Category: Sermon Notes

Apocalyptic Love

“Not for Me”

Posted on by Alan

Apocalyptic Love

AKA "Slash's Advice for Christian Living"

Messages from Secular Songs

If any of you have spent time on-line looking at (or listening to) my sermons before arriving here in Pleasanton, you'll notice a good number that are based on songs by secular groups. For instance

And although those were the only ones that came to mind as I as writing this sermon, there may be more and I've also worked in plenty of other snippets of secular songs into my sermons. That probably may make some folks cringe, but music has always had special meaning to me…speaking to my heart in ways mere words cannot.

So, although I have not yet figured out which songs to include…even for next week…this month I will do a series of sermons that are based on non-Christian songs that seem to have an important message…or which at least have a memorable verse that we can learn from.

If you have any suggestions, please be sure to let me know after the sermon…I always love an excuse to spend more money buying music. 🙂

Now, what we may learn from a secular song might be that they are very very wrong…but there are also plenty of tunes out there that seem to show a bit of what remains of the image of God in this world's inhabitants.

A wisdom that seems beyond our behaviors.

Continue reading ““Not for Me””

Pacifiers and Hearing Aids

Posted on by Alan

Captain Francesco Schettino

Has anyone here heard of Captain Franscesco Schettino? Why he is famous…or rather…why he is infamous?

It is because he was captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that sank of the Tuscan coast this past January…a captain who decided to save his own scalp and hop into a lifeboat instead of making sure all his passengers were safe. Although he claimed afterward that he tripped into the lifeboat, he broke a sacrosanct rule: the captain goes down with the ship. Well, at least he or she does if anyone else is going to go down with it. A captain does not abandon ship until he or she knows everyone is safe.

Now…although the sinking of the Costa Concordia was major news, it is not the most famous shipwreck in history. I haven't done any empirical surveying, but what do you figure is the most famous one?

That's right…the Titanic. Although folks do question his judgment in other respects (for instance, launching lifeboats before they were full), the Titanic's Captain Edward John Smith went down to Davy Jones' Locker with two thirds of his passengers. Captain Smith went down with the ship.

Continue reading “Pacifiers and Hearing Aids”

Facing God and the Face of God (Part 2)

Posted on by Alan

Quick Review

For those who weren't here last week…or who have an MTV generation attention span :-)…let's start this week off by doing a quick review of "Facing God and the Face of God (Part 1)." I started off by sharing some pretty disconcerting scriptures, the first of which was Hebrews 9:27:

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment

It actually went downhill from there, with even Jesus Himself causing us some angst with His words captured in Luke 12:4-5:

4 "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

After those words…and more like it…we tried to start answering the question:

When we face God what kind of face will we see?

Continue reading “Facing God and the Face of God (Part 2)”

Facing God and the Face of God (Part 1)

Posted on by Alan

Seeing What We Haven't Seen Before

I just wrapped up a four-part series at the Pleasant View Church of Christ…and after it I find myself returning over-and-over-and-over again to one Scripture in the Bible. It's a verse that I've read multiple times previously without it fully registering in my psyche. I'm assuming that experience is not unique to me…is there anyone else sitting here today who, studying a familiar part of the Bible, has said to himself or herself, "Wow?! Why haven't I ever seen that before?!"?

Do you ever wonder if the reason you've missed that awesome revelation from God is because you were just thick…or maybe instead God was "saving" it for you? Perhaps our Lord hides things in the Bible from us so that we'll never get bored reading His Word because of the joy we feel when, like an explorer, we discover something for the very first time.

At least the first time for us. 🙂

It's like the Most High has lifted a veil and we can finally see what we should have seen before…

The Judgment

So, what is this magnificent Scripture that I'm speaking of?

You'll just have to wait to find out. 🙂

Instead, let's first spend a little time looking at a few uncomfortable verses in the Bible…starting with one I've brought up here multiple times…Hebrews 9:27

Continue reading “Facing God and the Face of God (Part 1)”

What Now?

