http://www.faithpres.org To Follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, be Filled with His Love, and share His Abundant Grace with our Communities Fri, 18 May 2012 02:53:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Sermons from Faith Presbyterian Church, Minnetonka, Minnesota Faith Church no Sermons from Faith Presbyterian Church, Minnetonka, Minnesota http://www.faithpres.org/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://www.faithpres.org/blog/category/sermons/ Copyright 2012, Faith Presbyterian Church. All rights reserved.Religion & Spirituality/ChristianityFaithChurchSermonshttp://feedburner.google.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/egEQHwEkK84/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/05/13/the-chief-cornerstone/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 16:15:12 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=21425 Written transcript to follow at a later date.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/egEQHwEkK84" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/05/13/the-chief-cornerstone/feed/ 0 Written transcript to follow at a later date. Written transcript to follow at a later date. Faith Church no 24:00 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/05/13/the-chief-cornerstone/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/y3dQogou0Ek/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/05/06/moving-mountains-out-of-our-lives/#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 16:15:18 +0000 Guest Speaker http://www.faithpres.org/?p=21398 Written transcript to follow at a later date.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/y3dQogou0Ek" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/05/06/moving-mountains-out-of-our-lives/feed/ 0 Written transcript to follow at a later date. Written transcript to follow at a later date. Faith Church no 25:18 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/05/06/moving-mountains-out-of-our-lives/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/NzaEwOKsE00/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/29/whats-in-your-hand/#comments Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:15:17 +0000 Guest Speaker http://www.faithpres.org/?p=21338 What is That in Your Hand? April 29, 2012 by Rev. Kendal Owen You are about to witness a miracle this morning. Pastor Buck Day, after I had agreed to speak, emailed me back and said, “Oh, by the way Kenny, twenty minutes. (laughter) We have a full agenda today.” I was going to email [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/NzaEwOKsE00" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/29/whats-in-your-hand/feed/ 0 What is That in Your Hand? April 29, 2012 by Rev. Kendal Owen You are about to witness a miracle this morning. Pastor Buck Day, after I had agreed to speak, emailed me back and said, “Oh, by the way Kenny, twenty minutes. What is That in Your Hand? April 29, 2012 by Rev. Kendal Owen You are about to witness a miracle this morning. Pastor Buck Day, after I had agreed to speak, emailed me back and said, “Oh, by the way Kenny, twenty minutes. (laughter) We have a full a... Faith Church no 27:12 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/29/whats-in-your-hand/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/hSaqn9-ydUE/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/15/little-bo-peep-church/#comments Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:15:20 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=21173 Little Bo Peep Church April 15, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Well, our Scripture today is a single verse and it comes from the book of John, from the 20th Chapter, so I invite you to follow along. (John 20:21) 21Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/hSaqn9-ydUE" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/15/little-bo-peep-church/feed/ 0 Little Bo Peep Church April 15, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Well, our Scripture today is a single verse and it comes from the book of John, from the 20th Chapter, so I invite you to follow along. (John 20:21) - 21Jesus said to them again, Little Bo Peep Church April 15, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Well, our Scripture today is a single verse and it comes from the book of John, from the 20th Chapter, so I invite you to follow along. (John 20:21) 21Jesus said to them again, ‘... Faith Church no 23:17 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/15/little-bo-peep-church/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/BkobSC6AGuw/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/08/a-distracted-resurrection-2/#comments Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:15:42 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=21170 A Distracted Resurrection April 8, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day As they were singing the song of the story of the Resurrection (“He’s Alive”), I am quick to the punch. I realized you know what? My Scripture follows that. And, in fact, it does. It is the story that continues right after what we [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/BkobSC6AGuw" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/08/a-distracted-resurrection-2/feed/ 0 A Distracted Resurrection April 8, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day As they were singing the song of the story of the Resurrection (“He’s Alive”), I am quick to the punch. I realized you know what? My Scripture follows that. And, in fact, it does. A Distracted Resurrection April 8, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day As they were singing the song of the story of the Resurrection (“He’s Alive”), I am quick to the punch. I realized you know what? My Scripture follows that. And, in fact, it does. It is the story that continues right after what we heard being sung about. It is from Luke, Chapter 24, so let’s continue what we just heard and sung in written word as we continue with the story. (Luke 24: 13-35) 13 Now on that same day (that they just sang about) two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. 18Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’ 19He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’ 25Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ 27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. 30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ 33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. Very interesting. Would you pray with me, please? Lord thank you that you have made yourself known to us, that in your resurrection you did not simply just return to heaven but you have called us to live for you in this world and point to you with all that we do. May we do that this day even as you open the Scriptures to us, we ask it in your name. Amen. How many of you drove to church today? Maybe the better question is how many of you walked? There might be a couple; but if you drove today, as you were in the car, were you talking to anybody else in the car as you were driving along? Maybe putting on makeup because you were running a little bit late? Let’s be honest here. You know, “confession is good for the soul,” it says. How about maybe eating a little something, you know, you were a little late, had a little snack on the way in? Maybe you turned on the radio, Faith Church no 21:45 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/08/a-distracted-resurrection-2/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/du36EHSTFDE/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/01/people-of-the-cross/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:15:37 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=20897 People of the Cross April 1, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Well our Scripture today is just one verse and it is going to be our launching point for our discussion today. It comes from the book of 1 Corinthians, 1st Chapter and the 18th verse. I invite you to follow along. 18 For the [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/du36EHSTFDE" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/01/people-of-the-cross/feed/ 0 People of the Cross April 1, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Well our Scripture today is just one verse and it is going to be our launching point for our discussion today. It comes from the book of 1 Corinthians, 1st Chapter and the 18th verse. People of the Cross April 1, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Well our Scripture today is just one verse and it is going to be our launching point for our discussion today. It comes from the book of 1 Corinthians, 1st Chapter and the 18th verse. I invite you to follow along. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. May God bless the reading of his word this day! Would you join me in prayer? Lord God, thank you that we have this opportunity to come into your presence and to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. So Lord, we want to give ourselves fully to you today; and Lord, as we do, we ask that your Spirit would speak to our hearts and our minds around what you have for us today. We ask that because of our risen King, Jesus. Amen. Well one of the dreams of companies these days is to come up with a logo that gets indelibly fixed into people’s minds. A logo or symbol, maybe it is even a phrase, that will help us associate a product with that company. Maybe it has a little bit of heart appeal to it as well, so that when we see that logo, or whatever it might be, we want to buy whatever it is that that company is selling. One of the best known logos that is out there is this one right here. (Logo on screen) Do you know what it is called? That’s right! It is a “swoosh”—or maybe the “Nike swoosh.” Does anyone know what a swoosh is? That is it right there, exactly (pointing to the Nike logo on the screen). We all know that. It is the sign of a winner. It is the sign of victory. In fact, the word “Nike” actually came from a word in Jesus’ day that meant “to win” or “victor.” So when we see this, we associate it with winners, don’t we? The hope for Nike, as well as all marketers, is that when people see this logo they want to be associated with what this logo represents. So if that is the case, what kind of logo has been associated with Christianity? It is the cross, isn’t it? It is the cross; that is what comes to mind. For over two thousand years the cross has represented our faith. An instrument of death has become our corporate logo. Hmmm… We see it in stores; people wear them all the time. You can walk into any jewelry store and find a cross. Yet we forget the shock. We forget the horror of what it really stood for. It didn’t stand for a winner. It stood for death. It was the sign of ultimate loss. The cross is not a status symbol, friends; it is the ultimate expression of humiliation. I think one of the most profound mysteries of the Christian faith is that the God of the universe, the God who holds all wealth, who holds all power, would choose as his essential expression of his heart, of his love and of his character to be shown in the cross. So this morning I want us to take some time to focus in on this idea of the cross; how it stands at the center of our Christian faith; and so that we might understand the pain of the cross and what Jesus suffered and we might understand the power of the cross and the difference it makes in our lives. And then maybe to understand what does it mean to be people of the cross? What is Jesus asking us to do as his followers? I want us to focus into this because we are entering into Holy Week. We are going to come back here in a week and we are going to celebrate Easter and it is going to be a fantastic time. But we have to remember there would be no Easter if it wasn’t for the cross. So maybe let’s start with a little bit of history on the idea of the crucifixion so that we understand the context of the cross a little better. In the ancient world, Romans and all the folks that were like them were pretty good at executing people. They knew how to do it because they did it a lot. They knew how to execute people very swiftly either by stoning or by burning them. They knew how to do it cheaply, as well. One stroke of the sword, and they did that a lot. Faith Church no 24:22 