I'll Be Honest

Can a man be a gifted and powerful preacher yet still be unqualified to lead Christ’s church? Examining the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3, this sermon warns against allowing preaching ability, popularity, or public influence to outweigh biblical character. An overseer must be above reproach—marked by self-control, gentleness, faithful leadership at home, a good reputation, and a teachable spirit. A man’s ability in the pulpit cannot compensate for the absence of a godly life.

Have you ever failed the Lord so badly that you wondered whether He was finished with you? Peter knew that crushing guilt, yet two simple words—“and Peter”—revealed the tender heart of the risen Christ. Jesus restores repentant sinners, but His grace is never permission to remain in sin.

What does the Bible actually teach about women learning, teaching, and exercising authority in the church? In this sermon from 1 Timothy 2:11–15, Jeff Peterson examines Paul’s instructions in their biblical context, showing that women are not inferior to men, but that God has established distinct roles and order within the church.

What happens when Christians begin carrying rules and burdens that Christ never gave them? From 1 Timothy 1 and 2 Corinthians 3, this message examines the right and wrong use of God’s law and warns against legalism, man-made traditions, and spiritual expectations that weigh believers down. The Christian life is not lived by the letter, but by faith in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

We must never forget that God uses us as the means by which to reach the man down our street who has not heard the Gospel. The Lord calls us to turn from passivity and command men to come to Christ that they might be saved.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. - 1 Corinthians 1:25

God does not supply the Spirit to you because you have fulfilled some legalistic checklist of expectations. He does it simply because you believe the Gospel.

From conception to resurrection the Spirit of God was active in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this sermon Mack looks at the much forgotten humanity of Jesus Christ and how much He depended upon the Holy Spirit. In trying to defend the deity of Christ we must never go to the extreme of lessening His humanity.

Asking someone what they think about Jesus Christ is one of the most telling questions you can ask in order to discern where someone is spiritually.

Refusing God is not always an outright defiance like Pharaoh saying "Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?" It's not always like that. Sometimes you just refuse Him when it just gets to the point where the race is hard and you make excuses and ignore what He says.

Mt. Sinai says "Do this and you will live." Yet Mt. Zion shouts "It is finished!" Mt. Zion is a mountain for those to come to who have nothing to offer but instead trust in Jesus Christ who perfectly kept the Law on their behalf. He promises to save those who come from the penalty and power of their sins.

If men don't come to Christ, their inability to not come is that they love their idols more. There is only one thing that keeps men from coming to Christ and it is because they are wickedly married to their sins and refuse to come.

Unbelief is a sin and it's never presented in the Bible as something innocent. Some say "I don't have enough evidence to believe." Yet believing in Christ is never presented like that. Men have overwhelming evidence and yet they still refuse to believe.

Homeschooling is not Christianity, it is not the badge of you being godly, it is not the great means in order to raise great children. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ! - Paul Washer

One great sign of a healthy church is that when sin creeps into your life and you get "unhealthy"; other believers in the church are able to spot it in your life, give you the remedy, and then point you in the right direction. Having fellowship with like-minded believers is a vital part in our sanctification and being made more holy.

Our emphasis must be on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it alone will produce true godliness. We can emphasize external things all day long and it will not produce true holiness.Preach on 7/28/2013 Paul Washer of HeartCry

Once you stop believing that the offer of the Gospel is valid for lost sinners, then it only leads you to no longer evangelize. Yet no lost sinner in the Bible is ever told that they cannot come because there is no sufficiency in Christ's atonement.

The Bible calls us to put off the old man with his practices, and one practice, in particular, is lying. Interestingly, one of the reasons Paul tells us to put off lying is because we are members of one another. When we lie to others in the church, it damages our fellowship with them. If we are going to live as new men and have good fellowship with others in the church, we need to put off lying and start speaking the truth.

The Galatians were wanting to be perfected and grow and advance in the Christian life, and yet Paul came in and rebuked them for being conceited and biting and devouring one another. Why? Because they had gotten their eyes off of Christ and Him crucified and had turned back to the works of the law.

1 John 2:1 shows us that what is normative for the Christian is that they don't sin. However, so often professing Christians have the mindset that sin is what is normal, but that is not the way John talks. He "writes these things to us so that we may not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous."

What does it mean to confess my sins? The Greek word means "to say the same thing", it's agreeing with God; agreeing that you missed the mark. Confessing of sin is an evidence of someone who is in the light and has fellowship with God.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. - 1 John 1:7

Acts 20:24 - But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. This message was preached at Richard Gonzales' funeral on October 19, 2014.

The Apostle Paul was being accused of preaching a different gospel to the Jews and to the Gentiles. Yet Paul comes along in Galatians and says "by works of the law no one will be justified." for "if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

There are all sorts of subtle ways that we can turn from Christ and the purity of the Gospel. Men will come along and say, "If you really want to be perfected, you need 'Christ plus something else'". In Galatians Paul is adamantly arguing that his Gospel came by the authority of Jesus Christ and that this is the Gospel that we want to lay a hold of.

The task of taking the Gospel to the lost is to be taken not only occasionally, but intentionally; which is when you set aside time in your weekly schedule to go share the Gospel with the lost. If you do that on a consistent basis, you will find it is not easy. It is because at the point you decide to be intentional in sharing about Christ, you cross a certain line, and that is the territory of the evil one. You invade Satan's territory and he is really strong there, but we must not be intimidated but go in the power of God.

