Category Archives: sermon podcasts

How do I overcome my perfectionistic tendencies?

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How do I stop being a perfectionist?

Some time ago, I read a story about a farmer who approached a driver whose car was stuck in a mud hole:

“For 50 bucks, I’ll pull you out of there.” the farmer offered. The driver agreed and after the farmer had pulled him out and pocketed the money, he said, “You know, yours is the tenth car I’ve rescued today.”

“Wow,” the driver said, “when do you have time to work your land? At night?”

“No,” the farmer replied, “Night is when I fill the hole with water!”

I love that. The farmer was setting a pitfall. Literally speaking, a pitfall is a hole or pit deceitfully covered to entrap wild beasts or men; a trap of any kind. Figuratively, a pitfall can be any unforeseen or unexpected difficulty. Life is filled with pitfalls. A temptation is a pitfall. An error in judgment can be a pitfall. A bad choice can become a pitfall. Some pitfalls are dug by others, some dug by ourselves.

These pitfalls bring pain to ourselves, in the relationships we share with others, in our walk with God, who wants us to enjoy freedom he offers from being entrapped by these pitfalls.

You know the kinds of pitfalls I am talking about, because you struggle with some of them too: Pitfalls of perfectionism, demanding that everyone like you, requiring control of situations and people, indulging in a lifestyle of self-pity, processing life to a mathematical equation, feeling that nothing will ever go right, feeling helpless, blaming others, obsessing about things you should give to God and avoiding problems through irresponsibility.

Throughout my life, I have found myself falling into pitfalls over and over again. And I have learned how the Bible addresses a number of them.

In this podcast we address the first pitfall: Perfectionism.

My notes are available upon request by emailing me here:

~Steve

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Three Important Issues regarding Christ’s Return

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People are interested in the end times — the last days. Just take a look at the history of movies and note how many of them include words like Armageddon and Apocalypse. And, as many have noted, end times media sells like hotcakes in the Christian marketplace.

Here’s the problem with a lot of end time teaching: It does nothing to prepare us for the future. Much of it addresses details of the nature of the events, spelling out the characteristics of the Antichrist, the identity of nations involved, and the triggers that seem to set things off. Often, the idea of being prepared is added as an epilogue, if it’s included at all.

I believe the reason “preparedness” if omitted from much end-time material is because many people are not prepared — and they don’t want to do the hard work of addressing their shortcomings.

Jesus wasn’t afraid to address these issues. His words are given to prepare people for whatever the future holds. As with everything else Jesus said, his teaching on his own return is very applicable to every generation.

In the second part of Matthew 24, Jesus addresses three important issues regarding his return. This podcast unfolds the teaching of Jesus here.

If you wish to download the mp3, right-click here and save the link/file to your computer

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2010 Halloween Sermon…

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If you ever participated in a séance or watched a medium on television, you know they say things like: Grandma is glad you are living in her house. Dad wants you to know he loves you. Uncle Billy is glad you are working where he worked. Your daughter is happy that you remarried.

What are the chances that all those people would actually be happy about those things? I can imagine Grandma saying, “Why did you sell my teapot collection on eBay?” I can hear Dad saying, “Have you changed the oil in your car?” I can hear Uncle Billy saying, “Why are you working there? Go to college, you screwball!” And I can hear your daughter saying, “How could you remarry already? Mom’s only been dead for a year!”

Why don’t you hear that stuff? Because generally, the speaker is not telling you the truth. He’s either a fraud — making things up. Or he’s demonically motivated — lying because he wants you to believe in something other than God.

There are many reasons that Jesus is better than a spiritist. One reason is that while a spiritist will be glad to tell you want you want to hear, Jesus (the Way, the Truth, and the Life) will never lie to you.

This podcasts speaks of this and some other reasons Jesus is better.

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