Re:Sermon – Page 8

When God Holds His Breath

2021-07-04T18:07:17+00:00By Sam Ford|Re:Sermon, Theology 101|

I recently preached on Joshua 11. Tucked into the last chapter detailing the violent warfare in Joshua, is an obscure couple of verses describing God's sovereignty. In describing why the Canaanite armies fought against Joshua, the Bible says: 18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. 19 There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle. 20 For it was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses. Joshua 11:18-20 Without doubt, the passage is disturbing. If it isn't, we either don't understand what is said or we don't believe it. Scripture teaches time and time again, that God is [...]

Sin silent isn’t sin conquered

2021-07-04T18:08:08+00:00By Sam Ford|Note to Self...and Others, Re:Sermon|

I recently preached the second half of Joshua 10. The text is one of those that preachers might be tempted to ignore and hearers tempted to dismiss. On the surface, these verses amount to little more than a war report. Personally, I don't believe that God waste words and whether it is obscure laws about donkeys, war reports, or genealogy, all Scripture was breathed out by God to strengthen our faith in God (2Tim 3.16; Rom. 15.4). Knowing that, verse 33 in chapter 10 is very interesting. In the middle of this list of battles is a city named Gezer, just West of Gibeon. Apparently, the King of Gezer decided to help Lachish. And though there is an account of the defeat of the King and his army, there is not ever an account of Israel taking the city. 33 Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help [...]

Joshua Six and Six Different Sermons

2010-11-09T10:12:46+00:00By Sam Ford|Random Thoughts, Re:Sermon|

Last week I preached on Joshua 6, The Battle of Jericho. The more I study and preach God's Word, the more I learn how deep you can drill it for truth. With every sermon I preach, I am forced to emphasize one part of the text, one verse, or one them at the expense of another. Deciding what to emphasize is difficult as it means certain death (-cide) to whatever you choose not to emphasize. Joshua 6 is no exception. I could have preached six unique sermons out of this one chapter, all emphasizing a different and equally powerful truth. As I personally have heard a hundred sermons over my life asking, "What is your Jericho?", focusing on God's victory over impossible odds, I choose instead to focus on God's Holiness. Of course, if you are really going to hit God's Holiness than you are required to really hit man's [...]

Joshua week 3: When to follow, when to flee

2021-07-04T18:09:53+00:00By Sam Ford|Re:Sermon|

For whatever reason, whenever I hit a passage in the Bible that has something to do with leadership, my sermon goes long. I am beginning to believe that people's biggest passions are often born out of their biggest mistakes--or at least it drives their insatiable drive to not repeat the same mistakes. The second half of Joshua chapter one is one of those passages that most would read through without a second thought. At first glance these eight verses appear to simply push the narrative forward when, in fact, they give us a lot of insight into the leadership and unity in the body. My intent is not to repeat the entire sermon, you can listen or read it here. Instead, I'd simply like emphasize one point. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad churches being led by bad men. By "bad" I mean men who are false teachers, men [...]

Joshua Week 2: God’s Men are Strong

2021-07-04T18:10:02+00:00By Sam Ford|Re:Sermon|

God's men (and women) are commanded to be strong and courageous. If they are, they are guaranteed success and prosperity--not necessarily wherever we go--wherever God sends us. Such promises of God should not make us arrogant, but they should make us incredibly confident regardless of what we see, think, or feel. The phrase “be strong and courageous” is used three different times in this first chapter. In our culture, that phrase could easily be misunderstood as, “Be tough. Man up.” Now, without question there is a time and a place to tell someone not to man-up and not be a pansy. But Joshua is anything but a pansy. He is a proven general, the minority voice willing to stand up against the crowd, a strong and courageous man. There are plenty of misguided “manly-manimals” who can debate people into corners with their verbal swordsmanship, who can bully people into a [...]

