Sermon Archive
January 2019
Loving God Together
Homemade crepes are one of my kids’ favorite breakfasts. They often ask for it as a special treat on their birthdays and other special occasions. The thing I like about making crepes is that they are so simple. To make crepes you only need a handful of ingredients. Eggs, flour, and milk are mainly what goes into making a crepe, but imagine trying to make crepes by leaving out one of those three main ingredients. Crepes without flour, for example, would just be runny scrambled eggs?
I…
December 2018
Loving God, Loving Others, Love in Action
The simple discipleship process by which we bring people along toward becoming fully committed followers of Christ at State Road Church is the way in which we ourselves exemplify our ever deepening levels of commitment to our God. Our personal and corporate worship should lead to deeper connected relationships which spur and encourage one another on to serve. Let us not represent our faith with busyness yet let us each be committed to a plan of action given by God to draw others to Him.
- New Year’s Resolution
- Intentionality in the Christian Life
- The Great Commission and the Greatest Command
- Loving God, Loving Others, Love in Action
The Barrier Destroying God
I remember very clearly one winter night when my daughter was little. It was around bedtime, and, as was our habit, I let her pick out a few books for me to read to her before turning off the light. One of the books that she pressed into my hands was a new one to me, “Barbie in a Christmas Carol” by Mary Man-Kong. The story’s main character was a glamorous singing star named Eden Starling. She was beautiful and talented but also “very vain” and “cared only about herself.” Beca…
Parenting Tips From the Christmas Story
As Christians, We worship a God who is so much higher and bigger than us that we, as His followers, have to become very comfortable with mystery. And there is a lot of mystery surrounding the Christmas story, and perhaps the most mysterious moment of all is when Mary’s God came to be conceived in her womb.
The angel, Gabriel, in a few short words, broke into the normal, unremarkable life of this girl and dropped some unbelievable news on her. And Mary, to her credit, doesn’t disb…
Building on the Wrong Side of Eternity
Throughout the month of December we will be studying different aspects of the Christmas story at State Road Church, and in this message we will turn in our Bibles to Matthew 2 to do a character study on the life of Herod the Great. Sometimes we learn from witnessing the good example of others and other times we learn from people like Herod who demonstrate by their persistent wickedness the consequences of living one’s life in opposition to God. Most of the characters in the Christmas story …
What’s In a Name?
As the song says, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” From my office window the pine trees across from the church are covered in a sugar dusting of snow, and my spotify playlist is playing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” I love this time of year! Special food, special music, special gatherings, special traditions, and, of course, special times of worship. Between now and Christmas we will be studying different aspects of the Christmas story. This Sunday we’ll study the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The chapter begins with a long list of names and finishes with a focus on just on name, “Jesus.” Come join us as we see that Jesus’ family tree was a Christmas tree!
November 2018
Marks of a Delivered People
Vincent Van Gogh, of course, is one of the most famous painters of the nineteenth century, and arguably one of the most famous painters of all time. At the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam they have on display many of Van Gogh’s best-known masterpieces. In the basement of the museum, however, there is an interesting display of sketches Van Gogh did in advance of particular parts of his final masterpieces. So, for example, on the first page of one sketchpad, there is a pencil sketch of…
Building a Theology of Church Membership
We will be take a break from our Esther series this Sunday. Instead, we pose the question, “What’s the deal with church membership?” This study will coincide with the announcement of our next round of church membership classes. If you are not already a member of State Road, please prayerfully consider whether or not God is leading you to become one.
Some people think of membership as a dry formality – a hoop to jump through. Still others point to the fact that it is nowhere mentioned…
Building Your Own Gallows
I love watching westerns —Unforgiven, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Tombstone, High Plains drifter, Fistful of Dollars, Pale Rider— I love them all! My favorite scene in just about every western is the climactic when the hero confronts the low-down, dirty bad guy. Westerns always have a showdown scene, Right? The hero is usually some kind of mysterious ex-gunslinger who is just trying to leave his past behind him, but he can’t outrun his past because he gets involved with the innocen…
Going to the King
One of my favorite things about this time of year is costumes. I like the funny and creative ones best. I admire folks who make their own homemade outfits, but as a father of five I definitely understand why most will opt to just pick one up at Walmart instead.
The appeal of costumes seems obvious to me. Who hasn’t ever dreamed of being something or somebody other than who we are? Even for adults it’s fun to imagine and pretend.
I thought of costumes recently when I read Judge…
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