Strategic word of Scripture found in Psalm 1:27. It reads, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it". Say after me, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it". Do you realize [...]

How many of you have had some kind of conflict in your marriage within the last decade, that's 10 years? Would you lift your hand and hold it up? Lift your hand if you're married, if you've had a conflict, lift it up, in the last [...]

Today, we're talking about marriage, a foundation of marriage, and I read in 1 Corinthians Chapter 3 that Paul is talking about the foundation of the church in Corinth, and he says, "I planted," in other words, Paul planted the [...]

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never harm you. Did your mother or dad ever tell you that? It's a lie. It's an outright lie. Sticks and stones break your bone, but words do bless us, or words do harm us. And [...]

Romans 13, I think, is the 7-up Chapter of the Bible. You say, "That's kind of silly". Someone told me if you'll say silly things that'll be memorable, so all you can know, all I know about Roman 7, it's got 7-ups in [...]

"What do you want from me"? I've been asked that question. You've been asked that question. Just what do you want from me? And sometime, we can use the same verbiage and have totally different meaning. "What do you want from [...]

What if everybody in this church were like you? What kind of church would we have? Would we be able to turn on the lights? Would we be able to sing? Would be able to have worship? Would be able to go on mission trips? Would we be able to care for [...]

What if you decided you wanted to give something to God? What if you decided, "I want to give God something"? What could God use? What does God need? What does God want? You talk about somebody's got everything? Ehhh, somebody's [...]

Open your Bibles, if you would, to Jeremiah, Chapter 17. I'll begin reading with Verse 9. Then I'll skip and read to Verse 13 following: "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it"? [...]

John chapter 14. Jesus says, "Do not let," stop it, "do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me". What's he saying? He said, "If you believe in God," yes, "you believe also in [...]

You'd be amazed how many times people ask me, how you stay so passionate about life? How do you stay fired up all the time? You seem to have fire in your belly! How does that happen? Ladies and gentlemen, I decided a long time ago that I was [...]

From Native American lore, there is a story that I just can't forget. An Indian brave was walking under a large, high cliff, and he looked down and saw an eagle's egg, and he picked up that eagle egg, and he couldn't climb the cliff [...]

And as we look back on Solomon, this as you may know was his autobiography, his memoirs, and he has walked us through a tough, tough place. He is talk about meaninglessness, and he says, "I've tried power, possessions, pleasure, [...]

Sir Winston Churchill was a master of the English language. If you've not read his history of the II World War, I encourage you to do so. It'll help us to understand, you and I, western civilization in a way that you will never have [...]

How does anything have value? Let's just take something that we're all familiar with, a diamond. Hmm. A diamond, how do you determine the value of a diamond? Interesting question, isn't it? Cut. Color. Carat. Clarity. That's how [...]

The pit of hell introduces us to our scripture in Ecclesiastes chapter number six. If you sit down and read Ecclesiastes six, by the way, we're studying Ecclesiastes. It is written, I believe by Solomon. He is picturing life without God. Life [...]

1 Kings chapter number 10, read those early verses, and you'll read about a very wonderful encounter between two heads of state. When the president of the United States meets with the premier of China, it's news. And that's always [...]

During the II World War, only one U. S. General was captured. General Jonathan Wainwright was captured by the Japanese. He was placed into a prison camp in Mongolia. When the war ended, MacArthur had won. Peace treaty was signed. The way in [...]

I invite you to open your Bibles with me, if you would to "One" Corinthians, I Corinthians, Chapter Number 5. I'll read Verse 9 and 10. I Corinthians 5, Verse 9 and 10: "Therefore, we also have our ambition, whether at home or [...]

This summer, Jo Beth and I had the privilege of having with us for a couple of weeks on our vacation, my youngest son, Cliff, his wife Danielle, and their four children. I have ten grandchildren. Two of my sons have four, one of them have two. I had [...]

It may stagger you, if you haven't thought about it; but from Genesis to Revelation by the way, let me remind you, it is Revelation. It does not have an "S" on it. I studied Revelation for one year in seminary, and the professor said, [...]

How many of you have ever been to the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia? The big coliseum there where they do all their sports? When it was built, they named it the Omni, and the word "omni" means "all". So they at that time built a [...]

I love to read biography! I've read a lot of biographies... Somehow when you walk inside the skin of men and women, significant, insignificant, historical, Biblical, I just love biographies! How many of you like biographies? Lift your [...]

God wants everybody to be healthy. If you're suffering, you're obviously not in the will of God. If you believe that, you don't know anything about that book. But you can turn on television 24/7 and find people who somehow take [...]

Jack did not notice when Alice, three times, had reached over and hit the snooze button. But he realized how late it was this Sunday morning. He jumped up out of bed, getting ready to go to work. He didn't shave; he went in the shower. He threw [...]

Ecclesiastes is a very bright book. It is bright because it is written under the dazzling background of darkness, and that darkness is death. You read Ecclesiastes, and Solomon is always couching everything under the background of death. And he asks [...]

