jrod,

thanks for your feedback on the sermon. I really appreciate it.

yes, my dad was the person commenting. He recorded the sermon using a digital voice recorder that I got him for christmas. He wasn’t mindful of the fact that he would come through loud and clear during the recording.

Eating meat sacrificed to idols was addressed during the council at jerusalem in acts. Paul also addresses it in Romans. When all passages are taken in context:

acts is saying: don’t continue in those pagan practices
romans: Though pagan practices are done unto false Gods, don’t eat meat sacrificed to false Gods if it causes your brother to stumble
revelation: You have some people in your church you are still holding to pagan practices. They are worshipping false Gods. They need to repent.

at least that is my take on those texts.

compromise would be defined as not taking God at his word. Kinda like “I know the bible says this, but i’m going to do this other thing anyway”. It’s the omission of diligence from our act of glorifying God with our lives. That omission can lead to a seared conscience.

I will certainly take your advice into consideration (for future sermons) and welcome all the advice that you can give. I certainly struggled with phrasing my questions as I was putting the whole sermon together. I REALLY didn’t want to come off as “holier than thou”.

I just prayed that no one walked away with the impression that christians don’t sin. I remember making a point about accountability and discussing struggles with sin. My ultimate goal was to let people know how much of an offense sin is against God. I recently heard someone put it soooo well. When taking the time to prepare my next sermon (when ideas come to mind during study, i write skeletons in word and save them…but i’ve yet to flesh any of them out), i’ll probably address that issue head on.

The organ at the end was part of the invitation. At my church i can’t remember an invitation to christ that has been silent. I would attribute that to culture…it kinda plays on emotionalism to a certain extent…but there are certain things that i accept on the basis of cultural upbringing and not biblical mandates. As long as the culture doesn’t disagree with scripture.

I haven’t had any formal training on how to prepare a sermon, HOWEVER, i’ve been under really solid teaching for the past 9 months at a Calvary Chapel in maryland. Their distinctive is line upon line expository teaching. Whatever semblance of a style that I have has certainly come from my pastor down here (down for me, up for you) in maryland. This is my first time being in a church that has teaching like this.

ALSO- i’m trying to figure out which seminary i’d like to go to. I’m pretty sure that I want to go somewhere in the north since i miss new york city so much. The only issue is that the north is full of so much heresy that i’m very nervous about this decision. I see myself enrolling in the fall of 2008.

humility? I’m the most humble person i know!!! 😀 But seriously, since that came to mind, please agree with me in prayer the God would continually keep me humble and continually remind me that everything is about him.

-Tim & Marilyn

that’s one NICE looking mcdonalds!!!

was the menu the same? Did they have fancy napkins? ketchup dispensers? cups? was there a wait staff?

It was part of a cute wind chime that hung on that balcony.

Greg is so CUTE!! He does look like he’d be a big ham, but like you said, I wonder where he gets it from! = )

Love the pictures!  Anna looks especially good now that she’s a Hinton….

Looks like you guys had a great time…of course!!   ;o)

-us 5 girls

Matt