Sermons: Recent Episodes
Real Life Church: Ankeny, IA
The Christian is the most blessed person in the world, because every spiritual blessing has been bestowed upon us by the Father in Christ.
While the church awaits the blessed hope, the return of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, we should expect the Kingdom and gospel of Jesus Christ to triumph.
Because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, Christians are people of hope. This hope is birthed by God's mercy, looks to a glorious future, strengthened by trials, and fueled by fellowship with the risen Christ.
The cross stands gets at the very center of biblical revelation. The final cry of Jesus on the cross in John's gospel "It is finished!" is the greatest cry of victory the world has ever known.
John the Baptist came as a forerunner to announce the Kingdom of Heaven and call for repentance in preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The new covenant promised through Jesus Christ brings an inward renewal through the Holy Spirit whereby the law is written within. God pledges himself to his people, we are given a saving knowledge of the LORD and our sins are remembered no more.
In response to the disciples' request that Jesus teach them to pray, Jesus does just that. He teaches that His disciples ought to pray with persistence, fervency, and expectation that the Father will generously give the Holy Spirit, who comes fully loaded with all the spiritual and practical blessings Christians need.
Seven hundred before the Son of God came in the flesh, the prophet Isaiah prophesied about the Servant of the Lord who would be exalted and triumph, bringing salvation to the nations through suffering. This amazing prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ was fulfilled and is being fulfilled as the gospel continues to go to the nations of the world.
But David was totally unique and the most important king. The Lord said, I have selected David as “a king for Myself”, “a man after My own heart”. Samuel anointed David, about a thousand years before Christ was born. It’s one of the most important events in the Bible.
The book of Joshua presents to us a new era in redemptive history. Moses has died and Joshua is called to lead the next generation of Israelites into the promised land. Joshua is important in the overarching story arc of the bible for two reasons. First, it fulfills the God's land promise given to Abraham that his offspring would inhabit. Second, the book of Joshua points to the true and greater Joshua, Jesus Christ, and the ultimate rest He gives us by faith and a future "homeland", "better country" for all the redeemed.
The message is obedience and disobedience matters! You choose one or the other, and it affects your life - now, and your future and your eternity! As Joshua said, “Choose this day who you will serve!” Life with God is blessed and full. Life without God will end in disaster.
The ten commandments are to be a rule of life for the believer. God's moral las is not a means of acceptance with God, but a guide to please Him.
Human beings are not created autonomous - as a law unto themselves. We were created to live under God’s rule, under His law.
The early life of Jesus is told to us as a very complex and dangerous story. But 4 times the story is interrupted to say “this happened to fulfill what was written by the prophets.”
The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest wonder to ever take place on the earth. Heaven invaded earth and the Rescuer had was born to save - He is Christ the Lord.
Mary and Zechariah understood that the coming of Jesus would change everything! That understanding is what inspired their song and their joy.
The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in time and space is the most important event in human history. And the announcement of His birth was given to an incredibly ordinary virgin named Mary who would give birth to an extraordinary baby, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Bible God is telling us the real true story of history. And God advances His story in quite surprising and unexpected, even shocking ways! And it matters that we understand not only what God has done and is doing, but how God does things in this fallen world.
The story of the exodus is a story of God revealing himself to Moses as a covenant God who delivers His people through judgment and mercy.
Abraham matters, not only because he left his home by faith, or offered his son on Mount Moriah. He matters because the blessing, the favor of God upon you, comes through Abraham.
The flood is a story of destruction but God’s purpose was to save his creation from the extreme wickedness that had taken over the earth. So God chose to save Noah, to rescue just enough of created life, that a new start was possible. God did that with Noah’s family and 2 of every kind of animal.
Genesis 3 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible. Without it, we can’t even begin to understand the darkness, conflict and sadness that’s characterized human history, and has touched even our own lives. It tells us the world we live in is not the world as it was created by God in the beginning.
As image bearers of God, recreated in Christ, we are called to fill the earth, exercising the authority God has assigned to us to create, build, design- in other words to build a Christian culture.
