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Burning Hearts – January 12

Thursday, January 9th, 2025

 

How many different ways can you cook (fill in the blank)?  We recently had a chili cook-off to raise money for a mission trip to help hurricane victims. There were 13 different types of chili-from the sublime to the ridiculously hot. In all honesty, I chose to abstain except for the mac and cheese and cheesy potatoes.  Forrest Gump used to say, “Life is like a box of chocolates.” Choices. Choices. and more choices.

The Scripture passage for this week’s message is from Genesis 16-34. That’s a long passage and it is filled with people making choices.  Abram. Sarai (soon to be renamed Abraham and Sarah). Lot’s choice of Sodom and Gomorrah. His daughters’ decision to sleep with him. Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham being tested by sacrificing Isaac. Finding Rebekah for Isaac. Jacob and Esau’s whole wrangling.  Jacob marrying Leah (not his choice) and Rachel (his choice). Jacob wrestling with God. Jacob meeting Esau. Whew! That makes me tired just thinking about all those choices. 🙂

So…where did I get the idea of Two Recipes? I decided to look at the Scripture in two ways: a recipe for disaster and a recipe for success. We all have choices. Some choices we make will be stupid and lead down the wrong path, maybe even to disaster. Can anyone say Abraham and Hagar and Ishmael? And the opposite is also true: some decisions we make will lead to success.

Providing the snow doesn’t visit us again (they are predicting a possible 4-5″ this weekend), I will see you at 9:00 and 10:45. If you can’t be here is person, you can watch our live stream. You can send a request to join our Facebook Group at Owen Valley Christian Fellowship or view our public page at Owen Valley Christian Fellowship-Spencer, In. Or you watch via YouTube at Owen Valley Christian Fellowship. Unless there is a weather event we will live stream both services.

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#Hope#Hospitality

Thursday, May 23rd, 2024

I come to the end of the month where I have focused on women in the Bible. Today is about two women who were at different stages of their lives. One who is very old and childless. The other still seemingly relatively young and not focused on having a child at all. One we know quite a bit about; the other very little.

Sarah and Lydia. A patriarch’s wife. A seller of purple.  The one (Sarah) would echo the Scripture found in Lamentations 3:22-23: “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” In Ecclesiastes 3:112 it says, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” The other would say, “Tell me about the Savior.”

Both women have something to teach us. Sarah teaches us about hope. Lydia teaches us about hospitality. Both needed their hearts changed and put in tune with God’s heart and plan for their lives.  Nothing is too small for God’s kingdom. No matter what you do. Evey little bit-fixing a meal, writing a note, teaching a class, greeting a new person, cleaning up after a pitch-n, opening your home for a meal, whatever you are doing-is never too small for God’s purpose.

Join me/us Sunday in person if you are able to. If not, join us online. I would love to hear from you.

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#HardActstoFollow

Thursday, May 9th, 2024

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! And that begs a question: “How is it that Pastor Bill is preaching on mothers and well…he is a not a mother?”  That is a very fair question to ask. 🙂 The past several years I have taken the “easy” way out and had several women contribute to the service. I gave serious thought about doing that again this year but decided to give it a rest for a year. 

Women, especially Christian women, are told to follow the examples of other women. For the Christian women they are encouraged to be like so and so (you fill in the blank) in the Bible.  Or they are told to be like the Proverbs 31 woman. Talk about an impossible task! Yikes!  Ask a woman who is her favorite woman in the Bible and you will hear Ruth or Sarah or Deborah or Esther or perhaps other well-known ones.  This whole month I am preaching on different women in the Bible. Last week I preached on Rahab and the woman caught in adultery in John 8. I was surprised with the positive response from it. (And I’m still getting it). 

This week, Mother’s Day, I decided to take one we often hear about (Ruth) and two who are mentioned often in the same breath (Mary & Martha). Simply put Ruth is a story of redemption and Mary and Martha (with special emphasis on Martha) is on being a servant. Not a slave but a servant. I look forward to sharing Mother’s Day with the ladies-and one in particular 🙂 – but also talking about how Ruth and Mary and Martha serve as examples for us.  Please join us in person if possible. If not, I would love to welcome you to our live stream. If you do watch, I would love to read any feedback you may have. Our services are at 9:00 and 10:45 a.m.

