Sunday Sermon
December 13th 2009
Rhema Community Church
Sermonic Skeleton
Sermonic Pericope: ESV Galatians 5:16-26 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Sermonic Theme: Saved & Set Free (The Doctrine of Justification)
Sermonic Theme: The Fruit of the Spirit
Sermonic Tension: The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit.
Sermonic Sentence: Walk with the Spirit it’s the right choice.
Sermonic Subject: “WHO ARE YOU WALKING WITH?”
Sermonic Structure:
I. Are you walking according to the flesh? (V. 16-21)
II. Are you walking according to the Spirit? (V. 22-26)
Monday, December 14, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Free to Love
Sunday Sermon
December 6th 2009
Rhema Community Church
Sermonic Skeleton
Sermonic Pericope: ESV Galatians 5:2-15 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Sermonic Theme: Saved & Set Free (The Doctrine of Justification)
Sermonic Subject: Faith working through love. (Saved by faith alone not works.)
Sermonic Tension: The works of the flesh.
Sermonic Sentence: Love set us free.
Sermonic Help: In Christian theology, the ability to love is a vital aspect of being created in God’s image and regenerated by the Holy Spirit’s power. In 1 John 4.7-11, we read, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this love of God was manifested in us that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Love luv (אָהֵב, ’āhēbh, אַהֲבָה, ’ahăbhāh, noun; φιλέω, philéō, ἀγαπάω, agapáō, verb; ἀγάπη, agápē, noun): Love to both God and man is fundamental to true religion, whether as expressed in the Old Testament or the New Testament. Jesus Himself declared that all the law and the prophets hang upon love (Mt 22:40; Mk 12:28-34). Paul, in his matchless ode on love (1 Cor 13), makes it the greatest of the graces of the Christian life—greater than speaking with tongues, or the gift of prophecy, or the possession of a faith of superior excellence; for without love all these gifts and graces, desirable and useful as they are in themselves, are as nothing, certainly of no permanent value in the sight of God. Not that either Jesus or Paul underestimates the faith from which all the graces proceed, for this grace is recognized as fundamental in all God’s dealings with man and man’s dealings with God (Jn 6:28 f; Heb 11:6); but both alike count that faith as but idle and worthless belief that does not manifest itself in love to both God and man. As love is the highest expression of God and His relation to mankind, so it must be the highest expression of man’s relation to his Maker and to his fellow-man.
(John 3.16, 13.34-35; 14.21; 17.26; Romans 5.8; 1 Thessalonians 3.12; 1 Corinthians 16.14; II Peter 1.7; 1 John 4.18. See Matthew 5.44-46; John 15.12-13; Romans 13.8-10; Galatians 5.6, 22; 1 John 4.7-20; Revelation 3.19)
Sermonic Title: “FREE TO LOVE”
Sermonic Structure:
I. WE ARE SET FREE TO LOVE CHRIST COMPLETELY (V.2-6)
II. WE ARE SET FREE TO LOVE TRUTH CONFIDENTLY (V.7-12)
III. WE ARE SET FREE TO LOVE OTHERS COMPASSIONATELY (V.13-15)
December 6th 2009
Rhema Community Church
Sermonic Skeleton
Sermonic Pericope: ESV Galatians 5:2-15 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Sermonic Theme: Saved & Set Free (The Doctrine of Justification)
Sermonic Subject: Faith working through love. (Saved by faith alone not works.)
Sermonic Tension: The works of the flesh.
Sermonic Sentence: Love set us free.
Sermonic Help: In Christian theology, the ability to love is a vital aspect of being created in God’s image and regenerated by the Holy Spirit’s power. In 1 John 4.7-11, we read, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this love of God was manifested in us that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Love luv (אָהֵב, ’āhēbh, אַהֲבָה, ’ahăbhāh, noun; φιλέω, philéō, ἀγαπάω, agapáō, verb; ἀγάπη, agápē, noun): Love to both God and man is fundamental to true religion, whether as expressed in the Old Testament or the New Testament. Jesus Himself declared that all the law and the prophets hang upon love (Mt 22:40; Mk 12:28-34). Paul, in his matchless ode on love (1 Cor 13), makes it the greatest of the graces of the Christian life—greater than speaking with tongues, or the gift of prophecy, or the possession of a faith of superior excellence; for without love all these gifts and graces, desirable and useful as they are in themselves, are as nothing, certainly of no permanent value in the sight of God. Not that either Jesus or Paul underestimates the faith from which all the graces proceed, for this grace is recognized as fundamental in all God’s dealings with man and man’s dealings with God (Jn 6:28 f; Heb 11:6); but both alike count that faith as but idle and worthless belief that does not manifest itself in love to both God and man. As love is the highest expression of God and His relation to mankind, so it must be the highest expression of man’s relation to his Maker and to his fellow-man.