When understanding the big picture of the Bible, we have to go to the beginning. God, the strong Creator made everything out of nothing by His mighty word. His creation was good - intentional, orderly, and full of life. We all see that things have gone terribly wrong. Sin entered the world and death through sin. But God is not done with His creation. He entered into space and time through His Son, the Word with a word of new creation in order to redeem and repair what has has been marred by sin.
The love of God is the only love that is able to meet the vast need for love, you have inside you.
The one who dwells near God and abides in His shadow can enter into the battles of life, which are many, without fear of harm. Our God is the Most High. He is the Almighty.
Psalm 66 is a call to exuberant, joyful, high praise to God for his redemption, refinement, answers to prayer, and steadfast love.
Psalm 43 gives us two divine strategies to fight for joy and hope in a world of injustice, trouble, and sorrow.
America is a nation under God's judgment. We need to understand the times in which we live and know what the church ought to do.
Psalm 30 describes the heights and depths of life, along with the assurance of God’s never-ending favor upon us.
Psalm 42 teaches us that the way Christians can deal successfully with discouragement is by preaching God's truth to their own souls.
Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” In John 11, Jesus demonstrated HIS ultimate power over a dead and decaying human body by raising Lazarus from the grave, after he’d been dead four days! And He promised, “whoever believes in Me will live even if he dies.” Jesus will not leave ONE of us in the grave, but will raise us up at the last day.
Jesus is the good Shepherd who perfectly knows His sheep, offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice for them, and will bring about a perfect result in redeeming every lost sheep scattered throughout the world.
Jesus Christ is the door for believers into salvation, security, and rich blessing forever.
Jesus said, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
The church at Sardis appeared to be alive, but the Lord Jesus knew the truth: they were dead. What is the message of Christ to a dying church? In this message, we look at the path of revival for a church that is dying.
The greatest danger the church faces is not an overt attack from Satan and his demonic forces. It isn't an overreaching government or intense persecution from evil men. The greatest danger the church faces is worldly compromise.
Christ has risen just as He said! There can be no neutrality when it comes to the Jesus Christ, His claims, and His resurrection. He must be either rejected wholesale or embraced entirely.
The church at Ephesus was strong in their steadfastness in the face of trials, resistance of evil, and discernment of false teachers. Yet amazingly they had abandoned the zealous affection they had for Christ at the beginning. This was a serious defect, one that Christians can fall into. The remedy is to rekindle love for Jesus Christ.
The fear of God frees you from the fear of man and produces faithful, enduring, bold living and speaking for Him and His Kingdom in the world.
The fear of the Lord is honor, reverence, and awe that comes from recognizing God’s majesty, the fact that God is God, that he is infinitely above us AND that he loves us in Christ.
There is no possible way that anything or anyone can separate true Christians from the love of Christ… EVER.
The day of the Lord is when Jesus comes back. On that day it is either God’s wrath or God’s glory for every person who’s ever lived. It’s eternal punishment or eternal life.
There is only one answer that can silence condemning accusation from the devil, our conscience, or the world: It is God who justifies!
We live in the time between the first coming of Christ at his birth and his second coming in glory. How then shall we live?
Mary's magnificat is about the glorious, eternal consequences of the arrival of her Son, the long awaited Messiah.
The redeemed people of Christ are called to give thanks always and for everything. For the obvious and good blessings God has bestowed on us as well as the difficulties and hardships of life knowing that God is working good through them as well.
He who did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
For those who are in Christ, God is for you. And if God is for you, who can be against you?
The Christian life as something you have to go out and perform on your own. The Christian life is lived in the power and strength of God.
Petitionary prayer is rebelling against the status quo; refusing to accept the world in its fallenness. Your Kingdom come.
These three commands bring substantial healing to your heart and mind and soul. Most importantly, these 3 commands are the will of God! God wants you to live in joy, and thanksgiving and continual prayer.
The promise of Romans 8:28 is full of endless comfort for every affliction, encouragement in the face of all our fears, and strength for anything in the future.
Paul ended this letter with 20 commands he wanted to leave with these believers at Thessalonica. Every single one of them is vital to our spiritual safety, peace and joy. The ones we’ll cover this morning mainly help us live in peace with each other in the church family.
In our weakness, the Spirit gives His massive help by interceding for us according to God's perfect will.
