The simple gospel

Ask the question, “What is the gospel?” (even in the church) and you will get almost as many answers to that question as there are people. There just does not seem to be much consensus on that question. In his book, What is the Gospel? Greg Gilbert recounts some of the more common responses to […]

Be patient

Only one item remained on my to-do list that Saturday afternoon. I went to complete it and sought my wife’s help; she too had a list of tasks and was not yet ready to assist me. “When will you be done?” “Shortly.” “Can you hurry…I hate waiting…” “I know dear,” she replied as she continued […]

Six manifestations of humility

Shortly after the turn of the last century, a preacher was concerned about several evidences of pride in his life. It seemed to him that he was consumed with pride, and as an antidote, sought to put on some acts of particular humility. So one thing he chose to do was to make a sandwich […]

Why worship God?

Some days the body awakens without a song in the heart. Some days the body is alive but the soul seems dead. Some days we hear a call to worship and our heart is cold. Perhaps we are in the midst of grief over a child’s death, or we are battling an unexpected and unrelenting […]

Tongue control

A seminary classmate of mine told of a teenage adventure he had with a buddy one summer afternoon. They were prowling through the attic when they came upon a box filled with the leftovers of his father’s military career. Towards the bottom of the box, they found two hand grenades — pins still in place […]

The problem of trivializing sin

How often have you begun sharing the gospel with someone and when talking about sin had the person interrupt you and say something like, “I’m not a bad person…I mean, I’m not a murderer or anything…” By inference, the person is suggesting that he has an ability to stand before God self-justified because of his […]

Life principles

Last fall, I preached a series of messages entitled, “Necessities of Life” — six truths every follower of Christ needs to believe and six activities ever Christian needs to do in order to thrive as a Christian. In James 1, the apostle has something of a similar list of principles that will transform and change […]

Peter was sleeping…

Christians are prone to talking much about prayer and praying too little. We have attend conferences on praying, we preach sermons about praying, and we read books about praying. We develop methods for keeping track of prayer requests (I now have an app on my phone to do that task) and we frequently tell our […]

Little Christs

Several years ago, Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, offered WGN Chicago Radio sports-talk host David Kaplan $50,000 to change his name legally to “Dallas Maverick.” When Kaplan politely declined, Cuban sweetened the offer. Cuban would pay Kaplan $100,000 and donate $100,000 to Kaplan’s favorite charity if he took the name for one […]

Desiring God

Do you desire God? The question is not, “is there some part of you that is somewhat inclined to God?” And it is not, “Were you passionate to know God at one time?” And it is not, “Do you read much about God and spend much time in church and have many friends who are […]

Witnesses of the gospel

Jesus’ last command to the disciples also was a commission — “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The disciples would go to […]

Do you believe the gospel?

Do you believe the gospel? Specifically, do you believe the power of the gospel to change and transform the lives of those who believe the gospel? I don’t ask the question rhetorically; I ask it actually. Do you believe the gospel has the ability to save anyone and transform his life? Do you believe that […]

Two words of grace

Grace has been defined as “undeserved blessing freely bestowed on man by God…” If that’s true (and I believe it is), the opening verses of Acts 8 do not appear to be very gracious. “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church […]

Why are we surprised?

Why are we surprised when unbelievers reject the gospel? Why are we surprised when unbelievers reject the gospel emphatically? Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 serves as a demonstration of the history of the rejection of God by the nation of Israel. “And he [Moses] supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance […]

The ministry of the Word

As the early church began to grow exponentially, it quickly became essential to delineate roles and responsibilities in the church. So in Acts 6, deacons were selected to assist the elders so that the elders could carry out their primary responsibilities of “prayer and the ministry of the Word” (v. 4). Now it might seem […]