Sermons on Luke

I believe God cares for us individually. He cares for us as nations, and He cares for us as peoples, He cares for us corporately. But I believe that God desires to know us and walk with us and indwell us and fellowship with us on individual basis. He wants each one of us, you and I, to know Him personally. And I believe that He would go out of His way and brave a storm and put His disciples…

“Therefore, consider carefully how you listen.” How did you listen this week? Were you listening this week? Were your ears open to the things of God. You know, I mentioned last week, I have people tell me all the time, “God doesn’t speak to me. I never hear God speak to me. Because I don’t hear God speak to me, that must mean He’s not speaking to me.” Not true. And I don’t want to call you a liar if…

I’m very thankful that Jesus knows who I am and is still willing to let me interact with Him; is still willing to let me be a part of Him. Jesus knows what’s going on in our hearts, and there is not one of us in this room — and I don’t know what your circumstances in life are, but let me tell you something. The Bible says you are a sinner. the Bible says that you have fallen short.…

They couldn’t get away from the feelings of guilt that they walked around with every day, and Jesus says there’s a way to deal with it. It’s called grace through faith. Do you believe you can be forgiven of your sin in your life? Of your past? Of the things that you’ve done that you know are wrong?… That’s where forgiveness starts: is in the heart. Do you believe it or not? Can you accept it or not? And understand…

So often I find in our lives that we do not recognize the authority of God. We see His power working all around us. We see His creation. We see His handiwork. But yet, when we get into trouble, how do we handle it? When we have need, how do we handle it? We take matters into our own hands so many times because we don’t recognize the authority of God, and we don’t recognize the name of Jesus as…

We don’t like some of these verses because it means that we, then, have to reevaluate our lives, but the verses are there. And the one thing I promised the Lord many years ago when He called me to be a pastor was that, even if I didn’t like the verse, I would not eliminate the verse or try to change the verse. And sometimes, now, I eat those words. I regret having made that promise, because it’s made me…

(The first 30 seconds has some distortion.) You know, the one question I get asked more than any other question, “Why do we pray? What is the purpose? If God already knows all things, why do we pray?” We pray because God wants us involved with Him. God wants us talking to Him, and He wants to talk to us. Just because He already knows all things, we don’t know all things, and He wants us to show interest in…

How many of you want to be worthy of God’s attention? All of us want to be worthy of God’s attention! We want God to notice us. Well, let me fill you in on a little secret. God has already noticed you, whether you’re worthy or not. And by the way, let me fill you in on another little secret. You are not worthy. None of us will ever be worthy of God’s attention, but that’s the amazing thing about…

Jesus will always take care of what it is that is hurting us. Always. Even if sometimes He allows us to suffer in the flesh physically with some things, it’s not the flesh that truly hurts us. This flesh is going to fall away some day… One day, Jesus is going to end this life. He’s going to take us away from this flesh. What really hurts us is that Spirit that is going to be taken away when we…

I believe we will do ourselves a service if we will put in the back of our minds, “Lord, I am willing if You have something for me to do. If the people come, if my neighbor shows up, if I see the broken down car, if I’m standing in the grocery store line and I see the look of worry on my neighbor’s face, Lord, I’m willing. If You will put the words in my mouth, I will open…

There’s a lot of teaching in the world today…but the only teaching that is going to have authority to change your life, to penetrate your heart, to motivate you, is teaching that comes from the Word of God, that is the Word of God. It’s not a man’s opinion. I’ll tell you, I’ve said this many times, but pastors who actually teach from God’s Word and get to expound upon it as I do, are blessed that we get to…

Sometimes we fall into the trap of taking God’s Word and using it to justify our position: who we are, what we want to do. God’s Word was not given to us to justify us. God’s Word was given to us so that we would know God in a greater way, that we could draw close to Him, that we could understand His heart, that we could be motivated to serve Him through His Word. And so often, what I…