Washed in the Word

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Our society is clamoring for good leaders.  So is God’s church.  So for the next several sessions we will be in Nehemiah 6 & 7, as there is perhaps no other book in all the Bible so chock full of practical biblical wisdom on leadership. Nehemiah was one of the Bible’s great leaders who successfully undertook one of God’s great projects & he complete...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. In our previous 5 chapters Satan has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at Nehemiah to try to stop God’s people from accomplishing God’s work.  The walls were now up, & all that is left is to set the ten great gates.  Yet, even just inches from the finish line we come to chapter 6 & we see that Satan the tenacious continues with his hellacious,...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Leaders matter.  Weak leaders leave weak legacies.  Strong leaders often achieve that which others fail to even conceive.  If leaders matter, a leader’s character matters more.  Hitler was a leader, but his twisted mind led to twisted goals & ghastly outcomes.  The truth is we need both character & competence in those who lead us.  Sadly, some folks...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Some people just seem to know how to solve problems.  Nehemiah was one of those people.  God used this man to achieve in 52 days what 50,000 Israelites had left undone for 90 years.  Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.  Along the way Satan threw everything but the kitchen sink at him.  Satan raised up a formidable trio of local officials to constantly...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. There are basically three kinds of people in the world, those who make things happen, those who watch things happen & those who wonder what happened?  Over 100 years ago, Henry Spence-Jones made the observation that leaders “have no easy task. No sooner have they provided a remedy for one evil than another presents itself.”  So, we see in Nehemiah 5.  N...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. In Matthew 25 Jesus tells a parable about kingdom responsibilities & kingdom rewards.  In this parable Jesus invites us to partner with him.  The Master entrusts kingdom assets into our hands as stewards & He rewards those who use them for the Master’s glory. Some are given much & to whom much is given much is required.  Some are given less, but...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 declares: "Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, & the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives,...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Some people know how to get things done.  No matter the obstacle, they find a way.  Nehemiah was a man who could get things done.  Nehemiah achieved in 52 days what 50,000 Israelites could not do in 95 years.  It leads a reader to wonder?  How did he do that?   Over these past three sessions together we have been dissecting the how’s of Nehemiah’s amazing k...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. How come some saints can motivate others to do what at first seemed utterly impossible?  Nehemiah is one of Scripture's great leaders.  Join in today as we uncover another three of the "Nine Practical Biblical Principles for Kingdom Accomplishers."   Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanyi...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Nehemiah is a man who can “Git-R-Done.”  God used Nehemiah to accomplish in 52 days something that 50,000 Israelites could not accomplish in the previous 95 years.  Nehemiah "Got-R-Done" & rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.  So what separates kingdom accomplishers from mere dreamers?  Over the next three messages we will be surveying "9 Prac...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Gooooooood morning!  New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel used to quip that the key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.  Dave Barry opined: When trouble arises & things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution & is willing to take command.  Very often, that per...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. In 1966 the pinnacle of spaghetti Westerns was released when Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef & Eli Wallach were hired guns, loyal to none searching for a stolen cache of gold ending in an epic three-way duel.  The movie was The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.  Today we end our time in the book of Ezra & that is a fitting title to our text.  A book that...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. In keeping with our Ezra series’ 60’s cinematic theme let’s go back to 1967 when Paul Newman introduced the world to an indomitable individual whom his fellow prisoners dubbed Cool Hand Luke.  Luke’s tenacity in the face of adversity earned the other prisoner’s respect & the guard’s attention.  The film’s iconic line comes when the prison’s captain stri...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Imagine for a moment the scene before us as we move from the close of Ezra chapter 4 to the start of chapter 5.  For 16 years all temple construction had ceased.  By force & with haste Israel’s adversaries compelled the returning remnant to cease & desist.  After 16 years of neglect, tall weeds have overtaken the derelict temple site.  A palpable se...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Sometimes saints think spiritual warfare is something new to me & you.  It’s not.  Anytime God is at work in this world Satan is skulking somewhere nearby. Satan never wants God’s work to prosper so God’s workers he will pester. Today we turn in the Old Testament to Ezra chapter 4 to endeavor to discover "The Dirty Dozen" ways Satan attempts t...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Have you been in a protracted season of difficulty?  Perhaps you strayed for a season & now you have experienced some hard discipline?  If that is true for you, you are in a similar situation to the Israelites in the days of Ezra.  After 70 years of captivity brought on by their own iniquity, God graciously is restoring them to the Holy Land, but this w...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Knowing the future helps us invest wisely in the present.  The problem is we are not prescient.  That is we don’t know the future, but God does.  God is omniscient.  God knows all.  That means God knows the future.  If knowing the future helps us invest in the present, we ought to listen if God offers prophetic truth.  This is exactly where we find ourselve...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. First Peter focused on beleaguered believers bearing up under persecution.  So, the threat in First Peter was external.  Second Peter focuses on false teachers.  The threat in Second Peter is internal but all the more lethal.  The New Testament is quite clear that the greatest threat to the church is not external persecution, painful though it may be.  The...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. In a day when people are chasing & embracing every wind of doctrine.  In an era where it is taken as an absolute truth that there are no absolute truths, it is critical that we Know Our Scriptures.  The antidote to the poison of false teaching is the undiluted Truth of God found in the Word of God that points us back to the Son of God so that we might f...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Second Peter is the last love letter to beleaguered believers from the pen of Peter.  Roman Emperor Nero is in charge & he has been a scandalous scourge to the cause of Christ.   Peter knows that his leadership & apostleship are about to be extinguished by martyrdom & he wants his torch to be passed on so that his exit does not extinguish the li...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. The most important question one can ask is: "Who is Jesus?"  Depending on who you ask, you may hear that Jesus was a great moral teacher like Socrates, Buddha or Gandhi.  Or that Jesus was a paragon of compassion like Mother Theresa, Francis of Assisi or Florence Nightingale.  Skeptics portray Jesus as an itinerant Rabbi whose followers got carrie...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. How would you end a letter to beleaguered believers scattered, battered & tattered for standing for Christ in a world that was hostile to the gospel? What would your final words be to those you want to encourage to persevere when the going is rough?  What would you say to those willingly undergoing unjust suffering for the sake of Christ?  Our text toda...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. What ought we look for in a shepherd?  Christians and churches have a lot of expectations for pastors but what are God's expectation for shepherds?  1 Peter 5 is one of the most helpful texts in all the Bible in answer to this crucial question.  we have many expectations for shepherds.  But what are God’s expectations?  Grab your Bible, a pen, & pr...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Have you ever wondered: Why this?  Why me?  Why now?  Over 40 years ago Harold Kushner wrote a best seller entitled “When Bad Things Happen to Good People?”  For most folks the question isn’t when, but why?  “Why do bad things happen to good people.”   Christians often wonder “Why do bad things happen to God’s people?”Indeed this will be the subject the Hol...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Today the Bible calls us to three things that will help us as elect exiles to minister to our neighbor & bring glory to our Savior.  "A Big Three for You & Me: Suffering, Supplication & Service".  These three are found in 1 Peter 4.  Grab your Bible, a pen, & print out the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study g...