Description:
Worshipping in spirit and in truth!
15 Podcasts:
 1. 2009-09-17T07_43_20-07_00.mp3 (played 44 times)
2. 2009-10-28T07_36_12-07_00.mp3 (played 27 times)
3. 2009-11-18T06_54_35-08_00.mp3 (played 25 times)
4. 2009-11-24T11_16_18-08_00.mp3 (played 26 times)
5. 2009-12-01T14_11_43-08_00.mp3 (played 26 times)
6. 2009-12-09T08_19_36-08_00.mp3 (played 22 times)
7. 2009-07-30T07_29_43-07_00.mp3 (played 20 times)
8. 2009-12-23T06_45_00-08_00.mp3 (played 16 times)
9. 2010-01-05T07_11_51-08_00.mp3 (played 9 times)
10. 2010-01-07T06_35_41-08_00.mp3 (played 10 times)
11. 2010-01-11T08_36_46-08_00.mp3 (played 5 times)
12. 2010-01-19T07_33_43-08_00.mp3 (played 5 times)
13. 2010-01-26T10_45_15-08_00.mp3 (played 2 times)
14. 2010-02-02T10_46_25-08_00.mp3 (played 2 times)
15. 2010-02-07T07_21_24-08_00.mp3 (played 1 times)
Content:
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The Cross and the Spirit -- Galatians 5.22-25
We find in our text what we call the fruit of the Spirit. When we say fruit, we mean that the elements listed in the passage are the practical out-workings of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives. When we yield to the Holy Spirit, we will find that we possess the characteristics of love, joy, peace, etc. As we study these results known as fruit, we find that all of these characteristics were true of Christ. Since they were true of Christ, they were true of His redemptive ministry, for the Cross was a practical out-working of the Holy Spirit’s empowerment of Christ. All of the elements of the fruit of the Spirit were powerfully evident at the cross.
SUNDAY, FEB 7 SERVICE WAS CANCELED. THIS MESSAGE WAS THE FIRST MESSAGE I PREACHED AT GRACE BIBLE CHAPEL IN 2008. IT HAS NEVER BEEN POSTED ON PODOMATIC.
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Hosea -- The Lovingkindness of God
What can we as twenty-first century Christians learn from Jehovah's covenant with Israel? The compilation nearly forty years worth of Hosea's sermons address national prosperity as well as national disaster. Regardless of the extreme changes, God remained unchanged in His infinite, matchless love for all of His people.
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Knowing Well the Value of Life (Psalm 139.13-18)
Psalm 139 teaches us of the omnipresence, the omniscience and the omnipotence of God. God is all-present, all-knowing, and all-powerful. Much of what we know and understand of God is based on the omni's of God's nature. We find a doctrine of God that is not stated as an omni but well could be. God is omnivital; in other words, God is all-living. Life is an attribute or characteristic of God (John 1:4; 11:25; 14:6) Life as we know it comes directly from God. The Creation account confirms this truth. Genesis 2:7 says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” What is the connection between physical life and eternal life? We find the connection in Leviticus 17.11. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” For this reason, Christ shed His blood, gave His life so that we might have eternal life. When we believe in the sanctity of life, we must not divorce the thought of human life from God. The basis of our belief in the value of life stems directly from God's nature.
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Caleb: Fully Following the Lord (Joshua 14.6-15)
Caleb fully followed the Lord. What does it mean that Caleb fully followed the Lord? We typically have a lofty view of the heroes of the Bible. We tend to think of them as giants of the faith, as men and women who were more godly than any other human being could ever hope to be. Actually, Caleb was a mere mortal. I dare say that if he were alive today and we had met him, we would probably think of him as an ordinary guy. Caleb was certainly a godly man, but he was far from perfect. He had the same weaknesses and faced the same temptations as we do. Caleb fully followed the Lord simply means that he had a close fellowship with God. One commentator explains the idea in more picturesque language: “In the Hebrew that is quite a striking word -- more striking than in the English. It is a pictorial word in the Hebrew, and describes a ship at full sail.” What does all of this mean? Caleb believed, as another commentator writes, “if the Lord deserved to be followed at all, he deserved to be followed in full.” We need to follow the Lord our God fully as well. As a matter of fact, to follow the Lord fully is simply another way to say that we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, the first, the primary commandment. If you take only one sentence from this message, I want you to remember the following: You too must fully follow the Lord your God.
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Christians Estranged from God -- Psalm 63.3
David sets before us God’s desire for each and every person in this room. God desires mercy; God desires lovingkindness. God’s plan is to demonstrate His lovingkindness to every individual who walks this earth. God wants us to want Him. God loves for us to love Him. God’s passion is that we would be passionate about Him. This is where many Christians fail to walk in the manner in which they profess to believe. Christians nurture and cherish their own sinful desires for unforgiveness, self-conceit, and self-righteousness, to name a few, because they have lost sight of the reality of God’s love.
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Your God Is Too Small
If we see in Jesus anyone or anything other than the glory of God, we see a God who is too small. We see God as we imagine Him to be rather than who He really is. Because our minds are limited, we imagine a limited God. For this reason, the only way that we can understand God is in His own identification of Himself: I Am. For this reason, God commanded that no images would be made of Him. God does not want man to manufacture his own finite understanding of an infinite Being. So, when Simeon saw Jesus, he did not just see a baby. He did not just see the one who would help his fellow Israelites. He did not just see the Saviour of the world. He saw God's glory. It is no wonder, then, that the angels sang to the shepherds, 'Glory to God in the highest.' Over the next few moments, I want to focus your attention upon the glory of God in Jesus Christ. You must believe in Christ because He is the glorious God.
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Myrrh (What Can I Give Him?)
When we see the gift of myrrh, we see the model of our Saviour. In order to follow in our Saviour's footsteps, we must view life as He did. Christ saw sorrow and joy as close companions, not just to Himself but to each other. We as believers typically do not. Sure, we may admit with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Into each life a little rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
So we fatalistically accept sorrow and pain because we cannot avoid it or because we say that God is sovereign and leave our belief at that point without thinking about its ramifications. Rarely do we accept sorrow and pain with joy. We would avoid even the slightest discomfort if we could, yet, in doing so, we would walk a different path than our Saviour walked. What lesson do we learn from myrrh? Christ endured the suffering and agony of the Cross because the joy of a relationship with the Father was greater than the suffering He experienced. Fellowship with Christ is joyous regardless of your circumstances. If you take one truth from this message, I want you to take the following: Find your joy in your relationship with Christ.
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Frankincense (What Can I Give Him?)
Frankincense is found seventeen times in the Bible, thirteen of which directly relate to worship. In nearly every case, the Bible connects worship incense with prayer and intercession. We should not be surprised because the second gift of Christmas relates directly to Christ's divinity as well as His priestly office. Christ is our intercessor; He is the one who goes to the Father for our sakes. Only Christ can fulfill such a role. What, then, is our response to Christ's intercessory role? If you take one truth from this message, I want you to take the following: You must worship Christ only because He is our intercessor.
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Gold (What Can I Give Him?)
What do we learn from this gift fit for a king? We will look systematically through the Bible to find gold and what it means for our lives. Perhaps the greatest meaning lies in an obvious characteristic of gold, which is its great value. There are many things which we value in life, but none surpasses that of Christ. Christ holds the greatest worth of anything we could ever hope to possess. So, if you take one truth from this message, I want you to take the following: You must prize your fellowship with Christ more greatly than gold.
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Gems from the Genealogy of Christ
How are we to approach the Bible's genealogies? Are the genealogies something we should read just because they are in our Bible reading schedule? What do we do with the genealogical records? We believe that every line of the Bible is inspired, and thus every line of the Bible is profitable. What profit may we derive from the genealogy of Christ? The message of the genealogies is simple: God uses everyone to accomplish His will.
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We Give Thanks to Your Holy Name -- 1 Chronicles 16
It is good on a day like this, in a week set aside for giving of thanks. So, today, on this Sunday before the Thanksgiving holiday, we turn our thoughts to thankfulness and gratefulness for the countless blessings we enjoy. We have just read through roughly half of 1 Chronicles 16 today. When we think of psalms, we think of the Book of Psalms, but not all psalms are found in that book. 1 Chronicles 16 is a psalm of David. As we read the first seven verses, we learn that David wrote the psalm as a song of thanksgiving. The psalm was one of thanksgiving. Look with me at the end of verse thirty-five. “Then say, "Save us, O God of our salvation, And gather us and deliver us from the nations, To give thanks to Your holy name, And glory in Your praise.” We echo with David, 'We give thanks to Your holy name.'
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The Main Thing Is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing (What Happened to the Church at Ephesus?) -- Revelation 2.1-7
Loving God is the first and great commandment. We would naturally think based on Paul's letter that the Ephesian church would know this truth, perhaps better than any other church in its day. The reality is that, somewhere along the line, the church had forgotten why they existed. They forgot the core of every doctrine and every command: love God with all of your being. God gave us this great command to be the operating principle of our lives. No area of your life is unaffected by this command. Loving God is the main thing. So, we constantly strive to love God with every fiber of our being. In other words, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. So, if you take one truth from this message I want you to take the following: You must love Christ with every fiber of your being.
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God Meant It for Good
As we look at the life of Joseph, we learn several truths about forgiveness. We learn in the most practical manner what Christ’s forgiveness looks like and how we must maintain a spirit of forgiveness toward those who have hurt and betrayed us. Let me encourage you to take one truth with you from this message. You must forgive others as Christ has forgiven you.
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The Power of the Cross -- Psalm 2
Has the cross lost its power? No, it has not! Praise the Lord that the cross possesses the same power today as it did when we trusted in its redemptive work! The authority claimed by superficial religion possesses the power of a toothless lion or a paper tiger, and it cannot change the Cross' influence. The allurements of our depraved culture hold no sway over the cross of Christ. We ought to be encouraged that we serve a Christ who was willing to give Himself for us on the cross to break the power of our sins. We ought to be confident that the cross is not impotent to address the problems that we face in life. It was the cross which bridged the gap from the sorrow and bondage of sin to the joy and freedom of Christ. When you crossed the bridge spanning the gap between God and man, you experienced happiness which cannot compare to the shallow religion and joyless sins. It is the power of the cross to which we look in Psalm 2. As you gaze once more upon the cross, allow the power of the cross to strengthen you to live victoriously in this life. You must allow the cross to be your source of rejoicing.
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All Things Work Together for Good -- Romans 8.28
Several years ago, I heard a humorous story which is a parable about our perspective of life. I cannot recall the source, so I certainly do not hope to plagiarize this story. I will try to relate the story as best as I can.
There was a king who had a best friend from childhood. The king and his friend spent much time together in the business of the kingdom as well as the pursuit of distractions from the stresses of leadership. The king’s friend had a very unique perspective of life. No matter what happened, whether it was good or bad, the friend would say...
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