Life After Conflict | 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Today we’re finishing our sermon series on Conflict & Peacemaking. We’ve followed the Four Gs of Peacemaking from Ken Sande’s book The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict, and are going to wrap up by looking at the last G. G1: Glorify God G2: Get the Log Out of Your Eye G3: Gently Restore G4: Go and Be Reconciled Last week I asked you to recall to mind a name or relationship you are in conflict with and…
Gently Restore | Matthew 5:23-24, 18:15-20
Today I want us each to recall to mind a relationship we have trouble with. I want us to think of the name of an individual, a person, who we are currently in conflict with, or have been in conflict with before. Think of a family member you love but keep fighting with, a neighbor you keep arguing with, a coworker or supervisor you can’t work with, or a brother or sister in Christ who just rubs you the wrong…
Forgiveness For All | Luke 7:36-50
In this sermon Rev. Bernie Michaud tells the story of a sinful woman anointing the feet of Jesus and Jesus forgiving her of her sins. Please listen to the sermon audio, watch the video, or read the manuscript. Church Service You can watch the full church service on Facebook or only the sermon on YouTube. Sermon Manuscript
A Peacemaking Process | 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1, Luke 6:41-42
Why are we as a church going through a sermon series on Conflict & Peacemaking? I brought this series to our leadership team and am bringing it to you for two reasons: Autonomy: For those of you who don’t know, Cornerstone is the daughter church of Immanuel in Chelmsford. This summer, we’re hoping to become our own legally autonomous non-profit church. We’ll have more ownership and more responsibility, which are both good, but can produce conflict because we’re just that…
A Tale of Two Sundays | Colossians 1:15-18
Earlier this week, I was talking with one of my Jewish friends named Rachel, and she was telling me about how she was celebrating Passover with her family this week. She then asked about my plans for Easter, and I was explaining to her that I was going to this thing called a sunrise service – at 6 AM on Sunday morning. So she asked me a good question – Why early Sunday morning? This might be a question that…
A Family in Conflict | Luke 15:11-32
Who here has experienced conflict? Who here has experienced conflict in your family? Who here has experienced conflict because of the youngest child in your family? I’m raising my hand because I’m the youngest child in my family. This week Facebook reminded me to celebrate national sibling day. To commemorate this special holiday I shared this picture of my family on Facebook. It’s a picture of my three older brothers, my parents, and me. Now I love each of my…
The Problem of Idolatry | Exodus 32
Jack works for a local telecommunications company. He tells his friends he loves his job, his company, and his boss. But if you were to follow Jack for a week, you would notice something is off. On average, he arrives 15 minutes late to work and leaves 15 minutes early. Sometimes he takes office supplies home, like when he needs a pen or highlighter. When he sits at his desk, he has one screen on his work, and one screen…
Jesus Bears Your Name | Exodus 28-30
Something I’ve learned from living near Boston is that we love people from here. We take immense pride in claiming our native Bostonians. If you think this is a recent phenomenon, it’s not. Boston Magazine calls “John and Abigail Adams “Boston’s original power couple.” Closer by, the locals in Concord remind everyone Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of them. The Kennedys, John and Ted, they’re Beacon Hill royalty. Robert Frost grew up in Lawrence. Conan O’Brien, a tall red-headed comedian…
God is With Us | Exodus 25:1-22; 26:1-6
When Pastor Jonathan asked me to preach on this section of scripture, I said, “no.” This section of scripture is where when I first decided to read through the Bible that I stopped reading. I knew that in order to preach on this I would have to start in the garden of Eden, forward to the tabernacle, then to the temple and then forward to Jesus and then point to the end of time. I would also have to study…
God’s Law Part II: How does the Law apply to us? | Exodus 21-24
I like to play games. Tomorrow night I’m having some friends over to play board games. One of my favorites is called Balderdash. It’s a game where one person looks up an unknown, strange, word in the dictionary, writes down the correct definition, and everyone else makes up a definition for the word as well. Then everyone tries to guess the correct definition. We actually own an official version of balderdash, which includes five different categories, one of which is…
God’s Law Part I: The Ten Commandments | Exodus 20:1-21
The Ten Commandments… chances are, you have heard of the Ten Commandments. Maybe you watched the old 1956 movie, The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Ramses. I watched all 3 hours and 40 minutes of that movie as a child and I’m sure I felt both boredom and accomplishment, boredom because it is a slow movie, but accomplishment because I survived. Today, the Ten Commandments are a cultural icon of sorts. We don’t just…
Dirty People Meet a Holy God | Exodus 19
If you’ve ever been in a relationship, chances are you and your significant other at one point had to DTR—define the relationship. That’s the moment when you’ve been seeing each other for a while, maybe you’re friends and things seem to being getting serious, so you label it. Aka. “We’re a couple.” DTRs can go really well if you each like each other, or they can go really poorly if one person feels differently. In the case of Monica and…