Luke 16:19-31: The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
We are living in the imaginary world of John Lennon, ‘Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try; No hell below us; above us only sky.’ Unfortunately imagination and fantasy are not reality, and so we are walking around deluding ourselves about the facts. There is a heaven, there is a hell, we have a soul, there is an afterlife and we will face God on judgement day. We live in a dream land where we deny reality, we deny the things that define us, we deny the destiny that inevitably lies before us. We pretend morality is...
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Luke 12:22-34: Do Not Be Anxious
There are two hands with which we hold onto the things of this life, there is the hand of greed and the hand of worry. The hand of greed holds onto things out of a desire for them believing the lie that they need them in order to be happy; the hand of worry holds onto things out of a desire to survive thinking that it needs these things for life. Some of us pursue the things of this life because of our insatiable desires; some of us pursue things because of our illogical fear. The iron grip of...
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Ephesians 4:28: From Selfishness to Selflessness
We have put off our old ways and put on a new self. We are no longer the person we used to be and we are being made into the person we will one day be. Paul is mapping out this newness in various areas of our lives. He has spoken about how we are new in the way we communicate as we put away lies and deal in truth. He has spoken about the new way we control our anger when dealing with others not giving the devil an opportunity to divide us. Now he is going to...
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1 Timothy 6:17-19: Giving
Let me begin with a statement, this generation of Christians in the West is the most informed and least godly generation of Christians that has ever been. I am not only talking about the fact that Christians are no longer recognizable as different from the world, nor am I referring to the many instances of public sin that Christian leaders and Christians in general are caught in. No, in our modern age with all of it conveniences, and all of its media and distractions we have lost our inner disciplines and spirituality. We are a people who are prayerless,...
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Romans 15:25-29: Paul the Church Ambassador
Introduction: What is driving you, when you feel tired in the morning and don’t feel like getting up what do you tell yourself to get yourself going? What are you living for? Are you functioning according to a deliberate motivation or a default autopilot? Some are driven by a desire to provide for their families; some are driven by a career goal; some are fixed on their retirements; some have sinful goals, some have godly goals. All of our doing flows out of our wanting. We do what we want. Paul is a man of ambition, he has just...
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Romans 15:20-24: Paul the pioneer missionary
Introduction: I would like to begin by adapting a well-known illustration relating to missions that John Piper uses in his book Let the Nations Be Glad.1 You along with ten others are on an old school lifeguard boat with oars attending to a sinking ship. You are the captain of this little band of life savers. The ship you are attending is a liner with many people that cannot swim and there are only a few life boats. You and you little team get stuck in and are trying to rescue as many as you can. But suddenly you...
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Romans 12:13: Meeting needs in the church
Outline What Why Introduction The true mark of an inner healthy spiritual life is an overflow in service to others. Paul has been calling upon us to stoke our hearts to be fervent and not slothful; he has been calling us to sustain ourselves in difficulty, his thoughts naturally turn then to commands which speak about the practical outworking of a heart that is fervent and prayerful. Romans 12:13, ‘Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.’ Paul has made mention of contributing to the saints in 12:7-8, which speak about serving and contributing generously....
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