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Luke 1:26-38 – Listen! By Pastor Lee Hemen December 4, 2022 One of my least favorite Christmas songs is “Do You Hear What I Hear?” Sorry if it is one of your favorites, but I’ve never liked it that much except for the last verse when the King commands, “Listen to what I say! Pray for peace, people everywhere! Listen to what I say! The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night He will bring us goodness and light, He will bring us goodness and light.” Now don’t get me wrong the message of the song is great, the night wind whispering to a little lamb about a “star with a tail as big as a kite.” The lamb asking a shepherd boy if he can hear the same song he hears, and the shepherd boy asking the mighty king, “Do you know what I know?” Now if you listen closely at the words, you will notice that each phrase is contingent upon one thing: listening! In our day and age where everything demands our immediate attention it is often hard to get people to simply listen. In the verses we will look at ...

The Joy of the Resurrection! – Luke 24:1-12 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 12, 2020 The message of Easter is the resurrection of Jesus as an event that means much more than a historical fact. His victory over death brings peace and comfort to all who have trusted in him as Lord and Savior. Further, Jesus’ resurrection is the basis for the believers’ resurrection and living with him forever. It is the joy of the resurrection! After Jesus’ death, Joseph buried the body hastily in a nearby tomb. A large stone rolled in front of the entrance was meant to keep out marauders and wild animals as well as Jesus’ disciples (Matthew 27:62-66). All day Saturday Jesus’ followers grieved, but they could do nothing. Sunday morning dawned, the first day of the week, and some of the women who had followed Jesus went to visit his grave. They could not have imagined what they were about to experience. Their initial response was fright, but soon they realized the joy of the resurrection! Let’s rediscover this ...

God uses the foolish things! – 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 26, 2020 When things change it can seem foolish to those who get used to the way things as they are. Yet we can be the “foolish” ones when we make demands like: “If they do not do it this way I will…” or “If it isn’t done the way I like, then…” We are like the petulant child who doesn’t like the way the game is going and takes his ball home. However, we learn that God often uses the foolish things of the world. The Jews had gotten used to being the slaves of whichever power marched through their homeland. While they mouthed their allegiance to God within their hearts they had truly stopped believing. And now God had sent himself in the form of a man bringing a different message than the one they were used to. It seemed as foolishness just as it does in our day and age that have gotten used to living their lives the way they want instead of following the Lord. We learn that God uses the foolish things. READ...

Salt and light – Matthew 5:13-16 By Pastor Lee Hemen February 24, 2019 What would you consider the absolute necessities of life after food and water? For some it might be their cell phone, big screen TV, clothes or shoes. One of things that help put perspective on what you value in life is to do an extensive list of your top 50 priorities. It can show you in a very real way what you value in life and what you focus on or not. In Jesus’ day a couple of absolute necessities were two things we often take for granted, salt and light. Salt was used for many things from seasoning, preservative, sterilization of wounds, and as currency. It was considered an absolute staple for everyday life. Light was a means of continuing to work later, see your way, keep warm and keep out the darkness of night and long winters. Jesus understood the dependence and importance folks of his day placed on these two things; let’s discover how he uses salt and light this morning… READ: Matthew 5:13-16 According to...

The message, the men, and the masses – Matthew 4:12-25 By Pastor Lee Hemen February 10, 2019 In the gospels we discover not only the mystical but the mundane as well. Life is made up of both and if you do not discover this fact you will miss out on some of the shear wonderment of life itself. This is why it is so distressing for me to see the ungodliness of socialism in our nation. When individuals do away with the sacred and try to replace it with feelings it leads to society based on emotionalism instead of the holy. Mankind is reduced to animal stature and God becomes nonexistent. This is one reason why Jesus came – to display for us the sacred. God became man and walked among us. We know much about the everyday life of Jesus because the gospels are full of narratives concerning it. In Matthew’s gospel we discover some of the details of Jesus’ early ministry. He begins to relate the message he has for Israel and mankind, he begins to put together those who would continue the ministr...

