A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord ’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord , that He may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations…” I will greatly rejoice in the Lord ; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousn

Click here to listen to this sermon. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and You will not hear? Or cry to You “Violence!” and You will not save? Why do You make me see iniquity, and why do You idly look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:2-3)? Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! We’ve probably all asked these questions, at least most of us. And maybe we felt guilty asking. On the other hand, maybe sometimes we should have asked and didn’t. Maybe instead of asking, we just stewed, fretted, or despaired. Well, today in our text, the prophet Habakkuk asks some questions that the righteous person might indeed ask: How long will God let the evil of the unrighteous go on? And why does He tolerate it? In our text we see a clear example of Hebrew lament. The laments of the Hebrews called upon God to remember His people who are suffering, to be faithful and deliver them. Note this important aspect: In their laments, the Hebrews never ask permission to deliver, resc

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Epistle lesson, Hebrews 11:1-16, which has already been read. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! As Christians, we don’t worship the saints; yet we can look at those who have gone before us and marvel at what they did—or, better, what the Lord accomplished through them. Our epistle gives us a list of saints to ponder today. We begin with Abel. Our text tells us that he “offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” Why was it more excellent? Because it was offered by faith . Rather than believe that his sacrifice earned God’s favor, Abel offered it because he believed that the Savior would be born to save him from sin—thus Abel was commended as righteous for the sake of Jesus who was to come. We also know that Abel suffered for his sacrifice. Cain took him out into the field and killed him. Thus, the first shepherd was also the first to die because of sin, pointing toward t

Click here to listen to this sermon. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus ( Philippians 3:

"Jeremiah Preaching to His Followers" by Gustave Dore Click here to listen to this sermon. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’” (Jeremiah 33:14-16). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Recent data collected from Barna’s pastor poll indicate that U.S. pastors are currently in crisis and at risk for burnout. Notably, in 2021 alone, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of pastors who are thinking about quitting the ministry entirely. [i] Thirty-eight percent indicate they have considered quitting full-time ministry within the past year. Eve