Saraland Sermons - saralandchristians.com

Pray Bigger Casey Gray Download We have studied for weeks about prayer. How has that affected your prayer life? Are you praying more often? Is the quality of your prayers developing? If you are like me, you don’t struggle with whether prayer works or focusing on the right ideas in prayer. I haven’t taught you anything I didn’t already know. I know that I should pray through tears. I know that I sh...

Under The Palm Tree (Judges 4-5) Casey Gray Download Imagine a world where you are so oppressed by evil people that you cannot step outside your town without the fear of being killed for sport. You don’t go outside your home at night because you don’t know what might be waiting for you. You live under an evil ruler with weapons powerful enough to crush you, and you have been completely disarmed. N...

Asking For An Opportunity (Neh 1-2) Casey Gray Download On occasion, we face events in our lives where we have to choose what we are going to do. There may be two roads we can go down. One road might be easier than the other, but we feel a burden to go down the difficult road. What will we do? There are many events in our lives that change our course. Doors close, and another door opens to reveal...

Standing In The Breach (Daniel 9) Casey Gray Download In this series on prayer, I’m ambitiously trying to push us past what’s normal. We’ve learned from Hannah what it looks like to pray through tears with faith that God hears. We’ve learned from David how to pray with humility when we’ve blown it. And last week we talked about praying when God says “No”—not quitting, not going cold, but continuin...

The Saviors (Judges 1-3) Casey Gray Download Have you ever noticed how easy it is to drift? Nobody wakes up one morning and says, “Today I’m going to forget about God.” Nobody plans to disobey. Nobody puts it on the calendar: Start worshiping idols. Stop praying. Stop caring. Stop listening. That’s not how it happens. It happens slowly. Quietly. You miss one opportunity to obey. You ignore one con...

When God Says, "No" Casey Gray Download At the start of the year, I told you that prayer is something I’ve struggled with at times. I’ve spent hours praying while driving long commutes, pouring out my heart to God. But I’ve also reduced prayer to habit—motions without expectation. When prayers are answered quickly, prayer feels powerful. When they aren’t, prayer feels pointless. And if we’re hones...

It's Not Worth It (Joshua 7) Casey Gray Download The God of Israel has shown Himself faithful to His promises. He delivered Jericho—the first major city in the promised land—into the hands of Joshua and His people. All they had to do was obey Him and trust His power. They watched as the walls of a fortified city collapsed without a single battering ram. Jericho was not won by Israel’s strength or...

Praying When You've Blown It (Psalm 51) Casey Gray Download Most people don’t plan to ruin their lives. They don’t wake up one morning intending to cross a line they can’t uncross. It usually starts smaller than that. A desire goes unmet. A wound goes unhealed. A restlessness sets in. And we tell ourselves we’re just trying to feel whole again. We’re desperate people. We’re trying to quiet the ach...

Turning To The Lord (Joshua 2, 6) Casey Gray Download Forty years have passed since Egypt was decimated by God’s mighty hand. News came in and spread that Israel has a God who fights for them. The plagues and defeat of Pharaoh’s army is known. For the last forty years the people in the land of Canaan have known that Israel lives in the wilderness to their south. But they have giants and fortresses...

Praying Through Tears (1 Samuel 1-2) Casey Gray Download Why don’t we pray? Why do we so often fail to pray at all? We believe in prayer. We talk about prayer. We tell others they should pray. Yet when pressure mounts, when disappointment lingers, when life feels heavy or confusing, prayer is often what we neglect rather than the first place we turn. That raises an uncomfortable question: what is...

Making Room For Outsiders (Romans 15-16) Casey Gray Download I have a friend who moved to a city in California after learning to preach and teach the Bible. He hoped he could reach lost people there—and he was right. Many in that town were open to the gospel. Gang members, addicts, sexually immoral men and women heard the good news and committed their lives to Christ. But that blessing created pre...

The Battle Belongs To The Lord (Joshua) Casey Gray Download Standing at the Edge of Promise The people of Israel are finally standing on the edge of the promised land. For forty years they have wandered—living in tents, burying loved ones, and learning the hard way what unbelief costs. This generation knows what went wrong. They know what God desires from them now. But one question still hangs hea...

