Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

We are looking at pictures of our atonement in our theme for this year. In our first lesson we considered the pictures that show Jesus as the one who will bear our sins, carrying them away far from us. Our sins have been cast into the depths of the seas and have been removed from us, as far as the east is from the west because Jesus gave his perfect life for us and then rose from the dead three days later. I want to turn our attention to another picture that is given to us about Jesus so that we can see another facet regarding what Jesus’ death is to mean for us. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:7 proclaimed that Christ is our Passover…

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How do you think about God’s word? What is your attitude toward it? Psalm 19 gives an amazing declaration about how the righteous look at the word of God.

They are more desirable than gold— than an abundance of pure gold; and sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb. In addition, your servant is warned by them, and in keeping them there is an abundant reward. (Psalm 19:10-11 CSB)

David says that the teachings of the Lord are more desirable than gold. Please think about that. The word of God is more valuable to him than all the money he could have. Further, the word of God is sweeter to his taste than honey coming directly from the honeycomb. The point David is making is that there is nothing better than God’s word…

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Our theme for this year is a focus on Jesus and what he did to save us. In particular, we are going to look at all of the pictures that the scriptures give to describe our atonement. There is not a single picture or single teaching describing the work of Christ. So what I wanted to do from time to time this year is spend our time looking at the multidimensional pictures of Christ’s atonement for us. Our first picture of Jesus is to see him as our sin bearer. I want to begin by drawing our attention to a familiar text: Isaiah 53…

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In our last lesson we talked about overflowing in contentment. Discontentment leads to all kinds of problems in this life. Not only does it lead to problems in the present, it can also draw you away from the pain and pierce you with many sorrows (6:10). The apostle Paul teaches us another picture of how we are to overflow as disciples of Jesus in the next paragraph. With contentment in mind, disciples of Jesus are to overflow in generosity. Notice what Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:18.

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. (1 Timothy 6:18 ESV)

This is where Paul is going in this paragraph. Do good, be rich in good works, be generous, and be ready to share. So let’s look at how Paul teaches us to overflow in generosity…

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Our theme this year, though disrupted by the coronavirus, has been the theme of Overflow. Jesus told his disciples that out of our hearts would flow streams of living water. So we have asked this question through the year: what flows out of us? It was not initially planned this way but two of the topics regarding what flows out of us comes from 1 Timothy 6. I had not planned to teach this book and its faith foundations. But the coronavirus changed all of the preaching plans for this year. So, seeing this was going to happen, I held off from doing overflow last month so that we would do two of them, back to back. In doing this we will also finish our series from 1 Timothy. What we are going to look at in today’s lesson is that we would overflow with contentment. People would look at us and see content Christians. So how do we find contentment?

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We have spent a number of our lessons this year talking about how to have hope when crushed by trials, when hopeless because of suffering and loss, when feeling alone, and when tempted. All of these difficulties of life, from temptations and trials to sinning and being alone can cause us to be anxious. In today’s lesson I want to speak about what the scriptures teach us about how to have hope when anxious. But I have already talked about a number of life areas where we experience anxiety. There is another area of life where anxiety sets in and that it is when it comes to money. Jesus realized our anxiety can be directly tied to wealth and health…

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The first word in Matthew 6:25 is the word, “Therefore.” Before we can enter this paragraph about worry, we need to reconnect to the prior paragraph. In verses 19-24 Jesus told us to treasure heavenly treasures and not earthly treasures. Make your treasure in heaven and not on earth. This idea is going to lead into this teaching about worry and anxiety.

Therefore, do not worry about your life. Let me just stop before we go further in the lesson and just ask, “Are we worried about our lives?” What does the “therefore” have to do with this? We noticed that what you look at is going to affect your life. What you treasure is where your heart and your desires will be. So when Jesus says, “Therefore, do not worry about your life,” the “therefore” tells us that your life is not something we are supposed to treasure. Our lives are not to be our focus…

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Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4–7 ESV)

Paul just taught Christians to not be anxious about anything. Do not worry about anything (CSB, NRSV, NLT). But Paul certainly could not be talking about times of crisis. Paul could not be talking about times of hardship and difficult. Sometimes we can take the scriptures and apply them in their ideal circumstances, rather than applying them at all times. We can want to read the words to not be anxious under general life circumstances. But when bad things happen or when terrible times come, then we can worry. But a little background about these Philippian Christians can help us understand what Paul is teaching…

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It seems that there is so much to be anxious for in life. Work brings anxiety. Life choices bring anxiety. Family brings anxiety. ISIS and terrorism brings anxiety. The world is full of anxiety. Yet the scriptures are going to teach us how we can overcome and defeat anxiety. The apostle Paul is going to show us that the Christian life is a life that knows how to handle and defeat anxiety…

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We have been looking at this section in Jeremiah’s prophecy in which we see the Lord teaching how to have a heart for God. As we come to Jeremiah 25 we are coming to a chapter that most people are not going to be happy reading. We live in a time in our society where our culture does not like the idea of consequences for actions or experiencing judgment. In fact, we so bristle at the idea that modern Christian teaching tries to press that there is no such thing as the wrath of God. They do not believe God could be angry and have a problem with any such assertion. We want a God who is supportive and approves of everything that we do. We do not want to talk about wrath or judgment. So I say these things because Jeremiah 25 could be a jarring chapter to read. But wrath has an important place in God’s revealed character. Further, understanding God’s wrath is critical so that we can have a heart for God…

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