Sermons – Kemptville Christian Reformed Church

Christmas: Yes, But…. Do I Fear Christ?

Welcome to the second in our pre-Christmas teaching series at Kemptville Christian Reformed Church. We’re using this time to try and push aside some of the clutter and jumble that can easily mess with our minds and hearts and get in the way of a true celebration of Jesus’ birth.

Hence the title – Christmas: Yes, but….
The stuff of the season is all well and good. However, does it crowd out Jesus?
We’re just wondering.
Luke 2:7 tells us that Jesus was born in a stable because the hubbub of that particular season in downtown Bethlehem had squeezed his family to the margins.
We don’t want Jesus squeezed to the margins of the season as we celebrate.

RIGHT?

This week’s session is: “Christmas: Yes, but…. Do I FEAR him?”
We’re exploring the teaching of Mark 9:1-10

Go ahead and find a bible, either print version or online or app.
Then download the podcast and the study guide.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Christmas: Yes, but… do I FEAR him?

And here’s the study guide:

Christmas: Yes, but… do I FEAR him? – The Study Guide

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”

We’d also love to have you join us live for worship.
We gather each Sunday at 10am.
Don’t worry about getting all gussied up. Just come as you are – we’re a church full of imperfect people.
And we’d be glad to have other imperfect people, like you, along for the ride!

Christmas: Yes, but… do I KNOW him?

Hey, all – as if you didn’t know – the freight train of busyness called “The Holiday Season” is coming at us fast and hard. And everyone’s calendar will fill up to overflowing. Peace? Yeah, hardly. Filled season and stress? Maybe that’s more like it.

Which begs the seasonal question – so how much room is there in this season, and in our lives, to get more connected with the person whose birthday we celebrate? Luke 2:7 tells us that Jesus was born in a stable because the hubbub of that particular season in downtown Bethlehem had squeezed his family to the margins.

So, we don’t want to rag on anyone for hosting a party or buying gifts.
No getting all “Grinchy” at KCRC.
Our hearts are NOT three sizes too small.

But we are wondering – Christmas (and think here all the hoopla and stuff of December), it’s all good and everything.
BUT…. what might we be missing in the process? How does all this affect (or not) our connection to the Christ of Christ-mas?

Welcome to the Pre-Christmas teaching series here at Kemptville Christian Reformed Church.
Where you are invited to join us in doing some digging into our festive celebrations and their spiritual health (or not).

This week’s session: “Christmas: Yes, but…. Do I KNOW him?”
We’re exploring the teaching of Philippians 3:1-11.

Go ahead and find a bible, either print version or online or app.
Then download the podcast and the study guide.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Christmas: Yes, but… do I KNOW him?

And here’s the study guide:

Christmas: Yes, but… do I KNOW him? – The Study Guide

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”

Sharing The Faith: Translation

Being a follower of Jesus, his lifelong apprentice, is an all-consuming thing. And the longer you are on that path the more you discover that there’s a whole culture which grows up, in time, around that journey.
Which is NOT a bad thing. Not at all.
But it IS something to be very mindful of when it comes to sharing our faith in Jesus with others.

The question is – how much of the culture around us ought be factored into what and how we share Christ? Does the culture of the people whom we seek to reach matter? Or is that irrelevant?

And that question puts the wraps on our Fall teaching series at KCRC, “Sharing The Faith.” To figure out an appropriate answer to the question, we turned to one of history’s all-time Faith-Sharing experts, St. Paul. And draw from his experience of visiting Athens. Did he witness in that multi-cultural, religiously pluralistic society? Well, yes he did. So….. how?

Acts 17:16-34 provide the instruction.

Go ahead and find a bible, either print version or online or app.
Then download the podcast and the study guide.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Sharing The Faith: Translation

And here’s the study guide:

Sharing The Faith: Translation – The Study Guide

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”

Sharing The Faith: Appetizers

It’s REALLY easy to overthink things, especially when you REALLY want to do your best at something. And when that happens we easily make things too complicated or confusing.

