Morning Hour Chapel

Endings and Beginnings

We are all about beginnings and endings. We celebrate beginnings like births and marriages with annual birthday and anniversary celebrations. Often we mourn endings like death and divorce.

 In this message, Pastor Joe speaks of Stephen, one of the first deacons of the church, and his message to the religious leaders of his time. He had experienced the beginning of the church, and he experienced the seeming end of his life at the hands of those same religious leaders. But Stephen knew that his end was only the beginning, as he asked Jesus to bring him home to Him. Stephen’s death was the beginning of severe persecution for these new Christians, particularly at the hands of a young man named Saul.

 

1st Century Church/21st Century World: What the Church Gets Right and Wrong

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

Abortion is a hot-button topic in the political arena. People, including many Christians, get into shouting matches about abortion, and we often end up shouting past each other, with no Christian love on display.

For Sanctity of Life Sunday. Pastor Joe shares some stark statistics about abortion, but the real message has to do with how we, as Christians, deal with not just the subject of abortion, but the PEOPLE affected by abortion. He urged us to remember that abortion isn’t just about the unborn child, but it’s about the mother and the father too.

When the church sees pregnant couples considering abortion, our political shouts go unheard and we only succeed in pushing that couple further from the cross of Jesus Christ. But if we, the church, started really listening to these couples, getting to know the reasons behind their choice to abort, we may be able to help them to see their worth as image-bearers of a God Who wants to be reconciled with them. And in seeing their own worth, perhaps they will see, too, the worth of the unborn child they have created.

1st Century Church/21st Century World: Work, Then Words

The first century church we read about in Acts relied on prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with the people in Jerusalem.

They shared the gospel by first doing. They met a need of the people - speaking their languages so they could understand the gospel; physically healing people so they could better hear the gospel unencumbered by their suffering.

Pastor Joe poses this question: what would happen if the 21st-Century church relied on prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel? What could Morning Hour Chapel accomplish in our community when we rely on prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit?

Advent is Absurd: Finding God in Our Uncertainty

In an age of growing uncertainty about…well…almost everything, the idea of an Everlasting God can seem absurd.

In this podcast, Pastor Joe continues looking at the description of Messiah in Isaiah 9:6. He talks about the uncertainty that abounds and seems to be more keenly felt during Advent. The uncertainty of homelessness. The uncertainty of joblessness. The uncertainty that comes when we feel ourselves to be worthless.

As we continue to strive to love our neighbor as ourselves, it is so important that we are light to the world in their uncertainty. It is crucial that we light the path of those who are wandering and those who are lost.

And it’s important to remember that, in this world of uncertainty, we serve an Everlasting Father who remains constant through all of our inconstancy.

Advent is Absurd: Finding God in Our Weakness

Messiah is referred to in Isaiah 9:6 as "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

In this podcast, Pastor Joe shares a message entitled "Finding Christ in Our Weakness."

He reminds us that Jesus didn't come to establish an earthly government. He came to battle the powers of darkness and evil, and as Christians, we are doing the same. But God gives us the power of the Holy Spirit, which raised Christ from the dead, to make us mighty in our weakness. To help us to fight the power of sin and darkness.

First Things First: Love Your Neighbor

Imagine the person or people group who we despise the most—that person or that people group is also our neighbor. And we're supposed to love them as we love ourselves.

One of the most well-known phrases in the Bible, whether you're a Christian or not, is "Love your neighbor." In fact, one of the primary criticisms of modern Christianity is that Christians are hateful, particularly when it comes to certain people or people groups. When I look at this criticism objectively, I wonder if the critics are right?

Pastor Joe shares the final sermon in a six-week series called "First Things First." Over the last five sermons, he's talked about the absolute most-important commandment. The commandment on which every other word of scripture depends.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and...love your neighbor as yourself."

First Things First: I Got the Power

There is a Sunday School song that goes, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are week but He is strong.”

 Pastor Joe preaches on loving God with all our strength. He demonstrates different ways we think about strength – strongman competitors, superheroes, and ants! Did you know that an ant can lift and carry 10x to 50x its own body weight?? Loving with our strength takes practice, and it takes sacrifice. Sometimes the sacrifice is relatively painless – like giving up a couple of hours of TV a day. Sometimes the sacrifice can be ultimate – like being persecuted, imprisoned, or killed for our faith. The source of our strength is the Lord God.

First Things First: Don't Lose Your Mind

Do you ever think about your faith? Do you ever question WHY you believe what you believe? If not, why not?

Pastor Joe speaks about loving God with all our MIND. Do we believe the Bible because we’ve read it, and studied it, and applied Christ’s teaching to our lives, or do we believe what we believe because we grew up in church with Christian parents and simply decided to believe whatever our parents and the pastor told us?

It is crucial, if we are to love God with our minds, that we know Scripture. It is even MORE crucial that we LIVE SCRIPTURALLY. That we LIVE the commandments of Jesus. If we will not live Christ’s commandments, there is no way that we will ever be able to convince another soul that Jesus is our only HOPE. If they can’t see us living our faith, there is no reason for them to believe us when we say that Jesus died for our sins, or that God wants us to live in eternity with Him. They won’t even believe us when we say that God exists.

We are encouraged to read the Bible, and in particular the words of Christ, and to use the minds that God has given us to understand how to live, and to put our understanding into practice.

First Things First: It's All About Soul

Is love all about feelings? Fluttering hearts and butterflies in the stomach? Or is love a choice? Something we do in our free will?

Pastor Joe speaks on loving God with all of your SOUL. The soul is the eternal part of our being that God breathed into humans at creation and the center of our human will. When we love God with all our soul, it's not just a feeling that we have, but also a conscious, willful decision that we make, every day.