In Romans 5, we learned that God’s grace is overflowing! No matter how bad our sin may be, God’s grace is greater. God offers us more divine help through Christ’s death and resurrection than we will ever need. Because God’s grace overflows, is it okay to keep lying, disobeying, getting angry, being bitter, lusting, being […]
When our boys were young, it was sometimes difficult to determine who was guilty in one of their boyhood disputes. Though I tried to be fair, there may have been times when I blamed the wrong boy. Keep this in mind as we read the “one man” references in Romans 5:12-21. Transition Why did God […]
The narrative of Genesis 38 probably began shortly before Joseph was sold to Egypt. Judah was 2-3 years older than Joseph. He must have married as a teenager before Joseph left home. Though the details of this chapter are unsavoury, God placed them in the Bible to help us see sin’s consequences. God wants us […]
Romans 15:4 states, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” About four thousand years ago, God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from heaven and Lot lost all. Genesis 19 records that event for our learning. […]
God struck Uzzah dead for touching the Ark of the Covenant while Queen Jezebel lived a wicked life for years before God judged her. God’s timing is not always the same, but He always deals righteously with sin and sinners. Transition The Noahic flood gives us a picture of how God deals with sin and […]
As a teenager, I hit my thumb very hard with a hammer. The consequences were blood, great pain, and the loss of my thumbnail. Those are normal consequences for such an accident. Transition When a nation or a person rejects God, sad consequences will always follow. As we look at the sad consequences Israel’s kings […]
The laws of sowing and reaping are 1) you will reap WHAT you sow, 2) you will reap AFTER you sow, 3) you will reap MORE than you sow. This evening we are going to see how true those laws were in the life of King Manasseh. Transition As we examine three stages of Manasseh’s […]
Introduce the chart of Israel’s Kings. This evening we are going to begin a journey through the pages of the Old Testament as we examine the lives of Israel’s kings. In 1096 BC, the Israelites complained to the Prophet Samuel, “Give us a king to judge us” (1Sa 8:6). They were not content to have […]
When weeds grow in my garden I have basically three options. I can ignore them. I can cut them off. Or I can pull them out by the roots. The third option is the only one that will get rid of them. Sin is like weeds. It comes up without being planted. It multiplies rapidly […]