Okeechobee Presbyterian Church

10/11/2026

09/27/2026

When he entered the pulpit, he heard the door close behind him and a key turning. He was locked in.

So goes the story related by the theologian Stanley Hauerwas.

Some years ago, while lecturing in Scotland, he was asked to preach at the Cathedral of Edinburgh. The sexton had a surprise for him. As Hauerwas entered the pulpit and closed the door, he heard a key turn behind him. The sexton explained that it was the church’s tradition, dating back to the Reformation, to lock the preacher in the pulpit and keep him there until he had preached the Gospel.

Now there’s an idea I can get behind.

Preachers who don’t preach the Gospel are a strange breed. Imagine a chef who won’t cook. A doctor who won’t doctor. A teacher who refuses to teach.

Yet preachers who don’t preach the Gospel are frighteningly common. Much might be said about the Bible, discipleship, stewardship, praying, avoiding evil, and other “spiritual issues,” but somehow Jesus and his work for us get lost in the shuffle.

The Spirit did not put preachers in pulpits to be pontificating moralists, political hacks, spiritualizing psychologists, wannabe Moseses, or motivational speakers.

Life is too short to be in a church with a preacher that doesn't preach the Gospel.

If you are in such a congregation, walk away and never look back.

Preachers are, like John the Baptist, “a voice.” A voice to proclaim Christ crucified and risen for us. Yes, they expose evil, call to repentance, instruct, admonish, and warn. But most vitally, they preach the Gospel.

They use their tongues as keys to liberate those sitting before them.

They preach to people whose marriages are collapsing, whose children are addicted, whose families are estranged, whose bodies are sick, who have sinned.

We need the good news of Jesus in all its unabashed and unlimited grace. It won’t untangle every knot in their lives, but it will provide an anchor in the storm.

We need to be lifted out of our spoiled, selfish, stained stories and planted firmly in the grand story of how “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.”

Once that Gospel has been proclaimed, swing wide the pulpit door. The preacher has done his job.

09/26/2026

HEADS UP, FRIENDS! We had the bulletin all done and service prepared for our normal sermon in the new “Romans Highlights!” Series. However, with the sudden loss of Ron and surround-sound grief this week, we are calling an audible on the field (to use a football metaphor): We are changing the sermon to address high level grief and questions for God. If you know someone struggling with similar questions, facing deep grief and loss, please share this info with them. By God’s grace, it will be an encouraging sermon, assisting with the journey of healing.

09/26/2026

Ron Eggen, Sr. — Memorial Service
Sunday 11:30 AM — Following Morning Worship.

We received a shock this week when Ron suddenly passed out and then went straight to be with the Lord. He seemed to be in great health, always helping people — the one everyone leaned on for many things, always handy and helpful!

And then, boom! God took him. It doesn’t seem real, but we have to walk through the Valley of Shadow, and deal with it as real. Grief is real. The shadow of death is real. But, “we do not grieve as those who have no hope!” Our hope is sure: We have an anchor that keeps the soul. By grace, through faith, we will see him again!

In honoring the family’s wishes, service will be tomorrow after main worship service: 11:30 AM with a light luncheon following in the Fellowship Hall.

09/24/2026

As a boy, Andy Andrews once got a spanking for singing a new rendition of Amazing Grace! Listen as he shares this funny story. (And shout out to Sue Cravens Phillips for sharing this. 🤗)

09/22/2026

WISDOM FROM EEYORE AND POOH ON GRIEF AND LOSS.

HT: Kathleen Fowler on The Tigger Show.

Eeyore: “Pooh… do you think there are some days you never really get over?”

Pooh: “I think there are some days we simply learn to carry, Eeyore.”

Eeyore watched the balloons disappearing into the clouds.

Eeyore: “Everyone else remembers that day as an ordinary day.”

Pooh: “But it wasn’t ordinary for you.”

Eeyore: “No. It was the day everything became ‘before’ and ‘after.’”

Pooh sat quietly beside him.

Eeyore: “The strange thing is, Pooh… the morning began like any other morning. The world didn’t warn me. The birds still sang. People still laughed. And I had no idea that by evening, I would be missing someone for the rest of my life.”

Pooh: “Perhaps that is one of the hardest things about losing someone. The world keeps being ordinary when your heart has become anything but ordinary.”

Eeyore: “I wanted the world to stop.”

Pooh: “I know.”

Eeyore: “But it didn’t.”

Pooh: “No.”

Eeyore: “Days kept coming. Seasons changed. People went home and carried on with their lives.”

Pooh: “And you?”

Eeyore lowered his head.

Eeyore: “Part of me stayed on that day.”

Pooh reached for his paw.

Pooh: “Maybe part of you always will.”

Eeyore: “Is that all right?”

Pooh: “I think so. When someone means enough to you, you don’t simply leave the day you lost them behind. You carry pieces of it with you.”

Eeyore looked toward the sky again.

Eeyore: “I would give anything for one more ordinary day with them.”

Pooh: “What would you do?”

Eeyore: “Nothing special. That’s the funny part. I’d just sit beside them. Listen to their voice. Watch them smile. And this time, I’d know how precious ordinary really was.”

Pooh moved closer.

Eeyore: “That was the worst day of my life, Pooh.”

Pooh: “Because it was their last?”

Eeyore nodded.

Pooh: “Then perhaps all the days before it deserve remembering too.”

Eeyore: “Why?”

Pooh: “Because their last day is only one page, Eeyore. Their life with you was the whole story.”

And as the balloons disappeared beyond the clouds, Eeyore kept looking upward.

Not because he was ready to let go.

But because sometimes grief is simply love looking for someone it can no longer reach.

And sometimes the hardest day of your life is the last day of someone else’s—

Because you wake up the next morning and discover that somehow, impossibly, you must learn to live all the days they could not.

09/07/2026

HAPPY LABOR DAY, FRIENDS!

God bless everyone who bears a burden of provision, protection, and production for others: Working as unto the LORD, for others, is a holy thing.

Psalm 90:17 — May the favor of the LORD our God rest upon us; establish for us the work of our hands— yes, establish the work of our hands!

Amen.