The big question people have about the coming of the Lord is, of course, when will it happen? And that’s a question we are not given an answer to. The day and the hour is not vital for us to know, because we are to always be ready for Him to come.
In this present time characterized by suffering and futility, the dominant Christian attitude is to be one of hope.
The world, as we know it will come to an end. The Lord Jesus Christ will break through the skies and everything will change. His coming will mean unspeakable glory for believers and unspeakable terror for those who did not love the truth.
All present suffering and calamity - both personal as well as cosmic - is part of a bigger plan of God to give us a future that is better than we could imagine.
All of God's children are redeemed by the same blood of Jesus Christ and have received the same Spirit of adoption and are therefore full heirs. Heirs of God and Joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
And in our passage Paul urges us to live in a way that pleases God, more and more. And he starts with our sexuality.
The Holy Spirit gives God's children deep, rich, and profound assurance of their adoption. This assurance produces a joyful boldness.
We are going to see how important it is that you respond to the truth you are given, and to the love you are shown, by those who watch-over you in the Lord. That includes people like pastors or elders but also a mother or father, brothers or sisters in the Lord, anyone who sows the word into your life.
The Christian is someone who has received new life through the Spirit, producing a new mind-set on the things of the Spirit (new way of thinking about everything), which empowers a new walk in the Spirit.
Paul lays out the marks of authentic ministry - courageous and tender love for one another.
There is no condemnation for the Christian, because in Christ we are free from the law of sin and death.
Paul rejoiced and thanked God for His work in the lives of the Thessalonians, because there were such obvious evidences that they were chosen and loved by God.
The wisdom we gain from considering our own death not only prepares us to die well, but also enables to us to live well.
Jesus said we must DIE to live, LOSE our life to find it, HATE our life to keep it. The road to abundant life is through the cross.
Divine providence - God's governance or all seasons, times, and events according to his holy and wise counsel is meant to strengthen our faith as we live in the perplexities of life "under the sun". Our times are in God's hands, which is a very good thing indeed.
In his final teaching to his disciples before going to the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us three principles for prayer.
The Lord's Supper is to be taken in sincere obedience to Christ, in the presence of Christ, in remembrance of Christ, to proclaim the death of Christ, together, with reverence, and gratitude.
Jesus sets the priority in prayer. Our highest, most important prayer is that our Father's name be hallowed.
If there is anything that should describe Christians in any age, it is that we are people devoted to the word of God, which means we are people devoted to the truth.
God is relentless in his determination to love, care for, and to resolve all that happens to his people for good.
Every Christian is called to a continual and complete devotion to the word of God. But why? What makes the bible so important that we should be so devoted to it? Three reasons are unpacked in this text: the authority of scripture, the trustworthiness of scripture, and the sufficiency of scripture.
The early church gives us the pattern for what Christians are to be devoted to: truth, fellowship, the cross, and prayer.
One of the big changes Jesus Christ will make in you is who you choose for friends. And what kind of friend you become to others.
Jesus is the son of David, the One who will sit upon an eternal throne and Whose Kingdom will have no end. Jesus is the son of Abraham, through Whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
One of the great promises of Christmas is that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The light, which refers to Jesus Christ, his truth, his salvation is invincible. It is unstoppable. The darkness has not and never will overcome it.
Christmas is about a gift; God giving himself. Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us. He is with us now and forever.
The bigger the announcement the bigger deal you make out of it. In Isaiah 40, God has such a big announcement, that he said “Shout this from the top of the mountain! This is the biggest announcement in history! It is the most astounding and astonishing thing that anybody has ever heard. And it is the best news in the world.
The prophecy of Isaiah 9:6-7 of the coming Messiah reveal to us the glory of Christ's humility, the glory of His Person, and the glory of His Empire.
Words are important. What you say and how you say it matters! We speak because God speaks. We are made in his image. We can communicate. It’s a marvelous gift, that unfortunately can be abused. Learn the importance of using your tongue to build up rather than tear down.
To walk in wisdom, we need new hearts first and foremost. We need the miracle of the new birth through which God gives us a new heart. And then it is of utmost importance that we keep the heart with God, in close communion with Him.
