2022 October

Jesus and the Ethic of Love

Jesus and the Ethic of Love

This sermon is based on Matthew 7:12 and 22:34-40. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: “Just do the right thing” sounds easy enough, but how do we know what the right thing is? “Just do what the New Testament says” sounds like good advice until you are confronted five times with “greet one another with a holy kiss” and other such anachronisms. “Just do what Jesus says” sounds great until you read the Sermon on the Mount with its prohibitions on anger, lust, divorce, and oaths, as well as its “turn the other cheek,” “give your coat,” “go the extra mile” and “love those who persecute you” philosophy. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but “knowing and doing the right thing” is far more complicated than it first appears. So, what are we to do? We seek God’s wisdom from above, from

Let’s Be Positive

Let’s Be Positive

Soren Kierkegaard is without a doubt my favorite philosopher, primarily for his philosophy, but also for his humor. For instance, here are a few of his funniest (and yet, still profound) quotes. “The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you’ll never have.” “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” “The question is not ‘To be or not to be’; it is what we should be until we are not.” “It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand.” “Take a chance and you may lose. Take not a chance and you have lost already.” “What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them, they sound like

Jesus and the Ethics of the Kingdom

Jesus and the Ethics of the Kingdom

This sermon is based on Matthew 5:17-20. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: “Just do the right thing” sounds easy enough, but how do we know what the right thing is? “Just do what the New Testament says” sounds like good advice until you are confronted five times with “greet one another with a holy kiss” and other such anachronisms. “Just do what Jesus says” sounds great until you read the Sermon on the Mount with its prohibitions on anger, lust, divorce, and oaths, as well as its “turn the other cheek,” “give your coat,” “go the extra mile” and “love those who persecute you” philosophy. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but “knowing and doing the right thing” is far more complicated than it first appears. So, what are we to do? We seek God’s wisdom from above, from beyond, from

A Challenging Prayer

A Challenging Prayer

For lots of people, Halloween is a scary day with all those ghosts and goblins and twelve-foot werewolves with flashing red eyes, but Halloween is nothing. If you want to know true terror, try evangelism. Let’s admit it: for lots of church people, what scares them to death is evangelism. Nick Pollard, in his spectacular book, Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult: How to Interest People Who Aren’t Interested (InterVarsity Press, 1997), starts off the first chapter with a conversation he had with a good friend before a particular evangelistic event. A good friend came up to him and said, “There is one thing you’ll never suffer from as an evangelist.” Pollard innocently asked, “What’s that?” He replied: “Constipation!” And Pollard agreed, “Too right! Nerves will always see to that!” Why don’t we all run out and do evangelism willy-nilly every day? Answer: Because evangelism is scary! So, what do we

Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount

This sermon introduces our new teaching series and is based on Matthew 5:38-48. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: “Just do the right thing” sounds easy enough, but how do we know what the right thing is? “Just do what the New Testament says” sounds like good advice until you are confronted five times with “greet one another with a holy kiss” and other such anachronisms. “Just do what Jesus says” sounds great until you read the Sermon on the Mount with its prohibitions on anger, lust, divorce, and oaths, as well as its “turn the other cheek,” “give your coat,” “go the extra mile” and “love those who persecute you” philosophy. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but “knowing and doing the right thing” is far more complicated than it first appears. So, what are we to do? We seek God’s

The Myth of Greek Rock and Roll

The Myth of Greek Rock and Roll

Apparently, Sisyphus was a jerk; but as myths go, he is the best. Before Sisyphus died, he tested his wife’s love. He made her promise (she didn’t want to do it) that, after his death, she would dump his naked dead body (trust me, she didn’t want to do it) in the town square. She didn’t want to do it; but he made her promise, and so she did it. Sisyphus thought that if she would do this terrible thing that went against all human decency just because he asked, she must truly love him. As I said, he was a jerk. In any case, Sisyphus woke up on the shores of the river Styx, naked and ashamed (but that’s what happens when your wife dumps your dead naked body in the town square). So, Sisyphus complained to the dark-powers-that-be that he ought to be allowed to return to the

A Woman at the Tomb

A Woman at the Tomb

This sermon is based on John 20:1-18 and concludes this teaching series. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Usually, when we say that a person is an individual after our own heart, it is because we have seen similarities to things that we enjoy. A man who loves coffee is a man after my own heart. A woman who loves movies is a woman after my own heart. Anyone who loves big dogs is a person after my own heart. But is Jesus a man after my own heart? Or more to the point: Is he a man after your own heart? In all honesty, I am not so sure that Jesus and I have that much in common. Don’t get me wrong, I really, really like Jesus and I am so thankful for all that he has done for me; but

Let Me Put You in a Story

Let Me Put You in a Story

Someday, I hope to write something, not because I am a good writer or because I have something to say, but because quotes about the power of stories make me break out in fits of writing. Before you read the following quotes, maybe you ought to get a pen and some paper, just in case. Here are seven great quotes about the power of stories: “Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution -- more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.” -- Lisa Cron “The shortest distance between a human being and the truth is a story.” -- Anthony de Mello “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” -- Jonathan Gottschall “Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom;

A Sinner Up a Tree

A Sinner Up a Tree

This sermon is based on Luke 19:1-10. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Usually, when we say that a person is an individual after our own heart, it is because we have seen similarities to things that we enjoy. A man who loves coffee is a man after my own heart. A woman who loves movies is a woman after my own heart. Anyone who loves big dogs is a person after my own heart. But is Jesus a man after my own heart? Or more to the point: Is he a man after your own heart? In all honesty, I am not so sure that Jesus and I have that much in common. Don’t get me wrong, I really, really like Jesus and I am so thankful for all that he has done for me; but if hard pressed, I am