Sermons

Yesterday I paraphrased something I thought C.S. Lewis said. It turns out, he did say it, but much better than my paraphrase. Josh Burnett sent the quote to me, which is from Lewis' classic Mere Christianity. One of his points is that you can't honestly place on Christianity the claim of being man-made. It defies too many conventions for things we put our hands to. Here are Clive Staples' actual words:

Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect. For instance, when you have grasped that…

Last week in the sermon we considered our vision for our Sunday gatherings. One of the issues we considered was joy. We said that our vision is for our Sunday gatherings to have a consistent thread of joy even as we maintain a gritty honesty about the sorrows of life. Joy is not a simple idea for the Christian. Christians of all people are aware of the curse on this world, the fallenness of humanity, the darkness that lives in our own hearts, the devil and his demons that oppose us, and the myriad sadnesses of life. We…

Last week we looked at Philip's ministry in Samaria in Acts 8:4–25. These verses paint one of the more vivid pictures of what John the Baptist described as being "baptized in the Holy Spirit":

And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ (John 1:32–33)

As we worked…

Last Sunday we looked at Acts 5 and what it says about the power of God—his holy power that (rightly) inspires fear and his healing power that inspires faith. As Christians we live with the dual awareness that our God is both a "consuming fire" (Heb 12:29) and so we ought to be reverent, and he occupies a "throne of grace" (Heb 4:16) and so we ought to run to him boldly and often! One story that demonstrates both of these is the story of Mitsuo Fuchida and Jacob DeShazer.

We had a snafu Sunday so here are the sermon notes as a blog post, since there's no Podcast.

In January 1935, J. Gresham Machen gave a series of radio messages “on the deity of Christ.” This was only a month after the New York Times reported that his church trial (not criminal) would begin in the PCUSA (Presbyterian Church, USA). He was put on trial for taking a stand against using the church's money to fund missionaries like Pearl S. Buck, who didn't believe in the virgin birth or the deity of Christ and didn't feel such issues should be part of the gospel message on the mission field.

Last week we finished our Isaiah series, a rich time with one who is perhaps the greatest writing prophet of the Old Testament. Isaiah took us to the heights of God's glory and to the depths of human depravity and helped us see new aspects of Jesus Christ.

But what now? What is the plan for sermons to come? 

“Better than…silver…better than gold.”

We spend a lot of time seeking some version of “silver” and “gold,” but there’s something “better.” Proverbs tells us that something better is wisdom. Silver and gold can buy cars and houses but not happiness. They can buy wedding rings but not a happy marriage. They can buy vacation homes but not peace. We need wisdom.

Robert Compton and his wife have been making pottery in Bristol, VT for decades. They produce beautiful pieces in a variety of ways. To finish a piece, the clay is often heated to over 2000 degrees. And for one process in the middle of this burning, they sprinkle water on the pieces. The cold water hitting the burning hot clay produces spackles that add unique design elements.

In his experimentation with different clays, glazes, and firing methods Robert Compton does…whatever he wants. He is the complete master over the clay in all of his endeavors.