Sermon Series (Page 4)

This Sunday I am going to teach the last in this series “Knowing God,” but by saying this, please understand, there is NO WAY that we have come to end of what it means to Know God. We have taught about 35 Sunday’s using this headline “Knowing God.” We have taught a great deal from Exodus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Matthew, John, and Hebrews… and have looked carefully at many other Scriptures as well during this whole academic year. Some of us…

The Shema: Deuteronomy 6:4     “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one.  Love the Lord your God   with all your heart,  soul, mind  and strength.” In the days of Moses, just before they were to cross the Jordan River to enter the promised land, the people of God – the Covenant people Israel – were given this command that we find in Deuteronomy 6:4. It is famous in the Jewish world and called “The Shema.” This literally means… “listen!”…

What a joy it is to be a parent. Well… most of the time, right? Just this week I saw on Facebook another one of our families who is celebrating their little babies month by month birthday. It’s that cute photo of the infant laying on a blanket surrounded by those 12 numbers with a circle on how many months old they are now. Those are the cutest photos and what a joy it is to celebrate. This coming Sunday…

Hebrews 12:22    But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.  We are blessed to live in a part of the world that has mountains to our east (the Cascades) and mountains to our west (the Olympics). For those of us who live in the Puget Sound region, the major attraction is of course Mt Rainier. Standing 14,411 feet above sea level, it is the 3rd highest peak in the lower 48 states, and when…

I hated track in High School! Now know this about me. I ran track all through High School, but I can honestly say I never really liked it. Why? Because it just flat out hurt too much!  At the same time I was (and still am) inspired by great track athletes. I love watching the Olympics when we see displayed on the field those that push themselves to a whole new level. I love to watch the endurance races –…

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” I actually enjoy walking through a cemetery and looking at the head markers. No, I am not morbid, but it is interesting to reflect on what you find out about the lives of those who have gone before us. The most fascinating ones are the really old dates (especially any in the 17 or 1800’s) but the brief description of what…

When I was a young boy, we were living in central Texas, 180 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. But we had lots of family members who lived right at the coastline in the city of Corpus Christi. I had two grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all there. In August of 1970, when I was 13 years old, those Corpus Christi grandparents took us on a bit of a road trip in their station wagon (yes, it looked liked…

Are you in favor of the Death Penalty? Is there any crime that is worthy of a Death Sentence? This question might be challenging for you. Here are three somewhat typical answers: I am not about to try to answer this question right here for our legal system and for our society, but this is essentially the major issue and question that needs to be addressed when we dig deeper into our Bible in Hebrews chapters 9 & 10.  I…

When the colonial leaders of early America officially broke ties from British rule (you better all know that date…July 4th, 1776!) they called themselves a new nation that had a new national identity. These early founders of our nation based this very difficult decision that led to the Revolutionary War upon what they called “the unalienable rights” that every person should have. They stated that these ‘rights’ were not just a nice idea, but that the Creator God Himself had…

We are all taught that certain places where we show up demand some kind of proper etiquette in our behavior. Patty and I had the amazing opportunity over 20 years ago, to be tourist in Rome. Of course, we visited as many of the classic historical sites as possible… the Roman Colosseum, The Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, St Peters Basilica… But I looked forward the most to spend time at the Sistine Chapel. The room is surprisingly…

One of the few times I have ever been under a surgeon’s scalpel is when I was in High School, and I had a tonsillectomy (I hope I spelled this correctly!). I came down with a very bad throat and the doctor determined that my tonsils were the problem, and they had to come out. I know that many of you have had some pretty big surgeries in your life, and my tonsils just don’t compare to many of you,…

Knowing God: The God of REST When was the last time you thought to yourself… “I need a break!! I need some REST!… I need a VACATION!” If you are like me, when those cruise ship brochures come in the mail, or those vacation sales to nice warm sunny beaches arrive in my e-mail box, I like to look and dream a little. I think to myself how nice that would be to just relax with no cares and enjoy…

A couple of years ago I bought a magazine about “off grid living.” I have always enjoyed that kind of thing as I have done a good bit of backpacking over the years. I love the mountains and I love figuring out how to make life work in a naturel setting. But as for the magazine, maybe I was considering moving off the grid, as it was during the covid lockdown time, and I thought to myself, “if I’m going…

I have another Hollywood movie analogy for you this week… “Angels and Demons,” the 2009 film with Tom Hanks as the main character. Last week it was the Truman Show with Jim Carrey!  What we know of Angels is usually from a Hollywood movie. (are you thinking to yourself… ‘Billy, you watch too many movies!” I actually did not see Angels and Demons as it looked too dumb for me – but don’t tell Tom Hanks!) This coming Sunday I…

In the 1998 film, “The Truman Show,” that starred Jim Carrey, it was about a man Truman who thought he lived a ‘normal’ life, but it was in a box.  From birth to adulthood his life was on camera 24/7. It was the ultimate reality show for the audience as they kept the TV on all the time to see what Truman was up to.  Truman had no idea that he was being filmed. The world that he lived was…

Do you remember when was the first time you heard about the Ten Commandments? Was it during dinner one day you sat down with your family? Was it in a conversation with a friend? Was it during children Sunday school? When I first heard about them, I was so little I don’t even remember how old I was. God writing some things on stone tablets must have fascinated me. The Ten Commandments are well known not just to Christians, but…

Knowing God: The King’s Royal Speech In our study series we have titled “Knowing God,” we are now at the place in the story where God gave the Ten Commandments to His people. Moses brought tablets down from the Mountain of God with God’s handwriting on them of these Ten Commands for His people to follow. You will recognize the Ten Commandments at least in part, and we know them in Scripture as the ‘LAW OF GOD.’ But much of…

Christmas Eve, Candlelight, and Silent Night John 1:14 (NIV) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. This coming Saturday evening is Christmas Eve. My favorite service of the entire year is the 11 p.m. candlelight service at our church building. (We will hold this service once again this coming Saturday. Please realize that we have a 7…

Remember the old Christmas cartoon from Peanuts? Charlie Brown is going crazy with all the confusion of a Christmas tree that isn’t working out, a play that’s going badly, and life somehow just falling apart. Frustrated with the chaos of the Christmas season, he yells out to the crowd, “ISN’T THERE ANYONE WHO KNOWS WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT?” It is his young friend Linus who stops in the middle of all the hectic activity and, in his innocent little…

Three portraits to understand the incarnate God we find in John 3 As you may know, Patty and I have been in eastern Europe for a couple weeks, visiting our daughter and son-in-law and, of course, Pollyanna, one of our precious granddaughters (now 10 months old!). While in three eastern European countries—Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland—we attended a significant missions conference (which I will tell about later), but we’ve also visited some amazing tourist sites, namely medieval castles and majestic church…

How many of you enjoy the Prophetic Books in the Bible? If I am honest, the Prophets is not the easiest section in the Bible for me. Much of the time, I find it necessary to also study the history along with the chronological order of kingdoms in order to understand the Prophets, and I tend to get my dates mixed up. In addition, I am also someone who easily gets lost when I read poetry. And since there is…