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Showing posts from February, 2024

Expository Preaching Blog #29 – “Church Hopping”

I don’t believe in being a church hopper. I really don’t. But for the past 11+ years I have been a church hopper. I have not been in one church for more than one year at a time. I don’t like it. I don’t like doing it. I want to settle down and be in one place for the rest of my life. But here is why I have been a church hopper. I heard about Pentecost in I John chapter 5. It’s not there. I have heard how II Timothy 5 when it is talking about widows is also referring to missionaries. How missionaries are to be taken care of by their families when they retire not the churches based on this passage. I have heard about re imaging Jesus. That if you put God in a copy machine Jesus will come out the other side. Yes I heard that from a man with 2 earned doctorates. I believe he should ask for his money back from that seminary. I have heard how Jesus was restrained by God the Father from going and healing Lazarus in John 11. I have heard how Jesus would have fallen through the water in J

Expository Preaching Blog #28 – “Don’t Tell Me What to Do!”

  A couple of years ago we were having supper with another couple from the church we were attending at the time. One of the individuals asked us what we thought of their pastor. Now we had been attending the church for about 9 months at the time. We had even joined the church. We usually attended Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday night. The senior pastor preached in every service as well as taught the adult Sunday school class every single week. It was rare that anyone else spoke. So we heard him speak over 100 times by this point. We had observed the ministry of the church a lot by this time. When we responded to this person we stated honestly that we thought the pastor was green. We explained by stating that the preacher was focused on human behavior for 90% or more of his preaching. We said we didn’t attend church to have another human being continually tell us what to do and how to live. The other person strongly disagreed and said that they attend church so that the p

Expository Preaching Blog #27 – “Frozen Food vs Fresh Cuisine!”

Pardon me for using a food analogy again but Peter started it in I Peter 2:2. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.” I listen to sermons on line trying to find true expository preaching in the Charlotte area. Last week while traveling I listened to a sermon on line from a church I know. I had never heard the preacher so I decided to check it out. It was a sermon from James 4:13-17. A good text I thought for New Year’s Eve Sunday. It was frozen food and not fresh at all. Let me explain. I love to eat. I love pasta and especially lasagna. Now I can go to the store any day of the week, get a frozen Stouffer’s lasagna, bring it home, heat it up and eat it. Anyone can do that. OR, I have skilled chef at home who can make it totally from scratch. She can make her own pasta, tomato sauces, cheeses, meats etc. And it is seasoned just right with no additives or preservatives or who knows what they put in it. You get the picture. It is Tricia’s home

Expository Preaching Blog #26 – “The Bible Is Not A Dictionary!”

I listen to sermons online trying to find true expository preaching in the Charlotte area. Recently while traveling I listened to a sermon on line from a church I know. I had never heard the preacher from that Sunday so I decided to check it out. The text was James 4:13-17. It was New Year’s Sunday. A good text for the day I thought. My ears perked up immediately when he made the following statement. “I am going to take the verses out of order.” What? Who gave him the authority to rearrange God’s Word? Who gave him the authority to change God’s Word? Does he know more than God? Does he know more than James under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God? My point is this. The Bible is not a dictionary! The Bible is not an encyclopedia! A dictionary is for the purpose of looking up an individual word, one at a time to find out its possible meaning. An encyclopedia is for the purpose of looking up an individual subject, one at a time, to learn about that subject. That is not h