Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our Christmas variety program today. I think it’s a great way to celebrate Christmas. But why do we celebrate Christmas? I hope you know that we don’t just celebrate Christmas because it’s a fun holiday. Christmas is far more than just another holiday. And even though Christmas is historical, Christmas is even more than history. We celebrate the birth of Jesus because He’s the Savior, and He came just when we needed Him most. He came when we were lost in our sin, wandering in darkness. He came according…continue reading →

Clickbait on the internet is a link whose main purpose is to attract attention and entice visitors to click, but usually doesn’t live up to the hype of the promise made in order to get you to click it. Here are a few examples. [Clickbait Article] This one’s title is, “When you find out what these kids are jumping into, your jaw will drop!” And your mind starts to race to all the sensational things they could be jumping into. But when you actually click on the link, you find out that they’re…continue reading →

In his book Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington tells of his experience meeting an ex-slave from Virginia who bought his own freedom. Apparently, the slave had made a contract with his master so that the he was to be permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year, and while he was paying for himself, he was permitted to work where and for whom he pleased. So, finding that he could get better wages in Ohio, he went there. But while he was working in Ohio to earn enough money to…continue reading →

Father, help us this morning to trust Your promise rather than in the promises of sin. Help us to trust in Jesus. In Jesus’s name, Amen. I’m going to pick on all you coffee drinkers for a bit. Who here likes coffee? Why do you like it? Maybe you like the taste, or maybe you like the way it gives you energy for the day. Or maybe you like its positive benefits, such as antioxidants, or even its laxative effect. Now, I don’t like coffee, so I don’t have this problem, but have…continue reading →

I read a real-life pay-it-forward story the other day on the Huffington Post, and wanted to share it with you this morning. It was written by Mark Redmond, who runs a homeless ministry in Burlington, Vermont. One day, Mark took a much needed day off, but he still wanted to stop by his office in order to pick up his mail. He went in the back door, just wanting to slip in and slip out after checking his mail. And his plan went flawlessly until, as he walked towards the mailroom, he glanced…continue reading →

There’s a story about a janitor at St. Peter's Church in London. One day, the new, young, naive pastor of the church discovered that the janitor was illiterate and fired him, citing something about not sorting the mail correctly. Jobless, the man invested his meager savings into opening a tiny shop, where he prospered, bought another, expanded, and ended up with a chain of stores worth several hundred thousand dollars. One day, he realizes that he really should put all this money into the bank, so he goes to open an account. The…continue reading →

I trust that you all got enough sleep last night since we all got an extra hour of time. This is like the one day of the year that nobody has to hit snooze because we all get an extra hour to either lay in bed or just get a slower, easier start of the day. It’s great! I don’t know about you, but I planned to sleep in this morning, but just couldn’t. So, starting at 6 am, I was able to get up, fix a computer, schedule a return on Amazon,…continue reading →

I’m going to make you a promise this morning. It’s a pretty big promise, are you ready for it? I promise you that I’m never gonna give you up, I’m never gonna let you down, I’m never gonna run around and desert you. And I promise you that I’m never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you. And I promise you all these things IF you can make the same promise to me, and IF you can get Rick Astley to come and sing…continue reading →

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Is anyone here from the South, like Georgia or South Carolina? That area? Any of you have family that live in the South? So, those of you who know, what does “bless your heart” mean? Yeah, it kind of means you’re an idiot, right? I read about a foreign exchange student from Korea who stayed with a family in the South for 2 years while in high school. It was challenging for him to learn English, but Southern idioms were the hardest. A day or two before he returned home to Korea after…continue reading →