First General Baptist

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 19:11-27

Faithful:

~Dr James Dobson—2 weeks

~Old country preacher—“I don’t always know when the Holy Spirit is, but I shore know when He aint.”

~Rev Andy Stanley, “Do what you want.”

Joyce Meyer, “Eat what you want and still lose weight.”

~Psalm 139:1-4, 16—It doesn’t matter.

Jim Elliot in an airplane.

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 18:35-43

When my need for Jesus becomes greater than the pressure to be quiet.

When my need for Jesus becomes greater than________?

Maybe, more important than the answers are the 2 requests:

1)   Jesus, have mercy on me. (General)

2)   That I may receive my sight. (Specific)

“What do you want…?”

What would you ask for…what do you want?

In your relationship with Jesus, will     vs 43 be the result of vs 41?

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 18:28-34

Lessons to learn:

~Discipleship is not bargaining. God owns everything, He owes no one anything, He doesn’t need to bargain, so why should He?

~We’re afraid that giving will leave us with less, that we will lose what we give. God’s supply is endless, He will never run out of anything, but we’re not sure that’s true.

~God’s supply is endless but may be different than you can imagine.

~So when God closes a door you may need to look for an open window, instead of staring at the closed door. It could be that God has more for your life than going in and out the same old door.

~The Cross: the worst thing has become the greatest thing. That’s what God does.

Message: Good News…The Gospel 

Luke 2:8-11

The Good News…Hope Promised

Matthew 28:1-8

The Good News…Hope Realized

What would life be like without the gospel? What would be the point?

Christ paid a debt He didn't owe to pay a debt we couldn't pay.

The Gospel is the good news of what Jesus Christ did do, is doing, and will do.

Timothy Keller, "Right there you can see the difference between Christianity and all other religions, including no religion. The essence of other religions is advice; Christianity is essentially good news."

Message: The Gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 18:15-27

Rich…Young…Ruler

Confronted with the impossible.                 This isn’t hard, it’s impossible.

The young man is not only empty, he’s scared, anxious…worried.

“Trusting in the sovereignty of God isn’t really changing anything around me, but neither is my worrying. Trusting God is changing me.”

Replacement theology: John 20:27 (NIV)

Stop worrying

Start trusting

Follow Jesus

Message: The Gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 18:15-27

Childlike, not Childish

Rich…Young…Ruler

Full but empty, how can that be?

Jesus isn’t asking him to give it all away, He’s asking him to give it all back. The young man confused loaning with owning.

Isn’t being rich supposed to make you happy? Colossians 3:16

“Genesis teaches that evil enters from an abuse of freedom.”

Message: Remember Me…

Text: 1 Corinthians 11:24-26

Luke 22:15, “This Passover…”

The first Passover

Successive Passovers

This Passover, the last one

To Remember: meditate, consciously recall, intentionally looking back

Amplified Version, “affectionately recall”

Vs 24, Jesus and you

It’s easy to start thinking about all the things God is not doing.

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 18:9-14

I’m glad that I am so good:

Pharisee prayed to himself about someone else. Comparing himself to these 6 people was his only way to feel good about himself.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "…we must ask ourselves whether we often have not been deluding ourselves about our confession of sin to God - whether we have not instead been confessing our sins to ourselves and also forgiving ourselves. And is not the reason for our innumerable relapses and for the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living from self-forgiveness and not from the real forgiveness of our sins?"

Praying for someone or about someone?

Have mercy on me because I am so bad:

Mercy is the 1st cousin to grace. Included is not being able to:   pay, earn it, fight back, keep up…I surrender.

Who do you think is the worst person in our church? Look around, who is the worst person in our sanctuary today?

What person in your life is your biggest spiritual hindrance?

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 18:1-8

The comparison in this parable is in the contrast. God is nothing like the unjust judge, they are opposites.

Always: It’s always something!

Lose Heart: There will always be something to tempt you to give up.

There are only 2 choices: Always pray or lose heart (give up)…pray or give up. If you keep praying you won’t give up. If you give up, you have quit praying.

“Speedily” is an understatement.

We struggle with Jesus saying that God answers prayers fast…It doesn’t seem so. We’re wondering when God will start answering our prayer, when He has never stopped. Before you started praying God was already at work.

Message: The gospel according to Luke

Text: Luke 17:20-37

Periods of time or ages:

1) Before Jesus’ birth

2) When God became man, Jesus

3) After Jesus’ ascension, before His return

4) Eternity, no more time or age

Thoughts:

~Other ages thought they might, but we are the only age who can witness the return of Jesus.

~History tells us that every previous age change happened unexpectedly as far as the people were concerned. Every example Jesus gave is events happening suddenly, without warning. The return of Jesus will happen suddenly, we won’t be expecting it, so we must live _______?

~Hebrews 11:39-12:1 (NLT) Putting life and eternity into perspective.