Waukee Community Church

Series: unFaithful

Title: Death, Helplessness and Other Generally Depressing Topics

Scripture: Hosea 13:1-6

Preached: 1/17/2010

My wife, Clorrisa, and our four kids have a fish tank.  Notice that I said it was “their” fish tank, not mine.  I take no ownership of this fish tank.  I don’t think fish make good pets.  The truth is, each of our fish is on a timer.  Each one only has a certain number of days until his impending doom.  And, usually, this timer is set to “days” - not weeks, months, or years.  We’ve all gotten used to having dead fish.  I have to be honest: dead fish aren’t a lot of fun.  They don’t really do much.  (Well, actually, they are only slightly less fun than live fish.  But that’s another matter….)  Dead things can’t do a lot for themselves.  They just lay there, totally helpless and unable.

Dead fish aren’t the only helpless creatures in this world.  Did you know that the Bible says that, at one time, each one of us were dead? Some people are dead today.  They may be walking around, breathing in the air and having a conversation with others.  But the reality is, they are dead. That’s how Hosea describes the Israelites in.  He says that they may have a physical pulse, but they are really dead.

Now, how’s that for a “generally depressing topic”?  Yet, in the midst of all this talk of death, God shines a ray of hope.  He says: “Where, O grave, is your destruction?”  Apparently there is some hope for each one of us.  Apparently even the “deadest death” is no match for the victory of God.

This Sunday, I aim to show just how truly we dead we are, and to show how God makes us ALIVE!

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Series: unFaithful

Title: Deceit

Scripture: Hosea 11:12-12:14

Preached: 1/10/2010

On Tuesday night, I was watching the Iowa football game with my kids.  At some point during the game, one of the Georgia Tech players was injured on the field.  Immediately, my children cheered, “hoorah!”  I quickly turned to them and said, “We don’t cheer when the other team has an injury.  We want to beat them at their BEST so that it’s an ‘honest victory.’”  That phrase, “honest victory,” sounded so interesting coming out of my mouth.  Truth be told, I don’t always feel that way.  Most of us will say that honesty is important.  But, generally speaking, when push comes to shove, we’ll sacrifice honesty for the sake of victory.

For those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus, it’s important to know that God desires honesty from His children.  This is not because He’s a “kill joy,” but rather it’s because He knows that we can’t fight to get ahead…at least not successfully.  Ultimately, victory and blessing are from God.

This Sunday, we’re going to continue our series in Hosea by turning to Hosea 11:12-12:14.  And, in doing so, we’ll see that knowledge of God’s faithful integrity is an impetus to spur us towards love and good deeds!

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Series: unFaithful

Title: The Power of Love

Scripture: Hosea 11:1-11

Preached: 1/3/2010

I’m probably dating myself (which is a strange proposition in-and-of-itself), but I’ve always loved the song “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News.  It brings back great memories of the movie, “Back to the Future” with Michael J. Fox cruising through time in a Delorean.  The song starts with the line: “The power of love is a curious thing…”  I can’t think of a better introduction to Hosea 11.

For a couple of months now, we’ve been hammering away at Hosea.  And, let’s be honest, it hasn’t always been the cheeriest of series.  But this Sunday, the book of Hosea takes a drastic turn.  In light of all the unfaithfulness of God’s people, we discover God isn’t simply a sovereign being on the warpath against His own people.  God is, in fact, a holy God who loves His people dearly.  And it’s the power of that love that changes everything!

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Series: None

Title: Denny Ogden

Scripture: Isaiah 25:6-9

Preached: 12/27/2009

Speaker:

In John 6:41, Jesus tells a group of grumbling Jews that he is the Bread of Heaven.  He is speaking of two things.  First, He is speaking of His role as the one sent to invite us into the ultimate party that God has plans to throw at the end of history.  Secondly, He is speaking about how He is  the embodiment of a way that we can live now that brings daily, lasting foretaste of our future life.  Christmas and New Year’s form a season in which we expect to be in the “party mode.”  As we launch into a New Year, our neighbors, our country and the world have never been more in need of a church that understands the promise of our future life and is ready and able to invite people into the way of Christ - the way to the party that lasts all year!

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Series: Christmas Message

Title: Incarnation

Scripture: Philippians 2:5-15

Preached: 12/20/2009

If you’ve been part of WCC for very long, you know that I love doing baby dedications.  I love holding little children in my arms.  Every time I do this, I’m reminded of the frailty of human life.  A baby is completely and utterly dependent upon someone else.  A baby is utterly helpless to do anything for herself.  I think that’s what makes Christmas so amazing.  The Almighty God of the universe (limitless in power and sovereignty) chose to become a helpless baby.  God became a human being.  That’s the message of Christmas.

But have you ever wondered how this worked?  How could God be both God AND man at the same time?  Did Jesus just look like a man - in appearance only?  Or, was He some sort of man-god hybrid?  And, what was it like for God to be a baby?  Did He cry?  Did He have an exploding diaper?  Sunday, I want to think about the incarnation all over again.  Let’s stop and reflect in awe that the God of the Universe would become a baby.

