Pastor's Corner: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

  Jesus, Friend of Sinners (or, “Infiltrate, don’t Isolate!” ) Mark 2:13-17 Introduction :  Jesus was called a “friend of sinners” by the religious leaders of His day. Are we? Can we be? What does it mean for us to be salt and light in the world? Do we isolate ourselves from sinners? Or, do we realize, “ There, but for the grace of God, go I …”? One of the most fundamental concepts of our faith is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. If I really believe that, instead of looking down on my pagan neighbors, I will realize at best, I am one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread . “Grace” runs against the thinking of most of us, at least before we believed. Manmade religions are an attempt to respond to the truth that we have eternity in our hearts, and that we long for something more, but with-out confessing our spiritual inability to do anything to merit God’s favor. Billy Graham illustrated the idea of grace with a story from his own li

  F.R.A.N. gelism! Mark 2:1-12 Introduction : The evidence of the Fall is all around us every day: sickness, suffering, sin, injustice, evil, and death.   What is the greatest benefit that Christianity has to offer to the world? Specifically, are our physical needs our greatest needs?   Liberal theology would say yes. This story is about four men and their needy friend. Friends are people you can count on, people who are there when you need them. Someone commented on this passage: “The greatest day of that man’s life was when his four friends ‘let him down’!” Truth! They let him down – not by disappointing him – but let him down through the roof, and into the presence of Jesus! They came looking for healing, and, at least for the paralytic, they found also healing of soul that comes with forgiveness. How does relief from physical suffering relate to reconciliation with God? H.A. Ironside said, When Jesus was on earth proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, it was specially fitting

  Discipleship 101: Clean, by the Grace of God! Mark 1:40-45 Introduction : Ten years ago a video circulated of two brothers, COVERED with paint, sitting on the floor of a shower, being questioned by their dad. I think they were maybe 2 and 3 years old? It was hilarious when they pointed to each other as the “instigator.” I was waiting for the older brother to say, “This brother who YOU gave me, HE brought me the paint!” Or, “I threw him in the paint, and out came THIS…!”   Since the Fall, humans, by birth and by choice, are unclean, covered with the filth of sin.       The prophets expressed the human condition clearly. Jeremiah said, “ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? ” (Jer 17:9). Isaiah warned “ We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away …” (Isa 64:6). Our unclean, sinful condition, has to be seen a