http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons.html en-us ℗ & © 2012 Northern Lakes Community Church Sermons by Pastor Mike Riggins Sermons by Pastor Mike Riggins Weekly sermon recordings in MP3 format by Pastor Mike Riggins of Northern Lakes Community Church (NLCC), a Presbyterian church in Traverse City, Michigan. Text versions of many of the sermons are available on the church website. Weekly sermon recordings in MP3 format by Pastor Mike Riggins of Northern Lakes Community Church (NLCC), a Presbyterian church in Traverse City, Michigan. Text versions of many of the sermons are available on the church website. http://www.northernlakescc.org/images/northern_lakes_logo_small.gif http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons.html Steve Kellman steve_kellman@me.com clean Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for March 25, 2012 "We can bluff people. We can pretend to be somebody we're not and get away with it for quite a while.... Jesus is not fooled..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2012/audio/March_25_2012_sermon.mp3 Sun, 25 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EST 20:06 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for March 11, 2012 "Fifteen years ago, my wife Linda and I made a hard decision. it was to move here. It was not easy. We had lived in southern Indiana, we were about 50 miles from our parents and our hometown, which to our way of thinking was the perfect distance away...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2012/audio/March_11_2012_sermon.mp3 Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EST 17:28 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for February 26, 2012 "People have often made one of the three following statements to me about this church.... Number one: I love our church's being so small.... Number two: we've got to grow.... Number three: Why do we care whether we grow or stay small?" http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2012/audio/February_26_2012_sermon.mp3 Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST 22:02 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for February 19, 2012 "Jesus healed people. The Gospel of Mark tells us that sometimes Jesus healed people quietly, with no fanfare whatsoever. But at other times, He healed people dramatically, publicly, and by casting out demons...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2012/audio/February_19_2012_sermon.mp3 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST 21:20 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for February 5, 2012 "Mark the Gospel writer wrote breathless, run-on sentences packed with action verbs that hurried to tell about the words and works of Jesus as He did what God the Father called Him to do, preaching and teaching a radical new message about the Kingdom of God coming into this world...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2012/audio/February_5_2012_sermon.mp3 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST 24:02 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 29, 2012 "We call our youth group for middle and senior highs the Preacher's Creatures. I admit when Dawn Bondy first proposed the name to me, I didn't quite know what to make of it. I mean, sure, the youth can be creatures, but do they have to be mine? ..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2012/audio/January_29_2012_sermon.mp3 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST 18:58 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 22, 2012 "We want to trust in God. We want to trust that God will protect us from sickness and evil. We want to trust that God loves us. But can we? Can we trust in an unseen God in the midst of our all-too-visible problems? ..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2012/audio/January_22_2012_sermon.mp3 Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST 26:42 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 15, 2012 "Afer reading the first few verses of that psalm last Tuesday morning at the Bible study, I asked the Bible students there, 'How does it feel to be so completely known by God?' One Bible student said that he found some comfort in that knowledge. Some of the others seemed less sure..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2012/audio/January_15_2012_sermon.mp3 Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST 17:31 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 8, 2012 "My high school physics teacher had a cool way of illustrating the relative sizes and distances of all the bodies in the solar system. He'd take a basketball, which is always a handy teaching device in Indiana, and he would place that basketball at one end of a corridor on the floor..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2012/audio/January_8_2012_sermon.mp3 Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST 21:10 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 25, 2011 "It's Christmas morning, we changed the banner to white on the cross. White symbolizes light and glory, as I told the children earlier, or as they told me, I might say. But it also symbolizes purity..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/December_25_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST 23:30 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 18, 2011 "At five years of age, John Dau, D A U, fled his village. Five years of age. He would not see it again for over two decades. A civil war raged in his country, Sudan, and word had gotten out that troops were raiding villages and as they came to a village, they would kidnap all the boys..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/December_18_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST 27:25 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 11, 2011 "Speaking the old words. When I read that passage in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, I hear the King James in my head, and sometimes I actually said a couple of things out loud there that come from the King James version. My eyes saw one thing; my heart saw another..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/December_11_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST 15:58 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for November 20, 2011 "When Solomon took the Hebrew throne, Hiram, king of Tyre up the coast a ways, up the Mediterranean Sea, sent a delegation to congratulate him. And Solomon sent word back by that delegation with a message: 'My father David could not build a temple, but I can. Help me.' ... Twice, this church has built buildings..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/November_20_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EST 27:39 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for November 6, 2011 "Now I have to share a kind of a, well, a God moment with you. On Thursday night, a group of our youth and Dawn Bondy, our youth leader and I, went to Elk Rapids. There's a Presbyterian church there, and they're in a transition there with their youth ministry program and they had heard about our youth group.... Their pastor opened that meeting by reading that exact passage from the book of Joshua. That's all I'm gonna say..