Sermon Leftovers

PHILIPPIANS 4:18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Marianne loves Bath and Body Works. She has some kind of membership/rewards deal which allows her every so often to get incredible discounts in the store. We often do a lot of our Christmas shopping there (we did much more when we were still buying gifts for our kids' teachers). I don't care for the store. The cacophony of smells is overwhelming, even for someone like me who has a poor sense of smell. Recently, they've added some "male scents" with names like Bourbon, Graphite, and Teakwood. This makes it a little more manageable for me, but I still don't like it. Usually, I'll hang out with Marianne for about 5 minutes, then I'll drift out into the mall and look for a massage chair. The overwhelming fragrance is just not something I enjoy. In Philipp

I love making lists. I made these three lists back in 2011. I guess some things change and some things stay the same. 2011 9 Teams I Prefer to All Others: Michigan State Spartans Detroit Tigers Detroit Lions Liverpool FC Reds Detroit Red Wings Sailor Soccer Cedarville Yellowjackets Detroit Pistons Cincinnati Reds 9 Teams I Love to Hate: Notre Dame Fighting Irish Chicago Bears Minnesota Twins Colorado Avalanche Manchester United Red Devils Green Bay Packers Chicago White Sox Dallas Cowboys New York Yankees 9 Athletes I Admire: Steve Yzerman Barry Sanders Lou Whitaker Steve Smith (MSU basketball) John Stockton/Karl Malone Greg Maddox Isaiah Thomas Brandon Inge Andy Pettitte 2019 9 Teams I Prefer to All Others: George Fox University Bruins Soccer Liverpool FC Detroit Tigers Detroit Red Wings Detroit Lions Michigan State Spartans Dutch National Team (Soccer) Taylor University Trojans FC Cincinnati 9 Teams I Love to Hate: Univ

Every year around Christmas, my small Christian school had a roller-skating party at the local rink. The first time I attended was in third grade and I think it was only the second time I had roller-skated in my life. I wasn't very good, and I was afraid of falling, so I crept around the rink with one hand on the wall. I was more shuffling than skating. Then Jimmy came alongside me, grabbed my hand and said, "Come on." Slowly we skated around the rink over and over and over until I started to get the hang of it. Jimmy was a great skater, he could dart in and out of people, flying around the oval faster than almost everyone else. He won the age-graded races and the limbo competition every year. I imagine it was incredibly boring and a little frustrating to skate beside me when he could have been gliding around the rink at a much faster rate of speed. But he chose to share my trouble. For many years (until I moved away), Jimmy and I were the best of friends. Today, we&

Marianne bakes amazing chocolate chip cookies. She has the whole process down to a science. A while back, we needed to make a batch of cookies and she didn't have time, so she asked me to make them. She gave me her recipe and left me on my own. They turned out ok. Not great. Edible. She understands better than I do the perfect ratios in the ingredients. She has a deeper and more accurate experience with the recipe because she has made the cookies so many more times than I do. Simply put, the better you understand and utilize the ingredients, the better your final product will be. Do you understand the proper ingredients to bake a spiritually healthy life? Paul gave us a recipe in Philippians 4:8. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. This verse follows Paul's instruction