Newport First Christian Church Messages

After serving as pastor for almost 15 years, this is the Derek Helt's farewell message.

... Except When He Does Do you believe that God has a plan for your life — a detailed plan for your "ideal" life — that you need to search and do your best to follow? If so, then this message is for you.

In general, we value people who obey the rules. In fact, our society is livable largely because we respect the rules of a polite society. However, sometimes rules can get in the way of doing the right thing. Matthew 12:1-8 relate one such instance and Jesus' response.

Many, maybe even most, followers of Jesus "sell" the Gospel message as being primarily about going to heaven and/or avoiding hell. Certainly our eternal destiny is a part of the equation, but when Jesus spoke to lost people, he used a different tack. He did not tell sinful people, "Join with me or you'll burn in hell." No, he said "Join me, follow me, live life with me, and you'll be free and your life will have meaning.

Are you ready for Christmas? Most people aren't. In fact, many people come away from Christmas feeling anything but closer to God, even though they have just "celebrated" the coming of Jesus. Here are three words that might help your Christmas experience.

If you think the story of "the woman caught in adultery" in John 8 is about sexual sin, you're missing the point. It's not. It's about forgiveness; it's about coming back from something you thought there was no coming back from. It's about grace.

The Bible notes that King David was "a man after God's own heart." That's pretty high praise for an adulterous murderer.

Have you ever been at the end of your rope, been ready to call it quits, or entertained the idea that death might be better than what you're going through? If you're honest with yourself, you probably have to admit that you've been there a time or two. But, did you keep your despair a secret because you were ashamed, because you thought that it wasn't right for a godly person to have these kinds of feelings? Well, if that describes you, then you need to hear the story of Elijah's crisis.

What is the reality of your fight against sin in your life? Are you as put-together as you let people believe? I didn't think so. None of us are. We need to be honest and admit that our whole lives are basically playing "catch-up" when it comes to being the people that we would like to be.

When Jesus spoke about being forgiving, Peter asked how many times should someone forgive a person who wrongs them? He thought seven times was good. Jesus countered with 77 times! Of course, Jesus was not saying we should keep a running total of how often we forgive someone we believe wrongs us; he was saying that to be like God is to be forgiving.