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/November_6_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EST 28:20 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 30, 2011 "I once sat on a motor coach driving across Pennsylvania beside a guy who sold fasteners for a living.... A semi passed us and he looked at the thing and he said 'I wonder how many rivets are in the side of the trailer that truck is towing?' He saw everything as fasteners, rivets. And in fact, the work we do does color our sight..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/October_30_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST 24:36 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 23, 2011 "From the day we announced our Spiritual Gifts emphasis, those of us who have been planning it have heard two comments.... By far the most common response weve gotten to this whole thing has been 'Well, I just don't see myself as gifted'..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/October_23_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST 23:30 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 16, 2011 "Just a short time before this, Jesus had been teaching in a synagogue on a sabbath, and a man with an evil spirit tormenting him came up to Jesus and Jesus commanded that spirit to leave the man, and it did...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/October_16_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST 21:01 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 9, 2011 "Paul might have been the second-most-important Christian in history, after only Jesus Himself.... Paul wrote almost one-third of the New Testament, Paul planted dozens, perhaps hundreds of churches, Paul preached the gospel across modern-day Lebanon, Turkey, Syria and Greece, often Paul was the first one to bring the good news about Jesus to a new area..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/October_9_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 09 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST 17:51 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 2, 2011 "Just a few feet in that general direction over there, we have the new building. If we had X-ray vision, we could look all the way down to the bottom, to the very foundation..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/October_2_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 02 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST 19:43 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 25, 2011 "On September 11, 2001, airplanes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Cener about 17 minutes apart. The fires caused by the explosions of the impacts burned so hotly that they consumed even the steel girders at the core of the buildings. That's what made them fall into themselves...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/September_25_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST 20:36 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 18, 2011 "The other day, at the Village of Bay Ridge, we sang a couple of hymns that just come right out of my youth.... Every Tuesday, the ladies there call out hymn names to the organist and then she plays them.... It sort of depends on which tradition the women who called out the hymn comes from. I guess we had a couple of Presbyterians call out hymns this past week..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/September_18_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST 20:56 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 11, 2011 "Today's sermon would probably not be considered a sermon by my preaching professors. Oh, I'm gonna base it on a Bible passage, First Corinthians 12, four through 11, and I'm going to try to explain the points in it, I'm going to try to apply it to our lives, but I'mg going to do it very quickly...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/September_11_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 11 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST 16:19 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 4, 2011 "If you don't understand that, don't worry; we're gonna work on it. That's a dense and powerful passage of scripture..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/September_4_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 04 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST 24:20 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for August 21, 2011 "Somebody asked me if Linda, my wife Linda and I had known any of the people hurt when the stage collapsed at the Indaian State Fairgrounds a week ago last night. Now, here's the thing...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/August_21_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 21 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST 20:09 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for August 14, 2011 "This passage surrounds us, literally.... This past Tuesday, at the Tuesday morning Bible study, Sam Tater said 'I read those words over and over again yesterday. ' Yesterday Tuesday would have been Monday. Monday we had a blood drive in here. Sam is like me. When he gives blood, he doesn't look...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/August_14_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 14 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST 22:45 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for August 7, 2011 "On my desk I have a yellow Post-it note lying flat on the desk saying 'How can the deacons help?" It's a little reminder to me to see whatever goes on in the life of our church ... to ask the question..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/August_7_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST 20:04 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 31, 2011 "For Father's Day, my daughter took me to see the last Harry Potter movie. She took me this week, after the fact, because that was the first time we were in the same place at the same time after Father's Day. It didn't really matter to me. The fact was I didn't have to pay for the movie...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/July_31_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EST 28:44 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 24, 2011 "I'm about to confess something that I've kept bottled up inside for 22 years now. I'm just gonna say it. There was a young man that I wronged...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/July_24_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 24 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EST 25:49 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 17, 2011 "Have you ever played the computer game Sims? In this game, you build something - a world, a virtual place, a town or just a house, even - and as you build it, the game generates virtual characters - people - who will come in and inhabit the world that you have created...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/July_17_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 17 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EST 26:17 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 26, 2011 "A study was done three years ago at the Universities of Iowa and Iowa State. And they studied how long different age groups of people prefer to have between stimuli. ..