Sermons and Biblical Studies

Topics: Discernment; Healing; Persistence; Spiritual Perception; Wisdom Reference: Matthew 16:3 I was working as a nurse in a busy emergency room. We had a regular visitor, Billy, a cute two-year-old with freckles and tousled blond hair. For a year Billy had been in and out of the ER with what the doctors diagnosed as asthma. … Continue reading “LOOK
FOR JELLY BEANS”

Topics: Faith; Healing; Miracles; Prayer; Supernatural Occurrences References: Matthew 8:17; 1 Corinthians 12:6–10; James 5:13–16 Tyler Clarensau, fifteen, shuffled to the altar in Park Crest Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, to ask for healing. The surgery he’d had to correct his malformed knee joints had left him with swelling and terrible pain. Forty Pentecostal … Continue reading “WHEN
TYLER GOT HEALED”

Topics: Behavior; Guilt; Sex; Shame; Uncleanness References: Genesis 1:27–31; 2:24; Matthew 19:5; Ephesians 5:31 In Music through the Eyes of Faith, Harold Best tells the true story of a young man who became heavily involved in a satanic cult that developed an elaborate liturgy focusing on the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach. The young man … Continue reading “SEX
AND GUILT”

Topics: Crime; Evil; Humanity; Lawlessness References: Deuteronomy 8:19–20; Proverbs 1:10–19; Romans 1:21–32 According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, these crimes occurred at the following rate in the United States in the year 2000: •     theft: every 4.5 seconds •     burglary: every 15.4 seconds •     motor vehicle theft: every 27.1 seconds •     aggravated assault: every 34.6 seconds •     robbery: every … Continue reading “CRIME
IN THE UNITED STATES”

Topics: Addiction; Intimacy; Loneliness; Lust; Needs; Perversion; Self-control; Self-denial; Self-image; Sex; Sexual Immorality References: Romans 13:13–14; 1 Corinthians 6:12–20; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–8 Sex is one of God’s good gifts for a man and a woman to enjoy within the bounds of marriage. We have a tendency, however, to satisfy our deep longings for intimacy in … Continue reading “FUELING
SEX ADDICTION”

Topics: Anger; Enemies; Fighting; Grudges; Jealousy; Revenge; Self-control; Temper; Violence References: Genesis 37:3–4; 1 Samuel 18; Proverbs 14:30; Romans 13:13; Galatians 5:26; 1 Peter 2:1 A guard dog ransacked a teddy bear museum in western England in the summer of 2006. Barney, a Doberman pinscher, went berserk, shredding about a hundred of the bears on … Continue reading “ANGER
ON A RAMPAGE”

Topics: Discernment; Fear; God as Father; God’s Love; Hearing God; Spiritual Perception; Uncertainties; Visions and Dreams References: Psalm 4:8; Matthew 7:7–11; Luke 11:11–13; James 1:16–18 One night in a dream, my wife saw the mangled body of one of our children. She tried to help, but nothing worked. She was helpless, desperate, and terrified. After … Continue reading “DREAM
SENSE”

Topics: Abuse; Anger; Cruelty; Depravity; Evil; Human Condition; Human Nature; Sin; Temper; Temptation; Violence References: Ecclesiastes 9:3; Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21; 14:38; Romans 7:14–21; Galatians 5:19–21 Journalist Hunter Thompson, longtime contributor to Rolling Stone magazine and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, committed suicide in 2005 at age sixty-seven. His addiction to drugs … Continue reading “THE
MONSTER INSIDE”

Topics: Addiction; Bondage; Depravity; Emptiness; Foolishness; Freedom; Powerlessness; Rebellion; Will References: John 8:31–36; Romans 6:5–7, 16–18, 21–23; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1, 13; James 1:25; 1 Peter 2:16 A man who robbed a bank ten years ago and was sentenced to seventy months in a federal penitentiary decided he liked prison life so much that … Continue reading “STEALING
BACK TO JAIL”

Topics: Children; Depravity; Evil; Parenting; Teens; Terrorism; Threats References: Exodus 11:4–8; Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2; 19:43–44 The “Beltway Sniper,” John Allen Muhammad, was convicted in May 2006 in Maryland for murdering six people. He had already been sentenced to death in Virginia for murders committed there. However, during the trial, some frightening information … Continue reading “BELTWAY
SNIPER’S NEXT TARGET”