“I believe.” Two simple words. Not at all hard to pronounce. They’re words we’ve said with some ease many times before. “I believe in love,” we’ve said. Not controversial – most everyone we know would say the same thing. “I believe in love at first sight,” some say. A bit more controversial – some of us would agree and some of us wouldn’t. But there’s not much risk in saying you believe in love at first sight; people might disagree with you, but they’re not going to shun you for your romanticism.
Finding a movie everyone in the family enjoys watching can be a challenge. Stereotypically, men like to watch action flicks and women like to watch romantic comedies, and that’s largely true in our family as well. But there are two types of movies Brenda and I tend to agree on. For one thing, we tend to prefer true stories over pure fiction. And here’s a second category of movie that we tend to agree on – we both like a movie where the bad guy gets what’s coming to him. One such movie that comes to mind is the 2002 Jennifer Lopez flick called “Enough.” It’s a story about a man who is cruel and abusive to his wife. And it isn’t long before we in the audience are thinking, “OK, that’s enough. It’s time for justice; it’s time for some payback.” And given that “Enough” is the title of the movie, you can guess what happens – the bad guy gets what’s coming to him.
Have you ever made an announcement that was so wonderful and so surprising that no one believed you? I moved to California from Minnesota, where I grew up, in March of 1979 at the age of 24. I spent a few months in San Diego and then I moved up here to San Jose and began working at a church in Willow Glen. I was single at the time, and frankly had not done so well in the girlfriend department, something my friends and family back in Minnesota had witnessed firsthand.
How important is the issue of the reliability of the Scriptures? Can the Bible really be a source of truthful information? Can we know the Bible really is the Word of God? Did the Bible ever claim to be authoritative? If all of these questions are true, have the words contained in Scripture ever actually changed anyone? Can these words actually change me? If you have ever pondered these questions then this morning is for you because we are going to give you great justification for answering “yes” to all of these questions.
“STRENGTH: HOW GREAT THOU ART/HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD” The Songs That Stir Our Souls June 16, 2013 Cornerstone Community Church This year will mark the 36th year of the World’s Strongest Man competition. The first time I ever watched one of these events I thought it was a joke. I thought maybe this was a Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler movie, or a Saturday Night Live skit that makes fun of bodybuilders. But you might know that those who compete in this event take it quite seriously, that there are men who have given their lives to train for this competition. And if you’ve ever watched a World’s Strongest Man competition, you know that this isn’t a boring old weightlifting tournament. It’s not a matter of seeing who can bench press the most weight. Instead there are events like the “Duck Walk,” in which the contestants strap around their waist a rope holding up a 400 pound kettle and then see who can walk the farthest. Or there’s the “Keg Toss,” in which contestants throw kegs of increasing weight over a 14 foot 6 inch wall. Or there’s the “Airplane Pull” in which contestants see how far they can haul an airplane. In other words, these are all practical events; you never know when you might be needed to pull an airplane around.
Twelve high school seniors were all dressed up for their senior prom. They had gathered at one of their houses to take pictures, and for the last picture they lined up on the back porch, which stood one level above the backyard. Some parents were taking pictures, and one father was taking a video of the whole affair, when suddenly, and without any warning, the deck collapsed. Fortunately the injuries were limited to cuts, bruises and torn prom dresses and tuxes -- no broken bones and no concussions.
It wasn't your fault. You did nothing wrong. Your intentions were pure, your actions blameless. But that didn't stop him from hurting you, from trashing you, from stealing from you, from slandering you, from abusing you. And now you're faced with a choice -- what next? Do I go after him? Do I retaliate? Or do I forgive him? And if I choose forgiveness, doesn't that just let him off the hook? If I don't hold him accountable for what he did to me, who will?
It's finally here, one of my families' favorite events to watch on TV -- the Olympics. I suppose it's odd that I get so excited about watching the Olympics, given that I don't follow any of these sports at any other time. But for these two weeks I will take an interest in all of them, from gymnastics to running to cycling to diving to swimming. If you're a sports fan, then you're an Olympics fan.
Sports fans have come to know it as "Bountygate." If you are a football fan, you've surely heard about this, and you probably have an opinion about it as well. According to numerous sources, between 2009 and 2011 certain members of the New Orleans Saints football team operated a bounty system in which defensive players would be paid additional compensation for inflicting injuries on opposing players severe enough that those players would have to leave the game. It was alleged, for example, that prior to the 2009 NFC Championship game between the Saints and the Minnesota Vikings, certain members of the Saints put up $10,000 to anyone who hit Viking quarterback Brett Favre hard enough to knock him out of the game.
Have you ever heard a lecture by someone especially smart, so smart that most of it went right over your head? Everyone around you is taking notes and nodding their head approvingly, soaking in the great wisdom of the speaker, and you’re thinking, “I have no idea what this guy’s talking about!” I’ve been to a few talks like that in my life. And even though I’m a pastor and I’ve been studying the Bible for most of my life, I have to confess something to you – I find a number of the things Jesus said to be very hard to understand. There are times when I will read a chapter in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John and through most of the chapter I’m thinking, “Yep, I get it, that’s important, I need to remember this,” and then I’ll get to one or two verses and I’ll stop and think, “What in the world did Jesus mean by that?”
