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Each week a new verse-by-verse Bible study podcast given in expository style. Join us and see the Bible come alive as we study the truths that God‘s Word has for us.
Episodes
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Are you prepared? Well, prepared for what? In these days of unrest there is a whole group of people who are called “preppers.” They have go-bags that are at the ready to grab in the event of an emergency, be it a hurricane, a riot, or some other cataclysmic event. Those bags contain food, camping equipment, and tools for survival without all of the support that we have in our society, like electricity, grocery stores, hospitals, gas stations, and even the internet. They are prepared to face a crisis event.
So, how you respond to the question of Are You Prepared depends on what you need to be prepared for? Is it a crisis event, or is it just to go to work today, or to school to take that exam?
Our message today is going to ask the Christian believer Are You Prepared to go out into the secular world? This message is for every believer, young or old, rich or poor, educated or not. For you to live a victorious Christian life you have to be prepared to face a world full of temptation and sin. This is especially true of our children as they get to the age where they will enter the world. But even though this message seems to be directed at our children, the principles that Solomon describes are just as applicable to adults.
One of the primary responsibilities of a Christian parent is to prepare their children to go out into the world and live a life that honors and glorifies God. Now, every parent wants their child to go out and succeed, but a secular parent and a Christian parent should have different definitions for the word succeed. The world looks at success in terms of wealth, power, happiness, and a family.
A Christian looks at success as finding fulfillment in always being obedient to the will of God for their lives. Now, wealth, power, happiness, and a family, may, or may not, come for the Christian, but if they do, they are simply due to the grace of God, not because of anything that we have done. Our trust is in the love that God has for us, and the certain knowledge that He will provide everything we need, and much more than we deserve.
If your trust is in something other than God to provide for your needs, like your own hard work, then you are not prepared to do God’s will for your life. This is true because it impacts your priorities. If your priority is to provide for your needs, then those needs will always come before your work for God.
Other than making sure your children know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, teaching them this concept of duty and service to God is the single most important principle that we can give them. It is to be more important than teaching them how to read, to write, to dress themselves, and to be polite. All those things are important, but without God, and without a desire to serve God, they will be easy prey for the world.
Click on the link below to hear a message that asks the question Are You Prepared to go out into the secular world?
Amen.
Sunday Jan 17, 2021
Sunday Jan 17, 2021
I am always amazed at the wisdom of God. There are times that I don’t always understand what God is doing, but that is ok, because God doesn’t need my understanding. One area that I think about is the fact that most people are parents when they are young, full of energy, and make no mistake they need that energy to chase after those kids, but they lack the wisdom that it takes to be a really good parent. You see, we tend to gain more wisdom as we get older, but it is when we are young that we need that wisdom, and raising kids is one of those times.
Now, my wife is a terrific mother. She has dedicated herself to our boys, and nobody ever loved a child more than my wife loves our two boys and their wives, and our grandchildren. But, I have to admit, that I could have been a better parent than I was. It wasn’t for a lack of trying. I just never did get a copy of the how to raise kids manual so that I could read it and know what I was supposed to do. I had to learn on the job, just like everyone else. Now, it is at a time like this when I realize just how ignorant I was. There I had, available for me in His Word, a complete guide to the way God wants us to raise kids to count for Him, and I just didn’t have the wisdom to use it like I should have.
If you are a Christian parent, one of the promises of God that you should hold dear to your heart is that, the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
Ps 112:2
2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
KJV
This is a promise that God will bless your children and make them mighty upon the earth. The strongest desire of my heart for my kids is not that they be wealthy, not that they be famous, not that they will always be praised or whatever, but that they will love the Lord Jesus Christ and count in His cause. I want them to be people who will count for God. God has kept this promise in my two boys and their own families, in spite of my failings.
I thank God for Christian homes. I don’t know of anything any better than a Christian home. Your home doesn’t exist so you can do your business; your business exists so you can have your home. God ideally wants everybody to have three homes. A family home, a church home, and a heavenly home. Jesus is the greatest homebuilder. Satan is the greatest home-wrecker. God wants you to have a family home. Now maybe you’re an orphan. Maybe you’re divorced. Maybe you’re separated. Then you need some friends that will be sort of a family to you. That’s one of the good reasons we have Bible fellowship classes in churches. But you need some kind of a family home. And then you need a church home. You need a place with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And then you need to know that you know that you know that when you die, you’re going to heaven—to the Father’s house. Now Jesus is the key to all three. You have to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how to raise kids who will count for God.
