Titus 1 tells us about a sound (that is, healthy) church. Such a church has a healthy leadership and members who submit to them. Such a church has healthy teaching and teaches it with their words and deeds. Such a church has healthy living that flows out of that teaching. Thus one thing all healthy churches have in common is the word of God publicly proclaimed and privately pondered. This message will improve your Spiritual health if you take the medicine it prescribes.

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Labels: health, leadership, submission, Sunday worship, teaching

Matthew 2:1-12 shows us the cost of Christmas. Usually we mean this negatively -- what is Christmas going to cost me? There is a dark side to Christmas as Herod kills the infant children in the region of Bethlehem. But the cost of Christmas we tend to think of is money. Instead, I propose that the "cost" (if we even want to call it that, though it would be considered a cost to unbelievers) of Christmas is rejoicing exceedingly with great joy whenever someone sees the path to Christ, falling down and worshiping Him and nothing else, and giving our treasures to Him. All of these are gifts we give to God. God wants us for Christmas.

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Labels: herod, joy, money, offering, Sunday worship

Ephesians 1:15-23, like Joshua 5:13-15, shows us the way things really are. This sermon attempts to help you see God's interpretation of you and your world, which is one reason for Sunday worship. We see here reasons for offering a prayer of thanksgiving and thus for praying that you would have a Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of God are so that you would know God's riches, power, and hope. You are not worthless, you are God's rich inheritance. You are not powerless, Jesus is Lord. You are not hopeless, you have a certain hope for your inheritance of the new heavens and earth.

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Labels: hope, inheritance, power, prayer, riches, Sunday worship

Acts 6:1-7 is the beginning of a division of labor in the leadership of the church. Later there would be an even further division of labor among elders between the ruling elders and the teaching elders. Elders provide servant leadership with respect to word gifts and deacons provide servant leadership with respect to deed gifts. And most members major in one or the other: word or deed. What we must all realize is that serving with your hands (deed) can be Spirit-filled service just as prayer and the service of the Word. And we should all appreciate that just as serving with your hands can be hard work, so too is prayer and the service of the Word. And when everyone is contributing their gifts, we have the right conditions for growth.


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Labels: elders, leadership, ministry, prayer, serve, spirit, Spiritual gifts, Sunday worship

Psalm 84 is a passionate psalm about being in the dwelling place of God. We are in an even greater place of privilege than the sons of Korah mentioned in the heading as we are all priests and we together are the tabernacle or temple of God. So we should be even more excited about worship on Sunday. This is part of my farewell series here in Phelps and Stopover. Unfortunately, I left behind my digital recorder at Peter Creek so I only have one sermon recorded for today. May God give you grace in worship. Amen.

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Labels: Psalms, Sunday worship, temple, worship

Psalm 67 calls upon God to bless Israel so that the nations will praise God in thanksgiving for their salvation, fear God in faith, and be saved (three ways of saying the same thing). I pronounce God's blessing at the end of every time of worship and now I am doing so at the end of my ministry here in Stopover not only because I want the best for this church (as I do) but also because I want to see people be saved.

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Labels: blessing, praise, Psalms, salvation, Sunday worship, thanksgiving

This Judges 2 is a bonus sermon today...the Fifth Sunday service at First Presbyterian of Pikeville, Kentucky. The sermon is a farewell message for Scott and a challenge to the congregation to be faithful to Jesus and to continue to teach the next generation all that Jesus has commanded us to observe and all that Jesus has done for us and them. The challenge is to keep attending to the means of grace (in particular, the word, sacraments and corporate prayer in Sunday worship). The message focuses on the difference between the situation of Judges and the present because of the coming of Christ the Shepherd and the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost. I should explain as background the motorcycle comment -- Scott drives a motorcycle and likes to say that Jesus will return on a Harley because shepherds in New Zealand drive motorcycles to keep their sheep.

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Labels: christ, David, judges, Saul, shepherd, spirit, Sunday worship

Matthew 26 tells us the events surrounding the betrayal of Jesus Christ by one of the twelve -- Judas Iscariot. This passage was written for the new church that Christ would create with His resurrection and for us. The examples of Judas and the other disciples are warnings for the church. Judas warns the people that many will fall away, betray one another, and hate one another. The other disciples, in particular Peter, James and John, show us our need to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." This is a prayer for the church ("us"). Another way Matthew shows us how to be a church is through the institution of the Lord's Supper. The church is the many whose sins are forgiven (the many who love one another). Thus no matter what hardship may come, even if it is betrayal, you should continue to gather together.

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Labels: betrayal, church, forgiven, Lord's Supper, love, Matthew, Sunday worship, warning

Joshua chapters 13-21 are centered upon WORSHIP. Worship is what we see Israel do throughout the book of Joshua. And as we shift to this portion of Joshua it should be no surprise that it is at the center of what the people of Israel are doing. The challenge for you then is to put Sunday worship at the center of your lifestyle and empowered by this worship to go out and conquer the land for Jesus Christ (evangelism in word and deed). Do not go AWOL (absent without leave) from Sunday worship. Instead, promise God you will be faithful in attendance and do it.

The passage is a long one. Therefore, I only read selected portions (part of 13:1-7, 14:1-5, 18:1-10, and 21:43-45). But the preaching portion (the text the sermon is based upon) cannot be shortened without missing the big picture articulated above.

Note: This is the sermon as it was preached at Peter Creek on Sunday and I had a terrible sinus cold at the time (I nearly lost my voice a couple days before, so thanks be to God that I got it back in order to preach).

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Labels: AWOL, chiasm, evangelism, joshua, Sunday worship, worship