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Thursday, July 27th, 2023
This Sunday is Move Up Sunday for our young people. K kids move up to Early Elementary; 3rd graders move up to Late Elementary; and 6th graders move up to “Big Church.” I see eye rolls when I speak of “Big Church.” But at OVCF we offer a children’s program from Nursery through 6th grade on Sunday morning. They meet to learn at their age and learning level while the adults are meeting (and hopefully learning at their age level. The maturity of the pastor may have something to do with that! 🙂 )
Normally we do the program in the youth addition for the young people. With Pastor Ryan gone on sabbatical, a different approach is being taken. Since this is a 5th Sunday, and since we normally have the young people (except for Nursery and Pre-K) join the adults, it was decided to make it a whole church celebration. We will honoring the teachers and helpers and volunteers in the youth program as well as the ones who will be moving from Late Elementary into “Big Church.”
Given the special meaning of the day, I decided to divert for one week from my series on Revelation (can you imagine the young people as they hear about trumpets and judgment? Talk about PTSD?) So I decided to write a sermon geared specifically for youth this week. I’ve called it Enjoy Life and the Scripture will be Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:14. I wrote it from the perspective of a 70 year old pastor who wants to leave some words of wisdom to his young charges.
One caveat: the first sermon will have the sermon in its totality. The second service will only have the second part since the program for the young people will take a good chunk of time. So if you watch online, you will hear the whole sermon at 9:00 and an abbreviated version at 10:45. Either way I hope you will join me in person or online.
Posted in Christian living, Faith, Family, Preaching, Scripture look, Sermon Series/Topic, Youth | Comments Off on #EnjoyLIfe!
Thursday, May 25th, 2023
In 1816 Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to John Adams in which he said, “There are indeed gloomy and hypochondriac minds, inhabitants of diseased bodies, disgusted with the present, and despairing of the future; always counting the worst will happen, because it may happen! To these I say how much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened!” (Quote from Unwinding Anxiety by Judson Brewer-p.12)
I’m pretty sure Thomas Jefferson had plenty to be anxious about!! 🙂
Whenever someone is going through a “down” time or depression or simply fighting their own emotions of being down, they tell themselves lies they come to believe. In his book, Attacking Anxiety, Pastor Shawn Johnson takes lessons from his own struggles with depression and anxiety and panic to gives three essentials a person must believe. I will talking about them this Sunday:
- You are not crazy
- You are not alone
- This will end.
I realize those who struggle with a chemical imbalance in their system will find some of this hard to believe. And accept. But my desire is that I can give them hope that it is not a lost cause. Primary to that is what we tell ourselves. We all need to start telling ourselves, “You are a child of God. You are a loved child of God. Like everyone else, you are a slightly broken child of God.”
Please join us this Sunday live or live stream at 9:00 and 10:45. There is hope for all of us.
Posted in Anxiety, Christian living, Compassion, Faith, Fear, Opinion, Preaching, Sermon Series/Topic | 2 Responses »
Thursday, May 18th, 2023
After a one-Sunday hiatus due to Mother’s Day, I will be back this week continuing the series I’ve entitled Faith Over Fear. This will be sermon #2 in the series and as you can see by the title of this post it is called “Who Me? Worry?” My Scripture is Matthew 6:25-34.
In Googling the “Top 10 Anxieties for 2023” the most recent statistic came from December of 2022. According to Ipsos, the top vote getter was inflation. It was followed by poverty and social inequality, crime and violence, unemployment, and financial and political corruption. Climate change tied with worry about taxes. Coronavirus is still at one of the lowest levels since it was added in April 2020. That is quite a change from the list I found from 1990: AIDS, drug abuse, nuclear waste, the ozone layer, famine, homelessness, the federal deficit, air pollution, water pollution, and garbage. Added to all lists is since 9/11 global terrorism has been one of the leading causes of anxiety.
I realize a list is just that…a list. All lives are different and our stressors and stress levels are different. But we are all human and one commonality is stress and anxiety. Different levels to be sure, but it is there nonetheless. This passage in Matthew is quite a treatise on Jesus’ ideas on worry. My hope Sunday is to enlighten us all to the truth and hope Jesus gives us when it comes to worry.
I hope to see you this Sunday at 9:00 or 10:45. If not in person then via live stream.
Posted in Anxiety, Christian living, Faith, Fear, Health, hope, Preaching, Sermon Series/Topic, Story | Comments Off on #WhoMe?Worry?
