Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
God's Inconvenient Leisure
Click here to download the sermon file.
Recap of the sermon from September 21, 2008:
1. Five truths from Genesis 21:1,2 (A.W. Pink, Gleanings in Genesis)
-God is in no hurry in working out His plans
-Nothing can hinder or thwart God’s working out His plan
-God is faithful to perform what He as promised (no matter how impossible it seems to us)
-Faith is tried and tested (“A faith that is incapable of enduring trial is no faith at all.”)
-God has set a time for the accomplishing of His will and the fulfilling of His Word.
2. If you’re going through a desert time in your life (what some describe as a time of “waiting, hoping, longing”):
-take time to grow near to God, grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus
-give yourself to service
-keep up your daily responsibilities
-don’t withdraw, give up, or get locked in self-pity
Recap of the sermon from September 21, 2008:
1. Five truths from Genesis 21:1,2 (A.W. Pink, Gleanings in Genesis)
-God is in no hurry in working out His plans
-Nothing can hinder or thwart God’s working out His plan
-God is faithful to perform what He as promised (no matter how impossible it seems to us)
-Faith is tried and tested (“A faith that is incapable of enduring trial is no faith at all.”)
-God has set a time for the accomplishing of His will and the fulfilling of His Word.
2. If you’re going through a desert time in your life (what some describe as a time of “waiting, hoping, longing”):
-take time to grow near to God, grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus
-give yourself to service
-keep up your daily responsibilities
-don’t withdraw, give up, or get locked in self-pity
Monday, September 15, 2008
God Delivers, Part 2
Click here to download the sermon file.
Recap of September 14, 2008:
1. “To be afraid is to not fully trust God… Fear and lack of trust go hand in hand; where you find one you will find the other. So if we are to understand why we do fear, we must understand why we don’t trust God.” (Patrick Morley).
2. When we are consumed with fear because we believe we are at the mercy of other people we are entrapped by that negative emotion. The answer is to trust that God is ultimately in control of our lives, nothing can touch that He doesn’t permit. Fear must give way to faith (Psalms 56:3; 94:19).
3. How do we explain Abraham’s (and our) lapse into an old and familiar sin:
-even after salvation, the sin nature remains in us seeking to enslave us; we must yield instead to the Holy Spirit (Romans 7:18; Galatians 5)
-older believers (who should know better) as well as young, inexperienced believers are subject to failure. We must always be vigilant.
-sin we haven’t dealt with will come back to exert its power over us
-we may have a particular weakness (i.e. a “besetting sin”) (Hebrews 12)
-we all face circumstances/challenges/reversals/trials that stress us and cause us to revert if we aren’t careful
-we have a tendency toward self-sufficiency, independence. Scheming instead of believing God
-Satan seeks to make us ineffective (even destroy us physically) to silence us.
4. We must resist sin; confess it when we fail; cry out to God for help (1 Corinthians 12:13); learn scripture dealing with our sin; memorize and meditate upon it; and ultimately see that sin is a violation of our love relationship with God.
Recap of September 14, 2008:
1. “To be afraid is to not fully trust God… Fear and lack of trust go hand in hand; where you find one you will find the other. So if we are to understand why we do fear, we must understand why we don’t trust God.” (Patrick Morley).
2. When we are consumed with fear because we believe we are at the mercy of other people we are entrapped by that negative emotion. The answer is to trust that God is ultimately in control of our lives, nothing can touch that He doesn’t permit. Fear must give way to faith (Psalms 56:3; 94:19).
3. How do we explain Abraham’s (and our) lapse into an old and familiar sin:
-even after salvation, the sin nature remains in us seeking to enslave us; we must yield instead to the Holy Spirit (Romans 7:18; Galatians 5)
-older believers (who should know better) as well as young, inexperienced believers are subject to failure. We must always be vigilant.
-sin we haven’t dealt with will come back to exert its power over us
-we may have a particular weakness (i.e. a “besetting sin”) (Hebrews 12)
-we all face circumstances/challenges/reversals/trials that stress us and cause us to revert if we aren’t careful
-we have a tendency toward self-sufficiency, independence. Scheming instead of believing God
-Satan seeks to make us ineffective (even destroy us physically) to silence us.
4. We must resist sin; confess it when we fail; cry out to God for help (1 Corinthians 12:13); learn scripture dealing with our sin; memorize and meditate upon it; and ultimately see that sin is a violation of our love relationship with God.
