Greater Life Church

The idea for tonight’s message came to Bro. Hughes at a funeral. Funerals can be an awkward time for a preacher. Often times the preacher is called upon to offer an account of a person’s life that sounds good, but that bears no relation to the actual life lived by the deceased. Bro. Hughes remarks that he wants his life to be such that whomever speaks at his funeral will not have to make up things...

Faith is probably the most troubling subject in the spiritual life. We have a hard time believing that we have faith. Whatever we have inside us that we call faith, we fell that it is inadequate. God did not intend faith to be a troubling experience. Faith from God’s perspective is a bridge that will bring us to better things. When we trust him and place our confidence in Him; that trust and confi...

The decisions we make have an enormous impact on our life. Bro. Hughes shares the stories of two men who made one very different decisions. One decided to forgo any association with God. He lived a hard and sinful life. The account of the 1000 or so descendants and the lives they led is a shocking list of failure and sorrow. By contrast the other man chose to live for God, and of account of the li...

Paul had to deal with carnality in the early church. They had allowed some terrible things creep into the church. In our text, Paul talks about some things in life that will be in everyone’s life. No matter how much we may pray and how faithful we may be, some of the experiences that Paul mentions will find their way into our life. He determined that he wanted men to know that he was a Christian w...

Faith is the currency of heaven. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Many struggle with faith in terms of whether they have enough or any at all. Some feel that if they had enough faith they would not be facing what they are facing. Still others think that they could get out of what they are facing if they had better faith. The truth is that even among the weakest among us, we all have s...

Many people skip over our scripture text as being a simple genealogy. It is monotonous for most of us and we have trouble pronouncing the names. Even so, there is a message in this text. There is more than just a genealogy of Adam’s line. There are 10 names mentioned and they cover a period of approximately 1430 years. Bro. Hughes notes that each of the names has a dictionary meaning, and when he...

For most people, life is governed by what we plan to do versus what we actually do. We plan to do better, to be better, to face situations and to deal with problems. However, much of that is relegated to the future. “I’ll do that someday.” It is in the mind of most of us to take care of situations at some point. In our text, Jesus had traveled to Samaria. While there, He encountered a woman at the...

Life can be trying. It inflicts hurts and pain that can result in a withering of the spirit. Bro. Hughes notes in our text God’s ability in the midst of disability. God’s abilities and strength can overcome our inability and weakness. Many people let the setbacks of life marginalize and sideline them. Our text describes a man with a withered hand. Most Bible scholars agree that this man was inured...

We are all aware that we have an enemy. The bible identifies him by many names, but the goal is always the same: to attack and destroy. He attempts to tear away and destroy the things that are vital to our salvation. We have all felt that evil working against us at times. While we may not see it coming, God is never caught off guard. He always has a plan before the devil ever comes against us. Bef...

Our scripture text has been used as a basis for many sermons. Bro. Hilton takes a little liberty with the fact that we do not know much about the woman that is the subject of our text. We do not know her age. We do not know if she is married. We do not know if she had children. We do not know how much money she started with, but we do know that she had expended all her savings trying to become cur...

The story of Easter is familiar. Bro. Hughes jokes that the job of the preacher is much more difficult on Easter because we already know what he will preach. He however looks into the familiar story and finds four promises that Easter makes to each of us. It promises a refuge to those whose faith has been under assault. The women had gone to anoint a dead body, but they left with the greatest anoi...

Most of us feel like we have a grasp on life, but Bro. Hughes speculates that we do not. Often we interpret the bad things that happen in life as being the worst possible thing that could happen. Just as often, we are wrong. It is hard to tell the truth about life because we all have such a limited view of it. We all only see a small segment of life. The story of Naomi is one of the grandest stori...

In life things can become lost. Some of these things are valuable. Our text highlights the loss of a piece of silver and likens the finding of this valuable piece to the salvation of even a single sinner. Heaven does not rejoice when we have financial success in the market. It does not rejoice over weather we have won or lost at earthly endeavors. There is only one thing over which heaven rejoices...

It is not possible to get through life without bumps, bruises and scars. For most of us nice clothes and carefully fixed hair cover these scars and wounds. We come to church and put on a nice face and try to hide our pain and suffering. Bro. Hilton reminds us that no matter what pain or problem we may experience in life, God is more than enough to see us through it. Through the pain and wounds of...

According to Martin Luther it takes three things to make someone a child of God: meditation, prayer and temptation. Few would quibble with the first two, but the final point seems to be out of place. Bro. Hughes speculates what Martin Luther meant is that it is the trials, struggles, and temptation of life in order to make us strong. Our text tells us that Jesus was tempted in all points as we are...

Our text is a recount from an unknown Israelite who had come out of Babylonian captivity. He tells of a story of his captors compelling him to sing and play for their entertainment. He asks “how shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” We too can find our selves in strange lands and find it difficult to praise the Lord. When we find our self in a strange place, that is the time when we ne...

Life can wear us out. Life can be discouraging until we go to the word of God. In that word we can find what we need for the moment, and for the future. Often the secret of the word of God is not evident when it is first read, but only realized after thought and prayer. Bro. Hughes refers to this as the hidden gems in the bible. By allowing the word of God to saturate our life, the hidden gems bec...

Dr. Hughes shares his thoughts resulting from a conversation he recently had with a man who ask “Why do some people come to church like they are going to war?” God wants us to be comfortable when we enter His presence. Dr. Hughes points out however that if when we enter into the presence of God or read His word, we can become uncomfortable because by doing so we must honestly examine ourselves. Th...

The word Saul used to describe himself is a startling one. Many people would not want to describe themselves as a fool. The story is one of great possibility and tragedy. A man who began with so much ended in such a pitiful and disastrous situation. Out text is a tragic confession of his life. The word that is used to describe a fool is one that indicates a lack of sense of moral direction and spi...

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We have all made mistakes. Some of our mistakes have been small. Other mistakes have been very large. There are no boundaries for mistakes. Educated and uneducated people, rich people and poor people, wise people and foolish people all make mistakes. Mistakes can be public or private. There are some lives that are more affected by the mistakes that have been made, than the miracles that have occur...

We are all on a journey. It is the journey of life. On life’s journey we have to deal with life as we meet it. We cannot go back and change that which happened in the past. We must look toward the future and deal with the journey that is before us. None of us can make it on this journey by ourselves; we must have divine assistance. God knew what was to happen to Elijah before it happened, and He h...

We read in the Bible of great men. We read of men whom God uses mightily and who accomplish great things. We also read of many of these men who make mistakes and who find them selves in situations of despair and depression. Stories of these great men who overcome some of the same problems that we face can be an encouragement to us. Our text defines the situation Elijah was in as a journey. A journ...

If we were to make a list of things that changed history it would be a long list indeed. The invention of gunpowder, the adoption of the trinity as the God head, the discovery of sugar, Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, the flight of the Wright brothers, the invention of technology and the computer would all make the list. Bro. Stevison looks over the list of life changing events and t...

There are times in all of our lives when God intervened just in the nick of time. God knows when to step in and rescue his children. God’s timing is far different from our timing. God owes us no explanation for what He does or does not do or the timing with which He does it. As humans, we pray for things based upon our knowledge. However, God knows the entire picture and will move or not move base...