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The Joy of Palm Sunday! – Luke 19:29-40 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 5, 2020 Do you think you would recognize Jesus if he came into your community? Sadly, the church today while it is supposed to be “Jesus” to their neighbors, family, and friends I fear few would see Jesus in them. What would you do if Jesus came to your town, your neighborhood, or your home? While we would all like to think we would immediately recognize Jesus if he came to our area we might not. People in Jesus’ day had longed for and prayed for generations for God to hear their prayers and it seemed as if God was not listening but he was. All of sudden in the midst of what seemed their darkest days, Jesus came healing, caring, and displaying how God works. For the average person it was a miracle of God and rightly so. The common people responded with joy, let’s see how… READ: Luke 19:29-40 We become witnesses of Jesus’ final days as we read the gospel of Luke and here we discover… I. The joy of Palm Sunday in sharing w...

2nd Sunday of Advent - The peace of God - Isaiah 52:6-10 By Pastor Lee Hemen December 8, 2019 Last week we spoke of how the Messiah would be called by the names of Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. There were those who incorrectly thought that the Messiah would bring about the end of war or that everyone would find bliss. Interestingly, there are those in our day who still have misconceptions of who the Messiah is and the peace he brings. Isaiah introduces us to a Messiah who would bring peace to all mankind. He begins these verses by calling the nation of Israel to “Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised (ungodly) and defiled will not enter you again.” Jerusalem’s pagan conquerors — the uncircumcised and defiled — would never again invade and pollute the holy city after the Messiah came. This is part of the peace he would bring when he came. Let’s disco...

1st Sunday of Advent - Our expectation and hope! - Isaiah 9:2-7 December 1, 2019 Pastor Lee Hemen We should not allow outside circumstance to dictate how we respond to life. Recently however the political and social climate of our nation has caused many to become full of gloom and despair. There are those in the political arena that encourage their constituents to be despaired by their opposition simply because things are not going the way they want. Life hardly ever does, yet on the 1st Sunday of Advent we light the candle of hope. Hope is more than wishful thinking; it is the outcry of the human heart and the certainty of God's promise. We as his children hope in him because we know who he is and what he has done. The Israelites of Isaiah's day had no such experience. They should have been able to trust God and the promises he made from knowing their own history, but in the midst of war, famine, and the threat of enslavement it can be tough to see God or his promises. Perhaps...

One great man of God! - Matthew 11:1-19 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 24, 2019 Longfellow, the Poet, wrote that “Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.” We who do not consider ourselves neither great nor that inspiring might ask ourselves, “What makes a great man?” Great men do not necessarily need to be remembered by the marketplace but rather can have such an impact on those around them that they are left better in life by knowing them. Greatness should not be measured in risks taken, accumulated wealth, or educational degrees; rather greatness is how a life impacts another to the extent it changes future generations. John the Baptist was such a man. Here in Matthew’s gospel we find John the Baptist, the last great prophet of God, while imprisoned more concerned about the spiritual health of his nation than his own personal comfort. John was chosen by God before he was even born to be the...

Lepers gotta love ‘em! – Matthew 8:1-4 By Pastor Lee Hemen June 30, 2019 There are folks in our lives that are just tough to love. You know what I mean; those who have nothing good to say about anyone else, those who are constantly jealous over others and what they have or do, or those folks who constantly gripe about almost everyone and anything. Then there are those folks who just have to gain attention by constantly gripping over their latest ailment, sickness, or hypochondria. It can be difficult to be around such folks in life and they can become or be seen as the “lepers” of our day and age. In Jesus’ day there were skin ailments that were often seen as leprosy but actually were not, however, I believe that Jesus and his followers knew the difference between minor skin diseases and actual leprosy. After Jesus was finished speaking to the crowds he heads back down the hillside and meets up with a man who is a leper. How Jesus interacts with and has compassion on him displays for u...

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...

Jesus and the Temptations – Matthew 4:1-11 By Pastor Lee Hemen February 3, 2019 Sin is nothing to sing about and yet the world today takes a pretty casual view of it. I believe this is because many folks have swallowed the lies and deception of Satan. They either think that they were wrongly held accountable for the ungodly choices they made and they want the freedom to do whatever they want whenever they want or there are those who think that evil, sin, and the Devil do not exist. And they incorrectly think that if they simply ignore it or relegate it to “myth” status then it isn’t true. They’ve become too sophisticated and scientific to believe in “fairy tales”. Sadly, evil, sin, and the Devil do indeed exist and are very real and is nothing to sing about. Mankind does not have the capability to be good on its own. We are sinners by nature and choice. From the first disobedient behavior and decision by Adam and Eve to the present day predicament the world finds itself today we find t...

Jesus the baptized – Matthew 3:13-17 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 27, 2019 Just because you feel empathy for someone doesn’t mean you have actually done anything for them and yet there are those today who actually think that feeling something for someone is just as valid as actually doing something. Nothing could be further from the truth. James would remind us by asking, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? (James 2:15-16 NIV)” He would say that such faith is “dead” if it is not accompanied by some kind of action. James was not arguing about good deeds saving someone but rather what demonstrated faith in a person’s life. Baptism did not “save” Jesus but demonstrated his faith to the world. Here in these verses we find the Messiah coming to the Jordan River to be baptized by John his cousin. There have been all kinds of speculat...

The flight, the slaughter, and the return – Matthew 2:13-23 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 13, 2019 There are some things in life we have to do even if we do not like doing them: paying taxes, going to school, working, or going to the doctor. When I was a child my family moved often, so much so that I began to hate going to the supermarket to get cardboard boxes. One year we moved four times when I was in 3rd grade in the same area! Most military kids understand what I mean. Here in these verses we discover Jesus’ family being directed by God to move for their protection. Sadly innocent folks suffered because of the ungodly choices of a madman. And yet the Lord brings this family back safely when it’s time to where Jesus can grown and be nurtured emotionally, physically, and spiritually among his own people. Let’s learn more about how God worked in the flight of a family, the slaughter of innocents, and the return of Jesus… READ: Matthew 2:13-23 There are those in our day who have become...