Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

Have you ever thought of the Bible as a book of unforgettable walks? The first one was taken by God Himself in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day. There was the liberating walk that Moses and the children of Israel took through the Red Sea, Paul’s life changing walk on the road to Damascus and a walk so sad and so Holy that it received its own name: The Via Dolorosa – the walk Jesus took carrying our cross from the Praetorium to Golgotha. The Bible is truly a list of unforgettablewalks.

I want to invite you to go for a walk as we look at perhaps the most unforgettable walk of all taken by Peter the day he got out of a boat and walked on water. Peter’s walk stands as an invitation to everyone, like him, who wants to experience something more of the presence and power of God.

Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

Comic Gilda Radner authored a book entitled “It’s Always Something”. The story begins in Gilda’s native Canada where, as a child, she develops comic skills to overcome her shyness and feelings of inadequacy. She gravitates to show business and progresses to one of the original “Not Ready for Prime Time Players”. Just when it seems Gilda’s life is on the right course, with all cylinders clicking, she is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Based on her 1989 autobiography the film, “It’s Always Something: The Gilda Radner Story”, debuted in 2002 to tell her story and seemingly endless life struggle with one challenge after another.

Do you ever feel like that? That you go from one challenge to another? That as soon as you get through the financial struggle, there is a health challenge and as soon as you get healthy again then your children are going through something?

How do you keep your faith? How do you keep from being discourage? How do you keep your perspective? Where is God in my struggle?

If you have ever felt like “It is always something”, I want to invite you to join me as we look at a story in Acts 27 – 28 when the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked at the island of Malta.

It could change your perspective of your problems forever!

I believe we all like “Rags to Riches” stories like Abraham Lincoln. He was born in a cabin, no bigger than a bedroom in most modern homes, in the backwoods of Kentucky. He lost his mother at an early age, walked through snow to borrow books in order to teach himself to read and was partner in a general store that soon went bankrupt after the death of his partner. At various times in his life he was a trader on the Mississippi River, a store clerk, a post master, a lawyer, a statesmen’s, an orator and later become the President of the United States. What an amazing “Rags to Riches” story.

But there is a story of a man in the Bible, in Luke chapter 18, who in a sense reversed the process. He went from physical riches to spiritual rags because he refused to allow Christ to transform his preoccupation with possessions.

I want to invite you to join me as we look at this young man’s story to see how we can avoid his mistakes and receive Christ’s invitation to the abundant life he bought for us on Calvary.

Did you ever see the movie Forrest Gump? I enjoyed the movie and loved the heart, persistence and optimism of Forrest. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, wins medals, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, donates to people and meets the president several times. While there are many examples of Forrest’s persistence and the victories it brought him, I will just share one with you. Forrest’s persistence made him a ping pong champion against many odds. His persistence included: practicing daily for hours at a time: hitting hundreds and probably thousands of ping pong balls into the bed pan; hitting the ball first with his right hand then with his left hand. He refused to give up.

Persistence could be considered a daily pursuit of actions and tasks over weeks, months, years or even a lifetime.

In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable about the importance of persistence in your prayers. At times we are tempted to give up on prayer. Is there a situation in your life for which you have been praying for a long time and are growing weary and maybe even have already given up? Situations like the salvation of a loved one that just hasn’t seemed to happen, or a strained relationship that isn’t getting any better, or resumes that keep getting turned down, or maybe even a single person praying for godly mate and yet they spend another year alone?

If so, I want to invite you to join me and learn directly from Jesus words what were are to do. God’s word has specific instruction, good news and hope for you.

What do you think about when you celebrate Independence Day? Is it fireworks, parades and barbecues? Or when the Continental Congress declared that the 13 American colonies band together to declare their independence from Great Britain? Or do you think about other battles throughout America’s history where men and women fought for the freedoms we enjoy?

Because my Dad served our country in the Army Air Force in World War II, I think of the importance of the Normandy Invasion, one of the most decisive battles in World War II that helped us defeat the Nazis. Had this invasion not been successful, the war could have taken a very different turn in many ways.

You probably know that really important battles require a lot of strategy. The Normandy Invasion took over a year to plan and it almost didn’t happen because during early June 1944 when D-Day happened, the weather pattern in the currents in the ocean almost set off the entire plan that they had orchestrated and it almost didn’t happen. Really important battles require strategy.

I want to invite you to join me as we look at a very popular story about a battle from the Old Testament in Joshua chapter 6. We will parallel this story involving the nation of Israel to where we find ourselves today in America and see God’s strategy for us to make a difference today.

Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

God has given me a special word for men this Sunday. A word of love and redemption, that “God’s Grace is enough”. That no matter how many times you have fallen down, you can still get up and finish strong. You can never go too far down the wrong road that you can’t turn back. My message is about the life of a man in the Bible that I have never preached about before. In fact, I bet you haven’t heard a message preached about him. Wanna bet? His story is one of the most incredible stories of God’s Grace. A story of a man that you didn’t hear about in Sunday School.

How happy are you right now?

If you were to say, “Well, I’m not all that happy right now”, you’d probably explain that there are some circumstances in your life that are kind of dragging you down. We think happiness is directly related to what happens to us. What if I told you that it was not? That there is a personality trait that Jesus talks about in the Bible that can raise you above the circumstances in your life?

Pastor Ed shares some practical spiritual exercises that, if you apply, could transform your personality and raise you above your circumstances.