it hits too close to home. Jesus had a unique standing when preaching about sin, because he never sinned, but the rest of us speak as participants. Yes, cleansed from sin by the grace of God and the gift of Jesus on the cross, but participants nonetheless. And it’s hard to preach on money because I don’t know if there’s anything else that we take so personally – maybe music. But when someone else has the audacity to “suggest” what we are supposed to do with “our” hard-earned money, it’s just downright offensive. That said, Jesus talked a lot about money. In fact, he talked more about money than he did heaven or hell. There must be something to it if Jesus thought it was worth his time to talk about. So today we’re going to talk about money. Here’s the big picture: anything that gets in the way of our ...
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And, just for the record, it would have been much easier to have let the candy issue go by. I would have loved to have just shown you the grace without the consequences!!