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/June_26_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 26 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EST 21:31 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 19, 2011 "I had planned to preach this morning on the destructive power of gossip.... But then the murder of Carly Lewis happened ... and suddenly, the power of gossip just didn't do it for me. Finding peace in Christ; now that was what I wanted to talk about...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/June_19_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EST 22:48 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 12, 2011 "Cain killed his brother Abel. God preferred an offering that Abel had made to one that Cain had made so Cain, jealous, killed him.... Anyone who thinks that James is a little harsh, a little unfair, who exaggerates the nasty side of human nature should think about that...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/June_12_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 12 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EST 18:26 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 5, 2011 "I'm about to preach against boasting and vain ambition. This is from the guy who every Christmas writes one of those letters that you probably hate to get. You know, it talks about all the great things my family's done in the previous year and how wonderful we are...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/June_5_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 05 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EST 24:57 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for May 22, 2011 "James uses these two terms over and over again - faith, and works. Common words, faith and works. Faith we probably get. Works, we might not.... Works in James are the things that make the love of Christ real through us. Faith, and works, you gotta have 'em both...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/May_22_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 22 May 2011 12:00:00 EST 21:27 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for May 15, 2011 "James does not pull his punches, does he. And I can see what I'm interpreting to be uncomfortable looks in the congregation as I read this passage.... If you read a passage like that, you begin to ask yourself 'Well, am I rich? If so, what does this mean?'...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/May_15_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 15 May 2011 12:00:00 EST 27:52 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for May 8, 2011 "Preachers often struggle to find just the right sermon illustration for a theme. But then every now and then, in the very week that a preacher is planning to preach about the power of the tongue to destroy, along comes the news that a man talked too much, and Osama Bin Laden went down...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/May_8_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 08 May 2011 12:00:00 EST 21:43 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for April 24, 2011 "Well, our Odyssey of the Mind team has had another good year. Soon they will travel to the University of Maryland to compete in the World Finals tournament. But as of about 4 o'clock in the afternoon a week ago Saturday, things did not look quite so rosy to me...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/April_24_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST 33:37 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for April 17, 2011 "In 1985, my wife Linda and I found ourselves on a train moving south through Belgium and Luxembourg.... Night fell, and it was like one of those dreams that you have that keeps recycling the same scene over and over again, tree after tree after tree.... This is a vast forest of low mountains in west central Europe called the Ardennes...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/April_17_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 17 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST 22:31 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for April 10, 2011 "Two months ago, I slept with about 20 men. My wife Linda, that same night, slept with about 10 women. It was part of Safe Harbor. It was one of the nights that we were hosting the homeless here in our church.... Now, I don't talk about this much.... I don't talk about it because Jesus said not to...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/April_10_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 10 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST 26:20 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for March 20, 2011 "Every household in Michigan pays approximately $2,500 more taxes per year than the average household in America.... What could you do with $2,500 more per year than you already have?...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/March_20_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 20 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EST 32:39 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for March 13, 2011 "There are two kinds of problems that an Odyssey of the Mind team has to solve. One of them is long-term, and one of them is immediate.... For a long-term problem, the team prepares all year long, and I mean all, year, long. The team gets seven or eight minutes to solve the other kind of problem...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/March_13_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 13 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EST 24:21 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for March 6, 2011 "During my high school years, my church, probably in a moment of desperation, elected me to be the youth representative to a pastor's nominating committee.... I remember not understanding a lot of what the grownups were saying on the committee, but knowing what I wanted. I wanted to have a preacher that I could listen to...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/March_6_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 06 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EST 17:40 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for February 27, 2011 "he same words appear at the beginning and the end of this parable that Jesus told. They're bookends for the parable of the owner of the vineyard, and they are hard to hear, if you think about them even for a second. 'The last will be first, and the first last'...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/February_27_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 27 Feb 2011 12:00:00 EST 26:50 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for February 13, 2011 "So a man approaches Jesus and says 'What good deed must I do to inherit eternal life?' The boy scouts say, 'Do a good turn daily.'.... When I thought about it, I do remember feeling some pressure. Do a good turn daily? How could I do a good turn every day? ...