The Shepherd’s Protection
Selected Scriptures We are in a final message on the short series on shepherding and it’s just a, just given the briefest outline on the chief duties of pastoral ministry. And as I’ve said to you before, I’m kind of teaching my own job description to you to show you from God’s Word what pastors are responsible to do. This is job description for pastors, elders, shepherds, overseers, bishops, if you want to use that word, that’s the word for…
The Shepherd’s Exhortation, Part 2
Selected Scriptures Well, we return to this topical series on shepherding, as I said, part 2 of what we started last week on the Shepherd’s Exhortation. And if you were here with us last week, you know that we were a few layers deep in sub-sub-points. So I can’t exactly dive in right where I left off without confusing some people who may have not been here last week. So I want to give just at least a little bit…
The Shepherd’s Exhortation, Part 1
Selected Scriptures Well, we have the joy, the privilege of returning today to a short topical series that we’re doing on shepherding as we look to launch our fall shepherding plan that we’ve talked to you about over the past number of months, and I don’t know how long it’s been. We started introducing some of that, but we look forward to getting to shepherd you better, more faithfully according to God’s Word, and by God’s grace and with your…
The Shepherd’s Instruction
Selected Scriptures Rather than jumping back into Lukes’ Gospel and our study of Lukes’ Gospel, we’re going to do, as I mentioned, a short series on shepherding, series on pastoral ministry. This is going to be more of a topical than an expositional series, just a three-week series. I trust it will be faithful to the exegesis of Scripture and the doctrine of Scripture. But over the next three weeks, what I would like to do is speak to you…
How to Think about Divine Discipline
Hebrews 12:4-11 If you’re here, a few weeks ago, I was in the beginning of Hebrews chapter 12, we’re just going to continue on where I left off. I know many of you are going through some severe trials and tribulations in your life, and I just wanted to continue on in this passage as an encouragement to you. Hoping that this will help you think through your own trials and train us to think through the trials that we…
The Wisdom from Above
James 3:17-18 If you would take your Bibles and turn to James 3, as we come to the end of this passage, we’re finishing up this section from verses 13-18. And as you’re turning there, I just want to begin our time because we’re going to spend a little time in review by reading from this section, just making sure the whole section is firmly planted in our minds as we head into the text today. In verses 13-18 of…
Diagnosing the Wrong Kind of Wisdom
James 3:14-16 We’re going to be returning to the section at the end of James 3 that we started covering last week, and which we will finish up next week. Last week we only really covered the first verse of James 3:13-18, as we took the rhetorical question that James asked at the beginning of verse 13. And then we used it as an opportunity to kind of jump in, make sure that we had a good understanding of what…
The Question of Wisdom
James 3:13 Today we’re in the book of James. So if you’d open your Bibles to James chapter 3, James chapter 3, we’re continuing on in this book, and it’s a new section of the book from the last time I was up here. We’ll be beginning to look at the section which is in verses 13-18 of James chapter 3. We saw, if you remember maybe a month ago or so, the first 12 verses in this chapter were…
Let Us Run to Jesus, Part 2
Hebrews 12:1-3 Last week we started a two-part message out of Hebrews chapter 12, which I entitled Let us run to Jesus. Let us run to Jesus. And if you would turn in your Bibles back there to Hebrews chapter 12. And by way of introduction this morning, I just want to maybe take a snapshot from the book The Pilgrim’s Progress. Many of you may be familiar with that, some of you may be less familiar, but The Pilgrim’s…
Let Us Run to Jesus, Part 1
Hebrews 12:1-3 Turn with me this morning to Hebrews chapter 12, back to where we left off. I want to begin this morning with an anecdote from history just to set the, the stage for Hebrews chapter 12. In 490 BC, the intense conflict between the Greek world and the ruling Persian Empire resulted in the Battle of Marathon, Greece, where we get the name for marathon races today. The Persians were coming to attack Athens, which was a source…