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#OutofthePit

Thursday, May 2nd, 2024

Have you ever wondered if you have gone too far? Even worse, have you ever wondered what you would ever do with the skeletons in your closet?  Skeletons don’t have to be about immorality. While it is true that something “big” like an affair, addiction to pornography, an abortion, or addiction to drugs or alcohol get the headlines, there are other skeletons. Lying. Plagiarism. An issue with anger. An event from the past not involving immorality.  But here is what is so important to hear and believe: no closet is covered so deeply that God’s grace can’t reach it and clean it out and rearrange it.

The two ladies in this week’s message have messy closets. One is a prostitute. One is caught in the act of adultery. The story of Rahab is found in Joshua 2 and 6 and Matthew 1. The story of the woman caught in the act of adultery is found in John 8.  Both are discussed freely and fairly. From the Pit to a Future (Rahab). From the Pit to Forgiveness (John 8).  Some might wonder why? Why in the world would you talk about these women? Simple. God’s grace run deep. It reached them and set them free and on the right path.

We all need that encouragement. We all need that reassurance. Please join us this Sunday in person at 9:00 and 10:45. If you unable to, please join us online. I look forward to hearing from you.

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#HeStartedIt!

Thursday, April 11th, 2024

Who doesn’t remember the sibling arguments of “He started it!” “No I didn’t. He did!” “Nu-uh. He did!” Yours may have been somewhat different in words (that is if you had a sibling), but the idea is the same. Pointing the finger at who started it.

With Adam we can truly say, “He started it” because..well…he did. Go back to the garden in all its pristine beauty. All its harmony. Unblemished. Sort of hard isn’t it? We have no clue what that would be like since for over however-many-years we have had to deal with imperfection and disease and impurity because of sin.  No longer is our “dream world” possible.

We often talk about the fall of Adam and the curse we all have as a result. But we also have a second Adam who took care of that curse by His death on the cross. We were made in the image of God but sin messed that up. Adam is still our father and all of us have been created in God’s image. We are not random particles. We were not and are not an obscure idea. We were not an afterthought. We are not an accident or a chance. Even before I was a glint in my parent’s eye, God knew me. He knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thanks to sin that is all messed up; thanks to the Savior a fix is available.

My sermon series is Yes, They are Real. I’m taking characters of the Bible for the next three months. This month I’m taking the foundation of it all-God, Adam, Eve, and the Deceiver. This week’s message is on Adam. Please feel free to join us in person or via live stream on either YouTube or our Facebook group (you have to ask to join).  We will spend some time talking about Adam, but most of our time will spent with the second Adam. See you then!

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Tough Challenges

Wednesday, February 14th, 2024

Unless you count a baseball or basketball coach, I have never used a personal trainer, although I know many who have. Each Saturday morning at the local Y there is a former Owen Valley Patriot basketball player teaching/coaching/training young ones to become better players. Harry was a good player who went on to play at a nearby University and is now taking his talents to young people (male and female) who want to become better basketball players.  If you Google “Goals of a Personal Trainer” one common formula that comes up is SMART goals= Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

When I originally worked on the sermon series “WELCOME HOME…where… I came up with the following:

The Gospel is Preached

Jesus is Honored

Grace is Offered

Lives are Changed

Obedience is Encouraged

When I set this series up calendar-wise, I realized I needed two weeks to bring it out even, and also knew I would be gone for the final one. Since I have been using Colossians as my go-to Scripture for this series, I looked ahead and saw that Paul laid out some tough challenges. Specifically, there was a negative and a positive. So I decided to divide the Scripture into two parts. The first part is negative in that it says, “Get rid of…” I decided I would do that one and give Pastor Ryan the second part-the positive: “But put on…”

So this Sunday, my Scripture will be Colossians 3:5-11, or Tough Challenges are Given-Part 1.  My part this week will be spent mostly with the idea of “put to death” specific sins.  Even though it could tend to be a beat-down, I have no plans for that. I want it to be an encouraging time of “putting to death” certain sins in order to be a more honest servant.  I’d like to encourage you to read that Scripture for yourself.

And if you find yourself out and about Sunday, feel free to join us. 🙂

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Obedience: Encouraged or Demanded?

Thursday, February 8th, 2024

There are some things I know for sure. 1) It is always tough to be a Christ-follower.  2) It is tougher to be a Christ-follower when rigid rules and regulations are in place. Obedience to Christ should be expected, but obedience should never be demanded or forced upon someone. Unfortunately, there will always be those religious teachers and religious systems that will take a “hard case” approach and make demands of their followers the Scripture never intended to take place.