In the book of Proverbs God calls us to the wisdom of work and warns us against the foolishness of laziness.
Self-control is like a super power that almost nobody believes is one. It is a strong defensive weapon, like a high and thick wall around a city, and it is an offensive weapon with which to take a city... starting with the unruly city of our own soul.
God says “I hate arrogance, and pride, and haughty eyes”. And he promises to bring the proud person low. God foretells a future of disgrace, destruction, and calamity for everyone who is proud. On the other hand, God promises grace, and favor, and honor to those who are humble. Proverbs 22:4 ESV “the reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.”
Wisdom comes from a gracious, kind, patient, loving Father. And wisdom comes to children who seek for it as though they are seeking for hidden treasure.
The most fundamental issue in everybody’s life is this: will you run your own life or will you turn to God and his wisdom?
Jesus Christ is our glorious Substitute and Shepherd. And when we know him as our Substitute and Shepherd, it brings the deep healing our souls need.
The promise of those who are on the road of sanctification is that they will be useful and fruitful in Christ, which ultimately leads to a rich assurance and prepares us to enter Christ's eternal Kingdom. So how should the Christian live? With diligence, making every effort to grow in Christlikeness.
Because of all that God has done for us and given to us in Christ, Christians are to make every effort to grow.
God's grace and our effort are not enemies. They are not opposed to each other. God's grace and our effort based on his grace are friends. They walk hand in hand through the entirety of the Christian life.
Visions that give hope. The book of Revelation tells us we have a glorious, happy future with Christ, in the new heavens and earth, in resurrected bodies, with no tears or evil! But some may wonder: Is this that helpful for me now? Well, yes!
We are in a war of worldviews and the goal is to take the divinely powerful weapons God has given us and exert and expand his Kingdom.
The great purpose of Christians is to proclaim the excellencies of the God who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit work together in perfect harmony to bring children of God into the love, protection, assurance, and privileges of God’s family forever.
We are unimpressive. Jesus Christ is supremely impressive. Therefore, let's boast in Him alone!
People sometimes disappoint us. But we cannot let those disappointments dominate our hearts.
Jesus was God, breaking through into our world. His coming matters! It changes everything! He is a king who ushers in a new kingdom.
The call to persevere to the end is the call to finish strong. You cannot change the past, but by God’s grace, empowered by the Holy Spirit, your future can be lived for Christ’s fame and renown. And if you do, you can finish strong and cross the finish line without regret.
As the world proceeds from bad to worse, we are to continue in the word of God. We are to continue in the “sacred writings” or “scripture”.
Whether you know it or not, we are all following someone or something. The path of least resistance is to follow the world, and people in the world, and to be formed into the world’s mold. People who do not know who they are following are following the world. But the Bible tells us to follow people who follow Christ.
The bible teaches us about the wonders and joy of life in Christ and also the hard realities of life in this world.
The way that Christians make themselves more fit and useful to the Lord is by growing in godliness, practical holiness, progressive sanctification.
Christ's church stands firm in the midst of the storms of trial and the flood of false teaching. Jesus Christ, the good Shepherd knows those who are truly his and he will keep them to the end. And true Christians will be manifest by their growth in sanctification.
Christians are called to be good soldiers of Christ - willing to suffer, on duty at all times, aiming to please Christ, fighting to win, and patient in the battle.
Endurance means to bear up under a difficult process or situation without giving way. It is a willingness to carry on in suffering and through suffering. We all do well in encouraging circumstances. But when things fall apart we need endurance.
In this time of widespread deception, Christians must guard the truth as it relates to God's design and standard for human sexuality.
Paul wrote this to Timothy because he knew Timothy struggled somewhat with fear. So he writes to encourage Timothy with the truth that God has given him a spirit of power, love, and self-control, not fear.
Christ has come in the flesh so that he might die in order to destroy the devil by taking away the only thing he can use to damn us (unforgiven sin) and deliver us from the fear of death, to live fearlessly in the power of the Spirit for his sake.
The birth of Jesus came about by the providential wisdom of God, orchestrating events, working out it eternal plan.
Because of God’s great love for the undeserving, he gave a glorious gift so that all who receive this gift as a treasure, would be freed from condemnation and live eternally with Him.
