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Posts Tagged with Preaching

A Disciple Must…

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I was away from my preaching duties for five Sundays. There is only one other time when I was away from the pulpit for this long… Those God ordained days were character building days too.

Just like then, I was blessed with peace of mind that the pulpit of Eastside Baptist Church was secure and in the capable hands of a faithful church with faithful pastors/elders.

Pastor Mark King preached a five sermon series entitled, “A Disciple Must…”

  1. Desire the Word
  2. Continue in Prayer
  3. Worship Daily
  4. Be A Good Steward
  5. Share the Word

Here are all five of those sermons, and I highly recommend all five.

Burning in the Soul

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On October 7 at 6:30 p.m. our next Burning in the Soul preaching event will be with pastor Charles Petty of Second Baptist Church from Ogden, UT.

Charles Petty has pastored the Second Baptist Church in Ogden for over 30 years. I’ve known this brother and have heard him preach many times over the years. I want anyone within the region able to attend our Sunday night gathering on October 7, 2018 to join us. We begin our evening gatherings at Eastside Baptist at 6:30 p.m. We will have a snack fellowship following the time to take advantage of getting to know others better who may travel from around the region.

Invite someone to come with you.

How Do You Walk in the Fear of the LORD?

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In this sermon I address the starting place of walking in the fear of the Lord. The Bible declares the the fear of the Lord is the beginning; the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. But how does one walk in the fear of the LORD?

Listen in as I address the this in part one of “Walking in the Fear of the LORD”. This is also the frame work for my next column in the Twin Falls, Times News.

 

Burning in the Soul

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Leonardo Lopez, church planter with the Utah/Idaho Southern Baptist Convention and North American Mission Board, will be preaching on Sunday night, August 5, at 6:30 p.m.

Eastside Baptist hosts a preaching series on the first Sunday night of each month with local pastors and pastors from the larger region with an expectation to be encouraged with good, sound, biblical preaching/teaching. We have indeed been encouraged by God every month.

Eastside, like always, I don’t want you missing this. I’ve invited another faithful preacher to come this month. Leonardo will be here Sunday with his wife and children. As you know, we have an ever growing Spanish speaking population, and the need to plant churches are present in every community in South Central Idaho. Gather with me this Sunday night to sit under a Spirit filled sermon by Leonardo Lopez as he preaches from Matthew 28:16-20, “Go and Make Disciples.”

Is He Your God?

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I preached from Isaiah 25 this past Lord’s Day. The evangelist, Isaiah, made the declaration of God Almighty very personal. He did not refer to God as his father’s God or Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob’s God. He referred to Him as his God.

I would take serious inventory of this matter. If Yahweh is only your father’s God and not your God too then you are only part of a traditional religion. I would prefer a personal religion that is marked with a personal relationship.

Traditional religion says, “He is God.” or “He is my father’s God.”

Personal religion says, “You are my God.” “You are my salvation.”

  • We are in a day where we need a heaven born revival in the church. Not a spiritual movement hijacked by a national patriotic movement. No!
  • We need a fresh pouring out of the Holy Spirit of God Almighty. The kind of movement where the conscience of nations are awakened, where there are regional movements marked with repentance, with wide spread reform, a restoration of the church ordered to propagate the gospel to the ends of the earth.
  • We are in a day where once again God’s people are satisfied with God.
  • We are in a where sin must no longer just simply be modified or redefined, but completely mortified.

“Behold, I bring you good tidings of comfort and joy.”

“Let not your heats be troubled…”

The markers of traditional religion and personal religion are clear.

  • Man may say, ” You are God.”
  • The Godly man says, “You are my God.”

In Isaiah 25, Isaiah clarifies that the godly man wants what God offers; joy in the Lord. God wants joy to characterize His people. “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Depressions may come and mark us from time to time, but they must not abide in us. We wrestle in this temporal day but we are not of this world. We are all together, as A.W. Tozer identified, “other worldly.”

Listen, Church! You come from a long history of a people who wait on God. When life presses in upon you, wait, look, long for, hunger, thirst. Be satisfied with Christ! Alone!

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Full sermon from July 29, 2018:
Video:

Audio:

Isaiah, the Evangelist

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I’ve just finished preaching the first third of the book of Isaiah.

