Curwensville Alliance
By Curwensville Alliance
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Podcast Description
A Church of The Christian and Missionary Alliance -- 725 Susquehanna Avenue
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CleanSERMON: Problems of Pride | Presented February 5, 2012 Thanks to Steve Miller of Clearfield for, again, providing excellent pulpit supply. You can listen here to his sermon on the problem of pride. | 2/10/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSERMON: The Nature of Grace | Presented 1/29/2012 A pastor I knew had just cared for the funeral of a woman who had never given God the time of day until the week before her death. There, on her death bed, she repented of her sin and placed her faith in Christ. The pastor, hoping his people would rejoice over this child that was lost and had been found, mentioned this on the following Sunday in the morning worship service. He was surprised when a woman spoke up with: “That’s not fair.” It’s not fair. It’s grace. But if you have been working hard to coax God to accept you, it’s a little exasperating when you hear of someone who finds what you’ve been looking for comes by grace. This sermon speaks of the nature of grace, looking at the parable of the workers. | 1/30/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSERMON: Taking Faith-Filled Risks– A longstanding core-value of the Alliance | Presented 1/22/2012 You don't become a leader by playing it safe. Anyone who has ever been successful has decided to take, what appear to be, risks. The Christian and Missionary Alliance is no exception. You don't become a leading sending agency by staying home and drawing the curtains. Recently, the CMA has put into words what we've always valued and labeled these as our Core Values. As Pastor Steve was preaching through Matthew, the need for us to trust God leaped from the pages, reminding him of the need for all of us to take Faith-filled Risks. This topical sermon addresses this need, encouraging us all to be willing to trust God by obeying his call -- regardless of the risks. | 1/23/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSERMON: Am I Really a Christ-follower? | Presented 1/15/2012 What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Does it demand things of us? The Bible clearly teaches that it costs nothing to have your sins forgiven. Jesus paid it all. He took all the punishment as he hung on the cross. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But the idea of following Jesus without there being a cost in doing so is completely alien to biblical teaching. The New Testament church would have considered such a concept as nonsense. So would Christ-followers in places like Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, or Iran. This sermon speaks about the meaning of discipleship -- the reality of being a Christ-follower. | 1/16/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSERMON: It Matters to this One | Presented 1/8/2011 The story is told of a man who was walking along the beach, after the tide had gone. Scattered densely on the sand were thousands of starfish that the tide had brought in, but neglected to take out. In a short time, the sun and wind would dry the starfish, leaving them dead. The man, on his daily walk, was bending down, picking them up one at a time, tossing them back into the ocean. After watching this for a while, a tourist approached him and said, "There are so many starfish on this beach. What difference could what you are doing possibly make? What does it matter?" The man bent down, picked up another starfish, and just before tossing it into the sea said, "It matters to this one." If there is one tool of the enemy that is nearly universal in its effectiveness, it is the tool of discouragement. Often, because the task embodied in The Great Commission seems overwhelming, believers just give up. This podcast strives to help us avoid this. It helps us recover our lost expectations. | 1/10/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSERMON: Setting our Sights on Spiritual Depth | Presented 1/1/2012 In the 1800s, in the area of Virginia City, NV, Americans discovered a bonanza — a vein of silver which is said to have funded a great deal of the Union’s part in the Civil War. The shaft of silver was called, “The Comstock,” named after one of its early investors. The discovery was so important that it is argued that the city of San Francisco would have been nothing more than a ghost-town, were it not for the Comstock. The Comstock was an unusual mine in that the deeper they dug, the hotter things got due to the hot-springs in the ground. The temperature in the Comstock silver mine was in the triple digits —even around 150 degrees F. When they hit a vein of water, miners would be scalded — sometimes to death. A man named Adolph Sutro put together the money to dig a tunnel, almost four miles long, to meet the miners as they were digging down from Virginia City. The tunnel was one of the wonders of the time, being able to accommodate teams of mules in and out. Sutro’s plan was for the tunnel to meet the mine shaft as it descended. It was an impressive project. But Sutro set his sights too shallowly. By the time his horizontal tunnel intersected the vertical mineshaft, the digging was being done below his tunnel. Sutro sold out and went to San Francisco. When I first heard that story, I thought of how much we tend to be like that — missing the mark when we set our