Sermon Central
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Genesis
Contributed by Paul Clemente on Sep 30, 2008 (message contributor)
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1. Decisions, Decisions (Genesis 13)
Contributed on Sep 30, 2008
Trusting Jesus will lead you to contentment and contentment will empower you to love.
Fill in the blank to this statement: The grass is ( )on the other side of the fence. What does this mean?? We all have a tendency not to be happy with what we have or where we are at. We have a tendency to imagine something better for us. Is this good or bad? Proverbs 11:23 ...read more
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2. Being Involved With The World
Contributed on Oct 1, 2008
How and when do we get involved in the affairs of the world?
As I was preparing this message, I checked the Internet for World News and the top headlines were: US in financial crisis! Pakistani troops kill militants Jobless claims pushed to 7-year high Former Trade unionist elected as South African President Governor Palin once blessed to be free from ...read more
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3. God Answers Our Questions
Contributed on Oct 6, 2008
God understands all our sincere questions to Him and He will answer them.
A number of years ago before I became a Minister, my wife and I had a big argument, we were very busy with the kids, we were financially stressed, then our car broke down while we were out of town. Yes, at that time I questioned God. Is it alright to question God? Kids ask questions all the time, ...read more
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4. God Is A God Of Covenants
Contributed on Oct 28, 2008
God’s covenant through Abram was about the Hebrews getting to the Promised Land of Canaan and it was a precursor to the final covenant through Jesus Christ!
God tells Christians in 1 Peter 1:18-19, For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. A great hymn ...read more
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5. Don't Get Ahead Of God!
Contributed on Oct 28, 2008
When we take action or make a decision but neglect the power of God, we are actually revealing our lack of faith.
Getting ahead of God will bring troubles! If I asked the question, do you believe in an all powerful God? Many of us will raise our hands, wouldn’t we? But if I asked, do you always take action and make decisions based on your belief in an all powerful God? Not too many of us will raise our ...read more
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6. As We Move Forward.........
Contributed on Oct 28, 2008
God has given us a pattern and an example through Abram.
4 years ago, our Lord Jesus Christ called us to start a church for Him. We responded to the call and we have been learning and growing with God’s instructions. Remember at the beginning, that within a month after being commissioned to be a church, we received complete financial support and all the ...read more
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7. God Sticks To His Plans!
Contributed on Nov 5, 2008
God will respond to people’s concerns but will always stick to His perfect plan!
In the Book of Isaiah Chapter 14, we can read God’s plans for Israel. Verse 24 of Isaiah 14 states, The LORD Almighty has sworn, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.” God told the prophet Jeremiah, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to ...read more
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8. Don't Miss Out On God's Blessings!
Contributed on Nov 14, 2008
If we are not mindful, we can easily miss out on God’s incredible blessings!
We will celebrate Christmas soon; a time to remember God becoming a human being. About 2000 years ago, God Jesus Christ came to earth to seek and save lost people. The Bible tells us that this same Jesus will someday return to earth to judge the living and the dead. Take a look briefly with me at 1 ...read more
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9. Lot Was A "Worldly" Believer!
Contributed on Dec 22, 2008
Because God is Almighty, Holy, and Loving, He will judge evil but will always show His mercy, but God’s mercy is only as good as one responds to it.
Remember Adam and Eve? They were created to live forever in paradise! But Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and they found themselves naked, lost, childbirth became painful, marriage problems began, work became hard, and they lost their immortality. But Adam and Eve were still ...read more
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10. Just Because Everyone Is Doing It ......
Contributed on Jan 5, 2009
Actions without consideration of God, even if the world approves them, will lead to troubles and this statement not only has personal ramifications but also societal ones!
Anyone know what the Moabites or Ammonites were? No, they are not like termites! The Moabites and the Ammonites were descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Were the Moabites and the Ammonites friends or enemies of Israel?? Here’s how the Bible describes them: The Moabites are described ...read more
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11. There Is No Need To Fear!
Contributed on Jan 12, 2009
If we live by faith, there is no need to fear!
