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Lazarus! Part One -- John 11:1-16 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 28, 2015 Roger Miller was a folk singer from the sixties and he wrote a song called, "Lou's Got the Flu" and one of the stanzas went something like this, "Some people bad and some people good; Too bad the bad can't be like the good. But everything changes a little and it should; Good ain't forever and bad ain't for good." Sadly, far too many have this view of their lives because they think that good is forever and bad ain't for good! However, Miller meant it as a play on words, meaning that bad people aren't good for anything, yet there are those who think that God winks at our living dangerously. He does not. They forget what God's purpose is for their lives. The final days of Jesus' life is winding to a close and John takes the next eleven chapters to share with us in intimate detail what occurs. Each part of the gospel narrative from here on is important for us to understan...

Jesus Is God! - John 10:17-42 June 21, 2015 By Pastor Lee Hemen There are those who think they are gods, those who think they will become gods, or those who simply have a psychological god-complex, who think they make their own heaven or hell. When in actuality they just make everyone else's life a living Hades. Sadly far too many in our word today have no room for God until they get in a physical, personal, or psychological bind, then they want God to solve their problems immediately that they created over years. Jesus did not have a god-complex, he did not come to try and make individuals realize their god-potential, nor did he teach that we make our own heaven and hell. Rather he taught very specific things concerning him, our sin nature, and what will occur if we do not trust him with our lives. In fact, his revelations both shocked and surprised the religious leaders of his day. Here in John's gospel we discover that Jesus taught that there is no God but God himself and Je...

The Good shepherd! - John 10:1-16 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 14, 2015 In our day and age we do not think about shepherds, in fact most folks would not know what they are or what they do unless one lived in the Southwest or some other place that raises sheep. Shepherding is a lost art that has been replaced by other means such as GPS, dogs and gas-powered vehicles. However, in Jesus' day shepherding was a way of life that everyone was intimately aware of. Comparing people to a shepherd and his sheep was common. The priests and the rulers often called themselves shepherds and their people as sheep. This is why the Bible makes frequent use of this analogy. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David were shepherds. Jesus takes the idea of shepherding and relates it to the fact that the spiritual leadership of his day had lost their ability to be insightful shepherds who took care of those entrusted to their care. Instead of being good shepherds they had become… I. Thieves and robbers! (Vv. ...

The Blind! -- John 9:1-41 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 14, 2015 The old proverbial saying, "There's none so blind as those who will not see" according to the Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, has been traced back to 1546 (John Heywood), and resembles the Biblical verse: "Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear! (Jeremiah 5:21 NIV)" People can be physically born blind; they can be emotionally blind, intellectually blind, and worse -- spiritually blind. The Jewish leadership was spiritually blinded. They had become so used to the way things were and so used to following their set of codified laws that they could not see the working of God right in front of their eyes. Jesus came on the scene and began to shake things up for the blind. Let's discover what happened… READ: John 9:1-41 Here in John's gospel we find… I. Those spiritually ignorant remain blind! (Vv. 1-12) As he w...