Spiritual Blindness (John 11:49-57)
As the Jewish leaders are fretting over what to do about Jesus Caiaphas stands and tells them that Jesus must die. He tells them that Jesus must die for the nation and that His death will unite the people of God who are scattered all over the earth. Beware of the man who knows everything Caiaphas begins his speech by deriding the other Jews as knowing nothing; he is now going to enlighten them with his wisdom. We must beware…
Economics – Tithing (Part 2)
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.Genesis 14:18-20 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit…
Valuing Jesus (John 11:45-48)
Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead. Many people witnessed this event, but they had very different reactions. Some people believed that He was the Messiah; others plotted to kill Him for gaining such a big following. They all knew the truth We have a wrong understanding of what it means to believe in Jesus. We often view belief in Jesus as intellectual assent to the historical truth that Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the…
Economics – Tithing (Part 1)
Nothing quite exposes the greed within our hearts as a discussion on tithing. Greedy preachers twist Scripture to extort money from the sheep. Greedy sheep twist Scripture to keep the money for themselves. People also try to use God for their own greed by using tithing as a means of twisting God’s arm into bestowing financial blessings. If we truly examine our hearts we will find that most of our thoughts on tithing stem from greed and the love of…
Compassion for the Lost (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
Hopefully you have experienced a measure of God’s grace and victory over sin as we have studied our indwelling sin and the grace of God that delivers us from that sin. How do we maintain this grace and grow in this grace? We must let past sins humble us We quickly forget that we were once hopelessly lost in sin. We forget what we were before Jesus delivered us by His grace. Because of this we can quickly lose compassion…
Economics – Coveting
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.Exodus 20:17 The tenth commandment is a commandment that is largely ignored in American culture. Right alongside adultery, murder, and theft God prohibits desiring what other people have. This commandment is primarily meant to show us our depravity and need of a Savior by exposing that our love…
Grace (Luke 15:1-2, 11-32)
As we draw our study of sin and temptation to a close, how does it all fit together? Our sin has ruined us Like the prodigal son, we have followed our heart’s leading, and it has ruined us. Our relationship with God, our marriage, our health, our finances, our family relationships, etc. are riddled with brokenness, guilt, shame, and devastation. All of this has been brought about by our sin. Like the prodigal we are in rags starving to death…
Economics – What is money?
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.1 Timothy 6:10-11 Many people mistakenly call money the root of all evil; it is greed or the love of money that is the root of all evil. Money is not evil in and…
Dealing with Sources of Temptation (Matthew 5:28-30)
As we seek victory over habitual sins, we must remember that Jesus taught us to pray that we would avoid temptation. We like being tempted We like the feelings of temptation; we just hate the guilt of the sin. If we could have the sin without the consequences, guilt, and shame we would normally choose the sin. We like to walk as closely to sin as possible without actually falling into sin. In doing so we deceive ourselves into thinking…
Economics – Stewardship
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto…