Celebrating and Embracing God’s Salvation

Luke 2:9-10, 24:1-7

Main Point – When we gather as the church, we -gather to celebrate and embrace God’s salvation!
The Sunday School teacher was extremely enthusiastic. She looked at the class of four-years olds and asked this question: “Does anyone know what today is?”
A little girl held up her finger and said, “Yes today is Palm [...]

Celebrating and Embracing God’s Faithfulness

Lamentations 3: 22-27
Main point – Great is God’s faithfulness!
A common source of challenge in life is commitment as illustrated in the following story:
The church choir director was frustrated with the sporadic attendance of all the choir members for rehearsals for the Christmas Choral Concert. At the final rehearsal he announced, “I want to personally thank [...]

Celebrating and Embracing God’s Plan

Jeremiah 29:11
Main point – God’s plan for us is good, is future oriented, and gives us hope.
Pastor Kevin Shelton tells the story of an elderly woman, who resided next to an affirmed atheist, in an older suburb. This woman, he notes, received a meager social security survivor’s benefit. Although, her finances only afforded her not [...]

Celebrating and Embracing A Life Well Lived

Galatians 6:7-10

Main point – We celebrate a life well lived by accepting the salvation made possible by the life and actions of Christ and we embrace a life well lived by living out Galatians 6:7-10.
This is the season of baccalaureate services (and we had a great one last weekend here in Kendallville), of graduations, and [...]

Why We Have Fathers

Ephesians 6:4
Main point – We have fathers because God made it so “in the beginning.”
I intended last week to launch our summer sermon series, “God, I have a question,” but the Holy Spirit so moved us through Pat’s moving testimony and singing that there was nothing more that could have been said after those moments [...]

Allies For The Children

Proverbs 1:8-9

Main point – We need to be allies of God for the children.
A teacher asked her students to list what they thought were the present Seven Wonders of the World. The students cast the most votes for 1. Egypt’s Great Pyramids 2. Taj Mahal 3. Grand Canyon 4. Panama Canal 5. Empire State [...]

And Who Is My Enemy?

Matthew 5:43-47
Main point – How do I love my enemy?
In a recent column in Leadership Weekly, Gordon MacDonald, a retired pastor and editor at large for Leadership, a journal for pastors, reflected on a comment from Louis Berkhof who said, “God does not want us as objects but as covenant partners, partners who can converse. [...]