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/February_13_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 13 Feb 2011 12:00:00 EST 21:10 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 30, 2011 "Jesus has just told his disciples again... that they have the power to bind and to loose, that whatever they bid or refuse to forgive on earth will not be forgiven in heaven, and whatever they loose or forgive on earth will be forgiven in heaven...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/January_30_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 30 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST 18:15 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 23, 2011 "Roughly half of what we've read so far in the Gospel of Matthew happened under the shadow of the cross, under conflict that Jesus was having that would lead to the cross. Oftentimes, Jesus actually picked these fights...." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/January_23_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 23 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST 22:20 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 2, 2011 "On December 19, 2010, the Protestant churches of Vietnam got together and they rented a hall in Hanoi. They wanted to have an old-fashioned revival meeting. When they got there ... they found the doors locked and armed personnel, military personnel, blocking their paths..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2011/audio/January_2_2011_sermon.mp3 Sun, 02 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST 24:02 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The Christmas Eve sermon for December 24, 2010 "Probably the worst time came the first day on the ranch when a sheep stepped on me where my big toe meets the rest of my foot. It started bleeding so fast that I couldn't even get my sneaker off on time..." http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/December_24_2010_sermon.mp3 Fri, 24 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST 12:58 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 19, 2010 I know you probably don't understand. That's why I'm here. Let me try to explain all that. King Ahaz, he had trouble on his hands. Some years before, King Ahaz had staged a coup against his own father.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/December_19_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 19 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST 22:55 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 12, 2010 Once upon a time, Linda and I lived in California. At some point in the winterand by winter in California, I mwan a time of year, not a change in temperaturea poppy grew up in a crack in our sidewalk.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/December_12_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST 19:46 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 5, 2010 When we first met Ian Wilson, he was a nine-year-old boy with extremely long blond hair and a fixation on the Star Wars movies.... Today, Ian Wilson stands his post as a member of the U.S. Army in South Korea. He's along the border.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/December_5_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 05 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST 21:01 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for November 21, 2010 ... "Some people say you're John the Baptist." Herod had executed John the Baptist only a few weeks before, probably, and unless John's soul had somehow jumped from John to Jesus now, Jesus isn't John, so that can't be the correct answer.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/November_21_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 21 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST 20:42 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for November 14, 2010 Our passage gives us two riddles to solve. What did Jesus mean by "the sign of Jonah"? And, given that He warned us to beware of the teachings of certain people, which teachers should we worry about today? .... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/November_14_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST 23:53 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for November 7, 2010 A delegation of Pharisees and scribes came to see Jesus, all the way from Jerusalem. Now the Pharisees, they were experts on the Jewish law. They had studied it; they really had. And most of them tried very hard to follow all the intricate details of that law.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/November_7_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 07 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST 19:49 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 31, 2010 What should Christians do with Halloween? My brothers and I knew what to do with Halloween. Usually on the day of Halloween, sometime in the late afternoon, we would begin to think about our costumes. Our anxious mother would ask us what we were going to do and we would say "What's the problem? We still have a couple of hours.".... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/October_31_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 31 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST 23:51 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 24, 2010 Jesus has just learned of the murder, the execution, of His cousin John the Baptist. The news hits Him like a ton of bricks. He tries to pull away from the mobs following Him, He needs to be by Himself, but they chase Him down, and they demand more miracles, more healings. So, from the depths of His pain, He performs miracles.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/October_24_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 24 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST 21:10 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 17, 2010 For the second time ever, I watched a world event unfolding live, streaming video, on my desktop computer, here in the church. The first time was last spring, the Masters golf tournament. This time, it was the rescue of the Chilean miners. It was hypnotic, it was amazing, to watch that unfold again, and again, and again, the winch letting down three Empire State Buildings' worth of cable down into the earth.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/October_17_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST 25:06 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 3, 2010 Somehow, your eyes know to open an hour before dawn. Morning after morning, they pry themselves apart in the cold darkness. You heave a sigh, and you roll your legs out of bed and down to the dirt floor as quietly as you can. Let her sleep a while yet. Her day of drudgery will start soon enough.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/October_3_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 03 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST 21:50 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 26, 2010 Handsome, rich, well-connected, beloved by his troops, General George McClellan wanted the presidency. Ambitious and vain, he despised the man who was president, calling him, and I quote, "the original gorilla." He ignored orders, believing that only he, McClellan, could grasp the true military situation.