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Old and New Wine Skins – Mark 2:18-22 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 27, 2009 AM I have found it interesting and sometimes humorous to have conversations with those who claim to have faith in Jesus Christ, but in reality have no idea what it means. A lot of folks will say, “I’m a Christian,” thinking that because they are good people, were born in a religious home, or live in America that they are “Christian.” It is really kind of silly because they would not think that by entering a grocery store that they all of sudden became a loaf of bread! Here is an experiment to try to see if what I am saying is true: Go to the local airport, get on a jet bound for Hawaii, and then insist that you should be allowed to fly the plane because you are now an airline pilot simply because you got on board the aircraft. The TSA would haul you off the plane quicker than you could say, “Wait! I was only kidding! Don’t lock me up!” Why then do people try to delude themselves and try to fool others into thi...

Saints, Sinners, and Tax Collectors! - Mark 2:13-17 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 20, 2004 AM Last week I spoke about friends and this week we discover just what kind of friends Jesus was willing to hang with. Jesus was one of those people who saw everyone He met with potential. It did not matter if they were saints, sinners, or tax collectors, Jesus saw them with the same possibilities to come to faith in God. Of course that is why Jesus came: To seek and save the lost and the lost were everywhere Jesus went. He was surrounded by those who were living separated from God. Things have not changed much from then until now. We still find a lot of saints, sinners, and tax collectors. This section of Mark shows us just who Jesus was willing to befriend even if it meant some harassment from the religious establishment of the day. In fact it dramatically shows us that you cannot claim friendship with God without being made new by His Son, Jesus Christ. Let’s discover what Mark can teach us th...

With Friends Like These! -- Mark 2:1-12 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 13, 2006 AM What kind of friends do you have? Are they fair-weather friends? Do they stick with you through thick or thin? What about you, what kind of friend do you make? How do you lookout for those who you consider a friend? Friendship carries with it responsibilities and true friendship demands accountability as well. Friendship can mean that you have to be willing to sacrifice for those you consider a friend. Jesus saw what true friendship means and what true friends will do for one another. Jesus has come back to Capernaum and the “people had heard He had come home.” So many began to show up where Jesus is living that there is hardly any room except for Jesus to preach from His own doorway. Here in Mark’s gospel we discover five conflicts Jesus has with the religious leaders of the day. They are not in chronological order because the writers of that day were not concerned so much with what order things happened...

Public and Private Cleansing – Mark 1:35-45 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 6, 2009 AM Some of us are very private, while others are very public about our lives. If you become famous you soon learn that every aspect of your life is open to public scrutiny. I found it kind of humorous that when President Obama went on vacation recently that he wanted and expected the media to leave him and his family alone. In our world today that is simply not possible with someone in his position. Every word and every nuance is examined, even while the President is on vacation. Privacy can be hard to obtain but sometimes it is necessary for a person to mature in their relationship with God. We might never think that Jesus would need time alone to pray, but He did. He needed this time to reconnect with God the Father, to get His priorities in order, and to find a personal time of spiritual renewal and personal cleansing whereby He could forget about everything and focus on God and His plan. We discover t...