Right-click and "Save As" HERE to download highlights from last Sunday's Morning Worship!

Why the sermon?  It's a good question in a day of fast-paced, well-produced, and unendingly variable forms of entertainment.  How can sitting and listening to a live orator compete with the numerous forms of technology that make all sorts of communication extremely accessible to everyone?

First, the sermon is still justifiable because of the Bible.  In the Bible, which we regard as the infallible Word of God and the only source of absolute, timeless truth in the world, gives us both command to preach sermons and the examples of sermons given.

Second, the moment of the sermon is not merely passive.  It is an active and divine encounter as the preacher speaks the Bible, a book inspired by God the Holy Spirit.  He does so by the impulse and guidance of that same Spirit, and speaks to a people united around the Bible by the Spirit.  It is a Spirit-empowered and dynamic moment  of relationship between the people of God and God the Holy Spirit, and between the people of God and the pastor God has given them.  It is a moment of relationship as God's people follow the pastor through the Bible toward the singular goal of human existence: God Himself.

Third, the primary purpose of the Church is to be the "pillar and support of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).  The Word of God is "the true center of Christian union" (Baptist Faith & Message).  The gathered people of God cannot help but lift up their voices proclaiming, praising, and applying His Word to their lives.

A NOTE FROM PASTOR MICHAEL: Beloved, when I was at a conference in Minneapolis in September 2009, Pastor Douglas Wilson gave a talk that included some wonderful comments on the Word of God and the Sermon.  I include the video for your edification.

Southeast corner of the I.H.B.C. facility with soaptree yucca, pinon pine, and Pino Altos mountains in the distance.