Posted on by Alan

Quick Review

Three sermons have led up to this final talk in my "What" series:

  • "What Went Wrong" — Where we learned that what originally went wrong up in heaven and was tragically repeated down here on earth by its original human inhabitants wasn't some arbitrary rule being broken. Instead, there was a breakdown of trust that has been repeated by Adam and Eve's progeny throughout the millennia.
  • "What Was Tried" — Where we took a dispensational view of God's dealings with man throughout history and learned that (a) anything that depends on man fails miserably; (b) our Lord doesn't give up on us rebellious earthlings; and (c) it's not about us, it's about God…
  • And last week's, "What Finally Worked" — Where we found how the successful treatment fit the disease…that the Father, to heal the breakdown of trust that has plagued the human race since our original parents listened to that cursed serpent…sent His son, who showed that truly God is worthy of trust. How do we know that? Because the Son manifested the Father (John 17:6), is "image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4), and is the "exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:3). As Jesus assured Philip, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). When we look into the face of Jesus we see the glory of God…that what His enemies have said of Him are lies and what He has said about Himself is the truth. In Jesus we see a God…the God…that can be trusted.

How Soon is Soon?

Of course, so much more was done on the cross…finite words cannot adequately explain the infinite…but we enter this final sermon confident that when Jesus cried out, "It is finished" (John 19:30) He spoke accurately…and truthfully.

Yet I stand here and you sit there.

Continue reading “What Now?”

What Finally Worked

Posted on by Alan

What Finally Worked

Quick Review

Before I begin the third talk in my four-part "What" Sunday-evening series, I figure it makes sense to quickly review the first two sermons…

#1 was "What Went Wrong"…where we learned that sin didn't start here on earth and that what originally went wrong up in heaven (and then went awry down here) wasn't a case of someone breaking an arbitrary rule.

Instead, it was a breakdown of trust between the creature and the creator. First Satan distrusted God, then one third of the angels, then Eve and Adam. Instead of becoming like God as they envisioned, they developed fear of God.

#2 was "What Was Tried"…where, using a dispensationalist outline, we saw that innocence didn't work, conscience didn't work, dominion didn't work, promise didn't work, and law didn't work. We learned that anything that depends on man fails miserably…and that our loving God never gave up on us rebellious earthlings…no matter how often or how badly we blew it. Praise God! 🙂

Show Me Your Glory

Now it's time for "What Finally Worked"…but before I try to answer that question, I'd like to head back into the dispensation of the law…just as it is beginning. Let's turn to Exodus 33:12-23:

Continue reading “What Finally Worked”

What Was Tried

Posted on by Alan

Dispensationalism

How many people here have heard of the term "dispensationalism"?

My short definition of it would be "God dealt with people differently through the ages." However, I don't have the intelligence gained from a Masters of Divinity, so I suspect that won't show up in any scholarly work, whereas this definition from There Really is a Difference!: A Comparison of Covenant and Dispensational Theology by Renald Showers is a bit more erudite:

In light of the usage of the word for dispensation in the New Testament, the term dispensation as it relates to Dispensational Theology could be defined as a particular way of God's administering His rule over the world as He progressively works out His purpose for world history.1

I don't know about you…but that isn't entirely clarifying to me. Luckily Showers continues:

In order for each dispensation to be distinct from all other dispensations, it must have three essential characteristics. First, it must have a particular way of God's [sic] administering His rule. Each dispensation is characterized by a unique ruling factor or combination of ruling factors. Second, it must involve a particular responsibility for man. Each dispensation makes man responsible to obey God in accordance with its unique ruling factor or combination of factors. Third, it must be characterized by divine revelation which had not been given before. In order for man to know God's new way of ruling and his new responsibility, he must have these things revealed to him. Each new dispensation requires new revelation from God.2

Does it make a little more sense now?

If not, perhaps an example of how history has been divided into dispensations will make it clear.

Continue reading “What Was Tried”

What Went Wrong

Posted on by Alan

Lame Movie Plot Devices

Friday night Barry Junior joined me watching a movie that Barry Senior had brought up after I did my sermon, "Heaven…This is Heaven." For those who caught that, you may recall my mention of the Valkyries (val-`keer-ees)…babes on white horses who collected those who died on the battle field. Barry Senior remembered a movie with Valkyries…one called "Max Payne"—a policeman living a tortured existence as he continues to search for the third man who was involved in killing Max's his wife and infant child.

The movie begins showing Max Payne slowly floating toward the bottom of the river, clearly on the edge of death. After the film made clear how precarious his state was (and how likely it was he would not get out of it), it leveraged a plot device often used in movies and TV shows…

"One week earlier."

To which I immediately told Barry Junior know just how much I hate that plot device. 🙂

Inconsistent Human

And in the spirit of human inconsistency, I am now going to use the same approach as a sermon device. 🙂

Continue reading “What Went Wrong”

And When You Have Turned Again

Posted on by Alan

Sermon Topics

On Wednesday I still hadn't settled on a subject for this week's sermon, and since I was hitting up Barry Duke for a potential ride to our 7:15 activities, I also figured I'd ask him if he had any suggestions for a sermon topic. Somehow in the text messages he thought I had requested one related to Satan…and so when he suggested a topic connected with the father of lies, I thought it a bit odd…but (as he and I agreed)…sometimes we don't put enough consideration into what our adversary is up to when it comes to the battles we face in life.

So…ignoring all the confusion and miscommunication that led up to it…this is Barry's sermon on Satan…although Wednesday night Barry then let me know he wasn't going to be here for it. 🙂

By the way, I humorously told him that I would say one of the Devil's minions suggested the subject :-), but after our conversation degraded to me standing up here dressed as the Saturday Night Live Church Lady…it was best to just leave it at me doing a sermon on the god of this world.

Screwtape Letters

Anybody here a fan of C.S. Lewis? Well, beyond books from the Narnia series?

Although I haven't read a ton of his stuff, my favorite Christian book outside the Bible itself his Mere Christianity. When I first read it I put those little page markers wherever I found a quote I wanted to share in the future on my blog, and by the time I was done there were so many is looked like the feathered wing of a bird. 🙂 I highly recommend it to everyone.

But, today's sermon is better suited for another one of his works titled The Screwtape Letters. It is one half of a fictional correspondence between two demons. One, Wormwood, is actively trying to lead a human to damnation, and the other his uncle, Screwtape…who pens the 31 missives with advice.

Continue reading “And When You Have Turned Again”

Heaven...I'm in Heaven Facebook Post

Heaven…I’m In Heaven

Posted on by Alan

The Palazzo Las Vegas

If you preach quite a bit or write bulletin articles, one of the best inspirations for topics are things posted by those you have friended or have followed. I'm not saying that they are a better source of wisdom than the Bible itself—quite the opposite. However, it's amazing how a quick social-media blurb can quickly point you to Scripture for further research.

In this case, a couple weeks back a former coworker of mine checked into The Palazzo Las Vegas and posted this:

Heaven...I'm in Heaven Facebook Post

":)) Heaven… I'm in heaven" with a little heart at the end.

Well, I thought about it a bit…is The Palazzo Las Vegas really heaven? Checking out their web site, it does seem like they have a lot to commend themselves:

  • Based on the pictures the rooms seem opulent
  • There is plenty of entertainment with the Blue Man Show, Phantom of the Opera, Tim Allen, Frank Caliendo [cal-ee-end-o], Robert Davi, David Spade, Rita Rudner, and Joan Rivers. (Of course, if they had Celine Dion then she'd know she was checking into the opposite of heaven.)
  • They list 16 "fine dining" restaurants and 20 "casual dining"…along with in-suite and poolside options. Being someone who obviously likes food (based on my BMI), that does count for a lot…although I can't see how any location could really be heaven without a Del Taco. 🙂
  • They have two nightclubs and ten lounges.
  • And if that isn't enough they have Bags to Go, a pool deck, Azure Pool, gondola rides, the Canyon Ranch Spaclub, a floral shop, a bunch of shopping, Madame Tussauds, Golf, and Pink Jeep and Maverick sightseeing tours.
  • Oh, and let's not forget…gambling!!!

Quite impressive…and clearly heaven to my Facebook friend.

Continue reading “Heaven…I’m In Heaven”

Two Trees and a Tomb

Posted on by Alan

Introductions

Before I begin my first sermon here at the Pleasant View Church of Christ, I figure it would be good to provide a quick introduction. I imagine most of you either have met me or are aware of me, but I am a recent transplant from New Hampshire…sent out ahead of my family, half of which will be joining me once my oldest son is off to college for his freshman year at UMASS Amherst.

I have a beautiful wife along with two daughters and two sons…ranging from the ages of 27 to 4. Yes, I got started early and had a surprise late. 🙂 But what a wonderful surprise it was! (Children are always a gift from God.) Hopefully you'll get to meet them all, but initially you'll only get to hang out with my wife, Michelle and Augie, a bouncy blond curly-haired and blue-eyed human who finds joy in the most simple things…and bestows joy to everyone who encounters him…

Continue reading “Two Trees and a Tomb”

Don’t Let an Earthquake Stop You

Posted on by Alan

Series Finales

As I considered what I would talk about for my final sermon before the Antrim Church…well at least for now…never say never 🙂

As I considered what I would preach about I had multiple options. First, I could have just continued my “Dear Least Important Church…” series, and you could be listening now to “Don’t Be a Sucker.” However, that would be an odd way, short of being unexpectedly being called home by the Lord, to end a ministry.