Joshua Week 1: 5 Excuses People Use to NOT go on Mission

2010-09-26T16:21:26+00:00By Sam Ford|Church Plant Lessons 101, Note to Self...and Others, Random Thoughts, Re:Sermon|

The book of Joshua begins right after the death of Moses. Moses' death signals the last of a generation God had patiently endured while he waited for them to die. Numbers 13 and 14 record the story of when Moses sent 12 spies into the land and they returned with conflicting reports. All of the spies agreed the land was amazing, but 10 of them believed its inhabitants were too strong to defeat. Though Caleb and Joshua plead with Israel NOT to follow their "bad" report, the 10 other spies made strong arguments that filled all of Israel with fear. In fact, the 10 spies are so convincing, that Israel begins to cry, hide behind their families, and threaten to overthrow the current leadership. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. [...]

3 Ways to Neglect Your Gifts

2010-07-08T22:14:58+00:00By Sam Ford|Note to Self...and Others, Random Thoughts, Re:Sermon|

I recently preached 1Timothy 4.14 , where Paul charges a young pastor named Timothy to ".. not neglect the gift you have, which was given you vby prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you" I began to wonder how many people neglect their gifts. Neglect is an interesting term, one that denotes a range of meaning from indifference to full on intentional abandonment. According to Scripture, gifts are given by God, given to glorify God, and given to edify the church. In other words, our gifts are not ours to used, abused, or ignored as we wish. Consider what it means to neglect a gift from God. I believe this verse fleshes out three different ways we WILL neglect God's gifts unintentionally if we don't employ God's gifts intentionally: #1 Neglect by not using: Some people do not employ their gifts at all. That doesn't mean they do nothing, [...]

Half-filled Pews

2010-05-18T13:13:28+00:00By Sam Ford|Church Plant Lessons 101, Random Thoughts, Re:Sermon|

I attended a church many years ago where they would publish the name of the pastor who was going to preach a week in advance. Sadly, because the church was polarized around this one guy, on his "off weeks", half of the church sat at home worshiping with "Pastor Sheets." Before I became a pastor, I was the worst (or best) critic of pastors and their sermons. I would size up the preacher within minutes, judging his voice, his tone, his verbal fillers, his charisma (or lack thereof), his clothes, his manliness, his hair, his text or topic, his illustrations, the length of his sermon, his points, his theology, the number of verses he quotes, and whether or not he includes an altar call. If the pastor or his sermon were weighed and found wanting on Sam's Scales of Successful Sermons, I too would be staying home or visiting another [...]

5 “Trustworthy” but often ignored “Sayings”

2010-05-12T11:01:37+00:00By Sam Ford|Note to Self...and Others, Random Thoughts, Re:Sermon|

Many people try to boil down Christianity to simple truths. In the process, they will create pithy little statements that eventually become the meaningless mission statements of churches like: "Loving God and Loving People"; Real Friends, Real Faith, Real Adventure..."; "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors." While all well-intentioned, if we are not careful, such memorable statements can become clever biblical sounding phrases that have little or nothing to do with the truth of the gospel. In his letters to pastors, Paul writes five different, "trustworthy sayings". Appearing only in the pastoral letters, these five statements represent simple and important truths that every pastor (and Christian) should remember. As Paul wrote in 1Corinthians 15.3, "For I delivered to you as of first important what I also received", these statements reveal that most important thing is Gospel Truth: GOSPEL PERSPECTIVE: 1Timothy 1.15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, [...]

When wolves are (mis)leading the sheep…

2010-05-11T00:01:21+00:00By Sam Ford|Church Plant Lessons 101, Random Thoughts, Re:Sermon|

1st Timothy is a letter to a leader of a church about leadership. In preaching through the first chapter in Paul's letter first letter to Timothy, it occurred to me that we/I approach it from one perspective. We know that Timothy is a godly shepherd and that his flock is being attacked by the wolves Paul identifies. This fact is clear from the books of Acts and the letter itself. As pastors then, we naturally preach through Timothy, assuming God is speaking to everyone else but me (the common error we all make). In other words, pastors assume they are the "godly shepherd" and that their critics are the wolves. It seems that those listening might assume the same thing--that the critic, questioner, or person who leaves is always the Big Bad Wolf. As I preached in the last sermon: " this is not a charge for pastors or anyone to become Wolf-hunters, marking every person they don’t [...]