Sermons on Become Defiled:

Rebekah A Marvelous Mate And Mother Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 19, 2021

In almost every Mother's Day sermon I have ever preached one of the qualities that most stands out in the great mothers of the Bible is that they were first of all loving and loyal wives.

Annie Taylor was the first person to ever go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and lived to tell about it. That was in 1901. In 1932 Pearl S. Buck was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in literature. In 1979 Susan B. Anthony became the first woman to ever appear on a United States coin. There ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 27:1-29

Paul's Paradoxical Personality Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 19, 2021

Paul took seriously the obviously impossible goal of being all things to all men. The result is, he had the potential for pleasing everybody, but also for aggravating everybody ,and Paul was quite good at both.

A lion, a fox, an a hyena were moving through the jungle collecting their dinner. When they were done they had gotten a large pile of animals. The lion said to the hyena, "Why don't you go over and divide the pile into three equal parts." The hungry hyena said, "Sure." He ...read more

Scripture: Acts 21:17-26

A Perplexing Parable Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 26, 2021

Jesus is saying to His disciples that they can learn from non-Christian dedication, even the dedication of crooks. Look at the world and learn something from their commitment to their evil goals.

Have you ever heard or read of such a unique and perfectly planned crime that you said to yourself, "That was really clever"? For example, was it not amazing that that group of men in England could steal millions of dollars without firing a shot? We have to admit it was a bad thing well ...read more

Scripture: Luke 16:1-15

The Beginning Of The Gospel Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 27, 2021

Mark is the only one who tells us that our Savior was a carpenter. Mark tells us more about our Lord's emotions than the other Gospels. He brings Jesus closer to us as a man of like feelings.

The painter Lundwig Richter, tells in his memoirs of how he and three friends set out to paint the same landscape. They each were committed to produce as accurately as possible what they saw. Nevertheless, the result was four different pictures, as different as the four personalities of the ...read more

Scripture: Mark 1:1-8

How We Know What Love Is Series

Contributed by Sherm Nichols on Mar 30, 2021

A look at 1 John 3:16 as a way to understand love better and what that implies for the way we live

Throughout your body are millions of blood vessels - veins that carry blood to the heart, and arteries that carry blood from the heart. If you took all of them from an adult and laid them end-to-end, with capillaries it would be around 100,000 miles long - enough to circle the earth 4X. Blood is ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 3:16

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

All Those Who Wander Are Not Lost: A Study In Nothingness

Contributed by Justin Steckbauer on Mar 30, 2021

Much of my early life was lived by such reverberations. I don't want to bash it. It had it's appeals. No burdens, no responsibilities. Just drift about. Ironically enough I live in a similar way today at times. I'm in the arms of God. I have no idea what will happen today.

"When Monday comes I want nothing Come Tuesday morning I want the same The days and nights fly by Looking to embrace the nothing of the everyday...." -Yo La Tengo, "Everyday" from the album: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. Much of my early life was lived by such ...read more

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:2-9

Denomination: Salvation Army

If It’s Ok, Is It Ok? Series

Contributed by Sherm Nichols on Mar 31, 2021

Marijuana. Yes, this is a message prompted by the legalization of recreational marijuana use in our state. How should a believer approach this?

Question to be asked: OK, now that marijuana has been legalized, is there anything wrong with using it? Intro: I’m driving up Perryville. There, on the right-hand side, there’s a line of people standing out in the cold. I’ve noticed them there since very early on this year, nearly every day. ...read more

Scripture: Romans 12:2, 1 Peter 1:13, 1 Peter 5:8, 1 Corinthians 16:13

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Joyful Saints Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 1, 2021

A saint is not determined by what they are, but by where they are. If they are in Christ, that is the bottom line. The degree of holiness varies tremendously, but all who are in Christ are equally saints.

Roger Fredricksen, a well-known pastor in my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, wrote a book titled God Loves The Dandelions. In it he tells of how he and his wife Ruth were at a small cabin on the lake in Minnesota. They had just finished reading the book of Philippians with all its powerful ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 1:1-11

The Prayer Of Thanksgiving Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 1, 2021

Paul demonstrated the power of a thankful heart to overcome enormous negative circumstances. Prayer is not the dark garment of despair. Prayer is a bright garment of praise that will dress up the soul even on the dreariest of days.

My earliest childhood memories of being in church are of the rope that I could ride. The thick rope hung down through the ceiling in the church entry way. I was so little that when the rope was pulled to ring the bell in the belfry, I could hang on to it and get a ride as it would pull me up off ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 1:3-6

Givers By Choice Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 2, 2021

Giving is one of the key ways to produce encouragement. Givers create grateful hearts, and the world can never have too many grateful hearts.

Winston Churchill use to love to tell the story about the family who were having a picnic by the lake, and the little boy fell into the water by accident. The family did not see it, but a stranger passing by saw the boy slip under the water, and fully clothed, he leaped into the lake and rescued ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 4:10-20

Bridging The Gap Or Christ In The Workplace Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 2, 2021

My struggle to bridge the gap between Sunday and Monday changed my whole perspective on life and made me a skeptical Christian. I mean this in a good sense. I became skeptical of easy and pat answers that Christians spout off that do not fit the reality of people's everyday lives.

I haven't always worn a suit to work. A couple of days after I married Lavonne I got my first job in working my way through college. It was at the John Morrell Meat Packing Plant In Sioux Falls, South Dakota. After a summer of that we went off to Bethel and I got a number of jobs. I worked in ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 12:1-14

Called To Obedience Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 2, 2021

If you study all of the heroes of the faith, you discover that the virtue they all had in common was the virtue of obedience. They were different in many ways, but they were all obedient to what they knew was the will of God. Obedience was the key virtue in the Bible and still is today.

Colonel Wilbur Rogers was ordered to let loose an artillery barrage in a World War I battle. He was right there on the battlefield, and he could see what the commander could not see. If he fired as ordered he would shell 10,000 American infantry just ahead of him. He refused to obey an order that ...read more

Scripture: Romans 1:1-7

Doing Your Own Thing Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 3, 2021

Paul makes it clear to the Romans that they are to avoid both extremes of self-exaltation and self-devaluation. They are to think with sober judgment and just be honest about themselves.

Doctor A. J. Cronin, the famous physician and author, had a very critical professor when he was in medical school. He told Cronin that he might make a general practitioner, but he was hopeless as a surgeon, and Cronin believed him. Completing his medical training, he went to a remote village in ...read more

Scripture: Romans 12:3-8

Believing Without Seeing

Contributed by Reuben Bredenhof on Apr 4, 2021

On the day of Jesus's return we will see him, in person, face to face. Until that great day, we are those who have not seen, yet believe. We are those who have not touched and seen and heard.

There are some things about us that we just have, naturally. Think about how children look. Every child receives some features from his or her parents, like red hair or brown eyes or a certain shape of nose or chin. And sometimes we think faith is like that too. We say, “I’m pretty sure I have ...read more

Scripture: John 20:28-29

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Hope For The Hopeless Series

Contributed by David Owens on Apr 5, 2021

God has given us the ability to feel the emotion of hopelessness, so that we will look for the ultimate source of hope. I believe that the resurrection of Jesus is the greatest source of hope in the universe.

A. Happy Easter to everyone – I’m so thankful we get to worship the Lord on this Easter Sunday! B. As we get started, I want to share this cartoon – it really tickled me. 1. The cartoon shows Jesus telling the angel that resurrection morning: “I want you to fold up my burial clothes, wait for ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1-7, Ephesians 1:18-20, 1 Peter 1:3-9

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