Lead Pastor
Sermons by Wade Allen (Page 14)
The idea of doctrine, according to Chuck Swindoll, “has gotten a bum rap.” He goes on to say, “Unless you are most unusual, the study of doctrine would be ranked toward the bottom [of a list of topics that most people would find interesting to study], if not altogether in last place. Compared to success principles on the home and family, ‘a serious study of biblical doctrines’ does not seem nearly as important or relevant to most evangelical congregations.” The problem is that most people don’t realize how important our doctrine is to our daily Christian walk. Our positions on doctrinal issues determine the way in which we interpret and apply the Bible whether we realize it or not.
The Spiritual Disciplines of silence and solitude—while unique from one another—go hand-in-hand. You can have solitude without silence, but it is almost impossible to have silence without solitude. So rather than spending two weeks discussing these disciplines separately, I will do my best to address them as two sides of the same coin. By definition, solitude is the state or “situation of being alone without other people.” Solitude provides believers with an opportunity to reflect on spiritual matters by removing the distraction of people and things. A few weeks ago, Pastor John preached on the discipline of community and how we need one another to grow in spiritual maturity. Experiencing community is essential to our spiritual growth, but so is being alone with God!
In the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, the author writes, “When we are preoccupied with our own concerns, much of the world is simply invisible to us. Service is rooted in seeing—in seeing others as God does. God cares about productive and nonproductive people, poor people and rich people, educated and non-educated people. God cares about everybody.” God wants us to see people as He sees them. He wants us to have the same mindset as Christ—in humility He put the needs of others before His own. As Foster explained, “More than any other single way, the grace of humility is worked into our lives through the Discipline of service. Humility, as we all know, is one of those virtues that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it the more distant it becomes. To think we have it is evidence that we don’t… Of all the classical Spiritual Disciplines, service is the most conducive to the growth of humility… a deep change occurs in our spirits” as a result of true service.
To avoid becoming a deformed disciple, Dr. Eugene Peterson suggests that we need a framework—and that framework should be worship. As we gather together week-by-week to worship God in this place, we experience this framework through the systematic teaching of God’s Word, through the people of God “sharpening” us and encouraging us, through lifting our voices in praise and adoration for who God is and for all He has done. Worship is that weekly reminder that provides us with a working definition for life.
there are three primary aspects of the Christian walk: knowing God, abiding in God and obeying God. We cannot neglect any one of these aspects or we will be in danger of becoming either legalistic, heretical or a hypocrite. The Christian walk should be found in the conflux of these three thinks—knowing, abiding and obeying. As we maintain this balance and grow in all three areas, our Christian walk will be characterized as being mature. As I have evaluated all these elements of the Christian walk, I felt strongly that prayer and Bible study are the two spiritual disciplines that are absolutely indispensable. Beyond these two, I believe that there are four more disciplines that should be practiced daily, including community, worship, service and solitude. Those elements will be our focus over the next four weeks.
The Bible teaches us that the purpose of salvation is to be conformed to the image of God’s Son—Jesus. The process by which that transformation happens is called “the Christian Walk.” There are many elements that are essential for that transformation process to take place. This will be our focus
for the next several weeks. The first of these is the element of PRAYER!
In this message, we want to focus our attention on the effect of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. According to the passages we just read, what happened as a result of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection?
It did not take long in Scripture before God clearly communicated His plan for the salvation of the world. We cannot forget that the Bible says that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22b). And that is where we want to pick up in the Book of Genesis today, to see God reveal to His chosen people what His plan was for their salvation.
We have reached the end of “The End of the Beginning” sermon series. Our message this morning is the culmination of forty-one weeks that we have spent studying the Book of Acts over the past several years. In this last portion of this book, we see the Apostle Paul once again fulfilling God’s purpose and plan for his life. Once again, he is witnessing before rulers and Gentiles, but only after sharing the gospel with the Jews first. In a nutshell— this was God’s purpose and plan for Saul of Tarsus, even before he was born.
In our study last week, we last saw the Apostle Paul in the midst of an extremely dangerous situation—the ship he was on had been driven by a tropical cyclone across the Mediterranean. For fourteen days, the passengers and crew had no idea what their heading had been or where they were. The experienced seamen on board realized that they were nearing a land mass of some form. Trusting in what Paul had said concerning the deliverance that his God had promised to all who stayed with Paul on the ship, they all took a moment to eat something in order to be strengthened and encouraged for the events that were about to happen.
As we have studied the life of the Apostle Paul—as it is recorded in the Book of Acts—we have seen Paul endure many difficult circumstances. In every circumstance, Paul continued to trust in God and be content in every one of them (2 Corinthians 12:10; Philippians 4:11). Contentment is an outward demonstration of complete dependence upon God. When we rely on God, we are trusting that He has everything under His control—even when it feels like everything is out of control!