Grace to You: Video Podcast

Well we, of course, have the responsibility tonight to set our hearts toward the cross and the things of Christ and we also are very mindful of he fact that we are on the brink of a new year and this is a good time to kind of do a bit of a spiritual inventory. And as I thought about that, I was drawn to a text of Scripture that I would call to your attention for a few moments...1 Peter, 1 Peter. You might want to turn to it and we’ll look at a couple of scriptures here in the first chapter of 1 Peter that will help us focus not only on the cross but on setting our priorities...

A couple of weeks ago I had the wonderful joy of being at the high school camp, Regeneration camp down in New Mexico with 900 high school kids. Just a delight, just a wonderful time, and I think there were four or five hundred from Grace Church and then others from other churches around the southwest. And I put together a message just for them, just going through some things in my reading in the New Testament, and the Lord kind of laid on my heart a message, and I presented it to them. And they responded very well. And as a result of that, Austin Duncan, who wields a lot of power around here--our high school...our college pastor now...former high school pastor--came to me and said, "You have to preach that at Grace, because you all need to know what your children heard at camp."...

A couple of weeks ago I had the wonderful joy of being at the high school camp, Regeneration camp down in New Mexico with 900 high school kids. Just a delight, just a wonderful time, and I think there were four or five hundred from Grace Church and then others from other churches around the southwest. And I put together a message just for them, just going through some things in my reading in the New Testament, and the Lord kind of laid on my heart a message, and I presented it to them. And they responded very well. And as a result of that, Austin Duncan, who wields a lot of power around here--our high school...our college pastor now...former high school pastor--came to me and said, "You have to preach that at Grace, because you all need to know what your children heard at camp."...

We are obviously in the midst of the largest, longest, most elaborate and most expensive celebration in the western world, Christmas. Nothing even comes close to it. In fact, you could collect all other holidays celebrated in the western world, put them together and they wouldn’t approximate Christmas. More activity goes on, more events, more spending, more celebrating, more parties, more everything than with any other event...

We are obviously in the midst of the largest, longest, most elaborate and most expensive celebration in the western world, Christmas. Nothing even comes close to it. In fact, you could collect all other holidays celebrated in the western world, put them together and they wouldn’t approximate Christmas. More activity goes on, more events, more spending, more celebrating, more parties, more everything than with any other event...

We are obviously in the midst of the largest, longest, most elaborate and most expensive celebration in the western world, Christmas. Nothing even comes close to it. In fact, you could collect all other holidays celebrated in the western world, put them together and they wouldn’t approximate Christmas. More activity goes on, more events, more spending, more celebrating, more parties, more everything than with any other event....

We are obviously in the midst of the largest, longest, most elaborate and most expensive celebration in the western world, Christmas. Nothing even comes close to it. In fact, you could collect all other holidays celebrated in the western world, put them together and they wouldn’t approximate Christmas. More activity goes on, more events, more spending, more celebrating, more parties, more everything than with any other event....

We have been doing a series along the last few months on Sunday nights from a book that I wrote called Twelve Unlikely Heroes, and it is a book that is designed to demonstrate what God can do with very unlikely, very flawed, very weak people. We have gone through a long list and we only have a few more. Tonight we’re going to be looking at James, the brother of our Lord, and then next Sunday night we’ll look at the final two: Mark who wrote the gospel of Mark, and Onesimus--Onesimus being a runaway slave, and their lives intersected in a most remarkable way...

Well, for our little series, we come tonight to the last two unlikely heroes. As you no doubt know, the book is still available. And you can pick one up if you want to read a more thorough and detailed account of the twelve unlikely heroes that make up that book. Tonight we’re going to finish with two: one a very familiar name, the name of Mark; and the other a rather unfamiliar name, the name of Onesimus. They have lives that intersect. They were both runaways. Yet in spite of what they did in fleeing, the Lord rescued them both and transformed them from tragic figures to triumphant figures... http://www.gty.org/video/television/T8280-395A

And you know the story. We’ve gone through the story in years past, but in connection with the book, I want to reiterate it one more time to you. The opening chapter of Jonah is set in the midst of an intense storm, a really intense storm. Modern meteorology has documented the development of tropical cyclones in the Mediterranean Sea, which is where this takes place. A violent tempest, we know from meteorological records, can reach an excess of 90 miles per hour--that is hurricane level and even beyond that--and create surging waves as a result of those kinds of horrible, terrifying winds. And this is the kind of storm that one might assume was going on in Jonah’s story. But really it was something qualitatively different than that. Let’s look at chapter 1 and let’s understand what the storm really was. And we could start in verse 4, “The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.” This isn’t a natural storm, this is a supernatural storm. This is not one that basically was generated by some natural cause; this was generated by God Himself. This is a violent storm that God created supernaturally... http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/80-393

Earlier in the service I read from the first chapter of Romans what is really a very, very shocking portion of Scripture. Just to remind you that Romans chapter 1, verses 18 to 32, describes the wrath of God that is unleashed in the world...

We begin today the study of the gospel of John, and I’m so delighted to do this. This was really the first book that I taught. I did some series when I first came in 1969, preliminary to this, and we did a few book studies which were redone as the years went by. But this was the first book of certainly any length that I taught originally way back in 1970, and what a joy it was at that time and the Lord has used even the messages from that series through the years to be a blessing to other people. But I’m really thrilled to be back at the gospel of John... http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/43-2

While we were gone the last couple of weeks, we were exposed to the two conventions that were held: the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. And I know that politics is the topic among many people today, and I suppose that’s natural since it is such a huge part of media exposure. And as you know, I’m not one to talk about politics as such, but I was essentially amazed that one of the historic parties here in the United States adopted the sins of Romans 1 as their platform. This is a new day in our country. Parties which used to differ on economics now differ dramatically on issues that invade the realm of God’s law and morality...

et’s open the Bible to Jonah, the book of Jonah. It’s just four chapters, one of the minor prophets. And you know the story. We’ve gone through the story in years past, but in connection with the book, I want to reiterate it one more time to you. The opening chapter of Jonah is set in the midst of an intense storm, a really intense storm. Modern meteorology has documented the development of tropical cyclones in the Mediterranean Sea, which is where this takes place. A violent tempest, we know from meteorological records, can reach an excess of 90 miles per hour--that is hurricane level and even beyond that--and create surging waves as a result of those kinds of horrible, terrifying winds. And this is the kind of storm that one might assume was going on in Jonah’s story. But really it was something qualitatively different than that...

Two weeks ago I took the opportunity to talk a little bit about the issues that our world and our country faces today, and I’m going to do that again this morning. And then I’m going to start a book. I’m not comfortable not teaching a book of the Bible, so we’ll continue to do some Christ in the Old Testament on Sunday nights, but everybody’s been kind of pushing me in the direction of “You need to do the gospel of John.” Everybody loves the teaching concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. I did John in 1970, so I need to do it right; I need to get another shot at it. So we’ll do that...