Love Worth Finding | Audio Program

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Job 13:15

We have all faced devastation at some point in our lives; it is in those difficult seasons we often ask ourselves if God is enough. Can God be trusted in our troubles?

This is what Job learned in his suffering. God allowed the devil to bring hardship on Job because the devil didn’t think Job could love God just for who He is.

Yet, in Job 13:15, Job says, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” The Book of Job shows us that God Himself is not only necessary, but He is enough.

First, we can trust God even when we’re submerged in suffering.
Job’s troubles began with the seemingly instant loss of his livestock—his financial security. While Job was still reeling over the news, a second messenger informed him that he’d lost his ten children. His body was infected with a horrible disease, and as a result, his reputation was tarnished. But in the midst of this overwhelming devastation, Job continued to praise God.

Adrian Rogers says, “You can have faith and calamity all at the same time. Faith is not receiving from God what we want; faith is accepting from God what He gives.”

We can also trust God when we are forsaken by our friends.
Job 19:14 says, “My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me.” Job’s friends were perplexed by his hardships; because they didn’t understand, they assumed he was at fault and left him. Being abandoned by friends is one of the deepest hurts we could face. God understands every part of us and promises He will not leave us.

Third, we can trust God when we are dismayed by darkness.
Job had no idea what was happening to him, or why. When we find ourselves in this kind of complete darkness, we should remember to lean upon God, the guiding light of our soul’s darkest hours.

As Job pleaded his case to God, God reminded him of His sovereignty, sufficiency, and sympathy. Job learned that in his suffering, abandonment, and dismay, God was nearest to Him. God was necessary to live through the trial; He was enough to get Him through it.

Apply it to your life
Are you experiencing suffering, abandonment, or dismay? Remember that God is with you. He is sovereign, sufficient, and sympathetic. Pray today that He would reveal His presence to you.

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Galatians 6:1-5

Whether we are saved or lost, we will all carry burdens at some point in our lives; but we do not have to bear them alone. Galatians 6 shows us what to do with our burdens.

First, this passage addresses the burdens we willingly take up.
“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1-2).

As believers, we are called to take up the burdens of another brother or sister who is hurting—to restore those who have backslidden. We must remember that a broken person doesn’t need a lecture; he doesn’t need to be ignored or reported, shot down, or cast away. Instead, he needs to be brought back to fellowship with God.

Adrian Rogers says, “The church is the only army in the world that shoots its wounded.”

A backslidden Christian is like a broken place in our net of believers. He needs us to approach him gently, humbly, and sympathetically. He has broken fellowship with God and is weighed down by a guilty conscience, the enemy, and the threat of public shame. To fulfill the law of Christ, we must love our brother back to fellowship with God and mend the broken place in the net.

There are also burdens we must faithfully endure.
“But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load” (Galatians 6:4-5).

We are not called to lives of ease, but to lives of discipline. God lays burdens upon us and expects us to bear them ourselves. It is our own responsibility to repent and be saved.

Finally, there are burdens we wisely lay down.
Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you...”

Our loving Father urges us to bring our broken hearts to His throne; how beautiful that our burdens can be used to bring us to our Master’s feet.

Apply it to your life
If you are a believer, you are called to lift another’s burdens and bring backslidden brothers and sisters back to Jesus. Realize your own burden of responsibility to know God and to share Him with others. Cast your heartaches upon Jesus, for He cares for you.

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Ephesians 5:21-33

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in a complete commitment for life. As we see in Ephesians 5:21-33, marriage is from Heaven; it is not simply a contract… it is a covenant.

Husbands and wives are of equal worth before God; both bear His image, but in differing ways, because marriage is symbolic of the way God relates to His people.

Ephesians 5:23 says, “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Savior of the body.”

When the Bible speaks of the husband being the head of the home, it is not speaking of his rights; it is speaking of his responsibilities.

There are three major responsibilities of the husband, the first being his servant leadership.
Ephesians 5 does not call the husband a dictator. Rather, we are given the example of Jesus Christ, who is head of the Church, yet serves her and meets her needs. We are to meet the needs of our wives gently.

Husbands are also responsible for sacrificial love.
This is a passionate commitment that comes from the deepest part of our being.

