Category Archives: Sermons

Praying for The Knowledge of God’s Will (Colossians 1:9-12)

Posted on September 4, 2022 by salooper57

We want to know God’s will. God wants us to know his will. So, why is it so difficult to know his will? This sermon on prayer and the knowledge of God’s will is rooted in the Apostle Paul’s great … Continue reading →

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Why Wait: A Message on Prayer

Posted on August 15, 2022 by salooper57

This sermon, based on Abraham’s experience as detailed in Hebrews 11:8-13, helps us understand why we need to wait on God in our prayers, and how we can wait well. The key is to wait for God, not for things and to wait with God, not alone. Come and join us in the waiting room. God is already there.

The text of the sermon is included below the video. Continue reading →

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Prayer: Where the Battle Is Won

Posted on August 8, 2022 by salooper57

I don’t think I’ve ever begun a sermon with a quote from The Art of War before, but I did this one. Sun Tzu said, “Every battle is won before it is ever fought.” Jesus proved it true through life … Continue reading →

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A Different Way to Pray (Romans 8:26-27)

Posted on July 26, 2022 by salooper57

Prayer is not the private, highly individual thing we thought it was. There is a work crew that assembles when we pray. Or, say rather, a dream team: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God invites us –in all our weakness – to join his team.

Prayer, as Paul thought of it, is more like basketball than archery. It’s done as a team. We don’t stand alone aiming at a target. Instead, we work the prayer down the court toward the goal. It doesn’t all depends on us—and we should never think it does. That would be like playing in a three-on-three basketball tournament with teammates LeBron James, Stephan Curry, and Nikalo Jokic, and thinking that it all rests on me! We need the team as we pray. Without God’s help, we’ll never move our prayers toward the target. Continue reading →

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Unanswered Prayers: The Rest of the Story (2 Cor. 12:6-10)

Posted on July 18, 2022 by salooper57

Here is the thesis of this message: When God says no, he does so because of love. When he says no, it is because saying yes would be unhelpful in the long run to you and to others. When he says no, it is to preclude some evil that would happen or to promote some good that would not happen had he said yes.

The evil that must be precluded and that good that must be promoted may not be apparent right now. They may not even be apparent in our lifetimes. That good or evil might be four generations away or twenty. We cannot see it, think it, or even imagine it – our minds are too limited; we are still babes in the infancy of humanity. There is so much we don’t know. Continue reading →

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Prayer: The Heart of the Matter

Posted on July 13, 2022 by salooper57

In this message on 1 John 3:18-22, we learn what role the heart plays in prayer and how it can sometimes hinder our prayers from being answered. Yet, there is hope, for “God is greater than our hearts.”

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Forgiveness: How to Forgive

Posted on June 6, 2022 by salooper57

How can we forgive? This message explores the answer to that question by offering biblical instruction from Colossians 3. This is the second of two messages on the subject. The first can be found here.

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Why We Can’t Seem to Forgive

Posted on May 17, 2022 by salooper57

Why do we have so much trouble forgiving? We either don’t want to forgive or, wanting to, we find ourselves incapable of it. It probably not that we aren’t trying hard enough, but that we aren’t in a place in … Continue reading →

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How to Honor Your Parents

Posted on May 9, 2022 by salooper57

How do we honor our parents? Can we honor parents who are, or were, dishonorable? Why should we honor them? This message is for people who have (or had) honorable parents and for those who have (or had) dishonorable ones, … Continue reading →

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Family – Blessing or Curse

Posted on May 1, 2022 by salooper57

(Excerpt) And this is a message for all us children whose parents did it wrong—and whose didn’t? I realize that, in some cases, parents did it horribly wrong. The parents who were given you to protect you, have harmed some … Continue reading →

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