Advancing Word Podcast

October is Clergy Appreciation Month.  Once again, we share this classic sermon by Dr. T. D. Stubblefield on the biblical office of Pastor -Teacher based on Jeremiah 3:15.  “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching” (1 Timonthy 5:17).  Send the link to this inspiring message this month to your pastor or minister along with a note of appreciation for their labor of love.

All prisons don’t have bars.  Some prisons are relational; others are financial and there are experiential prisons because "stuff happens"!  These unwelcome confinements stretch our limits and test our faith.  In the Book of Acts, Chapter 12, verses 5 - 11, the Apostle Peter had been imprisoned for the preaching of the Gospel.  But in prison, surrounded by guards, he slept and later was miraculously released by an angel sent by God to escort him to freedom.  Peter experienced a “breakout faith.”  We can too.  This sermon shows us how.  

In Jeremiah, Chapter 8, the prophet laments and mourns because of the plight of the covenant people of Israel.  Thousands were living in captivity in Babylon.  The prophet’s anguish is ultimately demonstrated by the questions he raises and not the declarations he makes.  Down through the centuries, priests, prophets, preachers and pastors are sought out for their answers to life's perplexing and troubling questions.  The reality is that we have questions too and more than often we must stand compassionately, yet silently with others who are trying to live with the questions that life inevitably brings.  This sermon offers help, hope and healing for those who are living with the questions!  

On a basic level, baggage is a suitcase, container or a trunk used for storage when traveling.  On another level however, baggage is the beliefs, perspectives and experiences that make us who we are.  The Bible reminds us that there is a relationship between expelling unhealthy, unneeded and unspiritual baggage and experiencing blessing.  This sermon leverages a short, succinct yet powerful passage in 2 Chronicles, Chapter 4, verses 9 – 10, where the profile and the prayer of a man named Jabez reveals the truth about moving from the baggage to the blessing.  

The Apostle Paul’s second missionary journey took him and Silas to Phillipi, a Roman province in the region of Macedonia.  There, they were incarcerated for the preaching of the Gospel.  But in a prison cell, while they worshipped God, they not only experienced a miraculous deliverance but a monumental demonstration of the power of the Gospel to touch hearts and to change lives.  What began with worship ended with a powerful witness that changed the lives of the jailer and his entire family.  Burdens become blessings, barriers become bridges and our bonds become badges when we truly and authentically worship.  This sermon tells us how!   

What is “first class” travel?  It involves special amenities, preferred status, luxury accommodations, and select and exclusive participation.  This sermon posits that when Jesus directs our course, develops our character and discern our cries, we are traveling “first class”.  This is what the disciples experienced with Jesus during a storm recorded in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 4, verses 35 – 41, It is unlikely that the disciples felt they were traveling first class but, in hindsight they realized and so should we that any ship with Jesus aboard offers first class accommodations and will reach its destination.   

At the Ninety-First Anniversary of the historic New Sunny Mount Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis, MO, Dr. Stubblefield leverages Psalm 34, stanza eight to encourage the congregation to not only celebrate their success, achievement, progress and legacy but to remember “to taste and see that the LORD is good!”.  Indeed, to experience the “flavor of His favor”; the sense of it, the source of it and the stewardship of it!  

Based on Hebrews Chapter 10, verses, 23-25, this sermon provides a profile of an effective encourager.  In a time when Christianity is becoming more subject to criticism and ridicule, when churches and denominations are fracturing and fragmenting, when church members are taking flight and joining cults and false religions, when biblical doctrine is being compromised and divine institutions such a marriage and family are being vilified, when in many churches’ pews are empty and hearts are cold, we must encourage one another.  

Psalm 145, stanzas 1 – 4 teaches that worship is contagious and when spiritually infected people worship, the consequences are not just transformational but generational.  In these stanzas, the author's experience of worship moves from the individual to the community, from the personal to the public, from the one to the many and from isolation to integration. This sermon focuses on the motivation, mechanics, measure and ministry of "contagious worship" as the key components of that movement.  

Chapter Eleven of the Gospel of Matthew begins with an exceptional interrogation by the John the Baptist but ends with an exclusive invitation by Jesus, the One whose mission, ministry and message John seemed to momentarily question.  This sermon surveys the characteristics of the exclusive invitation the Lord gives in verse 28 of this momentous passage.