Sermons - Benchley church of Christ

JJ

September 15, 2013

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  • Love
    • No one can be truly happy without loving and being loved.
    • God wants us to love Him. Matthew 22:37
    • Philippians 2:3-4 – God wants us to love each other.
    • Ephesians 5:25
    • Titus 2:4
    • Matthew 15:4 – Children, honor parents.
    • I Timothy 5:16
    • I John 5:1; 4:16
    • Romans 12:20
    • We don’t read anything about loving wealth or power.
  • Self respect
    • If one does not have self respect, one is not fit to live with.
  • Peace of mind
    • If one is not at peace with himself, he will not be happy.
    • Peace of mind has something to do with a pure conscience (I John 3:20).
  • Without these three things, happiness will elude those who pursue it.
  • Many confuse pleasure and happiness. You can buy pleasure, but you can’t buy happiness.
  • In the Bible, “happy” is associated with either suffering or service – not pleasure.
    • John 13:17 – service
    • Romans 14:22 – service
    • I Peter 3:14 – suffering (see Acts 5)
  • I Timothy 6:6 – Godliness with contentment is a great gain.

For further study, see also:

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Sermons - Benchley church of Christ

DW

September 15, 2013

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  • Disciples
    • Acts 14:21-28
    • “I want to learn”
      • John 8:31
      • Luke 6:40,39 – Our goal as disciples is to be like our teachers – Jesus.
      • Acts 11:26 – Christians were associated with their teacher – Christ.
    • “I want to live like the teacher.”
      • Luke 14:26
      • John 13:35
      • John 15:8 – Being a disciple is about doing, not just believing.
  • Servants
    • Mark 10:35-41
    • “I’m not here for attention or glory.”
    • “I’m here to work” (Luke 17:7-10)
  • Examples
    • Matthew 5:13; 6:1-5,16
    • “I’ll ask, “When people see me, does it help them glorify the Father?”“

For further study, see also:

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Classes - Benchley church of Christ

EW

September 15, 2013

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  • Beatitudes, continued:
    • Merciful – Matthew 6:14-15; 18:21-35; II Peter 3:9; James 2:13
    • Pure in heart – II Timothy 2:22; Titus 1:15
      • Haggai 2:12-14 – Impurity is contagious.
    • Peacemakers – Colossians 1:19-20; James 3:17-18
      • Acts 8:1-5 – There was no peace between Paul and the church. Ananias became the peacemaker that instructed Paul in the truth.
    • Persecuted – Romans 8:35-39 (Matthew 5:10)
      • Roll over and take it?
      • Resist it?

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Classes - Benchley church of Christ

DW

September 11, 2013

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  • What is a local church?
    • The word “church.”
      • Acts 8:1-3 - Saul persecutes the church, which is composed of men and women.
      • Our English word “church” is translated from the Greek word ”ekklēsia“(1577), which appears in about 115 verses. Greek scholars describe it as follows:
        • “the ‘called-out ones’ of God” (Mounce)
        • “It was a common term for a congregation of the_ekkletoi_(n.f.), the called people, or those called out or assembled in the public affairs of a free state, the body of free citizens called together by a held (kerux[2783]) which constituted the_ekklesia_” (Zodhiates).
        • “The noun_ekklesia_occurs over one hundred times, meaning ‘church,’ with the sense of a gathered community of God’s people assembled for worship. The word has only a few exceptional ‘secular’ uses” (Renn)
        • ”a calling out,i.e. (concretely) a popular_meeting, especially a religious_congregation(Jewish_synagogue_, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both)” (Strong)
        • “properly, ‘a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place; an assembly’” (Thayer).
      • The Bible’s usage of ”ekklesia”
        • It’s important to notice how a word isusedin its Biblical context.
          • Compare “love” in II Samuel 13:1 and Matthew 22:37,39.
          • Like virtually all words,_ekklesia_has a range of meanings, so we must see how the word isusedto understand what it should call to our minds.
          • For example, compare Ephesians 4:4 and Romans 16:16 - is there on church/body or are there multiple churches?
        • Israel in wilderness. Acts 7:38: Moses “was in thecongregationin the wilderness” (KJV: ”church”).
        • Riotous mob. Acts 19:32: “some were shouting one thing and some another, for theassemblywas in confusion”; 19:41
        • Legal court. Acts 19:39: “it shall be settled in the lawfulassembly”
        • As we can see from the above, the word “ekklesia” was a neutral (non-religious) term. You have to look at the context to see what it’s talking about.
        • Universal church. Matthew 16:18: “upon this rock I will build Mychurch”
          • Saved people: Ephesians 1:22; 5:23; Hebrews 12:22-24; Luke 10:22
            • The dead are in the church in the universal sense (I Thessalonians 4:16; Ephesians 3:14)
        • Local church. I Corinthians 1:2: “To the church of God which is at Corinth”

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Sermons - Benchley church of Christ

JJ

September 08, 2013

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  • The answer is both no and yes.
  • Matthew 18:3 - If children are innately sinful, then we would have to be sinful to enter heaven.
  • Ezekiel 18:1-3
  • Passages where the word speaks of an innate nature
    • Romans 1:26 - Homosexuality is not the innate nature of man.
    • Romans 2:27 - Man is physically uncircumcised by nature.
    • Romans 11:24
    • Galatians 2:15
    • Galatians 4:8
    • Hebrews 2:16
    • No, we are not innately sinful.
  • Passages where the word speaks of an acquired nature
    • Romans 2:14
    • I Corinthians 11:14 - Corinthian custom showed men with long hair. Custom was not the only reason it was wrong, though (see I Corinthians 11:7).
    • Ephesians 2:3 - They didn’t have to live like the world. They chose it.
    • II Peter 1:4
    • Yes, we can acquire a sinful state.
  • The answer to the original question depends on the context. Man chooses whether to sin or not. We can choose to sin by an acquired sinful nature.

For further study, see also:

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