Perhaps you have attended church from nine months before you were born. You memorized the verses in AWANA, you went to youth group. Somewhere along the lines, you prayed a prayer. Maybe you were even baptized. Now you come to church on Sundays and serve the church in some way. You assume that because you are doing all these things, you are good with God. But as we examine the Word, we discover that you just might be relying on the wrong thing. All these actions cannot save you. Only faith in Chr...
Nov 29, 2021•39 min
Nov 22, 2021•34 min
It is very easy for religious churchgoers to look at the world around us and decry what we see. Perhaps last week as we walked through the wrath of God against a culture, you found yourself agreeing with the judgments made. Our culture fell prey to their own sins resulting in a sexual revolution, homosexual revolution, and now societal chaos. We bemoan all that is going on around us. We rant against it with our family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and on social media. However, we will discover...
Nov 08, 2021•39 min
It seems as though society has reached a tipping point into evil. Any thought to argue against the LGBTQ agenda cannot be tolerated. Last week Former President Barack Obama stated with shock that he could not believe people were still arguing about it because that ship has sailed. The political sphere is as divisive as it has ever been. Young people are seen as completely out of place if they maintain their purity. The drug problem continues like a flash flood across our county. Violence, deceit...
Nov 01, 2021•50 min
Oct 25, 2021•36 min
Oct 18, 2021•46 min
What is the gospel? How would you answer that question? As we walk through this book, we will continually be confronted with the Gospel! We will be forced to clearly define the Gospel. We will be challenged to live the gospel in our everyday life. And we will be encouraged to share the gospel. So I invite you to join me on this journey by turning to Romans 1. As we begin, we begin with the main idea of the book. The Gospel is powerful.
Oct 11, 2021•48 min
Today we begin a new adventure together as we walk through the book of Romans. This is a fantastic book of the Bible. Many have called this Paul’s Mangum Opus (great work). It is considered this because of its amazing depth of theology while maintaining an incredible practicality. In this book, Paul presents one of the clearest presentations of the gospel. And then presents what this means for everyday life. As we walk through this book, we will continually be confronted with the Gospel! We will...
Oct 04, 2021•43 min
Today we reach the end of another journey. For the past several months we have worked through Paul’s final letter: 2 Timothy. We chose to work through this letter because it presents for us the measurement of a faithful ministry. As Paul faced the end of his time on earth and looked back over his ministry, he sought to convey to Timothy and to us the most important things the church and pastor must do in ministry. With all that he could have covered, it is vital and interesting to note what he s...
Sep 27, 2021•48 min
Many feel worn down. The challenges life brings cause us to become weary and faint. Sometimes, these struggles cause us to question our calling to follow God and even our faith in God. As God’s children, we expect that life should be a little easier. We expect that the struggles should be less. However, it is not long into our Christian lives when we discover that this is not the case. Life is hard. Even harder is the fact that the Christian life brings with it its own struggles. So how can we c...
Sep 20, 2021•37 min
A few weeks ago, we spent time looking at the reality that all Scripture is inspired by God. Because that is true, all Scripture is therefore profitable. Yet, as we read through the Bible, we quickly come across texts that don’t seem to be very profitable. We come to the fourth fifth chapter of Genesis, or the first nine chapters of Chronicles, or the first chapter of Matthew. All of which contain lists of family trees. Or we come to the end of Paul’s letters like we do today which consist of a ...
Sep 13, 2021•35 min
A reality of life that we all must face is the reality of death. Death will come for us all. We don’t like to think about death. We spend much of our lives ignoring death. But death is coming. One reality I have observed is that as a person comes closer to death, they begin to evaluate the life they lived a little differently. We can see this in the final statements of several people. As Napoleon lay on his deathbed, he is reported as saying, “I die before my time; and my body will be given back...
Sep 06, 2021•43 min
Churches across America are doing a lot of different things today. Some have inspiring dramas. Some have amazing concerts complete with the lights and fog. Some even have circus flying trapeze artists flying across the stage. But many, like this one, take a massive amount of time every Sunday to have a guy get up and talk about a passage in the Bible. Why would a church do that? Isn’t that kind of old fashioned and out of date? We are told that preaching doesn’t work anymore. So why would the ch...
Aug 30, 2021•47 min
You don’t’ have to be around here very long to figure out that we make a big deal out of the Bible. Even today as you sat in the pew: you sang some songs that came from the Bible, you listen to the Bible read twice already, and you heard prayers with the Bible in them. Perhaps you have wondered why do Christians make such a big deal out of the Bible? Maybe even as a Christian you have wondered, what is the big deal? As you read the Bible, perhaps you have come across the confusing or frankly bor...
Aug 24, 2021•39 min
The Apostle Paul understood what living in a wicked world was like. As he writes 2 Timothy, he is in prison, condemned to death, solely for being a Christian. Paganism reigned around him. The government was absolutely corrupt and ruled by a man who was insane. While he was about to die, Timothy was not. So in chapter 3, Paul gives Timothy instruction about living in a wicked world. We discovered in the first half of chapter three that Paul instructed Timothy to understand that thw wickedness of ...