When Jesus Christ was born into the world, the eternal Son of God became flesh in order to bring us to God.
700 years prior to the birth of Christ, the prophet Micah prophesied of the coming of a Ruler out of Bethlehem who would be the peace of His people.
The truly good life is hoping in God rather than wealth or things, and doing as much good as we can for others.
God is the absolute Sovereign over the events of human history, kings and lords, and as the sole possessor of immortality.
The love of money and things money can provide you is a deadly danger. What is the answer to this? The great gain of Christian Contentment!
God gives us instruction for how to honor elders that are worthy of honor because of their worthy labor and how to rebuke an elder who falls into sin.
The God of peace gives his peace that surpasses all understanding to the anxious who seek him.
Godly conduct in the church is a must. A true and elevated understanding of what the church is and the common confession about Christ we share empowers us for godly living.
The Christian is called to be an active, faithful, diligent soldier of Christ, fighting the good fight.
Christianity is like being in the worst possible disaster, then having someone step in and rescue you. It is finding out that you are a sinner, then discovering that Christ saves sinners.
The law is good to show us our great sin, in order to awaken us to our great need, and lead us to our great Savior.
Being members of the body of Christ requires commitments that we are to make to one another so that the church is built up. It is important to see the total commitment Christ has to build his church. He says, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."
The Church is a holy place. Christians are called saints, holy ones. So ongoing, unrepentant sin must be dealt with in the church.
As we see the world descend into confusion and depravity, it should cause us to look to and hope for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are baptized in the triune name of God because we are saved by all three Persons of the Trinity working in harmony. This baptism then marks us as belonging to God and not ourselves any longer, and it joins us with all others who are saved by the same God and bear the same name.
The Lord's supper is a precious ordinance given by the Lord Jesus to be observed together as the body of Christ, in his presence as a remembrance and proclamation of his sacrificial death.
Christians and Christian churches are called to fight earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
Near the end of his life, Paul gave his young protege Timothy the urgent charge to "preach the word." God places a high value on biblically faithful preaching. So should we.
The eternal Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, has risen from the dead! This is the most important event and the best news in the history of the world!
Each Spirit-born saint has been given a gift of grace in order to give it away to others, so that the church gets the blessing and God gets the glory.
Paul describes a radical, yet wonderful way of life for us, where envy and jealousy and competition and comparison do not permeate our relationships...where we all belong to each other, and we are for each other, and we count each others sufferings our own sufferings and each others victories as our own victories.
As a church, our goal is to raise our children to love for God and his ways in order that they serve Him all their days. This responsibility obviously falls upon parents most directly, and the church in a indirect, yet important supportive way.
Sincere, undisguised love is the circulatory system of the local church. It is imperative for health, life, and growth.
True church unity is established in Christ and applied through the Holy Spirit. We cannot make it happen, but we are indeed called to maintain it.
Every faithful local church has its identity both in Christ and with one another. In other words, there is unity and blessing because we are one body in union with Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. And we are diverse, individual people who are members of one another.
The believers Peter wrote to may have looked like a group of scattered refugees, nobodies, outcasts from the world, but to God they were his royal priests. They were God’s own people. They needed to know that, and so do you.
In a time characterized by lies, Christians must not live by lies but by the truth. We must go to the scriptures and take our stand on what it says. We must say "We believe" and live it.
Bob Dylan famously said, "You don't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing." How do Christians live with courage and faithfulness in a society increasingly hostile to our faith?
Psalm 19:7-10 give us a beautiful summation of the sufficiency and power of scripture. From this text, let's look at ten reasons to build your life on the word of God.
One of the greatest blessings Jesus obtained for us, is the love of God. Christ came into the world and gave his life that we might know and enjoy God’s love.
The prophet Isaiah gave a powerful summation of our desperate condition and the relief that Jesus would bring to our hearts in Isaiah 9:2: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God came to earth in order to bring men (women, children) back to God.
Proverbs 29:25 says “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.” Fearing people is a dangerous trap; it will keep you from doing what God wants, and from enjoying God’s presence! Trusting in the Lord allows our hearts to feel safe, unafraid, and near to God, no matter how fierce the battle is raging around us.
