Edgefield Church Nashville – Sermons

One of the main reasons Paul wrote this letter was to defend his own sincerity against people who thought he was speaking from both sides of his mouth. And sincerity is certainly worth defending. You want to know that someone means what he says, that he?s not holding anything back, and that you can trust him to follow through. But sincerity is easier to require from someone else than to produce co...

Paul describes a community where, though everyone experiences suffering, everyone is comforted and everyone is responsible for comforting others. He helps us learn to see our suffering for what God is doing in us and what he will do through us.

Why do we need this ancient letter? Here are at least three reasons.

Judges has shown us what sort of king we need. John?s gospel shows us God has given us exactly what we need in Jesus.

The book of Judges is like a negative space portrait?the colorful characters catch our eye, but we?re really supposed to see what?s missing. Israel?s awful experience shows us that if we want peace what we need is a very specific kind of leader to take us there.

The story of Ruth reminds us that the story of every life of every one of God?s children is a story of redemption. Our paths won?t be the same, or straight or easy?but with every step God is bringing us to Jesus.

In the darkest of times, can God pull us through, and make us better for having faced the challenge?

Judges ends in almost total darkness with some of the ugliest stories anywhere in the Bible. But even these darkest of scenes point the way to light. They?re here to show us what we need if we really want lasting justice. We need a true and worthy king.

In Samson?the last of the judges?we see a leader of unprecedented power leading a life of unbridled selfishness. We have a judge, in other words, who?s no better than his people with no interest in saving them. But still God uses him. And in his story we get a glimpse of the future?of how God saves, and whom.

This picture of what God has promised to do shows that risks for the kingdom aren?t really risks.

Jesus?s final words to his followers make every Christian responsible for getting the gospel to everyone who hasn?t heard it. How can we take up this responsibility?

The story of Jephthah is a dark one. It is a story of deliverance like the others, but the focus is not on his courage or even God?s power. The focus is Jephthah?s tragic misunderstanding of God?s love? and it shows us our only hope for a peaceful, life-giving relationship with God is God?s free, undeserved, gracious love for us in Jesus.

Gideon?s decline and Abimelech?s fall show what happens when you treat your power as a blank check for your agenda, not a stewardship from God. This story warns us against abusing the privileges and opportunities we?ve been given, and it points us to the leader we desperately need.

The story of Gideon focuses on Gideon?s slow-rising faith, God?s remarkable patience, and the promise that the Lord delivers those willing to give up their desire for control and trust him.

It may be that the stories in Judges follow a familiar cycle, but there?s nothing predictable about the way God delivers his people. When he acts to save them, he makes it obvious that he?s the one who does the saving.

The story of Ehud and Eglon is not one you?d expect to find in the Bible. It?s not just that the story is violent. It?s also crude and darkly comedic. But through the unexpected details we get a picture of the God who inserts himself into the messy lives of his people to turn their mourning into laughter.

This chapter introduces what?s typically called the Judges cycle. It?s a pattern that most of the individual stories follow and it?s the key to the meaning of the whole book.

Judges begins where Joshua left off. Israel has entered the land God promised them. They?ve been charged with removing the Canaanites still living there. But why was this so important? Why was it even ok? And then there is the driving question of the story: will Israel be faithful?

This overview sermon sets up our fall preaching series. What is Judges about? It?s about Israel?s disobedience?and ours. It?s about God?s holiness?his perfect justice and his relentless love. And it?s about Jesus, who is the only answer to the questions raised by this book.

When we recognize the scale of our debt to God?the debt he has canceled through Jesus?there?s no way we can withhold forgiveness from others.

Christian hope is the confident expectation and desire for the promises of God to be true. In the context of 1 Peter, this hope is the confident expectation of Christ?s victory over death. Peter gives us three reasons for why we can be so confident in this hope. 1) Our hope is anchored in the past: Jesus has been raised from the dead. 2) Our hope is secure in the future: we have an eternal inherit...

Jesus brings his sermon to a close with a vivid appeal to respond well to what he has said. The choice is clear. The stakes are high. Now what will you do with Jesus?

With this warning Jesus raises a question that hovers over the entire Sermon on the Mount: who will enter the kingdom of heaven? His answer: it?s not just what you say that matters, but what you do. And it?s not just what you do that matters, it?s whom you know.

Jesus?s warning is straightforward: ?Beware of false prophets.? But who are these false prophets? And how can we recognize them?

With this radical rule of love Jesus sums up the ethics of the kingdom he?s been describing all along. It?s an incredibly simple rule: do for others what you wish they would do for you. But where do we get the strength to obey it?