Redeemer Church of Waterford

"Giving Thanks" is not a periodic utterance of thanks, but a life of gratitude to God lived in stark contrast to the life of pagan unbelievers who are not grateful to God. The pagan unbeliever's lack of gratitude to God results in a depraved and darkened mind (Romans 1:21). This is the attitude that prevails in our culture, where elected representatives in the Congress now boldly say, "God's will...

"Giving thanks always for all things" in Ephesians 5:20 is the antithesis of "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess" in 5:18. In the same way pagan unbelievers are unrestrained in their public displays of fleshly lusts, so the believer who is filled with the Spirit is to be unrestrained in their public displays of gratitude to God "always," as a manner of life.

This morning's message - which was a dog's breakfast on the subject of the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:18 ("and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess") - may have left some with the impression that followers of Jesus can be ambivalent toward the use of alcohol. If the Bible has no clear prohibitions against the use of alcohol, how then are we to think about and respond to the reali...

What exactly does the Apostle Paul mean when he encourages us to give thanks? The thanks Paul has in view originates in the heart and passes through our lips as a sacrifice - the sacrifice of praise.

Giving thanks according to Hebrews 13:12-15 is "the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." In what sense is our praise of God a sacrifice?

There is a reason Ephesians 5:19 is in the fifth chapter of the letter and not the first. All that Paul has said in chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 give us the basis for our singing as God's people.

Congregational singing is bi-directional: we speak to one another in our singing and as we do so we teach and admonish one another (Colossians 3:16). We simultaneously sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord as a sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15), giving to the Lord the glory due His name (1 Chronicles 16:27-28).

The singing of God's people in gathered worship is "teaching and admonishing one another." What, then, should be the primary content that believers sing when we come together to worship?

How does faith respond to the fear and anxiety we experience when all of the normal resources for the sustaining of our lives fail? The answer is in Habakkuk's closing confession of faith as we learn how fear isn't an indication of the lack of faith but is itself an expression of faith. How do fear and faith coexist?

To be filled with the Spirit is not an experience to be sought. It is a reality to be lived. In Ephesians 5:18-21, the first expression of the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit over your life is in how you worship. Worship is not about you or your feelings. It's about God and His glory. What does it mean to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness?

In Habakkuk 2:4 God told Habakkuk that the way in which His righteous remnant in Judah would survive the rising wickedness of the Babylonians was that "the just shall live by faith." Now, in Habakkuk 3:2 Habakkuk responds to that word from God in prayer: "Make it so! Cause your people to live by faith under hardship and suffering!" What drives you to prayer? For Habakkuk, he was pushed to prayer b...

God has raised up the Chaldeans to judge His own people. But the Chaldeans are responsible for the wickedness they have inflicted on God's people, and God now promises that the Chaldeans will pay for their evil deeds. God's people will ultimately be vindicated, even as they wait patiently for God's judgment to fall on their tormentors.

To be filled with the Spirit is not an experience to be sought. It is a reality to be lived.

The vision of Habakkuk 2:2-20 is the answer to Habakkuk's complaint in 1:12-27: how can God use a more wicked nation (pagan Babylon) to punish a less wicked nation (Judah)? God's answer is that His judgment will "at the appointed time" fall on the wicked Babylonians, and that the secret to enduring the rising and prevailing wickedness in the mean time is for the believer to go on living by their f...

Habakkuk indicts God with being blind, deaf, and mute to the plight of the righteous in Judah. He's struggling to reconcile what he knows about God's justice with the reality of what God is allowing the wicked to do to His people. And it is while he is worshiping that Habakkuk is reassured that in spite of all the evil the righteous endure, we will not die!

One of the reasons we may have difficulty in our prayer life is that we are in unfamiliar territory when we are before the throne of grace, which is why God has given us a High Priest over the house of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who identifies with our infirmities as He performs the functions of His eternal priesthood on our behalf.

Chapter 1 of Habakkuk is a dialogue initiated by Habakkuk with God, which alternates between the two of them saying to the other: "Look and See!" Habakkuk laments the miserable state of God's people who are being oppressed by wicked rulers and the unfair application of the laws (1:1-4). God replies that He has a plan to deal with the wickedness of His people by sending an even more wicked people t...

There is nothing easy about prayer. And not just because we struggle with HOW to pray and WHAT to pray, but more so because of what we know ourselves to be. Our consciences rightfully fill us with dread and fear as we contemplate entering God's presence knowing what sinners we are. So on what basis can it be said that we have "boldness to enter into the holiest"?

Why was it necessary for the eternal Son of God to come into the world as a baby in human flesh? So that he might experience the same growing pains as you in order to be a merciful and sympathetic mediator to God the Father for you.

Jesus makes three remarkable statements in John 16:27-28 which underscore John's thesis in John 1:4, "In him was life and the life was the light of men": "I came out from God" "I came forth from the Father" "I am come into the world" What are the claims Jesus is making in these statements?

Was there really no room at the local Bethlehem inn? Was Jesus born in a stable? Were there animals present at the birth of Jesus? Were there really three wise men? The answer to all of the above is a resounding NO!

Why does Jesus close his conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 with these words: “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil”? What is this light, and why has it resulted in condemnation, and what has been condemned by it?

Though it is now associated only with the Christmas season, Isaac Watts wrote "Joy to the World" as an anthem to the Second Coming. It is based almost entirely on Psalm 98, a psalm written in three stanzas: Why We Worship (vv. 1 - 3), How We Worship (vv. 4 - 6), and Who is to Worship (vv. 7 - 9).

Those who once were darkness but are now light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8) are still in the darkness. They have changed, but their environment has not. But they can see things in the darkness that those who are darkness cannot see. The grace of Christ has abounded toward us with wisdom and understanding, causing us to know the will of God (Ephesians 1:7-10). This understanding of the will of God i...