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/September_26_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 26 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST 29:19 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 19, 2010 The man was exhausted. He'd been out on the road so long, he hardly kne wwhere to call home. He'd just come from a university town. Walking its streets had sapped his spirit. It seemed like the people there reveled in every seductive form of black magic, every goofball New Age practice, every experimental lifestyle.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/September_19_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST 25:59 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 12, 2010 Let me tell you a story. I made it up, and I didn't. This story is kind of a compilation of a number of older men I have known through the years. It's not any one of them in particular, it's all of their stories cobbled together.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/September_12_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST 20:54 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 5, 2010 God inspires us, literally. Sounds obvious, doesn't it? But really that word "inspire" means more than we appreciate sometimes, I think. The early chapters of Genesis contain the story of God creating through inspiration, God creating through inspiring.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/September_5_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 5 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST 21:13 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for August 8, 2010 John the Baptist and Jesus were kin. Their mothers Mary and Elizabeth were cousins.... Furthermore, before John the Baptist's birth, there were angelic messengers and holy messages just as there were for Jesus. There were wondrous signs. And even more than that, when John grew up, he grew up to be every bit as much of an oddball sort of peculiar man as Jesus did, somebody that people didn't know quite how to take.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/August_8_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 8 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST 23:58 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for August 1, 2010 From New Testament times right up through today ... the persecution of Christians has never stopped. It's going on all around us. It didn't take me very long to find an example.... About a year ago now, a month-long reign of terror against Christians in India began.... It started in a small way. A Hindu woman married a Christian man.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/August_1_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 1 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST 23:45 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 25, 2010 On the last night of each year's mission trip, we have a candle circle.... If I remember to do it, each year at Christmas, when Christmas passes, I take the Christ candle out of the Advent wreath that we have up here on the stand, and save it. And then the next summer I get it out of storage and use it for the candle circle.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/July_25_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST 26:11 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 18, 2010 We have, in this room, about 30-35 of us just returned last night from this year's mission trip. We went to Claysburg, Pennsylvania, which is just south of Altoona, which is in west central PA. And we went there hosted by an organization called Team Effort, and Team Effort provided the organization, the spiritual leadership, and a lot of the support for the trip. They picked a theme verse, and a theme for the week. The verse is what we are now reading, Romans Chapter 12, beginning in verse one.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/July_18_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST 28:57 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 4, 2010 This week, as you saw before, we held not just Vacation Bible School, but Challenge '10. These are two of the three big summer youth programs that we offer, the third one being the mission trip which starts one week from right now.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/July_4_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 4 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST 23:31 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 20, 2010 The State of Indiana has a population of just over 6 million. The State of Michigan has a population ofr just over 10 million. Yet, look in the atlas and you will find that Indiana has far more towns. Why? ... Two reasons; urbanization and basketball.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/June_20_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST 26:23 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 13, 2010 After Jesus finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount, He resumed with His healing and teaching ministry.... He would preach and teach, and He performed healings, healing miracles, and the word got out and crowds were following Him everywhere he went, and people were begging him for help.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/June_13_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 13 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST 18:53 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 6, 2010 Take a look at that picture up there.... That lovely home sat on West Coast Boulevard, in Waveland, Mississippi. Just behind the photographer, and I mean right behind the photographer, would have been the beach, and behind that, the Gulf of Mexico.... Houses like that or nicer lined that boulevard for 60 miles.... Southerners call that stretch of highway, or used to call it, the Gold Coast. But not anymore.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/June_6_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 6 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST 27:10 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for May 16, 2010 Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.... Robert Frost wrote that poem, The Road Not Taken, in 1920. That's just about everything Jesus had to say in this part of the Sermon on the Mount... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/May_16_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 16 May 2010 12:00:00 EST 20:52 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for May 9, 2010 I've learned that roots often run in unpredictable ways, and that plants share roots. If we pull apart Jesus' Sermon on the Mount ... we'll find that the roots connect.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/May_9_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 9 May 2010 12:00:00 EST 14:50 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for March 7, 2010 After careful consideration I have added a movie to my short list of greatest of all times.... The newest member of the club is the Princess Bride.