Sermon Notes & Videos
2023-10-27 | Romans 1:18-32 | In the Image of God
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Set-apart from all other creation, God uniquely created mankind to truly know Him. For that to happen, He created us “in His Image.” First He created Adam, who had within him, both male and female DNA. All men do! And even before Adam had a companion in the garden, God called Adam “them” and said, “This is My image,” and told him/them to multiply and fill the earth. For that to be possible, hidden within Adam, this visible male, was both a woman and child. Even while he was standing alone in the garden, they were inside him already, just not visible. But, they could not remain invisible if mankind was meant to know God, to understand what it means to be created in God’s image. His invisible attributes had to become clear for everyone to see He is the only real God. After that, no one could offer ignorance as an excuse.
So, God took some female DNA from Adam and fashioned a woman. In a very real sense He “extracted” the woman from the man to make her visible. Now we could see the man and the woman separately with all their distinct characteristics. “This is His image.” And He commanded that they marry and be fruitful and multiply, thus completing the family—the perfect image of the Creator Himself. God is a Divine Family, the Father, Spirit and Son, thus His expressed image needed to be represented by all the same separate and distinct family members. As such, the human family was created in God’s image, the man—a husband and father; the woman—a wife and mother; and the children as the fruit of their marriage. Do you see it: Father, Spirit and Son?
When you contemplate the existential crisis of our day, you can simplify it into two opposing beliefs. One position believes men and women are distinct and definitive, marriage is a holy union between them, and children are the blessed fruit of that union. The other position believes any or all of the following: gender is not determined by genetics; it is a social construct and there has never been a distinction between a man and a woman, nor is gender limited to male or female, or even the idea that you must pick only one. Marriage is unnecessary, or if desired, may take place between any genders or no genders at all. And of course, the unborn child is the fruit of nothing. It is not even human or alive, and has no rights to live, other than what the person carrying that clump of tissue permits. By the way, the person incubating that amorphous cluster of cells can be a woman or a man or neither, just to clarify.
One side believes in the family, as God presents it to us, as His visible image. The other has rejected any or all aspects of the family, and by inference has rejected the image of God Himself. In other words, there is no God! Could opposing beliefs be any more contrary? The destruction of the family is the enemy’s chief strategy and thus the restoration of the family to the image of our Creator is the most important work on earth today. The wrath of God is coming against all who oppose this reality.
2023-10-20 | Romans 1:1-17 | From Faith to Faith
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It’s a mouthful, but if you can’t string these words together and understand what they mean—grace-empowered-faith-based-obedience to God—then it will be impossible for you to understand the Book of Romans, and more importantly, how those words unpack, “The just shall live by faith.” It’s a life of famous faith; that’s what it will take, faith imparted and faith practiced. You can’t practice the faith necessary to save you; that brand comes gift-wrapped from heaven. And you can’t bury that gift in the sand and believe your life will be pleasing to God. Your faith must be practiced—demonstrated by obedience.
From faith to faith explains what those ancient words mean; “The just live by faith.” That is how the righteousness of God becomes evident to others. By God’s grace, through faith, you received a free invitation into His family. But, you must be aware that the gift also confers upon you a responsibility; you are justified by free faith to then live by faith—you must practice your faith. And you practice your faith by purposely accessing God’s grace. That is how your faith-filled-grace-empowered life reveals God’s righteousness to the world—from faith to faith. It’s the life of grace-empowered-faith-based-obedience to God.
2023-10-13 | Introduction to Romans | Paul’s Magnum Opus
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Over the years, I have learned that using questions is a powerful way to engage with people on a deeper level. When I was younger, I thought arguing was an effective form of communication. I was very wrong. But, as I’ve grown older, and my hair has become dusted with silver, I’ve come to realize there’s a much better way.
Asking questions is significantly more effective if your desire is to advance a conversation, discern someone’s position, determine current understanding, impart knowledge, influence thought, and challenge disagreement. And the quality of your questions and how you present them not only determines their effectiveness, but also directly influences the quality of your relationships.
Paul asked many questions, as any good teacher should, and his questions have stirred the imagination of Christians for two thousand years. Look at a few examples extracted from just one chapter in one of Paul’s letters (I Corinthians 9):
• Would you ever go to war at your own expense?
• Would you plant a vineyard and not eat of its fruit?
• Do you believe when I speak that I’m teaching as a mere man?
• Does not the law say the same as what I am presenting?
A quick review of Romans, Paul’s greatest “theological treatise,” and you will discover that 92 times he asks a question (depending on your preferred translation). Here are a mouthful of them to chew on:
• “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way!
• “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
• “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
• “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”
• “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not!”
• “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God Jesus Christ our Lord did!”
Thinking about questions reminded me of two things. The first was that asking questions is what I’ve done for many years as I’ve helped disciple many young people in the faith. It has been quite effective. And the the second was a poem that my wife Andrea wrote (added below), at the request of my son Cyrus, to be included in one of his poetry books. Its title speaks of one of the most powerful questions we could ever ask, “Why?” It poses the question, “Why don’t we seek answers from all the grey-haired wisdom keepers who are still alive today, instead of always asking Siri, Google and ChatGPT?”
In his letter to Romans, Paul often asked why…
• “Why do you judge and show contempt for your brother?”
• “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?”
• “Why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?
• “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?”
• “Why does God still find fault?
• “Why have you made me like this?”
As we venture into Paul’s letter to the Romans, let’s all answer and ask: who, what, when, where, how & why?
