Washed in the Word

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Today the Bible calls us to three things that will help us as elect exiles to minister to our neighbor & bring glory to our Savior.  "A Big Three for You & Me: Suffering, Supplication & Service".  These three are found in 1 Peter 4.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Have you noticed that sometimes following Jesus hurts?  Our passage today speaks about suffering in the will of God.  The Bible is not bashful about this subject.  Peter began our epistle by telling us that as elect exiles we should not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon us as though something strange were happening to us For the past few sessions our near context in chapters 2 & 3 has called us to submission to unrighteous civil authorities, submission to unjust employers, & submission to imperfect spouses.  Today Peter sums up these lessons on submission with a call to us all to repress our reflex towards retaliation substituting what comes naturally for what must come supernaturally.  You can’t get more radical in your reorientation to kingdom thinking than Peter’s call to "Suffering in the Will of God."   Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Our text today takes us to challenging places.  To the original hearers these words upended societal norms in liberating but threatening ways. To modern ears these same words are equally challenging but for the opposite reason.  These words are threatening not for their radical liberation but for their seemingly unseemly subjugation. 1st Peter is a monument to the vast difference between how we think & how God thinks.  Our culture says “do what you feel.” God says do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy.The world says rejoice in leisure & pleasure.  God says, rejoice, though now for a little while, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, may be found to result in praise & glory & honor at the revelation of Jesus.  Scoffers say "Where is this Jesus?  I do not see Him!"  God says: "Though you do not now see him, you believe in him & rejoice with joy that is inexpressible & filled with glory,  obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."  Today, we come to the high water mark of counter-cultural instruction.  Peter moves from calls to submission to unrighteous civil authorities & unjust employers to calls to submission within our own walls.  Our text today zeros in on "Submission to Our Imperfect Spouses."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Work is a central facet of our existence.  Most of us spend about a third of our lives at work.  Work is a good gift from God.  Before sin entered in, Adam worked the garden. But after the fall there is a curse on it all.  Apart from the curse, when you add sinful man into the mix given our proclivity to iniquity, work often feels less than good, especially when our employers are ungracious or unjust. We are midway into our perusal of first Peter & Peter is presently pondering the countercultural, uncomfortable, but entirely biblical call for us all to submit for the Lord’s sake to every human institution so long as obedience to man does not involve disobedience to God.  Disarmingly, we told to allow ourselves to be exploited For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people….For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.  In submitting there will be occasions when our oppressors are won without a word when they see our respectful & pure conduct.  When we live with one another in an understanding way… Honoring everyone. Loving the brotherhood. Fearing God. Even honoring the emperor. Peter has singled out three human institutions in which we are to exercise submission. Last week we looked at submission to unrighteous civil authorities.  Next week we will look at submission to imperfect spouses.This week God zeros in on "Submission to Unjust Employers."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Tell me if any of these sound familiar:  “Why do I have to listen to you?”  “Who are you to order me?”  “This state, city, county, or country, is so corrupt why should I pay this tax or toll?”  All of those sentiments pertain to submission to authority or rather, a lack of submission to authority.  1 Peter tackles this subject head on.  The question we want to talk about is this:  As Christians, how should we relate to the State?  What if the state is Sub-Christian?  Unchristian?  Anti-Christian?  The biblical posture for the Christian is not subversion but submission.  Submission in our marriages when exploited by imperfect spouses, submission in our vocations when exploited by ungracious employers & even submission to unrighteous civil authorities.  Why?  Why should we submit to them?  And if our general posture is submission not subversion are there ever biblically legitimate exceptions to this general rule?  Those are excellent questions & God’s Word has excellent answers.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Do you understand God’s plan for your life?  Do you understand your kingdom calling?  Do you understand who you are in Christ & what that means as you seek to live for Christ?  Our text today is the very heart & core of the epistle of First Peter.  Our passage is the fulcrum from which all the teachings of First Peter pivot. Everything before our passage points to it.  Everything after our passage flows from it.   If we used the letter S to suggest a structure for First Peter we see that in chapters 1 & 2 Peter has spoken of our salvation & sanctification.  And later in chapters 3-5 Peter will speak of our submission, suffering, shepherds & sheep, specifically their serving & our self-control.  