Tag Archives: family

The Spiderman Sermon!

Spiderman: Brand New Day

1- Movie begins by showing how Spidey is a hero who has been successfully fighting criminals in NY non-stop for several years.

2- His identity as Peter Parker is unknown to everyone, except one new mystery villain.

3- Peter has no friends or family now. His Aunt May was killed, and everyone’s memory of his identity as Spiderman has been erased by Dr. Strange.

4- Spiderman used to have close friends who knew is true identity.

5- He tries to keep up with his former girlfriend MJ and his buddy Ned by following their Insta stories. But Peter is lonely.

6- Spiderman’s body is undergoing changes due to the changes to the spider DNA within him. 

a) This gives him even greater spider powers: heightened senses, greater agility, more powerful web shooting ability.

b) The problem is, he can’t control this. It gives him a tremendous headache. He passes out at times.

c) He discovers that his constant stress in fighting bad guys, coupled with his lack of interpersonal relationships is contributing to the pain and lack of control.

7- Peter finds a way to superficially reconnect with his friends, but they don’t know that they used to be his friends.

Application to you.

1- You are a hero.

a) You work hard.

b) You take care of your family.

c) You try to do good and help people.

2- Perhaps you don’t see yourself as a hero, and sadly others may not recognize this either.

3- Have you lost connection to loved ones?

4- Are you working so long and hard that you have limited quality time with friends and family?

5- Do you feel lonely?

6- Does it seem that you aren’t recognized or rewarded for your efforts?

7- Are you going through changes in your life?

a) Physical and social changes associated with adolescence, adulthood, or middle age.

b) Changes in your health.

c) Changes related to your job.

8- Are you facing difficult challenges in your life?

9- God has supplied the possibility of relationships to carry you through changes, challenges, and difficult times.

You need three types of relationship in your life: 

Family, Friends, Fellowship

Conspicuously absent: Followers & Fans

A) Family. 

  1. More than a group of people co-existing in the same house. 
  2. You need to work on family relationships. 
  3. First, with your spouse, then your kids, and even with your extended family. 
  4. This requires quality time, wherein you pay attention, communicate, and share.
  5. If you are without connection to family; remember, God promises to provide, so seek.
  • “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.” (Psalm 68:5–6, NIV84)
  1. When you give your life to Christ, you become part of His family!
  • “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—” (John 1:12, NIV84)
  1. Have family members have abandoned you, or you have had to leave them behind because of your Christian faith. You have a new family now!
  • “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29, NIV84)

B) Friendship. 

Not familiar faces, aquantances, or social media friends; not coworkers, classmates, or like minded members of your political tribe, not fickle friends, or an object of your lust. 

You need a few genuine, trustworthy friends: 

Qualities of a Good Friendship: Freedom, Likeness, Respect, Communication, Honesty, Trust, Loyalty

  1. You need to have friends you trust so that you can take off your mask.
  2. You need to spend quality time with close friends regularly. 
  3. You need accountability and support from your trusted friends. 
  4. Jesus is the friend who will always be with you.

“Look, I will be with you always, to the end of the age!” (Matt. 28:20).

“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24, NIV84)

  1. The Holy Spirit lives within you when you put faith in Jesus. He is your Counselor, Comforter, Helper and Guide.
  • “How much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:13)
  • “the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17, NIV84)
  1. Jesus didn’t send the disciples out alone; they went out two by two.
  • “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.” (Luke 10:1, NIV84)

C) Fellowship. Jesus established the church to surround you with Christian family and friends.

  • “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25, NIV84)

10- To be in fellowship with the Lord is to be in fellowship with other believers.

  • “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7, NIV84)

11- Are you consistently involved in a local Bible believing church?

a) Consistency is key.

b) Involvement is essential— not just attendance. Participate in church!

c) The word translated “fellowship” refers to involvement and sharing with other Christians.

κοινωνία: an association involving close mutual relations and involvement—‘close association, fellowship.

d) We need each other even more when life gets tough.

I Am a Single Pastor

I just finished a book by author Preston Sprinkle titled People to Be Loved. The concluding chapter was very affirming to me as a never-married single. There is an often unspoken assumption that if you are single, well, you’re incomplete. In fact, it is an assumption held by many single people themselves. To this Sprinkle replies:

“But if you think marriage is the only way to say yes to life, yes to love, and yes to happiness, then you’ll not only be disappointed if you get married, but you will also forgo the cruciform joy that his possible in your singleness.”

