[adapted from a sermon by Bill Hybels]

A Contagious Faith

What do you think of when you hear the word “evangelism”. For me, it’s a word I’m all for. But I’m all for chemotherapy, too, as long as it’s happening to someone else!

There are some people who are just naturals at evangelism. They love to get out there and share their faith at any time and at any place. And some have a gift that their audience seems to want to be shared with.

Mighty Christmas!

I don't get to do sermons this close to Christmas often, so this is going to be packed with things I've learned about the birth of Christ over the last 30 years or so. Hope you packed a lunch!

I'm kidding. I'll try and keep it to things I've learned this year.
I learned that I will be a lousy empty -nester. If you didn't know already, my family went to Florida on vacation without me....
I learned that silence is great for thinking.
I learned that thinking is overrated and there's always an episode of NCIS or a showing of A Christmas Story on TV.

12.28.8 – What do I DO with this?

We’ve spent the last few months of Sunday mornings studying through Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount”. As we saw, it wasn’t his first sermon, but it was early on in his ministry and set the tone for all that would follow.

You may have noticed, I try to end each of my sermons with a “What do I DO with this?” section. So now I want to come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount and ask “What do I DO with this?”

One thing I like about the “Emergent Church/Movement/Whatever” is the idea that people should be encouraged to ask questions. I’m all for that! Those of us who have grown up in church are often forgetful that the things we do in church (and the things we believe) are common to us but may seem very uncommon to a newcomer or outsider.

Last week in my sermon, I talked about some of the misconceptions I had about the event in our service we call communion or Lord’s Supper. This morning, rather than a full sermon, the choir is going to bring the message. Right now, though, I’m going to do the communion meditation and I want to talk about what the Lord’s Supper is about (now that we’ve covered what it isn’t about).

12.14.8 – Solid or Sand?

Have you ever had something you knew (or thought you knew) get run over by reality? Maybe you were thinking that Lubbock was only two hours from here until one day you made the trip and realized it’s further than that. Maybe you had it in your mind that Abe Lincoln was our 14th President, until you were watching “Jeopardy” one day and realized he was 16th (and then you went and looked it up because you didn’t take Alek’s word for it). Maybe it was something you believed as a child, but then you learned something else in school.

Have you ever had something you knew (or thought you knew) get run over by reality? Maybe you were thinking that Lubbock was only two hours from here until one day you made the trip and realized it’s further than that. Maybe you had it in your mind that Abe Lincoln was our 14th President, until you were watching “Jeopardy” one day and realized he was 16th (and then you went and looked it up because you didn’t take Alek’s word for it). Maybe it was something you believed as a child, but then you learned something else in school.

This article (http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2008/12/godbless_ame...) is fairly interesting, but not as interesting as the comments section. Where are these people going/living/existing that they find religion being crammed down their throats? Even if there's a dude in their town who's standing in the town square shouting, "You're all going to hell unless you listen to me" I don't see why that bothers them so much. Sure, it'd be annoying ... but so what?