Reformed & Expository Preaching

Habakkuk is coming to grips with the reality that the Lord is bringing a nation worse than Israel to judge Israel. This does not seem possible, but this is what the Lord is doing. So, how does one cope with such disappointing news?

When we do our Bible Studies we can dig down so deep in the significant particulars of Scripture that we miss the overall trajectory of God’s word. It is important to learn what God desires us to do out of gratitude for our redemption in Christ. We are called to live as slaves of righteousness as we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God as we walk in the Spirit. So, what is the overall thrust of Scripture? What does the Sabbath teach us about this thrust? What does the opening passage of scripture teach us regarding our communing with God?

We are wise human beings and we know what is best for the world around us. In our wisdom we think that God just needs to listen to us because he does not see things clearly. We begin our study in Habakkuk with the prophet expressing his frustration with God. His frustration is that God does not deal with this world fairly and Habakkuk is upset with the reality he sees. What do we learn about humanity from our prophet? What do we learn about God? What do we learn about our own faulty perceptions?

Human beings can cast God in our image rather than seeing humans are created in God's image. We fail to comprehend that God desires us to pursue him, and God himself is the priest enabling our pursuit. We can devise our own schemes to please God without hearing the Lord's means to enter into his presence. How do we know that our Lord is gracious in his call? How do we know that our God is a gracious priest who desires us to lay our burdens on him? How do we know that God is the one who has really redeemed His people?

The disciples run out to meet Christ on a mountain Galilee. We would like to find the mountain, but Christ never identifies the proper mountain. Why is it a mountain Galilee? What does Christ mean that all authority in heaven and earth is given to him? How can such a statement be encouraging for us?

Christ has ascended into heaven. Scripture implies that heaven is above the sky. Heaven is far away, and so is our Lord. This is what we are tempted to think and we can be tempted to think that our Lord is too busy to keep track of us. Is this the case? Should we find others to pray on our behalf because our Lord is too busy? How do we know that Christ has done enough and continues to intercede for us?

We do a series that piggy backs on God’s Pilgrim People. Now we are going to look at the overall structure of Scripture where we see the whole of the scripture rather than the historic progression. This is an introduction to the series, but we also hear some important precautions about our human tendency as we start this new series considering our heavenly citizenship.

When Christ teaches the crowds he does not care about one's genealogy. This means that one is not necessarily disqualified or qualified to follow Christ because they are child of Abraham. However, this is also true for the gentiles. Christ calls the crowd to be insiders of the kingdom whether they are a literal child of Abraham or a gentile. This leads to the logical question: how do I know if I am an insider?

Peter is the spokesmen for the apostles. In fact, we would expect Peter to silence critics by making an apostolic decree to silence any skepticism of the gospel. Peter does not do this at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 and he does not do this when he writes his second letter to the church. How does Peter prove that Christ is coming again if he does not just make an apostolic decree? How does the Old Testament prove Peter's point?

The concept of slavery is appalling because it means that one human being is owned by another human being. So why would the Apostle Paul declare us to be slaves? We are either slaves of sin or slaves of Christ. How can it be glorious to be a slave of Christ Jesus if he owns us?