Sermons

Genesis 1:1, 31
Romans 8:18-24
Revelation 21:1-7

Things are not always as they should be.

A young couple had been experiencing what they thought were major problems with their three year-old son. It reached the point where they invited their pastor to their home to get his council on how they as parents could improve. They were a little anxious about having their pastor over because whenever the urge would strike him, he would just shout out, “I gotta whiz!”

So just before the clergyman was due, the boy’s father said, “Son, please don’t shout out that you’ve got to whiz; whisper!”

So the pastor arrives they all sit down and begin to talk and the pastor notes that the longer they talk the antsier the boy becomes. Finally, the minister says to the boy, “What’s the matter, son?”

The boy looks at his dad and says, “I’ve gotta whisper!”

The Pastor says, “Well, that’s okay my boy, go ahead and whisper in my ear.”

I do not believe that I have to remind you that things are not as they should be.

Not a day goes by without me being reminded that things are not as they should be. Every time I watch the evening news, (or read my google news feed) I am reminded that things are not as they should be. Every time I feel a twinge here, a pain there, I am reminded that things are not as they should be. Every time I forget something that I should have recalled, I am reminded that things are not as they should be. Every time I receive a call or an e-mail from someone asking me to pray for someone who is either ill, or in some kind of trouble, I am reminded that things are not as they should be. And especially every time I read the obituaries, I am reminded that things are not as they should be.

II Corinthians 1:1-2, 13:11-14
Hebrews 11 (selected)
Hebrews 12:1-2

How many saints are with us today?

One of the great 19th century preachers was a Scottish Presbyterian, Alexander Whyte, a much loved and respected pastor but who had a good sense of who he was. One day a lovely lady in his congregation came to his office and said, “Dr. Whyte, I just love being in your presence; you are so saintly.”

Alexander Whyte looked at her with great seriousness and said, “Madam, if you could look into my soul, what you would see would make you spit in my face.” ¹

The reluctance on the part of many Christians to claim saint status stems from two things: first, the fact that the two words translated as ‘saints’ literally mean ‘holy ones’ or ones who are set apart for God’s use. And who among us, with Rev. Whyte, is willing to claim that we are holy? And secondly, it stems from the propensity of the Catholic Church to confer sainthood on a select few who have to meet stringent requirements for holiness.

And so, it can be a little confusing when we read the letters of Paul and in the salutation, he writes: this letter is from Paul sent to all the saints in Ephesus or Corinth. And we kind of feel left out because after all he’s only addressing the saints and I’m surely not a saint so why should I even pay attention? But wait a minute, I thought the Bible was written for everyone. What’s going on here?

And the answer is he is addressing anyone and everyone who has been justified by grace through faith.

Job 1:6-12, 2:1-10, 42:1-6
Hebrews 10:32-39

Sometimes it’s all about perspective.

A woman was exploring the waiting room at her first appointment with a new dentist when she noticed his full name on his diploma. Suddenly she remembered a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name had been in her high school class so many years ago. Could this be the same guy I had a crush on way back then? she wondered. She quickly discarded any such thought when she met the balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face. He’s way too old to have been my classmate, she thought to herself. Still, after he examined her teeth, she asked, “Did you happen to attend Morgan Park High School?”
“Yes! I’m a Mustang,” he gleamed with pride.
“When did you graduate?” she asked.
“1969.”
“Oh my, you were in my class!” she exclaimed.
“Really?” he said, looking at her closely; “What did you teach?”

Sometimes it’s all about perspective.

How many times have you been sitting in your living room watching a football game when the referee calls a pass interference penalty against your team. You yell, “Hey ref! Are you blind; that was interference!” And you are convinced the ref blew the call. Until the replay shows a different angle and suddenly you clearly see that the ref was right and you were wrong. Why? Because you saw the play from your limited two dimensional perspective. You were mistaken because you couldn’t see the entire picture from your limited perspective.

I bring this up because when we read the Book of Job we have this tendency to view the story from the perspective of Job.

Psalm 13

Disappointment occurs when experience falls short of our expectation.

Jim Bridgewater had every expectation of depositing a paper bag full of cash at his local bank. But when he pulled up to the drive-through window, instead of picking up the bag of money laying next to him on the seat, he picked up a bag of grass; and I’m not talking fescue or bluegrass. The teller discovered 2.5 grams and 3 hand rolled joints and called the police. Bridgewater was still waiting for his receipt when the cops showed up. And disappointment began to set in as Jim’s experience fell far short of his expectation.

All of us have experienced disappointment at some time in our lives. And the truth is that for many of us, the scars we carry on our souls are there because we’ve been deeply disappointed; by other people and sometimes even by God.

The Bible is chock full of people who experienced disappointment, even disappointment in God. Beyond the person who penned the 13th Psalm, listen to these:

Psalm 6: 3-6: “My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long? Turn, Lord, and deliver me, save me because of your unfailing love.” 

Psalm 10:1-2: “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

Psalm 44:24: “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?”

Psalm 60
Luke 22:14-20
Romans 5:1-11

When was the last time you were astonished, astounded or stunned?

