The Joshua Victor Theory

Sermon Notes: • Today: lesson in prayer, persistence/determination, justice, suffering, and the character of God.  • V. 1 Don’t surrender to discouragement or impatience! Have confidence to continually bring your prayers before God, knowing that He desires and invites them and has compassion. Christ is engaging with what is likely our common experience of frustration with regard to prayer: giving up prematurely. We are promised that we will face difficulty and crosses that will test our faith and persistence. Christ wants to build up our hearts, our resiliency, determination.  • “do not lose heart” Ephesians 3:13 “over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.” • “do not lose heart” 2 Cor. 4:1, 16 in the ministry, or while our “outer self is wasting away”.  • Jesus tells various people to “take heart” when they were ill, when they needed forgiveness, when they were afraid because they didn’t recognize who Jesus was, or when they were to face tribul...

Sermon Outline: ·          The conclusion of a conversation (begins vs. 9): “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him says the Holy One.” Isaiah 40:25-31—God is asking, Have you considered His greatness? The size and reach of the universe? We have the most meager and inadequate measurements to try to grasp it. Man has not instructed God in wisdom or understanding, as if we could teach Him anything—neither about justice or knowledge. Compared to God, we are utterly nothing—dust, a drop in the bucket, nothing and emptiness. God is incomparable to anything we might compare Him too, and the thought of comparing Him to idols and false gods is an utter insult and foolishness. He is the One who laid down the foundations of the earth and stretched out the heavens like a tent. Our existence is momentary in comparison. ·          Don’t like to think of ourselves this way, as dust and nothingnes...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In today’s Gospel reading, we have two remarkable women, Elizabeth and Mary, waiting with contentment and great joy, for the fulfillment of God’s promises, and for the birth of their two special sons—John the Baptist and Jesus. Advent is a time of waiting, and for us the wait is nearly over, as Christmas comes this Friday. So much of life is filled with waiting. Today we’ll see in our reading what the gift of faith is, and learn how faith is not opposed to waiting. Faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And it’s not just a gift for the old and patient (or more patient), but equally the Spirit’s gift for the young and eager. Young children are often opposed to waiting. Christmas and gift opening has to be NOW—as soon as I see that present! Young adults are often opposed to waiting—wanting to immediately have that thing I want—car, clothing, jewelry, girlfriend or boyfriend, paych...

Sermon Outline: 1.       Simplest definition of the church: “Lambs and believers who hear and follow the voice of Jesus, our Good Shepherd.” Paul mixes and blends metaphors of body and building to describe the church. Here focus on the body, its internal health and unity, its growth in love. 2.       Listen to the “body language:” “ 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him wh...

Sermon Outline 1.       Only reading from Lamentations in our calendar of readings. The highlight or crown jewel of comfort in an otherwise dark and gloomy book. Context helps set the contrast, and fuller appreciation of the hope Jeremiah expresses. Not spoken in a vacuum, or out of a bright, rosy, easy life. Much sounds despairing. But there was legitimate reason for the gloom! 2.       Jerusalem was under siege for two years, as the Babylonian army surrounded them and cut off all food supplies. When the food finally ran out, and they were weak from starvation, the Babylonians broke through the city wall and began destroying the city, setting fire to all the buildings. Worst and most devastating, they looted and burned down the Temple of the Lord. Everyone who was not killed by the Babylonian army was taken prisoner and made a slave for life in Babylon. Only a few of the very poor inhabitants of Jerusalem were left to farm the lan...