Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

I want to begin this morning by asking you a question: what are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? They can be silly, or serious, whether they’re related to church, or home, school, or work, it doesn’t matter. What would you say are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? One of my favorite Christmas traditions is just eating with extended family. I love food in general, but there’s just something about a good Christmas meal. Because when we all get together, everyone makes their best side dishes, and there’s so much variety, and…continue reading →

You’ve probably heard the expression, “Christmas in July.” And that expression sounds a little funny to us because we know that Christmas isn’t in July. We know that Christmas is in December. And yet, it might come as a surprise to some people that we don’t really know when Jesus was born. The Bible doesn’t tell us the specific day that Jesus was born, or even the month, and it’s not recorded in any early history books. So, this year, as we look at some of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus,…continue reading →

continue reading →

My daughter Raelynn has had many surgeries over the years, including eye surgeries, ankle surgeries, hip surgeries, and spine surgeries. And, as I’m sure we all know, surgery is no small thing. There are many precise things that need to happen during each procedure, and if anything were to go wrong at any stage of the process, we could have a big problem. Prior to the surgery, we usually go over all that and the doctor explains all the things they need to do to have a successful surgery. And I’m glad that…continue reading →

My family and I recently watched a short mini-series called Waco, which was a dramatization of what happened in Waco, Texas in 1993. In short, in addition to having multiple wives, some of which being underage, David Koresh was a false prophet and cult leader who claimed to be the Lamb of God. Many of the people he misled in his cult died in a fire when the FBI and ATF sought to force them to leave their commune residence. So the lingering question in the aftermath of that tragic outcome was whether…continue reading →

I’m curious, how many of you would describe yourselves as extraverts? Being around lots of people really energizes you, and you love telling a story in front of a group of people, and you even enjoy raising your hand right now because that gives you a little attention? If that’s you, go ahead and raise your hand. So how many of you are introverts? You don’t like crowds, you like to be home alone, and you definitely don’t want to raise your hand right now because then people might look at you. If…continue reading →

[Picture of The Purpose-Driven Church] In his book, The Purpose-Driven Church, Rick Warren identified five purposes that every church ought to see as their priorities: worship, discipleship, evangelism, ministry, and fellowship. And in the book, he challenges churches to put programs into place to assure that we’re effectively engaging in all of these purposes of the church. So the question I want to ask us this morning is simply this: how are we doing? How are we doing? Worship Discipleship Evangelism Ministry Fellowship If you had to evaluate how we were doing with…continue reading →

[IMB Video: Are We There Yet?] “Are we there yet?” That was the motto of the International Mission Board in 2010, just a year after I became a pastor. [“Are We There Yet” sticker] They sent me a sticker with this motto on it, and I thought it would be a good reminder and gauge as to whether we were being effective as a church, so I stuck it above the handle to my office door so that I would see it every time I came to my office: are we there yet.…continue reading →

So I heard about this practice called "extreme embalming," have you heard about this? It’s actually a very old practice, going back thousands of years, but it’s recently been gaining popularity in certain parts of the world. Extreme embalming is posing the deceased, not in a casket, but sitting or standing up, as if they were still alive doing the things that they loved. I would show you pictures, but I don’t want to be insensitive to those who lost their loved ones. So it might be the body of an 18-year-old sitting…continue reading →

In 2015, Fox News reported on this story that took place in Lee County, Florida: The SWAT team of the Cape Coral Police Department planned to perform practice drills in a vacant Bonita Springs church building. But at the last minute the Police Department shut down the operation, saying that "It just seems kind of insensitive to kind of do those things where people got married or people had their funerals at.” He was basically pointing out that there’s a sacredness to this place, and he’s right. There is a sacredness to this…continue reading →