Sermons

This sermon was preached by Randy Manley of Molokai Baptist (www.molokaibaptist.com) in Molokai, Hawaii.

The Bible is the story of how God relentlessly pursued his people and saved them from their sins. That story is told through the covenants God has made with mankind. God from eternity past made a covenant to elect his people and provide redemption through the Son, Jesus Christ. In that story God made promises through covenanting with his people. Jesus Christ is the ultimate realization of those promises. The Bible tells of two classes of people in the history of the world - those who are under the covenant of grace and those who are not. Jesus is either our Savior or we are trying to save ourselves. One of these classes of people have a glorious outcome and the other does not.

Man was created in the image of God with true righteousness, holiness and knowledge. Even though the world has fallen and sin has entered the world we still bear the image of God. In this sermon, Pastor Dan takes us through a journey in the Scriptures as we see the original state of man in perfection, the beginning of our war with God, the result of our war with God, the winner God has given us in Jesus Christ and finally what we will become through faith in Jesus. The world is broken and the image of God in man has been marred but we are not beyond repair because of the matchless grace of God.

God has ordained everything that had and will come to pass. He is sovereign over every molecule and very person and their actions. This is a foundational belief to every person that claims that God exists. It is also a basic teaching of Christian doctrine. It is also a doctrine that should lead us to comfort and a greater understanding of God's love for us and all His creatures. Pastor Dan preaches from Ephesians 1 and Romans 9 as he encourages us to lean into this doctrine as we make our own calling and election sure.

There are many ideas today about what God is like. All of these ideas except those found in God's Word are descriptions false gods even when they are well intended. Even in Christain circles we tend to make God fit into or box rather than trust the words of God Himself. In this sermon, Pastor Dan takes a brief look at several doctrines concerning God's person and attributes. The sermon gives the listener a good foundation to explore the person and character of God not fully on their own.

What do you believe about the Bible? Is it God's Word? Are there errors? Are there parts of scripture that are now obsolete? Christians believe some very important doctrines about the Bible that affect the way they see the world. We believe that God graciously gave the writers of the Scriptures His Word so that we could know Him, ourselves and the world around us. We believe that the Scriptures are perfect because God is perfect. These days we live in a post-Christian culture that questions just about every claim Christians make concerning the Scriptures. That is why it is more important now than ever that Christians know what they believe about the Bible, why they believe it and how it matters in real life.

Has there ever been a time in your life where you just didn't feel ready? Maybe something or someone caught you off guard or you just didn't prepare well. Christians are to be prepared for every good work that God has in store for them. Preparation comes through understanding the Gospel. As Paul is wrapping up his letter to Titus he begins to insist that Titus pay attention to the conduct, service and obedience of the people in the church. He exhorts the church to be ready for every good work. A church that is maturing will grow in it's readiness to do good work as a natural response to the good work that God has done in them. When the church is maturing there will be a willingness to obey God and His commands, community will flourish, the testimony of the church will be bright and people will be changed. But this change is not the result of trying harder or humanistic effort. Maturity to readiness happens when a church is gripped by the Gospel and the extravagant love of God.

The Church is book-ended by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus on one hand, and the anticipation of his glorious return on the other. As Christians living in the middle of these two events, we are called to wait for this "blessed hope" to come. But we don't wait passively. In the reality of living in this "present evil age," the same grace that provided redemption is the same grace that trains us to renounce sin in our lives and turn toward righteousness. And the promised return of Christ spurs us on with confidence, knowing that he will finish the work he started.

Now that Paul has addressed the leaders in the church, he turns his attention to the members of the church. He paints a picture of what a godly member looks like in various stages of life, from the older men to the younger women. Paul encourages their doctrine to be sound in contrast to those he previously described in Crete. He goes on to encourage a healthy spiritual life in Christ that flows out of that healthy doctrine. But he does not only describe the character traits he desires to see in us; he also gives us the motivation of transformation of grace.

In Crete a crisis had been brewing for a long time. A church was growing but there were those inside the church who sought to make much about themselves rather than Jesus. They were teaching things that weren't lining up with the teaching of Jesus or his Apostles. To combat the false teachers and their insubordination, Paul instructed Timothy to identify, train and equip leaders who would be more committed to Jesus than anything else. In this sermon, Pastor Dan takes a look at a passage that gives instruction to churches on how to choose leaders and grow leaders from within the congregation. A church that is growing will need leaders that are willing to grow along with the church, protect the church, and look out for the purity of the Gospel that goes out from the church.