The Success of a Sermon

What makes a sermon a success? The measure of any man’s sermon is made evident by the impact upon the hearer’s spirit. If the spirit is driven to respond appropriately to the nature of God and conformity to God’s standards then we can judge the sermon to be successful.

Gregg Metcalf (1955-)

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Happy Birthday to our second daughter, Sonja A. Abramson, of Portland, OR

The Test of Fellowship (Part 5)

SERMON            GM14-014

SERIES:              Christian Living in a World of Chaos & Contradiction

SCRIPTURE:     1 John 1:8-2:2

SUBJ:                  Fellowship with God

SUBTITLE:        The Test of Fellowship (Part 5)

SUMMARY:       The Christian life is viewed as a life of fellowship

SCHEME:           To desire fellowship with fellow believers

         

1A     THE CHRISTIAN LIFE VIEWED AS FELLOWSHIP (1:5-2:28)

          1B     Fellowship is tested on practical grounds (1:5-2:11)

                   1C     Practical grounds of moral like-ness (1:5-7)

                   2C     Practical grounds of confession of sin (1:8-2:2)

                   3C     Practical grounds of obedience (2:3-6)

                   4C     Practical grounds of love for God (2:7-11)

          2B     Fellowship is tested on relational grounds (2:12-17)

                   1C     The Positive Relationship (2:12-14)

                   2C     The Negative Relationship (2:15-17)

          3B     Fellowship is tested on Christological grounds (2:18-28)

                   1C     The Contrast (2:18-21)

                   2C     The Christological (2:22-23)

                   3C     The Centrality (2:24-28)

What Troubles You?

“The holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the un-holiness which remains in him”

Charles Spurgeon

The Foolishness of Debate

People, including believers, are just plain crazy to argue with the lost about creation. That is the wrong place to start. Hebrews 11:3 says "By faith (pistos) we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible."

The dead in trespasses and sin will not give credence, confidence, or trust (which is what pistos means) in the fact that God created the world until and or unless the Holy Spirit first regenerates the dead soul.

Let's share the gospel, let the HS press the weight of their sin and guilt upon them until they cry out for salvation (not the sinner's prayer by the way). Let's not throw pearls to swine.

I know that believers can be all over the map and need solid bible teaching. I have grown weary of the "debate" in the press, the media, FaceBook between evolutionists and "believers." I am just saying we weren't commissioned to be a witness to creation, it is a witness unto itself, and we were commissioned to be a witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 The biggest waste of my time, Christ’s good grace and resources was attending a "Debate" between James White and Doug Pagit.

Fifty-Nine and Little Crazy

Today I turned fifty-nine and I'm startin' to go crazy
memories of the good life are now growin' hazy
can't remember what I had hoped to one day find
had a lot of dreams but never made any mine




Beginning to wonder what is up and ahead now
don't know where to go and I'm wondering how
I might find who I am again and where I belong
where did I get lost, tell me where have I gone

Yesterday is just a memory tomorrow seems dark
I had plans in the making but they've been torn apart
and now I'm fifty-nine looking back not yet dying
seems so long ago can't give up gotta keep trying

If there was chance to be me again I would take it
need just one reason I know that I could make it
I want to break free and run against the wind
wanna feel the sunshine on my face again

But I'm fifty-nine and startin' to go crazy
memories of the good life are now growin' hazy
had a lot of dreams that I wanted to find
but lost them all before I made them mine

Yea, startin' to go a little crazy
my memories are growin' hazy

The Test of Fellowship (Part 4)

SERMON            GM14-013

SERIES:              Christian Living in a World of Chaos & Contradiction

SCRIPTURE:     1 John 1:8-2:2

SUBJ:                  Fellowship with. God

SUBTITLE:        The Test of Fellowship (Part 4)

SUMMARY:       The Christian life is viewed as a life of fellowship

SCHEME:           To desire fellowship with fellow believers

         

1A     THE CHRISTIAN LIFE VIEWED AS FELLOWSHIP (1:5-2:28)

          1B     Fellowship is tested on practical grounds (1:5-2:11)

                   1C     Practical grounds of moral like-ness (1:5-7)

                   2C     Practical grounds of confession of sin (1:8-2:2)

                   3C     Practical grounds of obedience (2:3-6)

                   4C     Practical grounds of love for God (2:7-11)

          2B     Fellowship is tested on relational grounds (2:12-17)

                   1C     The Positive Relationship (2:12-14)

                   2C     The Negative Relationship (2:15-17)

          3B     Fellowship is tested on Christological grounds (2:18-28)

                   1C     The Contrast (2:18-21)

                   2C     The Christological (2:22-23)

                   3C     The Centrality (2:24-28)

Great Pretenders

“I believe there are too many practitioners in the church who are not believers.”

- C. S. Lewis