“God Does Whatever He Wants” – Ezekiel 17:22-24   Introduction – Two trees Have you ever seen an apple tree in late spring? Its leaves are that bright and lush green. Its branches look vibrant and full. The apple blossoms may already have fallen off, only to be replaced by...

“A Garden Curse Undone” – Genesis 3:8-15   Introduction – the Church Year Let me begin by telling you, maybe reminding some of you, about what we call our Church Year. It’s different from our calendar year. We start the Church Year about a month before Christmas with the season...

“Mystery Leads to Majesty” – John 3:1-17   Introduction: Unraveled mysteries Sometimes our perspective limits our ability to perceive things as they are. That leaves a lot of things as rather mysterious. Sometimes discoveries free us to perceive things as they are, to understand, and to conclude “Of course, that’s...

“Music for the Dance” – John 15/16   1. Literary comparisons to Jesus Various authors have described the life, death and resurrection of Jesus using unique comparisons. For instance, in his Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis used the killing of the lion, Aslan, on the Stone Table at the...

“A Prowling Enemy… A Restoring Ally” – 1 Peter 5:6-11   1. Introductory Illustration We interrupt the regularly scheduled sermon to bring you this illustration of the imagination… Come with me into my imagination for a minute – it will be an invisible journey, but not fictional. Let me paint...

“The Acts of… US – No Partiality” – Acts 10:34-48   Introduction: starting in the middle? Today, for the second time in my series of sermons on the Acts of US, our reading starts in the middle of a story, with a message, while leaving out the context, the event,...

“The Acts of… US – Tour Guides Through Scripture” – Acts 8:26-40   1. Tour Guides First of all, I want to thank those of you who submitted places and sites where you have taken a tour with a guide. It has been a long time since I have visited...