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Luke 19:28-44 – Palm Sunday By Pastor Lee Hemen March 29, 2015 AM I was wondering what you thought about peace. You know what I mean, not the peace the world tries to aspire to because that is impossible. I am referring to the peace that passes all understanding that only comes from intimately knowing the ruler of peace. Perhaps you have realized peace does not come from people, places or things. Education, money, or power cannot give you the peace you need or seek. Only the one who died for you can give you peace when all else in life falters, fails, or falls apart. The absence of war, strife, or personal hurt is not the peace He gives. His peace comes by the sword of His truth that pierces the human soul right down to the spiritual bone marrow. The Jews of Jesus’ day were searching for a worldly peace, a solution to their national and personal problems. Just like much of the world today. They had not learned from their history that going to war, throwing out the oppressor, or strivin...

Who Are You Looking For? - John 7:33-36 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 22, 2015 In the movie Alice In Wonderland by Walt Disney, the main character, Alice, meets up with the goofy Cheshire Cat. He appears first of all as a great big row of smiling teeth. She wants to know which way she should go, which road to follow in order to find the white Rabbit she has been chasing. He responds by telling her, "Well it depends on where you want to get to." She says it doesn’t really matter, so he tells her, "Well then, it really doesn’t matter which way you go." Then he begins a whole series of nonsensical statements concerning Alice's desire to follow the White Rabbit. He finally tells Alice that "everyone is mad here." I have discovered that this is the way a lot of folks live their lives, meaning that they are not sure what or who they are looking for. Last time we left the chief priests and the Pharisees trying to arrest Jesus because he told them he was the Messi...

Jesus, the Messiah? - John 7: 25-32 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 15, 2015 We misunderstand sometimes what the term Christ means but it is a Greek form of Messiah, both meaning anointed one. The Messiah would be anointed by God to perform and do his will in the world. He would direct people back to God, rescue them from their oppressors. The term came to refer to a future Jewish king from the Davidic line, who will be "anointed" with holy anointing oil, to be king of God's earthly kingdom, and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age. In Judaism, the Messiah was and is not considered to be God or a pre-existent divine Son of God as Jesus is. He is considered to be a great political leader that has descended from King David. The Bible plainly teaches us that Messianic prophecies were fulfilled in the mission, death, and resurrection of Jesus and that he will return to fulfill the rest of Messianic prophecy. Still, there are those who ask, "Is Jesus the Messiah?...

Live or Let Die! -- John 7:19-24 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 8, 2015 In the song "Live and Let Die"  written by Paul McCartney he sings, " When you were young and your heart was an open book, you used to say live and let live (you know you did, you know you did you know you did). But if this ever changing world in which we're living, makes you give in and cry, say, "Live and let die!" In other words, go ahead and do what you want to do or believe whatever you want to in the first place and let everything that disagrees with your current philosophy die. Ignore it and them. Jesus confronts his accusers with kind of the same argument in that he tells them they needed to let their own corrupted view of God's commands die. He then gives them a specific example. While his detractors wanted to kill him for his truthful teaching concerning the gospel, he rebuts them by telling them to let their own false notions of God's commands die the death they needed. Th...

Whispers! -- John 7:11-18 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 1, 2015 Have you ever had a vicious rumor spread about you or someone you know that was not true? I have. Gossip, like whispers in today's passage, can be like a burning fire and consume everything and anyone in its path. The Bible relates that "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts. (Proverbs 18:8 NIV)" In other words gossip can seem satisfying at first, but in reality it is like poison and affects those who participate in it and those who it is often about. It is like digested food, retained and remembered. When folks gossip it says a lot about their character and what they value. How we handle gossip says a lot about who we are and our character as well. Jesus faced those who wanted to whisper or gossip about him and how he handled himself and those who wanted to spread rumors speaks volumes about Jesus' character and who he was. Let's find out what Jesus...

Family, what are you going to do? -- John 7:1-10 By Pastor Lee Hemen February 22, 2015 A comedian once quipped, "The problem with relatives is that they tend to be family." I am not sure exactly what he meant by that, but I am sure there are some folks in our families we would rather not relate to. Families can be close or they can be dysfunctional, sadly, far too many in our day and age are the latter. We know that Jesus had younger brothers; James, Joseph, Jude and Simon to name four (Mark 6:3), and some sisters as well. We also know that Mary was his mother was still alive and yet Joseph, his adoptive father, was probably dead by the time he began his ministry. And, we also discover that his family did not fully understand Jesus' calling nor who he was (Mark 3:21, 31) and tried to dissuade him from following the path God had set for him. I remember well when I decided to follow God's calling in my life, how my own family reacted. It wasn't all rose blossoms and...

Jesus saves when God selects! -- John 6:60-71 By Pastor Lee Hemen February 15, 2015 We often hear that hindsight is better than foresight, meaning that we know the past but not what the future brings in life. There are those who spend large sums of money in order to discover what the future holds. Houdini, the great escape artist and magician spent years debunking mediums and spiritist frauds that scammed innocent people of their hard-earned money. Houdini's training in magic allowed him to expose frauds who had successfully fooled many scientists and academics. He was a member of a Scientific American committee that offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural abilities. None was able to do so, and the prize was never collected. Christians would do well to remember what God told the Israelites concerning such things, "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:31 N...

The bread of life! -- John 6:34-59 By Pastor Lee Hemen February 8, 2015 They say that a person's sense of smell is one of the most powerful memory trigger inducers. You can smell a certain scent and it will immediately remind you of a person, place, or time of your life. I know this is true because when I smell Aqua Velva, an aftershave lotion, it immediately reminds me of my father. the same is true for fresh baked bread. The smell instantly reminds me of my mother's kitchen when I was growing up and the smell of her wonderful bread. She made the best bread in the world. We could hardly wait to get a thick warm slice with melted butter or peanut butter. As I expressed before, bread was an important part of everyday life during Jesus' day. It was how people survived and was the meal for even the poorest of folks. However, it was not like the bread we enjoy today. It was flat, ,chewy, small, round, thick, and kind of tasteless, but it sustained people for the day. It was oft...

Nothing in life is free! -- John 6:22-33 By Pastor Lee Hemen February 1, 2015 There is a tale that the great circus promoter P. T. Barnum once quipped, "There's a sucker born every minute." There is a lot of doubt as to whether he actually said this or not, but one thing I have heard over and over again is the old truism "nothing in life is free." This is true of anyone who wants to sell you the latest get rich scheme, diet pill, or quick spiritual fix. Nothing in life is free. However, the Apostle Paul wrote, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-24 NIV)" In other words, we receive the gift of salvation freely from God because of Jesus' death and resurrection. Nothing in life is free, except salvation from God through J...

The short cut! -- John 6:14-21 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 25, 2015 Why is it there is always a certain segment within society that is willing to take short cuts in life. Whether it is deliberately tearing through the underbrush instead of staying on the marked trail or trying to get by with the least amount of effort in order to get their job done, there are those who think the short cut is the best way. There are even those who think that by simply applying simple scriptural steps to their lives will insure them a short cut to God's blessing. Nothing could further from the truth. We discover here in John's Gospel that there were those who thought they could take the spiritual short cut of making Jesus their king. And even some of Jesus' own disciples were open to this proposition. Interestingly within the next few verses we discover Jesus taking a short cut of his own, but rather than trying to make life easier, he does so in order to teach his disciples whom they were to...