Speaker: Michael Smith
Series: Romans
Scripture Verses: Romans 4:3,John 1:1-3, 1 Peter5:10-11, 2 Timothy 3:16-17&amp,2 Peter 1:19-21,Deuteronomy 18:18-20,Nehemiah 8:9-12,Deuteronomy 4:2,Revelation 2:18-19

From the life of Abraham as portrayed in Genesis, we see that Abraham was capable of both trusting God resulting in great courage and being very cunning out of personal fears resulting in great sin and disobedience toward God. From the his life we will glean two important lessons for our journey through this life.

Speaker: Michael Smith
Series: Romans
Scripture Verses: Romans 4, Genesis 11, Genesis 15:6, Genesis 12:2

Though, justification is a legal position before God, a person in that position can no longer relate to others as they did before their justification. Paul addresses, head on, three excuses we formerly used when we relied in our own justification.

All children of God now have hearts that choose praising God instead of boasting in one’s self (3:27-28), acceptance of the poor instead of partiality to the rich (3:29-30), and obedience to the ways of God instead of the disobedience of our own ways (3:31).

Speaker: Michael Smith
Series: Romans
Scripture Verses: Romans 3:27-31, Luke 2:8-21, Romans 3:27-33, Ephesians 2:8-9, Galations 3:2-3, Romans 4:16, Matthew 5:17, Romans 3:21, Romans 6:17, Revelation 7:10, James 2, Psalm 119:9-11, Psalm 16:11

In verses Romans 3:25-26 the answer is “to show his righteousness”. What was the necessity for God to show his righteousness in this way, by exercising his eternal wrath on Jesus at the cross? We see two reasons: first because of God’s “divine forbearance” against sin and because of his being “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25-26).

Speaker: Michael Smith
Series: Romans
Scripture Verses: Romans 3:21-26,Matthew 2:16-18, Romans6:1, Psalm 51:4, 2 Samuel 12:13, Isaiah 63:1-6, Isaiah 63:7-9, Isaiah 64:9, Isaiah 53:4-5, Galatians 2:20, Romans 5:6-11

With communion in our service we will remember the cost for God in sending his Son to earth that first Christmas. The baby born in a stable was sent to grow up to be placed on a cross as God’s propitiation and satisfaction by his blood. Christmas with its manger and Easter with its cross are one in the same.

Speaker: Michael Smith
Series: Romans
Scripture Verses: Romans 3:21-26, Deuteronomy 29:29, Romans 1:23, Romans 3:1-2, Romans 9:4-5, Romans 11:26-27, Romans 20:4, Ephesians 5:25, Ephesians 5:22, Isaiah 53:10, Isaiah 63:4-5, Matthew 26:49, Romans 8:32, Romans 1:18, Romans 2:5, Romans 3:5

With this Sunday we begin our anticipation of Jesus first coming to accomplish our redemption so that we might gain righteousness from God. Imagine how much more God also works his timing in the seconds of our “everyday lives” as we begin our Advent remembrance in 2011.

Speaker: Michael Smith
Series: Romans
Scripture Verses: Romans 3:21-26, Luke 2:7, Psalm 143:11, Isaiah 48:9-11, Exodus 34:14, Romans 11:36, John 14:6, Romans 8:1, Romans 4:3-4, Romans 4:17-18

But how God saves sinners is far more sobering as it requires the satisfying of God’s wrath against all sinners. For God’s cup of wrath (Isaiah 51:17) must be drunk in its entirety by Jesus, down to the last drop. Not until he drank it at the cross, would God “be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

For the coming Sundays we will unpack these verses to better see God as just in his wrath against all sinners and the justifier of all sinners who trust in Christ.

Speaker: Michael Smith
Series: Romans
Scripture Verses: Romans 3:21-26, Romans 1:1, Genesis 3:15, 2 Samual 7:12-16, Exekial 34:23-24, Psalm 23:6, Romans 1:7, Romans 1:18-20, Romans 2:2, Romans 2:5, Romans 2:12, Romans 3:10-11, Romans 3:19-20, Ephesians 2:4, Romans 8:32

I will give fifteen practical tips by John Piper to help us drink deeply from God’s fountain of joy so that we can display God’s character more consistently.

As we drink of God’s fountain of joy daily, we can then “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15) for our deep satisfaction and God’s greatest glory!

Speaker: Michael Smith
Series: Desiring God
Scripture Verses: Psalm 16:11, Philippians 4:4, Acts 11:26, Revelation 21:1-4, Ezekial 36:26, Matthew 6:33, John 10:10, Ephesians 3:20-21, John 6:26-27, Philippians 1:25, Hebrews 12:1, Micah 7:8-9, James 1:2-4, Romans 8:1, Psalm 34:8, Jeremiah 15:16, Psalm 42:5, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

At least this is absolute when it comes to the family of God. Because of our sin natures (Romans 3:23) you could say all people are born into the family of our adversary, the devil. That is why our Heavenly Father must spiritually adopt all his children.

This is Paul’s understanding behind Jesus’ birth: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:4-7).

This Sunday, Orphan Sunday, Neil will speak to us of our heavenly Father’s heart for adoption. When we participate in caring for orphans (with adoption as an option) we are imaging forth God’s longing for “religion that is pure and undefiled” (James 1:27).

Speaker: Neil Wilson
Series: Desiring God
Scripture Verses: Galatians 4:1-7, Colosssians 1:15-23, Ephesians 1:5, John 1:12, 1John 3a:1, Psalm 68:8-9, Proverbs 30:8-9, Psalm 10:14, Isaiah 1:17, Jeremiah 7:6-7, James 1:27

Piper wrote, “The reason there is so much misery in marriage is not that husbands and wives seek their own pleasure, but that they do not seek it in the pleasure of their spouses. The biblical mandate to husbands and wives is to seek your own joy in the joy of your spouse. Make marriage a matrix for Christian Hedonism” (172).

Paul gives eternal significance and sustaining joy for all Christian marriages when he wrote, “This mystery [Christian marriage] is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:32-33).

This Sunday may be one of the most hope filled messages for marriages. Men, I am asking God to bring exactly the right men whom he has in mind to hear how we can heighten our joy quota in our marriages and homes.

Speaker: Michael Smith
Series: Desiring God
Scripture Verses: Ephesians 5:22-33, 1Peter 3:1-7, John 3:16, Ephesians 1:20-23, Matthew 20:28, Philippians 2:1-8