Keep the Main Thing

Pastor Lee preaches from John 12:22-28, and he opens with a statement we’ve all heard. “I’m worth more dead than I am alive.” Pastor Lee does something striking: he agrees with that statement. But he takes it deeper. He suggests that Jesus Himself struggled with this reality—knowing that in some sense, He was worth more to us dead than alive. The reality of His upcoming crucifixion on our behalf....

Communion Sunday, March 3rd, 1991. The message from Pastor Lee is titled “What Makes You Mad.” Pastor Lee opens his sermon by reminding us something important: it’s not really worth getting angry over something small—like a penny, as he illustrates. God designed us with the emotion of anger. The issue is how we use it. Pastor Lee reminds us that anger can be reflective and positive, or it can be p...

Titled “Handling His Portfolio,” Pastor Lee uses Malachi 3:8-18 as the backdrop for a message on tithing. He invites us to view tithing not as a burden or obligation, but as an adventure—something that can bring real joy to the person who tithes. Pastor Lee helps us understand that everything already belongs to God. Everything we possess is part of His gift to us. Giving is the natural way for us...

Pastor Lee asks a convicting question: “Whatever possessed you this past week?” Drawing from Mark 1:4-11 and Jesus’ baptism, he reminds us that we “go public” every day with whatever is inside us—whether it’s anger, fear, or the Holy Spirit. In a vulnerable and personal testimony, Pastor Lee shares his own journey of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and how it transformed his life. He challenges...

Pastor Lee’s final sermon in 1990.  Pastor Lee outlines what he calls a “spiritual survival guide.” for avoiding a spiritual recession in the face of whatever trials we face. If you’ve been listening to this podcast, you’ve noticed how uncannily similar the concerns of the mid-80s and 90s are to our own. The challenges they faced, the cultural struggles they wrestled with—they remarkably parallel...

It’s Sunday, December 9th, 1990, and we find Pastor Lee and the congregation right in the midst of the Advent season. The title of Pastor Lee’s sermon is “The Turning Point,” and he bases his message on the Old Testament lesson from that Sunday, found in Isaiah 40:1-11. Pastor Lee opens with a story about a recent trip to the dentist, and he uses it to create a surprisingly effective analogy for r...

 It’s November 4, 1990 and it is All Saints Sunday. The title of Pastor Leland Evenson’s sermon is, “Putting Faith, Love, and Hope to Work.” Pastor Lee emphasizes that the Apostle Paul continually reminded the early Christians of the fundamentals of their new faith: faith, love, and hope. Pastor Lee reminds us that in many areas of our lives, there are certain fundamentals that must be incorporate...

It’s Sunday, October 14th, 1990, at Vision of Glory Lutheran Church. Pastor Lee’s message titled “Qualified to Give.” Is a short but powerful message that opens with a rather startling announcement: Maybe we’re not qualified to be givers. Pastor Lee explains to us that God doesn’t always care what people give, but rather how people give. 

Pastor Lee opens his message with a fascinating and bizarre story—the story of a house built entirely out of spite. A man, consumed by anger toward his neighbors, constructed a ridiculous, impractical house for one reason only: revenge. It became known as “the spite house.” Pastor Lee suggests that we all visit—or even live in—our own “house of spite” from time to time. Pastor Lee also tells us th...

September 16th, 1990, and it’s titled “Gift Exchange.” This is a wonderful sermon about one of God’s greatest gifts to us—the Holy Spirit—and how that gift flows through us to others. Pastor Lee is preaching from Romans chapter 12. Pastor Lee reminds us that through God’s grace, we’re not only brought back to God—we’re also brought back together as Christians, developing what he calls a “healthy i...

We’ve all been there—that frantic search for our keys. That moment of frustration and helplessness when we can’t find them. Pastor Lee uses that simple, relatable experience as the launching pad for this message titled “Did You Find Your Keys?” September 9, 1990.

Pastor Lee’s sermon is titled “Treasure Hunt.” He reminds us that we don’t always recognize the true value of things. This blind spot can cause us to miss out on much of life because we invest our time and resources in the wrong places. Pastor Lee tells us that in our culture, we’ve changed the price tags on things—assigning high value to what ultimately holds very little, and overlooking what mat...

