Acts 20, 21
TO HEAR THE ENTIRE SERMON CLICK THE LISTEN BUTTON How Do I Find God’s Will for My Life? Speaker: Michael Andrus This third sermon in our series on Hard Questions could do one of two things: It could liberate you in an important area of practical Christian living, or it could blow your mind and upset your whole spiritual applecart. Someone has said that sacred cows make the best hamburger, but it’s easy to choke on it. I may be slaying someone’s…
Luke 9:49-62
Is Tolerance a Virtue or a Vice? Today is the fourth in a series of nine messages on Hard Questions for Thoughtful Christians and Inquiring Skeptics. Today I want to ask the question, “Is Tolerance a Virtue or a Vice?” And I want to answer my own question with a firm, unequivocal, “It depends.” I have here a magazine whose cover asks the question, “Why are Christians So Intolerant?” I believe that’s a legitimate question, because there are many people who need the Lord…
Mark 9:43 48, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10
Hell? Yes! There are several reasons why I have decided to address the topic of hell in this series on “Hard Questions for Thoughtful Christians and Inquiring Skeptics.” First, it is clearly a biblical topic. Second, it is a neglected topic in our churches. Third, hell is under intense attack in our rationalistic, relativistic culture. And fourth, and most importantly, I want to warn those who are on their way there to stop and turn around before it’s too late. Unfortunately, we cannot assume…
1 Corinthians 11:2-16; 14:34, 35; 1 Tim 2:8-15
What is the Role of Women in the Church? The topic of gender roles is a minefield many pastors consider too risky to cross, and I understand their hesitancy. It’s not without good reason that I am starting my study month tomorrow! It should be obvious that we cannot look to society for help in resolving the gender controversy, for the positions staked out there are pretty extreme. On the one side we have the women’s liberation movements like NOW, the National…
Genesis 1-3
Secular Work Is Full-time Service Introduction: For a long time I have bristled at the notion that ministry is business. There seems to be a strong movement in the church to borrow business practices from Madison Avenue–from public relations to marketing to management styles. You would be amazed today at the books most widely read by pastors of mega-churches. Many of them are written by secular business tycoons and leadership gurus. Please don’t misunderstand me. I believe there is something that can be learned from experts…
Colossians 3:22 4:1; Ephesians 6:5-9
Work Is Not a Four-Letter Word Introduction: Last Lord’s Day we began a new series on The Ministry of the Market Place. We noted that work is a divinely established institution–one of four God set up to make our lives meaningful, purposeful, and happy–the others being marriage/family, government, and the church. We also learned that work should not be viewed as the “secular” part of our lives which must be endured so that the “sacred” might be enjoyed. Work actually preceded the Fall of…
Genesis 39-41
Joseph: There’s No Substitute for Integrity at Work In our new series on The Ministry of the Market Place we have spent the past two Sundays laying the foundation for a biblical theology of Work. Today we are going to turn from the general to the specific. We are going to begin to examine some biblical biographies of individuals who understood the theology of work, and we hope to learn what it was in their lives that enabled them to live out that theology. None…
Exodus 18
How to Turn the Rat Race Into a Relay Introduction: Work is sacred. It is God’s gift so that we might enjoy meaning, purpose, and significance in our daily lives. But enjoyment in work isn’t automatic. Like every other aspect of our lives, work has been affected by sin–corrupted, distorted, and twisted. Some people work too much, others work too little or not at all. Some love it; some hate it; some are indifferent to it. We desperately need to recover a biblical theology of work, and…
Proverbs 31
The Proverbs 31 Woman: Is She for Real? Our Scripture text today is most often taught to women–at retreats, in Bible studies, and so forth. But it has valuable lessons for men as well. In fact, it was written down by a man who learned important truths about women from his own mother. The first verse of Proverbs 31 says, “The sayings of King Lemuel–an oracle his mother taught him.” We don’t know who this King was nor when he lived. But we know that…
Daniel 1, 2, 3, 6
Daniel and the Three Hebrew Young Men: Courage and Character Come Before Career In our series on The Ministry of the Market Place, we come today to perhaps the most familiar of all the biblical characters we will examine–Belteshazzar, better known by his Hebrew name, Daniel, along with his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah–better known, strangely, by their Babylonian names –Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. If you know any Bible stories at all, you probably know about these men, but familiarity must…
Acts 10, Matt 8
The Centurions: Does God Approve of Military Careers? Introduction: Today we come to the last message in our three-month series on The Ministry of the Market Place. I want to thank George Fooshee and Phil Thengvall for their excellent messages while I was in Israel. Next Sunday, Lord willing, we will begin a new series on the life of Christ. We will start, as is appropriate for Advent, with the nativity of Jesus, and then we will continue after the Christmas season by studying…
Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus: Can You Change Your Reputation at Work? Introduction: The question posed in my sermon title today is one that may not seem relevant to everyone here, because some of you don’t have a problem with your reputation at work. But some of you may. And all of you know people who do. It is my hope that this message will give you hope that people can change. Of course, it works both ways. We need to be aware also that one bad decision, one careless act…