preach-itSermon Archive

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March 2024

The Sacrifice of Isaac

Genesis 22 records some unexpected words that God spoke to Abraham. He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Now, those words are surprising for a number of reasons, but so too is Abraham’s response. Insofar as scripture records, Abraham made no attempt to argue with God over this extraordinary command, and his only response was to make ready to d



Here We Go Again

Repetition is something we see a lot of in the Bible. Joseph had duplicate dreams with the same meaning. Pharaoh did too. Jesus told the parable of the lost coin and the lost sheep and the lost prodigal son all in a row to communicate the same, singular truth. On two separate occasions two different women washed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. On two separate occasions Jesus fed large crowds with just a little bit of food. We have the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John al



February 2024

Sodom and Gomorrah

Today, “Sodom” and “Gomorrah” have become almost bywords for unchecked depravity and divine judgment. The author of Genesis highlights the sexual immorality and violence of these cities, and the author of Ezekiel highlights their pridefulness and their fat-hearted disregard for the needy. (Ezekiel 16:49-50) We find the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18:20 through the end of chapter 19. This Sunday we’ll be exploring this controversial account, seeking to understand its meaning to its original audience and also asking what lessons this ancient story holds for us as God’s people living in Aroostook County, Northern Maine in 2024.



Choices

Some of you are undoubtedly wrestling with big decisions right now. According to a study cited in Psychology Today human beings make an eye-popping 35,000 choices a day. If that’s true, and I must admit that is a hard number to believe, then an average person makes 12,775,000 decisions a year. Multiply that over the span of a lifetime and the total number of decisions that we make is truly staggering. Now, most of the decisions that people make will be small and inconsequential, like whethe



January 2024

Certain of What You Cannot See

At Houghton College there is an indoor pool contained within the athletic complex. During my years there it was kind of a tradition for students to break into the gym after hours and go swimming in the dark. I was always kind of a stick-in-the-mud, rule-follower, and so I never took part in this particular rite of passage, but beyond it being against the rules it also seemed really terrifying to me because part of the tradition was to climb up onto the high dive in the dark and, without bei



Before Jesus Came

It was during my early teenage years that my parents gave me a devotional book by Chuck Swindoll entitled “Abraham…The Friend of God.” As I typed this sermon preview for the mid-week email that same dog-eared copy sits on the desk next to me. I read it through during my teenage years, and then once again during my Senior year at Houghton college. Looking back on it now, it seems obvious that God wanted me to spend time with Abraham’s story during those formative years when I was stepping



Loving God

Here at State Road we have been called and set apart for the Great Commission purpose of making disciples of Jesus. That word, “disciple,” isn’t used much outside of Christian circles. It’s a Bible word meaning a fully committed follower of Jesus- a sincere, from-the-heart imitator of His example, and the way we go about making disciples here at State Road is by emphasizing those things which Jesus commanded in His teachings and modeled for us during the days of His earthly ministry



How Deep Is Your Love

George McLaughlin serves this morning as our guest speaker. George, of course, is well-known to many as he served for years as pastor of our sister church in Dunntown. He currently serves as chaplain and bereavement coordinator for Northern Light Home Care and Hospice. In this message he teaches from Mark 12:28-34.



December 2023

In Ordinary Times

Last January I was with a team from State Road in Palenque, Mexico joining a team from Tijuana to run Brigadas in some remote villages with missionaries Craig and Kristi Libby from Mexican Medical. We had an unexpected stay at a hotel the first night we were in country and that first morning we all funneled our way into a dining area for breakfast. It was a buffet and most items were tagged with name cards that were thankfully in Spanish AND English. One of them items in particular, that is



Christ

One of the things that impresses people when they study the Christmas narrative in depth is the way it mingles high and low things. We see a heavenly host of angels, with the glory of the Lord shining around them, but who is their audience? Simple, earthbound shepherds. Then the awesome spectacle of an angelic choir gives way to the shepherds hurrying through the darkened streets of a small, unimportant farming, community, and into a stable where two poor teenagers had laid a newborn baby i





 
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