Ephesians 5:5-7: Living in Light of Judgement
What do all these verses have in common? 2 Cor. 5:10-11, ‘For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.’ 2 Pet. 3:11, 14, ‘Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?’ ‘Therefore,...
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Ephesians 5:3-7: Motivations for Personal Purity
Why should a Christian not have sex before marriage or any other form of sexual sin? Why should a Christian not tell dirty jokes? Why should a Christian not swear? Why should a Christian not be greedy? It is to these questions that we turn as Paul gives the Ephesians motivations to be personally pure. Paul has been speaking to the area of unity, to the area of relationships, and about those sins that we do against each other like lying, stealing, slandering, unforgiveness, etc. But Paul is not only concerned about our unity he is also concerned about...
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Proverbs 4:23: Keeping the heart
Introduction: Every one of us is two people, there is the person that we project and there is the person we are within. Peter calls this inner person, ‘the hidden person of the heart’ 1 Pet. 3:4. Today in this message I want do an under the hood check. Think of a yacht sitting at anchor, we all see what is above the water line but don’t think much about what is below the water line. The top of the yacht can be beautiful woods and colourful sails with well-polished finishings. The yacht can have a pool and a...
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Revelation 14:1-5: The 144,000
Outline 144,000 Sealed New song Redeemed Virgins Followers First-fruits Blameless Introduction We have just seen the war of the ages with the devil, the beast of persecution and the beast of false religion raging against the church and dividing the human race into two camps. Those who serve the beast, and this is indicated by the mark on their hands and forehead symbolising mind and action, representing the whole person not following Christ but the false religion inspired by Satan; and those who are faithful to Christ. We have seen a great exercise of power where having been given...
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Revelation 3:14-22: Laodicea
Introduction: Laodicea is the worst of the 7 churches. Unlike the church in Sardis who was dead but still had a small group who had kept their garments white, Laodicea was a church that had gone altogether bad. There are no commendations for the church in Laodicea. The Laodicean church it seems had taken on the characteristics of the town it was in. Laodicea was the most important of the 3 towns in the Lycan valley. The others were Colosse and Heirapolis. Laodicea was a wealthy town, when they were hit by an earthquake they turned down any government...
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