Sharon and I witnessed that on a recent cooking competition we were watching on TV. One competitor took the required dish and stuffed WAY too much into it. It ended up a confusing mess. Too much going on with his plate.

It happens in cooking. It can happen pretty much anywhere. Including sharing your faith in Jesus. Sometimes you are better off serving just one “bite-sized” portion of good news instead of backing up a truck and unloading everything you’ve learned about the Kingdom of Heaven. Don’t force-feed them a whole banquet. Just offer them an appetizer. Often that goes down better and can be WAY more effective.

We’ll check in on Jesus as he follows this principle. And wonder what that all means for our lives.

Welcome to our Fall teaching series – SHARING THE FAITH.
This week’s installment digs into Luke 10:25-37.
Go ahead and find a bible, either print version or online or app.
Then download the podcast and the study guide.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Sharing The Faith: Appetizers

And here’s the study guide:

Sharing The Faith: Appetizers – The Study Guide

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”

Sharing The Faith: Motivation

Baseball Fans just enjoyed the pinnacle of their season – the World Series. Ever wonder what sets the players apart on that field from so many other wanna-be baseball players, who end up trapped in the minor leagues, or working day jobs and playing in the beer leagues?

Yes, skill is part of it. There’s the natural athletic ability that one is born with, or not. And then the hours upon hours of practice to hone that ability into a razor sharp skill.

Yet, one can remain in the minors even with all of that.

I was listening to an interview with a sports psychologist recently who fingered this as one of the key factors in athletic success – MOTIVATION.

If you don’t have a strong motivation, lighting a fire in your belly, you aren’t going to succeed.
Period.

That’s true for way more in life than just baseball.
At KCRC we’re working our way through a teaching series that explores why, how, when and with whom we want and need to be sharing our faith in Jesus. It’s called….. “Sharing The Faith” (creative, eh?).

This past Sunday we focused in on MOTIVATION – what lights the fire in our belly to want to share the love and story of Jesus with people that God puts on our life path?

You’re invited to share in the conversation. And hope that you can track with us for the whole series via podcast or live on Sundays.

Our Bible passage was 1 Peter 3:15, and Matthew 28:16-20.
Go ahead and find a bible, either print version or online or app.
Then download the podcast and the study guide.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Sharing The Faith: Motivation

And here’s the study guide:

Sharing The Faith: Motivation – The Study Guide

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”

Sharing The Faith: Attitudes

“Really?” So my friend said to me after going through a sales presentation by an individual. My friend was looking for a particular product, and had wondered if this was the one.

But the salesperson was….. well…… WOW. Not a good “wow.” More like, “Wow, what IS this person doing here? If she’s not excited about this thing, how am I supposed to be?
Her attitude came through in spades. And, no, there was no sale. Surprise.

Attitude – it DOES matter.
I attended an all-candidates meeting recently for the upcoming municipal election. And what interested me equally as much as the content of the various speeches was the attitude that each candidate brought to the table. ‘Cause that attitude will set the stage for what this individual will do when confronted by this or that novel issue in the next few years.

Attitude – That’s the thing we tackle in the first of KCRC’s Fall teaching series, Sharing The Faith.

Yes, we’ll get to thinking about what to say (or not) and when to say it (or not) and how. All that sort of good stuff.
But first – Attitude.
Because attitude shapes everything. It is like the rudder of the ship. How it is pointed affects everything else.

Our Bible passage was 1 Peter 3:8-16.
Go ahead and find a bible, either print version or online or app.
Then download the podcast and the study guide.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Sharing The Faith: Attitudes

And here’s the study guide:

Sharing The Faith: Attitudes – The Study Guide

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”

Meeting Jesus: In Our Riches

Not everything in life is simple.
As in – totally right, or totally wrong; totally healthy, or totally toxic; totally safe or totally dangerous.

Take cannabis, for example. I don’t have to line up the pro’s and con’s. You’ve all heard and read plenty by now, I’m sure. If not – ask. For the sake of informed conversations with your kids and grandkids.