sights. Whether you’re speaking about, students in high school, young adults thinking about college, or people choosing a vocation, setting our sights deeply enough is often a struggle. It’s not the end of the world if you do that academically or even vocationally. Anyone who studies human beings can tell you that those outcomes don’t dictate happiness. And I can tell you, as a pastor, that success in life can actually hinder closeness with God, unless you set your mind to prevent that from happening. On the other hand, if I may, I’d like to say that often Christians tend to set their sights too shallowly concerning spiritual objectives they might want to reach. In this podcast, we think about where we want to be, in relationship with God, down the road. In order to be sure to set our sights deeply, we’ll look at Philippians 3, reading our way through it as we go. And we’ll take our cue from the Apostle Paul — who set his sights on something deep. | 1/2/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSERMON: Seeing and Living the Love of God at Christmas | Presented 12/19/2011 This week I saw a poster on my niece’s facebook page that said I don’t have time to hate people who hate me because I am too busy loving people who love me. There are things I like about that. I love the idea of ignoring — or better, overlooking — the evil that’s done to you. I love the thought of choosing to focus our energy on something positive. There are things I like about that and there are ways I see it could be improved. It’s great not to hate those who hate. And it’s good to love those who love you. But Jesus actually amps this up and says: "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.” ~Luke 6:27,32 This sermon speaks of the love of God for us, helping us learn to love when it’s hard to do so. | 12/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSERMON: Finding New and Meaningful Life | Presented 12/11/2011 This week I did a little homebrew research. I googled three phrases: “I feel like a failure.” Google found that phrase over 2 million times on the internet. “I feel like a loser.” Google found that phrase over 4 million times. “I feel guilty.” 67 million times. What I conclude from this research is that guilt is a huge issue in human lives. And when we think about it, we’ve some pretty good reasons to feel guilty. And we know it. But Jesus doesn’t say, “Hey — what you’re doing isn’t that bad. Lighten up!” Jesus says, “Yeah — you're right. You should feel guilty about what you’ve done. But I am here to take that guilt. I died on the cross to pay for your sin. You can be forgiven if you turn from your sin and trust in me. You can trade in your old life for a new one. I’ll give you a clean slate.” This Advent sermon is about three exchanges: Exchanging an old life for a new one; Exchanging a phony life for a real one; And exchanging a meaningless life for one of purpose. | 12/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSERMON: Looking for Peace of Mind at Christmas | Presented 12/4/2011 I read this week that the phrase, security blanket, was actually invented by Linus van Pelt. Linus’ sister, Lucy was always bothered by Linus’ attachment to that blanket. She tried to make Linus drop it. She stole it and hid it. Once she cut it up to make shapes for a flannel-graph. Another time she cut it into squares for Linus to use to clean his glasses. She once made a kite out of it and “accidentally” let go of it. Another time Lucy buried the blanket, causing a frantic Linus to dig up almost the entire neighborhood before Snoopy found it. Why would she do that? Because she was the annoying big sister. Because she was Lucy. There are a lot of Lucys in this world. In fact, it sometimes seems that the whole world is nothing but a mean old Lucy who tries to prevent us from having any kind of peace of mind. Now the Bible doesn’t speak about security blankets, but it does speak of being secure. The Bible speaks about being safe — about peace. That’s what this podcast is about today: Peace. If you’re looking for peace, give it a listen. | 12/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanSERMON: Finding Mercy, Purpose, and Redemption at Christmas | Presented November 27, 2011 It’s Advent — the time of year when we remember the birth of Christ. We kind of look back in time through the lens of faith and remember some things. We remember the Baby, born in a stable, the angels singing, shepherds, magi — wise men. And that which we look back upon is what people hundreds, even thousands of years earlier, looked forward to, through the lens of faith. One of the passages that helped them do this is Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40:1-5 (NIV) 1Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. 3A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” From the time Isaiah wrote those words until over 700 years later, when Jesus was born, people had to see this through the lens of faith. Those living in Jesus’ day — blessed are they — saw this come to pass. When John the Baptist showed up, Matthew said… Matthew 3:3 (NIV) 3This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” You and I, however, look back in time and see the same things. We do this through the lens of faith. This podcast teaches us what to look for at Christmas. More importantly, this podcast tells you how to find Mercy, Purpose, and Redemption in the Christmas Season. | 11/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 10 Episodes |
