These sermons were preached in December at the Otisville Church of Christ.
| 20111204_repentance.wma |
| 20111218_spiritual_growth.wma |
| 20111225_jesus_is_gods_sign.wma |
Add Comment If we're going to grow spiritually, we'll need to let some things go and leave them behind. In Galatians 5, Paul teaches us to leave behind the acts of the flesh and cultivate and grow the fruit of the Spirit. What do you need to leave behind so that you can grow to be closer to God?
In this early portion of Hebrews, the writer focuses on Jesus and puts Jesus forward as a "soul anchor" to tie your life to.
Jesus died for us while we were his enemies. How should we treat our enemies? We can change by focusing on humility (how we view ourselves), honor (how we view others), and hospitality (how we humbly serve those we honor). From Romans 5:1-11 and 12:1-3, 9-13.
Psalm 109 helps us walk through our emotions and feelings of anger and betrayal and revenge. We learn that while it's okay to voice these feelings, it is not okay to stay there. We must move from anger and revenge to trust in God, learning to let God deal with our problems with other people.
How do the "one another" passages in the New Testament work? What do they mean? Find out by listening to this sermon.
In Ephesians 4:17-32, Paul teaches about the importance of building people up in our speech rather than tearing them down. Gossip taints us, and it taints the people being gossiped about and gossiped to. You will see more growth when you stop complaining about people (and gossiping about them) and start building them up instead.
In Colossians 3, Paul outlines a path to spiritual growth that involves living a resurrected, raised life with Christ now by leaving aside the old self, putting on the new self, and doing everything you do for Jesus. This sermon also includes 8 habits that will help you grow spiritually.
In his "Sermon on the Mount," Jesus taught that God desires obedience that comes from our heart. Obedience that is done to be seen by others, to impress them, is not obedience at all--and those that practice such "obedience" have already received their reward. But when we pray in secret, serve the needy without fanfare, and prepare to worship God for his sake (and not to impress others), we please God, and God, who sees what is done in secret, will reward us.
When you cook, you might choose to follow the recipe. There is a difference in rotely following the recipe, putting in exact measurements and following the recipe in exactness in order to produce a "finished good" and in following the recipe, but infusing your cooking with the joy that comes from desiring to produce a good, tasteful, healthy meal. It's the same with our service to God. We can either follow his rules by rote and without joy, or we can obey God out of the sincere desire of a heart that loves him. In the latter case, the "rules" still matter, but obedience to God arises out of one's love of God, from the transformation that comes when technique is abandoned for God alone.
| I post my weekly sermons here each Monday. You can subscribe to this blog by clicking the RSS Feed link below to receive updates about new postings.
Older sermons are available in the archived section of my website. Listen to sermons by clicking on the link or by right-clicking the link and selecting "Save As" or "Save Link As" to download it to your computer. If you use an RSS reader (like Google Reader), you may click on the RSS Feed link below to subscribe to this podcast. Each week you'll receive a notice when the sermon is ready to listen to. ArchivesMay 2012 CategoriesAll  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. | ||||||||||||||||||
RSS Feed