Sermon Blog

Let me share with you two stories. The first is the story of a young couple.  They had both finished high school and were pretty serious about each other as they began planning out their future.  The young woman had been battling a chronic condition since early childhood, and they were both aware of this ongoing health struggle.  However, two years into the relationship, things began to change.  At 21 years old, the young woman’s condition began to take a serious toll on her physical appearance and her interaction with others. Her face began to droop and she started to lose her hearing as the condition began affecting her nervous system.  The young man, only a year older, decided that he could not handle all of these things happening to his girlfriend and the uncertain future that would be in store, so he chose to end the relationship. Then there is the story of a small family.  There was the husband, Elimelech, and wife, Naomi.  They had two so...

A country-western song hit the airwaves in the summer after my freshman year of high school that climbed all the way to #5 on Billboard’s charts.  It is song that would not have as good of a reputation now as it did then, and rightfully so, for the violence it seems to advocate, including violence against women and apparent police brutality.  The song, was the 1984 hit by Hank Williams Jr., “Attitude Adjustment.”  In the song, he talks about folks needing attitude adjustments, those adjustments coming in the way of a bar fight, a tire iron, a scene that reeks of domestic violence, and police beating a man into submission while sticking the police dog on him.  Why bring up such a negative song?  Because, over the next several weeks, we are, in many ways, going to talk about those in need of attitude adjustments—primarily the folks we see when we look in the mirror. We are going to spend some time examining the Godly attitudes that we need to develop.  T...

Take out something to write with and a piece of paper.  Number your paper 1-10.  Place a title at the top that reads “Ten Blessings From Yesterday.”  This is an exercise that I have challenged our youth, last year’s confirmation class, and the congregation (through the newsletter) last year at some point.  It is also part of my devotional journaling that I do most mornings every week.  What I would like you to do, right now, is take a few minutes and write down ten ways that God blessed you yesterday.  If you need to add numbers because you can come up with more than ten, please do so.  If you are having trouble thinking of ten, let me offer this.  What if you think of everything you did yesterday and everything you used yesterday, and if you woke up tomorrow and it was gone or you couldn’t do it any more, you would feel the loss.  Or as someone put it to me one time, “what if you only have tomorrow what you were thanked God for today?”...

Where has our flock been as we journey through the 23 rd Psalm? The Lord Is my Shepherd.  I lack nothing.  The Lord is our Shepherd, we lack nothing.  We have all that we need.  We may not have everything we want, we may not have everything we desire, there may be some items left of that wish list, but our Great Shepherd has and will continue to ensure that we have everything we need.  In fact, the Shepherd knows those needs before we even ask—but He invites us to seek first His Kingdom, His Righteousness, and then ask, seek, and knock in accordance with His Will, we will find, or perhaps just realize, that blessing upon blessing is being poured out upon us. One of the most important things that the Shepherd provides that we need is an opportunity for rest and renewal…God leads us along whatever grassy meadows and tranquil waters bring us peace.  He invites us to lay our burdens down, not just lay them down, but to cast them upon Him meaning we aren...