Amen.
Sunday Jan 10, 2021
Sunday Jan 10, 2021
Whenever I get ready to teach, or study, a book of the Bible, and I know that I am going to be spending a lot of time in it, I try to get in my mind why God put this book in the Bible and what it is that He wants me to learn from it. The Bible is such a marvelous book. It is so simple that a child can learn about God’s love for them, and it is so deep that a person can spend their entire life plumbing it depths and barely get below the surface. I love the Word of God, because it allows me to know the mind of God, and when I know the mind of God, I know the love of God. There is nothing that I value more than the love that God has for me. It sustains me, it motivates me, it guides me, and it makes me the person that I am, a servant of God.
I firmly believe that God gave us His Word so that we might know who He is, what He has done for us, and as a result, that we might live for Him. It is His Word that answers all of the questions that we have in this life. It is His Word that grounds me in the absolute truths about right and wrong, it establishes what good and evil are, light from dark, and it gives me the keys to living a victorious Christian life.
So, what is it that God wants us to know from the book of Proverbs? Why did God give us this very unusual book? When you look at the book of Proverbs, you will find it to be an interesting collection of short, concise and forcefully expressive sayings. Unlike our studies of the gospel of John, and the life of David, Proverbs does not even tell a story, or a series of stories. We won’t find David slaying Goliath with five smooth stones, and we won’t find Jesus healing the sick and feeding the five thousand. As a result, you may not consider the Book of Proverbs as a very thrilling story, but it is. You also may want to think of the Book of Proverbs like a big collection of sayings that you might find in a Chinese cookie, but it is not.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what God wants you to know about the book of Proverbs, and how it can give you the answers to many of your questions about life.
Amen.
Sunday Jan 03, 2021
Sunday Jan 03, 2021
Let me ask you a question, how particular is the devil in how he gets someone to go to hell? He is not particular at all, right? In fact, he would just as soon send you to hell from the church pew as he had from the gutter. It makes no difference to him. In fact, I think it gives him a sense of satisfaction when he can so easily deceive all of those church members into thinking they are going to heaven, just because they have their names on the membership role, and they go to church most Sundays.
Now, there are people today who believe in Christ, I mean, you believe it in your head. You believe the facts of the gospel. You believe that Jesus is the Savior. You believe that Jesus is Sovereign. And you believe that Jesus is Sufficient, and yet you are as lost as you can be. There is still something wrong with you, and that is you have a lack of genuine love for Jesus.
Now, let me give you the acid test for your salvation today. I want you to look down deep in your heart and ask yourself, Do you love Jesus, and thereby love those whom Jesus loves?
Let tell you something very important, there are great number of people who identify themselves as Christians, and they have their name written on the church roll, yet they do not have their names written down in glory. They have never been born again. Paul describes them as having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. It is possible to be loyal but lost, religious but rejected. Many are going to go to hell surrounded by baptismal certificates and receipts for church offerings. Yet, at the end, Jesus is going to hand you over for judgment, because you have never been saved.
Now, I’m not trying to make you doubt your salvation, but the Bible says (1 Corinthians 11:28) “Let a man examine himself, whether he be in the faith.” So, I am asking you to examine yourself, and ask are you saved? I mean, are you saved? Have you fully surrendered yourself to the will of Jesus Christ? Please do not go away without Jesus. Don’t let pride keep you from coming to Jesus. Don’t worry about what people think. You obey the Lord, and you make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior.
Click on the podcast below to hear a message on the tragedy of a person who can serve the Lord for their entire life, yet still be lost.
Amen.
Sunday Dec 27, 2020
Sunday Dec 27, 2020
The America that most of us grew up in, was a country where self-reliance was expected and taught. You worked to provide for you and your family’s needs. If that meant digging ditches, or working in a factory, or in an office, then that is what you did. You relied on your physical skills and your mind to provide for you needs. You did not rely on the government or others or to provide for your needs. However, that is not the world that we live in today. We are told by a corrupt media and educational system that we are to rely on an equally corrupt and all-powerful government to provide all of our needs. The government takes from those whom they deem to have too much and gives it to those who they choose to give it to. We are expected, and we are taught, to trust in our government.
