Sermons on Isaac An Offering:

Jesus Gives Us Joy Series

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 16, 2015

Whatever you're going through, Jesus will get you through.

“HOW LONG CAN YOU STAY under water without coming up for air?” That was the challenge my boyhood friend made to me. He boasted himself a full minute-and-a-half. “No contest!” I said. “Three minutes! Watch this.” I sucked in as much air as I could, and I plunged ...read more

Scripture: John 16:16-24

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Jesus Gives Us His Word Series

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 23, 2015

Make Jesus' passion your passion, his aims your aims, and pray for these things every day.

THIS PAST TUESDAY, I took a day away from my desk, and Jan and I made a trip to Frisco, which is one of the places we like to go when we can. We ate at a favorite restaurant, relaxed and talked a bit, and then, as we almost always do, we went our separate ways – Jan to shop, and what I always ...read more

Scripture: John 17:1-26

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

The End In Mind Series

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 23, 2015

The work God does in you and me has three phases: a beginning, a middle, and an end. God began His “good work” in us, He “will carry it on,” and, in time, He will bring it to completion.

Recently, our daughter Catherine completed a refinishing project. Se took an old chest, worn and marred by the years and transformed it into an elegant piece of furniture, which she is pleased to display in her home. She took an object that was ruined and unsightly and restored it in such a way ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 1:3-11

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Advancing The Gospel Series

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 23, 2015

Can we look at this or that circumstance in our lives and say, “As bad as my situation is, I can see a way to press it into the service of the gospel. I can bear witness to Christ even in the midst of this”?

Patsy Bonner shared with our Friday Bible study group a spoof news story that had been sent to her recently. The dateline is ostensibly Dallas, and the brief that follows says: Dallas Cowboys football practice was delayed nearly two hours today after a player reported finding an unknown white ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 1:12-26

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Embodying The Gospel Series

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 23, 2015

Living in a manner that is worthy of the gospel has three conditions.

If you don’t mind, let’s go back to the beginning of this passage. We read there – in chapter 1, verse 27 – that we are to live our lives “in a manner [that is] worthy of the gospel.” This is a simple but urgent appeal to us, and if we are to respond to it, if ...read more

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Looking Out For Number One Series

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Mar 23, 2015

Jesus Christ deserves to be your Number One.

Paul, you will remember, writes these words from a Roman jail. And he is not there for committing a crime; he is there for his commitment to Christ. But, even though he is in Rome, he is concerned about his friends in Philippi, some eight hundred miles away. They are concerned about him, too. In ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 2:19-30

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

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

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

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

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

Laying It Down

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 27, 2015

Jesus' sheep know their Shepherd's voice, and they are safe.

WHEN I WAS A KID, I loved to go to my grandmother’s house. One of the things I remember about that house was a picture on the wall over the bed where I slept. It was a picture of Jesus. There’s a good chance you’ve seen it, or one like it. It shows the full stature of our Lord. ...read more

Scripture: John 10:1-21

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Location. Location. Location.

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 28, 2015

Each of us is either “in Adam” or “in Christ.” That is why I have called my sermon Location. Location. Location. Where you are – what your location is – makes all the difference in the world, and, more than that, it makes all the difference in eternity.

James Montgomery Boice says that this is “possibly the most difficult [passage] in the Bible.” Great! Right? One thing’s for sure: Paul’s argument in these verses is dense and tight. One commentator begins by defining some of the terms in the text in hopes that that will ...read more

Scripture: Romans 5:12-19

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

The Nike Factor

Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Apr 28, 2015

In all his obedience Jesus was standing in for us, doing for us what we could never do for ourselves.

“Just do it.” That’s the way Nike hopes to motivate us to “get back to sport,” as they put it, to get back in the game. “Just do it,” they tell us, and, of course, they also tell us: the best way to “do it” is to use their shoes and their gear. ...read more

Scripture: Romans 12:9-21

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