Advancing Word Podcast

In the Gospel of John, Chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus reminds His disciples and us that He is the “Ultimate Treat”.  He has no equal!  Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life.”  This passage uniquely highlights the uniqueness of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He is both God and man and, according to this sermon, is the path that marks our purposes, the principle that molds our perspectives, the provision that motivates our participation and the Person that mediates our pardon.  

In the Book of Lamentations, Chapter Three, verses 21 – 24, the prophet Jeremiah is overrun and overwhelmed by ruin.  Exiled from his homeland and having to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land, he recalls the calamitous and catastrophic failure of a nation that had been destined for greatness.  He was taking this failure personally because it had happened on his watch.  He painfully laments the plight of the people.  The words in the text flow from the vortex of national and spiritual disaster.  But while he starts with ruin, he does not end there.  He chooses not to focus on the ruin but found rest, assurance; encouragement and comfort in his faith in God's faithfulness; this confidence became the basis of his hope in the present and for the future.  He experienced rest in the ruins.  You and I can too.  This sermon explores that possibility.    

The first five stanzas of Psalm 103 are reminders that forgetting the blessings that we receive from God can be spiritually deadly, debilitating, damaging and destructive.  Any such incidence of “spiritual amnesia” dampens and detaches our worship from its True Source who is the LORD.  According to the Psalmist, the LORD “satisfies our desires with good things” (stanza 5a).  Because of our sin nature, worship is not a natural response but requires us to be intentional about remembering what the LORD has done and blessing or worshipping Him.  This sermon focuses on three components of that response: our temptation, our task and our testimony.    

Jesus is not considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but He is the Lover of our souls who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame and is now set down at the right hand of God.  Chapter 15, verses 1 – 2 of the Gospel of Luke introduces us to the “World’s Greatest Attraction”.  This sermon tells us why this is true.  

Rare is the person who has no need for truth, self-understanding, purpose or significance.  The search for meaning is weaved into the very fabric of our humanity.  Unguided, this search can leave us frustrated, unfulfilled, unmoored and restless.  This sermon based on two key passages in the Gospel of Matthew is a reminder that we can only find our true selves in the True Savior.  

This sermon is based on a pivotal passage pocketed in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 12 and is "rated for mature audiences only".  It is for survivors; for those learning how to live with living without; for those who are discovering the advantages of adversity and finding strength in the struggles of life.  Grace for survivors is characterized by a new perspective, persistence, power and pleasure.

On the eve of the national celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this classic sermon from the archives of Dr. T. D. Stubblefield draws parallels between the lives of Dr. King and that of John the Baptist as recorded in Chapter One of the Gospel of John.  The lives of both men reflected Divine calling and purpose.  Both were born to ministry couples and grew up passionate and courageous about their convictions.  Both men witnessed to the truth and yet had moments when they wrestled with doubts, disappointments and despair.  Both men were seen by those closest to them as often being precocious and withdrawn.  Both incited the hostility and wrath of the powers that be and inevitably died much too young, tragically giving their lives for the causes in which they believed.  These two men mirror “the dignity, duty and destiny of the messenger.”  

Lot's actions in Genesis, Chapter 19 is a warning about the dangers of dwelling on the past.  This chapter of the Bible could be tagged with the title, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”  It is tragically revealing of the depths that a child of God can plunge and plummet if he or she is not vigilant with their walk with the LORD.  This sermon highlights four things Lot’s experience reveals to us today if we want to move forward in this New Year and not look back!  

According to the author of Psalm 121, as Jewish pilgrims approached Jerusalem to worship, seeing the pagan shrines on the hills surrounding the city, they reaffirmed their faith in God.  Their positive outlook was influenced by a profound spiritual “uplook.” Today, our personal awareness of God’s powerful availability will give us promising assurance in whatever situation we face in life.  

In Chapter Fifty-Two, verses 7 – 8 of his prophecy, in typically colorful and compelling manner, Isaiah provides a picture of a herald or messenger running hurriedly along some Judean  mountain ridge bearing good news for all to hear.  The herald’s feet are happy feet, tapping with joy that God’s people are about to leave captivity and experience restoration and renewal in their homeland.  If the coming of this messenger was joyful, how much more the herald who announces that Jesus, the Son of God has come into this world “to save His people from their sins.” This is the essence of the Christmas story!  This sermon explores that theme.