Are We Still Required To Tithe To The Church?
Are We Still Required to Tithe to the Church? (Nehemiah 10:37-39) Are we obligated to tithe in the new covenant? Let me set you all at ease. I have no intentions of sending the offering bags around a second time after this sermon. R.C. Sproul does not mince words when discussing the tithe. In his book, 5 Things Every Christian Needs to Grow, Sproul writes: A poll of people claiming to be evangelical Christians indicated that only 4 percent of them…
Why Giving Money To The Church Is Important
Why Giving Money to the Church is Important (Nehemiah 10:32-39) I recently watched a talk by Sinclair Ferguson on three lessons from 42 years of ministry. He referenced his appreciation for William Still, whose book The Work of the Pastor has been an encouragement to me. Ferguson mentioned that every pastor should read the book every year, at least. So, I picked it up for only the third time and came across this quote where Still discusses church revival: There will soon…
Why Church Membership Is Important- Part 1 (Nehemiah 10:1-31)
Although, on the surface, it might appear that the Western mindset is commitment-phobic, most people recognize the value of making an agreement to keep their most important goals. There are a few successful apps like GymPact and Beeminder that penalize you with a fine when you fail to keep your goals. In the case of Gympact they take the pool of money and distribute it among those who kept their commitment to go to the gym. It doesn’t know what…
How To Pray To A Covenant Keeping God (Nehemiah 9:22-38)
How to Pray to a Covenant Keeping God (Nehemiah 9:22-38) In his preface to the book Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation, D.A. Carson writes, I doubt if there is any Christian who has not sometimes found it difficult to pray. In itself, this is neither surprising nor depressing: it is not surprising because we are still pilgrims with many lessons to learn; it is not depressing because struggling with such matters is part of the way we learn. What is…
How To Confess Sin To A Faithful God (Nehemiah 9:16-21)
Learning how to confess sin to a faithful God is as easy as following the example we have in Scripture. The human heart is made to reach out beyond itself and so, as G. K. Chesterton is alleged to have said, when people reject God they do not worship nothing, they worship anything. Murray Capill, The Heart Is the Target That is the history of humanity in a nutshell. God made us for worship, and if He is not the…
How to Praise God for His Actions in the Past (Nehemiah 9:6-15)
Learning how to praise God is not the same as actually doing so. Teaching through this chapter—which contains one long prayer—is almost counter-intuitive. We run the risk of analyzing the passage as a model for prayer, and failing to actually pray it. What do you really want from this sermon? My guess is that you don’t need another tip or technique on prayer. If you do, you can watch this video I gave on “How to Pray to God” a…
How To Give Praise To The Lord Your God With Fellow Believers.
The Levites encouraged the Israelites to give praise. Specifically, they said to “stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting” (Neh 9:5). It was the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month, two days after the Feast of Booths. It was a day with nothing on the calendar. But they gathered, of their own accord, in order to confess “their sins and the iniquities of their fathers” (Neh 9:2). They spent three hours reading from the Law…
The Surprising Need For Every Believer To Learn How To Confess Sin With Others
Learning how to confess sin to other believers is not a concept we enjoy talking about. Most of us would like to remain silent about our struggles. Sharing our sin, even with our closest family and friends makes us feel more vulnerable than we would like. Is authenticity overrated? Authenticity has become all the buzz within the Christian community. It is reflected in our obsession with personality tests and vulnerability. We are deeply interested in knowing and being our true selves. We even see…
The Marvelous Joy of Obeying God’s Law in Every Situation (Neh. 8:13-18)
It may sound paradoxical to find joy in obeying, but that is the encouragement we find in God’s Word time and time again. “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim . . . of human existence.” Aristotle That’s partially true. However, the Bible clarifies that lasting happiness is the result of living according to God’s will (1 Jn 1:3-4). That doesn’t mean we can be free of all suffering as long as we’re obedient to…
Biblical Sexuality and the Call for a Bold Response (Genesis 1-2; Romans 1)
I mentioned what others have said about Biblical Sexuality Sermon Sunday in a previous post. The church leadership thought it was important to address the issue of biblical sexuality not only for the cultural moment that Canada is facing at the moment, but also because of the matters we are dealing with in our own denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America. In 2006, a case regarding the clash between sexual and religious freedom came before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court…