But all of this centers on the subject of our Scripture today, the status of the Christian.  Now the status of the Christian is based on the status of Christ.  Hence the title of our sermon Christ & the Christian.  Last time we were together we focused on: “Who is Christ?”  Today we will focus on "Because of Christ, Who are we?" Today’s text can be life changing because it is life clarifying.   Today’s text can be soul cleansing because if we really understand & apply it.  It can keep us out of the toxicity that seeks to defile you & me.   Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Today Peter speaks on something so basic you might be tempted to skip past it.  But it is so intrinsic we must imbibe it until we own it.  Until it is rooted in the very fabric of our daily existence.  Today’s topic is "Christ & the Christian."  May I be so bold as to say never let this passage become old because it is pure gold.An argument can be made that our text today is the fulcrum whereby the entire epistle of first Peter hangs together.  Everything before it points to it & everything after it flows from it.  First Peter can be summarized structurally by a series of “S’s”.  In chapters 1 & 2 Peter has spoken of our salvation & sanctification & later in chapters 3 thru 5 Peter will speak of our submission, suffering, shepherds & sheep, specifically their serving & our self-control.  But all of these S’s point to or flow from the S we must address, process, possess, & profess lest we regress & transgress.  For you see, our salvation & sanctification stem from our status in Jesus just as our call to submission, suffering, serving & self-control flow from our status in Jesus.Since this subject is so seminal, central & pivotal we will be investing two sermons to it.  Today is Part I regarding "Christ & the Christian."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.In 1980 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers offered the world a catchy chorus: “You don’t have to live like a refugee.”  Christians find that is not quite the case.  Hebrews 13:14 tells us “this world is not our home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.”  Peter calls us elect exiles because Christians are temporarily, providentially placed in this world to impact it for Christ, yet this world is constantly trying to squeeze us into its mold.  If we don’t play along, sometimes we find it is hard to get along & the world tells us to move along.  So how do we achieve this tricky balance of being in the world but not of the world?  1 Peter 1:22 offers God’s twin solutions to preventing personal pollution & gospel dilution by "Loving & Longing Biblically."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Our subject today is one from which folks tend to shy away.  The subject is holiness.  Today we are in 1 Peter 1 & the what of our passage is clear in verses 14-15: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.."  The why of our passage is clear in verses 15-19: 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct…“You shall be holy, for I am holy.” The how of our passage is clear in verse 13 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, & being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  But the rub of our passage is that holiness in a world of sinfulness is hard.  So as we turn in the Word of the Lord, let’s turn to the Lord of that Word & ask Him to help us move towards holiness in a world of sinfulness.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Sometimes following Christ is hard.  So when our allegiance to Jesus arouses anger from our neighbors God wants us to know three things so we stay the course when the wind & waves are battering our ship of faith.  Today, the Apostle Peter continues his letter to beleaguered believers These saints have endured political, social, & personal persecution.   If you are listening today & following Christ is exacting a heavy price for you too I want to invite you to internalize these three realities.  Let them marinate in your mind & seep into your soul.  Let these three Spirit given “S’s” be a bedrock you return to again & again when the Enemy is pressing in.  Let's explore Scripture, Salvation & Suffering in our time together today.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Salvation is a subject clouded by confusion.  Prosperity preachers promise salvation from pain & paucity.  Concerning salvation Buddhists urge us to pursue nirvana.  The salvation they seek is from suffering by trying to snuff out the fires they claim cause it: attachment, aversion, & illusion.  Hindus seek salvation through moksha which is liberation from the supposed cycle of reincarnation & release from alleged law of karma.  Indeed the difference between all of man’s religions & God’s salvation is this: religion teaches that salvation, at least to a certain extent, resides within us.  We must do "X" to earn God’s acceptance.  For some that is about abstaining.  I don’t drink, smoke or chew & I don’t go with girls that do.  Therefore, I have earned God’s love.  For others salvation is not so much abstaining but attaining.  I do penance & am generous so as to merit God's favor.  For some it is the travail of travel that supposedly opens the door to God’s eternal chapel so they make a pilgrimage to a particular place.   In the midst of all this confusion, it leaves us asking: What are we saved from?  Who saves us & how does it work?  So let’s turn to 1 Peter 1 & let’s peer into the pages of God’s Word for God’s answers "Concerning This Salvation." Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Back in 1971 Jean Knight released Mr. Big Stuff.  The song has a rousing riff which asks “Who do you think you are?”  That is an excellent question for the Christian.  