Pressed Into the World’s Mold.
A vessel is a hollow or conclave article. Mold into Business, Pleasure, home, worship and habits. Rom. 12:1-8, Tim. 2 2:20-21 I: There Are Many Kinds of Vessels: 1. A cup, bowl, pot, pitcher, vase, bottle, barrel, tube, etc. 2. Made of different materials: earthen, china, gold, silver, tin, wood, etc. 3. Vessels of honor: a cup, pitcher, or vase. 4. Vessels of dishonor: slop bucket, and the cuspidors. 5. There is a tremendous difference between a vase filled with roses and a cuspidor. II: The World’s Mold: 1. There is the mold of the crowd. (Everyone is doing it). 2. There is the mold of public opinion. (What will people say). 3. There is the mold of popularity in dress, in habits, in compromise. 4. There is the mold of the business world. 5. Here is the...
Prayer and Motive
This verse raised a deep question about our prayer life. Why do we pray? James says that a great deal of prayer is in vain because the motive is wrong. Gamma 3:8-18, Roam 8:26, James 4:13, Luke 14:16-20 I: What Then is Motive? 1. “That within the individual rather than without, which incites him to action.” Latin — “motto” means “to move.” Noun “locus” means “place.” Something that moves us from place to place. 2. A motive is that in our experience that moves us from place or to action. 3. Motives can bring sickness no doctor can cure. II: Jesus Continually Looked For Motives. 1. he knew men could be as white and as filthy as painted tombs. 2. The men that brought the women taken in adultery. John...
Perfume and Position
Mark 14:3-9, Matt 26:1-13 I: They Made Him a Supper. 1. Friends, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, a leper. 2. His last quiet supper overshadowed by the cross. 3. One friend saw and understood the strain upon Jesus. II: “Very Costly.” 1. No time for cheap perfume. 2. Equivalent to 300 days of labor, enough to feed 5,000 people a meal. 3. Probably the most precious thing she would ever own. 4. Judas saw the cost. Many worth. Judas saw the price tag, many saw the price Jesus would pay. 5. Judas knew the price of perfume. Many knew the gift of love. One appreciated, one complained from a dying heart. 6. Love is always prone to be a spend thrift. Love has never given until it gives more than it can afford. 7. Judas knew the price of blood, but never the beauty of...
Passing Opportunities
Israel wept many times as a nation, but too often his weeping came too late. Luke 19:41-42 I: Tears are Always Touching. 1. Tears of sorrow over past mistakes. 2. Tears over lost opportunities. 3. Tears of agony over wrongs, righted too late. 4. Tears of parents over children that they failed to teach. 5. But when Jesus wept over Jerusalem there must have been much at stake. II: He Wept because: 1. They were allowing religious opportunities to pass. 2. Satan had succeeded in blinding them to their opportunities. 3. They were allowing their hearts to become hardened. 4. He could see that they would never get these opportunities again. 5. He could see the price they would pay. III: Opportunities that pass us by: 1. Our children pass swiftly thru the age of molding....
Opiate Religion
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked a stimulating question, “What greater calamity can fall upon a Nation than the loss of worship? What could be worse than no Churches, no Altars, no ministers, no Christians?” Jeremiah 7:9-10, Rev. 3:14-18 I: All Nations Have Their Gods. 1. They may have eyes that see not and ears that hear not. 2. They may love, hate, and kill. 3. They may demand strange sacrifices. 4. They may sleep or go hunting. (Elijah) 5. But every people have their God or Gods. II: The People to Whom Jeremiah Preached. 1. The Temple had degenerated into a fetish superstition. Belief or fear without basis in reason or knowledge. 2. Superstition was having a deadening effect on their religion. Dr. Lyn Elder said, “Baptists are apt to be...
Numbered, Weighed, & Divided
Dan. 5:17-31 I: “God hath numbered and finished.” 1. His days were numbered, his hours and minutes were almost gone. 2. Every breath he drew came from the hand of God. 3. Every step he took were numbered. 4. Every thought and intent of his heart was numbered. 5. Every hair of his head was numbered. Gods all-seeing eye was upon him. “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Psa. 90:12. II: “Thou art Weighed.” 1. He was weighed by past opportunity. 2. He was weighed by past warning. 3. He was weighted by present attitude of scorn and contempt. 4. He was weighed by present actions. “Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity.” Job 31:6. III. “Thy Kingdom is...
