NKJV = New King James Version, c. 1984 Thomas Nielson Publsihers. Used by permission. Images via freebibleimages.org and Pixabay.com.
The Gospel Changes Things, Romans 12, June 12 2016
Looking for full text? Please read this post. Feedback welcome.
For full description (legal small print) please view this video at its source: https://youtu.be/9rg-GyxBQcc
Join us for food and fun on Sunday, July 3rd at 6 PM. We will eat in the fellowship hall and then go outside for cornhole and water games, or just sit inside and chat if the heat is too much. Church members please invite family and friends. Have a happy and safe 4th of July whether you are with us or not. God bless America!
When unitybaptist.church launched a litle over one year ago, I started writing a full text version of the Sunday morning sermon. I had been blogging sermon material at The Master’s Table for years. Sermons became blog posts and sometimes vice versa. So linking Bible texts and writing sermons out in full sentences and paragraphs came quite naturally.
A few weeks ago we began the transition to recording and posting sermon audio. Continue reading
June 5, 2016 | text: Philippians 1:12-18
(Please visit https://youtu.be/z9C2bHjc-Cw for full description and details, including copyright notices.)
About this time last year I preached a three part series titled What is the Gospel? In the final message of that series (May 27, 2015) I said that the Gospel is both our privilege and our obligation. We are privileged to have received it, to have benefited by it, to have been born again. We were dead to sin but now alive to God and this through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We also have an obligation to the Gospel because led by the Holy Spirit and having the mind of Christ in us, our desire is for other people to receive it as well. As glad as we were to receive it we should be eager to share it with others. It is a privilege and an obligation and no one understood this better than the Apostle Paul. Continue reading
May 29, 2016 | text: Joshua 4:1-7
Memorial Day began after the Civil War as Decoration Day, founded by a group of Union veterans in Decatur, IL to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. Today Memorial Day honors all men and women who died serving their country. Christians disagree sometimes over how much patriotism to bring into our worship service. (Christians disagree sometimes may be one of my greatest understatements of all time.) Jesus is no more American than he is Russian or Chinese. I get a little uncomfortable with crosses covered in stars and stripes or portrayals Jesus draped in the American flag. Sometimes American ideals are in direct opposition to the values of Christianity. I believe we can celebrate our national identity and honor God in the process but don’t forget what we said last week about being deliberate and intentional. At all times we have to think about what we are doing and the message we are sending. Remembering those who have gone before us, honoring the dead, even setting up a memorial, is very biblical. Memorials are established because we so easily forget. Continue reading
Recording the sermon audio is something new we are experimenting with. Next week instead of two separate posts the text and the video will be on the same page. You can read the sermon text by following this link.
I am probably my own worst critic. There is nothing wrong with preaching a 30 min. sermon but I don’t think this is 30 min. worth of material. I feel like I spent half an hour preaching what would have been a good 20 or 25 min. sermon. Right or wrong, I will try to a better job next week.
Notes:
May 22, 2016 | text: Luke 10:30-37
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is an answer Jesus gave to a question. In Luke 10 a certain lawyer asked what he must do to inherit eternal life. When Jesus asked about what was written in the law, he very wisely answered “Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and also love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus told him he answered well, adding “Do this and you will live.” But this guy’s a lawyer. He looks for a loophole, as lawyers are apt to do. He asks Jesus “Who is my neighbor?” and Jesus responds with what we know as the Parable of the Good Samaritan beginning in Luke 10:30. Continue reading
Since our church website came online in April 2015, we have published the full text of the Sunday morning sermons. My wife has asked me about recording the preaching service and I have been hesitant to do so. The beauty of writing is editing and rewriting. Awkward sentence structure, grammatical errors or statements that are just unclear can be revised. When I repeat myself needlessly, get ahead of my notes, or just say random things that sound clever in my head, there is nothing to be done about it. At least there is no record of it!
My wife’s argument is that something happens on Sunday morning and that listening to the sermon is more than a matter of words. She has always been my biggest fan and I’m not sure her opinion is objective and unbiased. Nevertheless, I sometimes enjoy delivering the sermon more than looking at the text myself. So we’ll see.
Below is 26 minutes of sermon audio from Sunday, May 15th. You can read the text here. Let me know what you think. I can do a lot more with the video by inserting slides of the scripture or the speaking points/outline but like I said, this an experiment.
May 15, 2016 | text: Acts 2:1-38
Our society is all about the latest thing. Retailers, whether fast food, entertainment or fashion, try to predict what the next trend is going to be. I would advise caution if listening to a preacher that always has “a new word from the Lord.” While I will not deny there is sometimes special revelation, or that people are called to the ministry or to the mission field, any leader that gets up every Sunday week after week and claims to have divine revelation that is between him and God… Always make sure the claims of your Bible teacher are founded in the Word that God has given to all of us.
On the day of Pentecost, however, everything did change. The Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and Peter did indeed bring a new word from the Lord. If not a new word at least one they had never heard proclaimed before. He preached the very first Christian sermon, one that proclaimed faith in the resurrected savior. He was the first to preach salvation in the name of Jesus! Continue reading
Unity Baptist Church 