1 Chronicles 17:1-15
There’s a burning passion that I cannot shake from my being; two things that so grip my heart. #1. the swiftness in which life is passing us by and #2. Our response to this. What is your response to the passing glory of this life and the speed at which it appears for a moment before vanishing away? What are your priorities? Where do your concerns lie? Simply put, for what reason are you living, and for whose glory? Is it for God’s or for your own? His Kingdom or your kingdom? His house or your house? His business or your business? His honour or your honour? I figure that with the few measly years allotted to us, we may as well burn out for Jesus!!! We’ll not regret it for a second, the moment we step out into eternity!
2 Samuel 22
It is no accident that the Psalm contained in 2 Samuel 22 is pretty much a word-for-word repetition of Psalm 18! An accident? Certainly not! When God speaks once, we have reason to listen; but when He speaks twice, we’d better pay attention! We take a look at this precious and much-loved Psalm and in so doing, discover the many testimonies of David declaring the mighty Deliverer with whom he had to do! Oh, that we might come to know His faithful mercies bountifully in our own lives and experiences.
Matthew 12:1-8
Misguided zeal is a dangerous thing and nowhere perhaps is this zeal more deadly than when framed within a religious context. There is no underestimating what man will do for God, and the devil knows this, which is why it is his vehicle of choice so commonly used to insight men to injure his neighbour. What saith our Lord? What is the end of all divine commandments? “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mt. 22:36-39).
1 Corinthians 15:58
On July 8th, 1741, a man by the name of Jonathan Edwards preached what has been dubbed, the greatest sermon to have ever been preached on American soil. The sermon was titled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Nothing was spared the hearers, as Edwards expounded to his sleepy listeners, the certain fiery punishment that awaited the unbelievers and their desperate need to flee to the Saviour for refuge! As believers in Christ, we rejoice in Christ for His saving grace wherewith we have been gloriously saved from such an end. However, in light of the coming resurrection when Christ shall burst the heavens and come back for His own, we are not to be found idle.
This sermon is an exhortation for us in Christ to be busy in the work of the Lord until He comes. For those unsure of their call, it’s time to seek the Lord. For those who know their call and yet are slumbering, it is a wake-up call to arise so as to set the hand to the plough!
Luke 7:36-50
When we think of religion, we tend to have this idea in our minds that those who are the most zealous in their efforts to apply religious principles; these are they who love God the most. I want to say, nothing could be further from the truth! Some of the meanest and cruelest people down through millennia’s ages are those who were the most fanatical in their cause for religion! What we need is not more religion, but more love for the Saviour! May God so help us to love the Lord Jesus Christ with a greater affection.
Colossians 3:1-15
As Christians, we must never tire of saying “No!” A decisive “No!” with firm conviction has delivered many a Christian pilgrim from the peril of danger and saved his soul from many a calamity. We must first and foremost say “No!” to sin!!! To deny the flesh its fill is never an easy thing. It has strong desires and burning passions that demand to be satisfied. It cries out in the daytime and the night seasons; “I’m hungry”! But the Christian who has walked for any length of time with the Lord knows that to yield to its demands is to play with fire. We MUST give due diligence here and watch over our souls. Is sin creeping in? Have we slackened? Have we loosened the reigns? It’s one thing to start out of the blocks, but it takes a different kind of athlete to stay the course and finish the race. God is calling us to finish well!!
Matthew 7:1-5
It’s been well said, that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones (and how true this proverb is). There’s something about the fallen state of humanity whereby man finds it so easy (almost effortless) to point out the faults in others, and yet; finds it so hard to see those same faults in himself. No sooner than he points the finger, there are three fingers pointing back at him! How swift we are to dish out criticism, yet how slow we are to eat from that same plate! How skilled we are at murmuring and complaining about the hairline cracks we see in others when if the truth be told, we’ve crumbling joints in our own foundation but are too blind to see it because we’re always got our eyes on others people.
This sermon is a call and an exhortation for mercy in our judgment of one another in light of the judgment seat of Christ.
Proverbs 3:5-6
There are some proverbs that remain in our thinking more than others; some that seem to leave a greater lasting impression in our hearts than others. None perhaps have left their indelible mark upon the hearts of God’s people than Proverbs 3:5-6. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”.
In this sermon, we bring these verses to the forefront and endeavour to behold the treasures of this precious jewel. This world is full of care and trouble, but the child of God has been called to place their trust wholeheartedly in the Lord! Will we not see what God will do, if we but look to Him?
Matthew 13:1-9
J.C Ryle said of this parable; “The four kinds of hearts it describes are to be found in every assembly which hears the word. These circumstances should make us always read the parable with a deep sense of its importance. We should say to ourselves as we read it: “This concerns me. My heart is to be seen this parable. I, too, am here”. Well said, Brother Ryle!!
The child of God ever runs the dangerous possibility of becoming overfamiliar with those texts which he hears the most. The Parable of the Sower is perhaps at the forefront of this list. May we listen to this sermon with ears and eyes afresh and in so doing, may God grant us to see the soil condition of our hearts.
Jeremiah 8:20
What woeful words greet us; what mournful landscape is hung before our eyes, sketched by the son of Hilkiah, otherwise known as the weeping prophet! “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. It’s one thing to pronounce judgment and it’s another thing to do so with streaming eyes. Jeremiah didn't earn his epithet without warrant; as goes the name, as goes the man! “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jer. 9:1). The false prophets spoke words of flattering ease and comfort, but the true prophets called God’s people to repentance and foretold of coming judgment.
As we look across our nation and to the Church that is within it, will there not a voice arise to cry out to Living God if perhaps He might mercy and stand on God’s Word? “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chron. 7:14).