Wisdom: Reward, Healing, Joy

Reading: Proverbs 12:13-26; James 3:1-12

This is the third and final sermon in our brief series on the book of Proverbs. Wise people, Proverbs tells us, are very careful with their words. Note that Carey and I were visiting family on November 25th, so there won't be a sermon posted for that week.

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Preached on November 18, 2012 at PLWC.

Wisdom: Mind Your Friends

Reading: Proverbs 9:1-18; Matthew 9:1-15

This is the second in our brief series on the book of Proverbs. There are a variety of recurring themes throughout the book, and one of them is that wise people choose their friends wisely.

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Preached on November 11, 2012 at PLWC.

Wisdom: The Ancient Science

Reading: Proverbs 8:1-36; John 1:1-14

I realized after I wrote this sermon that I've already preached a sermon called "The Ancient Science," but that one was based on the book of James. This week we're starting a short pre-Advent series on the book of Proverbs, because there's just some good stuff in there and I haven't really preached on it before.

Note that there is no sermon for October 28 since we had a special speaker in that service.

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Preached on November 4, 2012 at PLWC.

Deep Blood and Fearless Spirit

Reading: Colossians 1:3-29

We’ve spent some time focusing on a variety of very important spiritual disciplines that can help form us into deep, beautiful, and fearless people, but as important as they are, they’re not what matters most. None of it makes any difference if we don’t keep coming back to the deep blood of Christ and the fearless Holy Spirit.

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Preached on October 21, 2012 at PLWC.

Fearless Worship

Reading: Exodus 35:30-36:1; Acts 16:16-34; Psalm 96

Worship is one of those things that we don't tend to think of doing alone, and yet it can (and should) be a part of our individual spiritual lives.

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Preached on October 14, 2012 at PLWC.

Deep Community and Beautiful Hospitality

Reading: Psalm 133; Judges 21

It should be pretty clear from some of my other preaching that our treatment of and relation to others has a serious impact on our spirituality, so the call for this week is to evaluate whether we need to go deeper in our community.

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Preached on October 7, 2012 at PLWC.

Fearless Generosity

Reading: Isaiah 25:1-9; 2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Continuing with the need to become deep, beautiful, fearless people of Jesus Christ, this week we focused on how we can use our money and other resources to become deeper spiritually.

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Preached on September 30, 2012 at PLWC.

Beautiful Simplicity

Reading: Matthew 6:19-34, 19:13-30

Continuing with our "Deep, Beautiful, Fearless" theme, this week's focus was on the need for simplicity. Sometimes in order to follow Christ more closely, we need to do less, not more.

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Preached on September 23, 2012 at PLWC.

Deeper Prayer

Reading: Psalm 77, Daniel 6:6-13, 16-23; Acts 6:8-15, 7:54-60

So how do we start becoming the deep, beautiful, fearless people God wants us to be? It has to begin with prayer. This is not our work, but God’s work within us.

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Preached on September 16, 2012 at PLWC.

Deep, Beautiful, Fearless

Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21; Revelation 2:1-7; Luke 10:1-24

This week was our fall kickoff of sorts, but it was also bigger than that. I've been pushing people for the last couple of months to plan on being here for last Sunday's sermon because it sets the tone for a lot of what we're going to be doing in the future. The sermon is longer than usual (so if you download the recording, you'll get a warning that it's too big for the online virus scanner -- don't worry about that, just click on "Download anyway"). Also, the credit for the music in the first part of the recording is:

Sunsets And Rockers (Rebecca Foon) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

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Preached on September 9, 2012 at PLWC.

Two Sermons: "Peace With Others" and "It Doesn't Have to Be Like This"

Aaaand we’re caught up! I would promise not to get behind again in the future, but I think we all know better. Below we have the last sermon (a communion sermon) in our short series on peace, followed by a sermon setting us up for next week’s worship service.

“Peace With Others”

Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-15, 4:7-19

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Preached on August 26, 2012 at PLWC.

“It Doesn’t Have to Be Like This”

Reading: Deuteronomy 30:11-20; 2 Timothy 1:6-14

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Preached on September 2, 2012 at PLWC.

Three Sermons: "Scriptural Christianity," "Peace Within," and "Peace With God"

Almost caught up! Hopefully next week we'll be back up to where we should be, and hopefully I'll be able to keep my rear in gear after that.

