Episodes
Sunday Aug 30, 2020
DAVID, A MAN OF FAITH (1 Samuel 17:1-49)
Sunday Aug 30, 2020
Sunday Aug 30, 2020
The Bible story of David and Goliath is one of the most familiar in the Bible. You don’t even have to be a Christian to know this story. There have been books and movies, and even TV shows based on this story. Michelangelo even depicted the story on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We are told this story from the time we are a child. The image of a young man with just five smooth stones and a sling against a giant of a man in full battle armor is iconic in Bible history. It is a story that reveals more than human bravery. It reveals that, even as a boy, David had a heart for God.
The key to this whole story is found in the fact that David didn’t volunteer to fight the giant because his people were being shamed. No, David fought Goliath because Goliath was defying the armies of the living God! David, put his faith in God. He knew that God would deliver the giant into his hands. David testified to his faith in God telling the giant “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”
Powerful words of faith from such a young man.
David knew that it was not by chance that God had led him to this battlefield. David could say in his heart that it is not by chance that he was born into Jesse's family. It is not by chance that he had seven older brothers. It is not by chance that he had to fight for his place in the family, not with carnal weapons, but with spiritual ones. It is not by chance that I learned early to love, trust, and obey the living God. It is not by chance that God has become my constant companion and guide. It is not by chance that I learned to play the harp and write great hymns which will be sung by God's people forever. Such things do not happen by chance; they happen by choice. God chose me, and I chose Him.
It is not by chance that I became a shepherd and developed a heart for the flock. It is not by chance that God gave me courage to face the lion and the bear in the wilderness of which you speak. It is not by chance that I have great skill with a sling and a stone. That skill represents hard work and constant practice. And it is not by chance that I am not afraid of Goliath and you are. And it is not by chance that we are where we are and that we are who we are.
David learned that he could not use the weapons of this world to fight the battle. He had to use his own weapons, his own methods, those in which God had schooled him. The believer today needs to recognize that the world can be overcome only by his faith and confidence in God.
Amen.
Sunday Aug 23, 2020
GOD CHOOSES HIS MAN (1 Samuel 16:1-23)
Sunday Aug 23, 2020
Sunday Aug 23, 2020
This message is the first in a series of messages on the life of David. Now, you might ask what is so special about David that we should devote precious Bible study time on his life? Well first, with the exception of the Lord Jesus, more Scripture is devoted to David than to any other individual. God doesn’t waste valuable Scripture on things that are not important, and if God gives us this much Scripture on one person, then perhaps we should study and learn from that information. The second reason is that next to Joseph, David is the most Christlike man in the Bible.
When we think of David, the first image that comes to my mind is as the king of Israel. Others would say that the first image that comes to their mind is that of a shepherd. Certainly, as a youth he tended sheep, and until the end of his days he had a shepherd's (pastor's) heart. It is for this reason that he is set forth in the Old Testament as the ideal king. God's intention was that any prince among His people should also be a pastor of his people.
David was a handsome young man, but God did not choose him for that reason. God knew his heart. He was God’s choice. Although David failed, down underneath was a faith that never failed. David loved and trusted God. He wanted to walk with Him. God took him to the woodshed and punished him within an inch of his life, and David never whimpered or cried out. He wanted that fellowship with God, and God loved him. He was a man after God’s own heart.
If you are a true child of God, and have Jesus Christ as your Lord, then you have experienced times when you failed God. Every Christian has. This study of the life of David will teach us how God deals with our failures and then restores us to fellowship with Him.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how God chooses the man that He wants to lead Israel, and how God chooses you as well.
Amen.
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
JESUS ASKS, DO YOU LOVE ME? (John 21:15-25)
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
The section of verses that we are about to cover is very familiar if you have been a Christian for a while. They are the verses where Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him. They are verses with a lot of different messages that can be taught and preached on, but they all deal with the word love. It is loving Jesus that is the secret of serving our Lord.
Now, most pastors spend time talking about the differences in the Greek words that Jesus and Peter use for the word love. Jesus, the first two times He asks Peter if he loves Him, uses the word “agapao” meaning to love deeply, but Peter doesn’t feel worthy to respond using the same word, so he uses the word “Phileo,” which means a brotherly love. Peter’s deep feeling for the Lord is real, but having failed Him miserably, Peter just cannot bring himself to claim that he loves the Lord deeply. This feeling in Peter is certainly important because Jesus has come here to prepare Peter for the things to come. Jesus is here to show Peter what love really is, and to be honest, that is what the gospel of John is all about, love. God’s love for us, but also what it means for us to truly love Jesus Christ.