Think about this for a moment: An all knowing God knew that man and woman would disobey Him but yet decided to create them anyway! If God is our Creator and knew that we would disobey Him, why did He create us? And isn’t it interesting that God reveals His powerful judgment on wickedness, like ...read more
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12. Why Is There War In The Mideast?
Contributed on Jan 19, 2009
God keeps His promises even though people make mistakes and God’s ultimate promise is grace, peace, godliness and eternal life through Jesus Christ!
Why is there war in the Mideast? Some say it’s because of the land; some say it’s religious. Just like anything else, the important question is always, “What does God say?” As we have been studying the Book of Genesis, we have been learning the origins of many things in our lives today. ...read more
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13. God Is Looking For Heroes!
Contributed on Jan 25, 2009
We are tested by God so that we will mature in God, be complete, and not lack anything, so that we can be heroes!
God is looking for heroes! The world is looking for heroes! A few years ago, there was a story of a church in one of the communist countries. That church, secretly hiding from their atheist government, was one day visited by soldiers armed with machine guns. The soldiers asked everyone who will ...read more
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14. Dealing With A Death Of A Loved One
Contributed on Feb 2, 2009
How do we grow in our love for people and how do we deal with losing them?
The first mention of a burial in the Bible is found in Genesis 23. It was the burial of Sarah. Remember Sarah? Here’s what we read in Genesis 17:15-16, God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely ...read more
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15. How Do We Live By Faith?
Contributed on Feb 10, 2009
The righteous shall live by faith and God teaches us how to live by faith through Abraham, Abraham’s Chief Servant, and Rebekah.
We read in the New Testament in a letter to the Christians in Galatia, (Gal 3:11) Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." To be justified before God means to be just or right before God. Turn to 2 Peter Chapter 2 for a moment. Read along with ...read more
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16. Dealing With Our Good And Bad Traits
Contributed on Feb 16, 2009
Like Abraham, Keturah, Ishmael, Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob, each one of us today have good and bad traits; and the first thing we need to do to have effective and productive lives is to know these personal traits, then control them.
Some may call it stereotyping, but we connect certain traits with a specific ethnic background don’t we? What do people say about Asians?? What do people say about Germans or Irish People?? What do people say about Italians and Spaniards?? Isn’t it interesting that we have a tendency to think ...read more
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17. From Being A Bad Witness To Good
Contributed on Feb 23, 2009
What should we do when we make mistakes and can we become good witnesses for God again?
We have all done it! We have all done something not good; then we say to ourselves, “Wow, I was really a poor testimony for God with that one.” Did anyone get hurt? Did you do anything about it? You know, this is actually a good sign when you realize you have done something wrong for God. ...read more
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18. Life Changing Decisions
Contributed on Mar 2, 2009
You and I will make life changing decisions and so let us learn from the mistakes of Esau.
Before celebrating our remembrance of our Savior Jesus Christ through communion, let me share with you from 2 simple verses ending in Genesis 26. It is about a man named Esau, his wives, and his parents. Let us start with some background about Esau. Please open your Bibles to Genesis 12. Read along ...read more
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19. Problems In A "Christian" Home?
Contributed on Mar 12, 2009
The answer to preventing disasters in the family is to always seek God’s counsel.
Have you ever heard this statement? Every family is dysfunctional! Do you really know any family who is perfect? Because we all have a tendency to sin, no matter who we are, we are going to have family problems. Today we will read about problems in Isaac’s family. Let us note that this was God’s ...read more
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20. Passing On The "Christian Baton"!
Contributed on Mar 17, 2009
Like Isaac being called by God to be a witness for Him and passing on the "calling" to Jacob, Christians are also called and are to pass the baton of Good News of Christ.
This picture was during the 2008 Olympic Games in China. What can you say about this picture?? A relay running race is a team event in which you have to pass a baton from one teammate to another in order to finish the race. The US Team dropped the baton and was disqualified from the race. It ...read more
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21. Love God First
Contributed on Mar 22, 2009
If you don’t love God first above all other things, consequences to sin will soon follow.
