Colossians 3:1-4
Modern 21st-century man well makes a fitting boast on account of the vast array of his accomplishments; they’re admittedly very impressive! In this century and the last alone, the world has witnessed staggering and unprecedented breakthroughs in every field of expertise, from medicine to engineering. Western civilization has never known such affluence, such protracted periods of peace and prosperity; have never known such high standards of health and living and yet it’s into this period of history and into this geographical locale that each of us finds our present existence, and it’s into this reality that the gospel of Jesus Christ has shone its dazzling light, even into your heart and mine! Undeterred by the leavening influence of a society dripping with riches, the power of Christ is seen in that He has a people though in this world remain untouched by it!
This sermon is an exhortation for believers to fix their mind, not on the things of this earth but the things belonging to heaven. The reason for such an exhortation? For we are buried with Christ and risen with him and our life is now hid with Christ in God. Oh, that we come to fully comprehend this mystery and in so doing set our gaze heavenward from whence our Lord shall soon return!
John 1:45-49
Religion has always produced its lion’s share of the world’s hypocrites, those whose devotion to God consists largely of public show! Seeking the applause and affirmation of men, they do their religious acts before the same and in so doing they receive their reward of the same! Dear Christian, how fare’s your devotional life with the Lord in private?
A call goes forth in this sermon for all to do away with the feigned folly of a counterfeit Christianity; away with such insults against Deity; be gone with such mockery! Its time again to seek the Lord in truth and sincerity that we might serve Him in authenticity!
This sermon was shared in May at a CMFI fellowship day.
Matthew 13:9
The word to my heart at the start of this New Year of 2018 is “no compromise!” Where you point the finger O Lord and speak; “Thy will be done!!” You have the right to walk the corridors of my heart and to examine the secret recesses. If there are sinful attitudes and thoughts that I’ve been excusing...pride, lust, anger, envy, selfish ambition; “speak to me by name O Master, that I may acknowledge my ways and take heed to Thy word!!” No more excuses, no more compromise! You have the right to speak to me about where my priorities lie; where I relocate; where I work; what I spend my time doing; what I set before my eyes and what I listen to; the places I go and the company I keep; “no more compromise O Lord, no more excuses!!” “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Mt. 13:9).
My dear Brothers and Sister, spiritual sight and hearing is to be most coveted in this our generation and we play deaf to God to our own detriment!!
Matthew 4:1-11
While many deny the supernatural activity of Satan in the earth today, we are exhorted in the Word of God to take to arm us for the fight the whole armour of God so as to stand in the evil day of his attack. The weaponry of the Christian’s warfare are not of this word but are mighty through God to the pulling down of satanic strongholds. Do you know of such armament? Have you taken such daily to arm you in this great battle? The devil loves no easier prey than a sitting duck Christian! Unawares, unsuspecting, naive, unskilled in spiritual warfare and undisciplined in spiritual matters!! Such are easy pickings and prime suspects to terrorize.
This sermon is an exhortation for all engaged in this spiritual war to take the defense and the offense; the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit. With the shield of faith we are able to counter His lies and falsehoods but with the sword of the Word of God, we are able to fight back!! When our Lord was assailed upon by the prince of this world, thrice He gave answer to the temptations of the devil…It is written, it is written, it is written!!! May the Lord use this sermon to aid and equip you in this battle.
Ephesians 4:1-6
Inextricably linked; tied with an inseparable cord is the commandment to Christian love and the exhortation to Christian unity. Try any which way you will to separate these two giants and for all your strivings your efforts shall prove in vain, for one cannot maintain the unity of the faith without love and without the unity to which Christ hath joined us to His spiritual body via the new birth, the commandment to love would be impossible!!
This sermon is an exhortation to practical unity!! To simply dote upon the theological truths relating to our spiritual union in Christ and by virtue of this our union with His spiritual body is pie in the sky unless we are going to make a purposeful effort on our behalf to strive to ensure that this spiritual unity is brought into the realm of practical experience “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).
This sermon was shared at the CMFI 2017 conference
Matthew 12:9-14
There are some that appear in the eyes of many to be a most religious bunch whilst hidden beneath the thin veneer of their religion lies the darkness of evil! Dead religion has always provided the platform for the most wicked of crimes and the cloak under which men might veil their evils in hypocrisy and deceit. For example of this, we need to look no further than the Scribes and Pharisees!! It wasn’t the publicans who plotted His execution nor was it the prostitutes who handed Him over to be crucified, rather it was those belonging to the religious establishment of the day who crucified the Saviour, loving their traditions more than God!!
