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...