Switching Drivers

This is the third week in the Hitchhiker series and in it we encounter the evil city of Nineveh for the first time. By their behavior they were running away from God just like Jonah. But, when God told them to repent, they did.

This message acknowledges that every person is sinful, and begs the question, will we respond like Jonah who ran and hid, or will we immediately repent and turn to God for forgiveness.

In the same venue as the other hitchhiker sermons, the analogy is related to driving a car the wrong direction. Today it is realizing that sometimes our lives are spinning out of control. This message closes with a song by Carrie Underwood - Jesus take the Wheel.

The closing challenge is to surrender control of those areas in our life that are spinning out of control.

Convicted

This is the third sermon in the Jail Break Series. In it we are looking at The incident of David and Bathsheba. This passage takes place right after Uriah had been killed and David takes Bathsheba for his wife. We encounter the prophet Nathan who at the direction of God confronts King David for his sin.
The two main points that we draw out of this passage for discussion are: 1. Our natural tendency is to hide our sin. 2. We all need someone in our life to confront us and hold us accountable for our actions before God.
This has been a fun series that I have amplified by preaching in prison clothes and with a large set of jail bars hanging in front of the cross. It has provoked a lot of conversation and thought. Last week will be the final sermon in the series and the bars will come down. Amen.

Cover Up

This sermon follows David through his indiscretion and attempted cover up of his sin with Bathsheba. I take a moment to compare our modern day lives with David's and help people recognize our own tendency toward making everything look rosy on the outside while still wearing a prison suit of guilt underneath.
Finally I hope to point out that covering up our sin is not a good choice. It is better to confess, repent, and seek forgiveness, both from the persons involved, and from God.

The Wall

This sermon takes a look at the symbolic barrier of sin in our lives as we attempt to justify or deny our actions as being grievous to God. The text of course is of King David and his moment of indiscretion with Bathsheba.
Next week we will dig into the cover up that David attempted as a way to hide his guilt.

The question we must all ask ourselves is: what is the barrier in our own life that is keeping God at a distance? Can we confess that sin and surrender it over to God?

Selective Hearing - the sermon that did not get preached

Well this sermon was anything other than what I expected. I organize and plan a six month preaching calendar and this is the fifth month into what I planned in January. The sermon that I wrote fit very much with what I was thinking from this text in January however when it came to Sunday morning I knew that I would be unable to preach it. There are just times when the congregation has to hear the Holy Spirit doing the preaching and not the pastor. (which sometimes feels like a lecture and one sided rebuke) Whether I was right or wrong in not preaching this sermon I will never know. But after reading the text on Sunday I asked the congregation to share what they heard the passage saying to them. The good news is they basically preached the same sermon that I had written, but it was not me saying it. It was the congregation allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through them.
I know this is a bit unconventional, but I also knew that because of the difficulty and poignancy of James that my words could have been misinterpreted. (That fine line between a pastor illuminating the text and standing in front of it I think)
Anyway, I did not record the pseudo sermon but I did decide to post the PDF of what I had prepared. If you would like you can read it and comment.

Anarchy in the Temple

This Sermon compares our Christian lives to a light house. It forces us to think about the total opposite nature of Black and White, sin and righteousness. We talk about how our world is struggling and becoming more foggy every day, and we all react to that fog of society in different ways. Both Paul and Jesus indicate that we are to be the light of the world even in the midst of a "crooked and depraved generation." How do we do that? What does it look like? How can we honestly inspect our lives and look for ways to improve the way that we are being the Temple of the Holy Spirit? Join us for this fun message and I pray that God will inspire you through the words that you hear.

Top Ten

This is the third sermon in the Thrive series. Today we learn about the importance of herbicide and killing the weeds in our life that can grow up and kill us spiritually. We also learn about the "Round Up Ready" seed that is meant to that is genetically altered to accept the herbicide. That seed is like the word God has put in our hearts. God promises us in Jeremiah and later in Hebrews reminds us that He has put his word in our heart. In essence we are created to live according to God's law and it is intended to be like a herbicide that will kill all the weeds of sin in our life. I hope you enjoy the analogy and are able to apply it to your life.

Guilty!

This message is a powerful sermon that created a powerful response. The altar of our United Methodist Church was full of people and not an eye was dry.
As Christians is it time to stop playing games, time to stop holding on to our sin, time to repent and ask forgiveness. Do you realize that your sin is what nailed Jesus to the cross. We judged Jesus guilty, and by our sins he was crucified. As you listen may the Holy Spirit turn your heart again to God. Amen.

I Know Him Not

In this second sermon of the Lenten Banner Series we take a look at Peter's denial.
There is something universally true about fact that we have all denied Christ and walked away from his love. (Isa 53:6) And we probably all face the fear that we have sinned too horribly to be forgiven.
Guilt has a sticky quality. It is like super glue and almost impossible to get it off of you. On occasion we even convince ourselves that God cannot forgive us.
But that is not true. When we look at the rooster it reminds us of our sin, our guilt like Peter's. But if we remember, Christ was headed to the cross at the same time as Peter was Denying him. His guilt was removed at the same time that that Peter created it.
The same is true for us. Christ has washed our sin and guilt away no matter what you have done.
Today if you still have some guilt or a barrier in a relationship, it is time to forgive just as Christ forgave you.

The Religious Bailout

In our current economic situation this message connects the dots to help us understand that we are in an even greater spiritual crisis. The good news is that God has paid a great price to provide a bailout package that will cover all the cost of sin.
The central message in this sermon is that we need to take advantage of God's offer in Jesus Christ.
Although this message is presented in a fun parody on recent government press conferences, it is very serious in the need of all people to claim their personal and spiritual bailout package from God. If you have never made Jesus your personal lord and savior, at the end of the message there is a short prayer that you can pray that will begin your personal faith journey in accepting the great measure of God's love and grace for yourself.