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Series: unFaithful

Title: Wrong Way Worship

Scripture: Hosea 10

Preached: 12/06/2009

Do you remember learning about Galileo?  He is the Italian astronomer who is largely credited with influencing astronomers to accept Copernicus’ view that the Earth revolved around the Sun - not the other way around.  Can you imagine hearing this idea for the first time?  Every day of your life up to that point, you would have assumed that the Sun literally rose in the East and set in the West.  Just imagine.  Something like this would have turned your world upside down - literally!  It would have forced you to ask the question: “What if I got it wrong?”

Have you ever asked that same question about your worship of God?  Have you ever stopped to think, ‘What if I’ve got my worship of God all wrong?”  In Hosea 10, God instructs the Israelites to ask themselves this very same question.  Because He knew that, if they did, their worlds would have been turned upside down for the glory of God!

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Title: Taming the Tongue

Scripture: James 3:1-12

Speaker: Nick Reddin

Preached: 11/29/2009

The tongue is really who we are — it really is. The tongue is a tattletale and it tells on the heart. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” The tongue is the revealer of the heart.

Now in this third chapter, James presents the matter of the tongue as another test of living faith because true faith will be demonstrated by speech and so will false faith. Nothing is more telling on the heart than the tongue. And it’s of great concern to James. He mentions the tongue in every chapter. He mentions it twice in chapter 1 verses 19 and 26. He mentions it in chapter 2 verse 12. He mentions it in chapter 4 verse 11. He mentions it in chapter 5 verse 12. And he spends a large portion of chapter 3 dealing specifically with the matter of the tongue.

I look forward to digging into all that James has to say on this matter this Sunday.

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Series: unFaithful

Title: Enough

Scripture: Hosea 8-9

Speaker: Thomas Cackler

Preached: 11/22/2009

You might be surprised to hear this, but the thing I remembered most about sixth grade (aside from discussing the latest exploits of the A-Team on the playground) is our school music program.  I remember it because it was the first time I heard about the GIGO Effect.  Now, I won’t poison your minds with pictures of dozens of out-of-tune sixth graders singing about “garbage in, garbage out,” but the principle has stuck with me all these years.  What you get out of something is a direct result of what you put into something.

Fast forward to today.  In the many aspects of my life, I have to put something in for me to be able to get something out.  Regardless if it’s my marriage, job, worship life, or whatever, what I get out of a relationship or situation is directly proportional to what I put into it.  Notice I didn’t say how much I put in, but rather what I put in.  That is the core of the Gospel.

Israel struggled with the same thing.  They still had God in one hand, but they continually tried to add something else to Him rather than simply trust and obey, as the old hymn goes.  They tried to live their lives by adding to the conventional relationship they had with God rather than enjoying it for what it is: a treasure.

This Sunday, we’ll take a look at Hosea 8-9 and try to determine if God truly is “Enough” for us today.  I encourage you to take the time to re-read this passage ahead of time and come with an open heart and mind to hear what God wants us to hear.  Can’t wait to gather with you to worship our King!

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Series: unFaithful

Title: Irrelevant

Scripture: Hosea 6:11-7:15

Preached: 11/15/2009

For me, one of the weightiest verses in the Bible is Hebrews 13:17.  The author of the book of Hebrews describes godly leaders as those who “keep watch over your soul” and those “who must give account [to God].”  Anyone involved in leadership in the church should be haunted by these verses.  In our culture, we’re used to having our leaders fail us.  News of various scandals continually populate the headlines.  We, who view ourselves as part of a democracy, usually demand that our leaders represent us well.  But we’re never surprised when they let us down.  Is there such a thing as a truly faithful leader?

As we continue our series on the book of Hosea, we’re going to look at faithful and unfaithful leaders.  Hosea 7 is going to point us to an idea that may seem shocking and counter-intuitive.  Faithful leaders are irrelevant.  I hope that statement sounds a little funny.  Irrelevant??  In order to see why faithful and irrelevant leaders are essential to God’s plan for the church, well, you’ll just have to come on Sunday…

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Series: unFaithful

Title: Empty Religion

Scripture: Hosea 6:1-10

Preached: 11/8/2009

If you’ve ever followed business trends, you’ve noticed that the concepts of “employee loyalty” and “company loyalty” have drastically changed over the last 30 years.  Not too long ago, it was common to run into people who had worked for the same company for over 40 years.  For their entire career, those employees had been loyal to their company.  They did what was required of them.  They towed the company line.  Thus, the phrase “company man” originated.  A “company man” is someone who says what he’s supposed to say, even when it goes against his beliefs and even his fellow employees.  He says what he knows he’s supposed to say because, in the end, he believes it will serve his own interests best.

Some people think that, when it comes to religion, God is looking for “company men.”  They think He’s looking for people to do what He says regardless of what they think or feel.  In Hosea 6:1-6 we see something very different.  This Sunday, as we continue our series in Hosea, we’re going to see that God wants to shake up religion’s “company line” and radically engage people in a new religious paradigm.

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