Occasionally, people will tell me how much they enjoyed a sermon. Then I will ask what they liked about it. I am usually greeted with one of two responses. After certain sermons, people say, “I learned so much today.” After other sermons, people will say, “It was just a great sermon.”

One group loves a sermon when it teaches them something new. Perhaps it explains something they have never understood, or maybe it showed them something they have never seen. It might even be a trivial piece of information that they had never noticed.

The other group can’t really put their finger on what they liked about it. The sermon made them feel something like love, joy, gratitude, or even guilt. It stirred emotions inside them that made them feel different and they liked it.

Recently, I have been trying to do both with my sermons. I have been walking through some theological explanations and then coupling them with emotionally driven visuals. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Part of that is dependent on the listener. What type of person are they? What were they listening for? What is their personality type?

There is no one thing called “sermon.” A preacher’s message can be anything that connects followers of Jesus with greater devotion to him. Sometimes that comes by informing them of the truth, and other times by making them feel deeply.

This Sunday, we are celebrating Resurrection Sunday, or Easter. My prayer is that when you walk out of worship, you have either learned or felt something. And if all goes really well, I hope you experience both.

When we say that someone sees the world through rose-colored glasses, we mean they tend to view situations or people with excessive optimism, often ignoring negative aspects.

I think it is also possible to have a rose-colored mirror that makes us see ourselves in a more optimistic light, rather than in the truth.

We can view ourselves through a distorted lens. We quietly excuse our sharp words, our stubborn pride, and our small cruelties. These issues are often plain to everyone but us.

The reality is this: we are not the best judges of ourselves. That is why humility is so essential in the Christian life.

Humility is the willingness to say, “I may not be seeing myself clearly.” That honest admission cracks the door open to something beautiful: growth, correction, and the deep encouragement that only truth can bring. It positions us to receive God’s Word not as a vague comfort, but as a loving correction. It helps us hear the wise, mature believers God has placed in our lives, rather than filtering out anything that stings.

Seeing ourselves honestly is rarely pleasant. But that discomfort is not a sign that something has gone wrong. It is often the first sign that something has finally gone right.

Spiritual maturity begins not with confidence in ourselves, but with the courage to question it.

The professor was giving his final lessons of the year. He was trying to rally us as we headed out into the world to do ministry. My friend was sitting beside me with his notebook open, soaking it all up. When the professor reached the end of his series of encouragements, advice, and wisdom, he launched into one final challenge. He told us that the greatest tool we have is our brain, and we need to learn to “think for ourselves.”

I looked over as my friend grabbed his pen and jotted in large letters, “Learn to think for yourself.” I saw it and started to giggle to myself. He saw me, furrowed his eyebrows, as I was being disrespectful in the moment, totally missing the irony of writing a note about thinking for “ourselves.”

That moment is lodged in my brain because I have so often wanted to scream at people, “Would you think?” It could be about their marriage, parenting, finances, or even their behavior in public. Use your brain, people.

I have concluded that my professor was wrong in one aspect of what he said. We should not make it our goal to learn to think for ourselves; instead, we should learn to think Biblically.

Learning to think in ways aligned with God’s will is incredibly hard. It usually goes against culture, it runs contrary to our feelings and flesh, and it does not always seem like common sense.

Thinking for yourself is not a bad idea, as long as you use your freedom of thought to lead you to Jesus and his way of thinking.

1. Spiritual warfare is real. Pray. Pray often.
2. It can take 12 years before you feel like you have gained some momentum in leadership.
3. A room full of men talking about faith might be the most enjoyable part of my ministry.
4. I love talking about the cross of Christ.
5. Easter is coming.
6. Seeing people thrive as they serve the Lord is incredibly encouraging.
7. Hard work plus faith in God can yield unexpected results.
8. Friends are more valuable than gold.
9. Being positive is a choice. Sometimes it takes work.
10. Today is a gift. Be sure to enjoy what he has given you.
    **Bonus – Put your phone down.

It is incredibly rare for a single moment to change your life. Lives are shaped and molded through daily and weekly habits.

For a Christian, daily prayer and Bible reading are foundational. Weekly serving, giving, and worship are formative. Hearing the word of God taught and preached, sharing in communion and regular fellowship with other believers, molds our thoughts and beliefs.

Many Monday mornings, I sit in my office and wonder what we truly accomplished for the Lord on Sunday. No one made a radical life decision that I know of, and it is hard to see any results.

The truth I must remind myself of regularly is that, while there were no big moments of transformation this past Sunday morning, it will take a lifetime to see what was taking place in people’s souls. Faithful living is built on thousands of small moments that accumulate in the heart and mind of a believer. This past Sunday morning may have been when a tiny seed of faith was planted, or perhaps it was the drop of water that kept someone’s faith alive, or maybe the soil was loosened so that a weed of sin might be removed from someone’s heart.

