Sermons

According To Luke: The Way and the Whining Opening Illustration: Just before Christmas, Jett and I visited some of our homebound members. We went to visit these special friends and deliver to them a special gift from our Primetimer Senior Adult Ministry. Jett and I went to see Mrs. Helen Thomas. Helen, wife to John, is a founding member of this great church. As we sat and talked, she asked me if I could do her a favor. Of course I obliged. She asked me to read a selection from the Bible about heaven. I thought for a moment. God brought to my mind Revelation 21.  Revelation 21:1-4 ESV Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he wi...

According to Luke: Tiny Faith Yields Tremendous Fruits! Illustration: My wife was given a bread starter by her mother a few months ago. From that simple bread starter, dozens and dozens loaves of bread have been made. My wife took that starter and has passed it out to her friends and more family. She continues to feed this small sour dough bread starter and it continues to produce and spread.  Interestingly enough, I read a story about a woman named Lucille Clarke who lives in Newcastle, England. She claims to have the oldest known bread starter. It is said that it is 122 years old.  It was created before the rotary dial, airplane and modern assembly line. Someone first stirred its ingredients together the same year the Eiffel Tower opened and Vincent van Gogh painted “Starry Night.” It has lived through the turns of two centuries, the Great Depression, World War I, World War II, the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam and beyond, blues, jazz, rock ’n’ roll and 23 U....

According To Luke: The Lives of the Invigorated and Irritated! Opening Illustration: Have you ever seen the movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”? In the beginning, we meet Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame. It is the Festival of Fools in Paris. The crowds elected him the “Pope of Fools” because he was the ugliest person in Paris. They heaved him on a throne and paraded him through the city streets as the crowds mocked him. Then the archdeacon appeared and stopped the parade, and sent Quasimodo back to Notre Dame because someone so hideous should stay out of the crowd's site. What a complete lack of compassion and empathy! We can relate because we've experienced judgment based on our clothes, zip codes, our color, or weight, and our past. We've had people talk about us, mock our history, or dismiss us because we didn't comply with their ideals. When you feel shoved aside, remember that you’re in great company. Jesus wasn’t good enough either. The o...