Luke 7:18-35
When God Sits on His Hands Introduction: Have there been times when your world seemed to be crashing down on you, and God was silent? I know that has happened to some of you, because I have heard about it in my counseling. A loved one dies, you lose your job, one of your children is stretching you to the breaking point, your health is threatened, your spouse tells you he doesn’t love you anymore. And some of you have had all those…
Luke 7:36-50
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Introduction: Missionary aviation is a field of service that for the past 75 years has enabled the gospel to penetrate the most remote areas of the third world. Twenty-five years ago a New Tribes missionary and I took off from the southernmost airport in Venezuela, Puerto Ayacucho, in an MAF four-seater plane. We flew over the rainforest for 3 hours with absolutely no place to land a plane until we came to a little jungle airstrip next to…
Luke 8:1-21
Secrets of Spiritual Growth Introduction: Spirituality is in vogue today. There seems to be an awakening to a spiritual side of life. Everyone is talking about it. It is an issue on Oprah. Spirituality is worthy of an article on NPR. Shows like “The X Files” feature the paranormal. Questions about God are finding their way into the lyrics of alternative music performers like Joan Osborne and Counting Crows. It has become a topic at the highest levels of business discussion. Growing spiritually is hot. It is hard…
Luke 8:22-25
How to Have a Happy Hurricane Introduction: I want to begin today by reading our text, just four verses found in Luke 8:22-25: One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master,…
Luke 8:26-39
Restoring GloriOus Ruins Introduction: As we traveled on vacations as kids, my mom would pay my brother and sister and me a nickel for every antique store we saw. We would stop at many of these antique stores as we traveled throughout Missouri or the Northeast. At one of those antique stores, my dad bought an old rocking chair. You couldn’t tell it was a rocking chair because it was in a box and in pieces. When I looked in the…
Luke 8:40-56
Interruption or Divine Appointment? Introduction: Our normal preaching schedule would bring us this morning to Luke 8:26-39, the story of the Gadarene demoniac and the herd of pigs that rushed over the cliff and drowned in the lake. Somehow that did not seem too appropriate for Mother’s Day. So I decided to skip that portion and take the next section instead, which deals with the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. It’s not…
Luke 9:1-27
Disciples Are Made, Not Born Introduction: Christians are born, but disciples are made. When I say that Christians are born, I mean that they are born again, born from above in a moment of time when they turn in faith to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. Disciples, on the other hand, are made, not born. When Jesus gave the great commission to his disciples in Matthew 28:19, he said, “Go, therefore, and make disciples.” One does not become a disciple instantaneously. It is a process, a…
Luke 9:10-17
Is Your Life a Ministry? Introduction: Good morning! As usual, it is a joy to be here with you today. I bring you greetings from Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Webster Groves. We are continuing to enjoy God’s blessing at Cornerstone since you planted us a year and a half ago. In fact, tonight our people will vote on the hiring of our current part-time pastor of student ministries, John Richardson, as full-time Associate Pastor of Community Life. We are very excited about that. Also, you…
Luke 9:28-36
Have You Seen Jesus? Introduction: I hope you’re not too startled by my sermon title today. I’m really not looking for those who have seen a vision or encountered an apparition of Jesus. If you have, that’s OK, but if you haven’t, that’s OK, too. Rather what I’m asking is, “Have you seen Jesus for who He really is? Have you seen Him in all His glory as the one and only Son of God?” Do you know something? Peter, James, and John, the inner circle…
Luke 9:49-62
Tolerance, the Dangerous Virtue Introduction: One doesn’t normally think of virtues as being dangerous. It’s vices that are dangerous. But probably any virtue we can think of—love, patience, peace, honesty, you name it—can become a vice if applied in the wrong way or with the wrong motive. I think that is especially true of the virtue our Scripture passage focuses on this morning, the virtue of tolerance. Tolerance is a rather hard trait to get a handle on. If I were to ask you to…
Luke 10:1-24
Crash Course in Discipleship Introduction: Today we return to the Book of Luke, where we will pick up in the tenth chapter. Ahead of us are some of Jesus’ most profound parables, discourses, miracles, warnings, and prophecies. For about seven months our focus will be upon the person and work of the Savior, Jesus Christ, culminating with the resurrection at Easter. Today in Luke 10 we are confronted with a passage that I have called “Crash Course in Discipleship.” Let’s read our text for…
Luke 10:25-37
It’s a Beautiful Day for a Neighbor. Will You Be Mine? Introduction: Jesus was a master storyteller, and one of His best is the story of the Good Samaritan. It’s an interesting thing about familiar stories, however. Sometimes they become so familiar that we assume we know more about them than we really do. Sometimes we need to take a step back and look at the story from a fresh angle. I hope we will be able to do that this morning. Please follow along in…