Lead Pastor
Sermons by Wade Allen (Page 12)
One of the things that I hope to go see one day is the world’s most famous geyser, Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. This geyser faithfully erupts about 20 times a day. As we think about the concept of faithfulness, I want us to think about how that no matter what is going on in your life, if we want to truly be faithful to the Lord then we need to be faithful in every situation. In Luke 2:22-40, we will spend some time looking at each of the characters in this story to see how they demonstrated their faithfulness to God.
Each time when God’s messenger spoke to Mary and then to Joseph, he told them that the baby’s name would be Jesus. Why Jesus? Matthew 1:21 gives us some insight into this, but the name Jesus simply means “Jehovah is salvation.” When we sing the song, “Jesus Saves,” we’re being redundant—that’s what Jesus means. Our text picks up immediately after Mary has encountered the angel, Gabriel, and been told the news about her older cousin Elizabeth becoming pregnant and God’s plans for her to conceive as well. Join us as we study Luke 1:39 to see what happens next.
After the return of the Jewish people to Judah from captivity in Babylon, there was a period of almost 400 years where God did not speak to His people through His prophets. This is known as the “Silent Period” between the Old and New Testaments. This “Silent Period” continued until sometime around 7-6 BC when the Lord sent an angel to proclaim the coming of the Messiah and His forerunner–these are the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth and Mary.
This morning, we will begin by looking at the prologue to this gospel. In this prologue, Luke offers several clues about his purpose in writing this book. This will be the focus of our message this morning—what is the purpose of this gospel. What makes it unique? Why did Luke write it? How did Luke know what to write? We’ll take some time to answer these and other questions to help us get a clearer understanding of this book we’re about to study.
This is the final episode that we will study from the Book of Nehemiah this year. Nehemiah’s story is not finished, but as we see here in this study, the rebuilding of the wall is complete. It was evident to all that the wall’s completion was a work of God. The same can be true of our lives as well–God wants to rebuild the broken aspects of our lives! And when we allow Him to do that, people all around us will be aware that our transformation is being accomplished by the power of God!
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.
As we continue our study in Nehemiah 6, we once again find Nehemiah contending with those who have opposed him from the beginning—only now their tactics have changed. Does that mean that they have changed? Are they now trying to make peace with their neighbors? Nehemiah will have to depend on discernment from God to know what he should do and how he should do it.
By definition, the word compassion means “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” Love and compassion go hand-in-hand. “The opposite of compassion is often thought to be indifference or cold-heartedness. So as we continue to explore the story of Nehemiah, let’s see how he is confronted with an issue and moved to compassion as a result.
As we jump around considering the circumstances and situations of some of these groups listed in chapter three of Nehemiah, we discover four biblical principles of teamwork and leadership: 1) God chooses to work through people, 2) God empowers leaders on all levels, 3) God wants all people to participate, and 4) God wants our work to be meaningful. We’ll unpack each one of these principles as we study this passage.
In the previous study, I introduced you to five principles for restoring the broken. We looked at how Nehemiah started this process with his God-given purpose in mind; and then he seized the opportunity that God set before him. This morning, we’re going to focus on the next two principles on this list—analyze the situation you find yourself in and then motivate your team to join you in the effort. Nehemiah accomplishes this by taking five specific steps.