SERMONS – Free Methodist Conversations

SERMONS

HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS?

March 18, 2024 By dwayman

HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS? Luke 22:1-6, 22:47-53

Edward Song
Free Methodist Church of Santa Barbara Sunday, 17 March 2024

“Judas has been called a thief, a money lover, a devil from the beginning. His betrayal has been called the act of a greedy man, a disappointed man, a man chosen for an ugly task, a man trying to force Jesus to act by precipitating a crisis. Here is one who was chosen after a night of prayer to be in the inner circle of Jesus. He was taught and then sent to minister with apostolic authority. He enjoyed the same success as the others on those missions to preach, to heal, and to cast out demons. He was in every sense of the word an apostle. What happened?” -Fred Craddock

“Despair has been called the unforgivable sin—not presumably because God refuses to forgive it but because it despairs of the possibility of being forgiven.” -Frederick Buechner

INTRODUCTION

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

It is a very great privilege to be able to share a word with you all today…but if I’m being honest, preparing this sermon has been stressful. For today’s readings are unusually challenging. We are looking at the two sections in Luke 22 that focus on Judas’s betrayal of Jesus.

SERMONS

A CHURCH WITHOUT WALLS

May 26, 2023 By dwayman

Rev. Dr. Keith Cowart

Beyond These Walls Conference (ILI)

The Woodlands: Houston, Texas

April 2023

Dr. Keith Coward is a candidate for bishop. To see his introduction click here. To hear his interview click here.

A Church Without Walls video click here.

Speaking of Jews and Gentiles, the Apostle Paul declares in Ephesians 2:14:

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…

When I was 6 years old my parents made a decision that would shape my life in ways I never could have imagined. They decided to send me to the newly integrated public school instead of the brand new private school that most of my friends would be attending. As a result, I was one of the first in our county to attend twelve years in a fully integrated school. Most of my new friends were black. We went to class together. We were in the same clubs. We played sports together. That’s me circled in red – the kid with the great hair. (The Lord gives and the Lord takes away!) Now, there were some interesting policies in our school,

SERMONS

JONAH, A LEGACY OF LOVING OUR ENEMIES

May 21, 2023 By dwayman

JONAH, A LEGACY OF LOVING OUR ENEMIES

Rev. Dr. Amelia Traylor, M.D.

This sermon was given July 2022 at Northern Hills UMC

Rev. Dr. Amelia Traylor is a candidate for bishop.

You can hear Dr. Traylor’s introduction here.

You can hear her interview here.

Amelia Traylor is a medical doctor who is also a Superintendent in the River Conference. This sermon is given when Dr. Traylor is a guest speaker at a UM church and her sermon begins 24 minutes into the service. You can watch the video by clicking here.

SERMONS

THE GOD WHO SEES AND HEARS

May 21, 2023 By dwayman

THE GOD WHO SEES AND HEARS

Genesis 16

Rev. Dr. Michael Traylor, M.D.

Rev. Traylor is a candidate for bishop.

You can see his introduction here.

To see his interview click here.

This sermon was given on October 30, 2022 at New Hope Free Methodist Church. Click here and start at the 49th minute into the service with the Scripture reading and Rev. Traylor’s insightful study follows.

PowerPoint for the sermon imbedded in the video:

SERMONS

ORDINATION SERVICE

May 16, 2023 By dwayman

Bishop Matt Whitehead

at the Ordination Service of the Free Methodist Church in Southern California, May 2021

II Timothy 4:5

Matt Whitehead is a candidate for Bishop. See his introduction here. Hear his interview here.

It’s wonderful to be with you. Obviously, with COVID, we’ve all been dealing with this reality of not being able to be together. It’s been an incredible learning curve, this new role that I’ve been in. My wife said recently, “It will be a shame to come to the end of your four years as a Bishop and never get out of our basement!” So, I’m glad to get out of the basement to be here with you and celebrate.

I’m going to take a few minutes to talk to the ordinands and the ministerial candidates. The rest of you are certainly welcome to listen, but I want to direct my thoughts to you, specifically today, who have taken this significant step of signing on and saying, God, use me! And some of you are coming to the point of ordination, and you’ve been on a journey, and boy, it is not easy to be ordained in the Free Methodist Church. We don’t want it to be frustrating, but it’s not easy. There’s a challenging road. And I know some of you,

SERMONS

PRAYER, MOSES & THE HOLY SPIRIT

May 4, 2023 By dwayman

THREE SERMONS PREACHED AT THE ARBOR CHURCH

KAYE KOLDE, 2023

Kaye Kolde is a candidate for bishop. Her introduction is available here.

1. BOLD PRAYER

CLICK HERE. Bold Prayer, Part 1 We look at how Jesus gave us access to a new kind of prayer life, inspired by the Spirit and calling on a good Father. Paul has given us examples of some of the boldest and most inspired prayers to learn from in the book of Ephesians, and they are the basis for this 2 part series.

