Explanation #1 Starting off today’s sermon, I would like to explain how this tan metallic cabinet beside me got here. About a month ago, the owner was transporting it in the back of his truck while driving to Keene and hit a frost heave on Route 31, causing it to bounce out of the back…
Category: Sermon Notes
50 Reasons to Question God
What would you ask God? If you had the opportunity to ask God anything…and He would definitely answer…what would you ask? What if you could ask Him only one thing…what question would be most important to you? Would it be personal? Why something awful happened to you or someone you love? Would it be scientific?…
You Can’t Just Pray in Jesus’ Name
Town Meeting While in Rick and Diane's last week, I received a call from our town Moderator, Bob Flanders, asking if I could give the invocation at Thursday's town meeting. I was honored at the request, and said that since Mikey's Pops Concert was the same night I'd have to confirm time coordination with Michelle,…
What You Need
Battle of the Bands This week I had a singer named Aloe Blacc playing on my iPod…probably because Augie really likes one of his songs and asked for it earlier. The title is "I Need a Dollar"…but Augie refers to it as the "Hey Hey Song" since he likes doing that phrase in the song…
Embracing a Fate of Fire
Dateline Afghanistan This week the Associated Press reported some positive news from Afghanistan about a Christian named Sayed Mussa: An Afghan man who was jailed for nine months for converting to Christianity has been released after an intense campaign by international diplomatic missions and Christian activists, an official said Friday.1 Sadly, just being released from…
Prayin’ Like a Pagan (Part 2)
Quick Review Before we jump into "Prayin' Like a Pagan (Part 2)" (otherwise known as "Winslow's Sermon on the Lord's Prayer (Part 2)"), let's quickly review the highlights of part 1. Although we are reviewing eleven verses (Matthew 6:5-15), we only made it through three of them two weeks ago when I last preached. I…
Prayin’ Like a Pagan (Part 1)
A.K.A. Winslow’s Sermon on Prayer (Part 1) I have asked folks to let me know if there is anything they’d like me to preach on, and a few weeks back Winslow delivered by requesting a sermon on the Lord’s Prayer. I postponed doing it because it’s far less simple than it sounds…and although I still…
Going Down in a Blaze of Glory
Text messages How many of you use your cell phones for text messaging? Do you text a lot? A little? Do you get any automatic text messages? For instance, do you…like me…get the weather every day on your handset? For instance today… [ Read them this morning’s forecast. ] Along with the weather at 8:30…
“For Those Who Will Believe”
Expository preaching Last week I said that I was preaching my first…and perhaps last…expository sermon. As anyone who has listened to me know, I am more of a topical speaker…although one who attempts to make sure it is Scripture that is speaking about the subject, not me. As fate would have it, however, this sermon…
Do You Have the Time?
Preaching Styles Who is your favorite preacher? No…I won’t take it personally if it’s not me! 🙂 But, who is your favorite preacher? Now, why? What appeals to you about his (or her) approach? Is it because you are big on theology, and they dig deep into the word, even leveraging their immense knowledge of…
The Hand of God
A Father’s Hand In this week’s bulletin article, "A Father’s Hand," I compared my holding Augie’s hand to how our heavenly Father holds ours. I won’t regurgitate all of it now…but before I wrote that I used my Logos Bible Software 4 to look up every occurrence of the word "hand" in the English Standard…
Symphony of Christ, 4th Movement: The Culmination
Recap We are now through three of the Symphony of Christ’s four movements… The Promise In the first we saw the creation of the heavens and the earth; our original parents almost immediately blow it by losing trust in God; and our Lord…instead of giving us the destruction we deserved…giving a promise of a Messiah…
Symphony of Christ, 3rd Movement: The Incarnation
We’ve now come to the third movement in the Symphony of Christ, but before the musicians start playing let’s quickly review what we heard in the first two movements… Movement 1, "The Promise" Our first movement, "The Promise," exploded at the beginning—as we were treated to the creation of the heavens and the earth…followed by…
Symphony of Christ, 2nd Movement: The Anticipation
Remembering the Promise The first movement of the Symphony of Christ started off magnificently—with the creation of the heavens and the earth ex nihilo—out of nothing—followed by a huge angelic celebration! Then we heard a melody of innocence in the Garden, but with a foreboding background tune played by a serpent and one third of…
Symphony of Christ, 1st Movement: The Promise
Advent Not being a liturgical denomination (or a denomination for that matter), it would be easy for us to miss that today is the first Sunday of Advent. Although I was baptized into the Methodist church at the age of two (a compromise between my Lutheran mother and Catholic father), I stopped attending when given…