Sound Words

We live in a generation of professing believers who have embraced a little Pharaoh Theology. God said “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28; 9:1) and “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward . . . Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” (Psalm 127:3, 5). Yet many believers do not celebrate and treat a full quiver as a reward. Far too often children are seen as necessary liability to carry on the family name but something you should not get carried away with.  Even more when children threaten certain comforts, like Pharaoh, many begin to think of God’s blessings as a curse.  Listen as Pastor David exhorts the Christian to reject such an ungodly way of viewing the gift of children.  

You’re in the supermarket and a little girl asks her mom for a sucker.  “No.”  The girl proceeds to entreat her mom with promises of obedience and arguments about the joy of candy.  Finally, she wins the day with a pouty lip and a feeble “please.”  We have no problem spotting manipulation when we see it.  Or do we?  Have you ever offered God more prayers, church attendance, or a moral life, if he would only change your circumstances?   In 1 Samuel 4, we find that God is not an object to be used.  Listen as Pastor David calls us to give up on our own efforts and trust God.

For God so loved the world… Does that statement make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck? Or do you associate John 3:16 with kindergarten Sunday School classes and signs at the Super Bowl? Often we think of this verse as a sentimentalized slogan for Christianity. In this sermon, Pastor David contends that God’s loving offer of salvation to a sinful world is a scandalous declaration from a Holy God. And God can use the same words that pass the lips of kindergarteners to humble grown men. Listen as Pastor David calls us to consider God’s message of hope to a condemned world.