The Scripture for Sunday, Colossians 2:16-3:4 takes a hard stand against demanding obedience or as I will say during the message: the “lord it over” approach. The question I plan to answer is this: “Is obedience demanded or encouraged?” Please see there is a difference. It is my personal belief that those religious leaders or religious systems who use the “lord it over” approach are afraid. They are afraid of people thinking for themselves. They are afraid of losing control of their flock. They are afraid that a lack of control will lead to rebellion. (Maybe it should). 

Do we obey God from our hearts or do we do it because we are being threatened or forced to? For my answer, please feel free to join us in person or online this Sunday at 9:00 and 10:45. I would love to see you or even to hear your thoughts when it is all said and done.

Posted in Christian living, Church, Freedom, Legalism, Opinion, Sermon Series/Topic | 2 Responses »

Deepen and Define

Thursday, February 1st, 2024

French philosopher, Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (I believe I would choose Voltaire over Francois-Marie), famously predicted that Christianity would be dead within a hundred years of his death. He once wrote: “There will not be a Bible on the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker.” In 1966, TIME magazine ran a cover story posing the question, “Is God Dead?” They assumed the answer was obvious.

In an ironic twist of fate, the printing press found in Voltaire’s house was used to print Bibles, the book he said would be gone. And TIME! Can anyone say, “Life support?” Over 250 years later the faith Voltaire said would be dead is still alive and kicking.

In this series on WELCOME HOME…where… I have been focusing on being a church that is a welcoming community, but also what to expect in this type of church.  Here are the three we have covered so far:

The Gospel is Preached

Jesus in Honored

Grace is Offered

This week’s sermon is a bit more “ouchy” in that it starts probing. If we want to be a church that fulfills the next rung of this ladder we have to take two very important and distinct steps: First, we must deepen our intimacy with the Father (Colossians 2:6-10). Second, we must define our identity (Colossians 2:11-15).  As we draw closer to Him, we become more aware of who we are. Our identity is not in any qualifier we or our culture wants to put on us. We start with a new birth; we grow in intimacy with Him; then we find ourselves transformed by His overpowering love and grace. That becomes our identity.

So…WELCOME HOME…where…

LIVES ARE CHANGED

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Grace is Offered

Thursday, January 25th, 2024

The mindset of our world can be illustrated by the events surrounding the sinking of Titanic. Not what caused it…that is very much documented. What happened afterwards. Over 1600 people lost their lives and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. When Third Officer Pitman in Boat #5 wanted to return to pick up survivors, those on board overruled him in protest. 40 people in a boat with the capacity of 65 gently rocked on the calm Atlantic. In Boat #2, Fourth Officer Boxhall asked the ladies about going back and they said, “No.” So 60% full, it gently rocked on the Atlantic. On Boat #6, the ladies wanted to go back but Quartermaster Hitchens refused to go back. Of the 18 lifeboats, only one returned. The callous disregard for others gets us to the core.

And yet, is our world much different? I think not. People are in desperate need for grace these days. We are haunted by things we have done-big or small and we long for relief. God offers grace to all, His unmerited favor. Sometimes it is accepted and sometimes it is not. Sometimes it is clamored for and sometimes it is turned away.

My sermon this week is Part 3 of the WELCOME HOME…where… series.  WELCOME HOME…where…Grace is Offered. Colossians 1:20-25 will be my Scripture this week. Please join us at 9:00 and 10:45 in person or via the live stream. As a church we can talk about grace; we can teach about grace; we can even go overboard on grace, but what exactly does it mean to be a church that offers GRACE? Come see with us.

Posted in Christian living, Church, Doctrine, Grace, Sermon Series/Topic | 2 Responses »

#DislikedWord

Thursday, August 17th, 2023

Talk about God and we like to speak about His love, His grace, His faithfulness, and so on. All positive attributes of a God who is beyond description. But there is one word associated with God we DO NOT like to talk about.

WRATH

Say what? You get the point I’m sure. The last thing we want to talk about is that God is also a God of wrath. Of all the topics and discussions about God, the wrath and judgment of God are probably hands down the most avoided. We want to put it on the backburner of “things we don’t want or like to talk about.”

IT. IS. UNAVOIDABLE. when talking about God. To leave it out is like leaving a lop-sided God.

This Sunday my sermon from Revelation 11 is entitled The Word Everyone Dislikes. I’d like to invite you come visit us in person or online via live stream. The church’s website http://ovcf.org has the links to the Facebook page or YouTube if you prefer that medium. We meet at 9:00 and 10:45.

 

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