Category Archives: Sermons and Preaching

Sermons and Preaching

What Holds You Back?

Read Acts 8:26-38 to start.

When I was in school, back in 1980s and 90s, we had semesters and school years. One thing that took place at the end of every semester, at in particular at the end of the year, apart from the finishing of exams and deadlines for papers, there were report cards.

I assume that in public school they still do this same sort of thing, although it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s not all digital now, rather than the folded cardstock we used to have to take home and sign. I did well in school, it was never much of a concern for me when report cards came out. But there were other students who did not do as well. Some of them may have been very good in certain subjects, but did poorly in others. And some just didn’t do so well in school at all. If your report card came back with too many low numbers or poor letter grades, then you might end up failing the school year and have to repeat the grade. Not something that anyone would look forward to, not the teacher, not the student, and not the parents.

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Sermons and Preaching

How Long?

Read Psalm 94:1-15 and Matthew 24:3-8 to start.

Sometimes when I’m preparing to preach a sermon, I know exactly the passage I want to speak from and the particular story I will start with. That’s great when it happens, and while it’s still plenty of work and a number of hours to prepare a sermon, it feels like things flow well and it’s fairly straightforward. It can be easy to look at these occasions and say that the Holy Spirit lead me to speak on this topic and in this way. And that may well be the case, at times the Holy Spirit certainly leads down clear and straight paths that go easily. But not always.

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Sermons and Preaching

Be Not Despised

Read Titus 2 and 1 Timothy 4:12-16 to start.

This morning I’d like to start with a story from long, long ago. Well, it maybe only feels like long ago, it’s from when I was in elementary school, grade five or six I believe, so something like 35 years ago. In school we were working on some sort of group project, I think we were making a poster or a sign or something like that. There were several opinions as to what was the best way to proceed, and I was quite confident that my approach was going to be the best. But one of the other children had her own opinion, which was so far as twelve year old me was concerned, entirely wrong. She said “I think we should…” and while I don’t recall the details of what she said exactly, I knew it was clearly not a very good idea, and so I snapped back “I don’t care what you think.”

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Sermons and Preaching

Deadlines, Known and Otherwise

Read Luke 12: 16-21 to start.

Last week at work I had a deadline to meet. It was on a very specific timeline, for a large project that we were working on, and it had to be in by a specific hour on Wednesday. There was no wiggle room, no extension, if everything was not completed by that time, then the project would not go ahead. Any work done to that point would not matter, and be of no value. If we missed the deadline, then the project, or at least our part in it, would be over.

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Sermons and Preaching

Five Questions

Read Matthew 2: 1-15 to start

Let’s talk for a minute about the news. And I’m talking about real news, not the fake news which has become so often discussed in recent years, and ranges from satire, to intentional slander, to any news that someone in authority doesn’t like, regardless of how real it might be. In the reporting of actual news, a journalist will almost always attempt to answer five basic questions. You’ve no doubt heard these before, they all happen to start with the letter W – Who, What, When, Where, and Why, and generally in that order.

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Sermons and Preaching

All Have Sinned

Ready Romans 3:10-19 to start.

Not long ago I saw a coffee mug that caught my attention. Well, to be clear it wasn’t the actual mug, but rather a Facebook advertisement selling this particular mug. The mug featured a picture of Santa Claus, specifically a close up on his face. He looks rather unimpressed, and the caption across the top of the picture, in all caps for emphasis, reads YOU’RE ALL NAUGHTY. Then at the bottom there is a reference to Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through 12. And if you look again at the verses we read to start, it’s absolutely clear that scripture teaches that all have indeed sinned, and that none are righteous. We are, in fact, all on the naughty list. Every single person on this planet is on the naughty list.

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Sermons and Preaching

Four Small Things

Read Proverbs 30:24-28 to start.

Who here has had a splinter? Not looking for a show of hands or anything, but I’m willing to bet that most of you have at one time or another. If you haven’t, then you must have thicker skin than I do, or you never come into contact with wood. The other week I had a splinter on the side of my finger, and I managed to get it out with tweezers. I recall one time earlier this year, I had a splinter for a couple of days that I could not get rid of, and when I was in the hospital visiting my father, I convinced one of the ICU nurses, well, I just asked her nicely, to remove it, and it took her a bit of effort to get rid of the thing. Splinters are unpleasant. But they are a normal thing that we experience from time to time.

Splinters are also very, very, small. If you’ve ever removed one and taken a look at it afterwards, it was likely only a few millimetres long, and not even one millimetre wide. A tiny and insignificant thing by any measure, other than the amount of discomfort it can cause.

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Sermons and Preaching

But If Not…

Read Daniel 3:12-18 to start.

I imagine the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is a familiar one for most of us. King Nebuchadnezzar commissioned a great golden image and had all his officials bow down and worship it in a show of obedience and loyalty. The three aforementioned Hebrews, unwilling to bow down to an idol in direct defiance of God’s laws, declined to do so, and there were repercussions. They were hauled in front of the king and asked to explain themselves, and were given a second chance to comply. They still declined.

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Sermons and Preaching

Not to Complain…

Read Psalm 38 to start.

Two Sundays ago, when I was asked to preach this morning, I had no particular sermon topic in mind. Sometimes I have ideas and notes well in advance that are waiting for the right time or for some inspiration before preparing a sermon. There have been times I’ve carried around an outline of a few points to use in a future sermon scribbled on the back of a bulletin tucked in the front of my Bible for months before I use them. Well, this time I didn’t have any of those. I had no idea what I was going to preach about today. But I trusted that God would give me something to say, and hopefully with enough time to prepare something coherent. Nothing came to mind immediately, though. I had a complete blank.

Then God showed me a sign.

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Sermons and Preaching

Motives and murder

Read 2 Samuel 3: 17-31 to start

This evening we’re going to be looking at an Old Testament character with a dark history. I could spend the entire time reading verses where he is mentioned and where his actions are described, both positive and seriously negative, but for the sake of time I’ll try to only read short sections as applicable.

The person I would like to look at is Joab. An Israelite general, specifically the commander of David’s army, and a competent, brave, and successful leader, we see Joab time and time again in the books of 1 Chronicles and 2 Samuel in particular. One of three sons of David’s sister Zeruiah, Joab was a valiant leader. He led the capture of Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and conducted a number of successful military campaigns against hostile foreign neighbours. He also provided good advice to David on a number of occasions, such as in dealing with Absalom, and in the census of the people in 2 Samuel chapter 24. But as we saw a moment ago, Joab was also a murderer, and it is that aspect of the man that I would like to consider this evening. There are four specific accounts of murders that Joab committed, with four different motives, and we are going to look at each of those this evening.

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