Our preacher, Mark Stinnett, publishes articles for the church bulletin each week. These articles are designed to teach, encourage and challenge the members of our congregation. His latest articles can be found below with the most recent at the beginning of the list. Mark has archived all of his articles on his personal blog 'MicroMarks' which can be accessed at: micromarks.blogspot.com.
Preacher's Blog
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The Last Doughnut?
I usually skip breakfast on Sundays, but one Sunday morning I found a box of doughnuts on the countertop in the kitchen. I am a ‘meat and potatoes’ kind of guy, so I can pass up doughnuts. But there it stared at me through the clear cellophane panel, my favorite.
I indulged.
Bite after bite I enjoyed the sweetness; the perfect combination of frosting, filling, and fried dough...washed down with an ice-cold glass of milk. Ahh.
I don’t usually sit around thinking about what I’ve eaten, but that day I did. All morning long the doughnut sat in my stomach like a rock. It was tasty but only for a moment. It was filling, but not satisfying. My system was just not used to so much sugar, so the doughnut kept distracting me.
I thought about how compelling the taste was, yet how disappointing the overall result. In fact, the only benefit was the immediate and temporary taste experience.
I thought about how impulsive I had been. It often seems exciting to be impulsive. Yet, being impulsive is really nothing more than feeding an inner desire without thinking.
The more I reflected, the more disgusted I was with myself for lacking self-control. I came to a point in my thinking where the very thought of a jelly-filled doughnut was distasteful!
I am not angry with myself (or doughnuts), but I am determined not to allow myself to be fooled again. My decision is not rash or impulsive, but I don’t want to feel that way again. That might have been my last doughnut.
You can probably guess where this is going. Replace the word doughnut with sin and adjust some of the details.
Do you see the connection to the sweet desirable taste of sin? The sweet taste masks the deception. The taste is often very real and very sweet and very gratifying. Yet, the taste promises that the sweetness of sin WILL last, WILL bring happiness, WILL provide some kind of benefit. Yet, it is a deception. Sin destroys...always!
Satan wants us to focus on the taste and act on impulse. He doesn’t want us to think about the emptiness of sin. He doesn’t want us to remember past shame and guilt. He doesn't want us to think, just act.
Which past sin truly satisfied you? For which past sin did you later look back and find yourself thrilled with your impulsiveness?
If you sat and thought about a particular sin, I wonder if it would begin to make you feel sick to the stomach. I wonder if you would begin to find it repulsive. I wonder if the sweetness would lose its lure.
I wonder if it is possible for us to see sin for what it really is and come to the point that there truly is ‘the last sin’; not because we ran out of time in life, but that our desire for the sweet taste of sin has died.
Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
What benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death.
For the payoff for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:12, 21, 23 (The NET Bible)
Mark Stinnett
April 20, 2025
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That's Enough!
Adam and Eve were tempted to become like God and they ate the forbidden fruit. That’s enough! And God sent them out of paradise and cursed them.
Cain’s jealousy raged and he killed his own brother. That’s enough! And God cursed him and banished him.
In Noah’s day the entire world was bent on evil. That’s enough! And God purged the evil with a great flood.
Abraham asked God to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for ten righteous souls. God said, “That’s enough,” but He could not find ten. That’s enough! And God destroyed the wicked cities.
Isaac lay on the alter, his father’s arm drawn back, knife in hand, ready to offer his son as a sacrifice. That’s enough. And God provided a ram.
The Egyptians held the Israelites in cruel slavery. The people cried out for mercy. That’s enough! And God ravaged the evil Egyptians through plague after plague after plague, ten in all. And God’s people safely walked away from their captors with the bounty of Egypt.
The Israelites complained for water at Marah. In the desert they grumbled for food. At Mount Sinai they grew tired of waiting for Moses and built an idol. That’s enough! And God sent a plague on the people, killing thousands.
God gave Israel a law and instituted a system of sacrifices for sin. A sacrifice was offered on the Day of Atonement for the sins of the people…year after year after year after year…
Not enough…
And most of the people lost faith and chose evil…And God patiently waited…And waited...And waited…THAT’S ENOUGH!!!
