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Living in Tents, Looking for a City with Foundations

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Click here to listen to this sermon. “By faith [Abraham] went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:15-16). Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! I enjoy camping, but I prefer staying in a cabin or lodge. Two or three days in a tent… that’s about enough “roughing it” for me before my sense of adventure is satisfied. The threshold for my wife is much lower. But Abraham lived in a tent for 100 years, from the age of 75 when God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to the day he died at the age of 175 in the land of Canaan. Though God promised Abraham and his descendants an inheritance that would stretch from the Nile River to the Euphrates, Abraham lived as a pilgrim and stranger in Canaan. He died with the only plot of ground in his name being the cave of ...
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From Vanity Under the Sun to Victory Under the Son

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Click here to listen to this sermon. “I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.  And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.  I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. . .” (Ecclesiastes 1:12-14). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Have you ever stepped back from your work, your possessions, your life—and asked, “What’s the point?” If you have, you are not alone. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, asked that question in Ecclesiastes. He had it all—power, riches, knowledge, pleasure—and still declared, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” That’s life “under the sun”—life apart from God. But thanks be to God, there is another way: life under the Son —Jesus Christ, the Redeemer who brings purpose, peace, and promise even in a world t...
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As Dear Children Ask Their Dear Father (2)

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Click here to listen to this sermon. “ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13). Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! A few years ago, I painted my twin two-year-old granddaughters’ fingernails. My wife, Aimee, couldn’t believe it. “You never did that for your girls,” she said. “That’s right,” I answered. “They never asked me. Madyn and Briyr did.” “Papa, will you paint fingernails,’ they asked, emphasizing their request by wiggling their little fingers. So, I told them, “Yes, I will, as soon as I finish feeding Boden.” They squealed in glee and then asked me a couple of more times as they were waiting for me to get to it. But it did get me to wonder: Why didn’t my girls ask me to paint their fingernails? I suspect it was because they thought I would say no. I might have said no on so many other occasions, they just assum...
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Restore the Sinner in a Spirit of Gentleness

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Click here to listen to this sermon. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness” ( Galatians 6:1). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ ! It’s a question asked by at least one of my children in the last few years, and by untold multitudes over the last two millennia: “If Christians can treat other Christians this way, why do I want to be a Christian?” A serious question… a serious problem… for if the actions of us, who call ourselves Christians, lead others to fall away from the faith, are we not guilty of causing these little ones to sin? Would we not be better off cast into the sea with a millstone necklace? So why do we do it? More to the point, what do we do about it if it happens, when we sin against a fellow Christian or when a fellow Christian sins against us? St. Paul says: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a...
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What Are You Doing Here?

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Click here to listen to this sermon. “Behold, the Word of the Lord came to [Elijah], and He said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He said, ‘I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away’” (1 Kings 19:9b-10). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The words can be some of the most intimidating words: “What are you doing?” Then add the word, here, as in “What are you doing here ?” and it just ramps up the tension. “What are you doing here? You said you would be home right after work!” “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at church?” “What are you doing here? I told you to stay out of my room!” Then think how much worse it would be if it were the voice of the Lord you hear. “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah should know better. He has expe...
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