Matthew 27:32-54 shows us the third temptation again but now on the lips of the seed of Satan: "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." It was a temptation of "save yourself." We too are often tempted to try to save ourselves rather than to depend on the salvation Christ accomplished. The Judas method was to try to fix it himself by offering his own blood for atonement. The Pilate method was to wash his hands of it and pass the blame onto others. Neither way works. Your blood, sweat and tears cannot save you. You cannot save yourself or ignore your sins and thereby make everything ok. Depend on God for grace and salvation.

Click here or the title to listen.

Labels: atonement, christ, cross, death, Judas, Pilate, salvation, temptation

Psalm 67 calls upon God to bless Israel so that the nations will praise God in thanksgiving for their salvation, fear God in faith, and be saved (three ways of saying the same thing). I pronounce God's blessing at the end of every time of worship and now I am doing so at the end of my ministry here in Stopover not only because I want the best for this church (as I do) but also because I want to see people be saved.

Click here or the title to listen.

Labels: blessing, praise, Psalms, salvation, Sunday worship, thanksgiving

Psalm 67 calls upon God to bless Israel so that the nations will praise God in thanksgiving for their salvation, fear God in faith, and be saved (three ways of saying the same thing). I pronounce God's blessing at the end of every time of worship and now I am doing so at the end of my ministry here in Phelps not only because I want the best for this church (as I do) but also because I want to see people be saved.

Click here or the title to listen.

Labels: blessing, praise, Psalms, salvation, thanksgiving

1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5 shows us how we can have unity in the message of Christ crucified. Paul was not trying to draw attention to himself, but to Christ crucified. This message is foolish to unbelieving Greeks and scandalous to unbelieving Jews, but for believing Jews and Greeks it is the power of God for salvation. Paul did not try to dress up the image of Christ crucified with flowery language or rhetorical flair, but he let it have its full effect. There are two reasons I look at briefly to show why we should be united behind this message. The first is that the philosophers, Torah scribes, and orators never would or could find this way of salvation. It is revealed by God through the preaching of Christ crucified. And secondly, we should be united behind this message because not many of us were wise, powerful, or of noble birth according to the world, but we were called by God through this shocking word of the cross. To clarify, Apollos is not Greek but he is apparently a Hellenistic Jew.

Click here or the title to listen.

Labels: 1 corinthians, christ, cross, salvation, unity

1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5 shows us how we can have unity in the message of Christ crucified. Paul was not trying to draw attention to himself, but to Christ crucified. This message is foolish to unbelieving Greeks and scandalous to unbelieving Jews, but for believing Jews and Greeks it is the power of God for salvation. Paul did not try to dress up the image of Christ crucified with flowery language or rhetorical flair, but he let it have its full effect. There are two reasons I look at briefly to show why we should be united behind this message. The first is that the philosophers, Torah scribes, and orators never would or could find this way of salvation. It is revealed by God through the preaching of Christ crucified. And secondly, we should be united behind this message because not many of us were wise, powerful, or of noble birth according to the world, but we were called by God through this shocking word of the cross.

Click here or the title to listen.

Labels: 1 corinthians, christ, cross, salvation, unity

In our first of several sermons on the clash between the Pharisees and Jesus, Matthew 12 shows us the god and idol of the religious, the heart of the religious, and the attitudes and actions of the religious. Religion here means the opposite of grace -- salvation through works. The religious, from evil hearts, worship Satan as their god using the idol of rules. As a result it is no surprise that their actions (especially their words) and attitudes are evil. They look for a way to accuse Jesus, they are judgmental, compare themselves to others defensively, and defensively assert their own righteousness instead of resting in Christ's righteousness. The religious way to avoid Jesus is to attempt to avoid sin. But the only way of salvation is Jesus Christ.

Click here or the title to listen.

Labels: christ, grace, heart, idolatry, idols, judge, Matthew, Pharisees, righteousness, salvation, satan