Philippians 3:12-15
As each of you begins this New Year, I wonder this morning how much of 2023 you’ve allowed to stick? How much of last year has come across as unwanted baggage into this year? Do you know that for many a soul, their future has been mapped already for them by events that lie in the past? The child who all their life was told, you’ll amount to nothing finds that those wretched words follow them into adulthood!! The infant that falls from a tree and breaks a leg, in their later years rediscovers that old injury as it returns to bite with vengeance!! I’m no skeptic, but the facts on this one speak for themselves!! To a large extent tomorrow’s future is shaped by yesterday's past; this year by the years preceding it, Brethren, if we’re not careful, we can become victims of past failings, prisoners of yesterday’s woes — serving a sentence that we’ve allowed to be imposed upon us when the text of this Holy Book states that Christ came to set us free!
This sermon is a call to leave the past behind and to reach forward to those things that lie before!
Jeremiah 5:31
Many today are happy to live in an echo chamber where the only narrative they ever encounter is the one they want to hear. You all know what an echo chamber is, don’t you? Have you ever shouted from inside a cave? What do you hear back? More of the same!! That’s an echo chamber, and Brethren, if we’re not careful we can find ourselves living in one!!
This sermon is an earnest call for Christians to walk in truth and reality with God. As I begin a New Year, the desire of my heart more than ever is that I might deal honestly with the One who deals honestly with me!! Lord, if my heart’s not right, I want to know!!! If my heart’s motivations are jaded, Lord reprove me! If I’m veering off track, show me O Lord!!!
Hebrews 4:12
Once upon a time the preacher hastened fearlessly to climb the stairs of the pulpit, burdened with a message from heaven, armed in hand with a open Bible. Book, chapter and verse was his modus operandi and for the unction of God He pleaded!! Brothers and Sisters, it is the last part of this statement that has become my soul’s burden over the last number of years — O for the unction of God upon the Word!!! It is simply not enough to have the letter of the Word, we need the Word and the Spirit. The preaching of God’s Word in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit. Paul understood this and saw the mighty effects of it in Thessalonica. What does he say? “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power (Lit. force), and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake” (1 Thess. 1:5).
This sermon is a plea to surrender! A call to yield! “Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts”
Overcoming the Fear of Man – Paul M. Williams
Proverbs 29:25
There are over 500 recognised phobias in our world today For the most part, the fears that we experience as we walk through life are not good. Rather than serving to be of benefit to us, they serve to be a hindrance. Of all the fears I could list that are common to man, there is one fear in particular that has proved to be his downfall repeatedly. You say, Brother Paul, what is this fear? It is the fear of man!!! King Solomon writing some 3000 years ago put it like this; “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe” (Prov. 29:25).
In this sermon, we look at how to overcome the fear of man.
Genesis 12:1-4
It would seem on paper that man has more time on his hands than ever he had since time began. Please don’t misunderstand me, there are no more hours in a day — the same 24 that have always been are the same 24 available today — yet the sheer amount of what can be accomplished in a single hour is breathtaking!! One study concluded that modern technology is saving the average man, two weeks each year!! Despite all the innovations and successes in technological breakthroughs, give a man an extra hour you can guarantee, he’ll find something to do with it and thus what you find is rather than becoming less busy, society becomes more busy.
On every hand, I find myself having to fight to preserve what matters most in life. There are ONLY 24 hours in a day and if you have not got a priority for what matters most in your life you will be swallowed up by the system and spat out ruined!
Genesis 12:1-4
As I look back over the 23 years that I’ve had the privilege of walking with the Lord, every major turn in the road of my life, has been marked by the call of God. Before ever I knew the Lord and at every junction since coming to saving faith in Him He hath called and faith’s obedience has met that call!!!
In this sermon, Paul shares his testimony of God’s call and faith’s obedience.
Shared at Lifeboat Fellowship (10/12/23) - Sunday (pm)
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Being raised in 21st-century Britain, I’ve never had the painful displeasure of attending a slave market. Yet in the days of the Roman Empire in the first century AD, it would have been commonplace. Under Roman law, slaves were regarded as the personal property of their masters, to be bought, sold, and mistreated at will. They had no rights of their own, no privileges to their name, they could not so much as own a piece of property, nor enter into a contract with their fellow man; they could not legally marry should they see a bride. If the truth be told, slaves were the lowest class of society, and even freed criminals had more rights than them.
Having painted this despairing picture, I want to invite you to come with me for a moment in the imagination of your mind, to the slave market where once you stood on the blocks for sale. Maimed and stained by the vice of sin, bound by the shackles of iniquity — a thoroughbred reprobate of whom the placard which hangs about your necks reads “NOT WORTHY OF PURCHASE”. The punters press in around as the bidding begins. “Who will give me 50 denarii” (bear in mind, the average price of an unskilled slave in those days was around 500 denarii). Silence… “Who will give me 40?” Silence… “Okay, someone start me at 20, surely he is worth 20 denarii” As the punters draw away and the crowds thin out, suddenly a man appears of royal descent. “I’ll have him!!”, the man exclaims. As he draws near to the blocks I notice, he has no coins with which to make His purchase, but in His hands instead, two bleeding wounds. “With what means will you make payment for the slave?” With outstretched hands, the answer comes, “WITH ROYAL BLOOD!!” “I have given my life a ransom that this slave might go FREE!!!”.
Shared at Lifeboat Fellowship (10/12/23) - Sunday (am)
John 10:22-23
The Intertestamental period dated from the prophet Malachi’s time (about 400 BC) to the preaching of John the Baptist (about AD 25) has been called the silent years. God is never silent! A lot happened in these 400 years. In this teaching, we are going to explore one amazing event – The Feast of Dedication – in which we will discover who the Shammash of God is and where you and I fit in.
Isaiah 66:1-2
If I were to ask you to tell of the kind of man/woman who wins favour with God, I wonder what you’d say? I know full well of the kind that wins favour with the world — give a man a bit of money and prestige and see how rapidly his circle of friends increases. But can I say; that which catches the eye of the world and that which turns the head of God are not the same — they’re poles apart. Is not the answer in the text that is before us? “...to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Is.66:2).
Matthew 21:42
From the moment that I got saved, some 23 years ago, I had a God-given burden that I could not extinguish, for my life to be used by God!! I figured that for 20 years, I had given myself in full-time service to do the devil’s bidding; how now, that I’m a born-again Christian could I give the True and Living God anything less? Every fiber of my being cried forth, “Lord use me!! Get the glory of my life this side of eternity!
Yet in the face of a barren landscape the voice of my own reasoning would say, but how? There was nothing of any outward brilliance to commend itself to God, nothing to lend itself by way of encouragement. All I had was a burden that I could not rid myself of. Do you want to know what the balm was that soothed my soul in those early years? The means that God used to inject faith into my spiritual bloodstream? It was the examples given in this Book of the men that God used. Ah, man has his criteria of selection, but listen, those whom the world passes over are God’s chosen vessels; those whom men reject as unworthy are God’s unlikely candidates!