Sermon Leftovers

Studying the Bible can be overwhelming. It's not always easy to know exactly what we should be learning when we read. We can become discouraged and give up  looking into God's Word. Before discouragement sets in, consider 2 Timothy 3:16. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, Because Scripture is "God-breathed", we have confidence that it is truthful and we know that it is authoritative. Because we are promised that "ALL" of it is profitable, we must apply it to our lives. I like to use 2 Timothy 3:16 as a template for Bible study. Paul's four "profitable uses" of Scripture can provide us with FOUR QUESTIONS which will SIMPLIFY and ENHANCE our BIBLE STUDY. God's word is profitable for teaching. It tells us what is right. Question One: "What am I presently doing that I should continue doing?" God's Word is profitable f

Twitter Proverbs 12:9 says, " Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food. " If I were going to paraphrase this proverb, I would say: It doesn't matter what others think if you are wisely saving your money. If you spend your money trying to keep up with those around you, you'll end up with nothing. Last night I was in a "tech" store just playing around with tablets. The salesman asked me a couple questions, pulled up my phone account and informed me that for a small cost I could upgrade to the latest and greatest iphone. I told him my current phone was only a year old and worked great. He said, but this is the iPhone 6! You'll be really glad you upgraded. Everywhere you look, someone is telling you to buy the newest and best. Whether you need it or can afford it means nothing. You may think everyone is impressed by your collection of gadgets and toys or by the size or your wardrobe, gara

What if, in church, we made it our habit to begin our answer to every question we’re asked with: “Here’s what the Bible says about that…” I don’t mean that this should be done in a smug or snarky way, but in a way that makes it clear that we (particularly in the church) should approach every issue (particularly those pertaining to the church) by STARTING with the Bible’s teaching on that topic. Of course, some will read this and say, “But the Bible doesn’t speak to every issue!” To which I will respond, “The Bible may not answer every question you can ask, but it most certainly addresses any topic which may come up!” At first, this approach to question-answering, problem-solving, strategic planning, etc. may sound even better than a visit to Pablo’s Tacos on dollar-taco-Tuesday. After a little reflection, however, some may not be too happy with this approach. Consider some of the ramifications: 1) Our own personal opinions will be subjugated to a higher authority.  2)

One word, just two letters, can open a world of opportunity for you. The word is "no". I know we often think of "no" as a negative word and we want to be people who say "yes" more often than not. However, when you choose to say "no" to one thing, you create an opportunity to say "yes" to something more important. Every time you say "yes", you are saying "no" to something else. Every time you say "no", you are saying "yes" to something else. If you say "no" to that show on Netflix, you can say "yes" to time with your family. If you say "no" to 30 minutes of Facebook scrolling, you can say "yes" to 15 minutes of prayer and 15 minutes of Bible study. If you say "no" to that Swiss Cake Roll, you can say "yes" to a more healthy lifestyle. If you say "no" to complaining and worrying, you can say "yes" to joy and pe

Rarely does a day go by when I don't see an animal cross the road in front of my car. In Michigan, it is often a turkey. In Ohio, it is often a goose from Canada. Occasionally, this gets me thinking about how roads have impacted the population of animals like deer, rabbits (perhaps you've heard my sermon story about the indecisive rabbit and my old Honda Accord), turkeys, geese and squirrels. Without re-tracing my entire thought process, I'll simply say I've concluded that we may have gone wrong when we started harnessing animals. While the invention of the wheel was a great thing, The choice to use animals to pull us around (initially the two reasons were conquest and commerce; one could argue both are greed and self-driven) seems to have been where we really lost the symbiosis between human and creation (okay, so we lost it at the fall, and whole carnivore vs. human thing didn't help, but stay with me here) Now... what I'm NOT saying is that we should no

I wrote this blog post 10 years ago. I think it still has legs. The challenge facing anyone who leads any kind of team is moving their players from anarchy to accomplishment. Someday I'll write more, but for now, these three words: INFORM EQUIP UNLEASH