A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “ And [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart ” ( Luke 18:1 ). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? I have absolutely no idea. My help supposedly comes from the Lord, but I haven’t seen it yet! It seems the one who made heaven and earth doesn’t have anything left to give me. Is He asleep or on vacation? Is He angry with me? Perhaps I’ve offended Him in some way. Or maybe He just doesn’t care. I know. That’s not the way that Psalm 121 goes, but sometimes it seems that way; doesn’t it? Sometimes it feels like God isn’t paying attention. You’ve had those days, haven’t you? When it looks like God doesn’t care… that He must be angry with you… that He is screening His calls. What do you do when God is slow to answer your prayers? What do you do when God gives you the silent treatment? Most popular boo...

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...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Recently, I was asked if I would preach a sermon on prayer. I said I would try to do that the next time that prayer was the subject of one of our texts. Well, here it is: “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). Then I began to regret answering that way. That’s a challenging verse in a challenging epistle. I’ve made it a point to preach on the epistles from James during September; and when I arrived at this one, my first thought was, “Maybe it’s time to preach on the Gospel for a Sunday.” The reason for the challenge is this: when we think of “the power of prayer,” the antennae start to twitch as we think about televangelists with unusual hairdos who define the power of prayer something like this: “As long as you have enough faith, God will give you whatever your heart desires.” We want to avoid that ditch; the easy way to do so is to give ...

Click here to listen to this sermon.   14  A nd when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15  And immediately all the crowd, when they saw [Jesus], were greatly amazed and ran up to Him and greeted Him. 16  And He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17  And someone from the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought my son to You, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18  And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked Your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19  And He answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20  And they brought the boy to Him. And when the spirit saw Him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21  And Jesus asked his father, “How long ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “[Jesus said:] And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one. While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also...