Luke 11:3-4: The Lord’s Prayer: What we Really Need in Prayer
We are all bad at prayer and Jesus is the master teacher when it comes to prayer. No human being has ever prayed more perfectly than Christ. He is sinless; He is divine and He has been in eternal fellowship with the Father. He as God has both received prayer, but also as man prayed. He has both answered prayer and had His prayers answered. So when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, they could ask no better person. We have looked at the first half of the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer outlined for us to...
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Luke 10:17-24: Reasons for Rejoicing
The Christian life can be depressing at times. Ecclesiastes 1:18 gives us a reason why, ‘ For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.’ The more truth you have, the more you realize how bad things are, and that can be depressing. We can get depressed because of the internal love that we still have for sin and the way we continue to sin. We get depressed because we see so much suffering so much of it self-inflicted as people live without God. We are sad because the God we love is not...
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The Doctrines of Grace: Perseverance of the Saints
We come now to the teaching known as the perseverance of the saints. It has been known by other names, the preservation of the saints, once saved always saved, or eternal security. Some of these forms of teaching are associated with teachings we would disagree with, and others depending on how they are defined we would count as biblical. We are happy with perseverance of the saints because it best describes the NT teaching that all those who God elects and draws to Himself are saved, and because the work of grace within them is real they will persevere....
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Going to Church as if Your Life Depended on it, Because it Does
Introduction: When you woke up this morning and the reality of life came slowly through the sleep fog and you realised that it was the Lord’s Day and you had to go to church, what was your emotional investment in that thought? Today as we continue our series on membership I want to talk to you about the necessity of Church and strike a tone that scripture strikes when it speaks about the necessity of going to church. I have called this sermon: Going to Church as if your life depended on it, because it does. Too often when...
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Romans: Final Overview
Introduction: You have heard the saying, ‘I can’t see the forest for the trees.’ Some of you may feel this way as we come to the end of the book of Romans, it is the longest of all Paul’s letters, and the most theological. If I had to ask you to give me a quick rundown of Romans could you do it? Are you familiar with its content and the development of its argument or is it a maze? Romans is a long development of the theological twists and turns of the gospel of God. So it is my...
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Romans 15:13: The First Benediction
Introduction: We come to the end of the teaching part of the book of Romans as Paul pronounces the first of three benedictions, Romans 15:13, ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.’ These words may be familiar to you because you often hear a benediction at the end of a service. Why do we do that? If you go to older denominations that have liturgy you would also find benedictions, is this simply a return to ‘dead religion’?...
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Colossians 3:1-17: Fixing our minds
INTRODUCTION: If you want to be a better Christian, you need to (fill in the blank). What is it that you think you need to do? What is it that some voices are telling us we need to do? Many tell us how we can be successful in our Christian walks. There are many fads that take advantage of our sincere hunger for holiness and obedience, and as a result there are many quacks with their quick fixes. ‘In order to live the victorious Christian life you need Christ and Christian psychology; Christ and inner healing; Christ and casting...
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Romans 12:9: Genuine love
Outline The proof of love The essence of love The source of love Introduction ‘What the world needs now is love, sweet love….’ ‘All you need is love….’ The world knows that the human heart is full of hate and crying out for love, yet it cannot fix itself. Every independent attempt to build a human society has resulted in a loveless self-destructive catastrophe. The Communisitic egalitarian agenda; the Hindu caste system; our secular humanistic self-defining humanity, no matter what it is, every attempt will end in human unhappiness and us destroying not loving one another. Think of the...
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Ephesians 6:15: The Shoes of Gospel Peace-readiness
Outline Ready to stand Ready to run Introduction It was Napoleon who said, ‘An army marches on its stomach,’ as true as that is, it is also true that an army marches on its feet. This truth was especially felt during WWI. There was a condition called trench foot, due to the cold, wet and insanitary conditions the feet would go numb swell and begin to blister. Gangrene could set in and amputation would have to happen. The soldiers were ordered to change their socks several times a day to prevent this condition. In one war in Alaska it...
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