When the world tries to squeeze us into its mold… When all the cool kids are doing it…When our superiors intimidate us to tow the line or they will take a hard line, putting us on the firing line, what is your bottom line, line in the sand, come what may, here I stand?  Christian, who do you think you are?  This is not a new question.  The first century church faced this question head on.  1st Peter was written to beleaguered believers undergoing unjust suffering for their allegiance to Jesus. With that in mind, grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.The ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes once noted: “We have two ears & only one tongue in order that we may hear more & speak less.” Mark Twain observed: “It is better to keep your mouth closed & let people think you are a fool than to open it & remove all doubt.”  What are those?  Those are proverbs about taming our tongues. James says "If anyone considers himself religious & yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself & his religion is worthless."  1 Peter 3:10 declares “Whoever would love life & see good days must keep his tongue from evil & his lips from deceitful speech. In our time together today we will be probing a particularly practical problem.  The challenge of keeping our tongues in check.  There are over ninety verses in the book of Proverbs that touch on taming our tongues. Almost all of these verses are found from chapter ten through to chapter thirty.  That’s about four & half references a chapter for twenty chapters.  Obviously, God knows that we need His wisdom when it comes to taming our tongues so he speaks robustly & repeatedly on this subject.  Grab you Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for Old Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/ot-study-guides Free Sermon Outlines & Study Guides for New Testament books are available at: https://washedintheword.life/nt-study-guides

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.“Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.”  “God gives the birds their food, but He doesn't throw it into their nests.”  Thomas Jefferson used to say: “I'm a great believer in luck, & I find the harder I work the more I have of it” Vince Lombardi used to say: “The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work.”  Those are all statements regarding our work ethic.  The Bible makes similar statements.  In fact, there are at least 44 verses in the book Proverbs that pertain to our work ethic.  It is one of the mega-themes of Proverbs & is therefore something that God wants us to understand, embrace & apply.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Money is an essential facet of our modern lives.  Mishandling money can cause a multitude of hardships.  Overemphasizing money has derailed many a saint.  What does God teach regarding "Proverbial Wisdom on Money Matters?"  In our time together today we will explore 11 practical principles on this critical subject.  So, grab our Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Proverbs are nuggets of truth poured into minuscule memorable packets.  God Himself has given us many proverbs.   Divinely inspired proverbs are more than whimsical & winsome they are wise beyond degree.  A cursory study of the book of Proverbs reveals over 200 verses which directly address the benefits of wisdom.   If God’s wisdom is so valuable to our existence, if it is the key to a life well spent instead of a life misspent, we need to consider how to acquire God’s wisdom.  The book of Proverbs makes at least five suggestions on "How to Acquire Wisdom."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & printout the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.There are over two hundred verses in Proverbs that address the benefits of wisdom.   Today, in this our first message plodding through Proverbs, we want to zero in the first four chapters to glean a dozen of the benefits of wisdom & garner a plan to personally get more out of this immensely practical book.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the free sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.All across the world on Sunday mornings something happens in nearly every continent & in nearly every culture.  Preachers preach.  It is universally done, but is it biblically done?  We all have our thoughts on preaching but what are God’s thoughts? Today we are going to do something very meta.  We are going to have a sermon on sermons.  Most of us have probably never heard a sermon about sermons.  Yet, as we have traversed 2 Timothy Scripture has a lot to say on the subject.  Let's peer into Scripture to learn the difference between conventional wisdom vs. biblical wisdom in regards to preaching.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the free sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Years ago, I came across a piece of wisdom written by a pastor who had a couple of bestselling books & a thriving mega-church, yet at the very same time his wife was locked in a life or death battle with cancer.  Eventually the ministries of the church reached a global profile yet in the midst of all that success this pastor’s eldest son took his own life.  This pastor who had seen many mountains climbed & yet also lingered in the valley of the shadow of death wrote this.  “I used to think that life was hills & valleys – you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back & forth. I don’t believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills & valleys, I believe that it’s more like two rails on a railroad track, at all times you have something good & something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on & no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.”  