Four great sermons from the week of 05/21/17 for your holiday listening enjoyment!
- Independency: The Only Real Sin
- Dependency: The Only Thing That Pleases God
- A Sudden Storm
- Thankfulness Brings...
This degree of common sense and intelligence may be a contributing factor to his dropping out of college.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s open borders organization says President Trump’s push to improve enforcement of immigration laws “hurts public safety.”
Is the Drive-By Media Good for America? (the answer: NO)
“The Mainstream and Conservative Media Are Living in Different Worlds. So Are Those Who Read Them.” — headline, The Los Angeles Times, 4/10/17
“Rush Limbaugh had a lot to do with creating those two separate worlds.” — Ted Koppel, “The Great Divide: Politics in the Age of Trump,” “cbs Sunday Morning,” 3/26/17
Deuteronomy 1:42
“And the LORD said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight;
for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.”
After Israel had refused to go into the Promised Land, God pronounced His judgment against the generation that refused to follow His Word by faith. When God told them that they would die in the wilderness, they changed their tune from refusing to go forward to wanting to go forward to conquer the Amorites as an attempt to show God that they would obey Him. However, sometimes it is a little late to choose obedience. They had already refused God’s will to go forward, so God refused to let them go into the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 23:11
“But it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with
water: and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again.”
God was very clear about His people being clean from sin. Israel is a picture of the believer, and God doesn’t want any uncleanness in the believer’s life. The verse above is a dialogue about what a person was to do if they touched something that was unclean when they were in battle. God said that a person who found themselves unclean was to “go abroad out of the camp…”
Joshua 1:9
“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not
afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee
whithersoever thou goest.”
Before my wife goes grocery shopping, she compiles a list of groceries that we need. That list helps her to know what to purchase while she is at the grocery store, and it also helps her to keep us from spending money frivolously. She could certainly go shopping without the list, but she will never completely get what we need without it.
Joshua 7:10
“And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?”
Israel had enjoyed the blessings of God for some time. They experienced victory after victory, and it seemed that nothing was going to stop them. However, something did stop them. What stopped them was like running into a brick wall. They conquered the great city of Jericho, but they experienced defeat at the Battle of Ai. This army should have been no contest for the army of Israel, but something caused the blessings of God to stop and instead bring defeat.
Psalm 106:44
“Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:”
Many words in the Scriptures carry a powerful truth to encourage people. The word “whosoever” is a powerful word because of God’s inclusiveness for salvation. Knowing that no matter how bad our background may be and how deep we have gone into sin, to know that God includes you for salvation is powerful.
Joshua 24:14
“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in
truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side
of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.”
At the end of Joshua’s life, he found himself trying to help Israel to continue to serve the LORD after his death. He understood the power of making a choice to serve the LORD and the benefits it brings. In the verse above, Joshua gives several things that you must do if you want to serve the LORD.
Judges 5:18
“Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.”
When you read the song of Deborah, you see the wonder as to why nobody would come to help them fight the battle against Sisera. You would think because their freedom was at stake that the whole nation would join forces, but this song makes it evident that many had their excuses for why they wouldn’t join the battle.