Faith Sermons and Studies

I don’t know if you’ve ever gone on an adventure. We like to go on adventures in our home. Many adventures you go on require the ability to navigate where you are going. If you really want to navigate the way you are to go, you need a map. A map is going to help you get your bearings straight and figure out where you are at. And every map has two important things—a legend and a compass. A legend h...

There’s a difference between those who sit on the sidelines, and those who play in the game. Some people get involved in things, and others do not. I remember growing up I was on a football team. This was 5th grade midgets football, and they had a weight limit—you had to be under 100 lbs to play on the team. They didn’t want any bigger kids hurting the younger kids. But I was just over 100 lbs and...

His sin is perhaps one of the most well-known sins of all those who follow God. This man in leadership gave in to his carnal desires and ruined the lives of himself, his family, and many others. This godly man who is known for his love for the Lord, had allowed his passion to control him, and they took him to a place he probably never considered going on his own. . . . There were all kinds of resu...

Nearly everyone, if asked to be truly honest, would admit that they have regrets. Certain things we have done or said or thought or whatever, we have regrets. As the saying goes, hindsight is 20:20. We have things that we wish hadn’t happened. I can think of situations in my own life where I have done something or said something that I later regretted and decided wasn’t a great thing to do. But re...

Have you ever allowed your feelings to control you? I know I have! Sometimes our feelings can be so strong and so intense that they begin to dictate how we live. Sometimes this isn’t that big of a deal, but other times our feelings can have complete control over us! The Bible describes the Christian life as a life of faith. If you’re going to get through life successfully as a believer, you need t...

He was only 15 years old when he staged his first con. Frank Abagnale, one of the greatest con men to ever practice his tradition of deceit, will forever be remembered as the one who got away over and over again, until he didn’t . . .Even Frank Abagnale, perhaps one of the greatest con artists of all times, couldn’t get away forever.‌‌ Isn’t this the case with sin? Sometimes we feel like we can ge...

Have you ever traveled internationally? If you travel to other countries, it’s important to understand the currency. You want to make sure you have a right understanding of the exchange rate because you want to get the cost right. You want to make sure you understand the cost before you purchase something.‌‌ This reminds me of our spiritual lives. Scripture talks about certain things in our spirit...

Pain has a way of sobering us, doesn’t it? Life can be going smoothly and well and all of the sudden something happens—someone dies; you get that diagnosis; you bend over to pick something up and your back lets loose; or you break a bone or smash a finger. Pain has a way of bringing us back to reality—doesn’t it? How do you respond? This is true in our spiritual lives as well. Whenever we face pai...

Perhaps you’ve heard the humorous song entitled “Excuses” sung by the Southern Gospel quartet The Kingsmen. The song tells the story of how Satan might try to get professing believers to stay out of church by giving them excuses. Pastors face an expectation challenge —there are all sorts of expectations for pastors! What should you expect from a pastor? What should his goal first and foremost be?...

Have you ever needed to detox? There are all kinds of ways that people detox, but it’s become popular today for people to use, eat, drink, something that would detoxify their body from harmful toxins. I looked up recently—popular ways to detox. I found a wide assortment! First one was fasting. You can do a juice cleanse . You can use a dietary supplement like a pill or powder —some sort of shake t...

One of Aesop’s fables tells the story of a donkey. As the donkey was wondering about he came upon a lion skin. Apparently some hunters had killed a lion and let it’s skin out to tan and dry in the sun. The donkey had a terrific idea, he decided he was going to put on the lion skin and pretend he was a lion. So he put on the skin and went around to where he lived and all of the animals fled—both an...

I’d like to talk about something that I would guess every single one of us did before coming to church this morning. In fact, this same habit is something that I would venture to say nearly every single one of you does every single morning. And not only every single morning, you probably do it multiple times a day. It’s the type of discipline you almost never leave home without doing. It’s the typ...

