Matthew 16: 13-20 Little Brandon Smith had just been put to bed for the 22nd time, and his mother’s patience was wearing thin. “If I hear you call ‘Mom’ one more time, you’ll be punished,” she warned him sternly. For a while it was quiet, and then a small voice called from the top of…
Category: sermon
He Didn’t Go to Them
“I am ruined because of what I’ve experienced, and what I’ve witnessed. It is our business to always instill hope in the lives of those who are hurting. Our God is able. Our God is great, and our God is always near to those who ask, seek and knock.”
But Peter Wasn’t Afraid
Peter’s doubt became more dominant in the moment than Peter’s faith in Jesus. The strong wind and battering waves became more real than Jesus. The physical realities of gravity and weight, wind and water, became more real than their Lord defying all physical realities and telling Peter to “Come out to me.”
They Don’t Need to Leave
Jesus told the disciples, “I discerned their illness, and they were healed. You discerned their hunger. You feed them.”
Let Them Grow Together
Matthew 13: 24-30 The phrase that catches me in this parable is, “Let both of them grow together.” The slaves of the householder ask how those weeds got among the wheat, and do you want us to go and gather them? The common weed that grew among wheat in those days in those circumstances appeared…
Perceiving Our Visitation
Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23 Jesus leaves the house to go sit beside the Sea of Galilee. Large crowds gathered around him. The story of a large crowd pressing in on him and his disciples comes to mind. He then moved to a boat in the sea while the crowd remained on the beach and from…
To the Infant and The Weary
Matthew 11: 25-30 We’re going to look at this eleventh chapter of Matthew this morning. Jesus and his disciples, his friends, went out as a team to share the good news of God’s kingdom in deeds and words. We’re going to have a bit of Bible study looking through chapter eleven, and it starts with…
Welcome!
Matthew 10: 40-42 Jesus said this morning in our text, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me.” Earlier this week, I read this little story, and it seemed to be appropriate. A teenage girl brought her new boyfriend home to meet her parents. They were appalled by his appearance: leather jacket, tattoos, and multiple piercings. Later, the…
I’m Staying Home
Matthew 10: 27-39 Maybe because of this text of scripture or that I was at Annual Conference this week, this illustration seems appropriate. Jesus was walking along one day when he came upon a man crying, and he said, “My friend, what’s wrong?” The man replied, “I’m blind. Can you help me?” Jesus healed the…
Out of Compassion
Matthew 9: 35 – 10: 8 “The laborers are few,” the text says. The laborers are few. The interviewer said to the farmer who’d just won the lottery, “Congratulations on winning the eighty-million-dollar prize.” The farmer responded, “Thank you.” The interviewer asked, “Do you have any special plans for spending the money?” The farmer said,…
Psalm 102 in The Message 