Remember what we talked about last week? God chose Abraham and his descendants to be a testimony for Him. Abraham passed the “baton” of being in God’s team to Isaac who in turn passed the “baton” to Jacob. Please open your Bibles to the end of Genesis Chapter 28; we read……. Jacob heard the godly ...read more
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22. God Is Gracious - Part 1
Contributed on Mar 30, 2009
The Creator God has the power to give grace, but the Creator God also has power to judge sin; and all have sinned against God.
God is Gracious. What does this mean? Please open your Bibles to Genesis 21, verse 1……. God was gracious to Sarah, the mother of God’s Chosen People! The word grace and gracious appear about 200 times in the Bible. Biblical grace means “undeserved favor”! Over and over again, God tells people ...read more
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23. Always Choose God's Grace
Contributed on Apr 6, 2009
Because God is a Gracious God, He will love every person, whether that person is like Jacob who was promised by God, or ordinary people like Leah, Rachel, and Laban; but every person can choose to separate from God’s blessings.
Last week, we learned about God’s grace through 2 women, Leah and Rachel. We noted that biblical grace is undeserved favor. Let us learn more about this gracious God through 2 men, Jacob and Laban. Since we will cover much Scripture today, we will first briefly look at the character of the 2 ...read more
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24. Forcing God's Blessings?
Contributed on Apr 20, 2009
Because we all want to be blessed, we can have a tendency to force a blessing, whether from God or from someone else, when God freely gives blessings!
In general, what does it mean to be blessed?? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines to bless as to be cared for, to be spoken well of, to prosper, and to be happy. How many of you think that every person in the world wants to be blessed?? Of course, everyone wants to be blessed! We ...read more
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25. Restoring Strained Relationships
Contributed on Apr 27, 2009
Until you have learned God’s love for yourself and be reconciled with God, you will have a hard time reconciling with others!
God is a God of relationships; this is why He created people. Because the Creator God is a God of relationships, His created ones, people, are to be relational as well. Most of us have had strained relationships. Should we try and restore strained relationships? If so, how do we do it? How ...read more
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26. Defiled By The World (Preventable? Response?)
Contributed on May 4, 2009
What God wants us to do now is totally depend on Jesus Christ to show the world that Jesus already won all the battles!
Is there sin in the world? Sin is anything that does not line up with a Holy God! Specifically, where do we see sin in this world we live in?? We are confronted with sin everyday, aren’t we? Jesus prayed to God the Father in John 17, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but ...read more
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27. Life Is A Journey
Contributed on May 11, 2009
As God did to Jacob, Jesus Christ instructs Christians with the Bible, reminds Christians of who they are with God, and calls Christians to worship Him alone!
How many of you have been on some sort of journey? A journey is traveling from one place to another, usually taking a rather long time. A journey has a starting point and eventually an end point. A journey is passage or progress from one stage to another. Many of us can say that life is a ...read more
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28. The Significance Of Our History And Future
Contributed on May 18, 2009
Knowing what you inherited from your family roots and having a vision of your future will help you succeed in your present life!
How far can you go back with your family roots? How many of you can name 2 grandparents?? How many of you can name 4 grandparents?? How many of you can name a great grandparent?? Many of us know our ethnic backgrounds, but isn’t it interesting that most of us have not much interest beyond our ...read more
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29. People Make Messes, God Turns Them To Good!
Contributed on May 26, 2009
Nothing is impossible with God and God can turn something messy to something good!
I am holding in my hand one of the most expensive coffee in the world! This one is from the Philippines! Any guesses on how much per pound this type of coffee can cost?? - As much as $600 per pound! Why is this coffee so expensive? Coffee experts say that this coffee has a very unique and wonderful ...read more
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30. We Owe Everything To God
Contributed on Jun 1, 2009
When we say “we are simply saved by grace”, aren’t we saying that we really owe everything to God?
Last week we talked about Genesis 37 which talks about the beginning of the story of God’s hero, Joseph. As we will note, there is no mention of Joseph in Genesis 38 and Joseph’s story continues in Genesis 39. God takes a break in telling the story of Joseph with a story about Judah and Tamar. What ...read more