Walking on the light side - I John 1:5

I John 1:5 says, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."  This verse uses light and darkness imagery to help us understand what exactly it means that God is Holy.  We need help with the concept because nothing in our world is 100% pure.  Everything has flaws, everything has impurities.  Every day we deal with the imperfections of htis world.  They can simply be minor irriations, or the hurdles that make life difficult to bear at times.  Either way, we live in a world of second best options.
Not so with God.  One of the reasons why God is worthy of worship is because he has no flaws.  God has no compromises in his character.  He never acts based upon prejudice, greed, or fear.  Does that make God an emotion-free force, like a law of nature?  A quick look at Scripture reminds us that God gets angry, feels joy, knows sorrow, and laughs.  And yet, God's character remains the same, holy.  It isn't something that is easy for us to grasp.  We often fall into sin because our emotions "get the better of us," or we allow our thinking to become self-centered when we fail to act in accordance with our new life in Christ.
When John tells us, "walk in the light, as he is in the light" (vs. 7), he is saying that the direction that our lives are going in needs to be toward more holiness, righteousness, and Christ-likeness.  It is certainly beyond our ability in this life to be 100% free of darkness, as God is, but thanks be to God that our savior Jesus Christ was.  The only way we will ever accomplish such a monumental task is to stop trying on our own and accept that Jesus' life will stand in for our own in God's judgment.  Only then will we be able to start the process of purging darkness from our lives with the strength of the Holy Spirit.  One day, we too will walk fully in the light, as we stand in the presence of our holy God.

Sermon Video: "My Father's house" - John 14:1-3

What is the value in knowing how the story ends?  What benefit do Christians have from knowing that we will spent eternity in God's presence?  Jesus tells his disciples to not let their hearts be troubled because they can trust him to go and prepare a place for them AND return.  Our hope is based in our trust of God, that gives us comfort for today, and allows us to live for eternity.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
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Sermon Video: "Praise the LORD" - Psalm 113

Why does the LORD deserve our praise?  What's so special about God?  This psalm reminds us that God is worthy of our praise because he chose to "stoop" down to our level in order to help the poor, need, and barren woman.  This attitude of God is ultimately on display when Christ becomes a man and takes on the nature of a servant in order to bring salvation to the world.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video

Where heroes come from.

September 11th, 2001 was just another day in the beginning.  All over the country people got up and went to work, life went on as usual.  That it was to be the last day for countless heroes, was beyond their knowing.  These men and women, mostly firefighters, first responders, and cops responded to a distress call like they had as part of their jobs each day.  This distress call was however, unlike any that came before.  They didn't know it at the time, but America was at war.  They were asked to respond to a cowardly act of war that cannot be compared with the Day of Infamy witnessed by the Greatest Generation.  Pearl Harbor was an undeclared act of war by a nation against another.  Armed forces fought each other that day, and those who lost their lives in the Arizona or elsewhere died in the service of their country.  9/11 was an act of terrorism against unarmed non-combatant men, women, and children.  It was no better than walking into a pizzeria and blowing yourself up.  Moral outrage is meaningless to those who don't value human life.
Such was the situation that these public servants rushed to confront as they converged on the burning towers.  Most did not return.  They left behind wifes, family, children; but they brought out of the fires thousands who would live to hug their own families because of their sacrifice.  They didn't know when they put on the uniform to start another work day that the ultimate sacrifice would be asked of them.  Were they scared?  Sure.  Hesistant?  Perhaps.  We honor them today because they went forward anyway.
Ten years have passed.  Wars have been fought in retaliation.  Thousands of soldiers have joined these men and women in sacrifice, and tens of thousands have returned home wounded in body and spirit.  Time will heal all wounds.  Decades from now few will be left who remember that day, as a new generation grows to adulthood in the shadow of the freedom provided by those who know that it is not free.
So where do heroes come from?  Most don't make a choice ahead of time to be a hero.  Heroes choose to put others ahead of themselves each day through small acts of service and sacrifice.  By dedicating themselves to help those in need they have already made the choice to trade their own lives for those of others.  All the men and women who put on uniforms that day (and any day) were heroes, some were asked to pay for that honor one last time.

Sermon Video: "Set your hearts on things above" - Colossians 3:1-4

On this anniversary of 9/11, the question remains, how can a Christian focus upon heavenly things when this earth is so full of evil?  The Apostle Paul tackles this question by encouraging us to use the death and resurrection of Christ as inspiration and as power to focus our hearts and minds upon heavenly things instead of earthly things.

To watch the video, click on the link below:
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The real reason why writing a sermon each week is hard.

Some of you may think that writing a sermon each week would be hard because you find writing to be a difficult process.  For some people it certainly is, but that isn't what trips me up.  For others, it could be the prospect of having something fresh and insightful to say each week, but God's Word has so much more to say than I can possibly fit into a weekly sermon that it isn't really hard to find enough to say each week.  The reason why writing and delivering a sermon each week is difficult is because you need to have your mind/heart/spirit in the right place in order to do the work.  I can mow the lawn when I'm distracted or even upset, but I can't write what God has for his people from Scripture if I'm either of those.  A lot of the things that I have to do each week can be done regardless of what else is going on, but writing a sermon isn't one of them.  There have been times when I simply have to walk away from the effort for the rest of a day in order to come back again when things are sorted out.  Today I wrote the first page of my message for this week, but when I got to the phrase, "set your hearts on things above" (Colossians 3:1), I had to admit to myself that there were too many other things intruding on my thoughts to continue.  I'll come back and write some more of it tomorrow; hopefully.  As always, the hardest thing about writing a sermon each week is being ready in your own mind/heart/spirit to hear it from God's Word.