Category: Salvation

Friday night the Castleberry girl’s basketball team won a game with the most exciting finish you can imagine. They were playing Mineral Wells, and were shorthanded. One of their players had blown an ACL ligament the previous week, and was out for the season. Their best player had a virus, and though she was playing, was struggling physically. None of their shots were falling, and they were down 12 points to start the fourth quarter.

The deficit continued until about halfway through the quarter, and then all of a sudden the shots started falling. The girls knew they had to win to keep their hopes of going to the playoffs alive. They dug down deep, and narrowed the deficit to one point. With 2.6 seconds left, Castleberry had the ball out of bounds. Josh (my son is the coach) drew up a play, and their best player banked home the shot for the win. The stands erupted, the girls (and Josh) went crazy, and everyone cheered.

Continue reading “In the News: Last Second Shot!” →

A simple examination of Peter’s gospel sermon in Acts 2, answering the five questions: 1) Who was it preached to? 2) When was it preached? 3) Where was it preached? 4) What was preached?, and 5) Why was the sermon preached.

Audio

I recently was sent an article titled, “Do We Have A Catechism?”, written by Ken Green. The form the article took, and the comments following, indicate that brother Green had posted it to his Facebook page.

Though brother Green gave no specifics in the article, it was critical of the preaching and attitudes of Christians in the past. Notice the following two quotes:

We do not have catechism classes that insist on the rote learning of the proper responses to various questions about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the church, faith, baptism, worship, and other doctrines. But, by and large, our people have done quite well in memmorizing (sic) things they can recite on a moment’s notice, while, too often, having little understanding of the material and never really growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.

But there was a stretch of many years when at least a couple of generations grew up in our churches without hearing much about love, grace and forgiveness and how we’re supposed to treat each other, and it had some devastating effects.

Brother Green took issue with the call made for “distinctive preaching” and said that what was meant is that we should be “reciting the catechism.” It is becoming fairly common to hear a rather dismissive attitude towards the faith and practice of earlier generations of Christians. This is unfortunate.

Continue reading “In the News: Criticizing the Five Step Plan” →

Invitation delivered by: Stan Cox

Using the example of the Philippian Jailor’s conversion, Stan points out the joy that we obtain when we are obedient to the gospel (cf. Acts 16:30-33)

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Invitation delivered by: Stan Cox

The text of John 15 is used to sustain the assertion that Jesus Christ is preeminent, and that we are spiritually sustained only through Him.

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The metaphor of a door is used often in scripture. It references opportunity, the need for action, the desire of the Lord, and the way to salvation. The sermon discusses four of these points.

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Powerpoint Slides

A couple of Wednesday nights ago, in our lesson discussing the discipline of meditation, I admitted to the fact that poetry holds little appeal to me. My tastes run to the prosaic, (some may say uncouth).

However, I did note that a well formed paragraph can inspire me, and I thought I would share a few with you. For example, the wonderful expression of our victory in Christ, from the pen of the apostle Paul:

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).

Continue reading “Inspiring Prose” →

The Title of this sermon refers to Ezra’s reading of the law to the remnant of Israel (Nehemiah 8:8), and giving a sense (explaining the law) so that his listeners could understand. This sermon is an exegesis of Peter’s sermon on Pentecost, (Acts 2).

Sermon Audio: Click Here .

The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) teaches us four lessons. 1) The danger of ingratitude; 2) The Necessity of Repentance; 3) The Mercy and Compassion of God; and 4) The Importance of Rejoicing in the salvation of sinners.

Sermon Powerpoint: Click Here .

Sermon Audio: Click Here .

Because of who God is, He deserves every expression of good will and praise we can offer. He is our Creator, and is a caring and just Being.

There is no better reason for our devotion and praise than His efforts to secure our Redemption. As our text shows, His mercy led Him to bring us to reconciliation through His Son, Jesus.

Specifically, we have hope through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. This hope is living and sure. Jesus is a forerunner. His victory over death assures us that we too one day will transformed to eternal life (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

That eternal life is a wondrous thing, here described as “incorruptible and undefiled”, and “reserved in heaven.”

As always, however, the Holy Spirit reveals the conditional nature of that hope. It is not reserved for all men. It comes only for those, “who are kept by the power of God through faith” (vs. 5).

He has chosen to save, through Jesus, all who believe (cf. John 3:16). One day Christ will come again, and that hope will be realized. Will you be among the elect, ready to claim your reward?

Using Matthew 10:16-26, this short talk points out that the cost of discipleship is persecution, and even (possibly) death. But, we have the promise of eternal life if we endure.

Audio: Click Here .

The sermon discusses the gospel (the foolishness of God), and expresses why, even as simple people, we can trust in our understanding of the meaning of, and the dependability of, His word. (Lesson based from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31)

Sermon Audio: Click Here .

The Hebrew writer here shows the place of preeminence given to Jesus as God’s Son. In so doing, he establishes an order with God being first, angels second and man third.

In the beginning, the Word was God (cf. John 1:1). The Word then became flesh (cf. John 1:14), and this event is referred to by Paul as an experience where the Son of God was humbled, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).

Paul continued in that passage, “Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name” (vs. 9). This passage in Hebrews agrees with that assessment.

Because of Jesus’ death, the payment for sin was paid. God ordained Jesus as Savior, and the proof of this choosing is found in the resurrection (cf. Acts 2:32-36). God has exalted Him. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, ruling in the kingdom. He is above every name, both human and angelic. He is the Son of God. He has been crowned, and we are subject to Him alone.

“We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel” (Colossians 1:3-5).

The Bible often refers to heaven as the final abode of the righteous. Those familiar with the Christian faith understand, of course, that it is intended as a reward for the faithful — a good thing. But, what does the Bible reveal heaven to be?

First, the definition of the term. The word heaven comes from a root word that means “to rise, rear up.” It is used to reference the sky, and by extension, the abode of God. The term implies, as it is used in scripture, happiness, power and eternity.

Continue reading “Heaven is a Wonderful Place” →