Before and After: The Gift of God

Reading: Exodus 3:11-15; John 1:9-14, 16:7-15; Acts 2:1-4

This is the last sermon in our Before and After series. We celebrated Pentecost with the Lord's Supper, which might not seem like an obvious choice, but the work of Jesus and the work of the Spirit are inseparable.

Click here to view a manuscript of this sermon (.pdf).

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Preached on June 12, 2011 at PLWC.

No More Normal: Which Spirit?

Reading: Joel 2:1-2, 12-18, 28-32; Isaiah 11:1-10

This is the second in our "No More Normal" series. This week our focus was on the Holy Spirit's role in Christmas and how if He's involved, things should be anything but normal.

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(Sorry, no recording this week — technical difficulties.*)

* "Technical difficulties" means "I forgot to set the timer to start the recording." Oops.

Preached on December 5, 2010 at PLWC.

Two Sermons: "The Health of God" and "The Presence of God"

Carey and I were out of town for most of last week, so I didn't get around to posting last week's sermon. We're continuing our focus on the Holy Spirit in both of these sermons in preparation for our week of prayer and our Vacation Bible School.

"The Health of God"
Preached on June 6, 2010 at PLWC.
Reading: Romans 8:18-27; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Click here to view a manuscript of this sermon.

"The Presence of God"
Preached on June 13, 2010 at PLWC.
Reading: John 17:1-5; 2 Corinthians 3:4-18
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The Power of God

Reading: Acts 4:23-35; Luke 24:45-49

Our sermon for this week continued our theme of the Holy Spirit and the change he creates, and specifically, we wanted to see the element of power he brings to that change. Hand-wringing and timidity are not part of his work, but neither are we called to be bullies for Jesus.

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Preached on May 30, 2010 at PLWC.

The Story of the Church

Reading: Acts 1:1-11, 2:1-6, 14-21

This week was the last in our series of sermons focusing on specific people changed by an encounter with the resurrected Jesus. We looked at the birth of the church this week (it was Pentecost Sunday, after all), in preparation for a week of prayer we have coming up in June. We want to be people who are changed by our prayer and by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

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Preached on May 23, 2010 at PLWC.

Gift and Giver

Reading: Ezekiel 36:22-27; 1 John 3:14-24

There was no sermon for last week since we had a special speaker visiting. This week, however, we're reading from 1 John about the presence of the Holy Spirit as God's gift to us.

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Preached on May 3, 2009 at PLWC.

Talking Clay

Preached on June 17, 2007 at PLWC.

Reading: Genesis 1:1-2; Isaiah 45:8-12

Continuing with our desire to know the Holy Spirit better, this week we're looking at what it means to call on the Spirit as our creator.

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A Dangerous Traveling Companion

Preached on June 10, 2007 at PLWC.

Reading: Ezekiel 2:1-7; Revelation 1:9-17a

Carey and I were on vacation last week, but this week's sermon picks up where we left off two weeks ago at Pentecost. We're continuing to preach about the Holy Spirit, and this week we see that he is not the cuddly bestower of happy emotions that he is too often made out to be.

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Don't Throw It Away

Preached on May 27, 2007 at PLWC.

Reading: Exodus 19:1-8; Acts 2:1-13

Church holidays trump national holidays, so this Sunday we focused on Pentecost. Celebrating Pentecost is too often an afterthought in some churches, which is interesting since they wouldn't exist had the Spirit not come all those years ago. As we saw in this sermon, Pentecost actually goes much further back than the Pentecost described in Acts 2, and that helps us understand exactly what the Spirit was doing on that day in Jerusalem.

Click here to view a manuscript of this sermon.