Sermons

  Everything Is Awesome & Nobody Is Happy Pressing On, Finishing The Race Opening Illustration: How many of you have iPhones? Lots of you do. Good. Then you may have experienced something that I have experienced on a regular basis. Like most of you, I get lots and lots of texts. I would say that the majority of texts that I get are people requesting prayer. They may have a relationship on the verge of breaking down. They may be looking for a new job and ask me to pray for them. They may even be considering asking a young lady to marry them. Again, “Stuart will you pray for me”. On every occasion that I receive a text like that, asking for prayer, I inevitably reply “yes”. I do my very best to stop and pray for that person right there. Sometimes that are times where closing my eyes in prayer is not a good idea so I have to delay the prayer. I have actually gotten into a pretty cool habit. When someone texts me for prayer, I usually respond with a prayer via text.  I say all this bec

  Everything Is Awesome & Nobody Is Happy The Risky Business of Christian Living  Opening Illustration: Friends, it is a dangerous world out there. I think that we would all agree with that. We have all lived through a global pandemic. We have seen first hand how a small virus can cripple the mightiest country in the world. For a short time, the Coronavirus had people locked in their homes, social distancing, and wearing masks. The recent pandemic has revealed to all of us just how fragile life can be and how easily we can see our civilization break.  Did you know that there are entire fields of study dedicated to the rational and often times irrational fears that plague humanity?  Acrophobia is the fear of flying. Lots of people have that fear even though they statistics tell us that air travel is absolutely the safest way to travel.  Anginophobia is the fear of choking. Lots of people have that fear even though there is only a 1 in 2,535 chance that you will die from ch

  Everything Is Awesome And Nobody Is Happy Friends Are Friends Forever Opening Illustration: Going up my family listened to a lot Christian music. Perhaps the best example of Christian music in the 1980’s and 90’s was that of Michael W. Smith. During that time, his music was everywhere. Today we look back at those times and that brand of music as a bit cheesy. Let’s get real, it was super cheesy. It was a cheese factory. When you think of Michael W. Smith, you cannot help but think of his song “Friends”. Michael, along with his wife Debbie in 1987. They were living in Nashville at the time and they hosted a small Bible study at their house. The group became very close, very tight knit. Sadly, a member of the group named Bill Jackson was moving away. The group was sad so Michael W. Smith did what any artist would do, he wrote a song. His wife sat down and wrote out the lyrics on a napkin in about 30 minutes and Smith pulled up to his piano and banged out the chords in about 3 minu