I'll Be Honest

If you are pouring out your life for others it is going to have a direct impact when you go into the prayer closet. When we love the brethren, John says it gives us assurance that we are Christians and that makes us confident to approach God in prayer. As 1 John 3:22 says, "and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him."

Until the conversion of Paul he was the one doing the talking, but when the Lord came to Paul his mouth was shut. He was no longer boasting in his own righteousness, but instead was like Job who said, "I lay my hand on my mouth." In true conversion God shuts the mouth of the self-righteous boasting sinner. Paul had been the one thinking that he was lord and thinking Christ was an impostor. Yet upon true conversion a person sees that Christ is Lord of all and they bow to Him.

(Technical note: The crackle and drops in the audio are fixed by 11 minutes.)

When John tells us "do not love the world", the main thing he has in mind is not the possessions in the world. Rather his emphasis is on not falling in love with the world's attitudes and and mindsets. To love the world is to love what is opposed to God.

1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that is in the world-the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life-is not from the Father but is from the world.

The servant girl at the door said to Peter, "You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not." - John 18:17 In this sermon Bob looks at four things that led up to Peter's denial of Christ.

In this sermon Bob looks at David's great sin in order to help believers to avoid David's great sin and also to help the believer conquer fleshly lust and sensuality. David conquered Goliath but that giant there was nothing compared to the one that got him - these fleshly lusts are a bigger giant than Goliath. You look at David's life and you can't believe it happened. David is set before us as the standard of a godly example in the history of Israel, and this should be reason for us to take heed lest we fall.

If our death is to be for God's glory, it must be preceded by a life of following Christ. The goal, and hope of the Christian is Philippians 1:20-21 - my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death. - 1 Samuel 20:3

Paul Washer testifies of the manifestations of the love of God in his life. This is a sermon from the early 2000's on the book of the Song of Solomon.

Bob preached this sermon on September 2, 2012, just two months before Bob died of pancreatic cancer and the Lord took him to glory.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!" - Revelation 14:13