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Old and New Wine Skins – Mark 2:18-22 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 27, 2009 AM I have found it interesting and sometimes humorous to have conversations with those who claim to have faith in Jesus Christ, but in reality have no idea what it means. A lot of folks will say, “I’m a Christian,” thinking that because they are good people, were born in a religious home, or live in America that they are “Christian.” It is really kind of silly because they would not think that by entering a grocery store that they all of sudden became a loaf of bread! Here is an experiment to try to see if what I am saying is true: Go to the local airport, get on a jet bound for Hawaii, and then insist that you should be allowed to fly the plane because you are now an airline pilot simply because you got on board the aircraft. The TSA would haul you off the plane quicker than you could say, “Wait! I was only kidding! Don’t lock me up!” Why then do people try to delude themselves and try to fool others into thi...

Saints, Sinners, and Tax Collectors! - Mark 2:13-17 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 20, 2004 AM Last week I spoke about friends and this week we discover just what kind of friends Jesus was willing to hang with. Jesus was one of those people who saw everyone He met with potential. It did not matter if they were saints, sinners, or tax collectors, Jesus saw them with the same possibilities to come to faith in God. Of course that is why Jesus came: To seek and save the lost and the lost were everywhere Jesus went. He was surrounded by those who were living separated from God. Things have not changed much from then until now. We still find a lot of saints, sinners, and tax collectors. This section of Mark shows us just who Jesus was willing to befriend even if it meant some harassment from the religious establishment of the day. In fact it dramatically shows us that you cannot claim friendship with God without being made new by His Son, Jesus Christ. Let’s discover what Mark can teach us th...

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...

Public and Private Cleansing – Mark 1:35-45 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 6, 2009 AM Some of us are very private, while others are very public about our lives. If you become famous you soon learn that every aspect of your life is open to public scrutiny. I found it kind of humorous that when President Obama went on vacation recently that he wanted and expected the media to leave him and his family alone. In our world today that is simply not possible with someone in his position. Every word and every nuance is examined, even while the President is on vacation. Privacy can be hard to obtain but sometimes it is necessary for a person to mature in their relationship with God. We might never think that Jesus would need time alone to pray, but He did. He needed this time to reconnect with God the Father, to get His priorities in order, and to find a personal time of spiritual renewal and personal cleansing whereby He could forget about everything and focus on God and His plan. We discover t...

The Authority of God -- Mark 1:21-34 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 30, 2009 AM There are people who claim authority, want authority, think they have authority, those who need authority, and those who neglect or disrespect authority but what exactly is authority? As someone, a long time ago, quipped, “Authority is earned, not demanded.” Those who have it know how to exercise it in a way that results in respect, devotion, and an immediate response. Then there are those who are born with authority who have done well with the mantle laid on them while others have used their authority to subjugate those around them. While human beings can and often do misuse the authority given them, God never does. Recently, the passing of a prominent Senator reminds us that no matter where you come from nor what you try to do, who you are and what you did in life matters. You can misuse the authority you are born into to cover up immoral and illegal conduct. Sadly, money or family contacts can often buy immu...

The Choice Everyone Has -- Mark 1:15-20 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 23, 2009 AM We all make good and bad choices in life. The choices we make can have a huge impact on our future. Such things as where we live, what school we go to, what we decide to do for a living, whom we marry, and such have important consequences, but there are far more important choices we make as well. One of these, that can have eternal significance, is what we deiced to believe or whom we decide to follow in life. This is why when Joshua stood before the people of Israel and bluntly demanded of them, “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) they knew that their choice had eternal consequences. When Jesus came he immediately began to declare that “The time has ...

The Important Message -- Mark 1:12-14 By Pastor Lee Hemen Aug 16, 2009 AM History is filled with the inhumane harshness that many societies have inflicted specifically on their children. Ancient Roman society would leave poorer children to fend for themselves, literally to die on their own if both parents were gone. Even in wealthier homes children that were not well liked could be left outside to die or cast aside for others that were deemed more privileged. Meanwhile, in Greek Sparta, boys were educated to create a strong warrior. Taken away from their parents at age 7 they lived a harsh and often brutal life in the soldiers barracks. Younger males were beaten by older boys to help toughen them up and they were not allowed to cry out in pain. These rituals were thought to make their perspective societies stronger and more vigorous. However the message it gave was one of harshness and cruel bleakness. Suppose you were deliberately left all on your own by those you thought cared about ...

The Witnesses - Mark 1:1-11 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 9, 2009 AM Mark’s gospel is as beautiful in its simplicity as it is in its depth of the theology. It is a mystery, in some ways, do to some of the apparent insertions by scribes much later. In fact, its name comes from one such addition. Technically, Mark’s Gospel is anonymous since it does not name its author at all. The title “according to Mark” (Kata Markon) was added later by a scribe some time before a.d. 125. Then there is the ending to Mark that does not belong, but more about that when we finally get there. However, the “unanimous testimony of the early church fathers is that Mark, an associate of the Apostle Peter, was the author. The earliest known statement of this comes from Papias (a.d. 110), who quoted the testimony of John the elder… .” (Bible Knowledge Commentary) Mark, as the author, does not mean that he made the story up but rather he was the human instrument that God used to testify about what he learned from Pe...

When Politicians Fail to Follow God - Jeremiah 34:15-17 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 2, 2009 AM During election time it often seems that politicians will say almost anything in order to garner votes. Selling one’s soul for political gain is nothing new. David did it when he was running away from Saul. He made a pact with those who had been enemies of Israel (Moab) and later he would have to honor his decision. While we expect this kind of underhanded behavior from kings or politicians, we should be shocked when we discover it in the lives of God’s people. We find that "The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Jew in bondage. So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agree...

Saints and Brothers - Philippians 4:21-23 By Pastor Lee Hemen July 26, 2009 AM When I was younger, my mother had nicknames for all of us kids. She used “Jeep” for my sister, which was my mom’s way of saying she could jump or run over anything. For Ed, my brother, it was “Snuffy” because he had allergies and would sniffle all the time. It was before there was easy access to the myriad of allergy medicines we now have for children. And then, there was the name she had for me. Like my siblings, I hated her nickname for me as well. Not all names we are given do we necessarily like to hear. Oh, I suppose you want to know what my mother’s name was for me, right? While she had several, the one that was used most often was “Doc.” It came from a toy I had when I was very little that had the nursery rhyme Hickory-Dickory-Dock printed on it. My mother thought that I looked like the mouse on the illustration. Interestingly, the earliest recorded version of the rhyme is found in Tommy Thumb's P...