The Joshua Victor Theory

“ For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). Today the prophet Isaiah gives us a beautiful and encouraging Scripture, written to give us hope. Isaiah lived 7 centuries before Christ, but probably more than any other single prophet, he described Jesus in beautiful detail, showing marvelously God’s inspiration of His Word. Today Isaiah teaches us about God’s powerful and effective Word. I’ve always been amazed and fascinated by the landscape of Maui and the Hawaiian islands in general. In parts of Maui or the Big Island, you can see “fresh lava flows” from as recent as a few days to a few hundred years old. Sharp, hard, black, inhospitable lava can cover the landscape for miles around, like we see near La Perouse Bay on Maui. But amazingly, under the right conditions, you can see green plant life and even whole forests burst out onto those rocky la...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. What do 6 th century Benedictine monks, the 19 th century inventor Cyrus McCormick, and the Apostle Paul, have in common? They were each driven to be productive and hard-working, by what is often called the Christian or Biblical “work ethic.” The Benedictine monks believed Paul’s admonition that “ if anyone would not work, neither should he eat” and that “idleness is the enemy of the soul.” So they were hard-working and diligent, and applied their God-given reason and creativity to invent technology that would make their work more productive and efficient. Similarly, Cyrus McCormick was saddened by the drudgery and purposelessness of seeing slaves harvesting grain by a sickle. He held strong beliefs that God had given dignity to mankind, and that work should be purposeful, and so he invented a mechanical harvester that revolutionized farming. These and many other Christians throughout history were positivel...

Sermon Outline:  1.       Monuments of time and history: Great Wall, Pyramids, or Brooklyn Bridge. Took a lot of “blood, sweat, and tears” to build them. Mammoth designs and dangers in construction often meant the injury or death of the workers. Impressive; standing many hundreds or even thousands of years, but time and weather endlessly wear away at them and age them. With ongoing maintenance the effects of time might be stalled—but eventually, even the great monuments of time will succumb to rubble and dust. 2.       Another structure: far surpassing all others in glory—the Christian Church. Built for the glory of God, not the glory of man. Stretching through time and to eternity—a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to build. Not talking about bricks, mortar, stone, and wood. Not about church buildings. That’s not the “Church” I’m talking about. Living structure, living stones, members of the body of Christ. Jesus’ blood, sweat ...