The irony of freedom is that when you are free, you are not actually free to do what ever your want. Be it in sexual endeavors, financial matters or anything else, the is no right to do what you want and when you want without consequence.
True freedom is the responsibility to do what is right, and can only be found in Christ.
So many churches today are focused on church growth so that they can become the next mega church. Others get involved in heavy shepherding and controlling people through keeping them busy within the church, preventing the members from questioning the leaders and forcing service within the church. Still others are into the self help, self esteem movement with the aim of making those attending the church feel comfortable and happy with their lives.
So why are so many churches heading down these paths? This is the war over truth. What happens in these churches is that they, as Paul describes of the Galatians, turn from the Gospel and choose to embrace things of the world. To embrace error, they must abandon the principles of truth.
And once churches abandon the principles of truth, it leads to the abandonment of the practice of truth. We see so frequently that churches will compromise on the truths of the bible, such as Jesus being the only way to God, and they will then play this out in practice, by trying to learn from other religions.
Who is James? Specifically, which James wrote the book of James? Although there are many James mentioned in the New Testament, there is only one who wrote this epistle. That is James the half brother of Christ.
James calls us to “count it all joy in temptation.” The usage of temptation here is about trials. Therefore, we are to be glad as God gives us trials. He will use these trials for a variety of reasons. One of these is to show us how faithful we are to God.
What is wisdom? According to God it is not what you know but how you live out what you know. And trials have an uncanny knack of encouraging us to live out what we know.
This week John MacKay of Creation Research Ministries show us who Jesus really is, and why it is so important to correctly understand it.
Too many people turn up to church twice a year and think that they are Christians. Going to church at Easter and Christmas does not a Christian make.
The crucifixion of Christ has been watered down to mean nothing. Too many preachers mislead the unsaved who come to their church on Easter Sunday by letting them believe that they are right with God due to the sacrifice of Christ, without preaching sin or repentance.
Are we crucified with Christ? Not physically as some would do at Easter. But spiritually. Have we died to ourselves, and now live for Christ? Do we associate ourselves to the death of Christ? Or do we try to live our own life?
Will you walk the path that Jesus walked? Will you put aside your life and your flesh for Christ? Will you give up your desires for Him? Will you humble yourself and be obedient to His Word?
You are born one day, you live and then you die. What is the total of your life? What have you offered? We talk about eternity, but what do we do about it? As we grow in the Lord, we are to become servants, serving God and others.
So what keeps us from growing in our service to God? Dave shows us three main areas that keep us from fulfilling what God wants in our lives: Doubt & Fear; Insecurity and Bitterness.
This sermon was first preached in February 2008.
We can give nothing to God to merit our salvation. Anything that we try to do to repay the gift we have been given is an insult to the creator of the universe.
In order for justification to occur, the sentence must be met. You cannot forgo the punishment and expect to be justified.
Chris Sandford looks into the important subject of Stewardship. Are we being good stewards of the things God has entrusted to us?
Chris looks at the following three areas of stewardship: Time, Finances, Service.
This week, we take a break from our study of the Epistle to the Ephesians to explore God's admonition as to how we are to raise our children, as describes in Psalm 127.
There is a common saying that “as the family goes, so the church goes.” This can be extended to “how the church goes, so society goes.” So if we have problems in the family, what choices were made to get to that point? The root of all problems is, of course, sin.It is our responsibility to be faithful to the Lord in all we do, including raising our family. The successful raising of a family requires trust that God can, and will, achieve what He wants to achieve. It is God who builds the family, and the household. Before we can raise and dedicate our children to the Lord, we need to dedicate ourselves to the Lord.
As parents, especially fathers, we need to set aside time for ourselves to read and study the bible. We need to make time to pray with our family and to teach then in the Word of the Lord. We are called to be trainers of our children. They are to be trained in the ways of the Lord. The Psalmist likens our children to arrows in the hands of a warrior. Warriors in biblical time needed to craft their own weapons. We likewise need to craft our children, moulding them as a warrior would mould and shape a bent branch into a straight arrow. It may take some pressure, correction, softening and hardening to shape them into the correct mould.
We have a responsibility to keep the Lord before our children. We need to encourage them to ask questions, and to talk to them about God. It is much easier for children to make right choices when they have a right example.
Brotherhood of St Laurence Building
24-26 High Street
Frankston 3199
Melways Ref: 102 C3
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