Cornerstone Community Church, San Jose Ca

It's finally here, one of my families' favorite events to watch on TV -- the Olympics. I suppose it's odd that I get so excited about watching the Olympics, given that I don't follow any of these sports at any other time. But for these two weeks I will take an interest in all of them, from gymnastics to running to cycling to diving to swimming. If you're a sports fan, then you're an Olympics fan.

It's often been said that our most painful regrets aren't over things we've done, but over things we haven't done. I have a poster in my office about this, one of those motivational posters. Many of you, I know, prefer the demotivational posters that you can find at despair.com. Here are a few:...

If you watch much sports, sooner or later you will hear this phrase -- "So and so just got exposed." It's a metaphor, of course; it doesn't mean that someone had their shorts pulled down in public or anything like that. Let's say a hot young prospect has been called up to the major leagues. For the first week or so he's hitting everything in sight. And then he runs into a pitcher who discovers that this guy can't hit an inside strike. The batter comes to the plate four times in this particular game, and four times he strikes out on a pitch in tight. And the commentators say, "He just got exposed." In other words, this batter's weakness is now out in the open. Everyone who faces him from now on knows that if you want to get this guy out, you throw him nothing but inside strikes, because as of now he can't hit them.

Have you ever been asked to do something that you just didn't want to do? Ever been assigned a task that was out of your comfort zone? Sometimes it was a request: "Hey, I think you'd be good at this. Would you like to help us out and give this a try?" Sometimes it was an assignment -- your high school teacher put you in charge of your study group and said you were responsible for organizing the group's findings and making the presentation to the class. And sometimes it's just the way life works. You got married, got pregnant, had a child -- all of which you were very much ready for. But what you weren't ready for was your child's disability, and your husband's lingering illness, and all of the sudden life is far more challenging and far more difficult than you expected. And the question is -- will you answer the call? Will you rise to the challenge?

Sports fans have come to know it as "Bountygate." If you are a football fan, you've surely heard about this, and you probably have an opinion about it as well. According to numerous sources, between 2009 and 2011 certain members of the New Orleans Saints football team operated a bounty system in which defensive players would be paid additional compensation for inflicting injuries on opposing players severe enough that those players would have to leave the game. It was alleged, for example, that prior to the 2009 NFC Championship game between the Saints and the Minnesota Vikings, certain members of the Saints put up $10,000 to anyone who hit Viking quarterback Brett Favre hard enough to knock him out of the game.

It's blockbuster season at the movie theaters, just as it is every summer. During the rest of the year we watch a fair number of romantic comedies, with a musical or two thrown in. We watch low-budget niche movies, movies with a message, movies that make us think. But not in the summer; in the summer, we watch action movies. There is no thinking allowed. Summer is the time to watch things explode, to do battle with aliens, to link arms with superheroes. It's blockbuster time -- from the Avengers to Prometheus to the Amazing Spider-Man to The Dark Knight Rises to The Bourne Legacy.

11 Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. ...

Have you ever been stereotyped? Most of us have. People find out a certain piece of information about you and from that one piece of information alone they conclude that they know pretty much everything they need to know about you. When we started Cornerstone I was working two full-time jobs -- I was an employment lawyer at a firm in Palo Alto and I was a pastor of this church. And it was interesting to see how people who didn't know me sized me up based on which job I told them about. If I told them I was a lawyer, I could see in their eyes that they thought they knew me, that I must surely fit the lawyer stereotype. And if I told them I was a pastor -- a pastor of a Baptist church, no less -- then they came to a whole different set of conclusions about what kind of a weirdo I must be. And when I told people I was a lawyer and a pastor, I could see two contrasting stereotypes crashing together in their minds. Most people didn't quite know what to say, other than, "You're a what?"

Did you ever read your kids the story of Pinocchio? As the story goes, Geppetto is a wood-carver who wants more than anything to have a son of his own. Geppetto than carves a puppet out of wood. Since it's a fairy tale, Geppetto wishes upon a star for a real son and in response the Blue Fairy appears who brings the wood-carving to life. But not so fast -- while Pinocchio is alive, he's still just made out of wood. And then the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio this: "If you will prove yourself to be brave, truthful and unselfish, someday you will become a real boy."

Let me remind you of the top five causes of marital conflict and see if you have experienced any of them in your family. Here they are: (1) communication -- either lack of communication or miscommunication; (2) in--laws; (3) sex; (4) money; and (5) issues relating to children. For those of you who have been married, do any of them sound like familiar topics of discussion? If you don't want to think about your own conflicts, just watch any episode of the TV show "Modern Family" and you'll see how quickly conflict can erupt and how disruptive it can be. Of course the show is a comedy, so they manage to make their conflicts all seem pretty humorous. But when you're in the middle of a family fight, it doesn't feel a bit funny, does it? Sure, now I can laugh about how Brenda recently took advantage of my weakened physical condition to give a bunch of my favorite sweaters to Goodwill -- sweaters you have come to expect me to wear on Sunday mornings but will now be deprived of -- but as you can imagine it was

I. David makes a proclamation II. David shifts from proclamation to problems III. David shifts again from problems to praise

You've heard the saying: "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." In more ways than one, the more than modern mom rocks. Our moms rocked us to sleep as kids, of course, when we were too young to appreciate them. But since then we have had the chance to see them in action day in and day out, and many of us would eagerly conclude that our moms, who are much more than simply modern, rock.

