Sermons – Eastside church of Christ

We live in a world that is difficult, discouraging, unfair, and wicked. It has always been this way. Yet when we put our trust in God and follow His way, we can endure these trials and enjoy His promises. God’s people needed to be reminded of this in our text. They thought God had abandoned and forgotten them. In this lesson, we are going to see what situation God’s people were in and what they were promised, then see what application we can make for us today.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, the wise man spoke of the futility of life “under the sun.” One of the reasons he saw this as futile was that he would leave the fruit of his labor to someone else. The one receiving it could squander it or act foolishly with it. This caused the wise man to despair. This raises the question: What should happen with our wealth and/or possessions when we die? Are there principles and instructions in God’s word that will help us? Yes, and we will consider some points here.

At the start of a new year, we focus a lot on GOALS we want to reach in the future (health, work, relationships, etc.). All of these may be good, but we must never lose sight of what should be our PRIMARY goal – “the resurrection” (Philippians 3:11). In our text, Paul described three things he was doing to attain his goal. We need to do the same.

Enoch lived his life in such a way that God was with Him. The ones who go to heaven are those who do the will of God.

The goal of our preaching is a “good conscience.” Our conscience is designed to help guide us to do what is right. Whether or not it does this depends on how it is trained. To accomplish this goal, we need to understand more about the conscience. There are at least six different types of conscience addressed in the New Testament. We will consider them here.

You may be questioning the title. After all, there was no Christmas in the first-century church. Yet the observance of Christmas is widespread today. Is that compatible with what we read about the early church? And does it matter? The commonly held view of Christmas is that it is a celebration of the birth of Christ. We are going to take the commonly held view of Christmas and see if it fits into the New Testament.

The term “legalism” has a strong negative connotation for many. It is not found in the Bible, but it has been coined to describe a certain approach to the Bible. Legalism is associated with the idea of strictness, narrow-mindedness, and being judgmental. Yet there is more to legalism than the popular concept.

Jesus told Pilate He came to “testify to the truth” (John 18:37). Pilate asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). This may not have been a sincere inquiry, but it is a vitally important question. God is the ultimate source of truth (Hebrews 6:18), and truth is found in His word (Psalm 119:160; John 17:17). It is critical that we understand that truth is contained in the Scriptures. Yet simply acknowledging this is not enough. There are certain things we must DO with truth.

God’s people are to practice contentment. Like Paul, we need to practice this in every circumstance. However, we need to understand what contentment is. Many claim contentment but are really immature, disobedient, cowardly, lazy, or apathetic instead. In this lesson, we are going to consider what the Bible says about contentment – what it is and is not.

Jesus taught His disciples about the need to forgive those who sin against them. Yet it is not always easy to do this, especially when the sin is habitual – seven times a day (Luke 17:4) or seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22). However, as the Lord’s disciples, we must be willing to forgive others as He has forgiven us. What does this forgiveness look like?