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Accept God's Free Offer! - Isaiah 55:1-13 By pastor Lee Hemen March 30, 2014 AM How many churches offer Sunday School as a means of baby-sitting to over-worked parents so they can be safely separated without guilt from their children for an hour or so? How many adults think that the thirty-minute sermon on Sunday is all they need in studying the Bible, depending on the emotional high they get from the worship service? They fail to understand they are missing an important part of the Christian life--relating to other believers, building unity and fellowship of the local church! Too many settle for a cheap grace experience rather than mature growth. Why would anyone invest so little in their spiritual life when God wants to give them so much more?” God declared He would restore Israel creating a righteous nation that would grow in number, territory, and faith. God would protect His people rather than punish them. God freely invited Israel to seek and know Him. He alone could provide ...

Hindrances to Effective Prayer - James 4:1-10 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 9, 2011 AM We can let the littlest things in life frustrate us. A red light that doesn’t turn green fast enough, a slow checkout line, or just a bad mood! Have you ever tried praying at those times? I have. It is hard for me to do. I guess it is because my heart and thoughts are not in the right place! There are hindrances in life, aren’t there? Sometimes these hindrances keep us from the full and richness of a personal relationship with the Lord in prayer. It can be a bad attitude, hurt feelings, not getting our way, ungodly behavior or several other things that hinder our time alone with God. God desires and wants to spend time alone with us in prayer. If progress in the Christian life depends upon our prayer, if we are commanded to pray, if promises on a cosmic scale are made to those who pray--what would a waiting Heavenly Father think if we refused to pray? James introduces for us this morning th...

The Deceivers Will Come! - Mark 13:1-6 By Pastor Lee Hemen December 26, 2010 AM Mark 13 is sometimes called the eschatological discourse, the prophetic discourse, the Olivet discourse, or the Little Apocalypse. It depends on whether you see within these verses Jesus teaching about the culmination of events, future events, if you are concerned about where it occurred, or if you believe that Mark wanted us to read about the end of the world. However, we do not find the usual visionary and cryptic language that most apocalyptic literature contains. Rather, we read more of a practical and ethical discourse and warning by Jesus to his followers. He wanted them to be aware that deceivers will come and what they needed to do about it when it occurred. Whether one believes in the biblical narrative of the end times or not we live in a day and age where folks love to speculate about the end of the world as we know it. From movies that cater to pagan Aztec calendars predicting it or ...

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...

Being Wise About Relationships – Proverbs February 3, 2008 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen Friction is a consistent element in human relationships. Husbands and wives sometimes disagree over financial, parenting, or household decisions. Church members conflict over issues such as worship styles, budget, or ministries. Coworkers disagree over how to accomplish a project, bosses, or work ethic. All of us have many relationships. We interact with friends, coworkers, and family members almost daily. We may see church members several times a week. We get together with extended family at reunions and holidays. Someone once quipped, “You can pick your friends but you are stuck with your family forever.” How then are we to relate to others? The Book of Proverbs addresses many of these relationships by giving us basic moral and spiritual principles. Today we will deal with three basic areas that are important in building and maintaining healthy relationships. First, we need to be careful how we spe...