preach-itSermon Archive

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December 2019

Christmas Past

Years ago I was challenged by a pastor to memorize Titus 2:11-14,

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own




Fishing For Sheep

This Thanksgiving we don’t want to just say Thanks to God for His many blessings. We want to share in God’s nature by being a blessing and a help to others . In Acts 20:35, Paul quotes Jesus as saying “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” In Mark 10:45 we remember that Jesus also said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Christians, are Christ-imitators, we follow our Lord’s example in everything, and



November 2019

One Came Back

It was 152 years ago, at the height of the Civil War that President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving. In his Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued on October 3, 1863 and published a couple days later in the New York Times, he spoke of the many ways that God had blessed and helped the United States. Speaking of those many blessings he wrote, “No human counsel has devised, nor has any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the graciou



Lazarus, Come Out

In this message we study the eleventh chapter of John which contains the account of Lazarus being raised from the dead. As I have pointed out many times in our study so far these signs serve to teach us important truths about who Jesus is and why He came. This one, of course, is no different for it continues one of the most hope-filled of Jesus’ “I Am” statements- “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”

However, in verses 5 and 6 of that chapter we read these puzzling words, “Now Jes




Seeing a Blind Man Clearly

The ninth chapter of John begins with these words, “As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

This man is described as having been born blind. To paint this dilemma in more provocative language we could say he was “created” blind. He came off t




Welcoming Jesus Into the Boat

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a man who was punished by the “gods” to spend eternity rolling a large boulder up a hill that always rolled back down to the bottom just before he could reach the top. At times, we’ve all felt like Sisyphus, pouring money and years and energy into the pursuit of things that remain tantalizingly out of reach no matter how hard we went after it. Futility is an ugly sort of word that speaks to us of frustration, waste, hopelessness and despair.

Som




October 2019

Hungry People

In this message we continue our study through the eight miraculous signs of the book of John by taking up the account of the feeding of the five-thousand in John 6. This is a rich story and one that is full of weighty significance for the church today.

This morning as I was organizing my thoughts and preparing the message I felt prompted to pray the following prayer over our church family:

Heavenly Father,

If we are sleepy, wake us up.
If we are wandering, pursue us.
If we ar




Helping the Helpless

The purpose of this sermon series, in which we are studying the eight miraculous signs of John, is to see and understand Jesus more clearly. When we describe ourselves as “Christians,” Christ-followers, we are saying that He is the target at which we are aiming our lives. You cannot hit a target that you cannot see very clearly. So the purpose of studying these signs is to bring our target, Jesus, into sharper focus in order that our hope in Him would be more sure and we might follow Hi



Is Seeing Believing?

Hebrews 11:1 famously defines faith as being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, and 2 Corinthians 5:7 calls us to walk by faith, not by sight.

We’ve all heard the expression that “seeing is believing,” but when we come to the Bible, which talks a great deal about the nature of belief, it seems to say that faith which is most honoring to God is not born of our natural sight but rather a Spirit-Given confidence in the Words of God.

Thomas is an interesting c




Master of the Feast

***There was an issue with the audio recording of this message. Please refer to the sermon notes for a transcript.***
 
John concludes his Gospel account with language that almost teases and torments the modern Bible reader by mentioning the existence of many stories about Jesus that went undocumented by himself and the other Gospel writers.

In the final verse John wrote these tantalizing words,

“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. W






 
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