Sermons by Paul Stolwyk
Judges 2:16-3:31
The Book of Judges: Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay Breaking the Cycle of Partial Obedience SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk Introduction: John is a homeless man. An unfortunate set of circumstances converged to take this once middle-class man to the streets. By night, he sleeps in several places. By day, he forages for food in the dumpsters behind local eateries. A street tip tells him of a dumpster behind a restaurant where the pickings are not only plentiful, but they beat the typical Burger King…
Joshua 4
SERIES: Joshua: Victory through Faith Find Ways to NOT Forget SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk DATE: May 26, 1996 Introduction: On my first trip to Moscow, a pastor from Minnesota and I volunteered to meet some people at the Moscow train station and then take the underground Metro to the Moscow Bible Church for Sunday morning services. Rick Thompson, the pastor at Moscow Bible Church, wrote out detailed instructions on how to get to the church from the train station. It had all the…
Joshua 8
SERIES: Joshua: Victory through Faith New Beginnings in the Life of Faith SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk Introduction: Remember the experience of beginning a new school year? Imagine for a minute that is the first day of sixth grade. You walk into the school and you notice the shine on the floor. There’s the strong smell of cleaning supplies used to get last year’s bubblegum out of the water fountain. Pencils have no chew marks, with erasers still big and pink on the end. A new clean…
Joshua 14-21
SERIES: Joshua: Victory through Faith God, the Promise Keeper SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk Introduction: Pinch hitting behind Mike is an interesting experience, because I’m never quite sure what I am going to get to preach on. I’ve been quite fortunate in this Joshua series, because I’ve gotten some sweet passages to preach from, like Joshua 4 and the account of the stones of remembrance, and Joshua 8 and the second battle at Ai. Mike has gotten the difficult assignments in this book—dealing with…
Joshua 22
SERIES: Joshua: Victory through Faith How to Start a Church Fight SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk Introduction: On Tuesday night, I watched the 400 IM swimming finals. Two American swimmers, Tom Dolan and Eric Namesnik, teammates at Michigan State, won the gold and the silver. It was an exciting race. Dolan and Namesnik were neck and neck the whole time. In the end, Tom just beat out Eric by a touch. What a triumph for the American swim team to have the two fastest men…
Joshua 23
SERIES: Joshua: Victory through Faith How to Walk with the Lord Your God SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk Introduction: I think it was a couple of years ago when I realized for the first time that Billy Graham wasn’t going to be around forever. He has been such a part of the American landscape but also the whole world for almost 50 years, that I must have just assumed that he would always be here. But over the last couple of years Billy has…
Job, Ephesians 6:10-18
SERIES: The Book of Job Standing Your Ground When Satan Wants to Take It SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk DATE: June 27, 1993 Introduction: Imagine being General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, leader of the armed forces, reporting directly to the President of the United States. Imagine yourself being General Powell three years ago after a line had been drawn in the Iraqi sand. You have decided to deploy troops into Kuwait, and you want to address them before they…
Psalm 1
SERIES: Psalms: Cries of the Heart The Cry of Delight SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk Introduction: Rob had just returned from his first business trip working with a large brewery in our city. He had a co-worker in the engineering department look over his expense report before he turned it in to his supervisor. Since it was his first report, he wanted to make sure he had done everything correctly. His co-worker noticed that he was planning to return the extra cash he had been…
Psalm 22
SERIES: Psalms: Cries of the Heart The Cry of Faith SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk Introduction: One of the people who went with our Cornerstone Church plant a few years ago was an elder named Paul Koenig. For those of you who don’t know him, Paul is wonderfully honest about himself and very frank about life. He does not mince words about anything. He has a way of saying things that are true, very pointed, and very memorable. One time, I called him to get…
Psalm 99
SERIES: Psalms: The Cry of the Heart The Cry of Worship SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk The Psalms contain the cries of God’s people to their God. As we have seen over the last few weeks, God’s people cry out to God for all sorts of reasons. Injustice prompts us to cry out to God in confusion. Pain causes us to cry out in faith. Sin causes us to cry out in confession. At different times in its history, Israel had leaders who firmly understood…
John 19:16-42
SERIES: The Gospel of John SERMON: First Things First SCRIPTURE: John 19:16-42 SPEAKER: Paul Stolwyk DATE: March 27, 1994 Introduction: What is on your mind right now. What has first importance in your thoughts. Is it your children? Is it cleaning up your yard? Getting your taxes done? Getting a new outfit for Easter? Is it getting a project done at work, home, or school? The details of Jesus’ crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection form the foundation of the Christian message. The Apostle Paul regarded these facts as “first…
Nehemiah 8:1-18
Spiritual Renewal Begins with You! Introduction: For the past two months as we have been walking through the story of Ezra and Nehemiah. In the process, we have witnessed not only the Israelites returning to Judah after over 40 years in exile. But we’ve also seen the temple rebuilt and worship restored. In the last four weeks we’ve seen the walls around Jerusalem rebuilt in 52 days. In Chapter 7, which I didn’t read, Nehemiah seems to bring a fitting end to the story. He…