Mary Magdalene the witness! - John 20:10-18 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 3, 2016 We may at some time in our lives be asked to "tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God", but what does this mean? It means we are to relate the truth as we have witnessed it or experienced it and therefore it can differ from another's perspective of what they saw, heard, or experienced during the same event. This is in fact why we get some minor variations from the different Gospel perspectives of the same events, including the resurrection of Jesus. Simon Peter and John had headed home after witnessing the empty tomb for themselves and now we find Mary still there. What she sees and experiences gives us a fuller picture of what took place that Easter morning so long ago when the tomb of Jesus was found empty. Let look again at what occurred and discover for ourselves what it means for us this morning as discover more about Mary Magdalene the witness! READ: John 20:...

Do You Live According to God's Truth? - Isaiah 28:14-18; 30:12-18 By Pastor Lee Hemen February 16, 2014 AM Many folks in our day and age think they are okay with God. So much so in fact, that they would deny they need Him at all! Ray Comfort has a great way of confronting folks who think this way. He asks them a series of questions. “Would you consider yourself a good person?” Most answer, “Yes.” Then he asks, “Have you ever told a lie?” Most answer, “Yes.” “What does that make you?” “A liar”, is the usual response. “Have you ever stolen something?” he continues. “Yes.” “What does that make you?” “A thief”, they respond. “Have you ever looked at someone else with lust?” And, of course most answer in the affirmative. He then blandly remarks, “Well, by your own admission, you’re a lying, thieving, adulterer at heart and not a good person at all!” Some who claim Christ do not fair much better. We like to think that if we say we love Jesus, this is enough, but let me ask you, “Do you l...

Do You Serve? - Isaiah 6:1-11 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 12, 2014 AM Are You Being Served was a quintessentially British comedy that ran from 1972 to 1985. It was about a department store in London, which was very traditional. The social class structure within the store’s workforce, and how the clerks viewed and served its customers, was the source of the series character interaction. Sadly, what was often portrayed is exactly how many in our day view the service of others. Don’t you hate it when you go into a store and the clerks treat you as if it is your privilege that they serve you? Much of Christianity has morphed into such a ungodly notion as well. Instead taking the message of God to the lost, we ignore His call, and ask that the church to serve us! Isaiah was either ministering or worshipping, or perhaps doing some other thing in the temple when God called him in a very vivid way to a life of service. Most of God’s folks are not called to serve Him in such a dramatic way, how...

Malachi 2:17-3:6 – Being hopeful! By Pastor Lee Hemen January 8, 2012 AM Being a parent is tough, but I cannot imagine being a single parent. When we were kids my mother, after a particularly hard day, would tell us, “You kids are going to wear your old mother out!” Looking back on this I find it kind of humorous since at the time she was only about 35 years old and she had the backup of my father! Perhaps it was the constant care she had to give to two young active little boys who were always on the go? Being a good parent can, at times, make one feel a little worn out. I wonder how God feels when his constant care of his children wears on him. Not that God can be worn out, he is God after all. However, when his children continually distrust, disobey, and disrespect him, God tells us he becomes “weary.” Malachi tells the Israelites that God has grown weary of their endless spiritual platitudes. Who were they trying to fool? They did not trust God. We discover that Malachi’...

Are You Just A “Tenant”? - Mark 12:1-12 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 07, 2010 AM We like being in control. However, the Psalmist tells us to “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Psalms 2:12) Many have deliberately forgotten this Scriptural truth because the convoluted reasoning goes: “If I can ignore God in my life, then I can do whatever I want whenever I want, even if it concerns ungodliness.” This was true for Israel. Yet time after time God had tried to bring them back to himself. Rather than being the people of God they should have been, they became mere tenants, renters of God’s truth, despising God and desperately trying to control their lives without acknowledging Him. Harvest time, before the advent of modern computerized corporate farms, was a time of great community celebration. A good harvest could mean survival through the winter and being able to plan...