That is what the world teaches. Yet, as Christians, we are taught to rely on God to provide for our needs. However, that does not mean that we are to sit on our backsides and wait on God to turn rocks into bread so that we may eat. The Bible tells us that if we choose to not work, then we will not eat.
2 Thess 3:10
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
KJV
So, the world teaches us to rely on the world, and the Bible teaches us to rely on God. The question that we have before us today is who and what do your actions, not your words, say that you trust in?
Unfortunately, for most of us, even Christians, the answer to that question depends on how things are going at the time. When things are going your way, who do you trust in, and what do you trust in? Is it yourself, your bank account, your skills, and your intellect? When things are going good, why should you bother God? He is very busy.
However, when things are going against you, and each bad event seems to just stack one upon the other, then who, and what, do you trust in? Is this the time that you choose to bother God?
If, when you search down deep for the truth in answering these questions, God only appears when the times are bad, then this lesson is for you. If God is only your 911 call when things go bad, then this lesson is for you.
Click on the podcast below to hear a message on one of the greatest sins that man can commit, the sin of unbelief.
Amen.
Sunday Dec 13, 2020
Sunday Dec 13, 2020
God desires to fellowship with us. God is sovereign, and we are to worship God, and we are God’s servants, but God wants more than that from us. He wants our fellowship. The interesting part of fellowshipping with God is that God is one God, but He is also three distinct persons. So, let me ask you, when we fellowship with God, are we fellowshipping with The Father, The Son, or the Holy Spirit?
I know the first thought that comes to my mind is that I fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit of God that resides in my heart, and He is the One that comforts me, and convicts me. So, is He the One that I fellowship with?
Then, it is the Father that I pray to in the name of the Son. Now, I have often said that when we pray, we are fellowshipping with God. It is supposed to be a two-way conversation. We tell Him our needs, and then we have to stop and listen to Him. If you do all of the talking, then it is a speech, not fellowshipping, and fellowshipping is what the Lord desires. So, is the Father the One that I fellowship with?
Then, it is the Holy Spirit that takes my words and makes them palatable to the Father, and it is the Son that is my advocate and High Priest before the Lord. So, is it the Lord Jesus that I fellowship with?
The truth is that when I fellowship with God, I fellowship with each of the three persons of God, and yet I still fellowship with just the one God. In other words, the three distinct persons of God act as One as they fellowship with me. Now, isn’t that an amazing concept? But that is not all.
In today’s message we are going to study about an act by three of David’s mighty men where they rose up and acted as one to fulfill a need that David had. It is a picture of what God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit did when they acted as One to fulfill our most important need. The need for salvation. There is, in the heart of every one of us, a thirst for the water of everlasting life.
John 7:37
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
KJV
Rev 22:17
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
KJV
Our insatiable thirst is for the water of life. Not the water of this world, for the water of this world can never satisfy the deepest longing of the human heart, and people are trying to satisfy that craving. There is in every one of us an insatiable thirst that can only be satisfied with the wonderful water of life that Christ said, “And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
The next time you partake of the Lord’s Supper, I want you to think of this. I want you to think of what God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have done to bring the water of life to you. When we take the precious elements into our bodies, when we hold these things in our hands, we’re saying, “This is what God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, did for us, that our deepest thirst might be satisfied.” But, we’re also saying, “Here, Lord, I give myself away. ’Tis all that I can do”—a life given, and a life given back.
Rom 12:1
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
KJV
Click on the link below to hear a wonderful story in the life of David, that reminds us what the three persons of God, acting as the One true almighty God, have done to meet our deepest need, salvation.
Amen.
Sunday Dec 06, 2020
Sunday Dec 06, 2020
Have you ever made an excuse to God to explain why you didn’t want to do something that He asked you to do? God says “Keith, I want you to go witness to that big guy over there that is decked out in motorcycle gang leather and chains.” I look at the man, at the long beard, the ear rings in his ears, and then I look back up at God, and say “Well God, he looks pretty busy right now, and I am pretty tired, I sure don’t want to have a long conversation right now. You know God, the more I think about it, I am not sure I am the right person for the job.”
