Sermons By Alan Bentrup

In this week’s sermon, we reflect on what lasts.We begin with a story about Abraham Lincoln’s cabin. Not the original one, but a recreated version in Kentucky that still draws visitors. Why? Because the story it tells - about humility, strength, and endurance - still matters.From that same story came something simple but lasting: Lincoln Logs. For over 100 years, children have played with these wooden pieces. They’re not flashy. They’re not high-tech. But we keep returning to them, because they speak to something we trust.That’s the kind of love we hear about in Canticle 13 — the song sung by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the middle of the fiery furnace. They were thrown into danger for refusing to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue, a towering idol built to impress and control.But while that statue is long gone, their song still echoes:The contrast is clear: idols fall, empires fade, feelings change. But God’s love endures.This sermon invites us to stop chasing what won’t last, and return instead to