Wow! That is the first word that comes to mind when I first looked ath Early Christian Writings. This web site had one goal – an online repository of “…all of the Christian writings that are believed to have been written in the first and second centuries, as well as a few selected from the early third.” That is a huge undertaking, but it looks like the web master has succeeded. Check it out. I found it while doing some research on a personal study of the Pastoral Epistles. Look for more on that later.

You can download an MP3 of my latest sermon entitled, “Serving God Can Be A Pain In the Side“. You will also find a link to my friend Rich Freeman’s message about the Christian’s responsibility to share Christ with our Jewish friends and family.

UPDATE: Sorry, but these sermons are no longer available.

You’ve probably read or seen or heard about the fury over comments by Pat Robertson. Remember him? He is the former Southern Baptist, turned charismatic TV ministry mogul, turned politician, who is very out spoken on many issues. Now he is talking about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez is not exactly a beloved and responsible member of the world community of leaders. But does he deserve a bullet in the head or a mickey in his morning OJ? Fortunately for Southern Baptists we have a President who speaks truth in love. The Biblical Recorder published Presidnet Bobby Welch’s comments made, I think, on Richard Land’s radio program “Voice of America.” Here here! Bobby.

My sister Kim got some pictures of one of the tornadoes that hit Wisconsin this week. They are in my gallery which you can find by clicking on the gallery link on the right or you can go here.

If you are a beginning pastor or have plenty of experience, but not much of a library, I found a great resource that lists some of the best books and study tools for pastors. It is at The Pastor’s Library. The list of links to other software sites might be one of the best parts of this site.

My latest message preached August 14, 2005 at Long Creek Church can be found (no longer available online – you can email me if you want to hear it.).
Note: The last illustration got cut off when our sound guy turned over the tape for recording. So, to understand what is going on with the girl who goes to Africa, read below. I found this illustration on the Internet and the text below is exactly as I found it.

Marion Mill was born in a fairy tale royal palace in Hungary. Her first spoon was solid gold. They sent her to school in Vienna where she became an actress, and there she met and fell in love with a young medical student named Otto.

In her autobiography called, All I Want is Everything Marion wrote: “Albert Schweitzer says there are two kinds of people. There are the helpers, and the non-helpers. I thank God He allowed me to become a helper, and in helping, I found everything.”

The last sermon of my three part sermon on the miracles of Matthew 8:1-17 will be delivered this Sunday at my church. As always, I am posting the outline here.

I begin with an attempt to grab attention and then go into the “need” for this sermon, which is basically the reason someone would want to hear it. In this case it is the fact that in our lives, we occasionally think we can run our own lives without need of God’s power. But sometimes, we need a reminder that God’s power is essential to get through our weak and painful lives.

Matthew 8:14-17 is the story of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus arrives in Peter’s home after attending synagogue on the Sabbath. He finds her sick with a fever. Jesus heals her and she immediately gets up and begins to serve Jesus. That evening many others are brought to Jesus and healed and cleansed of their ailments and demons. Finally, Matthew quotes Isaiah 53:4 which says that the Messiah, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, will bear our weaknesses and sickness. In other words, v. 1-16 proves that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah predicted in Isaiah 53.

The lessons of this story are as follows:

1. Our weakness shows Christ’s strength.
Without her sickness, and without the needs of the others (v. 16) Jesus would not have shown his power. For us, we must admit our weakness and our need for the power of Christ in us, in order to experience the power of Christ in our lives.

2. Christ’s strength makes us able.
Without Jesus healing, Peter’s mother-in-law would not have been able to serve Him. And it is unlikely that the others would have been healed. Her sickness led to the power of Christ being revealed and to the benefit of herself and the others.

3. Unless we are serving Christ, we are robbing God and others.
She served the Lord after she was healed. We too can do that. Eph. 2:8-10 calls for us to take our gift of grace and apply it in a life of service.

The appeal: If you are not serving God, then you are failing God. But under Christ’s power, we can overcome our weakness and sin to serve God in power and effectiveness.

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I have a feeling this is not my best work. But at this point it is what I have. If you have any suggestions for improvements or different way to go, leave a comment.

Many preachers will visit SermonCentral.com for a quick check of how others have treated the passage they are going to use in an upcoming sermon. I did this today and found something rare — a very good sermon listed on SermonCentral. The preacher’s name is Rev. Scotty Killingsworth and he is pastor of Evergreen Church. Don’t know much more about him. But I read a few of his other sermons and thought they were very good. Here is a link to all the sermons he has listed at this time.

Rev. Scotty Killingsworth

If you would like to listen to a Windows Media Audio file of my July 24th sermon entitled Heroes of Hardship, then click the link below. The file is over 7 MBs so it will take a while to download first.

Sermon: Kevin Purcell – Heroes of Hardship

I love the title. And the site is nice too. The Sheep’s Crib is the creation of Pastor J. A. Gillmartin, who is a Southern Baptist minister and a “charter member of the right wing conspiracy” as he says it. But what I like are the collections of free sermons, illustrations and devotionals.

Good stuff my brother!

Click here to find his page.