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How Thankfulness Is Expressed! - Psalm 100 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 25, 2007 AM For some people being thankful is kind of like the story told about a 4-year-old daughter and her mother who were strolling through an open-air market. As the little girl stared at a large pile of oranges. A generous vendor took one from the pile and handed it to the little girl. “What do you say to the nice man?” the mother asked her daughter. The little girl looked at the orange, then thrust it toward the man and said, “Peel it!” Often, thankfulness is something we learn and grow into. How easy it is for us to respond to God’s graciousness like that 4-year-old. An attitude of being thankful is a mark of a maturing faith. This time of year we are reminded to be thankful. What are some of the personal memories you have about Thanksgiving? Are they good ones? Perhaps we need to pause and remember what it means to truly be thankful. The Psalmist gives us a beautiful song of thanksgiving directed to...

Three Areas of Christian Life - Colossians 4:2 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 18, 2007 How would you say goodbye to someone that you wanted to impart some good advice to before they left? You know what mean, kind of like when a parent sees their child off to college for the first time. What “wisdom” do you send them off with that you hope will stick in their minds for more than a nanosecond? In the verse we will look at this morning we find Paul doing just this. He is summing up his letter to the church at Colossae and wants to impart some kind of wisdom that would stick with them afterwards. Jesus does this as well with His disciples. Jesus gave them the foundational truth for salvation and how they were to live as Christians. In a grand summation to the Pharisees, who wanted to entrap Him by asking, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus responds, not with a specific “command” but with a condensed summation: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with ...

Thanks—giving! - 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 11, 2007 AM Thanksgiving is about so many things in our lives. We carry with us the memories of family, friends, and loved ones whom we have spent the years with over mega meals of turkey, potatoes and gravy, and candied yams. Yet, for the believer, there is so much more to this holiday than a mere holiday feast. It should bring us to where we remember what the holiday was truly about in the first place: Thanking God for what He has done in our lives. It should be a day of thanks---giving for the Christian. Within these few verses we will look at today is such a rich teaching on what Christianity is all about that I almost hesitate to begin. It is a daunting task but one that is sorely needed in our day and age. We live in an era whereby churches have become nothing more than emotional way stations for the unregenerate where they can come to feel good about themselves. Church is to be more than a spiritual pep rally! It...

How Sin Affects God’s People - Psalm 6 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 4, 2007 AM David was a man that was often vexed by troubles from his enemies. He often felt persecuted and sought to understand why this occurred in his life. We discover that David was not always the holy person God desired him to be. In fact, many of his problems were caused by his own stubbornness and guilt when he was caught in his own sin. David discovered that far too often, like most of us do, God does not like it when His people sin. We may wonder, like David did, where our grief, anger, or even frustration comes from and cry out, “How long, O Lord, how long?” However, if we take a close look at our own lives, compare it to this Psalm, we soon discover how sin affects God’s people. What happens and what should God’s people do when they are caught in sin’s grasp? Too few people in our day understand the consequences of their sin and what sin will do in their lives. They shrug it off not realizing who they harm a...