Sermon: Prayer Transcends Trouble (1 Samuel 1:1-20)
Remember, Prayer Transcends Trouble
1 Samuel 1:1-20
Have you ever been in a situation in which you knew you should pray, but for whatever reason you didn’t? Have you ever simply forgotten to pray? Have you ever been in a terrible situation and so caught up in the circumstances that you forgot to call on the Lord? You were so busy trying everything else that you forgot that God stands ready to hear our pleas.
I was in Cleveland a couple years ago attending a pastor’s conference. I forgot to pray. It wasn’t a real big deal, it wasn’t life or death, but I forgot to pray. Imagine that, on your way to a pastor’s conference and forget to pray. I was driving around the east side of Cleveland for a bout an hour not stopping to ask directions or to pray. I was lost. The road work was everywhere and signs were nowhere. Finally, I remembered to pray. It wasn’t long till I saw what I was looking for…a road sign that told me where to go. God wanted me to forget my situation and remember Him. All I was doing was thinking about being late and I was forgetting God. Pray… Read More
Sermon: Obediently Abnormal (Genesis 6:5-10)
Obediently Abnormal
Genesis 6
How do you know when a person is out of his mind? Well, what if a man behaves like nobody else behaves? What if he says he hears things nobody else hears? What if he fears what nobody else fears? What if he devotes all his energy to a cause nobody else believes in? Would you say he’s crazy? At the very least, you’d think he’s weird, wouldn’t you? Suppose this crazy person goes to work on a strange project. He claims that the world is about to be wiped out and that he’s building the only place where anyone will be able to survive when the disaster comes. How does he know all this? He says he heard a voice telling him so. There’s no sign at all of the disaster he expects, but he keeps working on his project year after year, simply because of that voice he heard. Would you take him seriously? Wouldn’t you instead laugh at him, or, at best, feel sorry for him? The man would have to be crazy!
But what if the “crazy” man is an old fellow named Noah? What if the project he’s working on is an enormous ark? What if the disaster he’s speaking about is a worldwide flood? What if the voice that told him to build the ark was the voice of God? What if the reason his behavior is so different from others is that the whole world has gone crazy with evil and that he, unlike so many, has a relationship with God? Read More
Sermon: A Portrait of Salvation (2 Kings 5:1-15)
A Portrait of Salvation
2 Kings 5:1-15
In our passage today we are forced to deal with many things about God that stretch our understanding. We just get to the place where we think we are starting to understand God and then He throws a passage like this at us.
In this passage we have God giving Syria success in battle against His chosen people Israel. We have God turning His back on His people and coming to the aid of foreigners. We have God including a Gentile who is unclean in His covenant.
We leave the land of Israel and enter a pagan nation. We step into Syria to the north, a heathen, pagan nation surrounded by darkness, a place of idolatry, and blindness. Naaman’s healing is a portrait of what God would later do through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is a classic picture of the love God has for those in darkness. We get a glimpse of God’s sovereign work in salvation. At times God shows grace, even to His enemies. Read More
Article: Digging Wells and Planting Churches
Digging Wells and Planting Churches
As we live the Christian life, we must remember that it is a life of faith in Christ and a life dependant on Him. Believing in the unseen with as much trust as in the things we can see. It’s a life of living in this world but longing for the next. It’s loving those around us but supremely loving Christ. It’s also a life of discontent with what the world has to offer because we believe the true and everlasting treasure is Jesus. Living a life of faith is vital for the Christian. Paul is a great example of someone living in this world but longing for the next.
He wrote,
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, [7] for we walk by faith, not by sight. [8] Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. [9] So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 2 Cor. 5:6-9 (ESV)
One way we manifest walking by faith and not by sight is when we acknowledge our complete dependence on the Lord. We do this best when we pray. Prayer is the keyhole that we look through catching small glimpses of the world to come and longing to be there. As we speak with the God of the universe in prayer, He begins to change our worldly focus to an eternal focus. The more we get God’s vision for our lives, the more the unseen comes into focus and the more the seen begins to loose its grip on our hearts. Read More
Sermon: An All-Round Ministry (James 5:13-20)
An All-Round Ministry
James 5:13-20
James 5:13-20 (ESV)
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. [14] Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. [15] And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. [16] Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. [17] Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. [18] Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
[19] My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, [20] let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
James has already made the connection between the physical and the spiritual. The Church is to have a ministry that has both in mind. Spiritual matters are the priority but physical matters are important as well and many times it’s hard to separate the two. Both impact the Church. Read More