Jesus doesn’t ask Peter about whether he believes the Lord’s doctrine. He doesn’t ask if Peter is obeying His commandments, or if he is giving large sums of money, or what great things he has accomplished. Jesus looks right at Peter, and He asks, do you love me? Jesus is asking you that same question, do you love me?
Why does Jesus want you to know this? Because the secret of serving our Lord is that you must first love Jesus with all of your heart, then you can feed His sheep. It is love for Jesus that is the secret of service and if you're a teacher in a church, if you're a greeter in a church, if you're on a committee in a church, or if you are on the staff of a church, and if you serve for any other reason than that you love Jesus, then quit that job right now, or get right. You will have a deadening influence if you don't get right with God. You say, "Well, I just love music, I want to sing in the choir." That's not good enough. "I just love playing instruments." That's not good enough. "I just love to teach." That's not good enough. Do you love Jesus? If you love Him, then you can feed His sheep.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the secret of serving the Lord Jesus is that you must first love Him, then you can serve Him by serving others.
Amen.
Sunday Aug 09, 2020
JESUS PREPARES HIS FOLLOWERS (John 21:1-14)
Sunday Aug 09, 2020
Sunday Aug 09, 2020
Today, we come to the last chapter of the gospel of John. It begins with the same dynamic life of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of the other chapters in the gospel begin with. Jesus has some unfinished business with His disciples before He ascends into heaven. He has directions to give them. Directions that they will need in order to share the gospel message to a dark world that needs to hear the words of eternal life. But, He needs to speak to Peter most of all.
Peter was to be the great preacher of Pentecost, the first disciple to reach out to the Gentiles, and the one who will lead this group of men on the trail to share the gospel. But, at this moment, Peter was a broken man, full of self-doubt. Jesus had already spoken to him separately, but He had more to say. The Lord now had to minister directly to Peter's conscience. Jesus knew the role that Peter would play in the days to come, and so He needed Peter to know that he had been forgiven.
In each of our lives, there is a place, a time, where something happened, something where we failed the Lord by what we did. I know that is true of me. I have hurt those close to me when I sought to please myself instead of the Lord. If you are a Christian, with the Holy Spirit living in your heart, then these are things that you come to regret with all of your heart, something you would give anything to undo. You wish you could go back and live the incident over again, only doing it differently this time. You cannot erase the memory.
Click on the link below to hear Part 1 of a two-part message on how the great physician deals with our own conscience. How he lays even the persistent ghosts of our past to rest.
Amen.
Sunday Aug 02, 2020
JESUS IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR DARKNESS (John 20:30-31)
Sunday Aug 02, 2020
Sunday Aug 02, 2020
John had a purpose when he gave us the gospel of John and it was that we might believe in Jesus, and that by believing, we might be saved. God wants us to know that Jesus is the answer to man's darkness.
John 20:30-31
30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
KJV
Jesus Christ is the light of men. Now there can be no greater sin than to reject the light that is Jesus Christ. Once a man hears the gospel and his heart is open to the Word of God, if he does not act upon that light, and go from faith to faith until he believes in Jesus Christ, his condemnation is doubled. Because not only is he judged for his sin, but he is also judged that he refused the cure for that sin. He refused to believe in Jesus Christ.
John 3:19-20
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
KJV
When God comes to judge the world, he's not going to judge the world primarily by the sin that was committed, but by the light that was rejected. Jesus is the Light of the world. We are born as spiritually blind beggars, but those blind eyes can be opened and will be opened by the grace of God. It's not just turning on the light, the heart and the mind have to be opened and quickened to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. And once the heart, once the mind, are opened and quickened, then we go stepping into the light we are given until we come to Jesus. Man's greatest need is to come, admit and confess his spiritual blindness, his spiritual darkness. When he says God help me, I'm blind, then God opens his eyes and gives him light.
John tells us that the purpose he had in writing this gospel was “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” God wants us to know that Jesus is the answer to man's darkness.
Click on the link below to learn how you can find God’s answer your darkness. That answer is Jesus Christ.
Amen.