Sermons
Psalm 107, continued – Give Thanks for God’s Lovingkindness
In our last post we began to outline the wonderful ways God illustrates His redemption of sinners in Psalm 107. This is a great psalm, designed to inspire thanks and praise to God “for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men” (v. 8, 15, 21, 31). Remember that we stated the purpose and goal of the psalmist like this:
We must thoroughly consider the everlasting lovingkindness of the Lord, and give thanks.
In order to help us do just that, through illustration and instruction, the psalmist gives FIVE REASONS the redeemed must give thanks for God’s lovingkindness.
Last time we saw the first two. In this post we will look at the next three. Hopefully when we’re done our hearts will be filled with thanksgiving, having been reminded by the psalmist all the wonderful things God has done for us because of His lovingkindness.
Click here to read the entire post.
Read MorePsalm 107 – Give Thanks to God for His Lovingkindness
We are exhorted by the Psalmist to give thanks to God, and that those who are redeemed should be singing a refrain of thanksgiving to God (Psalm 107).
Psalm 107:1-3 – Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary, And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.
If we are going to be faithful children of God, and live the redeemed life, then we must be characterized by thankfulness and praise to God for what he has done for us by redeeming us from sin and death and hell. It is because of God’s mercy and lovingkindness that our hearts are turned away from self, and toward Him. Psalm 107 reminds us of that fact by painting beautiful word pictures of this so great salvation that is ours, and then encouraging us to give thanks in response.
Read the entire post to see how and why we are encouraged to do so in Psalm 107.
Read MoreBiblical Occasions for Fasting
A few weeks back, in our study of Matthew’s gospel, we discussed the topic of fasting. With a little help from John Piper (A Hunger for God), Donald Whitney (Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life) and a couple of others, I have tried to outline the biblical occasions for fasting. Here is the fruit of…
Read MoreImprecatory Psalms – An Example of How to Understand them (Psalm 137)
Most honest readers of psalm 137 must admit that there are disturbingly graphic and frightening statements made. Most pointedly, there is a divinely inspired word regarding violent men, committing violent and lethal acts against little children, with an expectation that God will bless them anyway. Wow!
How are we to understand such things?
We studied psalm 137 together some months ago. It is called an imprecatory psalm because of the curse and judgment that is pronounced by the psalmist against others. Because there are many passages of Scripture that include such statements, I thought it might be helpful to review in summary fashion how we understood that psalm. This provides a pattern for understanding similar passages in Scripture.
Click here to read my attempt to understand a difficult passage, or you can click here to listen to the message as I preached it our church.
Read MoreRighteous anger? Don’t be so sure!
I mentioned in my message on Sunday that the emotion of anger is not sinful (see Psalm 4:4; Eph. 4:26). It is simply a strong feeling or emotion of displeasure brought about by a real or perceived unfulfilled desire (see James 4 for a description). While it isn’t always sinful, our flesh very often turns…
Read MoreMaking Sense of Suffering – D. A. Carson
A few months ago D. A. Carson was the speaker at a Bible Conference at Omaha Bible Church, in Omaha, Nebraska. The Senior Pastor there is Pat Abendroth, one of the men I ministered with in Pune, India at the 2006 National Expositor’s Conference. His brother Mike pastors a church in Massachusetts, and the ladies…
Read MoreGrowth and the Knowledge of Christ
In Craig’s message Sunday from 2 Peter his main point was to remember that God has provided everything you need to grow. This provision (1) comes through the knowledge of Christ, (2) is found in the promises of God, (3) is dependent on Christ’s glorious character, not yours, and (4) results in conformity to Christ’s…
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