Category Archives: sermon podcasts

Finding Meaning at Christmas — Mercy, Purpose, and Redemption

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It’s Advent — the time of year when we remember the birth of Christ. We kind of look back in time through the lens of faith and remember some things. We remember the Baby, born in a stable, the angels singing, shepherds, magi — wise men. And that which we look back upon is what people hundreds, even thousands of years earlier, looked forward to, through the lens of faith.

One of the passages that helped them do this is Isaiah 40.

Isaiah 40:1-5 (NIV) 1Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. 3A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

From the time Isaiah wrote those words until over 700 years later, when Jesus was born, people had to see this through the lens of faith. Those living in Jesus’ day — blessed are they — saw this come to pass. When John the Baptist showed up, Matthew said…

Matthew 3:3 (NIV) 3This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”

You and I, however, look back in time and see the same things. We do this through the lens of faith. This podcast teaches us what to look for at Christmas. More importantly, this podcast tells you how to find Mercy, Purpose, and Redemption in the Christmas Season.

 

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Characteristics of Thankful People

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I thought this Thanksgiving week that it would be wise for us to take a Thanksgiving Quiz. This is not the standard Thanksgiving Quiz, with questions like, “How many turkeys can dance on the head of a pin?” Instead, the questions are more about your own heart of thankfulness.

So — let’s give it a try. There are ten T/F questions. Count every one you say “true” to:

  1. I follow Jesus’ example and give thanks for meals (John 6:11).
  2. When I sing songs to God, I am purposefully thanking him for his goodness to me.
  3. I have personally given thanks to God for his mercy in the past week (Psalm 136).
  4. I thank God for hard things that come into my life because of how he uses them to change my heart.
  5. I thank God for my church family.
  6. When I place my tithes and offerings in the plate, I am expressing my thanks to God.
  7. I thank God that I can do things for him (1 Timothy 1:12).
  8. I give thanks because I know it pleases God.
  9. When I catch myself being ungrateful, I apologize to God and thank him for his grace.
  10. I am careful not to give thanks simply with my lips, but also with heart.

How did you do? I hope you scored a ten, but whether you did well or not, it’s good to talk about being thankful. In this podcast, you discover three characteristics of thankful people.

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Protecting your spirit from Identity Theft…

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I think that sometimes we forget who we are. When I get a migraine, sometimes I say and do things I would otherwise not do. Afterward, I say to my wife, “Man – I really was not myself. I am not sure who I was, but I wasn’t myself.”

You hear people in sports say this sometimes. They have a bad showing on the field and they say, “We let ourselves down today by playing poorly. We forgot who we were.”

You hear Christians say this sometimes. “I forgot myself and I behaved poorly.” I spoke to a young woman once who, during her post-teen years, had done things she was very ashamed of. She had been raised in a Christ-honoring environment, saved — opened her own heart to receive Christ — years earlier. But along the way, she let herself drift from who she had become in Christ. She said to me, “I kind of forgot who I was.”

I believe that one of the most damaging tactics the enemy – Satan – has is to cause you to forget what Christ has done in your life.

This podcast reveals some of Satan’s tactics and offers steps to avoiding the loss of our realization of our identity in Christ.

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