According to Paul Harvey, if you had been in Swan Quarter, NC in September of 1876, you would have been. A small group of Methodist Christians had been meeting in homes and desired to build a church building. As Swan Quarter is located near the Outer Banks, they attempted to purchase a vacant piece of elevated property near the downtown but the owner, Sam Sadler, refused to sell. Unfortunately the only land they could obtain was a low lying property down on Oyster Creek Road.

So they erected a white clapboard building and set it on brick pilings to provide as much protection as possible from flooding. They planned a Dedication Service for Sunday, September 17, but on Saturday a hurricane struck that area and most of the town was flooded. Three days later, it stopped raining and as people began to peek out their windows were amazed to see their newly constructed church building slowly floating down Oyster Creek Road! A dozen or so townspeople threw ropes around it and tried to stop but to no avail. They were amazed when it came to an intersection and the church building, as though it had a mind of its own made right-hand turn. But they were absolutely flabbergasted when, two blocks later, it settled on that same little knoll they had attempted to purchase, and slowly turned around in the currents to face the road. The owner subsequently sold the property to the church where it still stands to this day. ¹

After this astounding miracle, the church name was changed from Swan Quarter Methodist Church to Providence Methodist Church. You better believe it! If you don’t I invite you to go on-line and check it on Snopes.

I asked you, ‘When was the last time you were ‘astonished,’ ‘confused,’ or stunned to the point that it made you ‘stagger’ in dismay?’

I asked you this because while reading Psalm 60 as part of my devotional time this week I came across a phrase that reached out from the Bible and grabbed me.

The New Living renders verse 3 “You have been very hard on us, making us drink wine that sent us reeling.” But other translators render the phrase, (Darby) ‘wine of bewilderment’, (NKJV) ‘wine of confusion,’ (BBE) ‘wine of shaking,’ (NIV, NASB) ‘wine of staggering,’, (Young’s) ‘wine of trembling.’ I don’t usually care for the old King James Version but I became enamored with the its rendering ‘the wine of astonishment.’ because I saw it as an apt description of the communion cup, for certainly it contains the wine of astonishment or so it should.

But let’s not leap into New Testament theology until we discover why this author, David, chose to use that phrase.

Luke 12:13-21
Galatians 5:22-23

Retirees have taken to texting with gusto; they even have their own shorthand:

BFF Show AnswerBest Friend Fainted

CBM Show AnswerCovered By Medicare

FWB Show AnswerFriend With Beta-blockers

LMDO Show AnswerLaughing My Dentures Out

GGPBL Show AnswerGotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!

BYOT Show AnswerBring Your Own Teeth

You don’t have to be a retiree to be familiar with IRA’s and 401K’s, which have what in common? And the answer is: ‘retirement planning.’

Some of you are already retired and enjoying the fruits of your labor. It is probably true that the rest of us are concerned about our retirement, about whether we have saved enough money to live comfortably through our final decades. We wonder: Are our IRAs flush enough? Are our investment portfolios diversified enough? And ultimately: Will we run out of money before we run out of life? Retirement planning is certainly a legitimate concern and an ever increasing profitable business.

But in today’s lesson Jesus points us toward what is in His mind, a much more important concern that we might call ‘expire-ment planning.’ This is a form of planning that looks at death, not life; it asks whether we are ready to expire, not retire. Jesus indicates that this everyman clearly should have done some expire-ment planning along with his retirement planning.

What might this sort of expire-ment planning look like?

Expire-ment planners realize that wealth does not equate with peace and happiness.

The acquisition of so much material fortune gave the man in Jesus parable a false sense of security and a false sense of peace of mind. His tone is self-congratulatory: “And I’ll sit back and say to myself, ‘My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’ Clearly this man has yet to learn that wealth cannot buy peace and happiness.

Psalm 32

Has anyone experienced any joy lately? I began helping my daughter Sarah by taking her daughter Kate to Kindergarten. Sarah has to drop her off an hour before school so we get to hang out. After I took her for a couple of days, Sarah called to say she was working from home and that she would take her. And then later called to say that Kate was crying when they went by our house because she wanted her papa to take her to school.

O what joy for those who have grandchildren who love them to pieces. In fact, is there any greater joy than to be loved by your grandchildren?

Verse 1 “O, what joy . . . for those who whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight.”

Joy, happiness, and peace are three things most people are looking for. Most people, not all, (we’ve all met that person who for whatever reason prefers to be a grump) but most folks prefer to be happy, to enjoy life, to experience blessed peace.

One thing the Psalmist wants us to know is that sin and its consequent negative feelings interferes with our being happy, joyful and peaceful. Feeling ashamed for some action taken in the past is downright discouraging.

One Christian author writes, “Psychiatrists and doctors say that unresolved guilt is the number one cause of mental illness and suicide. It prompts millions of Americans to gulp down pills to tranquilize their anxiety.” ¹

Pastor and author Gordon McDonald writes, “We cannot expect to live healthy in the future when the baggage of our past keeps banging away at the trap door of our minds demanding attention.” ²

But “O, what joy for those who whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight.”

Verse 2 “Yes, what joy . . . for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!”

A new study has found that the average person is holding onto thirteen secrets, five of which they’ve never told a living soul, and that includes the Living God.