Pastor Steve offers an enjoyable, real-life application of the Scriptures that apply to everyday life for all.
If we're not careful, we can elevate our opinions about God's Word above God's Word itself. We need to recognize our opinions for what they are, and not make them rules for others to live by.
First this passage tells us to wake up, then it tells us to get dressed! (put on the armor of light, put on the Lord Jesus.) Many want to be saved now, but to live saved later. This passage says the time is close, and we should be living for Christ now.
There are the commandments, and then there is the purpose behind the commandments. Their purpose and their intended result are love demonstrated in real life.
Good news that creates an unquenchable joy – our Redeemer lives!
The crowds were cheering, the priests were raging, and only Jesus knew what was going on. Even as He did, He grieved for the ones who rejected Him.
If Covid mask mandates taught us anything, it is that we are rebels at heart. We will follow the government, but only so far. We may have a hard time reconciling ourselves to this passage.
If you resort to evil to overcome evil, then evil has already overcome you. You can only overcome evil with good.
Our gifts are not given to have, our gifts are given to give. If we see them as God does, using our gifts is making an investment.
This message will introduce spiritual gifts as a whole, and take a specific look at the gift of prophecy.
The piece that is missing becomes the most important. Without it, the puzzle is incomplete. Without you, the Church is.
As we experience God's transformation of our lives, we prove that His will is good. We prove it to ourselves, and, if people are paying attention, we prove it to them as well.
If we are not transformed to be more godlike, we will be conformed to the pattern of this world.
In light of all God has done for us, our proper response is to live for Him.
Sometimes we need to stop and see God's glory, which is on display before us.
God has made salvation available to all through faith in Christ. And there is a day coming when all Israel will be saved.
God compares His people to an olive tree. The Jews are the natural branches of the tree, Gentiles were grafted in. Gentiles should not feel superior; we are saved by grace, and Jews belong in the tree even more than we do.
It is a mistake to think of the Church as either Jew or Gentile. It will be best when it is comprised of both.
Verse 1 asks whether God has rejected His people. Verse 6 says no, because they were chosen by grace, not works. God's grace is limitless.
There is frustration in having a message people need to hear but refuse to accept. What can you do? Keep proclaiming the message.
Something as high as a host of angels appeared to something as low as a few scattered shepherds. Jesus came to all and for all.
Something as high as a host of angels appeared to something as low as a few scattered shepherds. Jesus came to all and for all.
They were called wise men before this story began. Then they proved their wisdom by seeking Him out and worshiping Him.
Those who receive the good news praise God for those who proclaim it.
It is not too high, it is not too low, and it is not complicated. Salvation is available to all who believe
The religious Jews of that day knew the Law, and were zealous for it. But they did not know God's righteousness or seek it.
Just like Israel, we sometimes think it is our righteousness that saves us. Only the righteousness of Christ, attained through faith, can do that work.
The question is, how can God blame us, when it He is the One who made us and no one can resist His will? The answer feels like a hard slap – Who do you think you are to question God. He's the Potter and you're just a pot! The reality is we do resist His will, and we do it to our own harm.
We enter into the difficult area of God's sovereign election, and how wrong it sometimes looks from the human perspective. But God's Word has not failed, and His gift is gracious.
We see Paul's deep desire to see his people come to Christ. We should desire that drive for ourselves.
The next 3 chapters stand apart and deal with the question of how the Jews fit into God's plan with the Church. We will go through these chapters the same way we've gone through the rest of Romans, but this message will be an introductory overview.
Robert McDowall Mission Report and Sermon
God loves us deeply. Deep faith recognizes this is true.
It's not that we don't have an enemy. It's that the enemy doesn't measure up to the heroes watching out for us.
This passage is a paragraph about the confidence we have in God's blessings. We know that all things work together for good to us, because He has already glorified us.
Some of our most important, most urgent prayers are beyond our ability to express. The Holy Spirit does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
We live in the time of suffering, but we persevere in the confident hope of a better life to come.
This passage reveals the wonderful relationship that lets us call God ‘Abba, Father,' and the ominous teaching that this may call for suffering.
Today's passage makes having the Spirit crucial to living the Christian life. How do I know I have the Holy Spirit? This Sunday's message will wrestle with this sometimes difficult question.
Works of the flesh or keeping of the Law cannot please God. But the Spirit can, and God has given us His Spirit.
What a refreshing and liberating statement. After all the things that can't help us, there is no condemnation if we are in Christ.
There's what I want to do, but don't do, and there's what I don't want to do, but do anyway. Aaaah!
Have you ever been in a contest where you were hopelessly outclassed? You didn't realize it at first, but it soon became evident, and you just wanted to give up, but you couldn't. Welcome to the struggle to keep the Law.
It's almost as if this passage is written to say, “Here's another way you can look at it….” After an illustration from slavery to explain our freedom from sin, we now have an illustration from marriage. Having died with Christ, we are free from our relationship with sin, to enter into a relationship without sin.
There are things we've all done for which we are ashamed. That's what we've earned by our works. But God gives eternal life.
When Jesus died, He died to sin, once for all; and the life He lives, He lives to God. We are supposed to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God; but sometimes, sin doesn't want to die, and sometimes we don't want it to.
There is a lot of discussion about what baptism is and what it means. From this week's passage, it is associated with Christ's death and resurrection. And association with His resurrection doesn't just mean new life in the hereafter, but new life now.
Those who take their sin lightly also take their Savior lightly. This passage addresses those who take grace and turn it into a license to sin, and it says, “Don't even go there.”
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