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/March_7_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 7 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST 23:44 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for February 14, 2010 So I was surfing the Internet looking for an illustration for this sermon, and I came across a place called BrickTestament.com, where the Reverend Brendan Powell Smith has posted thousands of photos that he has taken of scenes from the Bible, beginning to end, all made out of Legos.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/February_14_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST 23:49 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for February 7, 2010 My Oxford study Bible has a heading for this short passage that really gets it. It's a perfect summary, but it puts it in church language. I'm going to give it to you, but then I'm going to give it to you in Northern Lakes Community Church language too.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/February_7_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 7 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST 18:11 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 31, 2010 Detroit fans pour into the streets to celebrate the Lions' victory in the Superbowl! Soldiers thank their enemies for wounding them severely and placing them in prisoner of war camps. Pat Robertson tells the Haitian people that they should thank God because the earthquake was obviously a sign of favor from the Lord for their having practiced voodoo.... These three imaginary headlines illustrate the nature of Jesus' Beatitudes.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/January_31_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST 25:22 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 24, 2010 Jesus has received his baptism, He's passed the temptation test, His cousin John the Baptist has been arrested by Herod. The preliminaries are over. It's time for the main event.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/January_24_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST 19:02 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 17, 2010 We fail; Jesus did not. We fail the Temptation Test early and often; Jesus did not. Jesus passed the test, and because He did, we can hope to have eternal life in His presence.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/January_17_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST 20:01 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 10, 2010 The earliest Christians couldn't wear their Christianity publicly. It wasn't safe.... So how did they find other Christians? http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/January_10_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST 19:35 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for January 3, 2010 How well do you handle unexpected news? Even good news can throw us.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2010/audio/January_3_2010_sermon.mp3 Sun, 3 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST 28:32 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 27, 2009 The best celebrity meltdowns, you name it - somebody's got a list out there. The problem is, as all right-thinking Americans agree, the decade does not end for another year. Right? Right.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/December_27_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST 30:53 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 20, 2009 Tony Horowitz is one of my favorite writers. He's an American Jew who has been traveling the Arabic world on assignment for the Wall Street Journal for over 25 years now.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/December_20_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST 23:26 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 13, 2009 If you really want to get depressed, I recommend that you visit the following website - USDebtClock.org.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/December_13_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST 21:19 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for December 6, 2009 Wynton Marsalis is the great trumpet player of our time and he's a jazz educatior as well, and for several years now, instead of touring the country in concerts, he's been giving jazz workshops to young people.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/December_6_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 6 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST 23:32 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for November 22, 2009 Sam and Helen Walton. Sam used to like to get into his own private jet which he had a license to fly and he would fly all over the country. And he would file a flight plan with the local airport that said "I'm departing Bentonville; I don't know where I'm going".... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/November_22_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST 22:47 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for November 15, 2009 In 1971, Linda Rondstadt needed a backup band. She was getting to be a big deal, and they decided that rather than have her pick up musicians everywhere she went, she'd get a steady group. So her manager went around the Los Angeles studio scene and hired the best musicians he could find.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/November_15_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST 22:18 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for November 8, 2009 Every bulletin, every newsletter we publish contains our church's mission statement, and I think that it's like that dot on the wall in the psychology experiment where they have you stare at it and then it disappears.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/November_8_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 8 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST 24:31 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for November 1, 2009 We just read the climax not only of the Book of Revelation, not only of the whole Bible, but the climax of all of time. This is what we're all aiming for, and it contains the best possible news that we could ever hear; Jesus is coming again.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/November_1_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 1 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST 23:50 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 25, 2009 An anonymous Jew wrote Hebrews, and he wrote it about 30 years or so after Jesus rose from the tomb.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/October_25_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST 17:38 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for October 18, 2009 Hebrews 5 ... contains a description of Jesus as the high priest, which probably strikes our ears as a little bit strange. We don't talk about priests that much in the Presbyterian Church.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/October_18_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST 23:48 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 27, 2009 About 25 years ago I played Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof," so I'm going to spare you but I'm tempted to sing the song "Tradition".... