Back from a little hiatus

I have to admit that I have been in a little funk because life has been so busy. I just haven't felt like writing. A lot has happened. We had a great Easter Sunday and the services following Easter at First Baptist have been great. I finished a series of sermons on Forgiveness last Sunday that I'm going to include here. I hope you enjoy them.

I'll begin with the sermon from Easter Sunday and include all five. The theme was "What They Really Found in the Empty Tomb." The messages dealt with the idea of forgiveness. I have to confess that I purchased the rights to a sermon series from the Journey Church in New York City in February. The original title was a little racy. When I mentioned it to Lori, she said it was too provocative. When I actually read the sermons I immediately realized that they were too long for our context and very simplistic as well. I liked the ideas but not the messages. So I began playing with the ideas. At that time I remembered the television expose that Geraldo Rivera hosted back in the 1980's that revealed the contents of Al Capone's tomb. That turned out to be a bust but Christ's tomb changed the world. So I picked up that theme and incorporated some of the thoughts from the other series that reminded us of the prominent place of forgiveness in the Easter message.

On Easter I revealed that when the women and the first disciples looked in that tomb on Easter morning they found forgiveness. For the next four weeks I talked about four particular aspects of it. I played these out by talking about a mirror, a friendship bracelet, a promise ring and a new set of clothes.

Well instead of telling you about the sermons, I'll let you read them for yourselves. I just have to remind you that the actual sermons did change some when they were delivered as I was moved by the Holy Spirit.

Cal