"Scriptural Christianity"
Reading: Micah 6:1-16; Galatians 5:1, 13-25
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Preached on August 5, 2012 at PLWC.


"Peace Within"
Reading: Isaiah 2:2-5; John 14:15-31
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Preached on August 12, 2012 at PLWC.


"Peace With God"
Reading: Exodus 33:7-11, 34:29-35; John 14:1-14
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Preached on August 19, 2012 at PLWC.

Wake Up, Sleepyhead!

Reading: Matthew 25:1-13; Ephesians 5:1-21

(Note that Carey and  I were away on vacation on July 22, so there's no sermon for that week.) It's really easy to let drowsiness creep into our spiritual lives, just like it's really easy to get lazy and take for granted our relationships with others. The call, though, is to a relationship characterized by growth, health, and life.

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Preached on July 29, 2012 at PLWC.

The Almost Christian

Reading: Acts 26:1-32; John 12:17-28

Still playing catch-up… I should probably mention that a few of these sermons (this one included) are based on/inspired by John Wesley’s Standard Sermons. Seemed like a good idea to spend some time on some messages everyone needs to hear from time to time.

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Preached on July 15, 2012 at PLWC. 

Two Sermons: "A Story of Religion" and "Freedom for the Prisoners"

It's been a busy summer, so we're going to play catch-up a bit at a time. Just by way of record-keeping, Carey preached on June 24, so I won't post the recording here. The second sermon below was preached in response to World Hope's "Freedom Sunday" initiative, which was focused on raising awareness of human trafficking. Fair warning: it's not a lighthearted sermon.

"A Story of Religion"
Reading: Ephesians 2:1-22
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Preached on July 1, 2012 at PLWC.


"Freedom for the Prisoners"
Reading: Luke 4:14-21; Psalm 68; Ruth 1:1-18
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Preached on July 8, 2012 at PLWC.

Starbucks, Facebook, and the Ten Commandments

Reading: Exodus 19:1-8; 20:1-24

This is the third sermon in s mini-series of sorts looking at how God saves us, specifically by telling the story of the first few books of the Bible.

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Preached on June 17, 2012 at PLWC.

Six Sermons

I think this may be a record for me in getting behind. It's been a busy couple of months. The first four are the remainder of our Great Commission series, and the last two are part of a mini-series we're doing on how God saves us. Here we go...

"All Nations"
Reading: Romans 4:18-5:11; Matthew 28:16-20
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Preached on May 6, 2012 at PLWC.

"Baptize Them"
Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9, 2:1-10; Matthew 28:16-20
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Preached on May 13, 2012 at PLWC.

"In The Name"
Reading: 1 John 4:1-21; Matthew 28:16-20
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Preached on May 20, 2012 at PLWC.

"I Am With You Always"
Reading: Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 2:1-21
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Preached on May 27, 2012 (Pentecost Sunday) at PLWC.

"Save Me!"
Reading: Genesis 37:12-28, 45:1-11
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Preached on June 3, 2012 at PLWC.

"Both Horse and Driver"
Reading: Exodus 14:10-31, 15:1-18
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Preached on June 10, 2012 at PLWC.

Make Disciples

Reading: John 1:29-51; Matthew 28:16-20

We're continuing our journey through the Great Commission. This week we're getting into the nitty gritty of what we're supposed to do as the church.

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Preached on April 29, 2012 at PLWC.

Two Sermons: "All Authority" and "Therefore Go"

We're following Easter with a series devoted to the Great Commission. It's kind of a big deal, so we're going to take the time to really soak it in.

"All Authority"
Reading: Isaiah 53:1-12; Matthew 28:16-20
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Preached on April 15, 2012 at PLWC.

"Therefore Go"
Reading: Genesis 12:1-8; Matthew 28:16-20

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Preached on April 22, 2012 at PLWC.

Maundy Thursday and Easter sermons

Maundy Thursday: "The Hospitality of God"
Reading: Mark 14:12-31
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Preached on April 5, 2012 at PLWC.

Easter: "Useless Preachers and Lying Witnesses"

Reading: Matthew 28:1-10, 16-20; 1 Corinthians 15:1-26
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Preached on April 8, 2012 at PLWC.