This sermon from July 15, 1990 is titled “Dealing with the Side Effects”. Pastor Lee makes an observation, that in life, there are side effects—and most of them we’d rather avoid. He draws a clever parallel to those moments when a doctor prescribes medication and then warns us about potential side effects. We weigh the risks against the benefits and decide if it’s worth it. But Pastor Lee takes th...

A message is from July 1st, 1990, titled “High Visibility.” Pastor Lee uses his days on the farm, explaining that when the crop was ready, getting the harvest completed was paramount. Jesus used harvest imagery repeatedly in his parables and teachings as well. Pastor Lee exhorts us not to lose our visibility—not so we can be seen, but so we can truly see. To see those around us who are in need. 

It’s June 17th, 1990—Father’s Day. The title of Pastor Lee’s sermon carries a question we’ve all heard, and probably all said: “What am I going to do with you?” As Pastor Lee points out, this familiar line usually comes from a place of frustration, exhausted patience, or even anger. But he asks us to hear it differently—to consider it as something deeper, more hopeful, and genuinely thought-provok...

Pastor Lee delivers his sermon for Pentecost Sunday 1990. Titled “Fire Alert.” Pastor Lee suggests we need fire alarms in our lives that detect not when we have a fire, but when our fire is going out. He, of course, is talking about our spiritual fire. Pastor Lee reminds us of something vital: while God is always moving toward us, we can’t simply wait passively. We need to actively move toward Him...

It’s Mother’s Day 1990. Pastor Lee preaches a message called “Heading for Home.” But this isn’t just a Mother’s Day sermon. It’s a challenge to every adult who cares about the generation growing up behind them. He calls us to help young people understand their true destiny—that this world isn’t their final home, heaven is. To give them direction for living well now. And to instill in them a desire...

In this message from April 29, 1990, Pastor Leland Evenson explores the many conditions of the human heart—both physical and spiritual. Drawing from Luke 24 and the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Pastor Lee reminds us that we seldom do anything well if our hearts aren't in it. He speaks to those who are downhearted, slow of heart to believe, or struggling with doubt. Pastor Lee enco...

Today’s message from Pastor Lee, titled “Living on the Bright Side,” was first given on Easter Sunday in 1990. He dives into this message by reminding us that living for Jesus is not a once-a-week “fix,” but a pillar of our home, which we should live by day in and day out. Pastor Lee explores this idea with three main points to remember each day: “Life is not futile, failure is not fatal, and deat...

Today’s message from Pastor Lee, titled “More Than Fun and Games”, was delivered on March 25, 1990. Pastor Lee introduces us to what he believes to be one of the deadliest diseases in America: Boredom. Pastor Lee points out how boredom has the world obsessed with entertainment and leisure. The pursuit of fun is what it is all about. With all this time off from work and responsibilities and the mea...

Perhaps the title of this sermon, “Life is Precious”, seems trite or a worn cliché. Yet we can never be reminded enough of how precious life is.  On March 18, 1990, Pastor Lee took a broad swipe at this multifaceted subject. Pastor Lee doesn’t dive deep into any one characteristic of the subject. However, even though he only scratches the surface, you will still come away evermore inspired to see...

A message from Pastor Lee titled, “Breaking the Self Addiction”. Pastor Lee uses the example of what would happen if you drilled a hole in a record album that was off-centre. He accurately asserts that you would have only a bunch of noise and very strange sounds coming from your phonograph. Similarly, having our lives off-centre, by not having Christ at the centre, can create a lot of unnecessary...

Pastor Lee exhorts us to not let the world determine how we act or react, based on the temperature in the room. That we are to be thermostats, not thermometers. Pastor Lee uses a number of metaphors as examples as to how we should live in this world. Urging us to enjoy the Christian life by leaning into the hard things that we encounter. To love the difficult people that walk into our lives. 

Pastor Lee’s message titled “Lifetime Guarantee” was first given on February 11, 1990. Pastor Lee uses the Old Testament lesson from that Sunday, which was found in Deuteronomy 30. It was Moses’s last message to the Israelites, as they were about to enter the promised land. Pastor Lee reminds us that life presents us with one simple choice. Life or death. It seems like the simplest choice, yet it...

Titled, “Broken Instruments for God’s Symphony”. It is the third sermon in a three-part series based on 1 Corinthians, the first chapter. It was first presented on January 28, 1990. Pastor Lee invites us to lean into the emotions we might have from the times in our lives when we were overlooked by this world. He then reminds us that the standards the world sets are not necessarily God’s preference...