Sermon Texts and Topics:

August and September 2019

 

 

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August 4

 

Youth Sunday

At the 8:30 AM and 11:00 AM the Youth will be sharing about their mission team experiences.  The Praise Band will be leading the worship at both services.  All are invited to attend.  After the 11:00 AM service there will be a baked potato and salad bar meal in the Family Life Center as a way for the Youth to show appreciation for our support of them throughout the year. 

 

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August 11 

(NO Early Service or Sunday School)

Homecoming and Remembrance Service 

10:00 AM  

Joshua 24:14-18

Sacred Legacies that Produce Fruitful Futures

Jim will be sharing some special memories of his early years at Love’s Grove over a quarter century ago, naming some of the legacies of faithfulness left by our forebears, and showing how those legacies are the foundations God uses to build a fruitful future for Love’s Grove.  Just as Joshua calls the leaders of Israel to be faithful to the call of God, so must we, if we want to live into the call and mission of God. 

 

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August 18

Hebrews 4:14-16

Jesus Our High Priest

My annual mission trip to Roatan has become a critical part of my faith development.  IT reminds me of two things:  one, how blessed I am to live in this country; and two, how much I am tempted to rely on “things” instead of Jesus.  At its heart today’s text is about our deepest needs, and how Jesus, our High Priest, is able and willing to meet them.  Last week we saw how the Word exposes our sins.  It reveals to us what is already plainly visible to God.  All of us have blind spots, places vulnerable to sin.  The Word reveals our sins to us.  It shows us the utter futility of our own efforts to be “good.” Today, and on into next week we will explore how Jesus forgives, reconciles, and empowers us to win victory over our sins. 

 

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 August 25

 

Hebrews 5:1-10

Qualifications for the Priesthood

The greatest quality of Jesus that qualifies him to be our high priest is not his Divinity.  It’s not the fact that his power exceeds that of all other men or that his position before God is greater than all others.  It’s his compassionate heart!  The fact that he knows our every weakness, every selfish motive for every action we take, and he still has mercy on our sinful hearts.  Contemplate that truth this week as we prepare our hearts and minds for learning why Christ is the only one qualified to meet our need. 

 

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September 1

Hebrews 5:8-9

The Greatest Lessons God Ever Teaches

Hebrews 5:8 is one of the most eye-catching, confusing verses in this whole letter.  But when it’s properly understood, it’s also one of the most telling.  Even though Jesus is fully God in every way, the human side of God’s Son still learns obedience the same way we do, through experiencing hardship and suffering.  Even though we do not like to admit it, suffering teaches us lessons we would never learn any other way.  There’s an old seaman’s saying which goes like this:  “Smooth seas never produced a skilled sailor.”   If Jesus learns through suffering, so will we.  The good news is that there is a power and a hope that defeats even the greatest suffering.  Just as it brought Jesus up from the grave, it will also deliver us! 

       

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September 8

Hebrews 5:11-14

Are You Ready for Solid Food?

The analogy here could not be more descriptive of many disciples in our generation.  We are settling for so much less than God has to offer!  When it comes to understanding and applying the truth of the Word, really allowing it to confront us, teach us, and show us how the Holy Spirit can shape us and conform us, we are babies still satisfied drinking our mother’s milk.   This Hebrew pastor does not mince words here.  Even though the path means sacrifice and struggle and giving up some things we have grown to cherish, disciples of Jesus MUST GROW!   And the way we grow is by applying the Truth of God’s Word to our daily decisions.  Are you ready for solid food? 

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September 15

Hebrews 6:1-8

No Turning Back

In all journeys of any consequence there comes a point of no return.  To be sure, when that moment of decision arrives, we need to make sure our confidence and obedience is placed in the right things.  But sooner or later we must decide:  Milk or real food?  Watching on the sidelines or getting into the game?  Making a difference for God’s Kingdom with our lives or simply milling through our days with no real purpose other than satisfying our own desires.  The writer to the Hebrews has made his choice, and calls his flock to follow:  “Let us go on to become mature in our understanding.”  People who refuse to go any further must eventually be left behind.  That’s what verses 4-6 are all about.   Hard lessons, but incredible transformation and power await those who make the choice not to turn back. 

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September 22

Hebrews 6:9-12

An Encouraging Word

After a sobering reminder of what it means to grow to maturity in Christ, this preacher offers an encouraging word to those who have faltered:  God’s mercy and grace are real.  His patience with his people endures as long as we are repentant and willing to grow.  I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life where I needed to hear those words.  God truly does look at our hearts.  What is condemned earlier in chapter 6 is a heart that had become hopelessly hardened to surrendering to divine truth, and holy transformation.  God is faithful to meet us where we are, but he will not leave us there.  Let us be thankful and willing to take his hand and walk where he leads.

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September 29

Hebrews 6:13-20

The Certainty of Gods Promise

This passage of scripture points to the anchor of our hope.  God is faithful, and his promises to those who return his faithfulness are eternally true.  The writer harkens to the time God made an oath with Abraham, and how that oath was kept in a way that was beyond Abraham’s imagining.   Our God is faithful and true.  The gift of Jesus is an anchor to our souls.  His commitment to us is sealed by his suffering on the cross.  Our victory won when he rose from the dead.  God’s promise has been fulfilled.  Will you trust in that certainty?