Sermons from the preaching ministry of San Antonios’s Oak Ridge Baptist Church.
A. Christians should live like there's no tomorrow. In 1 Peter 4:1-11 Peter is exhorting Christians to live righteously and to endure persecution in the expectation of Christs imminent return. This has not changed Christians should live every day like it might be there last on earth, because it might.
We live in a fallen world and that sin and fallenness can infect our deepest personnel relationships. But we are called to glorify God even when those personnel relationships are wracked by pain and misunderstanding. Peter wants his readers to glorify God in and through their marital relationships even when there are hard or complicated.
Peter wants his hearers to Glorify God by responding well to hard masters. In the same way todays Christians should glorify God by by living well even when their jobs are hard.
The world around us is dying and as Christians we are called to live well as citizens of a dying world. We do this by submitting to legitimate Governmental authority while at the same time holding firm to our ultimate allegiance to God
David has confessed his sins and placed his trust in the mercy and loving kindness of God. The path to forgiveness leads through true and honest confession. Because of his steadfast love and abundant mercy, God will forgive even the most heinous sins if people ask with a contrite heart.
David had a life filled with pain and struggle. He had amazing victories and crushing defeats, and throughout it all he praised and relied on God. The lord was not punishing David he was honing and shaping him. He was sanctifying his son creating a good and godly character, and purging his pride and selfishness. He is doing the same for you today. Like a father with a son the lord disciplines those he loves for their own good. Do not despise the Lord's discipline, your pain and suffering are for a season and a reason.
David commits his spirit to God because he knows his times are in Gods hands already. David has lived his entire life in the sheltering hands of God. In times of deep despair and serious physical danger David has turned to God, and God has never let him down. This is as true for us as it was for him. We can escape despair by remembering Gods faithfulness and promises. Our times lie firmly in the hands of God, and we can trust that he will handle them well.
In his sin and brokenness David cried out to God and received mercy. He was saved from Gods wrath through the power of the Lords covenantal love. When God seems silent and distant, we can cry out to him with honest prayers and rest on his mercy. Christians can come to their loving father knowing he loves to answer his people's prayer.
esus wants the disciples to rely on God for victory over Sin. As Christians we have been forgiven, all our sins are washed away, and yet this victory does not mean we will not struggle to live our lives as God desires us to. The devil is still at large stealing killing and destroying. We must learn to turn to God and trust that he will give us victory over Satan and the evil inclinations of our own hearts.
Jesus told his disciples to be penitent and merciful because they are forgiven. This applies just as much to us today as it did to them. We have been forgiven an unimaginably large debt and if God can forgive us we cannot hold others sins against them.
God is not a disinterested watchmaker that wound up the world and let it go. He is a loving father who is intimately involved in everything that happens in his world. He is also a God that loves and cares for his people. Because of this truth Jesus wants his disciples to learn to live contentedly in the present relying on a good God to provide for their daily needs.
Prayer is an act of worship, and it should begin with adoration. In this passage from Christs sermon on the mount, Jesus continues his instruction on prayer. Jesus wants his disciples to understand that Effective prayer begins with adoration, and this is true for us today. As Christians we should begin our prayers by reflecting on the holiness of God and the power of his coming kingdom.
Jesus wants his disciples to know that God covets humble and persistent prayer from his people. Prayer is not about worldly power or manipulation, magic incantations, or ritual it is about a constant desire to communicate with God.
Jesus want his disciples to understand that Prayer is not about manipulating God, is about conforming their hearts to his will. When we pray we are not changing Gods mind, we are changing ours.
Discipleship is the job of every Christian and every Christian Church. Discipleship begins with baptism and ends in heaven when God tells the Christian well-done good and faithful servant.
Christ's final ministry in the book of John was a ministry of reconciliation. He used a simple meal to restore broken relationships and to prepare these men.When we come into the presence of Christ he offers, reconciliation, purpose and hope through the invitation to follow him.
Christ's return was not the end of his ministry it was the beginning of a much larger movement to take the truth of his life death and resurrection to the ends of the earth. Jesus did not return to rescue the disciples, indeed the mission he is sending them out on will result in greater and greater conflict with the world. He returned to equip them for a new and glorious chapter of ministry. He is commissioning them to be his ambassadors to a broken and hostile world. Each of these men and women will pour out their lives in service to this great commission. But the commission to the disciples was not a one-time assignment given to a small group of special people. It is an ongoing assignment for all of Christs followers. Christ has equipped and commissioned each of us to be his emissaries to a broken hurting world.
John wants his readers to understand that in death Jesus has fully accomplished his earthly mission to redeem mankind. As Christians we must never fall into the trap of taking the sacrifice of Jesus for granted. We are free but we must constantly remind ourselves that our freedom came at a terrible price. We are saved by grace and while grace is free it is not cheap!
