Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

There are these moments in the book of 1 Chronicles where we are given a flurry of names or a number of consecutive short narrative accounts. It is easy to read 1 Chronicles 18-20 as a bunch of short stories without meaning to just keep moving on. But there is a reason for the Chronicler to tell us about David’s wartime activities. So we need to consider why the Chronicler wants us to know this information. What is he teaching this rescued remnant who are back on the land, looking to seek the Lord? What were the people to see in David and see in themselves as these accounts are retold? We must also consider what the messianic foreshadowing is as these events point to the coming of the greater King…

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If I were to ask Christians where they would want to improve in their discipline to the Lord, I would expect one of the commonly given answers to be the discipline of prayer. We are always looking for ways to improve our prayer life. Even the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1). John the Baptizer also taught his disciples how to pray. The need to be taught to pray implies that there are often difficulties when it comes to prayer. So how can we improve our prayer life? How can we have the courage to pray? Open your copies of God’s word to 1 Chronicles 17…

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I think that every person questions their purpose in life. Everyone seeks the meaning of life and what to know why he or she is here. Further, we try to do things in life that will give us fulfillment and satisfaction. Many times we think that we cannot find satisfaction because we do not have enough resources. For example, we may think that if we had more money we would be able to do more things in life which would make us happier and we would find life to be fulfilling. If we only had more knowledge we would find life more satisfying. If we only had more power and control then we would be content with this life. In essence, our belief is that the grass is always greener on the other side, but we have no way of experiencing the other side. Life could always be better, but I do not have enough to get to where the grass is greener. So we find our lives frustrating, unrewarding, and unsatisfying. So we strive harder in life to get to the greener grass, but always coming up short…

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One of the teachings that Jesus gave to his disciples was that it was necessary and important for him to go to the Father. You may remember Jesus telling his disciples that he must go away and where he is going they cannot follow. Why was it so important for Jesus to leave and ascend to the Father? The ascension of Jesus is sometimes not considered very important in the life of Jesus. We will often speak about his coming to earth, his perfect life, his death, and his resurrection. But his ascension is just as important as all of these other parts in Jesus’ life…

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We started our series on Discipleship a few weeks back and we are looking at what the apostle Paul says to the Galatians about what it looks like to follow Jesus. We began with Paul telling us that this is a winnable war against the sins of the flesh. Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). We talked about being miserable Christians because we are trying to live in both spheres. We are trying to walk by the Spirit while at the same time gratifying the desires of the flesh. But freedom is only found by walking by the Spirit. So now the apostle Paul is going to talk about the sphere we need to not walk in…

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…The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God. (Isaiah 61:1–2 ESV)

Isaiah prophesies about 700 years before the arrival of Jesus. Providing context to this prophecy, Isaiah is proclaiming a message of restoration and hope. The people of Israel had broken God’s covenant. Therefore, Isaiah prophesies that the people will be captured and carried away into Babylonian exile and Jerusalem will be destroyed. But the hope for the people is not over and God’s plan to save the world and draw people to him has not been thwarted. Hope is being pictured. If you have grown up in the pews this text may sound familiar. In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus reads this part of Isaiah’s scroll in the synagogue and declares that it has been fulfilled through him. Jesus is the picture of Isaiah 61:1-2. The Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus, for he was anointed to bring the good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and to proclaim the day of vengeance. These are pictures of what Jesus would do when we came. It is easy to stop the reading of Isaiah at this point since this is part of the text that Luke quotes to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s coming anointed one. But notice that we are stopping in the middle of the sentence of this prophecy. We need to continue reading because Isaiah is going to describe our purpose and what we will do when Christ comes…

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David’s desire was to assemble all Israel together in worship as God was coming to be with his people in Jerusalem. After a failed attempt to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 13), David has inquired of the Lord and brought the ark successfully to Jerusalem because he followed the instructions given concerning the ark (1 Chronicles 15). Chapter 16 of 1 Chronicles begins by showing the ark was placed in the tabernacle and burnt offerings and peace offerings are being sacrificed (16:1). David has prepared for this moment, establishing various people for this worship that will now happen in Jerusalem. Verse 7 tells us that this is the record of how they gave praise to the Lord. This is what Asaph and his brothers sang to the Lord. What is recorded for us in 1 Chronicles 16 are three psalms that were used for worship now that the Lord had come to be with his people again. This chapter is going to show us why to worship and how to praise the Lord…

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One of the key messages of the scriptures that the religious world seems to forget is that our first priority is worship. In 1 Chronicles, the first thing we see King David desiring to do after taking the throne and settling his kingdom is to worship the Lord. Our morning and evening lessons today are going to be about worship. David shows us that the way into the presence of God is in worship. Open your copies of God’s word to 1 Chronicles 13…

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The title of our lesson is, “Why We Don’t Repent.” Why don’t we repent? Why don’t we have radical repentance? But this is not a question that merely I am asking each of us. It is a question that God is asking. Listen to how God presents his case to his people in Jeremiah 8.

You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. (Jeremiah 8:4-5 ESV)

The Lord is asking a great rhetorical question. When people fall down, don’t they get back up again? Don’t people turn around when they go the wrong way? The obvious answer is yes. You get up when you fall down. You turn around when you are going the wrong way. So now God asks, not the world, but his people. Why won’t these people turn around? Why won’t these people get up? Why do they continue to go the wrong way? Why are they perpetually backsliding? Why do they refuse to return? What God is going to do is explain the problem to help them see why they are not getting up and why they are not turning around. As God tells his people about why they are not repenting, we will learn about ourselves and what holds us back from coming to God the way God desires…

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I have an important question for you as we begin our lesson today. What gives you confidence that you are right with God? What would you point to so that you know that you are in right standing with God? As you think about this, I would like for you to open your copies of God’s word to the book of Jeremiah and we are going to look at Jeremiah 7. Jeremiah has been told to go preach a sermon. In Jeremiah 7:1-2 we are told that Jeremiah is told to preach at the entryway to the temple complex to all the people who are coming to worship the Lord. Now I want you to think about this before we begin. Jeremiah is not preaching to the world. Jeremiah is not preaching to the non-worshipers in Israel. He is standing at the temple entryway, preaching to everyone who is coming into the temple complex to worship the Lord. What does God want to say to his people through his prophet, Jeremiah?

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