Then Deity came to the earth in the form of the created. And he lived, and touched, and smelled, and tasted, and heard, and saw just like us…and He was tempted to sin…just like us.
He was perfect, but no one else was perfect.
He showed people how to please God, but no one else could please God.
So, God’s judgment stood against man and his evil, corrupt, unbelieving heart.
But Deity had a plan…
- Jesus, son of a carpenter, human, flesh and blood, just like you and me…
- Jesus, Son of God, equal with God, Deity…
- Jesus, God/man, perfect, righteous, blameless, unblemished...
- Jesus, willing sacrifice...
For all mankind...
For all time...
For all sin.
And on the day Jesus was crucified, God said…
...as he tore the temple curtain …
…as he shook the earth and darkened the sky…
…as he opened tombs and raised the dead…
…as he accepted that perfect sacrifice…
That IS Enough.
Because that sacrifice pleased God and that sacrifice satisfied God.
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Now, all who appeal to God’s mercy through the blood of that sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, will know joy in life, and peace with God, and confidence in salvation, and confidence in the hope of everlasting life. So, for you...
Is that enough!?
Mark Stinnett
April 13, 2025
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The Good Son
The Parable of the Good Son might not ring a bell because I am actually referring to the older son in the Parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15). The prodigal son asked for his inheritance, left home, lived a riotous life, and then returned home begging for a job as a slave. He was accepted back by his loving father as a son. The lesson is about God’s mercy for the lost person who returns to God. The older son stayed home. He was the good son.
The older son went about his work day after day, just a good son should. There was one day, however, that was remarkably different. He returned to his father’s house to hear what sounded like a celebration…. It was a celebration!
One of the servants told him that the celebration was for his younger brother who had returned home. The fattened calf, normally set aside for a an important guest, had been slaughtered for the feast. At this news the older son boiled with anger! HE had not made poor choices in life, not like his younger brother. It was not enough that his younger brother had returned home, they were throwing a party! Anyone would be angry! How insensitive.
Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever found yourself doing what you were supposed to be doing, yet you were overlooked or taken advantage of? Life’s inequities can often arouse anger. After all, hard work and dedication should be rewarded. Excellence should be rewarded. Personal sacrifice should be rewarded. Honesty and integrity should be rewarded.
In many respects the older son had every right to be angry. The younger son had disrupted the family enterprise. It was not simply a matter of taking money from the family’s savings account. Livestock and property were probably sold in order give the son his part of the inheritance. In addition, the family name was undoubtedly tarnished.
Perhaps the greatest inequity was that the foolish younger son had made his way back home and expected something more. A person could easily reason that the younger son was leeching off the older brother’s share of the estate.
Sometimes Christians feel a sense of anger toward fellow Christians who have wandered away from Christ but later returned. The younger son is a picture a Christian who has chased after a life of sin for a time, but later returned home to Christ. The foolish younger son should have known better, just as every Christian should know better than to leave Christ.
The older son displayed an attitude of arrogance. He had accepted his brother’s exit from the family and had effectively forgotten him. Now, he felt that the celebration for his brother’s return was unfair. It was unfair because of his brother’s sin AND because of his own righteousness. In HIS righteousness HE deserved better than his sinful brother. When a Christian is angry about the return of an erring Christian the same arrogance may appear.
The father said to the older brother: “My child, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.” However, the older brother could not see that all the wonderful blessings he enjoyed from his father. It is possible for Christians to have the same blindness. Yet, blessings in Christ abound for every Christian.
The selfish arrogance of the older brother had displaced something. What was missing?
Earlier in Luke 15, a shepherd left ninety-nine sheep that were safe to go in search of his lost sheep. A woman went to great effort to find her lost coin. Yet, who went in search of the prodigal son, that is, the lost brother.
When a fellow Christian rebels and turn from God we should respond with compassion and stive to restore the severed relationship.
May God destroy in us any jealousy or arrogance that would displace our compassion for our brother who errs.
Mark Stinnett
April 6, 2025
