J. Randal Matheny – Gospel Progress

2019-06-16

Pull off all the knobs!

A man bought a new radio, took it home, and placed it on the refrigerator. He plugged it in, tuned to WSM in Nashville (home of the Grand Ole Opry) and proceeded to do the most unusual thing. He pulled all the knobs off!

He had already tuned in all he ever wanted or expected to hear, so he chose to limit his radio reception to one station.

Perhaps if more people would do this with the word of God we would have a lot less religious confusion in the world. Too many are turning to every “channel” of doctrine. Paul warns,

“Be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14).

We must tune only into God’s channel — His holy word — for our direction. This is why Jeremiah declared,

“O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23).

—Tom Moore, revised, taken from “The Sower“

2019-01-15

He did, so we must

Cory Collins has a good outline of Hebrews 10, “Because He Did, We Therefore Must.” Here are his main points:

What the law could not do, 1-4.
What Jesus did, 5-18.
What we therefore must do, 19-25.

2018-01-11

The death of Christ gives new perspective

2 Cor 5.16-17

“Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.”
Eph 4.23 NLT
—•—

About Christ, Jn 7.24.
About others 2 Cor 5.16-17.
About family in Christ, Rom 14.15; 1 Cor 8.11.
About oneself, Gal 6.3.
About serving, Gal 5.13; 1 Pet 2.16.
About suffering, Heb 12.7.

2017-12-25

Christmas sermon: Beneath the Star

Gary Hampton of Mississippi shared the slides from his Christmas sermon, “Beneath the Star.” He graciously gave us permission to share them with subscribers of SermonLines.

Beneath the Star.pptx

2017-12-17

Love, the more excellent way

Introduction

Love is a big word. It covers a wide range of meanings in our language. By studying what the Bible says about it, we can come to an understanding of what it means in God’s plan for us.
The Corinthians loved knowledge, philosophy, and personalities. As a result, they lost the essence of the Way of Christ.
They suffered from the same syndrome as the first disciples, a competitive love of first place.
Paul presents love as the cure to this syndrome.

Love in 1 Corinthians 13

Love in context, 1 Cor 12-14: The chapter comes in the center of a discussion about the proper use of gifts in the congregation.
1. As such, love is the centerpiece and the motivation for the use of gifts.
2. Love is the solution to selfish ambition.
Essential love, 1 Cor 13.1-3: Motivation matters. If we don’t do things out of love, then our works bring us no benefit.
Active love, 1 Cor 13.4-7: Love is not a feeling, but a cluster of attitudes and actions that benefit the beloved one.
Unending love, 1 Cor 13.8-13: The nature of love is not affected by eternity, as are faith and hope. On the contrary, it comes into its fullest light.
1. Miracles—which the Corinthians loved so much—would cease, but not love.
2. God is love, 1 Jn 4.8, 16. As such, it partakes of his eternal nature.

Conclusion

“Pursue love” 1 Cor 14.1, and seek those things that will properly express it and that will edify the family of faith. (Edification is the key word of chapter 14.)
Since God is love, let him define it, sustain it, express it, preserve it, and nurture it in us.

2017-09-30

Weird and sad: The world we lived in

My son-in-law is color-blind. So for his birthday, our daughter gave him a pair of Enchroma glasses, made just for color-blind people. They look like ordinary sunglasses, but actually allow a color-blind person to see colors as we see them.

My son-in-law peered through these new glasses for the first time. He looked off at the trees in his backyard, raised his glasses to get a comparison, then put them back on and said, “Wow, my world is weird … It’s actually sort of sad!”

The world that my son-in-law was living in was a world without color (as we know it), and as he described it, “weird and sad.”

How “weird and sad” is the world in which we once lived? A world dulled by the darkness of sin, and obscured by the gloom of the grave? Stark, hopeless, colorless, doom. But now, all of that has changed for the child of God. We see the world, not as we once saw it, but we see it through the lens of Jesus. A world that was once without eternal purpose now has purpose. A world that was once lived for self, is now lived for others.

Last weekend, I was reminded how thankful I need to be to God for allowing me to see the world through the lens of his Son, who enables me to see the brilliance of his love!

—Adapted from Steve Higginbotham, preachinghelp.org

2017-07-30