Romans 12:8: The Gift of Exhortation
Outline Models of encouragement Words of encouragement Introduction Today we are going to be looking at one of the more underappreciated gifts, the gift of encouragement/exhortation. Romans 12:8 reads, ‘the one who exhorts, in his exhortation.’ The Greek word here occurs 107 times in the NT and has been translated in various ways, beseech, comfort, desire, pray, entreat, console. The word for exhortation in this text is literally paraklese, this may sound familiar to you because when Jesus promises the Holy Spirit He promises the Parakletos. This means the one called alongside. The Latin translation of this is cum...
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Romans 12:7: The Gift of Serving: Part Two
Outline The importance of the word The importance of administration The importance of the needy The importance of character Introduction When I said last week that we were going to do a whole sermon looking at the office of deacon today how many of you were excited to come to and listen? I know of two men who were terrified of this week’s sermon because they would no doubt feel under the spot light. But this look at the gift of the office of serving, deacon, is a most important topic for all of us. It is not only...
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Acts 19:1-7: Second Baptisms
Introduction: A controversial issue among Christians is the question of second baptisms. At the time of the Reformation this was a huge issue. The Reformers, who practiced baby baptism had to ask themselves the question, is baptism by a Roman Catholic priest legitimate? They concluded that it was because it was done in the name of the Trinity according to Matthew 28:19. But then there were those known as the Anabaptists who rejected the practice of infant baptism declaring that baby baptism is no baptism at all and true believers need to be baptised after they have believed in...
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Romans 10:15: Being Sent
Introduction: The Son did not send Himself into this world to be our Saviour, He was sent by the Father. The Spirit did not send Himself at Pentecost, but was sent by the Father and the Son. The apostles did not send themselves on the Great Commission but were sent by the head of the church, Jesus Christ. Paul did not send himself but was called by Christ on the Damascus road and this call was confirmed by the laying on of the hands of the elders in the church at Antioch, Acts 13:1-3. The preaching of the gospel...
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Acts 16:11-15: Salvation in Lydia’s Household
Introduction: The furniture in a church tells you something about its theology and what is important. In a Roman Catholic Church you have the altar front and centre, some churches have the band, Baptist churches usually have the pulpit, the baptistery and the Lord’s Table somewhere in the centre. Because it is the word of God that is given prominence in our worship, because it is God ministering to us not us to God which takes priority, the audible word and the visible word take centre stage. Baptism has fallen on hard times especially in our digital age where...
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Acts 2:38-39: The Promise of the Spirit
Introduction: Today we are having a baptismal service where some of the candidates were once baptised as infants and have since come to recognise that their parents cannot obey the call to repent and be baptised on their behalf, and so are being baptised today as their own act of obedience to Christ’s command. Today then I would like us to think carefully about the differences between infant baptism and believer’s baptism. We will not be able to look at every verse relevant to this discussion so we will look at one of the more important ones, Acts 2:38-39....
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Acts 22:16: Rise and be baptised
No recording is available for this sermon. Introduction: Isaac Backus was a faithful American pastor who walked a long road to obeying Christ’s command to believe and be baptised. Isaac Backus was converted during the First Great Awakening in America, this awakening was full of the preaching of men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, and the Tennant brothers. Backus sat in the midst of these revivals and found his own heart hard and unaffected by the many that were being save around him. The Lord used this hardness of heart to awaken Isaac to His sinfulness and need for...
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