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

  In Christ, United We Stand! Philippians 1:27-2:4 Introduction : The party conventions have passed, the candidates are officially named, and we again are going to have a contentious campaign during the coming months before the general election. It seems our country is as divided as ever. In such a time as this,   the church should stand out as an example, as a beacon of hope to the world. We are living letters, seen and read of men. Our lives are a testimony to the world… Are we willing to let our commitment to Christ and the gospel take priority over our politics? We may not agree about everything. But the most important questions of life have eternal significance, and we can agree on the greatest problem the world faces, and the only sure answer: The problem is sin, the answer is Jesus.        God’s plan for bringing the Good News of the Gospel to the world is the church, unified and focused on His mission (cf. Rom 12; I Cor 12; Eph 4). Even the church in Philippi needed to

  Rejoice in the Lord Always! Philippians 1:18b-26 Introduction : Don’t Waste Your Life . That is the title of a book by John Piper. Last week I referred to the famous story of the five missionaries who were killed when they sought to reach out to the Huarani (aka Auca Indians) of Ecuador in 1956. I came across this reference to that story in a sermon by Ray Pritchard… In January 1956, the five men decided the time had come to make contact in person. After much prayer they established a base camp on a sandy beach of the Curaray River. On January 8, 1956—at about 3:30 PM, they were speared to death by the Indians who mistakenly thought they had come to hurt them. The news shocked the world. Many people wondered how young men with so much promise could waste their lives that way . When the journals of Jim Elliot were published several years later, they were found to contain this sentence: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” Why risk thei

  “Joy in Serving Jesus… even when life is hard! ” Philippians 1:12-18a Introduction : Do you recall the speech of Samwise in the “The Two Towers” in the Lord of the Rings series? When it seemed there was no hope and Frodo was ready to give up the mission in despair, drained by the struggle and the opposition, thinking he couldn’t complete the task, Sam offers words of hope…   I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?  But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer…       Sam spoke some good theology there! We know that God, who created the universe and