Sermons on Obedience

Every Family Needs a Love with No Restraint

God said that this was the most important thing in the entire Bible—love Him with all our heart, soul and might. Learning to love God teaches us how to love others! The problem is that we have a skewed understanding of what it means to love one another. The three Hebrew words used in Deuteronomy 6:5 (translated heart, soul, and might) provide a clear biblical definition of love: Love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object.

The Leadership of God’s People

When thinking about the ways in which God leads His people, R. Kent Hughes said, “God can use unhappy, perplexing failures to bring fresh purpose and direction to our lives… Even when we are at fault, God will use our failures to bring greater blessing… God will lead us according to his own perfect plan for our lives and ministries. We must be careful not to box God in by our prior experience. The most important thing by far is our attitude… We need to yield to his caring hand.”

Judges ~ Lecture 8 – Godly Ruler and Rescuer

After spending seven weeks looking at the first three chapters of the Book of Judges, we will be studying all of chapters 4 and 5 this evening. These chapters are unique in that chapter 4 is an historical accounting of the story of Deborah, Barak and Jael; while chapter 5 relates the events through the eyes of a poet or song writer, which provides us with a greater understanding of the story as a whole. Chapter 4 provides us with some understanding of the passage, but it is not until chapter 5 that we are able to see the hand of God continually at work to bring about His plan and His purposes.

The Life-changing Light of Christ

In our study today, we will spend some time thinking about the transformational work of Jesus in the life of Saul. Saul was a brutal and bloody man whose goal was nothing short of the complete annihilation of those “belonging to the Way.” God interrupted Saul’s plans with a miraculous encounter with Jesus. This encounter dramatically changed Saul’s life, but we cannot overlook the years and years that it took to prepare Saul/Paul for his eventual mission to the Gentiles. It takes time to build a life that can be effectively used in the service and ministry of God. In the same way, God is still working on you and me—shaping us according to His will.

The Transforming Touch of God

Part 2 – In this week’s message, we continue to learn more about Philip and how God used him as a witness of the gospel. Last time, we saw how God used him to transform a large group of people in Samaria, but this time God has a different kind of assignment for Philip. So what was God’s big new plan for Philip? How would God use His transforming touch next? God sent him down to Gaza—which the Bible refers to as a deserted place. To go from a growing church to a place where no one even lives—I would have struggled to understand what God was thinking if I were Philip. We cannot know what Philip was thinking, but we do know what Philip did. Let’s read this story to find out!

Judges ~ Lecture 2 ~ Halfhearted Discipleship

Lecture 2 – As we begin to study the text of the Book of Judges, we noticed that the author has written what is best described as two introductions to this book—each with its own purpose. The first introduction sets forth the military context of the book, while the second focuses more on the theological context of that day. In studying the military journal of the conquests and failures of the Israelites in chapter 1, we discover that the Israelites have a half-hearted commitment to obedience and dependence upon the Lord—the people were depending more upon their own common sense than God.