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Sermons

Can’t Get No Satisfaction? Focus Your Faith on a Person Rather Than Piety (Phil. 3:1-11)

A couple of years ago the Associated Press told the story of Stan Caffy. Stan had met the love of his life and asked her to marry him. His girlfriend said, “Yes!” As the two of them began to prepare for the wedding and their lives together, they both cleaned out their garages. They didn’t want to have to move any junk from their current homes to their new home. They packed up all that old trash and took it to Goodwill—old clothes, bicycles, tools, computer parts and other things. One of the pieces of junk in Stan’s garage was a faded and tattered replica of the Declaration of Independence. It has been hanging in his garage forgotten for about a decade. He gave that to Goodwill as well. Days later a man named Michael shopped at Goodwill and purchased that tattered replica of the Declaration of Independence. He paid $2.48 for it. But Michael later discovered that this was no piece of junk. It turned out to be a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence made in 1823. What Michael purchased for $2.48 he later auctioned for $477,650. What Stan has originally treated as trash turned out to be valuable treasure. Sometimes we confuse trash and treasure.

Read More »Can’t Get No Satisfaction? Focus Your Faith on a Person Rather Than Piety (Phil. 3:1-11)

Can’t Get No Satisfaction? Focus Your Faith on Effort Rather Than Earning (Phil. 2:12-13)

Several years ago our family experienced two different kinds of graduation ceremonies. The first was my daughter Jordan’s graduation from the Sycamore View Church of Christ Preschool. Each year they hold an actual graduation ceremony for those leaving the preschool for Kindergarten. The children wear robes and caps. They are presented with a certificate. A multi-media presentation shows pictures of the kids over the years. The ceremony is so popular that you have to arrive an hour or two ahead of starting time if you want to get the best seats. The second graduation ceremony was my graduation from the Doctor of Ministry program at Harding University Graduate School of Religion. I had just completed four years of college, three and half years of master’s work, and another three years of doctoral work. It was the last degree I would probably ever earn.

Read More »Can’t Get No Satisfaction? Focus Your Faith on Effort Rather Than Earning (Phil. 2:12-13)

Can’t Get No Satisfaction? Recognizing the Joy Possible for People of Faith (Phil. 4:12)

 

What makes you happy?  Two years ago MTV and the Associated Press surveyed young people.[1]  They asked 13-24 year olds, “What makes you happy?”  At least two sets of answers were surprising.  The first surprise has to do with what 13-24 year olds said makes them most happy.  What makes 13-24 year olds the most happy?  They said it was this: spending time with family.  Over 70% said spending time with family is what makes them happiest.  A second surprise had to do with what 13-24 year olds said does not make them happy.  What does not make 13-24 year olds happy?  They said it was this: sex.  Despite all of the pressure in our culture to be sexually active, young people said having sex does not contribute to happiness.

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Every Knee Will Bow Because of Open-Handed Christians (Phil. 1:17-30)

 

In his book Choosing Your Faith Mark Mittelberg writes this:[1]

Think about your day so far. This morning, you got up and, by faith, had breakfast, trusting that nobody in the house had laced your food with poison. You stopped at a coffee shop and somehow trusted those characters behind the counter…not to put some kind of harmful or spoiled substance in your triple-shot, extra foam, grande latte. You got to work–maybe even took the elevator?–and sat in a chair, by faith, without testing it first to see if it was still strong enough to hold you up…At lunch, you went out for a walk and paused to bend down and pat a stranger’s dog, believing you wouldn’t become one of the 4.7 million Americans bitten by a dog each year…Then, at the end of the workday, you aimed your car toward home and drove down the street, trusting-but-not-really-knowing that some sixteen-year-old NASCAR wannabe driver wouldn’t be out drag-racing his friends, careening toward you at a high rate of speed.  No doubt about it–you live your life by faith every day…

Read More »Every Knee Will Bow Because of Open-Handed Christians (Phil. 1:17-30)