Stir Up the Gift that is Yours
Tim. 1 4:16 I: The Need for Sound Leadership:1. “Some will depart from the Faith.” 2. “Giving heed to spirits that lead one into error.” “Teachings of demonds.” 3. “Branded in their own conscience.” 4. “Forbidding to marry, abstinent from foods.” II: Some Things to Do: 1. “Old wives fictions (refuse, reject, shun, and avoid)…” a. Unhallowed & unscriptural. b. Prove their statements by witnesses. 2. Exercise the mind, will, & emotions! a. Toward reverence, respect, and pity toward God. Peter 1 3:10. b. This gives promise for this life and for the next! 3. Labor to the point of exhaustion and struggle for the cause. III: Some Things to Be. 1. “Assert the dignity of...
Satan
Isaiah 14:12-19, Ezekiel 28:11-19 I: Who is Satan? 1. One of great power, full of wisdom & beauty. 2. Cast out of Heaven because of Pride. 3. Was once mighty in Heaven. 4. He was a mighty musician. II: He is the Ruler of This Wicked World. 1. He offered the nations to Jesus. Luke 4:3-7. 2. He has power to kill. Luke 12:4-5. 3. He is over the demon world. III: He is the Accuser. 1. Job was accused by him. 2. He deframes the children of god. 3. He is a slanderer; he retails vile language. 4. He stirs up strife, bitterness, & discontent. IV: He uses man to do his work. God and Satan must work thru men. Satan to destroy; God to destroy. 1. He is a corrupter thru men. Cor. 2 11:3.a. He robs of virtue & purity of heart. b. He uses some vile men or women to...
Sons of God
Cor. 2 6:1-18 Have we fully realized since we believed that we are the Sons of God? This fact was a sustaining force in the early church and during the dark ages. Paul points out some ways for the Christians of Corinth to let the world know their stand before God. I: By Consistency (thou art a Jewel) Reuben. 1. Under physical pressures: Afflictions, stripes, necessities, imprisonments, distresses, and laborers. 2. Under spiritual pressures: Fastings, pureness, knowledge, kindness, Holy Ghost, and truth. II: By Convictions: 1. The unequal yoke — business — marriage, etc. 2. That you cannot mix righteousness and unrighteousness. 3. Light and darkness. 4. Christ and Belial. 5. The believer and the infidel. 6. Temple and idols (the believer & idols)....
Religion Won’t Save.
Matt. 7:15-23, Gal. 5:17-23 Men from Cains day have been religious. I: Reformed, not reborn.1. Cleaning the outside of the cup. 2. Judas worked miracles in Jesus name. 3. The Pharisees had a religion. 4. What world has a religion? 5. Saul of Tarsus had a religion. II: Scripture tells of false beliefs. 1. The parable of the sower. Matt. 13. 2. The wedding feast. Matt. 22.3. The ten virgins. Matt. 25. 4. A net filled with good & bad fish. Matt. 13. 5. The wheat and tares. Matt. 13. 6. The Pharisee that prayed, fasted, attended church, tithed, & lived a good moral life, but he was lost. Luke 18:91. 7. The bed is too short, the cover is too narrow. Isaiah 28:20. Will your religion do to die...
Tithing
Stewardship occurs 39 times in the bible, 7 of these are in the New Testament. Tithing has an ancient origin: Persia, Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, Rome. and China. Wherever we find a trace of man worshipping a supreme being we find a tithe or more given to the gods. Both a religious practice and a political taxation. Abraham and Melchizedek. Jacob pledge the tithe to God and 20 yrs. later remembered. Old Testament tithe is hard to define! I: Deuteronomy lists 3 different tithe. 1. The annual tithe on the increase of crops. A feast at Jerusalem. This tithe wasn’t given, but eaten and shared with the Levites. 2. The 3rd yr. tithe, which was in the towns and used the Levites, the so journer, the fatherless, and the widow. 3. The tithe of the 1st fruits taken to...
