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STRONGER TOGETHER: The Power of Community Date: January 8, 2022 Video Sermon: Click on the play button below description to watch. The modern culture of individualism promotes self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and self-achievement. People tend to think that it is better to be independent and strong on their own than be dependent upon others and working to help each other. The deception is that no one can be as successful working alone as they would be if they were in community. We each have different faith communities, but God did not intend for his church be isolated from one another. He has placed each believer uniquely in the body of Christ as members one of another to be in community. We will flourish and thrive in life and in our faith if we live in community as God designed. And we can better support each other in our fight against the adversary…

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In “Reading the Bible Critically—Part 1,” I stressed the importance of paying careful attention when we read Scripture. We sometimes inadvertently lack the focus required to grasp its meaning. The antidote to that syndrome: Be a serious reader of the Bible! But what does that mean? Someone might say, “I want to understand the Bible, but being ‘serious’ doesn’t sound like fun. I want to enjoy reading the Bible, and so I don’t want to take it too seriously. I just want to know what it says.” Well, that’s where the dilemma starts: “Knowing what the Bible says means knowing what the Bible says.” I don’t intend for that to be taken as some cheesy cliché, but it is, in fact, what oftentimes lies at the heart of the issue. People want to understand the Bible, but they fail to realize what it takes to get that understanding. Now, I’m not…

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WHO WANTS TO BE CRITICAL? The word “critical” often has a negative connotation in people’s minds. To be “critical” can mean “to criticize severely and unfavorably, to be excessively judgmental, to be inclined to find fault.” But the word “critical” also carries a positive connotation, meaning “to exercise careful evaluation and skillful judgment of a matter.” If you take your car into the mechanic because there is a strange noise happening in the engine, and they tell you that they’re going to do a “critical diagnostic test,” that’s a good thing because they’re going to look very carefully at the results of the tests to try to determine what’s wrong. It is this sort of careful investigation and attention to detail that we mean with the phrase “reading the Bible critically.” It’s about not just reading the Bible on a superficial level but developing a keen sense for how to…

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PROVERBS: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World Date: January 5, 2019 Video Sermon: Click on the play button below description to watch. The Book of Proverbs is an incredible part of the Bible that is packed with insights for how to live a good life. It is wisdom literature, and as such, it is intended to teach people the right way to live according to God’s design and intention for human life to flourish. If we will seek wisdom with all our heart as if for hidden treasure, then we will come to know success, blessing, health, peace, discernment, and so many other things that God wants for his people. Credit for clips: The Bible Project (“Overview: Proverbs” and “The Book of Proverbs“)

“Faith”—a small word that houses an enormous truth. It calls forth a responsibility from the one who holds it because faith is something that cannot live on its own without being sustained by the one in whom it dwells. In its essence, faith is trust. But that definition falls short by itself. The biblical meaning of “faith” also necessitates the idea of loyalty, which results in faithfulness. Therefore, a more fully developed meaning of “faith” is that it comprises a steadfast conviction that results in allegiance or commitment to someone or something. That definition may sound great and all, but having faith is not as simple as snapping your fingers. Maintaining a “steadfast conviction” is not something that just automatically happens inside us. It takes deliberate effort and a conscious determination to form in one’s mind and heart, and it must be carefully guarded and preserved. The Apostle Peter calls…

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1 Peter 2:11 ESV Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. There is a war going on within each of us, and many people are unaware of how intense the battle really is. Some are even completely unaware of the battle and go on living their lives each day as helpless victims of the onslaught that rages inside them. They don’t realize that they are losing the war because they are oblivious to the fact that it is happening at all. The Apostle Peter’s exhortation was for us to recognize the battle that is being waged inside us and to not sit idly by and lose the fight without even engaging the enemy. Peter identifies the aggressor in this battle as “the passions of the flesh.” He says that these “passions” wage war against a…

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Event: Spirit & Truth Fellowship National Conference 2017 Where: The Hilton, Atlanta, GA When: September 24, 2017

Being God-Centered and Answering His Call Date: July 4, 2017 Audio Sermon: Click on the play button below description. Being God-centered is essential to trusting God. The opposite of being God-centered is being self-centered. So what does it really mean to have a God-centered approach? How should we think about being God-centered? And how can we form that habit in our lives? In this sermon, these two approaches to life are contrasted by drawing upon the record of King Asa where he took one approach and then decided to try the other under fairly similar circumstances (2 Chr 14 & 16). The immediate outcome of the two approaches seemed to be the very similar on the surface, but in fact, they were very different in the aftermath. God is calling each of us to do specific things for him. But what he does is calls us to join him in…

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What in the World Are We Doing!? Date: June 2, 2017 Video Sermon: Click on the play button below description. Paul tells Timothy to “keep the commandment unstained” (1 Tim 6:14). Furthermore, James in his letter exhorts his readers to “keep oneself unstained by the world” (Jas 1:27). In this sermon, we look at how the world can stain us, and thereby allow it to stain the commandment (i.e., instruction) of God. The problem is that Scripture tells us that we are to not be stained by the world, that God loves the world (Jn 3:16), that Jesus said we are “not of the world” but has called us “out of the world” (Jn 15:19), that Jesus prays for us not to be “taken out of the world” for he has sent us “into the world” (Jn 17:15, 18), and that through our faith we have “overcome the world” (1…

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You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (Jas. 2:24 ESV) James begins this section (2:14-26) with a rhetorical question, “What does it profit, my brothers, if someone says he has trust but does not have works? Is that trust able to save him?” (2:14). Previously, James had asserted that believers are to be not only hearers of the word, but doers of the word as well (1:22-25). In addition, “religion that is pure and undefiled” is caring for those in need, such as orphans and widows (1:27). In connection with his description of “true religion,” James now considers how showing favoritism does not cohere with having trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He sketches an incident where a person professes to trust in Jesus but then fails to live according to the law of love taught by Jesus. Such behavior is inconsistent and hypocritical.…

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