Sacrificial love is also a purifying love, as Ephesians 5:26 says: “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word... not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Husbands are to express their sacrificial love through their protection and provision. They are to meet the family’s physical, spiritual and emotional needs.

Finally, husbands are responsible for showing steadfast loyalty.
Jesus promised to never leave nor forsake His church. (Read Hebrews 13:5.) Likewise, we are responsible for keeping the vows we made when we entered our marriage covenant.

If we think of marriage as a contract, we will look for loopholes, and miss the blessing that it truly is; if we view marriage as a covenant, we will cultivate something beautiful, like Heaven itself.

Adrian Rogers says, “A home ought to be a little bit of the Garden of Eden, the only part we have left till Jesus comes.”

Apply it to your life
Are you cultivating a marriage based on servant leadership, sacrificial love, and steadfast loyalty? Remember the priority, the permanence, and the purpose of marriage, and treat your spouse accordingly.

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Genesis 6:5-14

In Genesis 6, God was brokenhearted over the gross and numerous sins of Noah’s generation. The same sins committed then are being committed today. As God warned Noah’s generation, He has warned ours, as well.

As Noah, an unsinkable saint, found grace before God and provision from the flood, so can we find His grace and be saved from the wrath to come.

Genesis 6 reminds us that grace provides a Savior: Noah’s ark is a picture of Jesus Christ.

Genesis 6:14 says, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.”

Scripture notes the security of this ark Noah was instructed to build, made of incorruptible material, with sufficient room for everyone aboard. Shaped like a coffin, sealed shut by the Almighty Himself, this boat’s only window was placed above, so Noah would remain Heavenly-minded. God provided for Noah’s every need in His sovereign timing.

Adrian Rogers says, “When you come to Jesus, you not only have security and sufficiency but also shelter and substance.”

Grace provides salvation: Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (See Genesis 6:8.) This is the first mention of grace in the Bible.

As Ephesians 2:8 reminds us, we are “saved by grace, through faith.” Noah and his family had to take the step of faith onto the ark, just as we have to put our faith in Jesus Christ.

Grace provides security: we are saved by grace and kept by grace.

God sealed Noah into the ark, just as we are sealed by Jesus Christ in our salvation. We may stumble and fall within the ark, but the door is sealed shut: if we are Christians, there is no falling off the Good Ship Grace.

Adrian Rogers says, “Security is not in a place; security is in a Person, and His name is Jesus.”

The ark was the safest place for Noah to be because God was in the ark; if the ark had gone down, God would have gone down, too.

God is still in the ark; may we enter in before His wrath is poured out once again.



Apply it to your life
Are you sealed in the ark of Jesus Christ—saved by grace, through faith? Don’t let another day go by without confirming it in your heart.

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
In 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul was facing, by all appearances, deep affliction. Yet, he was a man who lived above see level; his perspective shows us how to live in faith in times of trouble.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen...” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

First, we must recognize the reality of the unseen, spiritual world; what is not seen is more real than that which is seen.

Hebrews 11:3 explains that the invisible world was here first. God spoke and made the visible out of the invisible. The invisible world will be here last, as 2 Corinthians 4:18 continues: “For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

According to Scripture, the unseen world is a vital resource. Knowledge of the unseen world helps us when we’re going through times of trouble, fear, or temptation.

As Believers, we are not immune to suffering, but we have the power to smile through it because we know God is with us. He offers supernatural strength to those who fix their gaze on what’s unseen.

We must release the power of the unseen spiritual world in our own lives. There are three great enemies of our faith that exist in the material world.

Appearance, or what we see. We are called to hope in what we don’t see.
Adrian Rogers says, “Hope means anticipation that is joined with assurance, which is based on divine promise.”

Emotion, or what we feel. God doesn’t do His deepest work in the shallowest part of our emotions.
Reason, or what we think. We cannot let our hearts be limited by our logic.
Adrian Rogers says, “Faith is not contrary to reason, it goes beyond reason.”

When a man lives above see level, he will see the invisible, therefore, he will tap into the unknowable and do the impossible. 

Apply it to your life
Are you going through a time of trouble, fear, or temptation? Fight to live above see level and have hope in what is unseen. Pray that God will open your eyes to see He is with you and will give you supernatural strength to face your afflictions.

