Luke 1:57-80: The Benedictus
There are two ways in which God faithfully parents us with suffering. Think of these as two different types of parental discipline. There is the use of suffering in our lives in general which acts to refine our faith, we can think of 1 Pet. 1:6-7: ‘In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus...
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The Problem of God and Suffering
Introduction: Today we begin the second half of our apologetics study where we handle objections to the faith. In the first part we laid out some of the most common ways to present the rationality of Christian belief. This was by no means an exhaustive survey. We presented the following list of arguments for God: the resurrection; the authority of Scripture; the unity of Scripture; the uniqueness of Scripture; the prophecies of Scripture; archaeology and the Bible; the manuscripts of the Bible; Jesus as an argument for God; the moral argument; the ontological argument; the cosmological argument; the teleological...
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Philippians 3:2-16: True Religion
Introduction: When I say the words ‘mature Christian’ what comes to mind? Perhaps you automatically think of someone older, someone calm and unruffled, but few of us put the words mature and ambition, or mature and striving for perfection, maturity and a desire to suffer together. We ordinarily do not associate maturity with those things we could easily associate with fanaticism. In the portion that we will be looking at today Paul places these things together in his picture of mature Christianity. Phil. 3:15 comes at the end of his description stating, ‘Let those of us who are mature...
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Psalm 62: Who do you trust?
Introduction: Our Text for this evening is Psalm 62. Turn there with me now. Let me ask you as we begin: Have you ever felt betrayed? Have you ever felt like someone you were counting on has let you down? We all experience this at different points throughout our lives, don’t we? You can, I am sure, think of the particular people and the particular situations, which left you feeling disappointed and betrayed. There are questions that we are forced to answer as we process those sorts of situations. What do we do when we feel betrayed? In what do we put our trust? Where do we...
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1 Peter 3:15-16: ‘…Being Prepared to Make a Defence…’
Introduction: Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor talks about these times of late modernity we live in as the twilight of the idols and the gods. Contrary to every prognostication and resistant to every attempt faith and religion continue to haunt us. The age of Christendom has come to end and the privileged position of unchallenged supremacy is lost to us. However, contrary to the hopes of the New Atheists religion is still with us. However, we now live in an age where there is no doubt without faith and no faith without doubt. This presents us with a double challenge....
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1 Kings 11:9-43: The Chastening of the Lord
Introduction: We come to the last message in the life of Solomon and the question that immediately jumps into our mind is: did Solomon go to heaven? If 1 kings 11:1-8 was all we were told then we might say no. However, the book of Ecclesiastes is a memoir of a sort written by Solomon and it is credited to be written by him at the end of his long life. The book describes the futility of the many things Solomon engaged in and how the meaning of life is to love God and keep His commands, Ecc. 12:13-14,...
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1 Corinthians 1:18-31 – Preaching the Foolishness of the Cross
Introduction: Do you feel embarrassed about the Christian message? Are you embarrassed about the exclusive claims that Christ is the only way to heaven? Do you cringe when you have to sound ‘cruel’ by affirming that everyone is a totally depraved sinner? Do you drop your voice when you say that homosexual lust is a sin and homosexual marriage is an impossibility? Do you leave out quoting the Bible in your conversations because of how people today think of God’s word? Have you ever felt tempted to rethink some traditional Christian beliefs on things like hell, the inspiration of Scripture,...
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Job 3: Job Laments His Birth
Thanks to Andrew Johnson for preaching this morning; he is from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Fairlie. Read Job 3 Online
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Proverbs 9:7; 15:15; 27:7: Eating right in 2018
Introduction: There are many New Year’s resolutions relating to food. Eating less, eating right, eating clever, we change our eating habits to improve our lives whether it is for our weight, our blood pressure, our performance, etc. Today I want to share some eating tips in relation to spiritual health. In the book of proverbs there are many texts that talk about food and eating, I would like to point you to just three. We will be considering ‘eating’ texts as they relate to sin, suffering and satisfaction. These are three areas we all need instruction in for 2018.
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2 Samuel 16:1-14: David’s enemies – Part One
Introduction: If I had to ask you what is one of the most destructive weapons at man’s disposal; what would you name? Over and over again the bible names the tongue. James 3:6, ‘And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.’ This verse tells us that the tongue is truly a weapon of mass destruction. It creates a whole world of unrighteousness, it stains the whole body, it sets on fire one’s...
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Romans 12:17-18: Blessed are the Peacemakers: Part One
Sorry, no audio recording is available for this sermon. Outline Imitating God Repaying evil Introduction Frederick Nietzsche thought that Christianity was a slave morality. The whole idea of turning the other cheek and that the meek will inherit the earth was seen by him to be a subversion of the nobility of man. He thought that we became our best through a will to power and he mourned the fact that Christianity had over the centuries shaped society so effectively. He saw democracy as a weakening of the strong, as a slave uprising keeping our best down. The idea...
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Revelation 4:1-11: The Throne that runs the universe
Introduction: Your view of the universe determines your reaction to suffering. If you are an atheist who views the world to be the result of time+chance =everything, then you have no reason to complain about suffering, it just is. If you are a Hindu that believes that this experience of reality is an illusion then suffering is not processed but denied, and it is hoped escaped by how well we do in each life finally reincarnating ourselves by our own efforts out of the cycle of pain. Deism that admits to a creator but that the laws of nature...
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Revelation 2:8-11: Smyrna
Introduction: Things are not what they seem! This is one of the most important truths that Christians are to learn from the book of Revelation. We see in this book that it is those who die as martyrs who are the victors over satan Revelation 12:11. The slain lamb of Christ is in fact the Lion and ruler. The invincible Rome is Babylon and will be judged. What appears to be a perfect storm of catastrophes manufactured to wipe out the church are in fact the God ordained, allowed and controlled prejudgements anticipating the removal of all evil. This...
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Revelation 1:4-6: The God of the suffering Church
Introduction: One of the most important lessons from the Psalms is that one of our biggest needs when suffering is worship. When we are down and out, when we are depressed and surrounded we need a vision, a reminder, the conviction of who our God is and His goodness towards us. If you page through the Psalms even when the psalmist is going through great trials there is worship. A meditation upon God and His work. Psalm 33 is a wonderful example of this. We can see by the last verse in the psalm that the psalmist is writing...
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