Elijah brought the word of the Lord during a time in history that is like ours in many ways. The society into which he spoke was a godless and idol-worshiping society that was heading for God’s judgment. But as long as God is calling people to repentance there is hope. This series will consider the message that Elijah brought in the light of its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
“Fighting against sin is a multifaceted thing – it is about putting off sinful attitudes and actions and putting on godly attitudes and actions. It is about drawing on the resources that God has given us in the gospel. It is about being part of the body of Christ and receiving rebuke and encouragement from the other members of the body, and it is about nurturing love for God and our fellow man through the nourishment of the means of grace.”
Sermon Series: The Ten Commandments
“The greatest oppression that human beings experience is the oppression of their own sin and the tyranny of the devil. Jesus came to set us free from that and as Jesus himself said in John 8:36. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.””
Sermon Series: Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs
“The deep joy and satisfaction that is possible for us as human beings does not come from seeking joy and happiness directly but by seeking God and his kingdom. It is when our focus is not on ourselves, but outside of ourselves on enjoying our relationship with God and giving ourselves in his service that the result of that is the profound joy and happiness that we are designed to enjoy. This is why the Bible focuses on obedience rather than the idea of satisfying our desires with the things of this life.”
Sermon Series: The Ten Commandments
“The great assumption of the Psychological Man is that it is possible to be psychologically whole apart from God, while the great truth from the beginning to the end of the Bible is that to live apart from God is death. Man’s wellbeing depends entirely and completely and utterly on being in a state of reconciliation with God – being accepted by God – loving God and being loved by God and living for the glory of God.”
Sermon Series: Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs
“The only way that the things of earth can truly satisfy us is if they point us to God and satisfaction in him. And one of the points of all the pleasures and satisfactions in life is that they are not enough. We cannot be complete without God. Our hearts cannot right rest apart from God. And so marriage and sex make the point that they are not enough. They can never be what God must be in our lives.”
Sermon Series: The Ten Commandments
“Our happiness and greatest wellbeing come from living for God rather than living for ourselves. We were not designed to find our deepest happiness by focusing on ourselves. We are designed to find our deepest happiness in God. The Bible is actually very concerned with man’s happiness, but as a result of living for God rather than living for ourselves. The picture that the Bible paints of a life in the service of God is a wonderful picture of fulfillment and wellbeing and profound happiness. The Bible makes it clear that the deepest joy that we can know is joy in the Lord and in his service. Psalm 32:11 says “Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” ”
Sermon Series: Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs
“The mysterious intimacy of marriage is used by God to describe our relationship with God which is also described in the New Testament as the relationship between Christ and the church. One of the great purposes of marriage is to point to and help us to understand and to long for the intimacy between God and man and between Christ and his church that is the ultimate fulfillment of human life.”
Sermon Series: The Ten Commandments
“The problem as the Bible expresses it is not that man is unable to find the truth apart from revelation from God, but rather that mankind is not looking for the truth in the first place. The biblical approach to the whole subject of mankind and the truth is that we know the truth about God and the world but by nature we suppress what we know to be true. The problem is not that we cannot find the truth. The problem is that the truth is all around us and we hide from it because the truth is that God is our Creator and our King, and we refuse to submit to him.”
Sermon Series: Biblical Responses to Secular Beliefs
“This is really a wonderful subject to think about because it is rooted in the fact that God is very prolife. He has life in himself and he has given life to us and he has made us in his image so that we have the capacity to experience life at a very deep level. We are spiritual beings and we are psychological beings and we are physical beings and the life that we are given to live is experienced at all of these levels.”
Sermon Series: The Ten Commandments