To be walking in darkness does not just mean that you are living in scandalous sins, but it means your life is not regulated by the Word of God. Do you start out your decisions by what you want to do and then come to the Bible and say "I hope it lines up"? Yet when it doesn't you just kind of justify it away? Rather to walk in the light is to start out with the Word of God and let it control your decisions.

The doctrine of regeneration is one of the foundational doctrines of our faith and lack of clarity on it can lead to deadly error.

Some passages in the Bible are very hard to understand. However Hebrews 13:17 is not hard to understand, rather it's hard to hear. In our culture when people hear, "Obey your leaders and submit to them", they tend to cringe; whether it's because of abusive leaders or because of how individualistic a person may be. No matter what the reason, in this message Ryan Fullerton pleads with the Christian to seek to hear what the passage is saying and obey it because it is for your advantage.

Is your Christianity a reflection of the God who is light in whom there is no darkness at all? The fundamental difference between the true Christian and false Christian is that the true Christian is reflecting God's character.

How is your fellowship with God? Can you boldly say, "Yes, my life is one of fellowship with the Father and with His Son--that is normative and descriptive of my life! No, it's not where I want it to be, I want more, but overall I know what it is like to be walking with God."

False teachers will tend either to legalism, adding works to be saved or majoring on the minors; or lawlessness, living a sinful life while saying you are "forgiven and OK". Also, as is so common, they will simply be greedy and in the ministry for money. May we "beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves." - Matthew 7:15

False teachers often quote the Bible but they twist and misapply the real meaning of the Word of God in order to promote their own agenda.

This sermon, and the following two in the series, are especially helpful for Christians wondering about a particular teacher, whether he falls into this category of "false prophet." May the Lord help you to identify false teachers so that you may avoid and, when necessary, expose them.

You will either be offended by the Lord Jesus and the way He does things or you will trust Him entirely even though there are many times God does things that we don't understand. There are only two possible responses to Jesus Christ, to stumble over Him or believe in Him. Luke 7:23 says - And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

Jesus Christ went to the Cross to open the door for us to share in the peace He had when facing the Cross. The world has forms of peace; financial peace, peace treaties, but Christ offers a peace that He earned for us and that is beyond any form of peace this world offers, it is to have peace with God.

Our relationship with God is called fellowship because He shares with us His love, peace and joy. What glorious realities these are for a sinner to be brought into the perfect peace of the Father and the Son.

What do we have in common with those who deny what the Scriptures teach about Jesus? We have nothing in common with them. It is right that doctrine divides us from those who "do not abide in the teaching of Christ," because they "do not have God." (2 John 1:9-10)

To be in fellowship with God is to walk in the light and to see our sin properly as God sees it. We as Christians also share with the Father a delight in the Son, Jesus Christ. When we were lost, Christ was of no value to us, however when God saved us Christ became precious to us.

This Bible Study was taught for the children at Vacation Bible School that was done at our church. Tim talks about how Jesus did all these miracles of healing, He calmed storms, and did all those things to show us His power. He is so powerful that He can wash you whiter than snow, wash all your sins away. He is alive today and coming back to judge the world, and even if you are a child you must repent and believe before that Day.

The benefits of suffering are so great if we will only see the divine purposes of God that are lovingly shown to us in the midst these trials.

Do the sudden trials that cause you to suffer make you bitter or better? With the Lord's help we must not let our sufferings destroy us but rather build us up spiritually to be more like Jesus Christ.

The apostle John came along and dogmatically asserted things. The world just wants us to say, "We are searching for truth." but the Christian is not searching any longer. We have found the Truth and John says he has seen it, touched it, and looked upon Christ with his own eyes and must proclaim Him.

Regeneration is a transfer from the realm of the flesh into the realm of the Spirit (Rom 7:5-6; 8:5-9; Gal 5:16-25); a transfer from the earthly sphere into the heavenly sphere (Col 2:20-22; 3:1-10; Jn 17:14, 16; Php 3:19-20; Eph 1:3; 2:4-6); and becoming a slave of righteousness, no longer a slave of sin (Rom 6:16-22).

Regeneration is a new birth (Jn 3:1-8, 1 Jn 3:9); the receiving of a new nature (Matt 7:15-20; 12:33); and a crucifixion of the old self and a resurrection of the new self (Ro 6:1-11, 13; 8:13; Gal 2:20). Knowing these glorious truths is vital and then we must go and live in light of them.

Regeneration is an act of God in which He changes all Christians, so that they begin to hate sin and pursue righteousness. The thrust of these sermons is to show that this doctrine, although lost by much of modern Christianity, is presented abundantly and clearly in the Old and New Testaments, especially and most vividly in the New.From Granted Ministries

After thirteen chapters here is what the author of Hebrews wants to leave us with: God is a God of peace who raised Christ from the dead. He is a great Shepherd to His people and has brought us into an eternal covenant in which the Lord equips us with everything necessary to do His will.

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. - Hebrews 13:15-16

What do you want more than anything else: Money? Fame? A godly spouse? Or to just walk and commune with the Lord at your side?

It would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it would be for someone to pass through to heaven with a shred of self-righteousness upon them.