Sermons on Isaac: showing 466-480 of 11,652

Running In A Standing Position Series

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 23, 2015

Consider three moves of grace. Our record is cleared of sin. Our lives are conformed to Christ. And our destiny is sealed by God.

There are three great moves that God makes on your behalf – three initiatives of grace that have to do with securing and insuring your salvation. They are, first, justification, second, sanctification, and, third, glorification. In his mercy, God justifies you – that is, he pronounces ...read more

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Mind Your Thoughts Series

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 23, 2015

When you "mind your thoughts," you don't have anything to worry about.

Next Sunday is Stewardship Commitment Sunday. You and I recently received pledge cards from our Finance and Stewardship Committee, and they are asking us to make a commitment about what we will give in the year 2015. There will be a time set aside in next Sunday’s service for those of us who ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 4:4-9

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

An Acceptable Sacrifice Series

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 23, 2015

If you give out of love for God, you will get what you desire most. You will get God's riches in Christ.

I once missed a great blessing. I was part of a student organization in college, and we were having a clothing drive. Our leader encouraged us to donate an article or two of clothing, but, when he did, he said, “Don’t give away something you won’t miss. Give something you really ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 4:10-20

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

The Comeback

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 26, 2015

God makes our desert a garden; He turns our exile into homecoming.

MY MOTHER DIED when I was twenty-six. She was only fifty-seven. A few years before her death, she was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx. She fought it bravely, but, in time, it overtook her, and all too soon, by our accounts, she died. We had a service led by an Air Force chaplain at a local ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

With His Coming

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 30, 2015

Jesus became vulnerable so that we might become victorious. He put himself in harm's way to drive all harm away from us.

THERE’S A STORY in the Bible about King Jehoshaphat and how, one day, he was given some distressing news. Messengers came, and they told him that the massive armies of three – not one or two, but three – nations were coming against him. “A great multitude,” they ...read more

Scripture: Mark 11:1-11

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Easter Reservations

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 9, 2015

Our risen Lord thrusts us into a future we’d never choose but we’d hate to lose.

THE FAMILY I GREW UP IN was highly conflicted. You would think that, for all the fighting we did, we would have gotten good at it – or, at least, that we would have seen something constructive come out of it. But the incessant bickering never seemed to bring about change; we just grew ...read more

Scripture: Mark 16:1-20

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Vital Christianity

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 13, 2015

Only a vital Christianity creates vital Christians.

Without Jesus at the center of our faith and life, what are we left with? As far as our Christianity goes, it’s going to be nothing more than some form of bland moralism, religious formalism, or an anemic spirituality that neither motivates us nor appeals to others. We must have a ...read more

Scripture: John 20:19-23

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Dispelling The Darkness

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 23, 2015

What we’re trying to do is push back the darkness.

So, Matthew says that, “when Jesus heard that John [the Baptist] had been arrested, he withdrew….” What does that tell us? It tells us – doesn’t it? – that there is a force of darkness at work in this world. And we know what that means, of course. It means there ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 4:12-23

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Grace Produces

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 23, 2015

You will respond to God's mercies by doing what it is in your nature to do. Grace produces "fruit."

When we first moved into our home – it’s been twenty-five years ago now – but when we first moved in, we had a peach tree growing on the north side of the house. And it produced peaches, hundreds of them! The birds loved it, and the neighbors hated it. The neighbors hated it ...read more

Scripture: Romans 12:1-2

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

He Is The One

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 23, 2015

Two things we need most are found in Jesus: real security and deep satisfaction.

King Saul was a major disappointment. As you know, he was the first king of Israel, and he was everything you would want a king to be. When we first meet him in the pages of Scripture, we are told that he was “a handsome young man.” In fact, “there was not a man among the people ...read more

Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Hurting People

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 23, 2015

Whether you have been hurt or have hurt someone else, you seek reconciliation for the glory of God.

In Paul’s brief correspondence with the Philippians, as he drew his letter to a close, he mentioned an issue of some importance in his mind. There were two women in the church – dear women, women who had “labored side by side” with Paul in the gospel, women “whose ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:21-26

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Idol Thoughts

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 23, 2015

Let us determine to know God and to worship him, not as some idol devised by our own natural preferences, not as many people configure him to be, but as “the book of nature” and the Holy Book together reveal him to be.

The two passages before us today [Acts 17:22-31 and John 14:15-21] could not be more different from one another. And yet, in some ways, they could not be more similar. In the first one, the one from Acts, we have the Apostle Paul speaking to a group of Gentile skeptics who know nothing of the ...read more

Scripture: John 14:15-21

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Never Forgotten

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on May 11, 2015

As a mother never forgets her child, so our Father never forgets His children.

WHEN I WAS A KID – I mean, a really little kid – my mother had to ride a bus to work every day. But first, she had to drop me off at the sitter’s, which means that I rode on the bus part of the way with her. It was always early in the morning. Ordinarily, the sun wasn’t ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 49:13-18

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

A Winsome Church

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on May 28, 2015

A winsome church does God's work God's way for the sake of God's world.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL recently published a report indicating that “the U.S. now has a bigger share of people who don’t identify with any religion than those who do. In the last seven years, the number of people unaffiliated with either Roman Catholic or mainline Protestant churches ...read more

Scripture: Acts 2:1-42

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

The Gift

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Jun 1, 2015

What God gives in love, we receive by faith, so that we may live in hope.

ONE OF THE PROBLEMS with religion is: You can believe all the right things – that is, you can be orthodox in your faith – but it can be a dead orthodoxy. You know what I mean? It can appear lifeless, certainly not vital and contagious. Same thing with our conduct. We may behave ...read more

Scripture: John 3:1-16

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed