Session 1 of 7

The Sanctuary Conference 2023@Cloverley Hall

Click below for more information about The Sanctuary Conference: www.sanctuaryconference.org

Listen to other sermons by Stephen Riddell: www.lifeboatfellowship.com/

Jason brings a critical teaching to the Body of Christ focussing on the cross of Jesus Christ.  May you be mightily blessed in understanding more about this foundational doctrine that can never be exhausted.

Daniel 11:32

Stephen Riddell is an elder at The Lifeboat Fellowship, Dungannon, N. Ireland. 

Stephen challenges believers of the critical need to know God in these Last Days.  I trust that the Lord shall minister to your heart through this word given in season.

1 Corinthians 13

Of all the passages in the New Testament Scriptures, none are more sublime in poetical beauty that the words found in the thirteenth chapter of Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians.  Hebrews the seventh chapter is known for its great typology; Romans the third chapter for its brilliance in logical reasoning. The second chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians is known for its rich eschatology and the eleventh chapter of Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians for its moving biographical content. I could go on...the sheer genius of the Holy Bible is a wonder too great to fully comprehend. Is it any wonder that the best-selling book of all time is THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE!! Not Charles Dickens nor William Shakespeare; not Agatha Christie nor Enid Blyton. To this day, the Bible still holds the Guinness Book of Records for the best-selling book of all time at a whopping 5 billion and counting!! 

In this sermon, we explore the great commandment given us by our Lord to love one another.  It is easy for a man to say, “I love you”, but on what grounds does he assume this to be the case?  Let us examine the characteristics of love as outlined in the thirteenth chapter of Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians and we shall see whether the love we have is the agape love of God.   

Ephesians 5:15-16

As Christians, we are not always wise in the way that we walk — we live in the land of hindsight — always picking up the broken pieces! We naively walk into many landmines; we allow ourselves to be found in compromising situations because of a lack of foresight!! 

“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished” (Prov. 23:3)

This sermon is an exhortation to the Christian to walk circumspectly, as wise and not as fools; redeeming the time for the days are evil.

Philippians 2:5-11

I fear that in our present day, we have lost the cutting edge of Christianity. The Kingdom of God no longer stands in juxtaposition to the Kingdom of Darkness — the contrasting properties of black and white have been fused into a murky grey — light and darkness into a twilight blue — we’ve lost the radical nature of conversion. I want to say without apology, when light meets with darkness, there can only be one winner, “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (Jn. 1:5). 

One of the radical elements of true conversion when set in contrast with a false convert is that as it relates to the human will. Pre-Christ I lived for ME. Post-Christ I now live for HIM! Still one will, but a 180-degree shift in orientation! We have a dilemma in modern-day Christianity which goes something like this; “I can live for me and for Thee”, and I want TO SAY on the authority of God’s Word, YOU CAN’T!!!! Tell me, can you say as our Lord said, “...My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (Jn. 4:34)?

Jeremiah 10:1-6

Dr. David Donovan and his wife Shirley head up a medical mission to the Niger Delta called New Foundations. In this teaching, David shares from the Word of God on a hugely important topic - The Greatness of God.

1 Kings 18:17-20

The single greatest need of the present hour and any hour is for God to break through into the midst of His people!!  It’s one thing for a man to break through — he’s had breakthroughs in all manner of varying contexts.  Gunpowder in the 10th century, the compass in the 12th. The steam engine in 1712, and Refrigeration in the 1850s.  The airplane in 1903, Penicillin in 1928, the Internet in the 1960s — friends, the list could go on!!  I don’t doubt and nor do I limit the many ingenious breakthroughs on the part of man — but none can compare to what takes place when God breaks through!!  When God breaks through, no one can stay His hand; when God breaks through, it’s like the walls of a dam giving way — who can stand against the mighty deluge?

This sermon is an exhortation to seek the face of God for authentic fire in this desperate hour of apostasy.   

Hebrews 6:1-3

There are only two places in all of Sacred Scripture, where the phrase “dead works” appears.  The first is in Hebrews 6:1; “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God (Heb. 6:1). The second comes later on in the ninth chapter of the very same epistle, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14). There have been various different opinions offered by commentators as to what this phrase “dead works” might mean, ranging from the absurd to the reasonable, to what I believe is the correct interpretation. 

In this sermon, we explore the meaning of the phrase “repentance from dead works” and exhort believers to a true and living faith springing out of love for Christ!!

Colossians 3:1-5

There’s not a one of us that has not heard the familiar saying, “Where the rubber meets the road”.  In all manner of varying contexts, this idiom speaks sounds aloud its truth.  I think of the Olympian — the 100 m sprinter.  Four long years he has poured his life into training — six hours a day, six days a week; what he eats and drinks, what time he goes to sleep, what time he rises again; his whole life is one of complete discipline in order to run a 10-second race.  All that training and discipline is good and well — it’s indispensable; but how many know, it is in the race where the rubber meets the road?!  Medals are not won in the gym but on the track!  Take the soldier.  He never stops training and preparing for war, but again, how many know, wars are not fought and won on the field of training but on the field of battle?!  Many a well-trained army had it won on paper only to find that when it came for the rubber to meet the road, they were outsmarted, outfought, and lost the battle miserably!!!  In other words, it’s one thing to have theory/textbook principles and it’s another thing to convert that knowledge into experimental practice!!  One does not equal the other!!  Yet there are some today who fancy that because they are well-taught and well-trained in theology, even at an academic level, this makes them experts in Christianity. 

The call and the challenge of this sermon is for the rubber of our theology to meet the road of our experience.