A. Jesus is not on trial; Pilot and the Jewish authorities are and the verdict for all time is guilty. These men however do not bear the guilt alone. We are just as much to blame because we sent Christ to the cross, our sin, our rebellion all necessitated his sacrifice. When we reflect on the passion and death of Jesus we must always remember that we put him there.
There is no ruler too powerful to escape God's plan. There is no system that is so broken or twisted that it can't be used by him for his glory. We are agents of truth, and our testimony must not be silenced by the evil systems of a broken world.
In the high Priests courtyard Peter was sifted, he was weighed and measured and fount to be wanting. But in the kingdom of God even our failures are used by God for his glory. The painful reality is that our failures and Gods redemption that form the foundation of our life in Christ.
The passion of Christ was crime and a tragedy but at no point in the entire sordid process was it outside of Gods plan or his direct control. God who is sovereign over the totality of human experience was never absent or silent.
God demands that his people honor him through authentic worship. Halfhearted insincere play acting does not glorify God it demonstrates our contempt for him. Bitterness and discontent are the enemies of authentic worship. Authentic worship comes from a grateful heart and brings glory to God.
Forgiveness and reconciliation come when we place others sins on Gods Account. Each of us lives at the center of a web of broken or strained relationships and it is only through the hard work of reconciliation, repentance and forgiveness that these relationships will be heald. This is the real work of Christian community.
The church is the Gospel made visible. Our lives within the church are a testimony to the people outside of the church.
Christ has made each of us holy through his sacrifice and now he wants us to be unified in Joy and sanctified in the truth.
Christs primary motivation is not personnel gain, comfort, health or even victory over his enemies, it is the glory of God.
We have hoped in wealth, or politicians, we have sought to ignore God or to approach him on our own terms. Every one of these things will fail, and when they do we will be left alone and hopeless adrift in a sea of darkness and regret. But it doesn't have to be this way. Jesus is our great high priest, our only hope and the anchor of our wayward souls. Jesus is our great high priest, our only hope and the anchor of our wayward souls.
Jesus wants the disciples to rest in the peace of his full and final victory over all that they will face as they struggle . In this life we will have tribulation but be at peace because Christ has overcome the world.
Year after year we promise ourselves that this year is going to be different. Every year we end up doing the same things we always did. Because we are trying to change the outside without tackling the inside. If we really want to change we must do it from the inside out. We must die to who we used to be so we can live the lives that God has for us. It is not enough just to become better versions of who we used to be if we want to become better we must become new creations.
Matthew wants his readers to see that the birth of Jesus was marked by the same patterns of a rejection and acceptance that would play out in his life and ministry.
Where do you abide, what do you seek for comfort and identify and security? Each of us has been called to glorify God by bearing fruit through our abiding relationship with Christ.
The yolk of Jesus is easy but the mission he has called us to is hard and at times it can feel like we are all alone. The Gospel of John reminds us that we are not. Each of us has the spirt of the living God empowering us, comforting us, and guiding us as we fulfill God's mission to the world.
When Jesus fed the 5000 he was not seeking a kingdom, he already had one . Jesus was not interested in army , he commanded legions of angels. Jesus did not want a mob he wanted a church. When the mob formed and tried to make him king by force he walked away. We need to remember this anytime anyone showes us a "savior" other than christ. We must be continually on our guard against counterfeit Kings and fake saviors.
Throughout the book of Joel God is trying to get Israel's attention. He is moving in a great and terrible way, in order to elicit deep heartfelt repentance on the part of his people. This is an important concept for Christians in the face of a global pandemic to understand. We have faced a crisis before and if the lord does not return tomorrow, we will face a crisis again. The plague we face today should point us to the reality of God's coming judgment against the nations and against his own people. For us as much as for Israel natural disasters exist to show us that we are not right with God and Like Israel, our pathway to restoration always leads through repentance.
Throughout the book of Joel God is trying to get Israel's attention. He is moving in a great and terrible way, in order to elicit deep heartfelt repentance on the part of his people. This is an important concept for Christians in the face of a global pandemic to understand. We have faced a crisis before and if the lord does not return tomorrow, we will face a crisis again. The plague we face today should point us to the reality of God's coming judgment against the nations and against his own people. For us as much as for Israel natural disasters exist to show us that we are not right with God and Like Israel, our pathway to restoration always leads through repentance.
Join us for the last sermon in our series on Acts, as we Celebrate the unconquerable gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
Now at long last through the sovereign hand of an all-powerful God Paul has reached Rome and attained his heart's desire. In ministry as in life, the desire of our heart will determine the road we travel.
When things seem dark and the waves rise we need to be reminded that God can redeem even the worst situations. He takes darkness and transforms it into Glory.
Paul's Testimony was central to his evangelistic ministry and he was not ashamed or scared to share it with anyone. Like Paul, we each have a testimony, a love story that describes how God pursued us and won us with great struggle and great loss. And like all the good love stories it is a powerful picture of redemption realization and completion. Our testimony is a gift that God has given us, how we use that testimony is our gift to God.
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