With our country falling deeper and deeper into debt, our government commissioned a "super committee" to find a way to reduce our deficit by $1.2 trillion. They worked hard at their job, they negotiated, they brainstormed, they debated -- and they failed. Once you're in a deficit, it's hard to climb back out. Getting into a deficit, on the other hand, is pretty easy. Many of us are in one right now, as we get hit with the credit card bills we racked up over the holidays. Before long we'll have property tax bills to pay and income taxes to cough up. We keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, and it just seems to keep moving further and further away.
We all know from personal experience that life is an expensive sport. Going to college is expensive. Getting married is expensive. Having a baby is expensive. Buying and insuring a car is expensive. Medical insurance is expensive. Buying a home is expensive. Owning a smart phone with the monthly data plan is expensive. Have you ever refinanced your home? When you do that you have to go through the process of adding up all your assets and all your liabilities and coming up with your net worth. You have to list how much you owe on your cars and on your credit cards and on your school loans and on your equity line and on your mortgage; you have to specify how much you pay each year in property taxes and in insurance. It can be a little depressing, frankly, to sit down and tabulate your debt. It can make you wonder whether you will ever be able to pay it all off.
One of the most popular sports come the Olympics is gymnastics, and in particular, women's gymnastics. My daughters both spent some time in competitive gymnastics, so we got something of an education in just how difficult the sport is and how hard the gymnasts train. And it's not just the girls who put in hours and hours of time -- it's the coaches and trainers, and, of course, the parents, who put in both time and significant amounts of money.
The message of TV's so-called most interesting man in the world is this: "Stay thirsty, my friend." More to the point, this man wants us to stay thirsty for Dos Equis, a brand of beer. Scientists tell us that we will do just that if we drink beer, since drinking alcohol, rather than quenching our thirst, makes us thirstier. So if we want something to quench our thirst, perhaps we need to look somewhere besides a beer commercial.
How would you describe the most interesting man in the world? Here are a few more attempts to do just that by the makers of the most interesting man in the world commercials:..... Yes, the Dos Equis man is pretty interesting, but the Gospel of John makes it very clear who the most interesting man in the world really is - Jesus, who John tells us is God in the flesh. In another book written by John, the book of Revelation, John quotes Jesus describing himself this way: "I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and Hades." (Revelation 1:17-18) Now that's an interesting man.
If you watch TV at all you can't help but see an ad featuring the so-called "most interesting man in the world." He is portrayed to be a distinguished older gentleman who is shown through film clips of deliberately varying quality to have led an extremely eventful and colorful life, packed with over-the-top acts of heroism and adventure. He is played by actor Jonathan Goldsmith, who tells us at the end of the ads to "stay thirsty, my friend." I'm not a beer-drinker so I've never tried the product he's selling, which is a beer called Dos Equis, but I do find the ads to be pretty humorous.
Have you noticed that there are some people who have an easier time speaking their mind than others of us? It seems to me to largely be a genetic thing. You don't have to raise your hands, but how many of you have had kids who were born to talk? They'll talk even if there's no one around to listen to them. It seems to cause them pain to have an unexpressed thought. No one has to encourage them to speak their mind.
In November of 2009 Sarah Palin published her first book under the title "Going Rogue: An American Life." Sarah Palin, as we all know, was John McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential election that was won by Barack Obama. She took the title of her book from some comments allegedly made by some McCain handlers sometime after the election to the effect that on occasion Palin "went rogue" in her speeches and strayed from the formerly agreed-upon party line. The phrase was meant, allegedly, as a criticism, but Palin wore it as a badge of honor.
Those who are fans of the TV show "Glee" can tell you that the 19th episode of the series, which first aired on May 18, 2010, was called "Dream On." The episode got its name from a song by the same name written by the rock band Aerosmith in 1973, a song that was selected by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped America. In the episode Neil Patrick Harris guest stars as a cynical former member of a high school glee club whose dreams of one day becoming a musical star have long since been crushed. He takes it on himself to try to convince the gang at "Glee" that they should give up their dreams, because dreams never come true. But the director of the Glee Club, Will Shuster, joins Neil Patrick Harris in a performance of the song "Dream On" and encourages his old high school friend to, in the words of the song, "dream until the dream comes true."
The first job I ever had was to mow lawns. From about fifth grade through high school I had six or seven lawns in our neighborhood in the suburbs of Minneapolis that I was paid to mow and keep up. Most of the lawns in our neighborhood were fairly large, roughly from a third of an acre to half an acre, so they were pretty big jobs for me, especially when I first started out. But even in fifth grade I knew exactly what was involved in taking care of a lawn. I knew how to use and take care of a lawn mower. I knew how to edge a lawn. I knew how to control weeds. I knew how to trim a tree. And I knew all of that even though I never took a class and never read a book on lawn care.