Non-Series Messages
My goal today is to focus on some of the events from the last half of the week, but I hope to do this by seeing these events through the eyes of one of Jesus’ closest followers—Simon Peter. Throughout the Passion Week, Simon Peter seems to be involved in everything that is happening—which is sometimes good and sometimes not so good. As we consider all these things that he said and did during these last few hours of Jesus’ life, I hope to be able to portray not only his words and actions but also his implied thoughts and feelings. I will not overly-dramatize the text of Scripture to make it say something that it does not say, but I will attempt—when possible—to analyze the text of these gospels to help us see and feel what Simon Peter is experiencing. We’ll begin where Pastor John left off last week—in the Upper Room where Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Passover on Thursday evening.
Jesus knew when, where, and how we was going to die. Which meant that Jesus would have been intentional with the time He spent on this Earth. And you have to think that the closer that He came to this week, he’d really be intentional with who He spent with and what He said and did. Today we are going to explore the time he spent Zacchaeus, as well as, His actions on Palm Sunday.
Join us this morning as Pastor John O’Connor explores the dangers of living lives that are distracted.
In Ephesians 4:13, it says that we should strive to grow up in Christ “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” In today’s study, I want to take a few minutes to look a little deeper into this subject of discipleship, what it means to be a follower of Christ and what it means to disciple someone.
As we take a few minutes this morning to consider the sacrificial death of Jesus upon the cross, I want us to consider how each group/individual responded to Jesus in that moment—on that day when He was crucified. I think we might be surprised to see how things really haven’t changed—almost two-thousand years have come and gone and people are still responding to Jesus in the same way! We’ll be considering most all the characters that are part of the crucifixion narrative in the gospels of Luke and John this morning. There are a bunch of them, but we’ll do our best to identify them, see their part in the chain of events and then note how they responded to Jesus (and how that correlates with the way people today respond to Him too).
How often do you find yourself promising you’ll do something, and then immediately walking away and forgetting you promised? We live in a culture that rewards the talk, but not the walk. Today we are going to be studying from James 2:14-26, looking at the effect that empty words have on not only those that we are saying them to, but also the effect that is has on ourselves. Let your words be the precursor to His work.
We are excited to welcome back the Executive Director of Lifeword Media Ministries to Temple Rogers today! Through Donny’s leadership, Lifeword continues to expand its gospel outreach around the world! He’ll be speaking this morning about how the responsibility to carry the gospel to the world lies on the shoulders of each and every believer. Later at the Lifeword Rally, he will share all about the work of Lifeword and the impact that our partnership can have in reaching the lost!
As I was seeking God’s will as to what I should share with you today, he brought to my memory a message that I preached at our state association meeting last November—Journey of a Spiritual Man. I have wanted to share this sermon with you for some time now, but until today, God has not given me peace about doing so. I guess my mind has been focused this week on the journey that is this life. As we are nearing the end of my earthly father’s journey in this life, it has caused me to reflect on my journey as well.
Psalm 32 was written by King David sometime after his series of sinful acts dealing with Bathsheba and Uriah, her husband. The story was scandalous, but David thought he had hidden the truth from everyone. Hidden sin is never hidden from God, a lesson that David learned first-hand. Psalm 51 records David’s prayer of repentance for all the things that he did. Psalm 32 is its companion and stresses the blessings of God’s forgiveness and the suffering he experienced because of his stubbornness in acknowledging his sin.
This sermon was delivered as the Annual Message at the Baptist Missionary Association of Arkansas meeting on November 4, 2021, at Central Baptist College in Conway, Arkansas.