To the Praise of His Glorious Grace

Sermon on Triumphal Entry

In pastor David Platt's recent book Follow Me , he shares the story of one of his church members who went to Thailand to serve the Lord in missions. This American was once invited to see a movie with one of his Thai friends while in the country, but before the movie started there was a video about the Thai king. As the video of the Thai king played, all those in the theater arose to their feet and sang and wept with great emotion. The short video ended and everyone returned to their seats to watch the movie. The American man could not help but ask his Thai friend why everyone was so emotionally moved by the earlier video of their king. This Thai man responded that they dearly loved their king because he was a very good king and would often leave his palace to visit their villages and identify with them. This American then shared with the Thai man about how Jesus was a King who left His heavenly throne to visit mankind and that He identified with us by going so far as to take our...

Sermon on Haggai

We all remember the famous scene in the movie Field of Dreams with Kevin Costener, when he is walking out in the corn fields one afternoon and hears a voice whispering, "if you build it, He will come". The main actor then discovers that this voice is calling him to build a baseball field out in his back yard and draws in all the dead greats of baseball to play there. How does this have anything to do with Haggai? Well, Haggai communicated God's message to the Israelites who had returned from exile in Babylon and the message was quite similar. If God's people re-build God's temple, He promised to come in an even more powerful and glorious way than with the first temple (Hag.1:8, 2:9). God's promise to the Jews here was a promise that His presence would be among them in a very real way when they re-built the temple.  So what's the big deal with the Temple in the Old Testament and why does it play such a major role? The temple was more than a building...

What is the Sabbath? Why did God include keeping the Sabbath in the 10 Commandments? Does the Bible call Christians today to keep the Sabbath? Should believers do any work on the Sabbath? Is the Sabbath Saturday or Sunday? Does any of this matter? These are all questions that the Bible answers for us, although there are a variety of different practices among churchgoers. It must first be noted that the keeping of the Sabbath was commanded by God Himself to the people of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness. God wanted His people to so reflect His holy character that He called them to rest from their work as He rested from the work of creation (Ex. 20:8-11). As He often does, God had called Israel to do the opposite of what common sense states. To take a day off of work is seen by many to be contrary to good productivity, but in the Lord's economy, it shows true success. By resting on the Sabbath day, Israel was publicly declaring to God their faith in His ability t...

Sermon on Zephaniah

3/3/13- Sermon on Revelation 21:1-8- "New Creation"

I am willing to bet that those who are reading this have never met a boy named Zephaniah, nor have you ever heard a sermon preached about Zephaniah. Although you may have read the book of Zephaniah in your lifetime, you don't find yourself going back to it for any reason. Zephaniah, however, was a prophet with a very important purpose. Preaching to Judah during the reforms of the good king Josiah, Zephaniah warned God's people that the "Day of the Lord" is fast approaching and that they must repent and seek Him while there is still time. Although you would think that seeing their sister nation of Israel be destroyed and exiled would lead Judah to repent of their sin, they apparently didn't get the memo. Judah refused to turn back from their idolatry, but with the spiritual reforms of Josiah, God sent Zephaniah to bring them fully back. Zephaniah also prophesied judgment on those nations that rejected and despised God's people. As much as the little book of ...