Here are a few thoughts at this point.

  • Matthew Henry identifies Isaiah as the Evangelist. It is clear that Isaiah is an example for the preacher on how to preach the gospel, biblically.
  • Isaiah shows himself willing to obey God regardless of the response of men. His devotion is to obey His God. I want to live like that.
  • Isaiah shows himself to be compassionate for not only his homeland but for every nation. He is a living example of one who not only loves doing what is easy but also genuinely loves his enemy.
  • Isaiah is steadfast and consistent.
  • I have great hope for what is still to come in this mountain of a book.

All past forty-two sermons are archived here:

Every Thing Here Implies Hardship

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Tonight, July 8, 2018, I begin a new evening sermon series I’ve entitled “How Do I Do That”. Admittedly, I’m not the most clever writer, titles of sermons elude me many times until after I’ve preached the sermon. I went with this title because all the good ones were already taken.

For example, Francis Shaeffer wrote a book entitled “How Shall We Then Live”, Chuck Coleson wrote a book entitled “How Now Shall We Live”. So, see how the clever titles are nearly all used up?

The sermon series is really based on Hebrews 11, 12, and 13. Everything here implies hardship, but it is really a blessed joy to know what God wants from us and that He also gives us all we need to live like this. The hardship is between what we set our hearts on. God wants us to guard our heart from feeling as though we may miss out on something if we obey God.

Join me tonight.

I’ll give my introduction to the series tonight at 6:30 p.m. from Hebrews 12:1-3. The long haul of the series I want to address some of the questions about keeping the marriage bed undefiled, being holy, praying without ceasing, taking every thought captive, husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the church, wives submitting to their husbands, enduring severe hardship while in the course of Gospel advancing work, not letting unwholesome talk come from our lips, not provoking our children to anger, honoring our father and mother, submitting to governing authorities, pursuing peace, being compassionate to an enemy, letting your speech always be gracious, and submitting to pastors.

That’s a tall order.

We won’t tackle the whole mountain, and more, tonight. We’ll get the conversation started that the bible does mean for us to consult God on how to live in this day.

Join us in person at 6:30 p.m. (mountain time) at 204 Eastland Drive North in Twin Falls, Idaho. Invite someone to come with you or share this link with them to listen in online.

Live streaming is available HERE:

 

How Do I Do That?

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This coming Lord’s Day evening I will begin a new series of messages I have titled “How Do I Do That?”.

It is a series of messages that start with the many places in Scripture that utilizes the oft repeated word, “therefore”. Join me this coming Sunday at 6:30 as I give an introduction and set the path and reason for such a question, “How Do I Do That?”

From the Circuit Rider’s Library

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Today as I opened the treasure chest of sermons preached from the Circuit Rider (Clyde Thompson, my dad) this sermon titled “Threefold Temptation of the Church” based on 1 John 2:15-17 became an interest to me. It was a sweet moment to imagine him in his homemade suite jacket, his trademark facial hair of sideburns connected to the mustache, and glasses. It was August 30, 1981 in Rifle, Colorado.

It was 1981 in Rifle, Colorado, it was just before the massive oil shale bust of 1982 so the church house was probably full to capacity.  The Circuit Rider would preach with a few notes alongside of his Bible.

Here is the outline: (I think this could preach)

 

 

__________________

Three fold Temptation of the Church: 1 John 2:15-17

He was tempted in all point as we are.
We are tempted as he was.

I. The Bread Business

  • Jesus’ first temptation – turn stones into bread (Matthew 4:1-4 a physical appetite)
    • Satan wanted Jesus to go into the bread business
      • A church tempted to go into hunger programs – poverty projects may become very occupied and forget that: Man shall not live by bread alone.
    • Hunger is a matter for the church to concern herself with – seven men were chosen in Acts to serve tables (food)
    • The temptation in this the competition of feeding bodies vs. feeding souls
    • “I am the bread of life
  • Some churches make institutional members by trying to take care of food, entertainment, social life, sports, etc…
    • More in producing social relief rather than producing Christians that live life by Biblical principles.
  • Soap – Soup – Socializing – Salvation
    • Salvation become a low priority soap – soup – shows – socializing take over.
    • If the prodigal son had been given soup and a bed he might not have returned home.
    • Jesus said “Don’t labor for the meat that perishes but of the meat that endures.
  • Our business- Proclaim the Gospel! Jesus Saves!

