Advancing Word Podcast

In Chapter 40, verses 28 through 31 of the Book of Isaiah, the author’s focus has moved from a critique of Israel’s waywardness to comfort and encouragement. The Jewish Rabbis called this part of the prophecy, the Book of Consolations, believing that Isaiah was seeking to comfort the Jewish remnant in Babylon after their years of captivity and to assure them that God has not left them or forgotten...

The Book of Second Kings, Chapter Four, verses one through seven introduces a desperate mother facing suffocating debt.  The choke hold on her life was tightening because of the real threat that her two sons could be forced into slavery to satisfy her creditors.  She cried out to the Prophet Elisha who challenged her faith.  A miracle occurred that allowed her to pay her debts and live on the rest...

In Part 3 of this series on biblical stewardship and giving, Dr. Stubblefield completes the last side of the Golden Triangle of Giving.  It is generosity that enlarges our giving.  According to Proverbs, Chapter Eleven, verse 24 - 28, this happens when we give eagerly, exceptionally and expectantly.  

True love is the greatest motivator of all!  Our love for God is the passion that energizes our giving.  In Part 2 of the sermon series, The Triangle of Giving, Proverbs 8:17-21 reveals the Person that love seeks, the prize that love secures and the promise that love satisfies. Love is the key that unlocks the treasuries of God’s blessings.     

Three pivotal passages in the Book of Proverbs provide a compelling summary of the Bible’s teaching on giving and stewardship.  The first of these, Proverbs 3:9-10, is the focus of this message and the foundation of Part 1 of “The Triangle of Giving”.  This sermon focuses on “the perspective that elevates our giving”.  

While preaching at the historic Galilee Baptist Church in St. Louis, Missouri, one of the city’s storied congregations, Dr. Stubblefield shares a message from Second Kings, Chapter 6.  The prophet Elisha miraculously recovers an axe that had slipped off the handle and plunged into the waters of the Jordan River.  The user of the axe panicked because the axe was “borrowed.”  When we lose our edge i...

In 2 Corinthians, Chapter Twelve, verses seven through ten, the Apostle Paul prays passionately and persistently for the removal of something (or someone) he identifies as “a thorn in the flesh”.  God doesn’t remove the problem but gives Paul the strength to bare it.  So often in life and ministry, we learn that through God’s grace, we can abound in adversity.  This sermon tells us why.  

According to Philippians, Chapter Three, some aspects of our past can be like a dangerous and life-threatening rip tide or undercurrent that flows opposite of the peace, joy, love, faith, hope and prosperity that God has for us.  In verses thirteen and fourteen of this epic chapter, the Apostle Paul recognizes that his pursuit of godliness could be jeopardized by the pull of the past.  This sermon...

If time was a bank account, what would your personal balance be?  The answer to that searching and perhaps unsettling question is that none of us really know.  It is this issue that motivates the Apostle Paul’s attempt to encourage a sense of urgency among the members of the church at Rome.  According to Romans 13:11-14, the recognition that “time is running out” anchors not only their expression...

Do you feel like your life is moving in the wrong direction or things aren’t quiet working out as you imagined they would?  The holidays have only exacerbated your disappointment.  What can you do?  You can do like Ruth did in the first chapter of the book of the Bible that bears her name.  You can “face north when life is going south”.  This sermon tells you how.  

According to Titus, Chapter Two, verses 11 – 14, the birth of Jesus is “grace appearing”.  The Apostle Paul is writing to Titus who is ministering in Crete, an island city located 100 miles south of Greece.  He uses the Greek word from which we get our English word “epiphany”, to describe the birth of Jesus on the first Christmas morning.  This is one of several passages in the New Testament that...

Christians are God’s witnesses to a broken world.  We share the message of salvation in our homes, schools, communities, on our jobs and even in our churches.  The Epistle of First Peter, verse fifteen captures the essence of this responsibility.  The Advent Season provides a unique opportunity for those who are ready to share the truth about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with others.  This ser...

