Ruth 3:1-18 – True Love INTRODUCTION: The Princess Bride – how I love this movie and I think it is the best story of all time. True Love In The Princess Bride, Westley is driven by one goal—to return to the love of his life, Buttercup. Westley does whatever it takes for his one “true love.” He scales mountains, fights giants, goes through extreme torture, and even dies – or at least he becomes half-dead. In one scene in the... Read more
Ruth 2:1-23 Romance The great German poet Goethe said of this book, “we have nothing so lovely in the whole range of epic and idyllic poetry.” Goethe thought Ruth was a romantic story. Many other people have commented on the beauty of the book of Ruth because it is a romantic story. Today we see parts of that romance as Ruth and Boaz meet for the first time. Even though they meet for the first time, they can teach singles... Read more
Ruth 1:1-22 Tragedy We are beginning a new series for Advent. Advent means “coming towards” in Latin. Advent means the days approaching the coming of the Christ on earth. We take these four weeks to celebrate the coming of Christ years ago. So you may be wondering why I am having us read from the Book of Ruth? The story in Ruth and the story of Christ’s birth take place in the same city – Bethlehem. So we are going... Read more
Psalm 30:1-12 Why Do We Give Thanks? What is the purpose of thanksgiving? Why do we give thanks? This is the question I want to answer for you today. I want to answer this question and then apply it to our lives spiritually. Here is a definition of thanksgiving. We give thanks to acknowledge someone else’s goodness. ILLUSTRATION: You say thank you to someone because they have done something good to you. 1. Thank you for your help. 2. Thank... Read more
Matthew 5:43-48 Anger, Patience, and Prayer LET IT GO (Anger) (5:43) “love your neighbor and hate your enemy” This has to do with yourself. ILLUSTRATION: Bottled Up Anger is like A Bottle of Carbonated Drink Hate is bottled up anger that is spewed on someone else. You are shaking and agitating the relationship in a way that will later explode. You make a stable relationship unstable when you get angry. The problem with anger and hating someone else is not... Read more
Mark 8:13-21 God’s Mentality About Money The loaves and fishes event teaches us a lesson on God’s provision. It is clear that the disciples never learned the lesson about God’s provision. Why? Jesus had to remind them on two different occassions. After the feeding of the FOUR thousand (and that is a different event than the feeding of the FIVE thousand), Jesus and the disciples went on a boat trip to Dalmutha, which was on the west side of Lake... Read more
Luke 10:25-37 Who Is My Neighbor? OPENING ILLUSTRATION: Have someone come to the baptistry before the sermon begins and lie down. The person stays there until near the end of the sermon. At the end of the sermon, I go over and ask if he is ok. I describe the fact that many times we don’t notice the person because we are so busy, or that if we notice, we don’t do something. (Ask if anyone had thought about getting... Read more
Luke 18:1-8 The Power to PRAY Have you ever had a time when you really did not want to pray? Have you thought about praying and then said to yourself: “Why should I bother?” Jesus answers your question. He says you ought to pray because you need to pray. Christians need to pray. Christians need to pray like humans need to breathe. Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, (Luke... Read more
Luke 12:35-48 Responsible Service There used to be this comedian when I was young. His name was Leo Gallagher. He had specials on television and he would make observations about American culture. He was quite ironic. But his most famous joke was the “Sledge-O-Matic”. This was his joke about the “Ginsu Knives” and other hilarious late-night consumer product commercials that would come along. He was making a comment about the consumerism in the United States. His joke started like this:... Read more
2 Corinthians 9:6-15 The Ministry of Financial Giving OPENING ILLUSTRATION: What did you get for Christmas? Of course someone gave you something for Christmas. You gave someone else a gift for Christmas. We accept the fact that we exchanged gifts with one another. Let me tell you what I got for Christmas. I got a PDA. It is not new, but it was given out of love. I also got a new calendar for 2007. I also got a few... Read more
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