The greatest soul-winner of all time was Jesus. We will learn much about soul-winning from him. In this message we encounter Jesus calling four men to become full-time followers of him. They responded immediately and positively. We'll see that soul-winning is not about Jesus being a charismatic person, but about what Jesus was inviting these men to experience: an on-going personal relationship with him and a mission worth giving everything to pursue.
Soul winning is inviting people to an exciting new life with Jesus. No mission could be more important or fulfilling.
Hebrews 12:1-3 calls us to run the race of the Christian life and put off any hindrances and sins that prevents us from doing so and then persevere in running the race while looking at Jesus. In this message we'll investigate these instructions and see how we can finish the race successfully.
Running the Christian Race Successfully to the Finish
Christianity is unique among world religions in that it offers its followers a personal relationship with God. Many people who call themselves Christians do not have such a relationship. What is involved in developing a meaningful relationship with God? This message is about starting and then deepening a personal relationship with God.
We are ordaining two men as deacons of the church today, so this is an appropriate occasion to ask the questions, "What is a deacon?", "What are deacons to do?", "Are deacons needed?, If so, why?" and so forth. Most Christian churches have deacons, but there are some significant differences in their roles and status in various denominations.
In this message we'll try to answer these questions from what the New Testament tells us about who deacons are and what they are supposed to do.
What is the most important thing a church is to be doing? How can we gauge whether a church is following God's purpose?
There are a lot of answers to this question, but the surest answer comes from Jesus himself. We'll assume that you have no previous knowledge of God's plan for his church, and try to answer this question as simply and as straight-forwardly as possible.
This isn't just a theological question of interest to seminary professors. Shouldn't we all as Christ's followers be sure we are in a church that is focused on God's top priority for the church? The answer seems obvious. All of us need to know what the mission of the church is, and be sure we are in a church that is oriented toward that mission.
What does it man to be born again? Does it just mean getting a second chance or a fresh start, as some people use the term today? It turns out that this phrase was first spoken by Jesus of Nazareth. What did he mean by it? Even more important, does what he said about being born again matter to us today?
In this message we'll start in the 1970's, move back to to the time of Jesus, and end in 2022 to discover what Jesus meant by the term 'born again'. Along the way we'll discover whether being born again matters today, and what Jesus said people have to do to be born again.
The job of spiritual nurture is placed directly on the shoulders of parents in the Bible. In the classic Biblical passage on raising godly children, which we'll look at in this message, we can summarize how to raise a godly child with five key words or phrases.
Faced with pressures on daily living, and confusion resulting from hearing false teaching, the Thessalonian Christians needed encouragement. Paul had given that. But they needed something more. They needed to remember God had a purpose for them, a purpose they could not afford to forget in the midst of their struggles. In this brief passage Paul gently reminds them of this and encourages them to reengage in God's plan. Knowing God's purposes for us and keeping them in focus is a challenge for us during stressful times, but is essential. It helps us look beyond ourselves (and our problems) and stay in sync with God.
With their confusion about the timing of the Lord's return and the suffering that they were experiencing as a result of their faith, Paul knew the young Thessalonian Christians needed some encouragement to stand firm in their faith. In this passage we hear him remind them of who they are and of what lies in the future for them as the basis of his appeal to them to not waver and not abandon what they have been taught. These same things can help us stand firm when we are facing tough sledding or feel beaten up by our circumstances.
False predictions of Jesus' return have abounded in recent years. In this passage we'll discover two things that must occur before Jesus will return, and the one thing that has so far prevented those two things from happening. Don't be misled by date setters. So far they've all been wrong, and they will continue to be wrong.
Sometime after Timothy had returned from Thessalonica and Paul had written the letter we call 1 Thessalonians, Paul received additional information about the believers in Thessalonica. It seems the suffering they were going through had increased dramatically. As we might say, these believers were on the ropes and needed some encouragement to fight on.
To encourage them, Paul turns to an aspect of Jesus' return he hadn't mentioned in his first letter. In 2 Thessalonians 1 Paul reminds the believers that at Jesus' return they will experience joy while their persecutors and others who've rejected Jesus will face eternal destruction. Their current position and that of their persecutors will be reversed, forever. This long term perspective can help us, as it helped those young believers, to continue to stand up for Christ as opposition to him increases around us.
For Mother's Day we'll look at a young woman who was struggling because she could not have children. What she did, and what resulted make for one of the most heart-warming stories of the Bible. But as this young woman will tell us, the story is really about the God of the Bible and how he acts on behalf of his people. In this there is a message of hope for all who struggle today.
Paul closes his first letter to the Thessalonian Christians with some encouragement. He prays for their sanctification and preservation, invites them to share in his ministry through prayer, and encourages them to show loving fellowship with each other.
We'll look back on Paul's major themes in this letter and then ask what there is in the Thessalonian experience that we should desire in ours today.
You cannot separate the Christian life from life in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit regenerates, indwells, gifts, baptizes, and empowers the Christian. In his closing counsel to the young Thessalonian believers he cautions them about not doing anything that would limit what the Holy Spirit wanted to do in their lives. They must not quench or stifle the Holy Spirit in their life, the lives of other believers, or the church as a whole. They must also be open to the encouragement and exhortation of other believers who may be using their Spirit-given gift of prophecy. Yet they must be cautious, too. They are responsible to examine what others say and retain only what is good. Paul wants these believers to be alive in the Spirit but also alert in the Spirit.
While Easter is celebrated by hundreds of millions of people, it would be wrong to assume everyone listening today really knows anything about Easter beyond the Easter Bunny and Easter eggs. So today we'll cover Easter for beginners, for people who for one reason or another do not know what Easter is really all about. We'll look back at the event that kicked off all the rest of our Easter celebrations, and then look at three reasons Christ-followers today celebrate Easter. None of them have to do with loving ancient history. They have to do with life today.
No one ever expected this man - a criminal - to teach anyone about heaven and how to get there. But according to Jesus' own words, he did. If you want the simple story of how a person can become sure of going to heaven when they die, you can't find a better teacher than this thief hanging on a cross next to Jesus on Good Friday.