Title: Putting Teachers to the Test[1]
Text: 1 John 3:24–4:6
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There are approximately ten thousand physicians practicing medicine in America who have a fake foreign medical degree. If these counterfeit doctors were evenly distributed in every state, there would be about two hundred in the state of Kentucky. Just think about this: many American citizens are receiving medical treatment from doctors who lied on their medical school loan applications. Instead of using the money received from this loan to get a degree, they decided to buy one instead.
Title: Examining Ourselves Before We Come to the Lord’s Supper
Text: 1 John 3:11–23
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I am going to preach to you today. I am going to preach to your ear and your eye. I am going to expound the Scriptures, which is preaching to your ear. I am also going to administer the Lord’s Supper. That is preaching to the eye. Both are going to proclaim the redemption we have in Christ.
Title: Satan’s Spawn and God’s Seed
Text: 1 John 3:1–10
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Ravi Zacharias was born in India and migrated to Canada with his family twenty years later. He is a nationally known apologist. He defends the Christian faith in universities like Harvard, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, and Oxford.
While reading about Ravi, I came across his Christian testimony. He came to Christ on a bed of suicide when he was seventeen. His father had just finished telling him that he was a total failure in life. He told him he was born a failure. In the darkness of that moment full of desperation and hopelessness, Ravi picked up a Bible by his bedside and came to Christ.[1]
Because we live in a fallen world, some biological fathers are not a reflection of our Heavenly Father. God has broken images of Himself; they are fathers.
Title: We Have Spiritual Discernment
Text: 1 John 2:18–29
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God reveals to us that we have received an anointing or, as some versions translate it, an unction. I remember hearing some old preachers pray for an unction to function. Often you will hear people pray for preachers that they will have an anointing while preaching. In this text, we are not talking about preachers. We are reading about every Christian. God has given you an unction—an anointing. In the Old Testament, anointing took place by pouring oil on a person to commission them for a specific task. Prophets, priests, and kings were anointed. In the New Testament, anointing referred to the Holy Spirit coming to live inside of believers.
· If you have believed the claims of Christ, you have this anointing.
· If you have been forgiven of a debt you could not pay, you have received this anointing.
· If you have ever realized how blatantly your sin is an affront to God and that without Christ you are bound for hell—not for a moment, or even a minute, or even a millennium, but for eternity—if you have realized that and have been truly converted to Christ, you have this anointing.
Title: The Love God Hates
Text: 1 John 2:12–17
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The statement “The Love God Hates” strikes some people at their core. How could a loving God hate anything or anyone? “God is love” is a theme that I will cover in this series of messages from 1 John (1 John 4:8). What contradiction—what inconsistency—to say that a God who is love expresses hate.
Title: GOD IS LIGHT
Text: I John 1:5–10
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One group of theologians translated verse 5 this way: “Now this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announce to you.”[1] I like the emphasis! John received the gospel message and passed it along. John summarizes the gospel in three words: “God is light.” If you have received the gospel, you have received the light. John is asking us this morning, “Where will you take the light?” There are (very likely) people at your job or on your street who have never heard a clear presentation of the gospel. They are living in darkness. You have the privilege to bring them light. Will you?
Title: Who is Jesus?
Text: 1 John 1:1–4
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Christianity is unique among all the other religions of the world. Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam all have their adherents, but I contest that Christianity is superior to them all.
Title: Are We Still a Life-Saving Station?
Text: Matthew 4:12–25
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On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude, little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little life-saving station. So it became famous.
Title: A Call for Disciples, Not “Casual” Christians
Text: Matthew 4:12–22
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This week, I listened to a pastor speak about his experiences in missionary work around the world. In India, he met a young woman and her husband who left Hinduism and became disciples of Christ. They faced a lot of recoil for this decision from their family and from the village where they lived. On one occasion, everyone in their village came to their hut with lizards whose heads had been cut off and told the couple to drink the blood and convert back.
Title: Battling Temptation
Text: Matthew 4:1–11
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Have you ever tried to explain to your children the possible dangers they are facing, but cringe with the thought of these innocent children knowing the dangers? For instance,
Text: Matthew 4:1-2
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In Randy Alcorn’s book The Purity Principle, he gives a riveting account that exposes the truth about temptation. He said,
Text: Matthew 3:11–17
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A biblical baptism is a baptizo. This word never refers to sprinkling or pouring. There are Greek words that refer to those, but this is not it. Two examples will prove this. When Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch, both went down into the water (Acts 8:38). Also, John chose to baptize at Aenon because there was plenty of water there (John 3:23).
Text: Matthew 3:1–10
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I want to read a quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the beloved Little House on the Prairie. She describes her first encounter with a mystery object while on a wagon journey with her parents in 1894 that took them through Topeka, Kansas. As I read the quote, see if you can guess the mystery object.
Text: Matthew 2:13–23
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Isaac Watts was a boy genius. He was learning Latin by age 4, Greek at age 9, French (which he took up to converse with his refugee neighbors) at age 11, and Hebrew at age 13. He was born in Southampton, England, on July 17, 1674. From an early age, he experienced two things very clearly: the will of God and difficulties. He realized that being in the will of God did not mean that someone would not face difficulties.
Text: Matthew 2:1–12
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The first statement of verse one announces the most epic event in human history: “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem.” God had been moving history towards this one event. Four thousand years of symbols, pictures, and road signs all pointed to the birth of this promised Messiah. God used history to accomplish His purpose, and now we are at the center and axis of all history—the birth of the King of all kings.
Text: I Samuel 17
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I fear that we make this story say what we want it to say. What is this story teaching? What is the author intending to say? If we find the author’s intent then we find God’s intent. We enjoy saying memorable phrases like “Some say Goliath is too big to kill. David said he is too big to miss”—spoken by a preacher who loves clichés. Is one memorable statement all we can gather from this story, even if it is a creative one like “Do not bring a sword to a rock fight”? Is that what the text is really teaching? Is it all about us?
Text: Nehemiah 8:1–8
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In chapters 1–7 Nehemiah, despite much opposition, led the city in the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. In destroying Jerusalem and the temple, Babylon had not simply destroyed a city and a building. Rather, they had destroyed the heart of Israel’s identity as a people, causing Israel to question if God’s plan for the ages had failed. The Babylonians destroyed the walls and nearly destroyed Israel’s faith. Text: Nehemiah 8:1–8
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Title: Philippians 4:11–13
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To be honest, not only is the world filled with unhappy people, but the church is too. My most difficult task of the night is at this moment. I have to show you your unhappiness even when you do not think you are. Let me assure you that seeing your unhappiness could be the best thing that has ever happened to you.
Text: Matthew 1:18-25
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Friends, we have here a birth like no other. It is unlike any other human birth because it is scientifically and biologically impossible. It is unlike any mythological birth because it is true. It was a real event recorded in the pages of history for us.
