Category: Notes, Sermons and Talks

Repentance

This is a message I shared at New Beginnings Community Church Sarasota on Wednesday, September 23rd. It is called “Repentance,” and sounds very serious, even sad, but ultimately, it is about joy in the Lord.

Today I want to talk a little bit about repentance. I think in a previous generation we may have stressed repentance a little bit too much, but now we make too little of it. 

First, though, I want to set the tone before we get to the main idea. In Matthew 20, Jesus tells the story about the workers in the vineyard. Early in the day, the landowner goes to the

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Millennial Views

A Partial Summary

In Revelation 18, Babylon the Whore has fallen. At the time Revelation was written, Babylon probably meant Rome, although it can stand for any dominating worldly power. It can even apply to us today!

In Revelation 19, heaven rejoices at the fall of Babylon, and gets ready to attend the wedding of the Lamb and the Bride, which is Jesus and his church. John’s vision continues and he sees a Rider on a white horse called Faithful and True. He has many crowns and is called the Word of God. On his robe and thigh are written his name, King of kings and Lord of lords. He has a sharp sword in his mouth to strike down the nations. An angel calls out to all the birds to prepare for a great feast of the slain bodies of mighty men. John sees the beast (the Antichrist) and the armies of the kings of the earth getting ready to fight Jesus. And with him the false prophet who deceived people into worshipping the Antichrist. The beast and the false prophet are captured and thrown into the lake of fire, and all the armies are killed by the sword in the mouth of Jesus, and they are eaten by all the birds who had gathered.

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The Rapture

 

Do you believe in “The Rapture?” It depends on what “rapture” you actually mean.[1] Our word rapture comes from the Latin word raptus, meaning to be seized, caught up, snatched away, or carried off. This is the way the old Latin Vulgate Bible translated 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (ESV): “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” 

We will all be “raptured” to meet Jesus when he returns to earth. At the same time, the wicked will be destroyed, heaven comes down, and we live with Jesus and the Father in the New Jerusalem forever. This has been the view of Christians around

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Wesley’s “The Scripture Way of Salvation”

A message I gave at New Beginnings Community Church on June 24th, 2026:

For a long time now, I have been a fan and a student of John Wesley. He was probably the most faithful interpreter of Scripture you could ask for. He said we should not be required to follow any requirement of religion, but what was exactly in the Bible or could be deduced from what was written in it. In one of his most famous sermons, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” he pretty much summarizes it all. This is what I am going to talk about tonight, with a little update on his language, and a twist and a shortcut here and there. There’s lots of Scripture, so don’t try to write it all down. If you want it all, I can email it or message it to you.

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