Did you ever try to talk God out of making you do something like that? It never works out, does it? In fact, after you have been a Christian for a while, you learn to just say “Yes Lord, thank you Lord, I love you, Lord,” and then you go do whatever He wants you to do. Things work out a whole lot better when we don’t make excuses and just be obedient to God.
When I think of Biblical characters that gave excuses to God, the person that comes to my mind is Moses when God told him to go back to Egypt and stand before the Hebrews and Pharaoh. Moses said things like, “Listen God, I’m not good enough. I don’t have all the answers. People won’t believe me. I am a terrible public speaker, and, I am not qualified to do that.” Making excuses didn’t work for Moses either and in Exodus 4:14 we see how God reacted when it says that “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.” God got tired of the excuses and sent Moses on down the road.
Then, I think of a shoe salesman named Dwight L Moody that God called, or Billy Sunday, a professional baseball player. God called both to be great evangelists, yet both had to wonder “Why me? I am not qualified to do that. I don’t know enough to do that.” Yet, they both responded, and God used their faithfulness to reach millions.
Well, today’s lesson is about one of those men in David’s life that put on a good show to start with, but then just made excuses when David asked him to do more. The man’s name is Barzillai.
Barzillai uses a whole list of excuses to not go with David, and he eventually looks at David and says, "I'm not going, David, and that's the end of it. There's Chimham here; he wants to go, take him." And David did. He said, "All right, Barzillai, please yourself, have it your own way. I wanted you to help me run an empire. I'll never ask you again. Good-bye. Come on, Chimham, come and take this old man's crown."
And that is where the Holy Spirit leaves him—where David left him, heading back for the rut that would soon become his grave. Make no mistake, there is a limit to how many times the Holy Spirit will listen to your excuses before He says, “Ok, please yourself. I wanted you to help me to bring the gospel message of Christ to a lost world, but you said no. I will never ask you again.”
Ask yourself, how many excuses have you given to God at this stage of your life, whatever that is, young or old? I just can’t imagine that anything could be worse for a child of God than for the Lord Jesus, at last, to simply leave a person to himself. Then for that believer to face, one day, the judgment seat of Christ and see someone else take their crown.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what it means when we tell God, “I will go a little way for you Lord, but I am not going all the way.”
Amen.
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
The story of David and Bathsheba is a story that is a challenge to each of us as believers, for if a man as great as David could fall into sin, then so could each of us. It is also a tragic story, because of the tremendous cost of David’s sin. There will always be consequences when we sin against God. Not just on what we might call the “big” sins, but any sin. Too many times we get complacent with our sin, because we have rationalized them as “little” sins, or “socially acceptable sins,” and we do not realize the full extent of the cost of that sin in our relationship with God. There is always a tragic cost of our sin, and that is what I want us to see in our message today.
But there is also hope. We can have our relationship with God restored, and that is what I want you to know today, there is hope for us when we fail, even when we fail greatly.
If you’re living in sin and God is not dealing with you, then do you know what you need to do? You need to get saved. You need to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior.
If you’re living in sin and God is dealing with you, then do you know what you need to do? You need to get right with God. You need to repent of the sin that is in your life and let God forgive you, and restore you.
God is serious about your life. He wants you to live a righteous and a holy life. God loves you and He wants you to be in fellowship with Him. What is the hope for the child of God who has sinned? God’s never-ending love for you. God told David, that “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” God tells you the same thing,
1 John 4:10
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
KJV
1 John 4:16
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
KJV
1 John 4:19
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
KJV
Do you want to restore your relationship with God? Do you want to once again “dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him?” Then you must repent of your sins and find forgiveness in God’s love for you.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
KJV
The promise that God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” is our hope as believers.
If this message is for you, if you are now walking in sin, it doesn’t even have to be a great big one, like adultery, but any sin, then that sin is impacting your relationship with God. You need to repent of that sin. This message is for people who want to live once again in the full love of God.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the cost of sin, and the hope that the believer has in restoring their relationship with God.
Amen.
