Coeburn Presbyterian Church Sermons - Pastor James Ensley

Introduction: David asks God questions in the Psalms regularly. Psalm 6, David is not comfortable in psalm 6. And he asks in his distress 1 question But you Lord—How Long? This question is actually similar to Psalm 4 “How Long shall my honor be turned to shame? As my enemies exchange the righteousness and truth of God for slander and lies. There, David appeals resoundingly to the JOY and Peace tha...

Recap: Last week we saw the humanity of Christ under the pressure of growing crowds and demands on him. Jesus called the 12 apostles who were with Christ as a blessing to Jesus and to us today. Christ the cornerstone, they, by the power of the Holy Spirit, are the foundations of the church. Giving us the complete bible by which we can know and love Jesus. Today we are going to see Jesus’ confronta...

Sermon on Mark 3:7–19 We are back in the Gospel of Mark after spending our fifth Sunday in the Confession in Revelation chapter 9, thinking about the Church of Christ. This week we will be in Mark chapter 3 in verses 7 through 19. As you’re turning there, remember there’s been these increasingly severe conflicts between Christ and the scribes and Pharisees. The Gospel of Mark has been building thi...

HANDOUTS APPENDIX AT BOTTOM OF NOTES: This morning is a 5th Sunday and according to our practice we will cover a chapter of the Westminster confession of faith, we usually preach passage-by-passage through books of the bible. This guards you from my hobby horses, this promotes the whole counsel of God, but it is good since the bible is so expansive to have occasional sermons that seek to go in dep...

Introduction: French 10 day work week…abolished after 12 years. Russian 5 day week (but rotating assignments, meant to destroy the family.) Chick-fil-A rarely opens on Sundays but did so four times during disasters: 2018 Hurricane Florence, 2015 Dallas tornadoes, 2017 Atlanta airport outage, and 2016 Orlando Pulse shooting to feed victims and first responders. As human beings, we need rest, we nee...

Introduction: · Jesus forgives sins · Jesus reconciles & restores sinners to table fellowship Today, this conflict over fasting with John’s disciples and Pharisees is the first of three incidents where Jesus’ identity is more fully revealed in order to address the conflict: He is the Physician, today he is the Bridegroom, and next week he is the Lord of the Sabbath. Read: Mark 2:18–22 [18] Now Joh...

Introduction: Once again Jesus is calling a Disciple. Unlike his unopposed calling of the first 4 disciples, where Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John and then goes and dines in Peter’s Mother-in-law’s house…God-fearing honorable people…This time, there is opposition and dispute as Jesus calls an undesirable with undesirable friends to leave all and follow him. NOTE IT is the same call to d...

Introduction: Recap ESTABLISHED power, authority, and his message, here Jesus faces opposition as his identity and authority are joined together as God incarnate, proclaiming forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus himself. Illustration: Forgiveness is a tricky thing? Kids “I’m sorry” “I forgive you.” …Not feeling it. Adults, “I forgive you…But I’m still mad at you, the friendship is over…” “...

Introduction: Turn to Mark 1, for the final time… Context, baptism, repent & believe, wilderness (#1 of 2?), Synagogue “unclean” in demonic sense; healings…Jesus’ statement to move on to preserve his preaching ministry…Next we have a situation not of demonic possession but of the misery of the fall, our inability to restore ourselves to the how things are meant to be…And a firm conclusion Christ h...

This morning we’re going to talk about a Christian Perspective on Art & Beauty. This is a school so I will accept the fact that you can wrestle with difficult concept. Ecclesiastes 3:11 [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (ESV) As you can see from Eccl. 3:11, we...

Introduction: What will hold the center of our lives? Something will be and must be the center. We may be self-centered and the center is us, our strength, our abilities…Maybe you think it would be more selfless to live for another person: a spouse, a politician, a celebrity, or even a group of people, to live your life for a social or political movement. But we often find that as we pursue self-s...

Introduction: He is Risen! That is the foundation of our joy and faith this Sunday morning, the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day. That Jesus is Alive. That he has Ascended to the right hand of the Father and that he builds his church through the call of the Word and Spirit. This morning, if you could turn to Luke 24:13-25, vv. 25-27 is our focus but 13-25 gives us the whole story. This Accoun...

