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

  Children and the Church Mark 10:13-16 Introduction: Dr. Haddon Robinson told the story of an apartment fire in Harlem, in New York City. A blind child was trapped by a third story window, that opened to a narrow alley. Flames and smoke intensified, time was short. The rescue workers had difficulty getting a ladder to the window, so they held a net below and called to the child through a bullhorn, urging her to jump. But she stood at the window crying, afraid to jump, despite the pleas of the firefighters below who held the net which she could not see. Then she heard a voice she recognized. Her father had arrived at the scene and a fireman handed him the bullhorn. “It’s daddy, there is a net, we’ll catch you, jump!” Immediately the fear vanished from her face, and she jumped from the window into the rescuers’ net. What had changed? She heard her father’s voice, and she trusted him, completely.        Children, especially little children, are completely dependent on their parent

  Husbands, Love Your Wife Mark 10:1-12 Introduction : Today, on Father’s Day, we will look at this passage in its context, and consider God’s design for marriage, and especially focus today on the man’s role in the family. Of all human relationships, the Lord used marriage to describe His relationship with the church . It is important to remember He designed marriage as a key aspect of His plan for humanity before the Fall: In the midst of His good creation it was not good for the man to be alone. Adam was incomplete until God created a helpmate suitable for him. When we come to the NT, the church is described as the Bride of Christ . We look forward to celebrating with Him one day at the marriage supper of the Lamb.        Paul says husbands—as we live in this fallen world—are to love their wives as Christ loved the church . Note that this passage comes between two instances in which Jesus taught about children (9:37; 10:13), and, perhaps, warned against causing them to stumbl

  A Heart for Discipleship Mark 9:38-50 Introduction : The film 127 hours tells the story of Aron Ralston, who became trapped when a boulder dislodged while hiking in a canyon in Utah and pinned his arm.   For 5 days, he pushed and pulled and tried to chip away at the rock with his pocket-knife. When he accidently put the knife into his thumb, he realized his hand was dead, and was actually beginning to decompose. His water was gone, his situation was hopeless, he knew he would die unless, armed only with a now dull two-inch pocket-knife, he could amputate his own arm. And how would he get through the bones anyway? What would you do? Could you cut off your own limb if you were convinced it was the only way to save your life?   Thankfully, most of us will never have to make that choice. We do, however, have choices to make.        Jesus uses the language of amputation here, but He is obviously speaking figuratively. One of Mark’s interests in this gospel is to answer the question,

  Gospel-Centered Discipleship Mark 9:30-37 Introduction : I like the title of a book by James W. Moore:  Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned but I Have Several Excellent Excuses . That is a sermon in itself! In that book he tells a story that can serve as an introduction to our passage today… In the golden days of the settling of the West, one of the major means of transportation was the stagecoach. But did you know that stagecoaches had three different kinds of tickets — First class, second class and third class? A first-class ticket meant you could sit down . No matter what happened, you could remain seated. If the stagecoach got stuck in the mud or had trouble making it up a steep hill, or even if a wheel fell off, you remained seated because you had a first-class ticket.        A second class ticket meant that you got to sit down until there was a problem, and then you had to get off until the problem was solved . You got off, stood to the side, and watched somebody else fix the probl