Will Vaus

One of the very first questions I received when I announced this series on Ultimate Questions was:  How does God want me to live my life? Once we have answered the questions: is there a God and what is God like? Then this question naturally follows. That is to say, it naturally follows, if you think that God cares about how we live. There are some people who believe there is a God who created the universe, set things in motion, and then left everything to operate according to natural law. We call this view deism. The God of the deists is not really involved in our lives on a day to day basis. But if you are a theist, then you believe that God not only created the universe, but he is also actually involved in sustaining the universe from day to day. We call this God’s providence. And the God who has revealed himself in Jesus of Nazareth is definitely a God who cares about us, our everyday lives and how we live. In fact, this God cared so much that he became one of us. That’s

As I begin this sermon today, I feel a bit like the young pastor who was once asked to preach a sermon on sex. Being somewhat reserved he found himself embarrassed when he came to write the word “sex” in his notes while preparing his sermon. To remove this discomfort, he decided to simply put the letter “S” wherever the word “sex” was to be used. During his preparation the young pastor’s wife came in and looked over his shoulder. She noticed the letter “S” planted liberally throughout the text and asked him what the topic for the sermon was. Embarrassed even to tell his wife the topic the young pastor said, “s…s…sailing! That’s what the sermon’s about, sailing.” His wife thought it a bit of an odd topic for a sermon but guessed sailing might form a good analogy to the Christian life. Come Sunday the young pastor’s wife was ill with the flu and missed the worship service. Her husband however preached a terrific sermon. Although he started nervously he warmed to the topi