Thursday, April 20th, 2023
There is something curious about boasting. Despite the fact that nobody likes a braggart, everybody brags in some way. People boast about their grandchildren (Guilty); their bank accounts (not guilty); their waistlines (is that really something to brag about?); sports feats (days gone by); travel plans (will Alaska ever happen again?); and sometimes even their indiscretions. Get a bunch of pastors together on Monday morning and ask them how things are going and you will probably hear the biggest game of one-upmanship take place that you have ever heard.
In Galatians 6:14 the Apostle Paul said, “May I never boast except in the cross of Christ.” What does that mean? I want to dive into that verse and the passage which surrounds it this coming Sunday. I invite you to join me in person or via live stream at 9:00 and 10:45.
Posted in Doctrine, Preaching, Sermon Series/Topic, The Cross | Comments Off on #TheBoastoftheCross
Thursday, March 9th, 2023
Quick: Word association. Disciple of Jesus. Failure:
PETER
It is hard to disassociate Peter’s name from failure. But the fact remains: all of them failed. All of them ran. Peter gets notoriety because his was so public. Brash. Bold. Boisterous. Braggart.
Peter is not alone though. We all have failed. We all have made promises to be faithful and to stand tall, only to see ourselves do a face plant. History is marred with failures. So is Biblical history.
But failure is not the end. You have heard it said in some way, I’m sure: “Falling is not failure; not getting back up is.” But the great part about Peter’s failure and what he realized is that there is forgiveness in spite of failure.
I’m guessing that no one’s failure is more highlighted than Peter’s. I’m preaching on The Sting of Failure this Sunday. But I have absolutely no intention whatsoever of leaving Peter flapping in the breeze. Jesus didn’t and I certainly won’t. Nope…Jesus restored him and made him the leader of the ragtag band of disciple/apostles.
Please join us at 9:00 and 10:45 either in person or online as we live stream our services. I know many will be traveling this week due to Spring Break in our school system, but I hope you will join us via the live stream.
ONE MORE THING! REMEMBER TO TURN YOUR CLOCKS AHEAD THIS SATURDAY NIGHT FOR DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME.
Posted in Forgiveness, God, Grace, Opinion, Preaching, Second Chance, Sermon Series/Topic, Story, The Cross | Comments Off on #TheStingofFailure
Thursday, March 2nd, 2023
Communion has been part of the church’s experience since shortly after Jesus’ meal with the disciples in the Upper Room. Down through the years there have been different ways to celebrate it:
- There have been arguments and debates over its frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly, twice a year).
- There have been arguments over who can partake.
- There have been arguments over the elements themselves (wine or grape juice for example). During the pandemic I had one person tell me they had crackers and pop as a substitute.
- There have been different names give to it (Lord’s Supper, Last Supper, Holy Communion, or Eucharist).
If you are looking for a doctrinal treatise from me on those arguments you have come to the wrong place. My focus in this Sunday’s sermon is on the meal itself and why we have been told, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Long story short: me must not forget to remember.
This Sunday starts a two-month series on To and From the Cross. I’m taking this break from my series on Revelation to focus on the season of the Cross and the Resurrection. I plan to resume the Revelation series the first Sunday of May. Please join us in person or via live stream at 9:00 and 10:45.
Posted in Church, Doctrine, Preaching, Salvation, Sermon Series/Topic, The Cross | 2 Responses »
Thursday, February 23rd, 2023
In his book, The Ultimate Priority, Pastor John MacArthur opens with a unique story of worship gone crazy. Maria Rubio said she was frying tortillas when she noticed that the skillet burns on one of her tortillas resembled the face of Jesus. Excited, she showed it to her husband and neighbors, and they agreed. So she went to her priest to have the tortilla blessed. She testified it changed her and her husband saying she was more peaceful, happy and submissive since the tortilla had arrived. The priest, not accustomed to blessing tortillas, reluctantly did so.
She took the tortilla home and put it in a glass case with piles of cotton to make it look like it was floating on clouds, built a special altar for it, then opened the shrine to visitors. Within a few months, more than 8000 people came to the shrine of the Jesus of the Tortilla.
It seems incredible to me (to us) that this could actually happen. But there have been other instances as well. Images of Jesus in toppings of pizza. Scorched etchings on toast. Spot on a garage floor. Burn marks on a grilled cheese. We roll our eyes and cluck at the gullibility of people.
