Sermon Notes

Because God is our Father who sees in secret, prayer isn’t a show to earn applause or a tool to gain control; it’s a humble, honest conversation with our Father where we draw near and confess our absolute dependence on Him for all things. 1. Don’t pray to be seen by...

1. Don’t practice righteousness to be seen by people. 2. Giving for applause is a reward; but it’s the wrong one. 3. Giving in secret is rewarded by our Father.  

I. God’s Instructions to Children: Two Commands and a Promise “One of the foundational heart issues in the life of every child is authority. Teaching and modeling the protective beauty of authority is one of the foundations of good parenting.”—Paul Tripp, Parenting:...

1. To Us a Child Is Born, To Us a Son Is Given 2. Wonderful Counselor 3. Mighty God “Sin causes us all to be unable to be what God designed us to be and to do what God created us to do. So Jesus would unleash his power to defeat sin and death and then empower us to...

1. Seeking, Troubled, or Indifferent 2. God Warns. Joseph Obeys. The King Is Protected. 3. Evil Rages. Weeping is Real. 4. The False King Dies. The True King Grows. “There simply is no denying it. Life this side of eternity is one big and unending war of kingdoms....

Because Jesus is God with Us who saves us from our sins, the only fitting response is humble, trusting obedience to God. SCENE 1:  Joseph decides to quietly divorce Mary ( vv.18-19). SCENE 2:  An angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream (vv. 20-23). SCENE 3:...

Because the sovereign God has faithfully directed all of history to bring Jesus into the world to save us from our sins, we can confidently trust Jesus as the Christ. God’s sovereign grace leads to Christ, and our faith rests in Christ. 1. God’s sovereign plan:...

Since God loved us as His enemies, in Christ, we must love and pray for our enemies, so His love is seen in us. 1. Jesus exposes our narrow, enemy-hating love. 2. Jesus commands us, as children of the Father, to love and pray for our enemies. 3. Jesus shows that...

Since Jesus is the truth and fulfills all truth, his disciples should walk in the truth and faithfully speak the truth, letting their “yes be yes and their no be no.” 1. Jesus exposes the sin of manipulating truth. 2. Jesus reveals why our words matter to God. 3....

“Divorce is a subject which touches people’s emotions at a deep level. There is almost no unhappiness so poignant as the unhappiness of an unhappy marriage. And almost no tragedy so great as the degeneration of what God meant for love and fulfillment into a...