Sermon text: Acts 9:1-9

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This morning we are going to talk about one of the most radical and perhaps important transformations in the history of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the conversion of Paul to Christianity.  Paul wrote 13 of the 27 books that we have in our New Testament.  Paul was God’s chief instrument in delivering the story of Jesus Christ to the non-Jewish world.  He went all over telling people about Jesus.  Much of what we know about the early church and what they believed came from Paul's understanding of Jesus and the events surrounding his life, death and resurrection.

Sermon text: 1 Samuel 17:1-51

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It is always a humbling task to give a sermon on a story that everyone has heard so many times.  Even non-Christians and the average person in our world – if we were to ask about Bible stories that they know would name this story of a small shepherd boy, David and the enormous giant of a man, Goliath.

What is it about this story that so captivates us as people and draws us in?  It is not exactly a pleasant story.  Goliath gets his head cut off at the end . . . it is about war, but we love the story because it is about an underdog that prevails.

It is the same reason that we got really excited about Butler in the NCAA basketball tournament earlier this year.  It was reported that Duke spends $394,068 per player on their basketball roster.  Butler spends $347,108 on the entire team.  Duke’s coach had 76 NCAA tournament victories.  Butler’s coach was mistaken for a player buy Lucas Oil Stadium security before the championship game.  Duke had 6 McDonald’s All-Americans and Butler had a bunch of guys from Indiana.

The story line was fantastic and anyone that did not have pre-existing loyalties rooted for Butler because we like underdogs.  And we like underdogs because there is a part of us all that believe we are underdogs at something.  Perhaps no one thought we would amount to much.  Maybe we are from a small town or didn’t do well in school.  Maybe we have had a lot of tragedy in our life.  For whatever reason when we hear stories of underdogs prevailing, it gives us hope that we can too.

Sermon Text: Luke 21:25-38

Sermon text: Romans 16:17-20

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Wow! What a busy week. Friday was a real pain because I got stranded in London. You probably saw the email . . . Thanks for all your help via Western Union.

Let me give you a real quick update on where we are at in this series. We have been going through the various “acts of the sinful nature” in Galatians 5. We only have a few weeks left. This Sunday we are talking about “dissensions” . . . next week Todd will be giving the sermon on “factions,” then I will be doing “addictions” on the 8^th, then on the 15^th Dave Timmerman will finish the series with a sermon I know you have all been waiting for on “orgies.”

I was having lunch with someone from Riverside this week and we were talking about the sermon series and the Timmerman's last Sunday, which is the 15^th. And the waitress was listening to us. I said that Dave was giving the sermon on the 15^th, but that I had not pointed out yet to him what the last sin in the “acts of the sinful nature” was. When I said “orgies,” the waitress’s eyes got really big. Then I told her that she should come and check it out. I am not sure, but I think she may have went into the back of the restaurant and called the police.

I am not sure if Dave will call the sermon, “orgies.” In all seriousness, though the word is translated as “orgies” in the NIV and probably includes what immediately comes to mind, but it also includes all forms of disfunctional, abusive and perverted community. That, I imagine is what Dave will focus on.

This week we are discussing dissensions in the Christian community.