I pray that your time in worship each week is a meaningful moment. Perhaps it won’t be the one that changed your life dramatically, but hopefully, it was a step in the right direction.

As a pastor, I dread many aspects of Easter. It is not the amount of work added to the schedule, the extra outreach events, or even the stress of preaching to so many potential believers.

The part of Easter that I dread is the unseen spiritual attacks that come this time of year. As the kingdom of God moves forward, the forces of evil will not sit back and let it happen. Instead, they are going to attack, and it is easiest to attack the leader first.

During this time of year, I can feel my emotions swing. There is always some major issue that is going to occur, and I know I will grow physically and emotionally tired. There is temptation waiting around every corner, a pull to skip something significant, and a situation where I could choose to ignore God’s will for my life.

There are numerous things you can do to help your Church at this season of the year. There is a need for volunteers, for people to give financially, and for people to bring their friends. But I would ask you, on behalf of all pastors, to pray for us in the coming weeks. Evil will attack, and praying for your pastor might be the most significant thing you can do.

After over thirty years of leading Churches, I have concluded that one of the most fundamental signs of spiritual maturity is keeping one’s word.

Rare are those who do what they say they will do. Many make empty promises, albeit with a well-intentioned heart.

Do you make statements and not follow through on them? Are you the kind of person whom people can count on? Does your word mean anything to people?

Following Jesus is not about showing good intentions toward our neighbors; it is about showing up for them.

Suppose you want to build a solid life for God. Start by addressing the most obvious sin in your life. Quite often, it reduces the struggles in other areas of your life because when one area is a mess, it eventually affects the whole.

For example, I know someone who is walking through some drama in their life. Much of it stems from their choice to cohabitate rather than marry. If they addressed this simple issue, it would reduce most of the issues they are experiencing.

Yet again. I could tell you about a person who is struggling in their marriage. At the heart of the conflict is the fact that they are choosing to spend most of their Friday nights drunk, many times to the point of blacking out. Once again, if they fixed this one area, it would change their whole life.

And one more, I know if a person is struggling with a porn addiction. It makes them explosively angry and has driven most people out of their life, including their own children. If they addressed this one sin, it would open the door to healthy relationships with everyone they know.

Most people who truly want to follow Jesus know of one sin, often it is quite obvious, that needs to be removed from their life. Once they do that, they’ll be amazed at how many other problems begin to fix themselves.

I am leading a small group on the topic of your thoughts. The group is looking at questions like “What is influencing your thought life?” One lesson focused on distractions, and the group spent most of our time discussing our phones and their impact on our thinking.

A simple suggestion was to avoid reading the Bible on your phone if you can. Then you will not get a notification to bother your reading.

All of this is in my head as I sit for a few minutes “doom scrolling” the next day. I have 15 free minutes after work, and while I wait, I am watching reels on social media. Most of them on my phone are now about fishing or faith. One that popped up was a non-Christian saying that one of the reasons he was not a believer was that passages do not align from one book to another or from one story to another. Then he gave his primary example. As he spoke, I thought, “That doesn’t sound correct.”

Grabbing a Bible and actually reading each story line by line made it clear that he was repeating what he heard someone else say. Either that or he was blatantly ignoring words and phrases in the Biblical account. Whatever the case, the solution to his problem was simple: stop and read every word of the narrative before reaching conclusions.

It is easy for us to try to live on the memories of stories we heard as children, a passage we once heard in a sermon, or even another person’s explanation, without ever reading a single verse of Scripture. My suggestion is that if you hear someone talking about a Biblical issue, go get a Bible and read it, preferably a paper copy, so your notifications don’t distract you.

I switched auto insurance companies again, still in search of savings. Fifteen years without a claim, yet I keep paying for it year after year. The only real benefit so far has been the quiet peace of knowing it’s there if I ever need it.

Numerous people treat faith the same way. They accept Jesus as Savior, then tuck him away in the back of their mind. Years pass without connecting with him, but he’s still there as a safety net for emergencies, someone to call on when the darkness rolls in.

Too many Christians carry an insurance policy faith, reaching for Jesus only when something goes wrong. But faith was not meant to be a contract, but a relationship. Following Jesus means connecting daily with him through prayer, Scripture, and fellowship with other believers. Then, when life does take an unexpected turn, Jesus shows up not because you’ve paid your dues, but because he genuinely loves you.

It is worth asking yourself: Do I love Jesus like a brother, or treat him like Allstate?