A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over” (Matthew 18:15). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Let’s have a show of hands. How many of you enjoy confrontation? No hands. That’s what I was expecting to see. Most people, unless they’re a sociopath, do not like to confront others. People who enjoy confrontation should be disqualified from doing so. They will never do it in the right spirit of love. Nevertheless, somewhere along the line it may become necessary to talk to others about their shortcomings. Although we should be willing to overlook minor offenses, there are some problems that will only grow worse if they are not dealt with properly in a straightforward way as Jesus urges us to do in our text. The following story illustrates this truth in a more personal way. Larry irritated almost every person in ...

"The Unmerciful Servant" by Eugene Burnand Click here to listen to this sermon. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt (Matthew 18:26-27). Peter gets forgiveness wrong. But this is a good thing for us, because we usually get it wrong, too, and we get to hear Jesus’ wonderful response. He asks Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter may feel he’s being exceptionally generous with the offer, given the way the world works. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Mess with me a third time, and I’m blocking your calls and unfriending you on Facebook. That’s how the world works; yet Peter generously makes the offer of forgiving the offender not just twice, but seven times. But life in the kingdom of heaven is not like life in this world....

FILE PHOTO -- U.S. Marines from the The 11th MEU fire their M777 Lightweight 155mm Howitzer during Exercise Alligator Dagger, Dec. 18, 2016. (U.S. Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. Zachery C. Laning) Click here to listen to this sermon. “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (Matthew 18:15). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “Ours is a world that is governed by the aggressive use of force.” That’s Rush Limbaugh’s Undeniable Truth of Life #6. In Rules for Radicals , Saul Alinsky says power is derived from two sources—money and people. “Have-Nots” build power from masses of people, corporations and governments use cash.  Limbaugh and Alinsky, opposite ends of the political spectrum, but they agree on one thing: Kingdoms of this world are built and kept and defended by power. It’s true. Kingdoms are built by cruelty, coercion, and compulsion; by...

To listen to this sermon click here. Or here. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Matthew 18:1-20. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” We might think of Abraham or Moses or the apostle Paul. When the disciples asked Jesus that question, however, they wanted to know which one of them would be the greatest. They all expected to have positions of importance in Jesus’ kingdom, and each of them would have liked to be Jesus’ right-hand man. It’s natural in any social group to establish some sort of pecking order. You see it out on the playground, in the classroom, in office politics, and unfortunately, even in the church. We all measure ourselves in comparison with others. We jockey for position and hope to come out near the top. So we can understand why the disciples wondered about their positions in the kingdom Jesus was going to establish. But Jesus’ kingdom is not like any earthly kingdom. ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Then Peter came up and said to Him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. “But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded wit...