"Sunday Morning" Tagged Sermons (Page 37)
Sunday Morning
A hopeless situation
By the end of the book of 1 Samuel, Israel finds itself in a hopeless situation. Saul, the king upon whom they have pinned their hopes, is dead and humiliated, a failure. Israel could now see how hopeless things were apart from God’s intervention. Only once they understood this truth would they able to understand the hope that they had in David, the king in waiting.
The Christian life is a little like the history of Israel at this point. In order to know the hope that Jesus brings we must first know the weight of the hopelessness of our situation before God. Our sin means we are distant from God. But there is a great source of hope in Christ. Is he your source of hope?
A Different Kind Of King
Leaders are generally rated by how they perform in a crisis. By this measure, King Saul was a miserable failure. But the king-in-waiting stands in stark contrast. When faced with yet another massive crisis, David showed his true colours by casting himself upon God for strength and guidance. And when God delivered him and his people, he was quick to give all the glory to God and share the rewards with others. Here was a king who would rule for God and under God, and for the good of his people. Compared with Saul the future looked bright. Unfortunately David was not the perfect king that Israel longed for, but 1000 years later that King did come ….. the Lord Jesus Christ. He rules with righteousness and justice, and He gives rather than takes from His people. In fact, He has given His life for them! We all need this King. Is He ruling in your life today?
Flirting With The Enemy
Tucked away in the stories of most people’s lives there are usually some details which we wish weren’t there. The heroes of the Bible are no exception …. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses etc. In today’s message we read one of these chapters in David’s life. After years of faithfully holding on to God while on the run from Saul, he started to lose confidence in God and this led him to lie and compromise his integrity. He deserved God’s judgement. Instead, what God gave him was “amazing grace”. There is more than a bit of David in all of us, and we deserve to have our sins exposed and punished. But God’s grace is for us, too. Because of Jesus we don’t have to live with our guilt. That’s why God sent His only Son into the world …. to free us from our sin and give us a second chance. As you look at the story of your life, do you need to flee to the God of grace today?
The Medium and the warnings…
Where we turn to in a crisis can tell us a lot about the default state of our hearts. In 1 Samuel 28 we see the sad state of Saul’s heart towards God. His heart had become hard towards the things of God. Listen as Pastor Dave shares some warnings we must heed from Saul’s encounter with the medium in Endor so that our hearts do not become hard towards the things of God.
A leader worth following
Leadership is rather topical these days. Prime Ministers, corporate bosses, football coaches …. they seem to come and go with monotonous regularity! But what should we be looking for in a good leader? Our passage today probes this question as we put David’s leadership under the microscope. Certainly he had many admirable qualities and these shine through. But he wasn’t a perfect leader (as we will find out in a few chapters)! Only Jesus, the humble servant-leader, is truly worth following. So don’t be disillusioned when another human leader let’s you down. Just make sure you’re following Jesus.
Living Under Gods Authority
The story of David’s life is full of drama – real, believable and sometimes jaw-dropping! What we sometimes don’t realise is that behind the events of his life God is actually shaping a man, preparing him for the day when he would lead his nation politically, militarily and also spiritually. David was not just a good man. He was God’s man! And in today’s message Pastor Murray looks at some specific ways in which David submitted to God’s authority, and how God enabled David to grow personally through these experiences. Issues like knowing what to do in tricky situations, relying on God for protection, waiting patiently for God’s timing, and being prepared to accept God’s justice are common to us all. Jesus perfectly lived under the authority of His Father. Now he invites us to submit to His authority. Let’s be straight: Is Jesus really LORD of your life?
Growing Through Adversity
1 Samuel is a story about three men – Samuel, Saul and David – and how God used them in shaping a nation that had lost its way politically, socially and spiritually. It desperately needed godly leadership. In many respects we see parallels in Australia today. In this message the young future king, David, is on the run from an irrational, jealous King Saul. This is the beginning of years of life as a fugitive for David. Life was hard. He made mistakes. He also learned many important lessons along the way. But through it all God was shaping him and preparing him for his future role as the godly king his nation needed. Like David, we also learn to trust God as we face opposition, difficulties and even enemies. And God intentionally uses these times as part of His greater plan for our lives. He also provides the perfect leader for us to follow in David’s descendant, Jesus Christ, who offers to save us from our greatest enemies, sin and death!
Childlike Faith
How do we enter the kingdom of God? Jesus says that to answer this question, we need to look at a little child. Listen as we consider what it means for us to have a childlike faith.
True thankfulness
Listen as we explore the story of the healing of the ten lepers and consider what it has to teach us about being truly thankful for what God has done for us.
Trusting God…no strings attached
Faith is more than a mental belief in God. As one writer put it, it’s “trusting God in the dark”. Faith shows its true colours when life throws up difficulties and even tragedies. And no one in the Bible illustrates this better than Job. Tested to the limits of human endurance, this man clung tenaciously to his faith despite incredible personal pain and suffering: the loss of his wealth and family, the cruel accusations of those closest to him, and even the apparent silence of God. Would our faith survive under this pressure? Where is God in times like these? In today’s message Pastor Murray unpacks the key teaching points of the book of Job and helps us see that though we may lose everything this world considers important, God does not abandon us. His is still with us, He is still in control, His character doesn’t change, His love and promises are still true, and we do have an eternal hope and confidence through His Son, Jesus Christ. Listen in and be encouraged!
The Final Perfect Sacrifice
To understand the Christian faith we need to understand its core teaching. Today’s message takes to that place. At the very centre we find the one, final, perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the only way sin and guilt can be removed, so we can “draw near” to God. Any other way to God is a fallacy, or at best, only a shadow of this reality. By willingly sacrificing His life for us, Jesus has perfectly fulfilled all God’s demands and promises, removed the curse of all our sins, and opened the way us to have a whole new life under the control of the Holy Spirit. It’s an offer too good to refuse! Is your hope in Jesus Christ? Why not commit your life to Him today?
The Goal of Christian Parenting
When it comes to raising our kids there are a great number of ideas about what is important for us as parents to aim for. Listen as Pastor Dave shares from Deut 6:1-9 about hat the Bible says should be the goal of Christian Parenting.