Advertise on podcast: Sermons – Eastside church of Christ

I recently saw a statistic indicating that the number of mosques in Texas went from almost none in 1980 to over 300 today. Many see nothing wrong with this, and others actually think it is good. The problem is that Islam is an ideology of oppression and death. As numbers grow, so will persecution. They are enemies of Christ and anyone claiming to be His people. What should our attitude be toward such people? Jesus said we are to love our enemies, but what does that mean? What does it look like for us today?

In our text, Peter described the devil as a lion hunting its prey, and we are the ones he is targeting. But the situation is not hopeless. We can “resist him” (1 Peter 5:9) and he will “flee from us” (James 4:7). But not everyone will overcome him. Sadly, some will be devoured by the devil. Who are they? How might we win them back?

This sermon discusses the vanity of life as Solomon observed it and what our purpose is here on the earth.

The theme of the book of Hebrews is the superiority of Christ over Moses and the old law. In our text, the Hebrew writer described the privileged position we have in Christ. This is more than just fellowship with God and our fellow Christians. It includes the angels and “the righteous.” But what did he mean by “the spirits of the righteous made perfect”? Who were they? What does perfection mean? We will consider these in our lesson.

In every area of life, there are certain things that must be done first before something else can be done. It does not mean that the second action is unimportant, but the sequence is. Sometimes this is of necessity (Proverbs 24:27); other times it is of divine decree (Mark 16:16). Matthew records a few times in which Jesus taught that something must be done first before something else could be done. Let us notice what Jesus said and see what lessons we can learn.

It is easy to allow ourselves to worry about various things in life. Some people become so consumed by anxiety that they find it difficult to function. In our text, Jesus gave eight reasons why we should not worry.

One of the notable points of disagreement we have with the religious world is over baptism. We teach that baptism is necessary for salvation, yet many religious people reject this. Our text is often used to argue that baptism is NOT necessary, but that was not Paul’s point. We need to understand what this verse means and what the Scriptures teach about baptism. Hopefully, this study will help us defend the truth and lead others to understand the gospel.

When Paul got to Rome, he spoke to the Jews who lived there about Jesus. Some would not believe, even though the truth should have been obvious to them. Why did they miss the truth? Their hearts were dull, their ears could not hear, and their eyes were closed (v. 27). Sadly, the same thing happens today. People miss some obvious truths in God’s word. Why do they miss the obvious? There are different reasons, and we will consider four reasons in this lesson.

It is natural for us to prefer that others remember us favorably. But what would we want God to remember about us? Four times, Nehemiah asked God to remember him for something. What were they? We are going to see what we can learn from the four things Nehemiah wanted to be remembered for.

Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to help rebuild the wall around the city. But he and the people faced opposition. In our text, we learn how they handled it. Today, we face opposition from the world. We are involved in a spiritual battle for the cause of Christ. How do we handle it? We can learn from what Nehemiah and the people did as they built the wall.