The Precious Stewardship

In Ezra 8:24-30 Ezra tells us that he took 12 of the priests who were with him in Babylon, and weighed out to each of them a portion of the gold & silver and the costly utensils which were going to the Temple in Jerusalem. In verse 29 he gave them a commission: “Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the leading priests, the Levites and the heads of the fathers’ households of Israel at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of The Lord.” Here we find an example of a precious stewardship. Continue reading

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The Light in My Darkness

In Psalm 18:28 David says, “For You light my lamp; the LORD my God illumines my darkness.” That God would “illumine (his) darkness” could mean something different than we might initially think.

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“The Discipline of Scripture Memory” (Matthew 4:11 sermon)

(Preached at First Baptist, Pauls Valley, OK 9-21-14)

When I was in college I went on a mission trip to Switzerland and Germany. During the trip we also made a one-day visit to Paris, but in many ways I was disappointed by the city. It was dirty, both physically and spiritually, and after about half a day there, I sat down on the curb of one of the city’s streets, depressed. But I had recently begun to memorize scripture, and had just learned James Chapter 1. Without anything else to do, I decided to just begin reviewing that chapter as I sat there: “James, a bondservant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes who are dispersed, Greetings! Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance …”. The more I quoted of that chapter, the more God’s Spirit began to lift me up, until I got to :12, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance …”. By that time, I was “revived” and ready to go back at it! God had used His word to lift my spirits. This was the first of many times in which I have found scripture memory to be one of the greatest blessings of my lifetime.

This morning we are continuing our series, “The Disciplines of Disciples.” Jesus commands each of us as His disciples to deny ourselves, take up His cross daily, and follow Him. And I Timothy 4:7 tells us that we are to “discipline (ourselves) for the purpose of Godliness” as His disciples. We have seen that some of those disciplines include having a morning time with God in the “pure milk” of His word, and in organized prayer, following the Model Prayer outline that Jesus gave us, as well as continuing to walk with God all throughout each day through the discipline of spontaneous prayer. The discipline we are going to look at today is “The Discipline of Scripture Memory” — and I am going to ask each of you here today to make a special kind of commitment to it when we close our service this morning. Right now, let’s read together Matthew 4:1-11, where we find one of the best examples of the Lord Jesus using scripture memory in His own life, as an example to us:

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“According to My Righteousness”?

Psalm 18, in which David celebrates his deliverance, contains what to many would seem a questionable phrase. In the midst of His praise of God for what He has done, David says in verse 20, “He has rewarded me according to my righteousness.” That would seem to be a very self-righteous statement!

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The Words of the Commandments

The scribe Ezra’s dedication to the word of God is chronicled repeatedly in Ezra Chapter 7. One such reference is found in verse 11, which describes him as “Ezra the priest, the scribe, learned in the words of the commandments of the Lord …”. That this verse reads, “in the WORDS of the commandments” should be instructive to us.

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Sharpen Your Skills

Ezra 7:6 says of Ezra that “he was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses …”. This is an important statement, and it is no accident that it is mentioned as his character is introduced into this story. It should remind us all that God uses our preparation and skill for His kingdom purposes.

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“The Little Condo on the Prairie” (9-16-14)

The inhabitants of “The Little Condo” recently took a family trip to the drive-through for dinner — you can ride along if you’d like:

Cheryl had to work really hard this particular Monday, so I decided we’d give her a break and go get some fast food for dinner. But as I was getting ready to leave, Paul mentioned how he was really craving one of those old-fashioned, store-bought, really-bad-for-you cookie cakes. I made an executive decision: “EVERYBODY load up! This is going to be a family outing!” Almost surprisingly, no one objected, so Cheryl, Paul, Michael & I all piled into the Camry. It was a good decision:

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“Playing Without Ceasing?”

Have you ever noticed that it is now possible to go all day long and never have a quiet moment? We have an unprecedented amount of media available to us today — which can be a blessing in some ways: we can listen to Christian music, to podcasts of sermons from preachers all over the world, etc. But a person may now, purposefully or not, fill up literally every second of his day with some kind of music or media. And that is not particularly a good thing.

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“The Discipline of Spontaneous Prayer” (Nehemiah 2:4 sermon)

(Preached at First Baptist Pauls Valley, OK, 9-14-14 a.m.)

Some of us were eating out a few years ago, and one of our friends was asking the blessing for our food, and he prayed a fairly long prayer. When he was finished, another of our friends said, “Hey, just because you missed your prayer time this morning doesn’t mean you had to make it up while all of our food was getting cold!”
There is a time for praying longer prayers, and there is a time for praying shorter ones, and as disciples of Jesus we need to recognize, and learn to use both types of prayer.

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Fear God, Not Men

Many of us are afraid of the wrong people. In Ezra 5, the leaders of Israel explained to those who were opposed to the rebuilding of the Temple, what had led to its destruction. In verse 12 they explained: “But because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon …”. The Jewish leaders had the right perspective — one which many of us need to adopt as well.

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