Everyone is a worshiper. And the inexorable truth is that you become like what you worship, either for your ruin or restoration.
We are called to live life with God, around the clock, in every circumstance, without compartments
Psalm 3 is a song of real comfort, rest, and confidence in the middle of real, deep, and desperate trouble.
Though Christians are objects of God's love and rich mercy through Jesus, we face great opposition and even hatred from the world. Psalm 124 gives us the deep assurance that through it all, the Lord is on our side.
True worship, at its essence, is blessing the LORD with a soul saturated with the blessings of the LORD.
We should not harden our hearts to anything God says to us, but, in Psalm 95, this strong warning immediately follows the call to joyful and passionate worship in God’s presence.
Psalm 46 is a song of holy confidence when your world and even the entire world is on fire.
We live in a world full of danger and disease. The arrows of accusation and attack are often aimed at us. We have both human and spiritual enemies. But Psalm 91 says the person who chooses God as his shelter will be protected by God from all evil. The promise is NOT the absence of danger, but of coming through all danger, unscathed, safe in God.
Psalm 51 brings together the painful reality and depth of sin and the wonder and richness of God's mercy.
If you are willing to humbly adjust to new ways of thinking about God, the Psalms can lift you to a level of joy and praise you may have never thought possible.
The truly blessed and happy person is the one whose mind and heart are being shaped by the word of God. They are strong, bear fruit, and are continually renewed in this life. And they have an eternally optimistic outlook on the future.
Hebrews 13:20-21 has been called the most complete and most powerful blessing in all of scripture! This blessing is meant as a deep encouragement for us.
Faithful pastors and leaders seek the good of the people they serve with joy, watchfulness, and reverence. Those led are called to sincere submission and passionate prayer for their leaders.
God has called everyone of us to a life of continual praise! This is to be “normal” for us.
Jesus Christ calls his disciples outside of what is comfortable and easy to follow him on the road of difficulty and sacrifice and risk and love. The Christian is called is to take up the cross daily and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we come to Hebrews 13, we see what a life of reverent worship looks like. Worship is more than singing songs. It is a life given to God. In the first six verses, we see that a life of worship is 1) active affectionate love for others, sexual purity, and a heart of contentment.
We must never forget this basic truth that Christ has power! And he is able and willing to impart it to us for what we need. When Jesus has something for us to do, he gives us the power to do it.
For the Christian, hardships and suffering are to be endured as the loving, faithful discipline of the Father.
All of us who belong to Jesus are in a race. It is a long race. It is a hard race. And we need all the help we can get to run that race, and to finish that race. This passage tells us how to run. How to run with endurance, how to finish strong.
Strength to endure conflict courageously is fueled by a faith that sees the invisible Christ.
Real, biblical faith will lead you to refuse certain lesser important things and choose that which is better and abiding, looking to the eternal reward.
People with faith talk a certain way. They speak highly of God. They speak of him as real and present with them. They talk about how good God is. They believe God is worthy of their love and labor and their lives, no matter what the cost may be. They respond to God with what might look to others like crazy obedience. They choose those things in life that God values and loves. They refuse things that everybody else wants, IF they get in the way of what God wants. They would rather lose everything in this life, if necessary, in order to know God and hear him say, “Well done”.
We live in a world of trouble. All of us know and experience this. And this is why the peace of God through Jesus Christ is so precious.
To say faith is important to the Christian life is a massive understatement. Because without faith it is impossible to please God. Impossible.
Faith is the God-given ability to trust God for the future He has promised and to trust in the invisible realities He has revealed.
Baptism is a living picture of the Christian being united to Christ in death and new life.
The key to invincible and courageous joy when faced with great suffering is in confidently knowing that what we have in Christ is infinitely better and more lasting anything this world can offer.
God’s purpose in warning us is to keep us near to him. He wants our happiness and salvation! He warns us so that terrible things may not happen to us.
Christians are to live full lives for God's glory because Christians are given full access to God through Jesus Christ.
We mainly think Christ died to take us to heaven, but the message of Hebrews 10 is that he died to take us to the Holy Place - to the very presence of God.