In Philippians 1:21, the Apostle Paul made a profound statement about life and death. He declared, “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This verse encapsulates Paul’s belief that when our life’s journey is with Christ, our death is just a transition to an even greater fellowship with Christ.  

Most of us have been raised in a society that cherishes life and dreads death. We strive to safeguard and prolong our lives, and to postpone or evade our date with death. Yet, the time will come for some of us when our lives are filled with such pain, sorrow, and suffering that death is seen as a release from the anguish and grief of this world.

However, that is not what Paul means.

Our common thought might be, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is to be free of our misery, to see the streets of gold, to see the mansion he has prepared for us, to see our loved ones who have gone before us, to see those sights of heaven that are too glorious for words.” Paul said, for him, having had Christ living in him for the past 30 years, his death would rob him of nothing, but rather it would allow him to live with Christ for eternity.

The theme of our new sermon series from Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians is “The Epistle of Joy.” The title of this sermon is: “In Life or In Death.”

Thank you for forwarding these sermon study guides to those you think might be interested. We are encouraged by the response we’ve received from viewers worldwide.

The unbelieving world wants to see if we truly are redeemed, and if they are convinced by what they see, they might also be convicted of what they are missing, and ask us for the reason for the hope that is within us.  

Christians are to be the conscience of a nation, not by our stands against sin so much as our submission to our Savior, and our love for each other. Those are the two most convincing things we can ever do.

Wednesday night at 6:00 PM, we will continue our study of Paul’s incredible letter to the Christians in Rome. In this sermon, we will examine Romans 13:1-14 under the heading: “The Behavior of a True Believer.”   

Thanks for spreading the gospel by sharing these sermon study guides with your family and friends.

In Romans 12:1-2, the Apostle Paul said those who have been saved by the grace of God WOULD NOT conform themselves to the evil systems of the evil world, but rather they would:

Be transformed by the renewing of their mind, through the consistent and persistent study of the Holy Scriptures.
Be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit, which means they were to use the gifts God had given them to go into that deceitful culture and confront it with the truth of God’s Word.
Be encouragers to their fellow believers by standing firm in their faith, and witnesses to the unbelievers by consistently living out their faith before them.

Paul said their goal was to equip themselves with the word of God, so that God could use them to make a difference in the season of history in which they lived.

Sunday evening at 6:00 PM, we will continue our study of Paul’s incredible letter to the Christians in Rome. In this sermon, we will examine Romans 12:3-21, under the heading: “The Behavior of a True Believer.”

Thanks for spreading the gospel by sharing these sermon study guides with your family and friends.  Pastor Wayne

The Apostle Paul was about 30 years old when the Lord arrested him on that road to Damascus, and he was around 60 when he was beheaded. The Book of Acts is filled with the incredible things God was able to do through this man’s life and ministry.

Paul made four missionary journeys. The first three are recorded in the Book of Acts, and the fourth is alluded to in his prison epistles.
In addition to the thousands of miles Paul traveled by sea, Paul traveled over 10,000 miles by foot.

According to his testimony in 2 Corinthians 11:25-27, while he knew he was in the center of God’s will, these trips were filled with troubles and trials. Paul said he was beaten with rods three times, stoned once, suffered a shipwreck, and spent a night and a day treading water in the sea. He was attacked by robbers, by heathens, his fellow citizens, by false teachers, and false believers. He spent days and nights without food or water and sleeping under the stars without proper clothing. In other words, having died to himself, Paul had one passion: the furtherance of the gospel.

The theme of our new sermon series from Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians is “The Epistle of Joy.” The title of this sermon is: “For the Furtherance of the Gospel.”

Thank you for forwarding these sermon study guides to those you think might be interested. We are encouraged by the response we’ve received from viewers worldwide

In Romans 12:1-2, the Apostle Paul said, given all the things God has done for us to redeem us from our sins and to assure us of our home in heaven, the only reasonable response would be to “present ourselves unto Him as living sacrifices,” giving up our wills and fully surrendering ourselves unto His will for us, and that should include our worship of Him, and our ministry to others.

The New Living Translation expresses Paul’s appeal: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him” (Romans 12:1).

No matter how we interpret reasonable service, we can conclude that God desires worshipers who offer Him authentic, heartfelt, and radically lived-out devotion based on a solid foundation of gospel truth. That includes our ministry to others, especially those of the household of faith.

Tonight at 6:00 PM, we will continue our study of Paul’s incredible letter to the Christians in Rome. In this sermon, we will examine Romans 12:1-8.  

Thanks for spreading the gospel by sharing these sermon study guides with your family and friends.

One of my Bible college professors taught us to ask a certain question when we came upon the word “therefore” in the Bible. He told us to ask: “Wherefore is that “therefore” there for?

