Sermon Blog

One evening little Johnny’s parents stood outside his room and listened to him offer up his evening prayers.  They became confused, though, as they heard him pray, “Dear Harold, want to thank you for my Mommy and Daddy and my dog, Spot.  Please be with Grandma and Granddaddy, and help me be good boy.  Amen.” The parents went to bed that night pondering the strange way their son had begun his prayer.  Coming up with no answer, they asked him at the breakfast table the next morning, “Johnny, why did you call God, ‘Harold’?” Johnny replied, “that’s what they teach us at church.  You know, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, Harold by thy name….” Forrest Gump died and went to heaven. At the Pearly Gates Saint Peter told him that new rules were in effect due to the advances in education on earth. In order to gain admittance, a prospective Heavenly Soul must answer three questions. They were:  1.          ...

How often do we treat prayer as if it were a tractor pull?  We hook our prayer requests into God and begin pulling (praying) with all our might.  We try to pull God to where we are or where we want to be.  I mean, isn’t that what we’ve always been taught that prayer is about, getting what we want from God. What if, instead, we began picturing prayer as if God was the anchor at the end of our prayer line and we are a boat in the middle of the sea of life.  When we begin praying (pulling on that rope), rather than drawing God to us, the anchor holds firm and we are pulled from wherever we have drifted back to where God is, until we are centered above that anchor. My brothers and sisters, while Jesus doesn’t use those analogies, when the disciples ask Him to teach them how to pray, that is what we learn from the prayer He teaches-- the prayer we so often call The Lord’s Prayer. Last week when we gathered, we began to consider one of our previous journeys… a jou...

My brothers and sisters, let me begin by acknowledging that over the next several weeks these sermons may seem somewhat familiar to some of you.  For the first time since I have been here, I am repeating a sermon series that some of you have heard.  In various Bible Studies we have talked about The Lord’s Prayer, and some in the study have asked that I repeat the sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer that I offered here in 2005.  Because it is a prayer that we offer up each week, and it is the prayer that Jesus offered to teach His disciples, and us, how to pray, I have decided it is important enough to repeat.  Besides, as a beloved friend and church member of a former church told me one time (and please don’t ever say this to a pastor), “I could preach a sermon from six months ago and no one would remember it.” The Lord's Prayer, A Mini Drama Author Unknown   Chris:   (Walking up to Pastor Lee): Excuse me Pastor Lee.  I just need a moment at...

Winter weather.  Don’t you love winter weather?  Truly I do.  I think it is truly restful to sit on the couch with a cup of coffee and watch the snow fall and watch the birds all gather around the feeders striving for shelter and food.  Maybe there’s an opportunity to light a fire in the fireplace or turn on the gas logs.  Maybe there’s an opportunity to snuggle with someone you love while watching a movie.  It becomes a good day to have a bowl of warm soup and relax with family or curl up in a chair with a good book. I think that snow days are an invitation from God to heed verse ten of this Psalm.  It is an invitation from God to “be still.” Twice in Psalms, here and in Psalm 37, we are told to be still before God. There are many reasons that Psalmist might remind us to be still before God. First, in today’s world, it is very easy to stay busy.  It is easy to have to work all day, have activities for children or meetings to attend eve...

How many of you have gotten something new in the last week?  A new outfit, a new toy, a new book,  a new computer, a new phone, a new gadget, or maybe even a new car?  Hopefully with all the holiday food no one has ended up with a new waistline measurement.  We often wait until spring to talk about things becoming new, with spring and Easter and all.  However, today we have the convergence of dates that only happens every five or six years, New Year’s Day has fallen on a Sunday…what better time to talk about things becoming new. Today marks the beginning of a new year.  It is a time to leave the past behind and grasp hold of a fresh start.  How many of you were as ready as I was last night to say goodbye to 2016?  On a personal level, there was the battle with bronchitis/pneumonia, two rounds of the flu, a stomach bug that has severely curtailed my coffee drinking, even to this day, the emergency tooth extraction and the gall bladder surgery....