Tag: Pregnancy

Habakkuk: Choose Trust | 6-2-2024

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Updated: 11/8/2024

Sermon Prep

Life was so exciting in early June. My wife Glory was over 20 weeks pregnant with our daughter. I was flourishing at my new job I got back in December. Reunion Church was growing deeper roots via discipleship and fellowship with one another. It was a good time for us.

As one might expect when teaching through a book on wrestling and embracing lament, our congregation was ready to move onto our next series. It was going to be a character study on the life of King David, so pretty much everyone was excited about what was next. With that in mind, it was put on me to wrap up our series in Habakkuk so that we could move onto the new series.

But there was a lot of ground to cover and I wasn’t planning on combining what we at first planned to be 2 separate sermons in one. That being Habakkuk 2:2-20 and Habakkuk 3:1-19 respectively. Not the craziest amount of text to cover, but not the original plan during my prep either.

Then again, to teach requires one to be flexible like bamboo and not like glass. Most of the time, I’m as flexible as a pane of glass. Regardless, here’s the notes:

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

  • Do you trust me? Well, I don’t trust you.
    • I trust you with most things, yet not everything.

Intro

  • Andrew’s marriage and parenting advice vs his driving and movie taste.

Transition To Main Point

  • Likewise, we choose when we trust God too.

Main Point

  • God loves this world more than you do and knows what’s best for you, so choose to trust him.
  • Habakkuk 2:2-20 | God’s Response
    • Distrust leads to disorder.
      • Read Romans 1:16-25.
    • “God uses evil people to judge evil people.” – Clay Jones
      • See Genesis 50:20.
    • Every nation tailer-makes a god for itself.
      • Read Jeremiah 10:8-10.
  • Habakkuk 3:1-19 | Habakkuk’s Psalm
    • Shigionoth = a highly emotional poetic form.
    • After choosing to trust God, he sings a vow of praise.
    • “Even though I don’t know where God is, God knows where I am.” – Timothy Keller

Why This Matters

  • A promise is the assurance that someone will do something or that something will happen.
  • God promises to bring justice, defeat sin, and rescue the oppressed.

Power Text

  • Some of you don’t believe what I just said.
    • Your lament isn’t there yet and that’s ok.
  • Remember, lament is a prayer of pain that leads to trust. A spiritual journey can’t be rushed.
  • Stages of Lament:
    • Turn to God.
    • Brings complaints.
    • Ask boldly.
    • Choose trust.
    • Vow of praise.
  • Lament is dangerous because it tests all things.
  • Then again, a life guided by grace isn’t safe.
  • As C. S. Lewis puts it, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king.”

Final Thoughts

This was a solid message and a good end to this short series. Even though I’m not the teaching pastor, but an associate pastor I will occasionally for one reason or another teach the majority of a series. This was one of those cases along with our 2023 series through Luke.

Life just happens and the teaching schedule we have internally will reflect that too. Didn’t bother me though since I thought this one turned out quite well. Also, fun fact: this was my last hand-written sermon before moving to digital. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

2 Timothy: Avoid Deception, Embrace Completion | 4-21-2024

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Updated: 11/8/2024

Sermon Prep

So unlike the majority of sermons I’ve uploaded onto the blog here, this one was never preached by me. In fact, the teaching pastor of our church shared this message last minute instead for me. God had other plans this Sunday.

On this Sunday morning, my wife Glory woke up and had a lot of blood like more than a period. When you’re pregnant 15 weeks that means one of two things: a miscarriage or a UTI. It could be other things certainly, but we’re not medical experts so for us that’s what we assumed in the moment.

Our urgent care opened at 8am that morning, so we rushed to go there and figure out what the hell was going on. We were both in a huge panic that day and I was emotionally distraught. I was so angry with God that we got our hopes up to be parents and then he ripped our child away before we could ever meet her.

Before we left to the hospital, I quickly typed up my handwritten notes so that Andrew the teaching pastor could preach using them to cover for me. I would’ve loved to preach this sermon since I had a large focus on my relationship with my Dad, but God’s will won out. Here’s the notes for the untaugt message:

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

  • My Dad is built different.
    • Knows deception, yet fell in love with truth.

Intro

  • The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
    • Latter-Day Saint summers meeting with missionaries.
    • Ministry verse = 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22

Transition To Main Point

  • Like my Dad with me, Paul encourages Timothy in the same way.

Main Point

  • Avoid deception, embrace completion.
    • Let’s read how Paul does just that.
  • 2 Timothy 3:10-13 | Persecution vs Deception
    • Paul alludes to the past to remind Timothy.
      • See Acts 11:19-16:13 (reference only).
    • Persecution is a reality, not a fantasy.
      • Definition: Hostility towards a type of people.
    • Deception is easy to allow and hard to avoid.
      • We would rather be deceived by comfortable lies than confronted by unpleasant truths.
  • 2 Timothy 3:14-17 | The Sacred Scriptures
    • Paul encourages Timothy to pursue completion.
      • See Philippians 1:6 and Colossians 2:9-10 (read 1 passage aloud).
    • God and his scripture guides us to completion.
    • We need to trust Jesus through the spiritual journey into completion and escape the deception that we know better than God.
  • 2 Timothy 4:1-5 | Timothy’s Great Commission
    • Paul demands Timothy to stay committed.
      • See 1 Corinthians 15:58 (read passage aloud).
    • We love self-deception more than finding completion in God. We like to be fooled.
    • We need to avoid deception, embrace completion.

