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The Disciples’ Mistake - Mark 10:35-45 September 19, 2010 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen School had just ended and Tyler was eager to leave the campus for several reasons: One, because school was so boring to him and, two, his mother was picking him up in their clunky old van. He didn't want anyone to see him with his mother or get into that rotten old van. Of course being the great mother she was, she parked the “hunk-of-junk” right smack dab in front of the school where it could easily be seen by pretty much everyone. So, having been already embarrassed that he had to be seen getting picked up by his mother in their trashy old van, he reaches for the sliding door, and the slider just keeps right on sliding and does not stop. It falls off its rail and clunks right onto the parking lot. His mortification did not end there though, Tyler then had to trudge to the wood shop and ask for a screwdriver to fix it! One of life’s wonderfully embarrassing moments. Have you ever had one o...

The Cost of Christ - Mark 9:30-37 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 27, 2010 AM Sometimes we can hear someone say something to us but not understand what they are saying. There are several reasons for this. They could be speaking a foreign language, we could be hard of hearing, we could be distracted, or we could simply be ignoring the other person. Kind of like the old Peanuts cartoons where all the adults sounded like: “Wah, wah, wah, wah, waah!” However, there are times when we hear the other person speak, and we truly do not understand what they are trying to tell us. I had a calculus class like that. My Mother had a favorite expression she often used with me: “Young man, listen to me when I am talking to you! I am not speaking simply to hear myself speak!” It seemed, as I was growing up, she said this a lot to me. Perhaps it was because I was so easily distracted or maybe it was the fact I did not want to hear what she had to say. Whatever the reason, we find that Jesus’ disc...

The Cost of Discipleship - Mark 8:34-38 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 30, 2010 AM I remember when I was 10 years old saying I would cut our neighbor’s grass for a couple of dollars, but I had not considered that I would have to rake grass clumps afterwards, edge the lawn, and clean the mower. My father related something that has held me in good stay for the rest of my life after I had complained to him about what was involved. He simply said, “You should have counted the cost.” How do you measure the cost of something? I know that when I began to shop for a certain item that I want, I begin to look at reviews of the product online, I read up about different manufacturers of similar items, and I look at the manufacturer’s reputation, customer service, and quality of goods. That may work fine for say a camera or big screen TV, but what about other things in life. What about when we begin to count the cost of a relationship, a job opportunity, or say being a disciple of Jesus? How ...