Sermons by Pastor Gawel (Page 3)

You! Yes, you!

“Who, me? Couldn’t be!?” Remember that song? “Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?” Classic. It was such merriment to sing that as a kid of a certain age and get a chance to accuse someone of stealing the cookies right out of the jar! Excitement! Getting to deny that you stole the cookies…

Just Ask

If God appeared to you in a dream extending the same open ended offer he did to Solomon, what would you ask for? This hypothetical opportunity serves as spiritual Rorschach test. Dr. Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychologist, put his artistic side to work and started using images like [these] to help identify and analyze what…

The Struggle and Relief

We say, “The heart wants what the heart wants,” to justify being drawn to things, to people, to relationships, which are just toxic. “We’re not compatible, no good for each other. But hey, the heart wants what the heart wants!” Sometimes, the heart totally gives in, loses itself to another person, to a bad situation…

The Shepherd’s Heart

You might think Moses would have responded differently after all that happened during his time as Israel’s leader. Time after time, God showed his power and timed after time, Israel grumbled, disobeyed God, and hated Moses for telling them what God said. You’d think Moses would maybe say something else when God showed him Canaan,…

Going Forward

Do you ever find yourself wondering what things would have been like had that one thing gone differently? Maybe you feverishly wish this, but always to no avail. Spending time in that thought zone isn’t beneficial. It’s better to resolve to walk God’s paths going forward in saving grace rather than linger in regret and…

To and From the Empty Tomb

A very different mindset exists between the yawning person lacing up their shoes for a casual trot and the person stepping into the blocks at the Olympics. A very different mindset exists between the professional runner and the person who is running for their life. This level of urgency is not relatable for most of…

God’s Work Revealed

What’s a mirage? Usually something someone sees in the desert when longing for water. Off in the distance, there is a pond, a small stream, water, so the person runs to it and diving in, realizes it’s sand. Sometimes, they give way to the mirage and dig frantically at sand hoping beyond desperation to find…

And So It Was

And so it was that God completed heaven and earth in all their vast array declaring them to be, “Very good.” In that goodness, God gave the man made in his image the task of naming the animals. And so it was as he named the animals that the man came to understand that even…