You are not Your Own
Corinthians 1 6:15-20, John 12:25, and Luke 12:20 No man can truthfully say that his life is his own and he can do with it what he pleases. I: No man is self-made or self-created. 1. God formed man of the dust of the ground. 2. He took a rib from Adam and made woman. 3. When man fell in sin God made a way back to the throne.4. Every breath we breathe, comes from the hand of God. 5. We belong to something and can’t long kick it. When a man gives up thinking of himself as a child of Eternity, and begins thinking of himself as a creature of time, he has lost the highest motive for living. II: We are not free to do as we please. 1. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. 2. We are renters in God’s house. 3. The man that planned for bigger barns...
Wheat and Tares in the Churches
Matthew 13:24-30, Revelation 2:4 The 7 Churches of Asia represents the churches of all the Church Age. As Christ judges these churches, they were a mixed society of good and evil. 6 out of 7 He severely condemned. 1 out of 7 He finds no fault. 1 He finds nothing right. Some Churches had lost their 1st love, some were false in their professions. We find that among the finest of Christians, there are those who love and act like the World. I: The 1st Churches had real opportunity. 1. The leaders had been with Jesus. 2. The mighty acts of the Son of God was fresh in their minds. 3. He preached a 1st hand experience. 4. These men were well prepared to get a Church on the right road! 5. But even these churches were beset with problems of Doctorine, Fellowship, Morals,...
“So Built we the Walls”
Nehemiah 1:1-4, 2:12-20 Stewardship under Adversity I: A Man with a Burden: 1. “I ask them concerning the Jews … and concerning Jerusalem.” 1:2. 2. “I sat down and wept, and mourned.” Vs. 4. 3. “I fasted and prayed.” Vs. 4. 4. “We have sinned against thee.” Included himself. Vs. 6. “So I came to Jerusalem.” 2:11. II: He saw the need and accepted the Challenge. 1. “I arose in the night.” Vs. 12. No fan fare of trumpets. 2. “and viewed the walls of Jerusalem.” Vs. 13. 3. “Then said I unto them,” Presented the challenge to the leaders. 4. “Ye see the distress that we are in.” He shared the entire responsibility. 5. “Let us build up the wall of...
Stewards of Good News
John 3:16, 4:7-12 Books have been known to start wars, (Uncle Tom’s Cabin). A few written words may mean peace or trouble, (Declaration of Independence). Take a long look child! I: “For God so loved.” 1. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Jeremiah 31:3. “Love is strong as death.” Songs of Soloman 8:6. 2. The love of man: a. A love for country and liberty. b. Love for their loved ones, (King of England). 3. The Greatest Lover, King of England. a. Everlasting love. b. Love stronger than death. c. Love that loves the unlovely. d. Love that triumphs in face of hatred. II: He loved the whole world. 1. Every man that hears the invitation welcome, (pg. 952). 2. “Why will ye die?” 3. “No pleasure in...
Stewardship of Life
Corinthians 1 6:19-20, Jeremiah 18:1-6, and Romans 12:1-2 “Webster when secretary of State in President Fillmores cabinet was dining one night with 20 others at Astor House in New York. He was asked a question: “Mr. Webster, will you tell me the most important thought that ever occupied your mind?”” Webster passed his hand over his broad forehead and said in a low tone to the one next to him, “Is there anyone here that doesn’t know me?” “No.” The man answered. “They are all your friends.” Then Webster lifted his head and answered: “The most important thought that ever occupied my mind was that of my individual responsibility to God.” Paul the Apostle tells how one is enabled to live up...
Gods Financial Plan for the Church
Malachi 3:8-17 “The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Host.” Haggai 2:8. “For all the Earth is mine.” Exodus 19:5. “The Earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof; the World and they that dwell therein.” Psalms 24:1. God owns all, man merely possesses it. I: The law of the tithe is as old as the human race. 1. The tithe recognizes that God owns everything. 2. The tithe is God’s rent and man is the renter. 3. Abraham was a tither. 4. Jacob made a pledge to God that he would pay the tithe. 5. “Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of the seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.” Dueteronomy 14:22. 6. God closed the windows of Heaven when Israel robbed Him of the tithe. Malachi...
