sermon

Resolve to strengthen your Theology in 2020
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Photo by Wendy van Zyl on Pexels.com

By now, you’ve probably already made your list of New Year’s resolutions, and you may have even broken a few. You’ve probably also looked back and reflected on 2019, and thought of ways you’d like 2020 to be better.

There are a lot of reasons to be hopeful in 2020, but there are also a lot of areas of concern. This being a presidential election year, expect the stock market to become more volatile as it does each time we head to the polls. Expect more threats in the Middle East, more posturing from North Korea, and then there’s Russia.

Expect more protests in the United States, and more political fights.

On the positive end, expect more job opportunities, and expect the Lord to bless you in a special way individually. You will have blessed moments with your family and friends.

Whether 2020 becomes a banner year for you, or one you’d rather forget, there is one thing you can do to stabilize yourself against the storms of life, and prepare yourself to fully enjoy God’s blessing. You can strengthen your theology.

Strong theology comes from a in-depth study of the Bible. And by in-depth, we don’t mean reading the same passage over and over looking for a divine revelation to come by a miraculous epiphany. We mean reading the scripture, and analyzing it within the context in which it was written.

This also means reading the Bible with its central message in mind. The central message of the Bible is God’s redemption of us through Jesus Christ who died on the cross to pay our sin-debt, then rose again to give us eternal life.

As you read the Bible, taking into consideration its context, and keeping its central message in mind, you come to a full realization of how good God has been to you, and how much He loves you. The more you understand that precept, the stronger your theology has become.

So, resolve with us to strengthen your theology this year. Doing so will give you the strength to withstand the storms of life, and the sight to see the blessings God has given you.

At Life Point Baptist Church, strong theology is one of our foundational pursuits. Feel free to join us Sunday mornings at 10 am for Sunday School and morning worship.

And, to get a jump start on strengthening your theology, here are some of the more powerful messages preached at Life Point last year:

If you need to be encouraged through difficult times, we recommend Pastor Leland Acker’s Seeing God series…

 

Are you struggling in your faith, here’s a message about what to do when your faith fails:

 

Pastor Acker also took on the debate over tradition in this pointed message:

 

And if you resolve for a stronger marriage, strengthen it with the theology from this powerful message:

 

May God bless you richly this year. Stay strong in your faith and fall on Him when you are weak.

Bringing “Seeing God” to its full conclusion

Light at End of Tunnel

In an attempt to provide comfort to those who mourn, are facing life-challenging situations, and who feel as if their entire world is crumbling, we’ve offered the “Seeing God” series throughout the month of October. If you’ve missed this series, catch up here:

When people are in pain, their foremost desire is to kill the pain and find comfort from the pain. This Sunday, we’ll endeavor to provide that comfort from Romans 5:1-6.

When your life has been in a tailspin, all you really want to do is end the chaos and find peace. Romans 5:1 shows us how to find that peace:

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

We have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Over the years, this has been preached as if the believer has found a truce, a ceasefire, and a reconciliation with God. And that is the absolute truth! This peace comes from being justified by faith, meaning the believer has repented from his sin and trusted Jesus Christ to save his soul as a result of His death on the cross.

However, this peace goes beyond a ceasefire with God, and a reconciliation with God. This peace becomes an internal peace that allows the child of God to remain calm, faithful and hopeful even amidst the worst storms of life. Which is why Romans 5:2-6 discusses this hope, how this hope is cultivated, and the premise for this hope.

So, if you’re ready to end the inner turmoil, and find peace in life, spend some time reading Romans 5 this week, and join us Sunday morning at 11 a.m. to learn more about the peace and hope God has for us.

Contentment in Christ

The book of 1 Timothy is a letter from the Apostle Paul to a young preacher named Timothy who would taking leadership over one of the strongest churches ever organized under the Apostle’s ministry. Ephesus was a Gospel-driven, doctrinally sound church, which, despite its strengths, still had a tendency to drift from the Gospel.

So, in writing 1 Timothy, the Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy to stay Gospel-focused, to turn from minute, petty teachings, to keep the peace by unifying the church under the Gospel. Timothy was to teach the people to be Gospel-centered.

In the final two chapters of 1 Timothy, Paul gives instruction on what the Gospel-centered life looks like, particularly in how we relate to others. Chapter 5 deals with those who are impoverished and destitute, and Chapter 6 teaches us how to handle our wealth in light of the Gospel.

The simple message of Chapter 6 is, (1) don’t be driven by greed, (2) look forward to the return of Christ, and (3) invest in the Lord’s work. However, if you look at these teachings in relation to the Gospel, they take on a whole new meaning.

In the above posted sermon, preached at Life Point Baptist Church on Feb. 10, 2019, we will study how God wants us to find contentment with Him, how we are to look forward to the Lord’s return, and how our limited time left on this earth should impact our financial priorities.

The Blessing and the Call

The book of Ezra records the efforts of the first two groups of exiles returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. They were ordered by King Cyrus to take on the reconstruction project.

In looking at the proclamation issued by Cyrus in chapter 1, we see how God blesses us and expects us to use our blessings to further His Kingdom. We also see how God works through the situations in our lives to transform us and reach others with the Gospel. We learn how blessed it is to be used in God’s overall plan.

Furthermore, we see the need for God to spark a revival in our land by stirring the souls of many and calling them into His service.  This is the first part of a 10-part series entitled, “We Build,” being taught on our radio show, The Point, and Sunday mornings at Life Point Baptist Church.