I have been a follower of Christ ever since I was nine years old. For over four decades, I have followed Jesus Christ and I have spent most of those years studying the Word of God and learning more about the God of the Word. I have literally been on mountaintops and I have been in valleys. There have been times in my life that God was so real it was as if I could literally reach out and touch His face. There have been other times I've felt like God was so far away that I could not see Him with the Hubble ...
Paul now launches into the body of the epistle with an indictment against humanity. He will maintain the charge until 3:21, at which point he will return to righteousness by faith which he introduced in 1:16–17. Romans 1:18–3:20 is a sobering exposé of the dark side of human nature. Throughout the attack Paul labors to demonstrate that there is no distinction between Gentile and Jew in the matter of sin and guilt, a point reasserted in 3:10–12, 3:23, and 11:32. Gentile and Jew are equally guilty before God ...
A check-out clerk once wrote columnist Ann Landers a letter of complaint: she had seen shoppers with food stamps buy luxury items like birthday cakes and bags of shrimp. The angry woman went on to say that people on welfare who treat themselves to non-necessities were “lazy and wasteful." A few weeks later Lander's column was devoted entirely to people who responded to the grocery clerk with letters of their own. One woman wrote: “I didn't buy a cake, but I did buy a big bag of shrimp with food stamps. So ...
He is undoubtedly one of the most amazing human beings I have ever seen in my life. His name is Niam Suleymanoglu. He stands 4 ft. 11 in. tall, weighs all of 141 pounds. You may not recognize him by his real name, but you may recognize him by his nickname. This hero of Turkey has been given the nickname "Pocket Hercules." He did something in the ‘96 Atlanta Olympics no one in Olympic history had ever done. For the third consecutive Olympics he won the gold medal in weight lifting. He won his division by ...
[Possible props may include a coin, a sheep, or you may want to end with a witness to one who has gone through a “wrong turn” and has “re-turned” to God.] When I was young, there wasn’t a day that went by that the loudspeaker in the department store or the mall wouldn’t inevitably blare out the name of some lost child, tearfully waiting at customer service for his or her mother to find and rescue him or her. The blaring loudspeaker was every parent’s relief. If it was their child, their frantic searching ...
Some of you here today are sitting in worship with a burden on your heart. Some of you are angry with God for that loss of job, or that sickness that has come upon you or your family. Some here today may have doubts that God truly cares about your life, truly cares about what happens to you or someone dear to you. Some of you may not be sure that God has heard you, or worse, that God exists to hear you. If you’ve been a lifelong church-goer, you’re probably afraid to ask those questions, just in case you ...
No problem! No sweat! My life is under control. My family is under control. My business is under control. My Nation is under control. My world is under control. No sweat! How stupid can we get? Help! I need help! Our world is not coping well. We tremble on the brink of suicide. Self-trust dismisses God’s authority. In some cases entire nations fail the most fundamental test of helping their own citizens cope with materialism run amok. Perhaps the most complete expression of a totally materialistic ...
August: The overlaps between Haggai’s various sayings in verses 2–11, with their repeated resumptive beginnings describing them as Yahweh’s words, suggest that these are sayings Haggai delivered on different occasions and that the narrator has brought them together into a coherent longer account of Haggai’ s challenge concerning the need to take up the task of building the temple. The account thus brings together the fact that the people are living in restored homes when Yahweh is not and the fact that ...
“Let it be done for you according to your faith.” Props: Centurion helmet or any military helmet and stick Hope pulls you forward. Faith pushes you forward. Love keeps you moving forward. A story recently made the news whereby a visitor from Israel to the US had a serious heart condition, and needed a heart transplant immediately or he would die. He was older than the recommended age for surgery, and had multiple other medical conditions that made any surgery problematic. Only two specialists in the world ...
If you haven't yet seen the trilogy of movies called, The Lord Of The Rings you really need to see it. It is not only clean, but it is extremely thought provoking. The author of the work upon which those movies are based was a man named J. R. R. Tolkien. A little known fact about Tolkien is he was the man that was instrumental in bringing C.S. Lewis to faith in Jesus Christ. He spent much of his early life as an agnostic and then an atheist, but through a meeting one night with Tolkien, he became a ...
In America, it is called a dollar. In England, it is called a pound. In Europe, it is called a euro. In Israel, it is called a shekel. In China, it is called a yen. Different countries call it different things, but we all know it is money. It is everywhere. Money has been around forever. Interestingly, we didn’t start using paper money until the mid-1600’s, before that it was gold, silver, and bronze. Before that it was a unit of weight like barley or bread. By itself money really is nothing. It is just ...
[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Title: “Jesus, Where Are You?” New Title: Teacher, Doctor, Savior, God? A pastor was showing a painting of Jesus to a group of children. He explained, "Now, young people, you understand this ...