Why This Matters

  • Everyone wants a purpose in life, yet no one wants the painful path to get there.
    • See Matthew 7:13-14 (read passage aloud).
  • Following Jesus on the spiritual journey and finding life’s purpose is difficult.
  • Are you on the narrow road or the wide road? Where are you on the spiritual journey?

Final Thoughts

When we got to the hospital we were scrambling to get someone to see us. Glory and I really thought this was it. She had a miscarriage and we lost our baby, but God was doing a work in my heart that morning.

As we were waiting for results from tests for hours and I mean hours, I was wrestling in my heart with God. Hating him for taking our daughter, yet God pressed me and made me consider if I had made our unborn daughter an idol above him. Was she my god? Did I value her above everything else and the answer was yes I did.

It was a revelation that I needed and I apologized to God for elevating someone above him. I recentered and had to humble myself before God for my idolatry. Trusting that God will make all things good and that he is good, whether or not our daughter is born. My faith matured in a big way that day.

After nearly 7 hours at the hospital we were discharged and everything worked out, even though we never found out what happened to Glory. Our daughter was okay and healthy, Glory was healthy as well, along with me having a newfound trust in God’s goodness. Through life’s highs and lows, God is good and is the constant we can all completely rely on through it all. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

1 Timothy: Timothy’s Commission | 2-25-2024

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Updated: 11/7/2024

Sermon Prep

As you probably perceived from the picture, my wife and I’s life changed for the better forever. On February 12th, it was an early Monday morning before work. We were just getting started with the day and rolling out of bed. Within minutes of waking up, my wife took a pregnancy test and for the first time it was positive.

For context, we weren’t trying to have kids yet but also weren’t not trying either if you catch my drift. For several weeks now, Glory had been taking pregnancy tests to see if she was pregnant. She was understandably anxious since it would be our first and we didn’t even have a home. We were just living with her parents temporarily and of course she gets pregnant. Sometimes, God’s just funny that way in how he times things like this giant change in life for us.

Going back to that first Monday, we wanted to be super sure that this wasn’t a faulty test so I scrambled to Walgreens in my pajamas to buy a few more tests. When I got back, she immediately tested a second time and it was positive again. To be absolutely certain she even took one just a few days later too! It was undeniable. God had blessed us with a baby and we were incredibly excited.

The thought of becoming parents was something we also dreamed about and wanted, so to see it be a reality was surreal. With all that being said, we wanted to wait until after the week 12 appointment before telling people the great news. So in the meantime, we maneuvered a lot of awkward conversations trying not to spill the beans for a few weeks.

Outside of that gigantic life-change, this sermon prep was good. Wasn’t stressed trying to perfect it and actually it was a nice escape from the craziness of realizing I’m a dad now. Anyways, here’s the notes:

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

  • I love watching Caleb Hammer and Dave Ramsey.
    • Live like no one else, so that you can live and give like no one else.

Intro

  • This financial principle applies to your faith.

Transition To Main Point

  • Faith is an investment into life and eternity.

Main Point

  • Financial wealth impacts today, yet a faith rich in good works is a treasure that impacts eternity.
    • Let’s read about how faith in Jesus is truly life.
  • 1 Timothy 6:11-16 | To Timothy
    • Flee these things (1 Timothy 6:3-5, 9-10), then follow.
      • Obtain conduct, compassion; character.
    • Remain committed to the churches of Ephesus.
    • Our God is above all and over all gods.
      • See 1 Timothy 1:17.
  • 1 Timothy 6:17-19 | To Riches
    • Our hope is in the Messiah, not money.
      • Haughty = arrogant; disdainful
    • We as Americans are rich, so we need to:
      • Do good.
      • Be rich in good works.
      • Be generous.
      • Ready to share.
    • What is truly life?
      • To care, love, and provide for others just as God does the same for us.
  • 1 Timothy 6:20-21 | To End
    • Paul entrusted Timothy with the Gospel.
      • Discipleship is the investment deposit.
    • Avoid lies and nonsense of these bad ideas.
      • Paul is mocking the “knowledge” he’s heard.
    • People will get thrown off course.

Why This Matters

  • In the end, life is truly about relationships.
    • Both Jesus and people.
  • Read Matthew 25:14-30
    • There’s 2 types of people: savers and investors.
  • Will you save yourself out of fear or faithfully invest into people’s lives and impact eternity?

Final Thoughts

This was a run-of-the-mill sermon. Right in the middle I’d say quality-wise. Not terrible and not fantastic, but just a fine message.

I remember the audience interaction was super fun like when they finished my Dave Ramsey quote which was cool. For obvious reasons, I didn’t think too much about the reception afterwards. I was riding on cloud 9 filled with joy in February of 2024.

I’ll never forget how I felt the day we found out the news. Sharing this beautiful secret with my Glory was so special. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.