The Epic Life - Bob Hallman

The authentic Christian life, and as I've been saying for a number of weeks here, in fact, a couple of months, if it's not authentic, it's not worth living. It's not worth going to church.   It's not worth reading your Bible if it's not authentic. It's a waste of our time. It's a waste of my time. And I'm not talking about you being a waste of my time. I'm saying if I'm not living an authentic Chr...

The topic of his message to the people that he's writing to, is love. It's the supreme test. It's a supreme authentic test for true Christianity.  As I've been teaching, that without love, we can be all kinds of things. We can be knowledgeable about Scripture. We can be gifted. We can be teachers. We can be worship leaders. We can be serving after church, before church, during the week. We can be...

We've been, again, looking through the book of 1 John at the qualities of the authentic Christian life. That's what living the Christian life is all about. In fact, when I was at Kapa 'a High the other day,   I had a question-and-answer time for about 15 minutes and one of the kids said that the biggest turn off for them is hypocrisy. And one of the questions I asked them right at the start is, yo...

Last week, as I was talking about the example of Cain, there are a couple of things that came to mind in terms of hate and love. And when I think of hate and the example of Cain, hate is negative.   Clearly, it's a very negative kind of quality. It's a quality that God doesn't allow in our lives unless we're hating sin and hating evil. And hate when it's demonstrated toward other people, it seeks...

The thing that's so sad is oftentimes there are Christians, and I don't think we have any in this church, but sometimes it's a struggle for us. Sometimes we'll slip and fall and we'll find it's kind of half in and half out of God's kingdom in our hearts. And it's misery. It's really awful because we can't enjoy sin and we can't enjoy our relationship with the Lord.   Enjoy the rest of the message....

This last couple of weeks we've been taking a look at the book of 1st John, and it's just been marvelous seeing what God has for us as believers. It's incredible. And this last week, John kind of interrupts himself in chapter three. If you want to start turning there, that would be great. But he interrupts himself as he's talking about the authentic Christian life and what it entails and what we s...

Between authentic Christianity and Gnosticism, which again, for those of you that haven't been here with us, is just the teaching and belief that You can profess one thing with your mouth and have a spiritual relationship with God and at the same time live any way that you want So there are no constraints. You can do anything that your heart desires and still please God and they were involved in s...

The first thing that John tells us in this verse in chapter 2, verse 28, he says, "Continue in him." And this word "continue," it's a different word than we've been looking at in the last couple of times we've been studying first, John, but it's the same word as remain. It's the same word as to abide. It's the same Greek root word, but the context is slightly different, so the interpretation or th...

John has been speaking as I've said so many times in the course of this study, to Gnostics. And he's speaking to the early church about the perils of Gnosticism.  And he continues his address in first John dealing with the spiritual perils of the last days. And part of that spiritual peril is the Antichrist. And John more specifically addresses Antichrists in the plural.   Enjoy the rest of the me...

I'm looking out at all of you and I'm thinking, "That's my sister. That's my brother. We're going to be together forever." So even though you're strangers to me, I got to meet a few of you. It's like, "Man, we're family. We're permanent family.  That's wonderful. First John chapter 2 verse 15. The scripture says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love...

You know, John has been laying out what it means to be an authentic Christian, what it means to be a genuine Christian. And, he's laid out a number of things for us the genuine authentic believer walks in the light, acknowledges and confesses sin, obeys God's commands, and walks as Jesus walked. And he's laid out some pretty stiff standards for what it means to follow Christ. Today what we're goin...

We've been taking a look at some of the characteristics of the authentic Christian life. And if you recall, one of John's primary aims is that we would have fellowship with a father, with the son, and with one another. And that fellowship, if it's genuine, authentic Christian fellowship, is centered on Jesus Christ. He talks about several characteristics that should mark the life of a Christian. A...

First John chapter 2 starting in verse 3. We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. "The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him." But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him.   Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. As I was thinking about 1...

I hung out with a bunch of different groups. I didn't just hang with one group and so I would kind of bounce around. But I'd even go to parties. I'd be with all kinds of people that liked me and that I like. And I'd still just this emptiness inside. And I'd turn on James Taylor. And you know, when you're done, and you need help, and you know his music. And he's talking about a friendship that is c...

We've been going through the book of 1st John.   And we've looked at the Gnostic heresy. We won't go into a lot of that. I am trusting that some of you that have come from other parts of the country are well -taught and are somewhat familiar with Gnosticism.   But I am going to touch on it just a little bit, some more aspects of Gnostic heresy that will help us to understand why John was writing t...

Do you remember those days when you were afraid of the dark and you wanted the little light on? So, I've got to turn the light on. And in fact, if I don't and I forget and I go out the door and he forget, I'll hear this cry, "Daddy, you know, I need the light on." And so I have to come back up, and he's just not comfortable until the light Is on.   And you know, I thought about that this week as I...

You know, I was meeting with the Father, and I was meeting with some friends this week and non -Christian friends, people that we've met here since we've come to the islands, and one of the things that has struck me in my conversation, not just with them, but with a number of unbelievers that I've been speaking to since we've arrived, and the thing that the one theme that keeps coming through is t...

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness.   Enjoy the rest of the message,    The Epi...

There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit the poison of asks is under their tongue under their lips Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are In their ways and they know the way of peace but have not and the way of peace excuse me They have not known there i...

Paul has made a powerful statement that "Mankind is guilty before God in chapter one." He's posited that God has revealed himself and we have rejected him. Step by step, God continues to reveal himself and continues to present the gospel through the prophets and his word and the scriptures and the testimony of the saints. And yet, there is this tendency for us to push beyond the barrier and the bo...

It's such an important component of the Gospel is understanding God's indignation toward sin. And so let's take a look at the text itself, and then we'll consider its application to our life this morning. Beginning at verse 18 of chapter one in Romans,  "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Becau...

Pastor Bob’s preached his last sermon series in 2017 in the book of Romans. Due to his cancer diagnosis, he was unable to finish the entire book but you can hear an older version of subsequent chapters (include the link).     His last sermon from Romans 3, “A Righteousness from God” is especially powerful!  He uses the cancer diagnosis process as an illustration explaining God’s process of diagnos...

Pastor Bob’s preached his last sermon series in 2017 in the book of Romans. Due to his cancer diagnosis, he was unable to finish the entire book but you can hear an older version of subsequent chapters Romans — The Epic Life     His last sermon from Romans 3, “A Righteousness from God” is especially powerful!  He uses the cancer diagnosis process as an illustration explaining God’s process of diag...

As I consider this text, fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit and the text that I just read, I'm surprised at how important this work of the ministry is of the Holy Spirit. So important that Jesus said to his disciples, "It's far better that I leave than stay." And I'm thinking to myself, how could it be better than having Jesus right next to you? And I thought as a younger Christian, well, what Je...

One of the things that's been happening this last week is that a lot of people in the fellowship have been getting really hammered. hammered with spiritual warfare. And for those of you who don't live here, this place is a gorgeous place. I mean, I think it's probably one of the prettiest places in the world. It's certainly up in the top ten, if not up there in the short list.    But it's also a p...