One Sunday morning, following the church service, a layman accosted the pastor and said, “Tom, this church has been insulting me for years, and I did not know it until this week.” The stunned pastor replied, “What on earth do you mean?” “Well,” said the layman, every Sunday morning the call to worship in this church ends with the words, We are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.’ And I have heard ministers over the years call the congregation, God’s flock.’ Then this past week I visited ...
When William Jennings Bryan went to the father of the young woman whom he loved to ask her hand in marriage, he remembered that the father was a strong religious believer, so he quoted a proverb of Solomon from the Bible: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing.” But the father surprised him by responding with a quote from St. Paul, “He who marries his betrothed does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better.” The young man was at a loss for a reply for a moment, but then he came up with this ...
Proper Objects of Prayer Following the charge to Timothy in chapter 1, which points to the presence of false teachers as the occasion of the letter, Paul now moves on to give a series of specific instructions (2:1–7 on the proper objects of prayer; 2:8–15 on the proper demeanor for prayer; 3:1–13 on qualifications for church leadership). All of this leads directly to 3:14–15, where Paul repeats his purpose for writing in terms of the believers’ knowing how to conduct themselves in God’s household. Because ...
I once saw a list of professions ranked according to the degree of stress that can be found in that vocation. I looked for "minister." It wasn't there. I assumed there must be a mistake, so I looked under "clergy." It wasn't there, either. I looked under "pastor," and "priest." Not there. Later somebody told me that, as a matter of fact, ministry is considered one of the least stressful vocations. Which meant that all the worrying I've done for the last thirty years was for nothing. The fact of the matter ...
A Summons to Steadfastness 2:6 The Greek text begins with “therefore,” indicating that what the apostle is about to say is linked with his preceding discussion on the content of the mystery which is Christ himself. As someone has said, “Whenever you see a therefore in Scripture, go back to see what it is there for!” To stand firm does not mean to stand still. Paul is aware that the best defense is a good offense. Consequently, he admonishes his readers to continue in their faith. By receiving the gospel ...
Salutation What is striking about the salutation to Titus is its considerable differences from those in 1 and 2 Timothy, especially its lengthy elaboration of Paul’s apostleship (vv. 1–3), a phenomenon found elsewhere only in Romans. These verses, which form a single, extremely complex sentence in Greek, conclude with a note about his apostleship as a trust. The main thrust, however, emphasizes the purpose of that apostleship: to bring God’s people to faith and truth, and thus to life. That life, he ...
The Elder concludes his message of exhortation to the remaining faithful members of his community by assuring them of several certainties of the Christian life, with regard to possessing eternal life (13), asking and interceding in prayer (14–17), not sinning (18), being God’s children in an evil world (19), and knowing Jesus Christ, the true God (20). In the light of these great realities comes a final warning (21). 5:13 Continuing his style of linking the beginning of a new section with the end of the ...
“My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full.” (Proverbs 8:19-21) Prop: Mustard seeds / soil [Have someone hand out some small black mustard seeds to everyone at the start of the sermon.] In your hand, you have some mustard seeds. These are seeds from the black mustard plant that grows still today in Israel. [Note to pastors: you can ...
"... in his joy ... he sells all ..." - Matthew 13:44 Have you ever thought of it? The process of our living involves a lot of trade-off and barter. We are forever giving up some things in order that we might have others; we are perpetually sacrificing this so we may have that. We do this in our marriages; we do this in our occupational choices; we do this in the matter of having children; we do it at almost every juncture of the journey we make. In most of our choices we are actually giving up certain ...
I am intrigued by bumper stickers. Someone was smart. Since modern Americans spend so much of their time in cars, why not turn the bumper into a kind of chrome or, alas with modern cars, plastic bulletin boards. Thousands would get the messages as they come near the car in front of them. It was a brilliant idea. Religious folks have not missed this communication opportunity. So you have the traditional bumper sticker message: “Honk if you love Jesus”. And the more avant-garde, “In case of the rapture, this ...
[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Title: Changed Lives – Nicodemus New Title: What Does “Born Again” Mean? If you have ever been around a child who is mentally challenged and has difficulty with speech, you may appreciate a ...
The missionaries cross to Asia Minor, where Paul’s first recorded sermon is preached in Antioch. The speech is given at length, so that on other occasions Luke needed only to say that Paul “proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues” (13:5; 14:1; etc.) without feeling obliged to give the content of the preaching each time. And like the speech, the response was also a paradigm, with some Jews believing but many rejecting the gospel. It is possible to see in the pattern of ministry outlined in this ...
A sixth-grade teacher posed the following problem to one of her arithmetic classes: “A wealthy man dies and leaves ten million dollars. One-fifth is to go to his wife, one-fifth is to go to his son, one-sixth to his nephew, and the rest to charity. Now, what does each get?” After a very long silence in the classroom, one little fellow raised his hand. With complete sincerity in his voice, he answered, “A lawyer.” He’s probably right. Most of us are quite serious when it comes to money. It is estimated that ...