Or I could do the equivalent of a television series finale…where either we every open question is answered…or everybody is given a happy ending…or things are left in a permanent dissatisfying cliff-hanger. Well…

  • I don’t have all the answers (only the Bible, and the One behind it does).
  • I can’t give everyone a happy ending—we all have to wait for “a cry of a command,” “the voice of an archangel,” and “the sound of the trumpet of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16) “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)
  • As for leaving you with a permanent cliffhanger…well…that would be cruel wouldn’t it?! 🙂 Beyond that, I’d have to make it up…unless, of course, instead of moving to California for my new job I just disappear. 🙂

Another option would be retrospective…again…like those that the sneak into television series. I could replay clips from my sermons…and then we could tell by you nodding…or sleeping…how many you remember the originals. 🙂

Or, I could be a bit more biblical in approach, and I could mimic Paul and the Ephesian elders…where, seeing them the last time, he gave that church he loved so much words of advice.

Continue reading “Don’t Let an Earthquake Stop You”

The Debt Collector is Calling (Colossians 2:6-15)

Posted on by Alan

I’m going to throw off the normal flow of my sermons and we are going to immediately read this week’s passage from Colossians. No intro…well, other than the two sentences I just said. 🙂

Let’s turn to Colossians 2:6-15:

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Bold words refer to Jesus…and there is the potential a couple other do too.)

My first reaction to those words can be summed up in a single word:

Amen!

Continue reading “The Debt Collector is Calling (Colossians 2:6-15)”

Mystery Theater (Colossians 1:24-2:5)

Posted on by Alan

OTR

How many here know what the acronym OTR stands for?

Now…before I asked that question I figured I’d better do a Google search to make sure that there wasn’t some other meaning even more common than the one I’m used to…and visiting Wikipedia I found that…in part…it can also mean:

  • Ótr, a dwarf in Norse mythology
  • “An airport that serves Coto 47, Costa Rica”
  • Optical Transition Radiation
  • Off the road tires
  • On the run

And so on…1

But none of those are it…anybody who knows some of my personal history and likes know what it might be?

Old time radio. You know, the golden age of radio when it ruled. When great shows like The Shadow (“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.”) and Abbot and Costello (“Who’s on first?”) kept people close to radios (that were more furniture than electronic devices).

As hard as it may be to believe for the kids here, I am actually not old enough to have listened to most of those when they first aired :-), but there was one series that I did listen to every weeknight growing up in Canaan, New Hampshire. With my AM/FM radio…one with tubes and not transistors…where only the AM worked…I would tune to 1210 on the dial…and not tune digitally…where you know exactly what frequency you’ve got…I had to use a good old analog one where sometimes you have to have very accurate wrist action to get the exact spot you want.

The reward for getting 1210 was receiving WCAU out of Philadelphia (now WPHT)…and hearing CBS Mystery Theater with E.G. Marshall narrating. For those who haven’t spent some quality time on the AM dial, that set of frequencies is fickle, with atmospheric conditions greatly affecting what you can, or can’t, tune in. (That’s why you can listen to stations much further away at night.)

Continue reading “Mystery Theater (Colossians 1:24-2:5)”

The Invisible Materializing (Colossians 1:15-23)

Posted on by Alan

Star Trek

Perhaps others here today also spent too much time while growing up…perhaps even now…watching the original Star Trek series. Assuming you did, when someone mentions “Scotty,” what comes to mind? Do you remember him, after Captain Kirk ordered him to push their engines past their limits, saying something like, “I don’t know how much longer I can hold her together”? Perhaps, instead, his rather rotund figure as movie sequels were released?

Something else?

One of the things that stands out most to me was Scotty’s expertise with the Enterprise’s transporter.

Now, technically it only proves that he is known for operating it, but how many here have heard the phrase…

“Beam me up Scotty”?

Or maybe even said it humorously when you are in a less-than-desirable situation? 🙂

It’s a trekkie’s version of, “Stop the world, I want to get off.”

Even beyond the (fictional) skillful operation a starship transporter by an affable Chief Engineer…there is just something cool about the idea of stuff materializing out of thin air. The invisible…the immaterial…become material.

And as we continue through Colossians in this third sermon (of eleven) in the series, “Dear Least Important Church…,” we (in part) are going to see the most incredible case of that that has ever happened…even more incredible than dissembling all of a person’s atoms in point A and reassembling them in point B. No transporter. No Scottish Engineer.

Just God.

Continue reading “The Invisible Materializing (Colossians 1:15-23)”