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Rich Man, Poor Man – Mark 10:17-27 August 29, 2010 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen There are a lot of folks that think God smiles on them because they are financially well off, well educated, or have good looks. Nothing could be further from the truth. Absalom, King David’s son, had all three things in abundance and yet God did not favor the man because of his arrogant pride. In fact, Absalom’s prideful hang up got him hung up! There is a Universalist tendency that is creeping into mainstream evangelical circles that gives folks a false faith. In our day, people are being led to believe that if they live right and have spiritual feelings about Jesus, then they will be okay with God. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. We would do well to find the answer to age old question, “What makes a person truly rich?” The converse would be to find out “What makes a person truly poor?” The book by Irwin Shaw, Rich Man, Poor Man, is about a lower middleclass family and its three sibl...

Believers Are Childish - Mark 10:13-16 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 22, 2010 AM Have you ever dealt with someone who refuses to forgive another because of a perceived slight? Believers can become bitter because they find it hard to forgive and then use the excuse that they are honoring God. This is spiritually childish. Perhaps you have witnessed an adult who has an emotional fit like a two-year-old who demands that the world revolve around them. I have. That is what a believer is doing when they do not forgive. I have often said that, “It isn’t a person’s age that makes them an adult, but how they act in life.” One thing that personally drives me crazy is when adults act like children. Whether it is adults dressing like teenagers or an adult’s childish emotional behavior, it is disconcerting to see adults acting like children. However, there is a time when adults truly need to be childish. When should an adult have a childish moment? Here in Mark’s gospel we find Jesus again...

The Permanence of Marriage - Mark 10:1-12 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 1, 2010 AM There is nothing permanent in life and folks would do well to remember this plain and simple truth. However there are relationships that are to last. Our relationship with Jesus lasts forever and our marriage relationship is one that is to last a lifetime. For many years when people claimed that the divorce rate in Christian circles was just the same as the world, it was accepted as a hard but true fact. But if we dig deeper into the facts, we find something quite different. For instance, when you take into consideration couples that were married and mentored within strong theologically conservative churches, the number of divorces compared to the world, drops dramatically. Folks who came to Christ after their marriage have a greater opportunity of developing a strong lifetime marital relationship. Counselors have found that if the husband leads in the relationship and determines that the coupl...