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/September_27_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST 23:08 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 20, 2009 We find God at work when things come together a bit too perfectly for coincidence... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/September_20_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST 22:44 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for September 6, 2009 Between Flint and Saginaw I saw it: a bumper sticker on the back window of a Chevrolet pickup. It read, "Please don't put MY flag on YOUR foreign car"... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/September_6_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 6 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST 27:50 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for August 30, 2009 Last week I spoke of how as a Presbyterian Church we do not tell people what they must believe. This is not the same as telling people to believe anything - or nothing - at all.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/August_30_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EST 24:50 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for August 23, 2009 My parents visited us this week. While here my dad told me a story. Some years ago he took his blind friend Larry fishing. They had a great time.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/August_23_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EST 21:50 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for August 2, 2009 Often, when we think we cannot keep going, we encounter a person who inspires us not to quit. This is one of the most important works of the church.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/August_2_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 2 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EST 21:20 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 26, 2009 While driving through Pickford, Michigan last week I saw her. She appeared seventy or eighty years old.... A piece of trash littered her otherwise perfect lawn. She painfully bent down, stretched to grab it, and straightened up in stages. This, to me, symbolized Pickford. http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/July_26_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST 27:50 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 19, 2009 We receive the Holy Spirit by believing in Jesus Christ. That's it. That's the whole sermon. I'm done. Well, perhaps not.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/July_19_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST 21:30 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 12, 2009 I found the following story on a web site entitled batteredsheep.com. I cannot verify it but, sadly, it rings true to this pastor of twenty-four years experience.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/July_12_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST 24:30 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for July 5, 2009 Jesus builds us up, or he takes us down. It's one or the other.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/July_5_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 5 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST 24:09 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 28, 2009 I quote from an obituary by Patricia Sullivan that appeared in last Sunday's Washington Post: "Each night for 24 years, Emma Daniel Gray would diligently clean the White House. When she came to the president's chair, she would pause, cleaning materials in hand, and say a quick prayer".... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/June_28_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST 25:37 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 21, 2009 Quick quiz: who said, "Where the corpse is, the vultures will gather"? Confucius? Mark Twain? It was Jesus. And he said it just before telling the parable we read today.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/June_21_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST 22:26 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 14, 2009 In last Sunday's sermon I made a joke that involved criticizing country music. I have since been reminded that some of you do not share my taste in music - and a few of you country lovers would prefer it if I kept my opinions to myself.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/June_14_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST 20:25 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for June 7, 2009 My grandma loved the Bee Gees. She probably did not know the title of a single one of their songs. Maybe she did not even know their name. But when one of their tunes came on the car radio she would sway and hum along.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/June_7_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 7 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST 22:55 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for May 24, 2009 For years, I sat on gym floors and heard the emcee call out the names of those who had won. I saw the bright smiles on the faces of the children. I sa the coaches, on more than one occasion, brushing tears off their cheeks as they went forward to receive their rewards. On more than one occasion, the team that had won was actually sitting right next to us and kind of forced its way through us to get up forward to get their medals and their trophies.... Everybody knows how it feels not to win.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/May_24_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 24 May 2009 12:00:00 EST 20:55 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for May 17, 2009 Randolph Frederick Pausch.... Last summer he died of pancreatic cancer, 47 years of age. Ten months before he died, Randy Pausch delivered a lecture which he entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." He gave it as a part of Carnegie Mellon's "Last Lecture" series in which scientists were asked to speak about what really matters to them.... For Fandy Pausch, this almost literally was his last lecture, and he knew it. The doctors had told him clearly that his time was about up.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/May_17_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 17 May 2009 12:00:00 EST 24:18 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for May 10, 2009 A couple of years ago, on a summer morning, I was driving along Long Lake Road and ... I saw a very odd sight about a quarter mile ahead. There was an SUV, motionless, sideways, straddling the center line of the road.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/May_10_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 10 May 2009 12:00:00 EST 22:41 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity Mike Riggins The weekly sermon for May 3, 2009 John Calvin wrote that you can pour all the oil you like on a lamp. But unless you open it, the inside remains dry. And in the same way, Calvin continued, you can read the Bible all you like, but unless you open yourself up to it, you remain spiritually parched.... http://www.northernlakescc.org/sermons/2009/audio/May_3_2009_sermon.mp3 Sun, 3 May 2009 12:00:00 EST 20:21 sermon, Presbyterian, church, Christianity