Sermon Time

Here are ELBC's sermons for the morning and evening services on March 6, 2011. Tanner has been officially inaugurated as the camera man, so if there's some interesting movements - bear with it. He's learning!

You might also notice something a little different about me in these videos, if you can see it... I debuted my glasses! I actually got them this past Friday, so I had a day and a half to try and get used to them. Singing from a hymnal was a little different, but everything else was about normal.






Both sermons spoke directly to me, personally. I hope they speak to everyone else as well.

Things that can't be bought

The other day we stopped at the gas station so Dad could get out and fill up Mom's car with gas. Sort of a normal thing, right?

Once I was finished, I closed up the gas tank, got my receipt, and proceeded to get back in the car. Through the window in the door I could see Becky smiling at me with this great big smile. It was one of those "you're going to really like this" sort of smiles. Like the kind of smile when you get a present, or someone brings you breakfast in bed.
As I entered the car, I heard my twins in the back, running their mouths - which is a normal, everyday thing. But, as my ears adjusted themselves to the interior of the car I began to understand what they were saying... the most beautiful thing I've almost ever heard. We came home and I asked them if I could record it - and here it is.




Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31

Blessings are never hard to find - and sometimes you just luck up and trip on one. These two blessed Daddy more than they'll ever understand... or at least until they have a little one who does the same for them.

The best thing? They are telling the truth! God will renew those who wait upon Him and put their trust in Him alone. I hope you find yourself in that position - resting in His faithfulness.

Who really gets to pay?

Look at all the people. Am I the only one who looks at all these people and wonders... "Do they have actual jobs right now, or are these all unemployed union workers who can spend 17 days standing around with signs?" Also - am I alone in thinking that an 8% pay cut is better than no pay at all?
I understand how sensitive this issue is for so many people, but do all these protesting folks consider what their protest looks like to the man or woman who hasn't been able to find employment for 12, 13, or even 24 months? That same man or woman who lost their car, lost their home, and lost their families because of the job situation in this country right now... do these union folks consider any of that?

How about those elected officials? Do those missing legislators consider the message they're actually sending to all of us? I'm sure they want us to assume that the lesson is a heroic one of how they were willing to leave happy home to avoid doing something difficult. Well - to bad for them because the real message looks more like this:

"When something difficult has to be done, the best thing to do is to run away and blame someone else for the problem."

See, the way Mason sees this, this story isn't a new one. The same story is told in the history of a people we call the Hebrews. There was this difficult thing they had to do when they finally got to the promised land - but instead of being willing to actually do it they complained, whined, and said they weren't going to. Does anyone remember to what happened to them?

Look,  understand the plight that these folks feel they're in. I really do. The government mishandles all our tax money, spends itself into a huge hole, and then asks of US to take pay cuts so that we can get ourselves free from the debt-bondage that we're currently in. But guess what, it's gotta start somewhere! When you're family budget busts - you gotta start making tough choices. Can't afford all the bills, then you gotta start cutting things off. Lose the satellite TV, lose the Netflix, lose the (and this one would really hurt!) Internet.

Do I know all the details of this issue, no. And some might say that I shouldn't comment without all the facts, but come on... you think everyone in that photograph actually knows what they're really protesting? They're just repeating the process that someone has laid out for them. Maybe I am too - but it seems to me that, all too often, we're willing to be TOLD what to think about a subject without taking the time to think the actual issue through. This issue is a perfect example. Most people who know about this don't "know" - they just got internet-wise by checking CNN or Fox or whatever news website is the flavor of the moment. Just like me... but do we stop and look past the words to what's actually being said?

God doesn't want this for us, not for any of us. We were meant for so much more. We were meant to support each other, to have relationship with each other, and to show love above all things - yet we bicker and squabble over the scraps of the world and try to fill ourselves on the emptiness therein. Oh, that we would even attempt to live the way that the Bible calls us to live!! But no - we've looked into that promised land, we've even viewed the power of surrender through the eyes of Scripture... but we always say "no." We look at the difficulty of doing right and we say "No way - did you see how hard that looks!?" - and we hear others say the same thing. We think, since there's more people saying it, that we must be right and we encourage each other to be cowards and live a life less than what we were created for.

And God, the whole time, begs of us to look in His word and to see how this already played out in a desert near Egypt.

"I, the LORD, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die." (Numbers 14:35)


They saw the way, they turned away, and they died in the desert. 
How I wish we wouldn't busy ourselves with repeating history, but changing the future. How I wish we would put down signs and recapture the hope that we could make things better, though that might be born on the back of hard work. 


How I wish that we would dare to live the way Jesus taught us. 

Raising Hate

I wonder if these kids have any understanding of what their signs actually say. Take little "Johnny" on the left; Does he honestly believe that God caused the Columbia shuttle to have a heat-shield failure and burst into flames during reentry?
How about little "Sally" on the right? I won't ask if she knows what a "fag" is, because I'm quite sure that Mom and Dad have taught her exactly what that word means. I'm more interested in her understanding of the word "hate." In fact, I wonder if anyone associated with Westboro Baptist Church really considers what they mean when they claim that God "hates" anything.
God does hate. Let's get that out of the way. Proverbs 6:16-19 shows seven things that God hates. A lying tongue, murder, wicked hearts that devise wicked plans, people who spread strife... and others. God hates idolatry (Jeremiah 44:2-4). But, you know what God doesn't hate? You.

