Sermons on Family
My Dysfunctional Family
Following Jesus is both wonderful and hard. It’s hard because he leads us to confront aspects of ourselves that we don’t like and that we struggle to overcome. But it’s beautiful because he gives us the resources to overcome whatever’s holding us back. One thing we learn from the biblical Story is God’s patience as he works with his covenant people. We sometimes tend to idolize Abraham for his faith, but we might forget that he was an incredibly flawed…
Parenting With a Purpose: Shaping Your Child’s Heart
When you have children, you have ideas about what you want them to be like as they grow up. Depending on what’s important to you–or in some cases, unfulfilled dreams in your own life–you point them in certain directions. You might hope that they’ll be a gifted, dedicated athlete who gets a full ride to college. Or you want them to be brilliant academically, breezing through school with a perfect GPA and high test scores and the consequent college acceptance letters.…
Parenting With a Purpose: Obedience, Discipline, and Instruction
We’ve all witnessed a child’s atrocious behavior in a public place and thought critical thoughts about his parents’ lack of ability to “control their child.” And, to be honest, we’ve all probably been the parents of a child who publicly (and embarrassingly) acts as if she has never learned what “no” means (though we’ve taught her many, many times . . .). How do parents get their children to behave? How do we teach them to respect boundaries, control their…
What a Messed-Up Marriage Teaches Us About God’s Love for Us
You may know the story of Hosea and Gomer, but if not, it’s ugly. So ugly. God commands his prophet Hosea to marry Gomer, a woman who’s going to break his heart. And she starts cheating not long after the wedding. It was so bad that Hosea named their third child, “Not Mine.” But tomorrow we’ll focus on the beautiful part of the story . . . sacrifice and reconciliation. Gomer had chased after various lovers, and for some reason…
