10/22/2025
You Might Be Thinking It’s All About You If…
In working on Sunday’s sermon I asked my computer’s AI if she/he could come up with a few suggestions in answer to the above: You Might be thinking it’s all about you, if…. Some of them are funny, some of them are insightful, and a few of them might make you flinch with a trace of conviction. Here are the best of the bunch. Enjoy!
- You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if your favorite hymn is “How Great I Am.” - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you bow your head to pray and begin with, “Dear Me…” - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you think the sermon was written
specifically to make you uncomfortable. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you measure the success of Sunday worship by
whether you liked the music. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if your prayers sound more like a grocery list than a conversation. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if “Thy kingdom come” quietly translates in your mind
as “My plans succeed.” - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you think God’s will is just a slightly improved version of your will. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you think humility is a spiritual gift you’ve already mastered. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you treat the church like a restaurant and the pastor like the waiter. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you can quote your favorite influencer/political pundit
more easily than Jesus. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you say, “God is good,” mostly when things are going your way. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you’ve never thanked God for something
that didn’t benefit you directly. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you want a Savior but not a Lord. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you like the idea of grace—as long as other
people don’t get too much of it. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you believe Jesus came to make you comfortable,
not to make you new.
Archived Posts
The Biblical prayer we don’t know what to do with
Psalm 137 is written by people who have experienced catastrophic loss.
They have been conquered...
Patience and Trust
Sunday, in my benediction (which traditional folks did not hear) I talked about the Marshmallow Test. The original results of that test with children was that those who could delay gratification did better in life than those who could not.
Gandhi and the Sugar
I wasn’t preaching Sunday, Reverend Jackie Chandler was. And she talked about the power of influence you get when you practice what you preach. This famous illustration came to mind. It fits Jackie’s points quite well. Enjoy!
Not Just for Parents
Our current sermon series is about How To Talk Parent, but it doesn’t require any of us to be parents to appreciate the bits of wisdom OUR parents shared with us growing up.
If Not Higher
Here’s a story I wanted to use when talking about ‘what you do when no one is looking’ yesterday. It’s a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 6:1-6—do what you do because of who you want to be, not so that others will take notice and praise you.
The Perfect Church
There is an old joke about the perfect church. We talked just a little about the perfect pastor, but turnabout is fair play. It goes like this:
The Clothes You Wear
Sunday I talked about Joshua the High Priest having his filthy clothing replaced by a cleaned and beautiful garments. I also used the illustration of a boy becomes a dragon—who ‘wears’ dragon scales—and is stripped of those scales in order to be restored to a boy. In fact, I could have done the whole sermon around all the clothing imagery in scripture.