I've found great virtue in two-thirds of the way into the message; right before I'm really want to nail home a point, pausing to tell a joke or to tell a light-hearted story, because I know my audience has been working with me now for 20 or 25 minutes. And if I can get them to laugh, get oxygen into their system, it wakes up those who might be sleeping, so there's something about using a story to draw people back in right before you drive home your final point. In that case I think it's real legitimate just to use a story for story's sake.

Worship is the thank you that can't be silenced

Yesterday you can't alter, but your reaction to yesterday you can. The past you cannot change, but your response to your past you can.

I think there is a time, if I can say this; there is a time in a message where you might just tell a story to give your audience a break.

The Bible is the story of two gardens. Eden and Gethsemane. In the first, Adam took a fall. In the second, Jesus took a stand.

If hurts were hairs, we'd all look like grizzlies.

In March 2011 I'm trying to decide on a sermon series that I will preach in January 2012. So, I'm about six months out.