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Acts 27:20

The Book of Acts tells the story of the Early Church and the missionary voyages of Paul the Apostle. In Acts 27, Paul writes about his experience sailing through a treacherous storm. Paul’s gripping narrative offers us insight into riding out the storms of life.

First, we must note the reason for these storms; we will all find ourselves in ferocious waters at some point, due to the nature of this sinful world.

Storms can be engineered by our own disobedience or foolishness. God could also send us into a storm for our own development. Or, like Paul in this passage, we could also be dragged into storms by other people.

When Paul was a prisoner on his way to Rome, he was transported into a storm by others. His circumstances were out of his own control.

Acts 27:9-11 says, “So Paul warned them, ‘Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.’ But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship.”

When we face difficulties due to other people’s mistakes, Acts 27:9-20 reveals five things not to do if we want to keep the ship afloat:

Make decisions in haste (v. 9)
Depend upon worldly wisdom rather than godly wisdom (v. 11)
Take the easy way out (v. 12)
Follow the crowd (v. 12)
Depend upon circumstances (v. 13)
*If you want an in-depth study of these five things, we invite you to take our Email Challenge, "What Not to Do in a Storm."

Verses 14-20 illustrate what happens when an ungodly man gets himself into a storm. His direction dissolves, his effort increases, resources are wasted, and he begins to lose hope. As a result, he becomes very foolish; he’ll try to abandon ship and escape.

But the godly will react differently to the storms, as Paul says in Acts 27:22, “But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost...”

Paul’s faith in God was stronger than his fear of the storm; as a result, God’s promise to see Paul through to Rome was fulfilled.

Adrian Rogers says, “Every bad decision they made could not overrule the will of God. Where God does not rule, He overrules.”

Apply it to your life
Are you riding out a storm you weren’t expecting? Depend upon godly wisdom and resist the temptation to take the easy way out. Do not depend upon your circumstances. Put your whole faith in God to see you through.

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Matthew 20:1-15

Fairness is a wonderful human attribute we learn about when we’re young and demand of each other as we grow.

In Matthew 20:1-15, Jesus shares the parable of the vineyard workers. The owner of the vineyard rises early to hire laborers, then adds hired laborers at various times throughout the day. At the end of the day, he pays his laborers all the same wages.

This may not seem “fair” in our human understanding, but we must remember that God is not fair, but He is good.

First, this passage shows us that it’s always too soon to quit, but never too late to start.

Though it is better for us to start serving God early in life, it is never too late; He calls us to the vineyard, even at the eleventh hour.

Second, if we bargain with God, we will cheat ourselves. Matthew 20:2 reveals that the early workers had haggled with the owner for more money until they finally came to an agreement. Yet, they are surprised when the owner offers the same wage to the later laborers.

Third, it is wise to let God keep the books; if we try to keep a record of our service, we run the risk of taking credit we don’t deserve.

Fourth, don’t look for fairness; ask for mercy. Fairness is based on the idea that we are owed something, but God does not owe us anything. As sinners, He deals with us on the basis of justice and mercy, and if we ask for justice, we will get exactly what we deserve. Instead, we should beg for mercy.

Finally, another’s blessing is never our own loss; just because the vineyard owner blessed the later workers doesn’t mean the early workers lacked. Likewise, when we see God bless others “more” than He blesses us, we are not losing anything.

Adrian Rogers says, “We will be much happier in this life if we take our eyes off of our brothers and sisters, put our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be grateful for what He does.”



Apply it to your life
Have you been called to the vineyard to serve our Lord Jesus Christ? It’s never too late to start. If you have served Christ for a while now, remember there is no seniority in the kingdom of God. Welcome your brothers and sisters in gratitude and rejoice in each other’s blessings.

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Proverbs 29:1
Proverbs 29:1 says, “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

Can a man spiritually pass the point of no return? Can he be so willfully rebellious that God will give up on him? The answer is yes, and that’s a frightening thing. God is a God of infinite love, yes, but He’s also a God of wrath and judgment. There is a deadline, and if anyone crosses God’s deadline, his doom is sealed.

We must listen to the warnings God graciously gives us before we reach the point of no return.

When we have sinned against God, He convicts us through the Holy Spirit, physical illness, sorrows, good things, and godly people. He uses these things to guide and correct us.

Yet, when we choose our stubborn rebellion over this conviction, we make it more and more difficult for ourselves to ever turn back to God.