2023-10-06 | Leviticus 23:36-39 | Wedding Day
It was a betrothal and today we have all but lost the dense significance of such customs. Once the image was diluted it did not take long before the tradition was replaced by something much less meaningful. Marriage today is most often preceded by engagement, an offer of marriage and loose promise between two people, if accepted, to get married one day. And why would that event be anything significant when all the benefits of marriage are readily available outside of marriage and shared already—including sexual intimacy and cohabitation. Gone are the binding commitments and isn’t that most obvious by how often marriages end, as if they are disposable inconveniences that have run their useful course. Why own when you can rent? Why buy when you can use someone else’s property for a while and just walk away when something breaks or upkeep becomes too much work?
Betrothal is different, but in order to even begin to grasp why, you must learn to see marriage differently. Marriage was the one institution, the only institution, designed by God to indicate mankind was created in His image. Adam was created and even before Eve was pulled from his bones, Adam already had within him everything that represented God—man, woman, and child. But we could not see the woman and child, so God extracted the woman and presented her to Adam, really to all of us. That is when we recognized the family that was inside of him all along—God’s image. And then came marriage. God instructed, “Let Me assure you that even though I took her from you, she is still one with you.” Marriage is simply, but profoundly, God’s way of telling us, we are one with Him, created in His image, forevermore.
When you consider this idea, does it not make so much more sense now when we read in the Scriptures that marriage is about Christ’s oneness with His bride, the church? Yes, His bride but yet to have arrived at the altar of marriage. His bride, but presently His betrothed, bound in a covenant as strong as marriage, but not married. All the permanence minus two things, sexual intimacy and cohabitation. Think back when Joseph thought that Mary had been unfaithful, having been found with child. Did he not consider divorce, even though they were only betrothed? That is the binding nature of betrothal. Do you see how much more powerful this is than the idea of engagement? And do you see how harmful it is to engage in the things reserved ONLY for marriage, OUTSIDE of marriage? It cheapens marriage, weakens it. It has diluted the meaning of marriage so badly that we’ve arrived at a cultural crossroads; marriage is unnecessary. Marriage is an outdated institution, and by extension, so is the family. In other words, seeing the human family as the expressed image of God has become obsolete; it’s a relic best designated to the museum reserved for all things no longer needed.
And all of this is to bring us to one point. The Eighth Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Last Great Day, has been the rehearsal dinner for the marriage supper of the Lamb for thousands of years. The bride, that’s you, must make herself ready by putting on her pure white wedding garment because the wedding day is approaching and the Groom is on His way. It will be a holy convocation, a sacred assembly. It’s a day designated “The Joy of the Law.” Maybe that’s because when the Groom arrives and after He takes care of some much needed business, we will be legally transitioned from His betrothed to His wife. Could there be anything more joyful than that?
2023-09-29 | Leviticus 23:33-44 | Not of This World | Tabernacles
The Word became flesh and pitched a tent among us. He tabernacled with us and we beheld His glory. Yet He was here for what seemed like just a vapor of time and that is because He was never meant to stay. “I am in this world but not of this world,” He would say. Y’shua’s life bears the striking symbolism of God’s people after their exodus from Egypt, as they ventured into freedom and tabernacled in the wilderness. Pitch a tent, but be sure it’s built as a temporary structure because you won’t be staying very long. This is not your land; you are just sojourners passing through and your permanent home is elsewhere.
It was true for the Israelites in the wilderness; it was true for Y’shua when He was born into this world; and it is true even for you. This is not your permanent home and the body in which you live is not your permanent body. In this world you will have trials, but He has overcome this world. In your permanent body and in your permanent home there will be no more trials, no more tears, no more pain. There will be only righteousness, peace and joy.
The imagery in the Feast of Tabernacles is striking. But that should come as no surprise because that is what all the Feasts of the Lord offer. The stories are real and knowing about the historical events and their prophetic significance is both important and profitable. God makes promises and we should never settle for less than what He has guaranteed. Had Israel settled in the wilderness, built permanent housing and walled cities, they would have never inherited the fullness of God’s covenant; they would have fallen short of God’s destination. Do you do that? The implications for such are staggering, both personally and prophetically.
What does it look like personally? “This world and the things of this world are what I am after to satisfy my soul.” Yet, it is after those very things the Gentiles seek; don’t! For all that is in the world —the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—are not of the Father. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God will tabernacle forever. And that is precisely the prophetic implication, to tabernacle forever. This is not your land; you are just sojourners passing through; your permanent home is elsewhere. Your ultimate citizenship is in heaven; here on earth you have no permanent city, so you must seek the one to come. You are heading for a permanent place to dwell in permanent glorified dwellings! Knowing this is to your great advantage!
2023-09-22 | Leviticus 16 | Behind the Veil | Yom Kippur
“Once and for all means once and for all,” doesn’t it? If there is one Feast of Yahweh, more than any other, that Christians believe no longer has any relevance for them, it has to be Yom Kippur. “The blood of Christ has paid for our sins past, present, and future, so why do I need to pay attention to a holiday that foreshadowed the sacrifice needed to cover the sins of the world?” It’s a worthy question and one worth exploring, especially in light of these difficult to explain scriptures written decades AFTER the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. “The Feasts of the Lord are shadows of things to come.” “Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come.” And, “The Law, having a shadow of the good things to come.” The Feasts, the High Priest, and the Law, all shadows of things yet to come, even decades after Christ. These are mysteries worth unlocking; secrets with discoveries relevant to every Christian serious about the future of their faith.