No Man Cared For My Soul
I: “No Man Cared for My Soul.” 1. Would this be the despairing cry of people we know? 2. What personal evidence does the last person have that some Christian cares for his soul? 3. How many of our family and friends know from our action and words that we are concerned? 4. The man at the pool of Bethesda said, “I have no one to help me.” John 5:7 5. If no man cared for the spiritual welfare of men, it would be a hopeless pause. 6. Some by profession and action say NO! Pleasure, crowd, money, booze, cold churches, indifferent and unconcerned. II: Some Care: 1. God enough to send His Son… 2. There are Christians and Churches. 3. There are watchmen on the wall. 4. Men in Hell care. “The Richman.” 5. Some care enough to put...
No Love of the Truth
Sometimes we are confused and are put to the task of finding out which is truth and which is lie. Christians should never lose sight of the tremendous price we pay when truth loses its power in our life. Rom. 1:17-32, Issiah 59:1-15 I: Jesus Said, “I am the truth.” 1. Satan is the father of liars. 2. “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Ex. 20:16 3. “I have chosen the way of truth, thy judgments have I laid before me.” Psalm 119:30 4. “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind of thine heart.” Prov. 3:3 5. “They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.” Tim. 2 4:4 6. “They received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.” Thess. II 2:10 II:...
“My Peace I Give Unto You”
“Peace can be produced only by the contribution of the past, present, and future.” “A rarity of a thing makes it valuable.” John: 14:27, Phil. 4:6-7 I: “Peace I Leave With You.” Vs. 27 1. They were not to inherit houses, land, or any material wealth. 2. This was his going away present. 3. Without peace what do you have in an individual, family, city, or nation? 4. Introduce remorse or an evil conscience and you destroy peace. 5. Introduce fear and anxiety and peace is impossible. 6. Most of our world is at war or in a unsteady truce. 7. Peace that depends upon things is unsure. II: “My Peace.” What Kind of Peace? 1. Jesus knew poverty. 2. His motives were questioned constantly. 3. His own people refused to believe...
“My House Of Prayer”
No Christian dare say there is no need for prayer. We prayed the sinners prayer before we were saved and a prayer of thanksgiving after we were saved. Dare we try to live a Christian life before the world and remain a prayer-less people? A world dies about us and our eyes are undimmed by tears. Our sons and daughters are bit by the serpent of sin and we seek not the altar of prayer. Men stumble in confusion, bruised and beaten by the storms of sin, and we remain with knees unbended. We play at church while Satan steals our neighbors and friends. Jesus prayed all night before he chose the twelve, but we seek workers and leaders while 5% of the church prays. Jesus prayed all night while the multitude slept the sleep of death. When our church life depends upon...
Missionary Minded Man In Hell
Luke 16:19-31 I: Possessed of the World. 1. Missionary Opportunities: a. A beggar at his gate. b. Many friends that came to his banquets. c. Business associates. d. Greatest of all his own family. 2. But Business and Pleasure possessed all that he had in time, talent & tithe. 3. Death came and cut off the wordily goods and opportunities. II: “In Hell He Lifted Up His Eyes.” 1. Death often opens our eyes to life’s true values. 2. Hell made him see what was of greatest value. 3. In hell he saw the needs for missions. III: “Son Remember.” 1. You had opportunities. 2. You had means with which to work. 3. You failed in home missions. 4. It is not too late to be a foreign missionary. IV: Missions Is Our Business. 1. Our family is our...
Man Immortal: His Mind and Conscience
Matt. 10:28, Acts 24:14-16, Titus 1:15 I: Immortality the Heritage of the Human Race: Acts 17:26 1. Ciciro: “If at death I am to be annihilated, as some philosophers suppose, I am not afraid lest those wise men, when extinct too, should laugh at my error.” 2. The ancient Scandinavians: the future life and continual banquet, drinking from the skull of their enemies. 3. The American Indian and the happy go hunting ground where game would be plentiful and no pale face to disturb. 4. The minds of all ages have enlarged and thought upon the future state of the dead. II: Immortality and the Conscience. 1. “Conscience is that moral faculty which gives us an instinctive conviction of obligation and duty, and also an instinctive apprehension of a future...
