Sermons

1 Samuel 1:9-11, 19-20; 2:1-10 (watch here: https://youtu.be/b3oOSQ0sslM) (sermon note: 10-18 sermon note) After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made this vow: ‘O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the [...]

(watch here: https://youtu.be/ehekvcd_tOU) Revelation 21:1-5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the [...]

Exodus 32:1-14 (watch here: https://youtu.be/-ftcc9O78-c) sermon note: 10-11 sermon note When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, ‘Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ Aaron said to them, ‘Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and [...]

Genesis 1:26-28 (sermon note: 10-04 sermon note) (watch here: https://youtu.be/5de3ghL6Fh4) 26Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the [...]

Genesis 37:3-8, 17b-22, 26-34; 50:15-21 (sermon note: 09-27 sermon note) (watch here: https://youtu.be/HTvNOHmqvSM) Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.   Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, ‘Listen to this dream that I dreamed. There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly [...]

Genesis 15:1-6 (sermon note: 09-20 sermon note) (watch here: https://youtu.be/bcHgYlKKFVg) After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very [...]

Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-17; 3:1-8 (watch here: https://youtu.be/6ZWxfjA7yAI) In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.   [...]

Luke 11:2-4 (watch here: https://youtu.be/Cl9gnlXVqXQ) He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.    Your kingdom come.    Give us each day our daily bread.    And forgive us our sins,      for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.    And do not bring us to the time of trial.’ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This morning’s reading reminds me of the one about a plane that was preparing for takeoff. After all the passengers had boarded and gotten situated in their seats, the pilot and copilot walked across the tarmac and boarded as well. Both the pilot and co-pilot were wearing dark sunglasses and using canes to guide their [...]

Luke 11:2-4 (watch here: https://youtu.be/Q03T0RAq9GY) He [Jesus] said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.    Your kingdom come.    Give us each day our daily bread.    And forgive us our sins,      for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.    And do not bring us to the time of trial.’ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The petition of Jesus’ prayer that asks, “give us each day our daily prayer,” reminds me of the one about a young woman who brought home her fiance to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother told her father to find out a little about the young man. The father invited the fiance to [...]

Luke 11:2-4 (watch here: https://youtu.be/az3NNarLefY) He [Jesus] said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.    Your kingdom come.    Give us each day our daily bread.    And forgive us our sins,      for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.    And do not bring us to the time of trial.’ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The petition of Jesus’ prayer, “your kingdom come,” reminds me of the one about a kingdom. Well, in that kingdom was a very annoyed king. He was so mad that every man in his kingdom was only listening to their wife’s orders and didn't make any decisions for themselves. So the king decided to [...]

Luke 11:2-4 He [Jesus] said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.    Your kingdom come.    Give us each day our daily bread.    And forgive us our sins,      for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.    And do not bring us to the time of trial.’ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As we set out on this 4-week journey looking at Jesus’ model prayer for us, I’m reminded of the one about two boys who were staying at their grandma’s place for the weekend. Just before bed, they kneeled next to their beds and began doing their nightly prayers. The first boy quietly said, “Lord, if you could [...]

2 Corinthians 8:1-15 (watch here: https://youtu.be/raih4dGhYHs) We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints— and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, so that [...]