(John 3.16, 13.34-35; 14.21; 17.26; Romans 5.8; 1 Thessalonians 3.12; 1 Corinthians 16.14; II Peter 1.7; 1 John 4.18. See Matthew 5.44-46; John 15.12-13; Romans 13.8-10; Galatians 5.6, 22; 1 John 4.7-20; Revelation 3.19)
Sermonic Title: “FREE TO LOVE”
Sermonic Structure:
I. WE ARE SET FREE TO LOVE CHRIST COMPLETELY (V.2-6)
II. WE ARE SET FREE TO LOVE TRUTH CONFIDENTLY (V.7-12)
III. WE ARE SET FREE TO LOVE OTHERS COMPASSIONATELY (V.13-15)
Monday, November 23, 2009
Forever Free
Sunday Sermon
November 22nd 2009
Rhema Community Church
Sermonic Skeleton
Sermonic Pericope: ESV Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Sermonic Theme: Saved & Set Free (The Doctrine of Justification)
Sermonic Subject: Christian Liberty (The Doctrine of Faith alone)
Sermonic Tension: Freedom always entails danger. (W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868-1963 Intellectual & Activist)
Sermonic Sentence: To be saved is to be set free.
Sermonic Objective: The sermonic objective is to instruct against the dangers of religion for religion works to enslave Christians.
Sermonic Help: Liberty, Christian NLT Isaiah 61:1-2 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, because the LORD has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the LORD's favor has come, and with it, the day of God's anger against their enemies.
The NT clearly shows that God gives Christian’s liberty, a freedom to choose that grows out of a person’s own commitment to Christ and understanding of Scripture. Yet this freedom has obligations. Christians have a responsibility to learn of God from the Bible and to pattern their lives after His character, relating to others in a way that witnesses effectively to a lost world.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 (Amplified Bible) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).
Colossians 1:13-14 (Amplified Bible) Col 13 [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, Col 14 In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (Amplified Bible) Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power.
1 Corinthians 10:23 (Amplified Bible) All things are legitimate [permissible—and we are free to do anything we please], but not all things are helpful (expedient, profitable, and wholesome). All things are legitimate, but not all things are constructive [to character] and edifying [to spiritual life].
Christian liberty is vast, yet it is not license. It recognizes that not everything is constructive, for when we engage in activities harmful to others or ourselves, we actually destroy the freedom God has given us.
Freedom of the Will: The freedom to act and to be responsible for our actions. In creating us in His own image, God made us rational creatures, which necessarily means that He has delegated sovereignty to us. Our very experience of life tells us we have free choice: We can consciously deny ourselves even to the extent that we can willfully starve to death. Human freedom places no restriction on God’s power. Exactly the opposite is true: We are free only because God chose to give us free will. A God who is truly sovereign must be able to create free creatures. It would be a greater threat to God’s power were He unable to delegate freedom.
Sermonic Title: “FOREVER FREE”
Sermonic Structure:
I. I AM SET FREE (Christ has set us free…)
II. I AM STANDING FIRM IN MY FREEDOM (Stand firm therefore…)
III. I AM BY FAITH STAYING FREE (do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…)
November 22nd 2009
Rhema Community Church
Sermonic Skeleton
Sermonic Pericope: ESV Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Sermonic Theme: Saved & Set Free (The Doctrine of Justification)
Sermonic Subject: Christian Liberty (The Doctrine of Faith alone)
Sermonic Tension: Freedom always entails danger. (W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868-1963 Intellectual & Activist)
Sermonic Sentence: To be saved is to be set free.
Sermonic Objective: The sermonic objective is to instruct against the dangers of religion for religion works to enslave Christians.
Sermonic Help: Liberty, Christian NLT Isaiah 61:1-2 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, because the LORD has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the LORD's favor has come, and with it, the day of God's anger against their enemies.
The NT clearly shows that God gives Christian’s liberty, a freedom to choose that grows out of a person’s own commitment to Christ and understanding of Scripture. Yet this freedom has obligations. Christians have a responsibility to learn of God from the Bible and to pattern their lives after His character, relating to others in a way that witnesses effectively to a lost world.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 (Amplified Bible) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).
Colossians 1:13-14 (Amplified Bible) Col 13 [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, Col 14 In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (Amplified Bible) Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power.
1 Corinthians 10:23 (Amplified Bible) All things are legitimate [permissible—and we are free to do anything we please], but not all things are helpful (expedient, profitable, and wholesome). All things are legitimate, but not all things are constructive [to character] and edifying [to spiritual life].
Christian liberty is vast, yet it is not license. It recognizes that not everything is constructive, for when we engage in activities harmful to others or ourselves, we actually destroy the freedom God has given us.