Aug 16, 2021•43 min
Missionary Ryan Pennington (a translation consultant with Bibles International) presents the needs of Bible translation around the world and the way the Word works in lives.
Aug 09, 2021•46 min
Last week we began the second half of 2 Timothy. Chapter 3 details for us the things we need to be aware of and to do in order to live in a wicked world. We noted that, as believers, experiencing this wicked world can be frustrating, discouraging, and even scary. We see society around us degrade, and we worry about the kind of world our children will inherit. We watch the news, and we wonder how much worse it can get. Is this God’s plan? Has God forgotten? How can we continue to live in this mes...
Aug 02, 2021•33 min
All one needs to do is watch the news, look at the magazine rack in the store, or spend any time on social media to be reminded that we live in a wicked world. As believers, experiencing this can be frustrating, discouraging, and even scary. We see society around us degrade, and we worry about the kind of world our children will inherit. We watch the news, and we wonder how much worse it can get. Is this God’s plan? Has God forgotten? How can we continue to live in this mess? As we turn now to t...
Jul 26, 2021•51 min
A couple of years ago, I purchased a couple of washcloths to use in my office so that I could clean off dishes after eating lunch. Being cheap, I purchased them from the Dollar Tree. The first time I had the opportunity to use them, I discovered a problem: Thy didn’t retain water. The water simply ran over them and they didn’t really get wet. I thought, What use is a washcloth that doesn’t get wet? On the other hand, back in the late 90’s I had a number of pairs of cargo pants. I am not sure why...
Jul 19, 2021•45 min
What should you expect from your pastor? What is a pastor’s role? What is to be a pastor’s focus? What should you expect and demand from me? There are a variety of opinions on this matter in the church today. Some view the pastorate like a chief administrator. His priority is to ensure that the various ministries of the church are organized. Some view the pastorate like a visitation guru. His priority is to visit the hospitals, the members, and the community. Some view the pastorate like a jack ...
Jul 12, 2021•37 min
Today, as we celebrate the founding of this country, we do so, understanding that it is a country in trouble. Secularism has pervaded the culture and modern American Christianity has proved ineffective. With the advent of modern media, we have access to more preachers than ever before, but there are few powerful preachers. Churches abound across the country, but few are truly changing the culture around them for Christ. While “Christians” are all over the news and social media, the country conti...
Jul 06, 2021•45 min
We live in an unusual time. I think that we can all agree on that. As secularism continues to gain hold in this country, the influence of Christianity continues to wane. But what is so unusual about this that the prevalence and availability of Christianity. Through modern media, there are more popular preachers today than at any time in church history, but few powerful ones. There also are more popular churches, but few powerful ones. There is much activity, but little spiritual fruit; much talk...
Jun 28, 2021•46 min
Jun 21, 2021•42 min
Jun 21, 2021•54 min
In the late 1800s Charles Spurgeon commented, "Everywhere there is apathy. Nobody cares whether that which is preached is true or false. A sermon is a sermon whatever the subject; only, the shorter it is the better." He went on to warn that the Church was drifting away from the purity of the Gospel. Instead of boldly proclaiming the truths of Scripture, Christians were candy-coating the Word, being careful not to offend anyone. As a result, Christianity's influence in nineteenth-century England ...
Jun 07, 2021•35 min
Jun 01, 2021•42 min
We don’t like to think of death, but have you ever thought about what you would say if given the opportunity to utter your last words? What message would you convey? We think of final words that have been said over history. Some have been unfortunate. General John Sedgwick, a general in the union army during the civil war, said to his men who were ducking from a confederate sniper, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” And was promptly killed by the sniper. Some last words have been ...
May 24, 2021•34 min
Whenever we finish a book, it is like saying goodbye to an old friend. We have spent almost seven months in 1 Timothy and today we bid it farewell. This epistle is a vital epistle for the church to understand. If we can understand this epistle, and obey it, we can avoid many of the challenges which split churches today. As we worked through the book, we learned that the church is the visible picture of Christ. As such the church is entrusted with the role of guarding and obeying the truth of Scr...
May 17, 2021•43 min
It is easy for many of us to skip over the text for today when we come to it in our bible reading because it is a text about wealth. Those who have wealth tend to overlook it because they don’t want to hear its message. The rest of us immediately think that this passage is not for us because we are not wealthy. However, those who have wealth need this message in order to understand God’s expectations of them. The rest of us need to recognize that we are actually wealthy. A recent study revealed ...
May 10, 2021•33 min
There is a storm on the horizon. There is a cultural (a spiritual) revolution occurring before our eyes which will bring trouble and trial to true believers. ... In the not to far distant future, this storm will arrive at our doorstep. And we will be called to stand. Society will seek to overwhelm us and force us to comply with their beliefs. The outer walls have been breeched and we have a decision to make. Will we stand or will we fall? In the first century, the church at Ephesus faced a simil...
May 03, 2021•46 min