I think this pastor is quite correct.  We live our life on the tracks.  I have watched families go through the anguish of losing a patriarch & then usher in a beautiful grandchild. I have watched people take off spiritually but struggle vocationally or much more sadly do exactly the reverse.  If you follow gospel workers in Scripture you shall see that there is nothing new under the sun.  Today we are in 2 Timothy 4:9-22.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the free sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Everyone who goes to church has a pastor.  Most of us have opinions of what a pastor ought to do, but what is God’s opinion?  Biblically speaking what is the pastor’s central calling?  Perhaps the clearest Scriptural answer to that critical question is found in our text today in 2 Timothy 4:1-8. Grab your Bible, a pen, & printout the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.The wisest man who ever lived was King Solomon.  In Ecclesiastes 4:12 he wrote that “a cord of three strands is not easily broken.”  A three-strand rope is strong because when twisted together they increase the diameter of the cord & take stress off the outer fibers.  This is the principal behind the cables that hold up our modern suspension bridges.  This is how over two billion vehicles have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge since its opening in 1937 despite loaded down lorries, wind, waves & several earthquakes.  The good news from our passage is that despite the rough seas of these last days, God has thrown us a lifeline of three strands in order to stand.   Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.In 1 Chronicles 12:32 the Bible says the “men of Issachar… understood their times & knew what Israel should do.”  The church today needs people like the sons of Issachar.   We need to understand our times so that we know what we should do.  One of the keys to success in an endeavor is having a clear eyed understanding of your situation.  In 2 Timothy 2 God encourages us to be like a hardworking farmer & a good soldier for Christ. A farmer must know the condition of his soil.    Just as a farmer must know his context so must a soldier.  In the military they have a term for knowing your context, it is called situational awareness.  It's not just farmers & soldiers who need a healthy dose of situational awareness.  You & I need to understand the milieu of our moment.  We need situational awareness when it comes to the wiles of the world outside the church & the wolves within.  This is exactly what Paul calls us to do in our text today.  2 Timothy 3:1-9 spends equal time explaining both contexts.  How it will be in the world in these last days & what wolves await us in the church.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.One of my favorite Far Side’s is the one with the kid pushing with all his might against the pull side of door at the “Midvale School for the Gifted.”  I once saw a sign on a shop that said “Push, if that doesn’t work, pull, if that doesn’t work we must be closed.”  Life has a lot of push-pull moments.  Like ferrous metals alongside magnets we seem pulled into some things & pushed away by others.  Friends, the God of nature is the God of Scripture.  In 2 Timothy 2:14-26 we see a series of push-pull moments.  Two things we must avoid & two things we must pursue.   Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Steven Wright used to say: “right now, I’m having amnesia & de ja vu at the same time.  I think I have forgotten this before.”  Fred Allen used to say: “I always have trouble remembering three things, faces, names &… whatever that other thing was.”Caroline Rhea used to say: “I constantly walk into a room & I don’t remember why, but for some reason, I think there is going to be clue in the fridge.”  We are in 2 Timothy 2 today.  Specifically, we will be zeroing in on verses 8-13.  These verses call us to remember five things that will be of immeasurable value to us as we strive to shine for Jesus.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.How do we build the Kingdom of God?  On an ultimate level, we don’t.  God does.  Yet on another level, we are Christ’s ambassadors.  We are His witnesses.  We are called to make disciples of all peoples. Tragically, many have chosen not to be kingdom builders but kingdom barnacles. Some saints sit, soak, & sour in our services, but other brothers roll up their sleeves & get their hands dirty in the work of the ministry. So how do we build the kingdom of God? In 2 Timothy 2,   God uses three commands & three illustrations to show us how to build the kingdom of God.  Grab your Bible, a pen, and download the sermon outline & accompanying study guide, and let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Today we begin our journey together through the last letter of the Apostle Paul.  This is his last word to his protégée Timothy.  If Christianity is going to flourish not perish...we must pass it on! If the light of the gospel is not to be extinguished in our land in our day it will be by God’s sovereign grace upon us & our humble faithfulness to "Pass It On!"  Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.When we first began our study in Judges we saw a sad slide from the faithfulness of Joshua’s generation to an utter disregard of the things of God in the next.   We saw that compromise leads to consequences.  That neglect leads to regret & that rejection leads to God’s wrath. Today, we go to the last word regarding the dark days of Judges. I’m sad to say that today we come to the most sordid story in all of Scripture.  It is scandalous, savage, sickening & entirely true.  