I submit to you that the most important “therefore” in the Bible is found in Romans 12:1-2 where the Apostle Paul said, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

On Sunday night at 6:00 PM, we will continue our study of Paul’s incredible letter to the Christians in Rome. In this sermon, we will examine Romans 12:1-2 under the heading: “The Call to True Worship.”

Thanks for spreading the gospel by sharing these sermon study guides with your family and friends.  Pastor Wayne

What are you doing today “for the furtherance of the gospel?”

The Apostle Paul was under house arrest in Rome, and chained to a Roman guard 24-hours a day. Certainly, Satan intended for those chains to prohibit Paul from accomplishing his mission to get the gospel to the Gentiles. But as Paul wrote to Timothy, even while he was incarcerated, “the Word of God is not chained.” (2 Timothy 2:9)

Those who loved Paul and supported his ministry were disturbed by Paul’s pitiful circumstances. But in verse 12 of his letter to the Philippians, Paul said, “I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.”

The theme of our new sermon series from Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians is “The Epistle of Joy.” The title of this sermon is: “For the Furtherance of the Gospel”

Thank you for forwarding these sermon study guides to those you think might be interested. We are encouraged by the response we’ve received from viewers worldwide.

Those who believe in what is called “Replacement Theology” believe that the Church has taken Israel’s place in God’s plan for the redemption of lost man. This view not only contradicts the Word of God, it also undermines the God of the Word and, in effect, calls Him a liar. By claiming that Israel has been abandoned, this Satanically inspired, man-generated theology questions the unconditional nature of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Genesis 12:1-3 and Genesis 17:7-8.

Beloved, if God were to forsake Israel, He would contradict His own declaration of faithfulness. In Malachi 3:6, God is quoted as saying: “For I am the Lord, I do not change.”

God’s faithfulness to Israel is a testimony of His faithfulness to all His promises. If He abandoned Israel, how could we trust Him to keep His promises to the Church? Thankfully, God’s character is unchanging, and His Word is true.

Tonight at 6:00 PM, we will continue our study of Paul’s incredible letter to the Christians in Rome. In this sermon, we will examine Romans 11:1-36 and Jeremiah 31:31-37. The title of tonight’s sermon is: “Paul’s Passion for His People.”  

Thanks for spreading the gospel by sharing these sermon study guides with your family and friends. 

One of the significant LIES that has infiltrated the evangelical Church today is Replacement Theology – that because the Jewish nation rejected Jesus as the God-sent Messiah, they forfeited their right to be the people of God. God replaced the Jews with the Church.  Those who believe this damnable heresy consider modern day Israel to be an accident of history. They deny that God has any special plans for the current Jewish people in the end times; that the regathering of the Jews and the re-establishment of the nation of Israel has no spiritual significance.

However, according to the Bible:

God chose the Hebrews to be His witness to the world.
Through them, God gave the world the Bible.
Through them, God gave the world the Messiah.
God has promised that He will save a great remnant of them.
God has promised that through that remnant, He will bless all the nations of the world during Jesus’ millennial reign.

Satan is determined to destroy every Jew on planet Earth so that God cannot keep His promises to them. However, Satan knows that a great remnant of the Jewish people is going to live to the end of the Tribulation. They will be brought to the end of themselves, and when Jesus appears:

“They will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10)
They will receive Yeshua as their Messiah and cry, “Baruch Haba B’Shem Adonai.” (Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!)

 What a glorious day that will be. What glory will it bring to the name of God?  Meanwhile, as we await that day, let us meet each new day with the cry of “Maranatha! Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”

Sunday night at 6:00 PM, we will address this issue from Paul’s letter to the Romans as we look at “Paul’s Passion for His people.” As you prayerfully prepare for this very timely study, consider this passage from Romans 11:1: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”

In Ecclesiastes 12:9-14, the writer defines and describes the whole duty of mankind. In verse 13, he says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, good or evil.

This biblical truth agrees with the first question of the Shorter Catechism, which asks: “What is the chief end of man?” And the answer is: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to praise Him forever.” Therefore, in light of God’s purpose for us, our ultimate goal is to live our lives to the glory of God. That doesn’t mean we live a dull, boring, monastic life cloistered away from society. However, it does mean that in all we do, our main purpose is to glorify God and praise Him forever.  

“Coram Deo” is a Latin phrase that means “in the presence of God.” Because God does not always reveal Himself to us in spectacular ways, it is easy for a Christian to forget that His gaze is always upon us. In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul told his readers that to live “to the glory and praise of God,” they must visualize themselves as if they were constantly “in the face of God!”

The theme of our new sermon series from Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians is “The Epistle of Joy.” The title of this sermon is: “To the glory and praise of God.” # 3

Thank you for forwarding these sermon study guides to those you think might be interested. We are encouraged by the response we’ve received from viewers worldwide