God does not hate "fags," nor does He hate any sinner. He hates what we do, but not us as His precious creation. How do I know this? Romans... specifically Romans 5:8 -

But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

I've had the pleasure (or perhaps displeasure!) of translating that verse from the original Greek. You know what's interesting. The while we were yet part. That's a present active particle (BOOM with the Greek grammar!) that denotes something we're currently doing. So, it's not really while we were yet sinners, it's better to say while we are being  sinners. See the difference? We change it to make more sense in the English language, but the meaning isn't that we were once something, it's that we currently ARE something - and STILL Jesus came to die for us.

Maybe I'm the stupid one here, but it seems to me that we hate much more than God does. You're black and I'm white - HATE! You're gay and I'm not - HATE! You're fat and I'm skinny - HATE! You're rich and I'm poor - HATE!

Folks - Westboro Baptist Church gets it wrong and they use the Bible to try and justify their skewed ideas. They protest and celebrate at funerals, all while speaking about hate and God's good pleasure to kill people, and all the while they seem to forget that Jesus equated hate with murder... and then those same sign-holding folks become the very thing they're protesting.

There are so many issues wrapped up in this one - it's hard to stay on a single point. So, I probably should stop there. Let me close with this:

All these problems are OUR fault... not God's. We've become so much an "entitled" society that we've even moved that entitlement towards salvation and God's perceived "requirement" to save us from the mess we've made. This is simply not true. There was no "have to" with God - He chose to. He saved you and me because  HE WANTED TO - we bring Him nothing. And what do we do with that salvation? Look back at that picture...

We bend and mold His words to fit our desires. We make Him appear to be the originator of all our evil thoughts, desires, and schemes. All the while, we forget Jesus' teaching on that last night that He would sit with His disciples. On that final night,... what did He think was most important? What did He think to say to them the eve before He would suffer on their behalf?

By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

If you can mix that picture with Jesus' words - then you're a much wiser person than I am. Because, try as I might, I can't picture Jesus holding one of those signs.

Breaking in the new guy

The church member that usually takes care of the sound and the video for me each week was out sick yesterday. So, of course, that meant my Music Minister and I were trying to figure out who could run things for us. Not only was the primary person out, but the backup person was too!! Various illnesses are making their way through Louisville and ELBC was missing some vital folks because of it. What were we going to do?!

Enter Tanner - the day-saver! I brought him over, let him listen to what needed to be done and *presto* - everything went like clockwork.




Now, I will say that I had some difficulty concentration on this evening sermon, so if it's a little rocky - you have my apologies. I looked up during the hymns and saw the same day-saver turning the camera back and forth like a TV news crew and was terrified at what the video was going to look like.
What's that? Did I watch it to see? Heck no! But, you can...



Hope you enjoy. As always - feel free to comment about anything. Agree, disagree, like, don't like... whatever. I'm still playing with the captions and things on here. I like the scripture reference, but not sure about the "title" part. Maybe I'll play around some more.

When do we say "enough"?

Read an article today on the FoxNews website that says British doctors have been advised to tell women seeking an abortion that it's "safer than continuing a pregnancy to term" and that most women who go on to have an abortion DO NOT suffer any psychological harm.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/27/advise-women-abortion-safer-giving-birth-british-doctors-told/?test=latestnews

Will we ever get tired of this? Will we ever say that this is too much? Will we ever tire of glorifying sin and calling it freedom?

My children will become adults in this world. I will grow old and die, but they will live in the tatters of society that WE chose to leave them... God may not be ashamed, but we certainly should be. And it isn't enough to throw our hands in the air and say "But what can we do?!" - because, for too long, we have known exactly what to do. But it costs us; physically and mentally.

And we have decided that our personal comfort is more important than this work. We have decided that it is better to cherish our own lives than those most innocent and precious. We have fed our "self image," we have become gluttons on the inward focus of mankind. And what have we gotten in return? A bankrupt world where the obvious is ignored and things like honor, integrity, and Truth have been sacrificed to the gods of Tolerance and Understanding.


My hands are not without blood, but I grow ever more tired of not washing them clean.
When will it be "enough"? How much will we sit through before we are driven to stand?

New and Improved!!

I have been blessed today.

Uploading the videos of my sermons, while not a huge difficulty, were hindered by YouTube's 15 minute limit on any given movie file. Because I don't have the ability to preach a short sermon, I was having to cut up the videos into two or three pieces - taking time on my end and making it a chopped up process for anyone wishing to watch a sermon.

Well, friends... no longer!! I was given a membership to the video hosting website Vimeo in honor of my late grandmother, Anne Williams. Now I'll be able to upload a single file and you'll be able to watch an entire sermon without having to make any page changes or extra clicks. All two of you!! (Just kidding, I meant all three of you)

So - many, MANY thanks for this wonderful gift to the ministry of ELBC! You know who you are and you can not be thanked enough!

Without further contemplations, I give you both the morning and the evening sermon from February 20th.





PS - I've been playing around with adding titles and Scripture references to the videos. Comment and let me know what you think!