This is what happens when the people of God reject God’s Word & everyone does what is right in their own eyes.  The result is the utter breakdown of the family, sexuality, society, & unity & it produces a flurry of increasingly desperate & degenerate decisions where each “solution” is worse than the problem that necessitated it.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying Study Guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.We all have a God-sized hole in our souls.  We were created to worship, but we also want to be our own gods. How do we reconcile these competing impulses? An easy answer is to refashion god into a god of our own making & liking.  In the beginning, God made man in His image & ever since we have been trying to return the favor.  We would like a god who is there for us, who cares for us, but one who demands very little of us.  We would like a deliverer but not a judge.  A savior but not a lawgiver.  We would like a God powerful enough to rescue us but naïve enough for us to be able to manipulate.  In our day it has become quite fashionable to fashion our own spirituality.  To say “my Jesus” would never teach that.  Yet in Scripture, biblical Jesus does do that, say that & command that.  So instead, we worship a personal Jesus, a Jesus of our own imagination.  The thing is, imaginary friends cannot save you from real enemies & imaginary Jesus cannot save you from real sin, or hell itself.   Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying Diving Deeper in Scripture Together Study Guide and let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Samson is arguably the most famous person in the book of Judges. So today we will tread well-worn Scripture in revisiting Judges 16.  We shall see Samson at his most audacious & salacious.  We will then witness Samson humbled & handed over to those he was supposed to be the deliver from.  This self-centered sot will become a sickening site.  For a cuddle with a damsel Samson, the able, will become Samson the pitiful while the Philistines heckle yet God will be merciful & allow Samson a final pummel over his rivals.  In our text today we shall see how low we can go when we squander our gifts & pursue our own agendas.  But in this story, there are echoes of a greater story.  Samson’s failures only magnify Jesus’ triumph.  Turn with me to Judges 16 as we endeavor to discover "How Low We Can Go & then Hallelujah, What a Savior!" Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the free sermon outline & Diving Deeper in Scripture Together Study Guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Today we come to Samson, the last judge chronicled in the book of Judges. Samson was a he-man with a she weakness.  Samson is probably the most well-known of all the Judges & yet he is the least heroic, least obedient, & least commendable.  Samson is far from a paragon of virtue & so his judgeship demonstrates the sad state of affairs when everyone does what is right in their own eyes. In Judges, it becomes hard to find a hero among the zeros.  Samson for the most part is a zero, but within the Samson story, there is a hero.  That hero is God.  For even in the dark days of judges, even when Samson is largely a disgrace, God’s grace is still present, lavish, & triumphant. Turn Judges 13 as we endeavor to discover "Disgrace and Grace from the Sordid Story of Samson." Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying Diving Deeper in Scripture Together Study Guide and let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.In our modern marketplace leadership books, seminars, & courses abound.  But in Jeremiah 6:16 The Lord says: "Stand by the roads, & look, & ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; & walk in it, & find rest for your souls." Today we shall examine a topic that is overstudied from a passage that is too often understudied.  We will be in Judges 12 today as we endeavor to discover "Leadership Lessons From Slighted Scriptures."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the free sermon outline & Diving Deeper in Scripture Together Study Guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.After a fast footnote about Tola & Jair our main story opens with a sad indictment in Judges 6:6 "The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD..."  We have seen this pattern throughout the book of Judges.  God saves His people under a deliverer judge & the very next generation wanders away from the Lord.  What is new here is not the pattern, but the progression.  For when Othniel was sent to deliver God’s people in Judges 2 it was because they prostituted themselves to the chief Canaanite deities, Baal & Ashtaroth.  Eight chapters and a string of judges later, God’s people have widened their sphere of idolatry so that now in Judges 10, they serve the Baals and the Ashtaroths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the LORD and did not serve him.  Grab your Bible, a pen, and download the free sermon outline & Diving Deeper in Scripture Together Study Guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Galatians 6:7  says: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."  The God of Nature is the God of Scripture.  The God of Nature has made it clear that if you sow pumpkin seeds you get pumpkins not petunias.  This immutable law extends to our actions.  We reap what we sow.  Sometimes there is a long gap between one’s sowing & one’s reaping.  Sometimes some folks seem to get away with sowing for decades, but eventually, indeed in eternity if need be, we reap what we sow. Today we are in Judges chapter 9.  Judges 9 chronicles the sad sordid story of one of Scripture’s scoundrels.A man named Abimelech.  