A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Mark Allen Powell tells this story in his book, Loving Jesus : I once saw a teenager at a shopping mall wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jesus Is for Losers.” At first I thought this was a cynical put-down of Christianity on the part of some adolescent who’d decided he was too cool to be associated with religion. Then I noticed the shirt had a Bible reference in parentheses beneath its bold statement. It was actually a Christian T-shirt, witnessing to the gospel. Of course! Jesus is for losers, not against them. Jesus came into this world to dine with outcasts and misfits and to proclaim good news to the disadvantaged, the neglected, the marginalized, and the abused. Tax collectors, harlots, Samaritans, lepers ... losers, all. Jesus is for them. [i] To say Jesus is for lo...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Mark Allen Powell tells this story in his book, Loving Jesus : I once saw a teenager at a shopping mall wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jesus Is for Losers.” At first I thought this was a cynical put-down of Christianity on the part of some adolescent who’d decided he was too cool to be associated with religion. Then I noticed the shirt had a Bible reference in parentheses beneath its bold statement. It was actually a Christian T-shirt, witnessing to the gospel. Of course! Jesus is for losers, not against them. Jesus came into this world to dine with outcasts and misfits and to proclaim good news to the disadvantaged, the neglected, the marginalized, and the abused. Tax collectors, harlots, Samaritans, lepers ... losers, all. Jesus is for them. [i] To say Jesus is for...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Our text for today, Matthew 10:34-37, is a terribly difficult passage of Scripture. Not so difficult to understand, but difficult to accept. These words are even more disturbing because they come from the One whom Scripture calls the Prince of Peace. Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”   Most Christians want to think of our home as a place of refuge and peace, our family as a source of strength and comfort—especially in times of difficulty and tumult. Heaven help anyone who...

"The Last Judgment" by Michelangelo Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Ready for a pop quiz? I’m going to read a quote and I want you to determine whether it is a statement of sound doctrine or false teaching. Don’t worry. I’m not taking grades. I’m not even going to ask you to raise your hands. Just answer in your own mind. Give yourself bonus points if you can identify the source. At [Christ’s] coming all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds. And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire. This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved. So, is it sound doctrine or false teaching? It’s sound doctrine. In fact, it’s part of the Athanasian Creed, one of three ecumenical creeds of the Church.   One Sunday, a dear woman approached me after...