The busy season is upon us! I suppose this is not a good time to be trying to set up my new web venture, but we want to be ready to use it not only as a resource for our sermons but as an evangelistic tool by the time January rolls around. Much is yet to be done, but we are stepping forward bit by bit.
I am going to adapt our sermon summaries in this space a bit since I am now providing both audio and outline on the web site. I will do less summarizing and try to sum up the appeal the main idea of the message had to me as I prepared and delivered it.
Here are the latest instalments:
Galilee of the Gentiles (Mt 4.12-17) Audio Notes
Have you ever considered the difference between Judea and Galilee? Galilee is part of the old northern kingdom of Israel, and as far back as the judges was only tenuously held by the Israelites. Galilee always had a Gentile influence. During the time of Christ, Galilee held a mixed population of Jews and Gentiles. Why did Jesus spend the bulk of his ministry there?
Isaiah spoke of a light that would come to lighten the Gentiles. Think about what it meant for the Gentiles of Galilee who saw the light of Christ right in their presence? And think now of the light of Christ in our Gentile world? And think about the many many nations immigrating to our shores – Christ is a brilliant light for them as well.
All of this light is wrapped up in the name ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’. What grace God brought down to man!
Ask (Lk 11.5-10) Audio Notes
Do you ever get discouraged in prayer? Do you faint along the way? Do you know that the Lord doesn’t want you to feel that way?
The parable of the friend at midnight is a picturesque promise (and kind of a backhanded one at that) that the Lord answers prayer. You can count on it. And you can always count on the Lord’s answer being good, better than you could ask or think.
But it does seem that the answers start with the asking. The Lord wants you to ask. Do you feel your prayers lack? Then ask. Do you feel the Lord is far away? Then ask. Just ask and keep on asking.
A good deal of our spiritual life is simply missed because we do not pray.
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BTW, for our afternoon service, the message on prayer, we had a couple from Singapore show up for a visit. We are kind of excited about that, after I just finished preaching about the Lord being a light to the Gentiles, and the nations moving to Canada. May the Lord shed his light into the hearts of many nations from right here in Victoria!
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Perhaps I missed it somewhere, but why have you gone to posting only two sermon outlines a week? Do you have a guest speaker once a week, or have you cut back a service? Just wondering.
Hi Jerry
Since we finished the Thru the Bible series, our middle service has reverted to a Bible Study/Sunday school format. I haven’t been summarizing it although the outlines are available as well as the audio on our new web-site. Right now we are going through Inspiration and Inerrancy. It is a profitable study, but not exactly in sermon form.
You can check them out if you like. You will see that I have moments in the midst of the service where I pause for audience participation. Unfortunately it is quite difficult to hear what the audience says, so you have sometimes extended parts of the service where you hear not much of anything.
Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3