Are you a control freak? Do you like to be in control? You plan and over plan and have ever little detail worked out to its minutia? You don’t feel like you’re complete until you have a contingency for every possible scenario? Some people are control freaks. Some are control freaks in the sense that they just like power and like to be in control. While others, just like to be well prepared and hav...

Have you ever underestimated your own strength? Maybe you thought you could do something but you really couldn’t? This becomes more and more of an issue as you age. You used to be able to do things and never feel them, but as you get older you start to hurt more. Do you think we can underestimate things in our spiritual lives? I think we can—our passage for this morning talks about that. And it ad...

Have you ever not been able to see? Or maybe you couldn’t see clearly? It’s important to be able to see clearly, isn’t it? If we are to make disciples the way Jesus wants us to, we need to be able to see the world the way Jesus sees the world—we need to develop the eyes of Jesus.‌‌ Sometimes we get so that we see the world a little bit skewed. Just like we talked about last week, we may start to s...

Have you ever walked alone at night? Maybe you’ve gone camping or you are a walker or runner going out in the dark. It can kind of be a creepy experience. Sometimes we don’t really like to be alone. We get afraid or we loose confidence. This type of fear can grip our spiritual lives when we seek to make disciples and we step out of our comfort zone into someone else’s life. You might have negative...

If you were a governor and gave a pardon to all the criminals, you’d expect all the them to accept it, wouldn’t you? These parables reveal and conceal. Will everyone who goes to church go to heaven? The parable says everyone won’t. It’s a simple parable, but relates a deep truth. Matthew 13:24-30 24  Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good...

Certain situations in life require authorization. Maybe you work at a job where you have a special security badge that you have to scan to get to certain areas. Suppose you are going on a vacation where you have to get an approval or authorization. The same thing is true in our spiritual lives. Call it authority if you will. It has been given to every believer. God expects us to use this authority...

Learning to Rest in the Power of Jesus Mark 6:7-56 Some things in life, you really have to work for. They require some effort. We can understand that some things in life do take some work, effort and discipline. But have there ever been things you’ve had to work for that just require too much work? What are you to do? The disciples were experiencing ministry for the first time, but he gives them s...

We live in a spiritual battle and it is one that is to we waged from the knees—mostly through prayer as we take up the armor of God. Observe the diligence of a soldier who trains who can fall back on that training. You might not rise to your highest expectation, but you’ll fall to the level of your training. We need to get our training level higher.

Many people are tormented because they cannot get a grip on their minds. You are not what you think you are, but what you think is who you are. Who you hang around with is who you become.  It’s crucial we bring our thoughts into submission of Jesus Christ. All sins begins in our thoughts, which the Bible calls our heart. Jesus says in Mark 7:20: For within the heart of man proceed evil thoughts. N...

Romans 4:1-8  I wonder, you like to explore? We like to explore as a family. We like to hike in the woods in the summertime.  When you explore, you’re going to make discoveries. Sometimes small and sometimes large. We like to explore campgrounds with our pop-up camper and then we like to setup and then go explore. Sometimes we make great discoveries and sometimes not. Have you ever made a great di...

Imagine yourself being the owner of a business with the potential to make millions, but you’re dependent upon three kinds of employees to fulfill your potential. 1. A lazy employee that comes in late and leaves early. 2. A 9-5 worker who does exactly what they are told to do and go home on time. 3. A worker that’s willing to come early and stay after to get the work done. What worker would you cho...

From John 5:1-15: A Man Healed at the Pool of Bethesda Jesus has been preaching and teaching throughout all of Jerusalem and the land. And he taught with authority. The authority that Christ had was the Son of God. Not an authority by men, but Christ was God from beginning to end. He always told stories of spiritual truth. He kept the law and never demonstrated against Rome.

Imagine if you will that we are together in a big, unfamiliar city standing on a street corner. What do you see, hear and smell? We are waiting for the signal to turn at an intersection and we are lost—we are imaginary lost, including not having our phones or GPS. We must look really lost as a kind stranger comes up to help us. The idea of not having Siri or a map application could terrify you. A...