Cruciform joy. Huh? Sprinkle is a Christian pastor and scholar. He is referring to the follower of Jesus identifying with Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. Joy? The joy comes when I endure suffering together with the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit. Sprinkle continues:

“The Gospel never promises happiness to married folk. It does promise joy for those who pick up their crosses and die with Jesus.”

Overwhelming joy follows when I identify with Jesus on the cross and thereby overcome sin and death as I continue to see myself in Christ’s resurrection. “For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). I am enabled to begin to experiencing eternal life (the Kingdom of God) now, even before I pass beyond this vale of tears to live forever with God.

I a single man, which is not uncommon. In fact, there are currently more single men and women in the United States than ever before, Further, the percentage of the population who are unmarried is on the increase. Where I am very different is in my occupation as a single. I am a pastor. I’ve never met another single senior pastor, although I’m sure there are others. I’ve considered that this could be keeping my church from growing numerically. Why, you might ask? Well, the expectation is that the pastor should be a family man. In fact, I wouldn’t be hired by the overwhelming majority of churches with pastoral positions open due to this expectation, and due to a misreading and misunderstanding of the requirements for a pastor listed in 1st Timothy and Titus (I’ll not cover the interpretive issue here).

So, are you asking yourself, “Hmm, what’s wrong with that guy?” Well, that’s how I feel sometimes, even though nobody who attends my church talks or acts like that. I do suspect most people I know would be relieved if I got married. And I suspect my church would grow numerically. Trouble is, I’ve never found anyone with whom I want to spend the rest of my life, and to whom I would surrender and sacrifice. Is that selfish? I won’t deny that I’m selfish. Aren’t you? However, that’s not the issue. I really believe that God has a specific will and purpose for every individual, and every married couple. I’ve believed and taught my entire adult life that if God wants you to be married, then there is an Eve for every Adam: God created the two for each other. I’ve simply never found someone like that, and never felt compelled by God to marry anyone. And I’m not compromising.

So, you may ask, “Well are you looking? Do you date?” I pray and keep my eyes open. I’ve been on a Christian oriented dating site on and off for quite sometime. I’ve been matched with literally thousands of women and met a few of them. No one has been God’s match for me.

Will I remain single the rest of my life? I don’t know, but I’m okay with that if it is God’s will. You see, that’s what I want. That’s what Jesus taught his students to pray for: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I’d like to have an intimate partner. I’d like to have kids. I think I’d make a great father and husband. However, I want to do whatever my Father in heaven wants, and he hasn’t shown me that is what he wants for my life.

The reason I share this is because I believe many single people feel like they are missing out, or like they are incomplete without a mate. Fellow single person, we are only incomplete if we have no relationship with God. A man or woman is a poor substitute and cannot fill your need for intimacy. It has been said that there is God shaped hole in everyone, which only God can fill.

God has a purpose for each of us. God has a purpose for me as a single pastor. I believe our church is perfect. I don’t mean we are without flaws. I am the chief of sinners (see 1 Timothy 1:15), so that’s not possible. What I mean is our church is perfect for those whom God has called to be part of us. We have an amazing Teaching Pastor, who is married and has four wonderful kids. Our church has families with children and I’m certain they feel comforted and strengthened by his leadership and example. We also have a number of older single adults in our church, and I hope they feel they are not second class members. Perhaps they are comforted and strengthened because their pastor is single too.

You see, a church is a family, or it should be. We are the family of God, brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus warned his followers that they needed to be willing to lose natural friends and family and even their own lives for his sake and that of the Kingdom of God (see Luke 14:26). However, the Lord also promised better and greater relationships will replace that loss.

“’Yes, Jesus replied, ‘and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.’” (Mark 10:29–30, NLT)

I’ve thought our church might grow numerically if I were to get married. However, I believe I am who, and what, and where God has willed me to be, and I seek to become more like his Son. Our church is my family. I’m like a grandpa to all of these wonderful kids. I’m open to meeting someone, but it is unnecessary. That won’t fulfill me, or even give me more happiness, if it is not God’s leading and will.