When we’ve hardened our necks (as stated in Proverbs 29:1), there is bound to come sudden destruction; not only in our minds, with strong delusions, but in our spirits as well. We will find that the Holy Spirit of God no longer speaks to us and that God no longer draws us in.

We all think we have more time to get right with God, but sometimes, this isn’t the case. Once your heart no longer beats, your destiny is settled, and there is no second chance. God convicts because He loves you so much. He wants to save you. His reproof is rooted in love. If you continue to reject it, destruction will follow.

There is good news, though. Anybody who wants to be saved can be. The man who crosses the deadline has no desire to be saved. But if you have a desire to be saved, the Holy Spirit of God is working in you; it’s not too late.

Apply it to your life
Have you listened to God’s conviction or have you remained stubborn in your rebellion? You must be receptive to God’s loving correction if you want a relationship with Him. Pray today, and ask the Lord if there is anything in your life that is not pleasing to Him. Ask for His forgiveness today.

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Romans 5:3

When we give our hearts to Jesus Christ, the work within us has begun, and God will see that it is finished. (See Philippians 1:6.) But we are not automatically mature in our faith and Christian manner. We simply receive the basis for a Christian character that God cultivates within us over time.

Romans 5 offers insight as to how God develops Christian character.

First, God allows pressure to come.
“...we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope (Romans 5:3-4).

God wants that which will sustain and give strength to come out of us; the only way to draw it out of us is through pressure. We don’t have to understand the trouble and pressure we face; we simply have to stand under it.

The second step to building Christian character is patience.
God wants to teach us endurance so that our faith is strong enough to withstand the things that cause others to drop out.

Third, our patience results in a pure character.
Someone who has gone through the experiences of tribulation and perseverance has a refined faith, pure as gold.

Adrian Rogers says, “A refiner of gold knows when the gold is pure when he can see his own face reflected in it; so our Lord wants to see His character reflected in us.”

Finally, our purity of faith results in hope.
Romans 5:5 says, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

We receive hope through our tribulations because they teach us that God is faithful and He sees us through them.

Hebrews 6:19 says, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…”

Adrian Rogers says, “Hope is not wishful desire; it means rock-ribbed assurance based on the Word and character of God.”

Apply it to your life
If you are feeling pressure today, understand that these are not obstacles, but opportunities. We glory in tribulation because God knows what He is up to. Trust in Him to use this experience to develop patience, which refines your faith and produces hope and steadfast assurance in Him.

Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: Proverbs 27:1

There are a few reasons people reject the Gospel upon hearing it. Some are rebellious, others are too self-righteous to recognize their need for a Savior. But perhaps the most common reason is procrastination.

People will put it off, thinking that they will have plenty of time to receive Christ later on.

But Proverbs 27:1 warns us of the perils of postponement: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”

There are four reasons why no one should put off being saved.

First, if we put it off until tomorrow, we will lose today.
Adrian Rogers says, “A day lived without the Lord Jesus is a day that is lost for all eternity.”

Second, our hearts will grow harder.
In Acts 24, Paul is a prisoner of Caesarea. The Roman judge, Felix, calls for him to answer questions he has about Jesus Christ. Paul preaches a Christ-centered message, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit is so strong, Felix trembles. Felix was at the threshold of salvation, but then he did something that so many people do: he told Paul, “When I have a convenient season, I will call for you” (Acts 24:25). As a result, Felix lost his conviction; he strayed further and further away from God.

Likewise, our hearts will get harder over time; it will be more difficult for us to receive Jesus tomorrow than it will be today. Adrian Rogers says, “Tomorrow you will have more sin to repent of. And tomorrow you will have a harder heart to repent with.”

Third, there is always the danger of sudden death.
Death is a reality many of us choose to ignore. But every day is a gift from God; it is arrogant to assume we will live to see another day, and ignorant to assume what each day will look like.

Finally, Jesus is coming again, and those who aren’t saved will be left behind.
We are closer to the Second Coming than ever before; if He comes while you are unsaved, it will be too late for you. This is why we ought to be vigilant, taking advantage of the day we’ve been given to receive salvation and follow Jesus.

Apply it to your life
Are you certain that you are saved? As Proverbs 27 warns us, every day is a gift from God; don’t waste today unsaved.