Suffering is absolutely inevitable! It's a part of life! And if you want to know something about suffering, you have to study the Book of Job. There's no other Book in the Bible or outside the Bible that gives us more insight than this [...]

We're starting the Book of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes is the book of sheer philosophy. It's the only book in the Bible that presents life without God. It's a book about meaninglessness, but it has a great deal of meaning. Say, [...]

Narcissus is one of the classic figures in mythology. He was going home from a successful hunt, and he happened to go by a little pool of water, deep and crystal clear. And Narcissus looked in that pool and he saw his own image. And immediately, he [...]

Anybody here ever lived in Vermont, would you lift your hand? You've lived in the state of Vermont. Surely out of 5,000, 6,000 people, somebody's lived in Vermont. Am I not seeing your hand? Where? Back there. Stand up, Vermont, stand up [...]

Dr. David Peterson was pastor of the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas for many years. Dave tells a story that when he was in seminary, he studied a man by the name of Dr. Frederick Buechner and Buechner is a well-known scholar, [...]

I've had the privilege to go to the Vatican and visit the Sistine Chapel on several occasions. The last time Jo-Beth and I were there, we got what they called a backdoor tour. Our guide knew someone there and we went into the Sistine Chapel [...]

How much faith does it take this Easter for you to believe that you are in a worship service, seated there in that chair? How much faith do you have to have to believe that? How much faith do you have to have to believe that I am standing here in [...]

Are you coachable? We need a life coach. Everybody does. We decided that. And I think we decided if you're a sacralist or a Christian, certainly, Jesus would be the best coach you could ever get. And then we decided he's already asked us, [...]

You've been around, and you think for a moment everybody needs a life coach. The secular world, you could spend a hunk of money bringing in someone to coach you into life. Everybody needs a life coach. We decided that. And then we decided, [...]

God desires to coach you and coach me. When I was 11 years old, my English teacher took me out of line in church, took me over to one side, asked me about Jesus, said, "Do you believe this"? and I said, "Yes". I became a [...]

We've been talking about something, and a little coach came on our screen week before last and told us something. You remember? And so many people ask, "Well, what is a life coach"? I wanted to ask, "Where have you been"? [...]

Will Durant, historian, philosopher, tells a story of a young girl who, after class, went up to the teacher and asked, "What is God like"? The teacher answered, "You know, I don't really know. Go home and ask your mother"! [...]

A word about my situation: I-27, 28 years ago, I had a blocked lat. Artery-lateral, anterior, descending artery to your heart, about 98%. And I had angina, all the symptoms which I denied for a long time. And til' I had the Popeye arms, and I [...]

Open your Bibles to Matthew Chapter Number 6. I'll read Verse 5 and 6. Then I'll read Verse 9. Matthew 6:5-6, 9. Ready! "When you pray, you're not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and [...]

Hope you have your Bibles opened to the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter Number 6. Matthew 6. I'll read Verse 6 through Verse 9. Jesus is speaking: "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to the [...]

The Book of Ephesians is a fabulous, practical study of telling us how God wants His sons and daughters to walk in the world in which we live. Look at it. Chapter 1 of Ephesians tells us that we are in Christ. If we've received Him, this is [...]

Ed Hendee is a member of our church "Taste of Texas," talk-radio guy for many years on talk radio in the morning. Uh, Ed Hendee was at a reception, and a man came up to him that had lost both legs, and he said, "Ed, you coached me in [...]

How many of you have ever been to the Louvre in Paris? That fabulous art, would you lift your hand? My! What a traveling bunch! The Louvre, I don't know if it's the largest place for fine art-is collected and displayed, but it's [...]

How many here would like a fresh, full dose of wisdom? Would you like to have that? Lift up your hand! If you don't lift up your hand, see me afterwards! How we need wisdom! What is wisdom? Simple pedestrian definition: It's taking [...]

G.K. Chesterton, scholar, author was asked a question, "If you were on a deserted island and you had a choice to bring with you one book, what would that book be"? Now, because Chesterton was a Christ follower, everybody assumed he would [...]

It was in Topeka Kansas-a guy was going to visit churches all across America and write a book! While in Topeka, he saw on the side of a wall in this church a golden telephone. It says "For Ten Thousand Dollars, one minute call to God". He [...]

In the middle of August, I was jogging on a little path that moved down the beach, and I came around the curve; I jog there many times. I was dreading, to be honest with you, going down in the valley, going up that next hill. Say, "Woo". [...]

My wife, Jo Beth was shopping with a friend a few days ago, and they were being waited on by a clerk. She was probably 21, 22 years of age, and Jo-Beth's friend had a tee shirt on that is the theme of our Bible listening session. It says, [...]

Now, I'm going to give you end of where we're going. Poor communication skills, isn't it? I mean, anybody know how to communicate, you start off, and yada yada yada yada, and yada yada yada. And then boom, the explosion. I'm [...]