Monday, September 08, 2008
God Delivers
Click here to download the sermon file.
Recap of the September 7, 2008 sermon:
1. Abraham lapses into a 25 year old sin when he once again passes off Sarah as his sister, instead of as his wife. In doing so he, humanly speaking, puts in jeopardy God’s promise of a son, the son of promise through Sarah (Gen 17:19).
2. These incidents seem to be the basis for Peter’s praise of Sarah as an example of a woman of faith who, despite her husband’s unwise actions, trusts God with her fear. (1 Peter 3:1-6).
3. As with Abraham, who earlier interceded for the righteous in Sodom (Gen 18:23), Abimelech (king of Gerar) intercedes for his innocent people. Only in this instance, Abraham is the wicked one and Abimelech and his people are the innocents. This is a rebuke from God to Abraham for his actions. As a writer said: “He certainly stumbled in his walk of faith and caused God’s judgment to come on Abimelech.”
4. Abraham who was to be a blessing to the nations, instead in this instance he is having a negative impact. Instead of upholding righteousness, he is holding God up to ridicule.
5. Based on Gen 20 we must: deal decisively with sin in our lives (especially with the world watching); deal with fear; affect the world positively, not just negatively.
Recap of the September 7, 2008 sermon:
1. Abraham lapses into a 25 year old sin when he once again passes off Sarah as his sister, instead of as his wife. In doing so he, humanly speaking, puts in jeopardy God’s promise of a son, the son of promise through Sarah (Gen 17:19).
2. These incidents seem to be the basis for Peter’s praise of Sarah as an example of a woman of faith who, despite her husband’s unwise actions, trusts God with her fear. (1 Peter 3:1-6).
3. As with Abraham, who earlier interceded for the righteous in Sodom (Gen 18:23), Abimelech (king of Gerar) intercedes for his innocent people. Only in this instance, Abraham is the wicked one and Abimelech and his people are the innocents. This is a rebuke from God to Abraham for his actions. As a writer said: “He certainly stumbled in his walk of faith and caused God’s judgment to come on Abimelech.”
4. Abraham who was to be a blessing to the nations, instead in this instance he is having a negative impact. Instead of upholding righteousness, he is holding God up to ridicule.
5. Based on Gen 20 we must: deal decisively with sin in our lives (especially with the world watching); deal with fear; affect the world positively, not just negatively.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Remember Lot's Wife & Other Good Advice
Click here to download the sermon file.
Recap of August 31, 2008 sermon:
1. Genesis 19 is a warning to unbelievers about sin and judgment. God’s patience with sinners has an end.
2. Genesis 19 is a warning to believers about getting too cozy with the world and its tragic consequences.
3. The chapter describes the tragic unraveling of Lot’s family. From his first leering look at Sodom and the cities of the plain (Gen 13:10), to pitching his tents near Sodom (Gen 13:12), to living in the city (Gen 14:12), to becoming a leading citizen of it (Gen 19:1), Lot’s life was a lie. He had no positive spiritual influence over the city or even his own family. As one writer said: “…it was difficult to get Lot out of Sodom, and Sodom out of Lot’s family.”
4. As with Lot, so much of life is made up of small decisions that have momentous impact on the course of our lives and on the lives of our families. A commentator said: “Where did Lot lose his dignity and faith? Not in big earth-shaking decisions but in making numerous small choices that left God out of his life.”
Recap of August 31, 2008 sermon:
1. Genesis 19 is a warning to unbelievers about sin and judgment. God’s patience with sinners has an end.
2. Genesis 19 is a warning to believers about getting too cozy with the world and its tragic consequences.
3. The chapter describes the tragic unraveling of Lot’s family. From his first leering look at Sodom and the cities of the plain (Gen 13:10), to pitching his tents near Sodom (Gen 13:12), to living in the city (Gen 14:12), to becoming a leading citizen of it (Gen 19:1), Lot’s life was a lie. He had no positive spiritual influence over the city or even his own family. As one writer said: “…it was difficult to get Lot out of Sodom, and Sodom out of Lot’s family.”
4. As with Lot, so much of life is made up of small decisions that have momentous impact on the course of our lives and on the lives of our families. A commentator said: “Where did Lot lose his dignity and faith? Not in big earth-shaking decisions but in making numerous small choices that left God out of his life.”
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