Sermons About Jews
Declaration of (in) Dependence Part 25
Coping with problems ultimately comes down to our perspective. Granted, if someone has no hope in Jesus Christ and their only hope rests in their own strengths and abilities, despair seems pretty appropriate. But knowing the promises of God and the fulfillment of those promises in Jesus Christ, despair for the believer is a matter of perspective. With Christ, all things are possible. With Christ, all hope is gone. When we lose that perspective (all hope because of Christ), we fall into despair – a state in which many people are living in at this moment. Francis Chan in his book “Crazy/Love” does a good job of helping us find that perspective. Imagine that you are an extra in a movie. There is a crowded scene where you stand with about a hundred other folks, and once your day day of shooting is done, the back of your head accounts for about 2 seconds of screen time. Now, this is not a huge debut for your movie career, but the back of your head makes 2 seconds of screen time among another 100 folks, so I guess you are in showbiz. So in light of your debut, you rent out a local movie theater and invite all of your friends and family. You tell them that they are invited to see the movie made about your life. Of course everyone shows up excited, but once they realize that the back of your head makes up about two seconds of screen time and you have billed the movie as the movie of your life, they all think your crazy. Obviously your perspective is skewed at the least and you are crazy at the worst. Unfortunately, as Chan notes, this perspective most of us take before God. In the grand scheme of God’s work and the unfurling of His plan and character, we make up about 2 seconds of head time, yet we yell and scream that this world and this life is about us. We shake our fists and God and yell, “How dare you do this!” We yell, “Why have you done this to me? I’ve been faithful.” Most folks lose perspective that this world is the unfurling of God’s eternal plan to bring glory to Himself and not to cater to our whims. The hope though in the midst of that is that God is pledged Himself to you in love so much so that He gave His only son, Jesus Christ, so that you might be with Him both now and in eternity. So in light of that, our perspective should change. Yes, God cares about you and is about your well-being, but it is His plan at work, it is His glory, and His movie if you will. Finding our selves in it instead of trying to make God fit into ours corrects our perspective. When it comes down to it, God is only going to meet His expectations and not going to conform to yours, mine, or anyone else’s. The question is, can you worship that God? Big Picture Question: How is a God who meets His own expectations more worthy of praise than a god that meets your expectations?
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End-times Madness
Is Jesus returning in 2012? Does the conversion of Jews point to the end times? Gary takes a look at the latest editions of Charisma magazine and gives an educated rebuttal to it's end-times arguments.
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We Study to Assist the Working of God - Part 1
Please note this is a two part sermon... Paul brought a great deal of comfort to the Christians in Thessalonica with this letter. Yet one way in which comfort was brought to the Thessalonians (their lives proved it, as did their suffering) should startle us in America. We don't suffer for being Christians here (outside of extremely isolated instances). What has the church throughout the history of the world endured? What do many endure today? We ignore the plight of our brothers and sisters in Christ to the detriment of the Kingdom.
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We Study to Assist the Working of God - Part 2
Please note this is a two part sermon... Paul brought a great deal of comfort to the Christians in Thessalonica with this letter. Yet one way in which comfort was brought to the Thessalonians (their lives proved it, as did their suffering) should startle us in America. We don't suffer for being Christians here (outside of extremely isolated instances). What has the church throughout the history of the world endured? What do many endure today? We ignore the plight of our brothers and sisters in Christ to the detriment of the Kingdom.
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We Study to Remember
What goes through the mind of an apostle? We can never know for certain - aside aside from what is written in the Bible that is. Yet what we have in the Bible is only "half" of the conversation. In other words, we think so much more than we speak or write. Yet by looking at the text of 1 Thessalonians, taking insights from the historical background of the first century, and considering information contained in the book of Acts, we can deduce some concerns Paul may have had about the young "church" in Thessalonica.
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We Study To Be An Example
Context is King. If we ignore context we can make the Bible say anything we want. For example, I can command you to do something most think is an "un-Christian" thing to do - all by using Scripture...“Judas went out and hanged himself; do likewise, and what you do, do quickly” (Matt27:5b; Lk3:11; Jn13:27b). All from Scripture; obviously not godly activity - context is vital. How does context impact what Paul writes in the opening chapter of 1 Thessalonians?
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The Holy Spirit & An Open Door Gospel
In this sermon we see God demonstrate for the early church, His desire for the Gospel to be offerered to all people.
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