Embracing The Differences (Romans 14:1-15:7) Casey Gray Download What breaks harmony in a local church? Wouldn’t it be something if we could identify the root cause of division and stop it before it spreads? If churches could stop tearing themselves apart, they could actually begin to look like the body of Christ Paul describes. Is the problem that we are too different? Too sinful? Too foolish? Pa...

A Different Spirit (Caleb) Casey Gray Download I entitled this series of sermons, “Echoes of Faith.” As we have studied these different Bible characters, many have demonstrated great faith. But many have shown their imperfection. They have failed to have a heart that is wholly devoted to the Lord. Today, we will hear of a man who has no blemish. I’m sure there were sins and failures, but none are...

Resonating Harmony (Romans 13) Casey Gray Download Have you ever noticed how easy harmony feels in this room? Here we are different, having different upbringings, different talents, different opportunities, different opinions. But we are the same. We are striving to be good for Jesus’ sake. We believe the same and love the same person. We are striving for righteousness based on the same text. But...

Jealous For God (Numbers 25) Casey Gray Download “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.” (Ecc 8:11) Have you ever seen this happen? I have. I was at a church with weak and practically non-existent leadership that refuses to address an issue when it comes up. Someone was in an adulterous situation. It was one of...

Harmonize With One Another (Romans 12) Casey Gray Download You’re sitting across the table from someone, and they choose to open up. They’re vulnerable. They trust you with something deep. A pregnancy announcement—while you’re begging God for a child. A cancer diagnosis—while you don’t even know what to say. A job promotion—while you’re wondering how to pay next month’s bills. How do you respond i...

Were You Predestined (Romans) Casey Gray Download What does it mean for God to foreknow or predestine? How does God predestine or preselect a destination for those people whom He foreknows? Calvinism is the most popular way to understand these ideas. It says that God foreknows and predestines or chooses every individual who is saved and who is lost. Their claim is that God is sovereign over all an...

The Wrong Reasons (Numbers 22-24) Casey Gray Download Have you ever done all the right things for the wrong reasons? Today, we are going to look at a story of two men and a nation which will help us understand how our desires and our requests from God can be totally wrong. Balak’s Fear Israel is on a role in Numbers 21. They are near the end of their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, and...

Pride & Envy (Numbers 12) Casey Gray Download I think many of us want to be leaders at one point in our lives. It starts in school where we all want to be the line leader. Then, it carries over into sports where everyone wants to be the captain. Eventually, we grow up and want to be the boss. This desire for prominence and exaltation is not something everyone experiences, but those who do want to...

Suffering & Glory (Romans 5-8) Casey Gray Download Some of the brethren here are going through hard times. There seems to be a slew of difficult days that they keep being bombarded with. So today I want us to look at some passages that have been on my mind about suffering. Ecclesiastes 11:0-12:1 - 10 Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life...

The Mind of God (Romans 11:16-36) Casey Gray Download In our job, sometimes we justify doing what we wanna do when the boss isn’t around. It can be easy for us to do what we wanna do when God‘s not around or when we don’t feel his presence. Have you ever caught yourself saying, "God wouldn't mind if we…”? Perhaps you have looked around at other congregations and thought that changing up our worshi...

God Won't Mind (Leviticus 9-10) Casey Gray Download Romans 11:33–36 (ESV) — 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things....

A Hardened Heart (Exodus 4-14) Casey Gray Download Have you ever had things going really well in your life and been scared to lose it? Imagine being the sole ruler of the greatest civilization on earth. The Nile river provides abundant resources, the wealth of the nations have poured into your economy as a result of a famine, and you have at your disposal the largest slave labor force in history (...

Those Who Stumble (Romans 10:18-11:15) Casey Gray Download You pray for someone year after year. You share the gospel with tears in your eyes. They shrug it off. Maybe even laugh at it. At some point you sit in your car afterward and ask, “What is the point?” or, “Why am I doing this?” That ache Paul felt for Israel is the same ache you feel for that friend, that child, that sibling. Paul says he...