Intro: It is our habit to preach through books of the bible, and to once a quarter preach the topic of a chapter of the confession, the Insert you have is a copy of the WCF and we won’t be able to to address everything. Marriage is a complex topic and the bible has a lot to say, for the sake of brevity, you have the insert and scriptures there. If you want more frank discussions, let’s talk, but I...

Recap: Temptations were a defeat of Satan, So continues to proclaim, gather, and demonstrate his authority and power.. Today: Jesus demonstrates his authoritative teaching and we see the first example of his defeat of spiritual forces publicly, having conquered Satan in his temptations as victorious in the way that Israel never was he now demonstrates it to the people. Read Mark 1:21-28 And they w...

Recap: Tell me if this sounds familiar…1 Cor. 10 1 Corinthians 10:1–5 [1] For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, [2] and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, [3] and all ate the same spiritual food, [4] and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed...

Introduction: [ Acts 17] 1 Thessalonians is written to a young Christian congregation planted by Paul over a short period of time 3 weeks in the local synagogue and then he was driven out of town for the sake of the gospel turning gentiles from Idols and scandalizing the Synogogue. Paul now writes back to this congregation with thankfulness for their growth in the gospel of grace and to answer thr...

Introduction: Sinclair Ferguson writes; “Mark begins his Gospel by telling us two simple things. First, the gospel is about Jesus Christ. It is not good advice about how to live, but good news about a person. Then secondly, Mark sets the scene for Jesus by telling us about John the Baptist and the significance of his ministry” (Ferguson, Let’s Study Mark , 2). Read: Mark 1:4–11 [4] John appeared,...

How to begin one of the Four Gospels of the life of our Savior…Simply by Beginning. This is the very word of God. From the Gospel of Mark Under the eye witness testimony of the Lord’s Apostle Peter; written for us to testify to the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Read Mark Chapter 1:1-8 [1] The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. [2] As it is written in Isaiah the p...

Introduction : This morning we are back in Nahum, Nahum Chapter 3. We have 19 verses, and it’s a communion Sunday, so we will not re-read every phrase. I entrust you to track with an open Bible as we move through different sections. In Nahum, we have seen God addressing Nineveh for its wickedness: Nahum has shown that sin will be judged because justice is how God is able to be a good refuge and ad...

Introduction: Our first sermon in Nahum began with a big picture view of God’s character, explaining how God’s intense love for his people combined with holy justicemeans that sin will be punished . So in broad brushstrokes, Nahum wants you personally to believe, I need a refuge because sin will be punished, and provide comfort for the oppressed. God is jealous, avenging his people who are hurt by...

Pastor John Mackay says, “God’s wrath is one aspect of his character that is almost too awesome to contemplate. Its implications for sinners are so overwhelming that we shrink from it. But there is another attribute of God that his people have to remember so as to have a full orbed appreciation of the God with whom they have to do. [The LORD is good]. God [is] implacably opposed to what is morally...

*audio issues. Hopefully corrected now* Introduction: Jonah & Historical Preface (Jonah mid-700s; Nahum Mid-600s. These verses preview the whole book. If Jonah shows God’s mercy for those who repent. Than Nahum shows God’s justice against wicked unrepentant Ninevah. This serves to comfort God’s people who suffer under the oppression of an evil Assyrian empire. Read: Nahum 1:1–7 [1] An oracle conce...

Note: Apologies for the audio recording quality. The lapel mic failed to pair to the phone and so this is a recording from the phone across the whole sanctuary. Manuscript: J.C. Ryle says, “every birth of a living child is a marvelous event. It brings into being a soul that will never die. But never since the world began was a birth so marvelous as the birth of Christ…it opened to man the door of...

· Last time together we saw the grace of God the Father in sending Gabriel to announce good news. The savior is coming, great David’s greater son, sent by the Father, to conquer sin and death to inherit an eternal throne. But Jesus did not come in glory he came humbly, taking on our flesh. · This is done by the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation is...

Read: Luke 1:26–38 (Emphasis v. 26-33). [26] In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, [27] to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. [28] And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” [29] But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to dis...