First Chronicles Chapter 24, verse nineteen is a short yet profound passage that erupts with a significant salute and timeless tribute to the ministry of the prophets.  Prophets were “essential workers”, devoted servants who, through the ministry of the Word of God, challenged God’s people to faith and faithfulness as they struggled to recover their national dignity and destiny after seventy years...

British Prime Minister and prominent leader during World War II, Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.”  He could have very well been gleaning truth from a passage that King Solomon wrote centuries earlier that is recorded in Proverbs Chapter Eleven, verse twenty-five.  That verse and this sermon addresses the question, “What do we gain w...

This sermon focuses on prayer in the life of the early church.  It is a compelling reminder that what happens in a prayer meeting has world-changing implications.  According to Acts Chapter Four, verse thirty-one, while praying, the church experienced a connection that cannot be disrupted, a community that cannot be discounted, a capacity that cannot be depleted and a confidence that cannot be dis...

In Joshua, Chapter 3, before the Israelites encountered the towering fortress of Jericho, they had to face the turbulent flooding of the Jordan River.  Miraculously crossing the river at that time of the year not only validated Joshua’s role as their new leader but revealed that God had an upstream provision for their downstream problem.  This promise, provision and possibility is available for be...

Faced with the blatant contradictions around him, the timeless problem and paradox of the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous, the author of the Seventy Third Psalm cries out to God.   Muddled and mired in doubt and skepticism, he plods and slogs along until he experiences a breakthrough during worship in the sanctuary.  This sermon is a compelling reminder that in our nati...

This sermon reminds us that the ministry of Jesus was both prophetic and proleptic.  The dictionary defines “proleptic” as “the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished.”  In Mark 6:1, Jesus’s own ministry foretells and frames what should be the agenda and activity of every local church that is connected to His person, purpose, passion an...

In Joshua Chapter Fourteen, verses six through fifteen, Caleb, at the age of eighty-five years old, expresses his willingness and desire to go to battle as the Israelites solidified their gains in the new land of promise.  He was by all accounts, “a faithful man” because he was devoted, delivered and daring. Even in the seasoned sunset of his life, he was still looking for another opportunity to s...

Feeling overwhelmed or stretched to your limits?  In 2 Chronicles Chapter 20, verse fifteen, facing a superior opponent, King Jehoshaphat was reminded that “the battle is not yours but God’s.”  He trusted God and experienced the victory.  We can too!    

In the Book of Second Corinthians, the Apostle Paul defends his apostleship against critics, antagonists and opponents of the ministry.  In the first verse of Chapter 4 of the epistle, he very succinctly delineates the three characteristics that constitute the measure of authentic ministry.  If you would like to know what they are, you must listen to this sermon!  

In honor of Clergy Appreciation Month, Dr. Stubblefield shares biblical perspectives about the office of pastor-teacher based on Jeremiah 3:15. This timely and relevant message focuses on the measure, model, ministry, and motivation of the pastor.

Dr. Stubblefield shares via video with the Bethesda Evangelical Church in Cape Town, South Africa for their Twenty Fifth Anniversary on September 25, 2022.  In this message, he reflects on his long history with the church using Psalm 122, stanzas 1 - 2 to encourage their transformative work of ministry in the community.  

In Psalm 42: stanzas 1-8, beneath the chaos of circumstances emerges a compelling portrait of spiritual maturity.  The author is experiencing a torrential storm of life, and it appears to him that the LORD is asleep and cares not that he perishes.  The “deep” called on the writer of this psalm.  That is deep trial, deep suffering, deep tribulation and deep despair and anguish.  And when deep calle...

Chapter Eleven of the Gospel of John records the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  It is one of seven miracles in the Gospel attesting to the Divinity of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  At the urgent request of two desperate sisters, Jesus shows up in this crisis and He still shows up in ours.  He shows up in our problems, our prayers, our perspectives, and our prisons.