Christ has displayed His love for us in an unmistakeable way. He left the glories of heaven to live among us as one of us, identifying Himself in every way with the human condition. He then yielded His life to the Father's glory through the Cross. In other words, Christ's love was His humble self-sacrifice. Christ gives each one of us an unavoidable command to display the same kind of love to each other. Humble, self-sacrificing love is the mark or badge that distinguishes us as Christ's followers. If you take one application from this message, I want you to take the following: You must humble yourself to give yourself in love to others.

When you go around town or the mall, you will probably see a sign that says, 'Remember the reason for the season.' The point is that we should remember the one who was placed in the manger. Have you ever paused to consider, 'What was the reason for the reason for the season?' Our text tells us the reason for the reason. Christ said, 'I have come for this specific hour.' What was happening at that time? In the verses immediately previous, we find that Christ spoke of a grain of wheat. He said that a grain of wheat by itself could do very little, but a grain of wheat that died and was planted would bring forth much fruit. Christ used the grain of wheat to illustrate His work on the Cross. Christ died, was buried, and all who believe on Christ and His work on the Cross are gloriously saved. So, the hour to which Christ referred was specifically the hour of His death on the Cross.

Jesus Christ the Messiah is the Prince of Peace. He made peace, and He offers peace. There is a condition upon this peace. He must be the King and Lord of all. Christ has already claimed such a position and title for Himself. By what right or authority does He do so? Just as peace from war is purchased at the expensive cost of death, Christ paid the ultimate price, the shedding of His own blood, to purchase our peace. In doing so, Christ achieved the position of King of Peace. As long as men will not submit to Christ's lordship, there will be war. There will be war among men, and there will be war against God. Those who have bent the believing knee to Christ have found a peace that surpasses understanding. If you take one application from this message, I would like for you to take the following: Rest in the peace that only Christ can provide.

The one who is completely wonderful, the one who is Almighty God, left the glorious throne of heaven to live among His own created beings. Even then, He did not come as a person of social position, an elite, a person not connected with the common man. The juxtaposition is that one would expect a Being so glorious and wonderful to remain aloof, disconnected, disinterested, and uninvolved with anyone or anything lower than Himself. On the contrary, the King of Kings, the Lord of glory, condescended to become one of us! Such stooping humility reveals to us the great intimacy that Christ has with mankind, with you and me! What better title than Father to illustrate the kind of compassionate love that Christ had for us! The first two titles of the Messiah in our text are majestic and noble titles, but the third title reveals the personality of the Messiah. Although He is a wonder of a counselor, although He is almighty God, He is a caring and personal Eternal Father. If you take one application from this message, I want you to take the following: You may rely upon the faithful love of Christ.

The prophet Isaiah spoke words to an unbelieving king, a wicked king who was only concerned about his own political self-preservation. The irony of Isaiah's prophecy was that he spoke of a wonderful king who was so concerned about His subjects that He gave Himself to deliver them. He spoke of a king who would rule and reign in perfection and righteousness. That king is none other than the God-man, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. More than this, He is an Almighty King who cares for His people. If you take one application from this message, I want you to take the following: Yield your entire life to the Almighty God.

There are many wonderful people who have lived, but none has ever matched the wonder of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything from His birth, to His death, to His resurrection and ascension is wonderful beyond compare. Even the most respected individuals do not deserve the praise that is due to the one who is exalted above every other person or thing. It is precisely because He is wonderful that He is the perfect Advocate for you and I. He argues His cases perfectly, and He never fails to win His case. He uses the most beautiful and eloquent arguments that men have ever seen or heard -- His own five bleeding wounds. Because our Advocate is so wonderful, we may have comfort and confidence in Him. If you take one application from this message, I want you to take the following: Let Christ plead your case.

It's easy to love when others are good to us. It's easy to love when things are going well. In another passage, Christ observed that even non-believers show that kind of care and concern for each other. There is nothing in that kind of love that distinguishes the believer from the non-believer. The love which you as a believer are called to give is something that is supernatural. If our love is only a superficial sentimentality, our love will not stand the strains of difficulty and disagreement with each other. How we handle those disagreements reveals the quality of our love.

The final commandment in the Mosaic Covenant or promise addresses our pressing need to have just a little bit more. While all of the other commandments dealt more or less with outward actions and the inward motivations for them, the tenth command closes all of the loopholes of activities, attitudes, and aspirations that the other commandments do not explicitly address. In short, God wants us to want the right things for the right reasons. Most importantly, God wants us to want Him, to be satisfied in Him and Him alone. Only then can we find true satisfaction, true happiness, true fulfillment. Seek Christ and His righteousness first.

Because God is truth, His people must be characterized by love for the truth. For this reason, the Lord calls for His people to avoid a false testimony against a neighbor. This false testimony could come in a variety of ways: lies, perjury, slander, gossip, flattery, misrepresentation, blame-shifting, failure to keep a promise, and even silence at a time when truth should be spoken. The command even includes insinuations and unfounded assumptions and assertions, ascribing ulterior motives to a person, as well as careless or idle words. All of this false communication may be done either verbally and non-verbally. Even the person who listens to such lies is complicit in the violation of the ninth commandment. The ninth word of love includes any way in which the truth is not communicated. A God of truth naturally delights in truth, and so should His people. Be a lover of the truth.

We usually think of theft in terms of burglary or some other blatant way in which someone takes something that is not theirs. As we will learn over the next few moments, and as with all of the other commandments, the commandment represents an entire category of behaviors and attitudes that are foreign to a relationship with Christ. While things such as cars, purses, umbrellas, and even personal information may be stolen, perhaps the most egregious way in which we steal is from the Lord. We keep for ourselves the love of Christ which was poured upon us so that we may pour it forth into the lives of those around us. If you take one application from this message, please take the following: It is not enough just not to take what is not yours. Give first of yourself to the Lord, and you will be a generous person.