Or – take wealth as another example. Not totally right, or totally wrong. Not totally safe, or totally dangerous. Do you know the pro’s and con’s? If not – this podcast is for you. We’re concluding the series MEETING JESUS by hearing him expose a potentially lethal side of wealth – eternally lethal. He teaches while right in the lion’s den, so to speak – surrounded by some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country.

We had a listen to Jesus on Thanksgiving weekend – a time when we revel in all the bounty that is at our disposal.
Indeed – let’s give thanks for the plenty we have….. and the plenty of good that can be done with it.
And yes – it’s a fine thing to enjoy what God places in our lap. To share a feast.

But keep the eyes wide open. And be on guard.
Because wealth is not all good and wonderful.
It’s powerful.
And – like fire – can be powerfully good, or powerfully destructive.

Our Bible passage was Luke 16:10-31.
You are invited to MEET JESUS with us.
Go ahead and find a bible, either print version or online or app.
Then download the podcast. Sorry, no study guide this week.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Meeting Jesus: In Our Riches

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”

Meeting Jesus: When We’re Confident

Familiarity breeds……
You know the saying, right?
And it’s SO true.

It’s really easy to begin to take safety shortcuts when we’ve been doing a risky task for years. They say that the people most at risk for injury on the job site are the newbies and the ol’ timers.

The newbs don’t know.
The others know perhaps too well.

Did you know that this same thing happens spiritually? Which is the point of Jesus’ teaching via a parable in Luke 18:9-14. We studied it on September 23 as the second last of our teaching series, MEETING JESUS. This sessions was titled, “WHEN WE ARE CONFIDENT.”

You’re invited to tag along – Download the podcast, as well as the study guide.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Meeting Jesus: When We’re Confident

And here’s the study guide..…..

Meeting Jesus: When We’re Confident – Study Notes

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”

Meeting Jesus: And Distracted

“I’m…… SO……. busy…..”

How often haven’t you heard that?
Or maybe even said it?

Three cheers for Google Calendar (or equivalent) – keeping our life organised. Otherwise things would be in chaos. Never keep all the commitments and to-do’s straight.

WHEW!!

Some people wear their busyness as a badge of honor.
Others use it as a sign of being a martyr for one cause or another.
But….
What does busyness do to us, anyway? Especially spiritually?

Jesus has some important things to say on this topic.
We get to mull them over as part of our series, MEETING JESUS.
This week – Meeting Jesus: And Distracted.

Our bible passage is Luke 10:38-42.
You’re invited to tag along – Download the podcast, as well as the study guide.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Meeting Jesus: And Distracted

And here’s the study guide..…..

Meeting Jesus: And Distracted – Study Notes

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”

Meeting Jesus: A Word About Stuff

They are springing up absolutely EVERYWHERE!
Storage units – rented by people because they’ve run out of room to store their stuff.
I’d say I’m different, but actually I’m in the process of putting up another outbuilding to “temporarily” store the overflow presently crammed into my machine shed.

STUFF – we’ve got so much.
Which may be good – or not.
Challenge is how much we obsess about it – how much of our life energy, time and attention does it grab?

This week, as we met Jesus – in LUKE 12:13-21 – he was dishing up some pretty “in your face” teaching (could we call it a “warning”?) about stuff. To somebody who, like us, has lots of it.
Now, I’m sure that we are NOTHING like that fellow. We face NONE of the challenges and temptations he did. We are MUCH stronger and better focused than he was.

Right?

On the off chance that maybe you’re in the vast majority that is more like him than any of us would care to admit, you’re invited to follow along in the latest segment of our summer teaching series, MEETING JESUS.

Download the podcast, as well as the study guide.
Screw up the courage, and join us in hearing Jesus’ word about STUFF.

And, please come back for the next two weeks as we complete the summer teaching series, Meeting Jesus.

Please note – those of you using a mobile device may have to set your browser to “desktop mode” to access the download button (a glitch with our site – sorry about that).

Here’s the podcast……..

Meeting Jesus: A Word About Stuff

And here’s the study guide..…..

Meeting Jesus: A Word About Stuff – Study Notes

As always, feel free to pass this stuff around. You can also find this, and other messages online at the KCRC website under the tab “Sermons And Stuff.”