OBEDIENT FOLLOWERS OF JESUS MAKE DISCIPLES One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are…

TEMPTATION THAT LEADS TO SIN It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” —II Samuel…

SEEK THE LOST! For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. —Luke 19:10             When Jesus was walking the earth during His ministry years He was very intentional in what He was doing and how He was using His time. His main focus was “to seek and to save the lost.”   That is what the cross is all about!   He came “that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Jesus is “the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).   Jesus is the good shepherd that “has a hundred sheep and…

GOD ONLY IS GOOD! And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became…

KEEP PRAYING!  And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not…

UNEXPECTED JUDGMENT TO COME—BE READY Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. —Luke 17:26-29             Both in the days…

  GRATEFULLY SERVE KING JESUS “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” —Luke 17:7-10             You and I have the privilege to serve…

VENGEANCE BELONGS TO THE LORD ONLY In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.  And about ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died. —I Samuel 25:37-38 And David said, “As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. —I Samuel 26:10             We are told “It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon…

YOUR MASTER DETERMINES YOUR DESTINY And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.  If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the…

HE WORKS IN US TO WORK HIS WORK (Speaking of David)—“For he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel.” —I Samuel 19:5             In this verse we can see both the work of God and the work of man working together.   First and always it is the Lord who works through us. Yes, David picked up five stones as he approached the Philistine, Goliath. From the human standpoint David was no match for this bulk of a man. He was close to ten feet tall. Yet the Lord put it in David’s heart what…