II. The Show Business

  • Jesus’ second temptation – Jump! (Matthew 4:1-4)
  • If the town crier announced “Jesus of Nazareth will leap from the Temple at 10:00 a.m. there might be a great crowd but there would be few converts.
  • Many think that the end justifies the means. If this is so, Satan would have had Jesus in show business
  • The church is to run a lifeboat not a showboat
  • The gospel is not meant for entertainment. It is not a 3 ring circus.
  • The Devil suggested that angels would assist in the act, but God ordered them to minister to Jesus after the temptations.
  • Angels are to help us when we resist the devil not when we obey the devil.
    • Jesus…
      • walked on water
      • fed the multitude
      • raised the dead
      • healed the sick
      • made blind to see
      • made cripple to walk
      • cast out demons
      • healed the leper
      • turned water into wine
    • not for show… not because the Devil suggested it… To glorify the Father, to do the work of the Father.
    • Pentecost had no publicity… but had the power of God!
    • Jesus didn’t send the Demoniac to publicize… he told him to go home and witness.
    • At the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus asked the disciples to wait until the resurrection to tell what happened.
  • Christ was “low-key”

III. The political Business (Matthew 4:8-11)

  • All the kingdoms of the world. “It’s Yours”.
    • Was it his to give? (temporarily) God owned it – Satan possessed it.
  • Christianity should get into everything, including politics… but… politics should not get into the church.
  • The peace that passes all understanding… not the peace that passes legislation… through Jesus Christ!
  • John saw a vision of God on the throne with the scroll on which was written the “secret destiny and meaning of history.
    • He saw the lamb slain
    • We are redeemed by the blood.
  • The church does not survive by playing politics or by power plays… the church survives because of the blood of the slain lamb.
    • In the first days of the church, Christians got into trouble… but because they were praying, they would recall God’s words (Psalm 2).
      • BOLDNESS:
        • 3 times in Acts 4, boldness of these Christians was..
          1. seen by the world (Acts 4:13)
          2. Sought by the Churches (Acts 4:29)
          3. Supplied by the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31)
      • Today, few are shaken by what Christians believe
      • Because many churches are on shaky ground

Church, Beware of the…

  • Bread Business
  • Show Business
  • Political Business

Jesus did not change the power structure of His day.

Pentecost did not convert Jerusalem.

The world needs to see what a church is like when it is a church.

Church, meet the devil the way Jesus did

  • “It is written…”

 

Vance Havner…

“If Jesus could defeat Satan with these 3 statements, we ought to be able to defeat him with the whole Bible.”

photo courtesy of Terrell O’Brian

 

 

Expository Preaching Requires the Preacher to Preach Isaiah 20

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As a pastor, it is a lot of pressure when you gather with family and friends and someone suggest we play “Bible Trivia”. It’s the only time I get picked first to be on a team. Not because I know anything, but apparently I’m looked at as the “expert”. That is a lot of pressure. I usually go blank under that kind of pressure.

(fair warning, never pick me to be on your bible trivia team.)

Let’s say it is Bible trivia night and the whole family has gathered together and the question is raised; “Of all the Old Testament prophets, who was instructed by God to go naked for three years?”

After a bit of uncomfortable comments, everyone looks to you… you start going through the likely suspects…

Ezekiel?, Elijah? Micah?, Nahum?, Jonah?, some other prophet? Isaiah never crosses your mind. But, no, it was Isaiah.

Now, next time you’re playing Bible trivia and the question comes up you won’t need to “call a friend”, you now know yourself.

But Why?

These six verses of Isaiah 20 may throw the reader back on their heals with shock, but they are actually quite helpful.

The nation of Judah had turned to other nations, Egypt and Ethiopia, instead of Almighty God for strength against the threat of Assyria. This was among the most shameful things this nation could ever have done. God Almighty had shown His people that they could always depend on Him so long as they obey His commands.

Gather with Eastside Baptist Church this coming Lord’s Day as we examine Isaiah 20.

(On Bible trivia night, you might not want to pick me just because I’m a pastor.)

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