You don't need to watch the hit TV show "Modern Family" to know that the American family is going through changes -- big changes. When I was a kid our family consisted of my Dad, my Mom, my two older brothers and me, and I just assumed that all families looked pretty much like ours. But families are a lot more complicated than that, aren't they? They probably always were, and I just didn't realize it. Families are complicated, and they're often very fluid and they're always more than a little messy.

The first job I ever had was to mow lawns. From about fifth grade through high school I had six or seven lawns in our neighborhood in the suburbs of Minneapolis that I was paid to mow and keep up. Most of the lawns in our neighborhood were fairly large, roughly from a third of an acre to half an acre, so they were pretty big jobs for me, especially when I first started out. But even in fifth grade I knew exactly what was involved in taking care of a lawn. I knew how to use and take care of a lawn mower. I knew how to edge a lawn. I knew how to control weeds. I knew how to trim a tree. And I knew all of that even though I never took a class and never read a book on lawn care.

Have you ever heard a lecture by someone especially smart, so smart that most of it went right over your head? Everyone around you is taking notes and nodding their head approvingly, soaking in the great wisdom of the speaker, and you’re thinking, “I have no idea what this guy’s talking about!” I’ve been to a few talks like that in my life. And even though I’m a pastor and I’ve been studying the Bible for most of my life, I have to confess something to you – I find a number of the things Jesus said to be very hard to understand. There are times when I will read a chapter in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John and through most of the chapter I’m thinking, “Yep, I get it, that’s important, I need to remember this,” and then I’ll get to one or two verses and I’ll stop and think, “What in the world did Jesus mean by that?”

I don't have to tell you how in touch I am with contemporary culture and the ways of today's youth. I do, after all, eat at Applebee's, which is where the up and comers of today hang out. And just to prove it to you, this morning I'm not using just any old dictionary to define our terms; I'm using the "urban dictionary." Those of you who don't eat at Applebee's might not even know there is such a thing, but it's true. Here's how the urban dictionary defines the phrase "to call out." It means to challenge someone in some way or to announce that you know the other person's lies or true intentions. Suppose, for example, that I were to tell you that I was scratch golfer. Now the truth is that I don't even know what that means, but let's just suppose I was trying to impress you or I was trying to get some business from you and since you're a golfer I told you I was a scratch golfer. And imagine that you didn't believe me. So what might you do? You could "call me out." You could challenge me to prove it.

It may or may not be on your list of shows to watch, but ABC's Sunday night show "Once Upon A Time" draws roughly 10 million viewers for each new episode. The pilot episode opened with these words on the screen: "Once upon a time there was an enchanted forest filled with all the classic characters we know … or think we know. One day they found themselves in a world where all their happy endings were stolen … Our world." Let me show you the two-minute trailer for the show not because I'm trying to get anyone to watch it but because I want all of us to have the same reference point for what we'll be talking about today. Watch this: [TV trailer from You Tube]

When I was a teenager my Mom tried to teach me how to sew, but I never really learned. I don't have the best fine motor skills. It's not a matter of effort; I will try really hard. I'm just not good at it. When I moved from Minnesota to California in 1979 I had very few clothes and very little money, so I would just wear the same clothes over and over again until they wore out. Actually I never liked to admit that something was worn out, not if it was one of my favorite shirts or pants, so there were times I wore clothes with some holes in them. For the most part it didn't bother me, but from time to time someone would notice that there were buttons missing from my shirt or that I had holes in my back pants pockets, and it would be a little bit embarrassing. But mostly it just frustrated me because there was nothing I could do about it; I just didn't have it in me to fix those holes.

One of the most popular new TV shows of the year is called "Once Upon A Time," airing on Sunday nights. The show is set in two worlds and two times -- modern day Storybrooke, Maine and the Enchanted Forest of "once upon a time." Most of the characters we meet in Storybrooke correspond to one of our favorite fairy tale characters. Archie, the town psychologist, is Jiminy Cricket in his other life. Mary Margaret, the school teacher, is Snow White, while David -- who recently came out of a long coma -- is Prince Charming. Mr. Gold is Rumplestiltskin, and Mayor Regina Mills is the Evil Queen. In tonight's episode, in case any of you are interested, we will learn how the Evil Queen became evil and why she has such anger for Snow White. And it is because of that anger that the Evil Queen cast a curse on all the characters of fairy tale land, a curse that we are told can only be broken by one person -- Emma, who is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.

As we finish up our 40 Days in the Word spiritual growth campaign, I want to talk about the most important function the Bible can play in any of our lives. We’ve talked about a number of different ways the Bible can make our lives better. It gives us hope, it offers us direction, it helps us become better people. But this series would not be complete if we didn’t talk about the fact that the Bible can save your life.