What thoughts and worries consume our moments and our days? Is God permeating those moments? If worship is a way of life, then every moment of that life should be designed to bring glory to God—even our finances. In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul focuses on our motivation for giving, which is the grace of God. He then reveals a number of evidences that appear when our giving is motivated by grace—when our giving becomes a spiritual act of worship.
In this sermon, we will spend some time examining Paul’s instructions to Titus concerning how to live in such a way to bring glory to God in our lives. Paul gave similar instructions in chapter five of his letter to the Roman church. The Bible teaches us that God saved us as a result of his loving-kindness, and experiential knowledge of this salvation is a requirement to be able to truly worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.
Lecture 3 – As we reach the middle of Judges 1, we discover that the tribe of Judah was not able to drive out the inhabitants of the hill country because they had iron chariots (19)—even though the verse explains that God was with them. This causes us to ask the question, “Was it really that they ‘could not’ drive them out, or because they ‘would not’ drive them out?” In our lives today, we must realize that God wants all of us, not pieces. He wants to be the Lord over every aspect of our lives, not just some. “Ultimately, either all of our life is given to God in grateful, loving obedience; or none is.” Partial obedience is disobedience!
Last week, we considered God’s general revelation. We looked at some aspects of creation and determined that creation demands a Creator. So as we look once again at Psalm 19 this morning, I want us to focus specifically on the role of God’s special revelation in our worship. And as we study this psalm, I want us to notice that worship is not just a physical activity but also a spiritual attitude and cleansing.
Lecture 2 – As we begin to study the text of the Book of Judges, we noticed that the author has written what is best described as two introductions to this book—each with its own purpose. The first introduction sets forth the military context of the book, while the second focuses more on the theological context of that day. In studying the military journal of the conquests and failures of the Israelites in chapter 1, we discover that the Israelites have a half-hearted commitment to obedience and dependence upon the Lord—the people were depending more upon their own common sense than God.
General Revelation refers to the knowledge that we have as the result of God creating the cosmos and the moral conscience within each human being. In response to God’s general revelation, our first priority as believers when it comes to worship is to repent of our sins—asking God to ‘first clean the inside’ of my life. Our second priority is to discover who God is because it is easy to worship creation rather than the Creator. And finally, we need to realize today that it does not matter who we are or where we live on planet earth, we have no excuse to NOT worship God.
Lecture 1 – What is this Book of Judges? And who are they judging? In this introductory study of the Book of Judges, we will explore the function of the ‘judges’ and the role that God had them play in the history of His people—Israel. This book is well described as “despicable people doing deplorable things,” so we will consider these stories not as stories of virtue for us to imitate, but as lessons to learn “about a God of mercy and long-suffering, who continually works in and through us despite our constant resistance to his purposes.” We’ll also look at the overriding themes taught in this book and how we can apply these teachings to our lives and cultures today.
The Bible tells us that Jesus didn’t immediately go to heaven after He rose from the dead. For forty days, Jesus spent time on earth in his resurrected, glorified body. During this time period, we see Jesus throughout the gospels appearing to the disciples to encourage and teach them.
In prayer, we must focus on: Receiving God’s Word as truth; Believing God’s Word; Exhibiting unity among believers; Remaining faithful to God; Being protected from the devil; Being sanctified by the Word; Being sent into the world.
In John 17, Jesus prayed for…Himself, Followers of Christ and Future Christ Followers