This sermon is a warning to us all and an exhortation to come out from the shadows of dead religion into the light of God’s Word!! God forbid that when truth stares us in the face, we should choose instead of repenting, to hide behind the veil of dead religion. Those who persecuted Christ and those responsible for persecuting the true Church hasn't changed, in Christ’s day it was those professing to be the true Assembly of God and in our day it shall be the same. May God keep us and give us the grace to stand in this evil day!
2 Timothy 4:5-8
When you’ve only one shot, what do you do? You make it count!! When you’ve only one bullet in the chamber, though you may have fired hundreds before it, that one bullet by reason of it being your last, now becomes priceless and the need for it to find its target, paramount! In the hour of plenty, one is at liberty to fire and miss a few, but when you’re down to the last shot, there are no second chances! My dear Brothers and Sisters, life is very much like this. Oh, I know that in one’s younger years, it appears as though we’ve many more ahead of us and on account of this the years generally of the youngster are passed in foolishness, wasted and squandered in the pursuit of vanity. Ah, but alas, one suddenly finds that the sun which seemed so bright in its day, has come down to set and the years which were deemed to be many prove only to be of few.
This sermon brings the listener face to face with the radical life of the Apostle Paul who from the very moment of his conversion dedicated his life to serve and live for Christ. It is an exhortation in light of life’s passing moment for us to rethink our priorities and set our affections heavenward, that we might give our lives to Jesus in service and run well the race set before us!
Romans 12:1
There is no middle road in Christianity; no middle ground upon which to stand. Any seeming appearance of such is an illusion and a figment of one’s imagination, a product of Westernised consumer Christianity which on the say so of Jesus Christ Himself is no Christianity at all!! ”I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16). Now I know that such straightforward speaking is not very popular today and won’t win one many friends but Jesus knew of no double talk, and said point-blank, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mk. 8:34).
This sermon is a call for wholehearted devotion to the God of the universe. This idea that we can bring our offering to God on Sunday and live as we please rest of the week is blown out of the water as soon as one is confronted with the person of Jesus Christ. My dear friends, the High and Lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; the One before whom angels veil their faces resting not day and night, saying “Holy, holy, holy” calls for more than a convenient Christianity. It is going to cost us to bring the sacrifice that God requires and I ask the question, are you willing to count the cost?
Acts 12:1-17
There are seasons in life’s journey where the calamities of this world come to visit the door of the righteous and the unrighteous alike. Sorrow and sickness, death and disease, trials and tribulations, all come at their appointed times and there seems to be no discrimination as to where they fall and come to rest. How does one explain the ‘why’s’ of how some of God’s godly Saints are taken home in the prime of their life and service; why some are left in sickness and are not healed? Is there injustice with God? Can we charge God with evil?
The truth of the matter is that we see only through a glass dimly, the reflection is poor and sketchy. Limited to our own fixed time and space dimension, we tend to view things with tunnel vision only ever having in focus our immediate need at a particular moment. Yet, has it ever occurred to you that God is aiming at the bigger picture, that may well not involve your deliverance in this present world for reasons known only to the Almighty “...who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11)? There are some answers that perhaps we will never know this side of eternity and yet still we’re called to trust in the ever living God who never changes and who works all things for the good of His Saints.
Genesis 26:17-18
A number of significant occurrences took place in the Bible at wells. At Beersheba (the well of an oath), Abraham entered into a covenant with Abimelech; at Beerlahairoi (the well of Him that liveth and seeth me), the Angel of the LORD visited Hagar in her distress. Who can forget Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, who at well was given a bride by God for his master's son Isaac? Fast forward some 2000 years and we have yet another encounter with a woman at a well, this time Jesus and the woman of Samaria. At this well, Jesus offers living water, that if a man drinks he shall never thirst again, an internal well springing up within him into everlasting life!
This sermon is a call for reality in the Christian life!! Just as in the days of Isaac when the Philistine enemies filled his father’s wells, many Christians sadly have allowed their wells to be filled with dirt and on account of this no longer sense and experience the vital reality of God the Holy Spirit within them bringing forth the fruit of joy and peace! Dry and dead religion has become their portion. My dear Brethren, there is some re-digging to be done so that once more we might sense the presence of God in our Christian experience. At all costs, we must maintain reality with God!