Sermons on Faith (Page 9)

Sermons on Faith (Page 9)

The Heart | Proverbs 4:23

Have you ever had one of those moments where you’re listening to a teaching or reading or watching a documentary and something “clicks” in your mind? You finally “get it” and the way you think has changed? Maybe it’s a radical “paradigm shift” or just a “aha moment.” Something is different.  I had one of moments this fall when I began reading Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp. This is a book on parenting, but he starts with the…

Child of God | John 1:12-13

What would you do if you discovered you were royalty? How would you react if you took a DNA test and when you got the results it said you were a prince or princess? Well that actually happened to a man named Jay Speights. Jay is the descendent of African American slaves. His family was brought to America on a slave ship so he didn’t know his ancestry.  Using modern technology he took DNA tests that showed he had “royal…

Wise Decision Making | Proverbs 16:1-9

Prudence is married, she has three children, and lives in a suburb of Boston. Her oldest boy is a freshman in high school and is doing great. Her youngest is in elementary school and loves it; but her middle child is in middle school and isn’t doing well. She’s hasn’t made any friends, sometimes gets picked on, is bored and uninterested with her education, and she’s begun acting out more at home. Prudence is worried about her daughter’s education as…

Wise Words | Proverbs 18:21

On a Podcast I listened to recently one of the speakers talked about barnacles. Did you know that the U.S. Navy reports Barnacles can slow down nuclear-powered ships by as much as 40%? Barnacles diminish the arrow-dynamics of boats, get inside engines, add weight on the hull, and can even crack the hull with smaller vessels. Barnacles expand and breed constantly and the navy spends $500 million a year to scrape barnacles off ships. Are your words the nuclear energy…

The Wise Choice | Proverbs 9:1-18

Sometimes it all comes down to a single choice. You ever watch that old gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? It finally got cancelled this summer but the concept was pretty simple. The original gameshow host Regis Philbin would ask a contestant trivia questions. The questions were pretty easy at first but they got progressively harder and harder. But that also meant that each question was worth more and more, ranging from $100 to $1,000,000. If you answered all…

Loans, Laziness, & God’s Heart | Proverbs 6:1-19

Loans (Prov 6:1-5) As I studied today’s passage, Proverbs 6:1-19, I realized it can feel a bit disjointed. Last week we looked at Proverbs 5, the second half of chapter 6, and chapter 7, all of which was about adultery. And here in chapter 6 we encounter loans, laziness, and what God hates. It feels out of place. Trying to force them into one common theme felt a bit like trying to fit a square block through a circle or…

A Wise Future | Proverbs 3:1-12

Last week we celebrated our high-school graduates Caleb, George, and Mackenna. When I surprised them by asking for one things we could pray for them George asked for prayer that it would all “end well.” Now we weren’t exactly sure what that meant—the end of college, the end of life? But I think he meant successfully wrap up the end of this stage of his life and smoothly transition into the next stage, college. I remember one of the things…

Two Paths | Proverbs 1:8-33

Have you ever taken a wrong turn? In today’s world if you have a smart phone wrong turns should be less and less common. If you have Google or Apple Maps or Waze you should never miss a turn, and yet sometimes we still do. When I get to the place my GPS says to turn it’s not as clear as my phone says it should be. The off-ramps merge into two lanes going generally the same direction and you…

Rest | Matthew 11:28-30

So I think we all like the idea of rest and when we think of rest, we probably have different things that come to mind.  [pics of rest]    So I don’t think Jesus is talking about rest like this in our passage today.  Jonathan preached a great sermon on Sabbath last year recommend to go back and listen to it. Think to yourself if you are tired in any of these ways. tired of just making ends meet, tired of…

Four Responses to the Resurrection | Luke 24:36-53

In 2009 the retired minister of the First Unitarian Church of Portland Oregon, Marilyn Sewell, interviewed one of the most famous atheists of her day, Christopher Hitchens. Unitarians do not believe in the Trinity or that anyone goes to hell but that God is love and all go to heaven. They are considered theologically liberal while a church like Cornerstone is much more theologically conservative. We believe in the Trinity and that you must trust in Christ Jesus in order…