A man whose Machiavellian manner motivated him to climb the leadership ladder by committing mass murder. A man who would not hesitate to burn alive 1000 people & instead of being sobered by his horrors, he attempts the same feat a few miles down the street.  Judges chapter 9 does not chronicle a judge, but a judgment.   Yet, the Holy Spirit devotes 57 verses to his story.  Why would God devote so much ink to someone who basically stinks?  To make us think.  God gives us Judges 9 as a warning about reaping & sowing. Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the free sermon outline & Diving Deeper Study Guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.When we read the Bible we tend to think the real battles are at places like Mt. Carmel where Elijah stood alone against Jezebel’s 850 false prophets. We tend to think that the big battle is the real battle.    The real battle is often not in attaining victory; it is usually in maintaining the victory.  This is Satan’s best-kept secret.  When we have the faith to trust Jesus & muster for the big battle, Satan knows he is defeated.  Satan knows Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.  So Satan waits until our guard dissipates then he infiltrates & subjugates.  This is the message of the book of Judges.  In Judges we observe an awful yet predictable cycle: God calls us to obedience, but we detour to procure the allure of the impure.  Inevitably, our straying brings God’s discipline & so we cry out to God & God graciously delivers but a short time later we stray again & the crazy cycle repeats itself.  Therefore, the real battle lies not in attaining victory but in maintaining victory.   Grab your Bible, a pen, & print off the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Today we meet Gideon.  God will use Gideon to deliver His people from Midianite marauders, but in this deliverance, Gideon’s faith will be repeatedly tested.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print off the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying guided study questions & let's get washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.In 1779 Captain William Jones gave the US Marines one of their most iconic recruitment slogans when he advertised “for a few good men.”   That slogan well serves the sentiment of Judges 4 & 5.  This passage is unique in the book of Judges in that instead of having a person function as the deliverer figure guiding the people into protracted peace instead only here in all of Judges we have two people.  A military deliverer & prophetic deliberator.  Only here in Judges 4 & 5 is this so split.  Only here is there a sort of co-judge and only here is it a female. Deborah is unique not just in her gender and her joint judgeship, but she is also unique in her sterling character.  Unlike Ehud who is deceitful, Gideon who is cowardly, & Samson who is worldly, Deborah is only praised in this passage.  Yet, it seems clear from the tenor of Scripture that in selecting a woman as judge, even an especially righteous woman like Deborah, that selection was itself a judgment.  Chapters 4 and 5 are also unique because the first is written in prose & the second in praise.  The two together tell the tale in full regale.  From these two chapters, we learn invaluable lessons about God, God’s Word, God’s plan, God’s people & a bit about God’s design as it pertains to gender.   Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Satan loves to sideline the saints.  One of his most effective tactics is to keep us from saying “Here I am, Lord, send me.”  When God calls forth from heaven: “Whom shall I send, who will go for us?” Satan whispers “Not you!”  “You are too feeble, faltering, & filthy. You’re unworthy, your gifting is iffy, & your track record is shaky.”  “Better sit this one out & let the ‘real saints’ answer God’s call.”  This is why Jesus says the fields are ripe unto Harvest but the laborers are few.  Not because there are too few Christians, but because there are too few Christians who get off the benches & into the trenches.  Today we are in Judges chapter three surveying two Judges, Ehud & Shamgar answering just one question: Can God Use Me?  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Today we embark on our journey through the book of Judges.  Judges is one of those books preachers kind of tiptoe around.  It’s a violent book.  All its supposed heroes are deeply flawed.  Some are fairly degenerate, yet God used them to deliver His people - though sadly God’s people quickly stray away into deeper & deeper levels of sin, suffering, & subjugation.   Judges is a book that throws a spotlight on just how low we can go when everyone does what is right in our own eyes.  There is a lot to be learned from this book in our post-Christian age.  We live in challenging days. Sin that only used to hide down back alleys under the cover of darkness now struts down the street in broad daylight.  We, like those in the day of Judges, lack true heroes.  The cultural icons of our age seldom embody humility or morality.  We live in a day when wrong is celebrated & right is castigated.  So far have we fallen that simply sharing the love of Christ is seen by some as hate speech.  Friends, How Did It Come to This?  Grab your Bible, a pen & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & attached study questions & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.In our final session in the book of James we shall focus on six questions that pertain to the biblical reality that "True Faith Works on Our Witness."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Jesus urged us to "always pray & not give up." Yet somehow Satan has dulled us into saving prayers for Sundays & emergencies.   In this our fourteenth session in the book of James we shall discover that "True Faith Works on Our Prayer Life."