Fourth Sunday of Eastertide

Hi folks, here is the sermon topic for this Sunday. We will be looking at Psalm 23, Acts 9:36-43, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30. The title of this week's sermon is “Don’t be Baaaad: Be a Part of God’s Flock!” We will begin with the Gospel text, which comes from the chapter where Jesus refers to Himself as the "Good Shepherd." In this part of the text, the Pharisees are quite angry with Jesus and looking to take Him out. So they ask Him who He is, and if He is the Messiah. He answers that He has already told them, but they don't listen because they are not a part of His flock. Those who belong to His flock are those who hear His voice and follow them. Christ even says that He knows them. I then show why it matters that we follow Christ by looking at the declaration of God's providence for His sheep in Psalm 23. If that sparks your interest, you know the time and place: 10:45 on Sunday at Bessemer Presbyterian.

The Midweek Sermon Extravaganza

Hi there, folks. Just thought I'd give a preview of this week's sermon. I'm preaching primarily on John 21:1-23, along with the other texts for the week (Acts 9 & Rev. 5:1-14). In honor of the first week of trout season, this weeks sermon is called "No Luck Fishing? Try it with Jesus!" The basic question that this: Jesus calls us Peter to follow Him, and of course that call extends to us as well. We are called to follow Jesus. What does that mean? How do we do it? And finally, Jesus was basically calling His disciples to leave their lives, their homes, their occupations to follow His call. What stands in our way of following the call God extends to each of us to follow Him?

All these questions and more will be answered at 10:45AM at Bessemer Presbyterian Church. I look forward to seeing you there!

Calm After the Storm...

Hi everyone! I'm doing really well, especially because of two recent and exciting developments:

1) All the Holy Week services at Bessemer went very well. People really enjoyed them and I felt good about that. Also, I went to all the Holy Week services I could this week, when meant that between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, I had gone to church 12 times: Church on Palm Sunday at Bessemer, the MACA Choir Festival/Service at Westfield Church, every morning at 6:45AM for the community Holy Week services at Mt. Jackson Church, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday at Bessemer, the Easter Vigil on Saturday night at St. Rose with Grandma, and then Easter Sunrise and Regular worship on Sunday. I was churched out by Sunday afternoon! But it was a wonderful week (especially since I ate six meals with the ladies from church this week as well - haha, that was a lot of fun).

2) The session voted, and the results are in: I will be the Student Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Bessemer (or Bessemer Presbyterian - the other is their "official" name). We believe that Presbytery will give this an okay, and everything will be set. I am thrilled to no end. So now I guess I can be called Pastor Leslie, or as I think I prefer, Pastor Nate. Has a neat ring to it, don't you think. Just think: a little over three years from now, I will be the Rev. Nathan R. Leslie - how wild will that be!?!? But let's not get ahead of ourselves... I've got a lot of school to go through and experience to gain before that time. But things are going well with that.

As for what else, I spent last week living at Grandma's house (I'm not allowed to call it my house, because it will ultimately be my brother's house at some point and he hates it when I call it my house. But Grandma has moved on to her eternal home, and Alex doesn't live there yet - so he'll have to deal with it). I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on it, but I did some major cleaning, repaired the bathroom window, and put a new tile floor in the kitchen. This weekend, I will continue cleaning the kitchen cabinets, and we have some furniture to move between my parent's house and grandma's (which is so funny, because neither house is mine anymore). I wish the weather would get warm so we could do some work on the outside, but that will come in time.

As for sermon stuff, I'm off this week. But as I look at the lectionary, I noticed there are several readings from Revelation coming up soon, so I'm thinking I might preach on those. But we'll see. Anyway, that's all from me...have a great week!