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Prophets

A Prophetic Covenant

21-May-23 1 Samuel 18:1-11 The friendship between Jonathan and David has attained legendary status. Almost everyone knows about this famous friendship, and much has been written about it. Some of it is very complimentary and some of it is not so complimentary at all. In spite of the legendary status of this famous friendship though, […]

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Epistles

Aspiring to Servanthood

14-May-23 1 Peter 2:18-25 We do not like slavery. The very idea of it is repulsive to us. It is inconceivable to us that one person could own another human being. To us, that is the most basic violation of human rights imaginable. This becomes especially true when we realize, that as followers of Jesus, […]

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Epistles

Good News For Exiles

23-Apr-23 1 Peter 1:3-5 Third Sunday In Easter May grace and peace be yours in abundance! Last week we began our sermon time, and ended it, for that matter, with a wonderful greeting for our fellow exiles and refugees on this planet. This week we begin with a wonderful greeting for God. “Blessed be the […]

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Uncategorized

Exiles in Place

18-Apr-23 I Peter 1:1,2 May grace and peace be yours in abundance! That’s a pretty nice greeting, don’t you think? May grace and peace be yours in abundance. I love it. I think that it is a grand greeting, much nicer and far more meaningful than “How goes it?” Or “Sup”. How goes it, or […]

Categories
Gospels

Terror and Amazement!

09-Apr-23 Mark 16:1-8 Easter Day The Immediate problem facing the women is the stone that has been rolled against the entrance to the tomb. The women who are coming to the tomb on this first Easter morning are well aware of it’s presence. They watched, earlier, when Joseph of Arimathea buried Jesus and sealed the […]

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Prophets

And They Were Very Dry

26-Mar-23 Ezekiel 37:1-14 5th Sunday in Lent And they were very dry. The vision that Ezekiel sees in his dream is one of hopelessness and desolation. Ezekiel has been caught up by the Spirit of the Lord, and that same Spirit has set him down in a valley that is littered with the evidence of […]

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Gospels

Allowing God to do God’s Work

19-Mar-23 John 9:1-41 Fourth Sunday in Lent Sin is a very popular topic for people to talk about. As long, of course, as it is not our sin that they are talking about. Even though it is OK for us to talk about the sins of others, we do not want anyone to ever talk […]

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Epistles

Christ Died for the Ungodly

12-Mar-23 Romans 5:6-11 Third Sunday in Lent In this passage, the Apostle Paul, freely, gladly, and without any apology at all, uses four rather uncomplimentary terms to describe what we were like before we gave our lives to Jesus Christ. They are not nice, they are not pleasant, and they are completely offensive. And there’s […]

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Gospels

The Decision

05-Mar-23 Matthew 26:36-56 Second Sunday in Lent One of the great Baptist heresies, and there are many, is that we will not allow Jesus to be human. We give only lip service to his humanity. At Christmastime, we speak of the incarnation, and we talk about God in the flesh, but really, we don’t want […]

Categories
Gospels

Down From Up

19-Feb-23 Matthew 17:1-9 I wonder, sometimes, if we haven’t lost our sense of awe when we gather for worship on Sunday mornings. Worship is pretty serious business. We gather here, Sunday after Sunday, to intentionally put ourselves into the presence of the Living God. And when we do that, there ought to be a sense […]