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print off the free downloadable study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Patience is not something we always value, but it is something God values.  God is so committed to us developing patience that He providentially permits us to enter into stretching situations so we can cultivate this vital virtue. Why is patience something God actively seeks to cultivate in us?  Because He wants to conform us more and more to the image of Christ.  God wants us to learn patience because God Himself is patient.  If we are going to be like Jesus, if we are going to reflect Jesus to this watching world, then we will need to learn patience.  How does God bless us with godly patience? By putting us in situations that are both prickly & protracted.  No one has to endure ice cream or puppies.  We endure difficult situations and difficult people. Both of which James speaks of in our passage.  Turn with me in the Word of God to James 5:7-12 as we shall see that True Faith Works on Our Patience.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Greed hides itself from its victim. Greed is all too often a cancer that remains undetected in our hearts.    In our text today, God wants to help us scan our hearts before this cancer consumes our souls.  In this our twelfth session in the book of James we shall endeavor to discover that True Faith Works on Our Greed.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & printout the free downloadable sermon outline & study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.James’ entire epistle hinges on the premise that True Faith Works.  James 1 & 2 showed us that True Faith Works on our Perspectives & our Actions.  James 3 demonstrated that True Faith Works on Taming Our Tongues & True Faith Works Us Toward True Wisdom.  James 4 demonstrated that True Faith Works on our Judgmentalism.  Today in our eleventh message in the book of James we shall see that True Faith Works on our Boasting because True Faith Works on our Presuming.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print off the free downloadable sermon outline & study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Don’t Judge Me Bro! is the refrain of our age.  People who know perhaps no other Bible verse can quickly quote “Judge not, Lest ye be judged.”   This statement is used as a blank check by our society that any and all behavior is beyond any and all scrutiny in any and all situations.  It is true that Jesus said in Matthew 7 & Luke 6 "Judge not, & you will not be judged" but Jesus also said in John 7:24 "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment."  Today we clear out confusion regarding judging & judgmentalism with our tenth message in our journey through the book of James this time seeing how "True Faith Works on Our Judgmentalism."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print off the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Conflicts are common. If we are not careful those conflicts can rend relationships & ravage churches.  The good news from James 4 is that True Faith Works on Our Conflicts. James 4, like a searchlight on a dark night, reveals why we fight and like a surgeon’s scalpel it shows how to make it right.  Join us today in our ninth message in the book of James as we ask the Lord to help us understand that "True Faith Works on Our Conflicts."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & printout the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.What marks true wisdom?  How many kinds of wisdom are there?  How many sources of wisdom are there?  How can I identify which wisdom is being presented to me?  And what is the result of employing each?  Those are the questions James answers in our passage today as we endeavor to discover that True Faith Works Us Towards True Wisdom.  Grab your Bible, download the free sermon outline & small group study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.The tongue is a restless evil full of deadly poison, James tells us.  So how do we tame our tongues?  Join us today in our seventh message in the book of James as we see how "True Faith Works on Taming Our Tongues.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & study guide and let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.Some allege that Paul & James contradict each other.  Some use the book of James to argue that we are saved by works.  James & Paul agree, but they look at faith & works from different vantage points.  Paul explains how to get saved, James explains what saving faith looks like.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the free sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.What is the legitimate role of the Law in the lives of New Testament saints?  We are heirs of the Reformation which called us back to the cardinal biblical truths of sola gratia, sola fide, sola Christus, sola scriptura, sola deo Gloria That is, we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, by Scripture alone to the glory of God alone.  So when James 2 positively mentions the Law 5 times in rapid succession that can make some saints squirm.  Our fifth teaching in James addresses this issue head-on, do we stop in the name of the Law or in the name of love?  Grab your Bible, a pen & let's get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us.In this our fourth teaching in the book of James, the Holy Spirit zeros in on the reality that "True Faith Works on our Partiality."  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable study guide to dive deeper in Scripture together as we get Washed in the Word!Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.