The final section of Revelation 5, verses 9-14, is full of hymns and is focused on worship. This final sermon in the first section of my series on Revelation will close the door on the whole idea of worship which is taking place in heaven and which John gets to witness. After this (beginning in chapter 6) things change.
We will focus on worship in heaven. We will also focus on worship as it takes place here on earth. Please join me in person or via live stream.
Next week begins a two month series I’ve titled To and From the Cross. More on that next week.
Posted in Doctrine, Preaching, Revelation, Sermon Series/Topic, Uncategorized, Worship | Comments Off on #TheLambisWorthy!
Thursday, February 9th, 2023
The book of Revelation has a great deal to say about tribulation, conflicts, persecution and well, just about things we face every day. Thankfully, before we get to the really gnarly “stuff” of Revelation, we are given a glimpse into something we are yet to see, but will get to see and eventually be a part of.
ETERNITY.
God’s throne.
So far Revelation has been a call to be willing to suffer for Jesus, to face loss and hardship, to push aside a casual commitment and embrace a more radical faith. Here is an honest question: if I follow Jesus and it requires a radical faith and commitment to Him, am I willing to give that? Am I willing to sacrifice and give the pain and effort it will take to overcome the forces of evil and live a life that counts for Jesus?
I think we could all handle things a bit better if we knew what was ahead. In chapters 4 & 5 we are taken behind the scenes of all that exists and happens. We get to peer into eternity.
Heaven is real and I don’t need some so-called visit to heaven to tell me. This fourth chapter alone is enough to convince me that God is on His throne. WHAT A SCENE WE HAVE BEFORE US! Call me “jealous.”
Join me this week as take a behind-the-scenes glimpse into heaven. We meet in person and online at 9:00 and 10:45. I would love to have you join me/us as we continue through Revelation.
Did you know I also do a daily devotional blog? Go here for it.
Posted in Doctrine, Heaven/Hell, hope, Opinion, Preaching, Sermon Series/Topic | Comments Off on #GodontheThrone
Wednesday, January 25th, 2023
There are certain characteristics (attributes) of God that are non-negotiable. There are three which always come to the forefront:
His Omnipotence- He is all-powerful.
His Omnipresence- He is all-present (everywhere present)
His Omniscience- He is all-knowing.
To know those characteristics of God AND TO BELIEVE THEM is absolutely essential. As I continue my series on Revelation, I hit this week what is probably the most familiar 2 chapters in all the book- the 7 churches. I plan to take chapter 2 this week and follow up next week with chapter 3. I plan to focus on what God knows, especially on what He knows about the churches (and by proxy…us).
What does it mean He knows? He knows absolutely everything that can be known. He has no need to learn anything. He does not a computer (don’t you wish?) He doesn’t need Google (again…I wish). And He certainly doesn’t need any of us telling him what He must and must not do, or should or should not do!
I’ll be summing up the first four churches this week like this:
- Ephesus- He knows what and who we really love.
- Smyrna- He knows what we are willing to suffer for.
- Pergamum- He know what we really believe.
- Thyatira- He knows what we are willing to tolerate.
Join us won’t you? We meet in person and live stream at both 9:00 and 10:45.
Posted in Church, Doctrine, Preaching, Revelation, Sermon Series/Topic | Comments Off on #HeKnows
Thursday, January 19th, 2023
Someone has said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” It is certainly hard to argue with that. I think we might all admit to forming an impression of someone before we were totally informed of who they are or what they do or the circumstances in their life. When Jo and I first met, she couldn’t stand me. I was a hot-shot basketball player (or so I thought) and arrogance oozed out of my pores. We hung around with a group of other college students and did a lot of outings together. But she still couldn’t stand me. I’d like to think my lovable charm, my dashing good looks, and my over-the-top humor won her over. But truthfully, I’m not sure what did. 🙂 Maybe I began to grow up??
What do you know about Jesus? What is your impression of Him? How would you picture Him? A handsome man with blonde hair and blue eyes. (You would be wrong). Somewhat meek and mild and sort of like a milquetoast? (You would be wrong again).
John’s vision of Jesus is disturbing. Well, it was to him. It was nothing like he remembered from their 3 years together as Rabbi and disciple. John takes us into that vision in this week’s sermon from Revelation 1: 9-20. I guarantee it will wake a few folks up.
Join us won’t you? We meet in person and via live stream at 9 and 10:45.
Posted in Doctrine, Jesus, Preaching, Revelation, Sermon Series/Topic | Comments Off on #Revelation#FeastonHim
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