* 2. THE STORY OF MOSES: Kill Me Now CLICK HERE. This message, “Kill Me Now,” is part of a 14 week series called, The Story of Moses. It was a deep look at the life of a man who came to know the Lord intimately while withstanding all the difficulty of leadership and opposition from the Lord’s enemies. * 3. EMPOWERMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: Spirit-fueled Movement CLICK HERE. The basis of renewal at The Arbor Church has been seeking the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, just as it must be for The Free Methodist Church and our mission of catalyzing a Spirit-fueled movement. This message is part 3 in a 7 part series,

SERMONS

THE VINE, THE WINE, and THE SIGN

May 3, 2023 By dwayman

The Vine, The Wine, and The Sign

Linda J. Adams, February 21, 2021

The Arbor Church, Spring Arbor, MI

Linda is a candidate for bishop and is introduced here.

Since I grew up in this church, you will understand why I know almost nothing about wine. So, for much of my life, some the most prominent symbols in the Bible have been invisible to me. My limited experience with vino blinded me for many years to some rich, beautiful, and powerful images in Scripture.

Let me put it this way. In my family, grapes were for eating, or maybe for turning into grape juice, which we almost never drank except once a quarter at church in a tiny little Communion cup. One time my Grandma Beardslee served me home- canned grape juice—it was brownish purple, unpasteurized, pulpy and not nearly as sweet as Welch’s.

My earliest introduction into how wine is made came from an episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and another woman stomped grapes in a giant vat. Remember this?

I pastored for 10 years in Rochester, NY, near the Finger Lakes with their famous vineyards. Down in Naples, I learned the proper way to eat a Concord grape. Walking through the vines, you pluck a little cluster of grapes off the vine, hold one grape up to your mouth and squish it till that succulent little thing pops into your mouth.

SERMONS

THE LORD WILL FILL HIS TEMPLE WITH GLORY

April 28, 2023 By dwayman

“THE LORD WILL FILL HIS TEMPLE WITH GLORY”

KENNY MARTIN – at LifeWay FMC in Indianapolis

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE: HAGGAI 2:1-9

Pastor Kenny Martin is a candidate for bishop. Click here for his introductory video.

Pastor Kenny Martin is interviewed here.

THE COMING GLORY OF GOD’S HOUSE

2 1“IN THE SEVENTH MONTH, ON THE TWENTY-FIRST OF THE MONTH, THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME BY HAGGAI THE PROPHET, SAYING: 2“SPEAK NOW TO ZE-RUB-BA-BEL THE SON OF SHE-AL-TI-EL, GOVERNOR OF JUDAH, AND TO JOSHUA THE SON OF JE-HO-ZA-DEK, THE HIGH PRIEST, AND TO THE REMNANT OF THE PEOPLE, SAYING: 3‘WHO IS LEFT AMONG YOU WHO SAW THIS TEMPLE IN ITS FORMER GLORY? AND HOW DO YOU SEE IT NOW? IN COMPARISON WITH IT, IS THIS NOT IN YOUR EYES AS NOTHING? 4YET NOW BE STRONG, ZE-RUB-BA-BEL,’ SAYS THE LORD; ‘AND BE STRONG, JOSHUA, SON OF JE-HO-ZA-DEK, THE HIGH PRIEST; AND BE STRONG, ALL YOU PEOPLE OF THE LAND,’ SAYS THE LORD,’ AND WORK; FOR I AM WITH YOU,’ SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS. 5‘ACCORDING TO THE WORD THAT I COVENANTED WITH YOU WHE YOU CAME OUT OF EGYPT, SO MY SPIRIT REMAINS AMONG YOU; DO NOT FEAR!’ 6“FOR THUS SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS: ‘ONCE MORE (IT IS A LITTLE WHILE) I WILL SHAKE HEAVEN AND EARTH, THE SEA AND DRY LAND;

SERMONS

TWO OBSTACLES OF EASTER

April 25, 2023 By dwayman

Two Obstacles of Easter

Benjamin Wayman, St. Paul’s Free Methodist Church

Year A – Easter; 9 April 2023
Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18

Today Mary helps us see the Lord. And I’m so grateful she does. In John’s Gospel, Mary appears
only twice, but her appearances are at the climax of the story. Her first appearance is at the
foot of the cross, standing with Jesus’s mother, bearing with her the pain of Jesus’s torture and
death. Her second and final appearance is narrated in our reading today: she’s confused by an
empty tomb and greeted by Jesus, whom she mistook to be the gardener.

I wonder how she mistook him. It is not that she didn’t know Jesus. What kept her from seeing
her resurrected Lord? And what is it today that causes us not to see the resurrected Lord?
On this Easter Sunday, I’d like to explore two obstacles that obstruct our seeing and believing
the gospel. My hunch is that one of these obstacles is more substantial for you than the other,
and today we hear stories of how each are overcome by the earliest Christians.

The first obstacle that obstructs our seeing and believing the gospel is death. The second is
resurrection. These two obstacles, the cross and the empty tomb, are what Christians call “the
mystery of Easter.” I’d like to suggest that these two obstacles – the cross and the empty tomb –

Contact Me

About

Free Methodist Conversations

HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS?

A CHURCH WITHOUT WALLS

JONAH, A LEGACY OF LOVING OUR ENEMIES

THE GOD WHO SEES AND HEARS

ORDINATION SERVICE

PRAYER, MOSES & THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE VINE, THE WINE, and THE SIGN

THE LORD WILL FILL HIS TEMPLE WITH GLORY

TWO OBSTACLES OF EASTER

MENU

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Conversations