Total Sermons: 201
Total Amens: 1
Lonliness
We often feel the pain of loneliness when we are separated from others and we feel this because God told us from the very beginning that it was not good for man to be alone. There are many foolish and futile ways that people try to cope with the pain of loneliness, including mindless entertainment, shallow or destructive relationships, or drugs and alcohol. When we are beset with loneliness God wants us first to know that He is near and He sincerely cares about each one of us. We should then take active steps find relationships with people that we can love sacrificially, will be mutually encouraging, and work alongside on the mission that He has called us to to share His Gospel with others.
0 Amens
Out of Control and Anxious
We like to be in control of our lives because we feel that being in control will protect the things that are most important to us. When we lose control of a situation we often get anxious. We should not get anxious when a situation is out of our hands because it is still in God's hands. When we worry it is because we have stopped trusting that God will provide for us. The Bible teaches us that we should cast our anxieties on God because He cares for us as a loving Father and He has promised to provide for our needs.
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Genuine Joy
Every decision that we make and every action that we take is an attempt by us to gain some measure of happiness. The Bible calls us to rejoice in the Lord. Genuine joy can be found in having our relationship with God restored through faith in Christ and celebrating all that He has saved us from and all that He has given us now that we are adopted into His family. Joy can also be found in walking in God’s ways and obeying His commands. There is also joy in using the creation in the way that God intended and enjoying the good gifts that God has given us without making them into idols. We often short circuit this process and end up miserable and frustrated because we get so caught up in trying to get joy out of creation that we neglect our relationship with God and start disobeying his good commands in a futile attempt to get more joy, but God calls us to first and foremost seek our joy in Him. This sermon was originally preached at Alathia on 8/17/08 but the recording was lost to technical difficulties. This recording is from the same sermon preached at Taproot Church in Des Moines, WA, on 8/31/08.
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A Beneficial Terror
The fear of God is an unpopular topic in our day and age. We often prefer to think of God as a sort of nice grandfather who gives out presents but never disciplines. But the one true God in the Bible is the almighty Creator of the entire universe who rules and reigns with both love and wrath, and we should all have a healthy fear of Him because He can discipline us now for disobeying His good commands. We should also fear Him because we will all stand before Him one day and give an account for what we did with our lives, and He has the power and authority to punish those who do not put their trust in His Son in hell for all eternity.
0 Amens
Part of the Greater Story
Esther enjoyed a life of privelege as the wife of the King of Persia but she was willing to sacrifice both her privelege and her very life to protect her fellow Israelites from genocide. God in His sovereignty put Esther in a place where she could play a role in His greater story of looking after His chosen people, a role that foreshadowed how Jesus would lay down His life on the cross to save His people. The details of our lives often seem insignificant but God has set them in place as well and if we are willing to surrender our lives over to God they can be woven into the greater story of God's plan to redeem and restore us and all of creation.
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Make a Racket
There is a tendency to think that Christian praise music should be quiet, mellow, and somber but Psalm 150 describes a song to God that is loud, boisterous, and accompanied by all kinds of instruments. We often get praise wrong because we get excited and absorbed with petty things that are not worthy of the devotion we give them. We should instead give our praise and worship to the all-powerful, loving God who is worthy of our devotion because created everything and sent His Son to die in our place on the cross so that we could be reconciled to Him.
1 Amens
Obeying God's Word
We all struggle to obey God’s word. We are in good company, though, because most of the people who are lifted up as examples in the Bible struggled to obey God’s word too. We have a tendency to be more concerned with learning the Bible than with applying it to our lives, which makes us knowledgeable but proud, contentious, and condescending instead of humble, loving and merciful. We also don’t make reading the Bible a priority so we are ignorant of what it says, which leads us to wander off of God’s good path and make a wreck of our lives. Once we do learn God’s word our stubborn hearts get in the way and we reject someone else telling us to surrender to them and obey because we think we know better. In the end the only one who can obey God’s word perfectly is Jesus Christ, and we need His death to cover over our failures to obey God’s word, and we need His perfect obedience to be credited to us through faith in Him.
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God's Word Lights Our Path
We like to think that we are clever enough, rich enough, and educated enough to make our way through this life on our own, but we still end up groping around in spiritual darkness, grasping for meaning and significance in places where it doesn't exist. God has given us the Scriptures to be a light that cuts through the darkness that helps us see Him for who He really is and guides along the path to a stronger relationship with Him.
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Observing and Praising the Lord
This psalm, like many places in Scripture, commands us to praise the Lord with joy. This does not mean that we should manufacture an artificial emotional response but that we should observe the majesty of God and His perfect character and then respond accordingly. We sometimes have trouble praising God and this often happens because we haven’t spent enough time observing and meditating on who He is and what He has done for us, especially from what we see in the Bible. When we stop and spend time thinking about how powerful, faithful, trustworthy, and loving the Lord is it will help us to respond to His greatness with fitting words of praise.
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God-given Spirit During Trials
King David went through many arduous trials during his life, and God filled him with His Holy Spirit to help him persevere through them. David wrote this song during a time of trials and the God-given attitude during he exhibited during these trials is an example to us. David patiently trusted in the Lord’s provision and protection, he praised Him throughout the trials, he joyfully depended on the Lord, he was humbly teachable, and he was realistic about what he was up against.
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