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
Can a child of God sin? Yes, they can and do, frequently. Can a child of God sin a great big sin, like breaking one of the 10 commandments? Now, before you answer that, I want you to work your way down the list of commandments, and tell me if you can break them and be a child of God? Yes, of course, they can. Then, can a child of God sin and not suffer? Absolutely not.
Today’s message is about a child of God who sinned, and sinned greatly, which makes this a very sad story. It is sad because a man whom God loved, and who truly loved God, committed not just the sin of adultery, but then he tried to cover it up by committing murder. Now those are really big sins, and David committed them.
So, not only is this a sad story, but it is also a tragic story because a man who the Bible describes as a man after God’s own heart will have to face the consequences of that sin. Make no mistake, there is always a consequence to our sin against God, and David was no exception. First, without a doubt you will suffer conviction from the Holy Spirit of God. If you sin and you don’t feel the convicting power of the Holy Spirit working on you, then you better check your salvation, because a child of God cannot sin and not suffer conviction from the Holy Spirit.
Now, if we repent of that sin and ask God for forgiveness, then He will forgive our sin. But, as we will see in this story, we may still have to face the consequences of that sin. If you are a twice-born child of God, you will not lose your salvation because you sin, even if that sin is adultery or murder, but you will face consequences in this life, and perhaps a loss of rewards in heaven.
Now, not only is this a sad and tragic story, but it is also a familiar story. People who do not love God, people who believe all Christians are hypocrites, love this story because it details the failure of a man of God. Of course, I am sure you know by now that the story in our message today is about David’s sin with Bathsheba.
Now, I want you to pay attention to this scripture that we are about to cover, and it is going to be a two-part lesson. This first week, we are going to cover the sin that David committed, and make no mistake it was a terrible sin. But, the reason I want us to pay attention to this Scripture is that next week we are going to give hope to believers who have sinned greatly. God wants you to know that no matter what you sin is, there is a way back to fellowship with Him. This is important because we all sin, even as a child of God we sin, and we need to know that this hope is there for us. We can be right with God.
Click on the link below to hear a message about a man of God who sinned greatly, and the warning in this message is that if a man as great as David can fall into sin, then so can you.
Amen.
Sunday Nov 01, 2020
Sunday Nov 01, 2020
I am going to tell you a little secret about me. When I dream, I am always the hero. I am the one who saves the damsel in distress. I am the one who charges into the fire and carries out the little baby, and I am the one who captures the bad guy and puts him into jail. In my dreams, it’s me who is the one doing everything wonderful. In my dreams, I am the hero. Yeah, I know, I have watched way too many John Wayne movies.
However, in reality, if something bad happened, I know that I could barely save myself. I would put up a good fight, especially if you threatened my family, and that includes my dogs. But, I have learned from experience what my limitations are. No, I know that in real life, when real danger comes, that it is the real heroes of our society that do the saving. It is the fireman who climbs that ladder to save the damsel while the building is burning all around him. It is the policeman who puts his life on the line to catch the bad guy and put them into jail, and it is the soldier who stands on the line between tyranny and freedom. These are the real heroes.
Now, truth be told, I am really glad we have these heroes because I couldn’t do it. Not anymore, and probably never could, but that is not what I tell myself in my dreams. Hey, a man can still have his dreams, right?
In today’s lesson, we are going to talk about dreams, and what happens in the dreams that God gives us, and who the hero is in God’s dreams. You see, sometimes God will put a dream in our heart. Sometimes God will lay something on us and give us a vision.
I firmly believe that God speaks, God leads, and God will plant things down deep in your heart. But, I want to be clear that when I say the word dreams or vision in our lesson today that I don’t mean that you will see movies in your mind, but I do mean that God will lay things on your heart. Things that He wants you to do.
I’m also not talking about human schemes, or carnal ambition. I’m talking about things that God lays on us that I believe from my heart of hearts are from Him. I believe that God gives a dream to everyone, that is, if they’ll listen. God didn’t just put us here to waste time and idle away. God made us for something very wonderful, and the Bible says,
Eph 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
KJV
The word workmanship means that we are His work of art, and God built us to work for Him.
Click on the link below to hear a message about a dream that God laid on David’s heart, and how God expounded and expanded that dream beyond anything that David could imagine.
Amen.