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/04/01/people-of-the-cross/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/Uquk9eRl_Cc/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/25/god-wrestlers/#comments Sun, 25 Mar 2012 16:15:01 +0000 Guest Speaker http://www.faithpres.org/?p=20844 The God Wrestlers March 25, 2012 by David Stewart I miss you. I tell you what. It was hard to leave and I am really glad to be back. So, thank you for the warm welcome. I want to start with a reading of the Scripture, then we will pray and then we will “get [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/Uquk9eRl_Cc" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/25/god-wrestlers/feed/ 0 The God Wrestlers March 25, 2012 by David Stewart I miss you. I tell you what. It was hard to leave and I am really glad to be back. So, thank you for the warm welcome. I want to start with a reading of the Scripture, The God Wrestlers March 25, 2012 by David Stewart I miss you. I tell you what. It was hard to leave and I am really glad to be back. So, thank you for the warm welcome. I want to start with a reading of the Scripture, then we will pray and then we w... Faith Church no 24:13 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/25/god-wrestlers/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/PiTopvvZ-iI/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/18/a-second-touch/#comments Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:15:13 +0000 Guest Speaker http://www.faithpres.org/?p=20765 A Second Touch March 18, 2012 by Rev. Kendal Owens Cathy, you have done that before. It is nice to hear a trained professional voice. That song (“It is Well with My Soul”) has a special meaning to me. I had an uncle, his name was Aeronwen. He lived in a very remote village in [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/PiTopvvZ-iI" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/18/a-second-touch/feed/ 0 A Second Touch March 18, 2012 by Rev. Kendal Owens Cathy, you have done that before. It is nice to hear a trained professional voice. That song (“It is Well with My Soul”) has a special meaning to me. I had an uncle, his name was Aeronwen. A Second Touch March 18, 2012 by Rev. Kendal Owens Cathy, you have done that before. It is nice to hear a trained professional voice. That song (“It is Well with My Soul”) has a special meaning to me. I had an uncle, his name was Aeronwen. He lived in a very remote village in Wales. He had a trained voice and he used to sing, occasionally, on the BBC, which was a fledgling corporation at the time, the British Broadcasting System. He traveled down to Cardiff, the capital in Wales, to sing on the radio. But one day he was involved in a motorcycle accident and the village was so remote there were no doctors. They sent for a doctor in a village on the other side of the mountain; brought him home, laid him out on the kitchen table; and, before he died, he sat up, in that rallying effort that sometimes people who are just about to die experience, he sang all four verses of “It is Well With My Soul,” laid down and died. A great way to go out! Turn with me if you have your Bibles or you can follow along to Mark, Chapter 8, verses 22 – 25. The Scripture says, speaking of Jesus: 22 Then He came to Bethsaida; and they (that is a crowd) brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.23 So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. (Note that.) And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. 24 And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.” 25 Then He (that is Jesus) put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Our story takes place in a town that is nestled on the eastern side of the Jordan River. You know the Jordan River runs north to south in Israel. The first big body of water that it runs into is the Sea of Galilee, and right where it runs into the Sea of Galilee is a town called Bethsaida. You see “Beth” a lot in the Bible. Bethel, house of God. Bethsaida is “house of the fish.” It was a fishing town. That is where our story takes place. Jesus was passing by. Now this is a unique passage of Scripture. Number one because this particular story is only mentioned in Mark, the only place you will see it. It is not in the other synoptics. And it is unique because in this story it is the only recorded healing where Jesus touched a man two times before he was healed. Usually Jesus spoke or touched a man once, or a woman once, or they touched him and they were healed. But in this case the man didn’t receive total healing the first time Jesus touched him. His healing came in stages. Sometimes that happened. When Jesus also spit on the ground to make clay and touched the man eyes in a different story, he told a man to go to the pool at Siloam to rinse his eyes and he would be healed; and that is what happened. There was a two stage healing there but it didn’t require Jesus touching him twice. You would have thought if Jesus touched a man once it would suffice. But Jesus touched him again. In case you are wondering, by the way, parenthetically, what saliva has to do with healing? In that culture, many people thought that saliva had therapeutic and curative value. There was an elite group of Pharisees and Sadducees that did not believe that. They thought that saliva was impure. Jesus obviously aligned his sentiments with the crowd and not the religious belief. So he took a position just for the sake of playing politics, actually. But saliva had curative value. He also, by mixing the saliva with dirt, made clay. And, of course, when he recreated eyesight for a man that had no eyesight what he was really saying was “I am doing what God did in Genesis. I am making a man complete out of clay, out of the dust of the earth.” In other words he was indirectly saying, “I am divine. I am God,” without overtly saying it. Do you understand? O.K. Now I noted these people brought the blind man. There is no indication that he was begging to be brought. “They brought him,” the Scripture says, Faith Church no 41:17 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/18/a-second-touch/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/alAvfgqN3uE/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/11/will-the-real-church-please-stand-up/#comments Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:15:09 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=20737 Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? March 11, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day I want to turn to our Scripture. It is from the end of Matthew, starting at the 18th verse of the 28th Chapter and I invite you to follow along with me. (Matthew 28:18-20) 18And Jesus came and said to [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/alAvfgqN3uE" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/11/will-the-real-church-please-stand-up/feed/ 0 Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? March 11, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day I want to turn to our Scripture. It is from the end of Matthew, starting at the 18th verse of the 28th Chapter and I invite you to follow along with me. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? March 11, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day I want to turn to our Scripture. It is from the end of Matthew, starting at the 18th verse of the 28th Chapter and I invite you to follow along with me. (Matthew 28:18-20) 18And Jesus came and said to them (them being the disciples), ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ God’s words for us this day. Would you join me once again? Let’s ask God’s blessing over this message. Lord God, thank you and Lord we do ask that your Spirit would speak through this pastor who seeks to be faithful to you. Lord let your Spirit flow that you might speak to our hearts. We ask it in your name. Amen. Well, every summer we gather students and adults up here and we commission them as we send them out on short-term summer mission trips. We send them out to do God’s work and we send them out to be God’s witnesses. What we are doing is we are setting them apart for God’s work. We are setting them apart just as if we had a missionary from our church that we were sending permanently on a full-time basis to serve in another part of the world. We are doing the same thing with that. In our text today, Jesus’ words to his disciples are also a commission. Jesus is coming full circle with these commands because that is what they are. These commands were given on a mountain and if that rings a bell, he started his ministry giving some commands on a mountain that we call the Sermon on the Mount. Well now this is the last command that he gives his disciples and once again he is on a mountain and he is giving them the command that we call the Great Commission. All of us are being sent into the world. When we walk out this door, we are being sent in Christ’s name to be witnesses in this world. And we are looking at, well, what is this thing called the Church of Jesus Christ? What is it all about? If we are wondering what the Church is, this is a great place to start because we can start with this understanding that we have been commissioned by Jesus himself to be sent into the world. So we can say right out of the gate that the Church of Jesus Christ is to be a sending organization. That is one of the reasons why I like our missions committee—we no longer call it that, have you noticed that? We call it the Beyond Us Team. That is why we call it that because we want to be serving beyond us right here. What goes on here is good and important, and we will talk about that in a second; but we need to go beyond this, beyond us. So it is a great name for it and I am very happy that they chose to do that. Well one commentator as they were talking about this Great Commission, he said, “The Great Commission is always directed outward. The Church must never denigrate into a comfortable club for the like-minded.” So Jesus’ words to us right here at the very beginning are to “go”. First and foremost we are to go. As we go we go, not alone, but we go under the authority of Jesus himself who has authority over heaven and earth. But we not only go with the authority of Jesus, we go in the power of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is within us. That gives us confidence as we go, as we go to bring that gospel of God that we talked about last week to the world. We go also because we have faith in Christ’s resurrection. We go because we believe that Jesus rose from the dead. That is one of the reasons why we go because if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then we have no reason to go. There is nothing for us to share with the world and the apostle Paul then says that we among all people are the most to be pitied if Jesus, in fact, did not rise from the dead. Faith Church no 29:10 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/11/will-the-real-church-please-stand-up/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/Uia4ut_s43U/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/04/i-am-not-ashamed-of-the-gospel/#comments Sun, 04 Mar 2012 16:15:02 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=20567 I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel March 4, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Almighty God, we worship you with all of our hearts, all of our minds and all of our souls. We come before you today to give praise unto you; and, Lord, we ask now that your Holy Spirit would come, [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/Uia4ut_s43U" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/04/i-am-not-ashamed-of-the-gospel/feed/ 0 I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel March 4, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Almighty God, we worship you with all of our hearts, all of our minds and all of our souls. We come before you today to give praise unto you; and, Lord, I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel March 4, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Almighty God, we worship you with all of our hearts, all of our minds and all of our souls. We come before you today to give praise unto you; and, Lord, we ask now that your Hol... Faith Church no 24:47 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2012/03/04/i-am-not-ashamed-of-the-gospel/ Copyright 2012, Faith Presbyterian Church. All rights reserved.Faith ChurchnonadultSermons from Faith Presbyterian Church, Minnetonka, Minnesota