Freedom of the Will: The freedom to act and to be responsible for our actions. In creating us in His own image, God made us rational creatures, which necessarily means that He has delegated sovereignty to us. Our very experience of life tells us we have free choice: We can consciously deny ourselves even to the extent that we can willfully starve to death. Human freedom places no restriction on God’s power. Exactly the opposite is true: We are free only because God chose to give us free will. A God who is truly sovereign must be able to create free creatures. It would be a greater threat to God’s power were He unable to delegate freedom.
Sermonic Title: “FOREVER FREE”
Sermonic Structure:
I. I AM SET FREE (Christ has set us free…)
II. I AM STANDING FIRM IN MY FREEDOM (Stand firm therefore…)
III. I AM BY FAITH STAYING FREE (do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Be who you are
Sunday Sermon
November 16th 2009
Rhema Community Church
Sermonic Skeleton
Sermonic Pericope: ESV Galatians 4:17-31 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. 21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband." 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
Sermonic Theme: Saved & Set Free (The Doctrine of Justification)
Sermonic Subject: Saved by faith alone not works.
Sermonic Tension: Hagar or Sarah (Slave or Free)
Sermonic Question: Who are you moreover; whose are you? Are you a child of Hagar or Sarah?
Sermonic Objective: The objective of this sermon is to affirm the fact that Christ Jesus has set us free to live genuinely.
Sermonic Help: apologetics from the Greek apologia or apologetikos, “to speak in defense of.” The word is used eight times in the NT: Acts 22.1; 25:16; 1 Corinthians 7.11; Philippians 1.17; 16; 2 Timothy 4.16; & 1 Peter 3.15 the classic text: (Amplified Bible) But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.
Apologetics is the area of Christian theology, or philosophy, which aims to intelligently defend the Christian faith in areas such as the relationship of faith and reason, proofs for the existence of God, miracles, the problem of evil, evidence for the resurrection of Christ, the inspiration of Scripture, prophecy, and the defense of creation. It includes both positive arguments for the truth of Christianity and rebuttals of criticisms leveled against it.
Occasionally called eristics, apologetics is the formal defense of the Christian faith. Historically, Christian theologians have differed as to whether apologetics is appropriate to the presentation of the gospel, and if so, how it should be accomplished. Depending on how they have answered these questions, apologists have appealed to rational argumentation, empirical evidence, fulfilled prophecy, authorities of the church or mystical experience in defending such beliefs as the existence of God, the authority of Scripture, the deity of Christ and the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection.
Sermonic Title: “BE WHO YOU ARE”
Sermonic Structure:
I. WE ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS (V. 17-20)
II. WE PROTECT WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS (V. 21-25)
III. WE PRAISE GOD FOR WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS (V.26-31)
November 16th 2009
Rhema Community Church
Sermonic Skeleton
Sermonic Pericope: ESV Galatians 4:17-31 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. 21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband." 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
Sermonic Theme: Saved & Set Free (The Doctrine of Justification)
Sermonic Subject: Saved by faith alone not works.
Sermonic Tension: Hagar or Sarah (Slave or Free)
Sermonic Question: Who are you moreover; whose are you? Are you a child of Hagar or Sarah?
Sermonic Objective: The objective of this sermon is to affirm the fact that Christ Jesus has set us free to live genuinely.
Sermonic Help: apologetics from the Greek apologia or apologetikos, “to speak in defense of.” The word is used eight times in the NT: Acts 22.1; 25:16; 1 Corinthians 7.11; Philippians 1.17; 16; 2 Timothy 4.16; & 1 Peter 3.15 the classic text: (Amplified Bible) But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.
Apologetics is the area of Christian theology, or philosophy, which aims to intelligently defend the Christian faith in areas such as the relationship of faith and reason, proofs for the existence of God, miracles, the problem of evil, evidence for the resurrection of Christ, the inspiration of Scripture, prophecy, and the defense of creation. It includes both positive arguments for the truth of Christianity and rebuttals of criticisms leveled against it.
Occasionally called eristics, apologetics is the formal defense of the Christian faith. Historically, Christian theologians have differed as to whether apologetics is appropriate to the presentation of the gospel, and if so, how it should be accomplished. Depending on how they have answered these questions, apologists have appealed to rational argumentation, empirical evidence, fulfilled prophecy, authorities of the church or mystical experience in defending such beliefs as the existence of God, the authority of Scripture, the deity of Christ and the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection.
Sermonic Title: “BE WHO YOU ARE”
Sermonic Structure:
I. WE ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS (V. 17-20)
II. WE PROTECT WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS (V. 21-25)
III. WE PRAISE GOD FOR WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS (V.26-31)
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