The seventh word of love is literally a word about love, or, at least, what many consider love to be. The seventh commandment addresses human sexuality. The precise wording of the commandment leaves no doubt as to what God intended. God intends for sex to be enjoyed only within the covenant of marriage. Any misuse of sex outside of that covenant is a violation of God's purity, holiness, and love. Some would argue that no one is hurt by a little frolic here and there, but 1 Corinthians 6 tells us that sex outside of marriage is a sin against our own bodies, not to mention the others we cheat of the special privilege of sexuality. God intended for human beings to enjoy sex. We will learn over the next few minutes that sex is a beautiful picture of an ideal that God has placed before us. How we exercise our sexuality reveals whether or not we believe God and His perfect standard. If you take one application from this message, take the following: You must keep your life AND your heart pure.

Title borrowed from Josh Harris' book of this title. Josh Harris, The Problem Is Not Sex (Lust Is) (Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2005)

Because we are all created in God's image, we must all treat each other with the kind of love that reflects our estimation of God and His glory. Thus, how we interact with and respond to each other reveals much about what value we place upon God Himself and what we see in others. In other words, can you see the image of God in the person next to you? Furthermore, we cannot hold God in high esteem if we do not respect and love each other. To be wrong with men is to be wrong with God. The love we have for God must overflow into how we relate to each other.

We belong together as a family only because of the grace of God. The child did not vote for some man to be his father; the child did not choose his mother. God gave children to their parents as a gift of His gracious heritage and blessing. The family is a visible representation of God's grace to the world. So, whether you realize it or not, you are at this very moment teaching your children. They are watching you, and they are mimicking you in every way. Most significantly, they are mimicking your attitudes, your growth or resistance to God's grace. There are times when I look at my daughters and I shudder because I can see their attitudes in me. When I see the ugliness of it bubble to the surface, I begin to understand in a small way what I look like in comparison with Christ's perfection. I then begin to understand the Gospel. Christ died to rescue me from my rebellious attitudes so that I could share in His perfection! In this way the family becomes the first place that we learn about our need for the Gospel.

Christ taught that Sabbath was made for men, not the other way around. The Sabbath is intended to be a day to do something in particular -- to make the Lord holy. God intends for the day of rest to be a day of blessing. When we do not remember to keep one day holy, we willfully reject God's blessing. So, the Lord's Day is not about what not to do. It is a day to enjoy actively God and His blessings. If you take one application from this message, I want you to take the following: You must set aside one day a week that you are free to express your joy in Christ.

When we read the third word of love in Exodus 20, we find that the commandment forbids irreverence. When we invoke the name of God we bring into our focus all that God is and does. To invoke the name in an irreverent manner is to cast down on the very character of God. So, as we consider the third commandment we must take into consideration the ways in which we must reverence the Lord. If you take one application from this message, I want you to take the following: You must reverence God with all that you say and all that you do.

Did you realize that each of us are far more acquainted with idolatry than you possibly realize? We live in close proximity to an idol factory. No, I don't mean an actual building with machinery. John Calvin wrote, “The human mind is … a perpetual forge of idols.” He also wrote, “Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols.” You see, the idol factory lies in our minds and hearts. One author wrote, “We are natural-born idolaters, and we will commit idolatry. We will worship, even if we do not recognize that we are doing so.”

As we go through life, we see all sorts of problems around us. We look at the world, and see the wickedness that prospers greatly. We look at Christians around us, and the problems that they have. We look at our church, and we see the problems in the church. We can look at the ministries that each of us have, and be completely caught up in our own little corner of the world as we minister. We minister, and we take our eyes off of Christ. As we serve Christ, we must keep our focus upon Him, and not upon the circumstances around us. Isaiah presents the pinnacle of this thought in the last four verses of Isaiah 40.

We live in a day where I personally fear that too many people are comfortable with God. I mean that they are comfortable with the thought of God, but their concept of God is far from reality. It is an image that they consider to make them feel affirmation and comfort in the sight of an all-powerful Being. In their mind's eye, they have an image, not of a Father, but of a doting, tolerant grandfather who overlooks every one of their short-comings. He snickers at disobedience as we might a misbehaving toddler. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We have a God who wants us to be uncomfortable with Him. I mean this in the sense that we must have a reverence for Him that sets Him apart as supremely unique and holy in our hearts and minds. There must be a special respect for God rather than a comfort level with Him.

THIS IS THE INTRODUCTION TO A SERIES OF MESSAGES ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

Are the Ten Commandments really an unnecessarily narrow view of how life should be lived? Let us return to the airplane illustration. What would happen if the pilot took a post-modern approach to his landing? Let's say that as he approaches the Susquehanna, he sees Oberlin or Steelton and says, 'That street looks like a landing strip to me.' You don't need much of an imagination to know what would happen next. A narrow airport runway is not a limitation on the pilot. The runway actually provides the pilot with the freedom to land safely.

This is a live recording of a ministry of music at my church. Accompanist is Di Cashman.

Life is worship. Everything you do is an act of worship. You see, we often think of worship as what we are gathered here to do this morning. If you think this church service is worship, you are only partially correct about the essence of worship. While our singing, praying, and reading of God’s Word are the elements of public worship, they are not what worship is; they are simply what worship does.

This is a live recording of a ministry of music at my church. Accompanist is Di Cashman.

This is a live recording of a ministry of music at my church. Accompanist is Di Cashman.

This is a live recording of a recent ministry of music at my church. Accompanist is Di Cashman.

Is preaching really worship? You hear me say often that life is worship. Every aspect of life reveals what Christ is worth to you. The principle may be applied to preaching. The goal of preaching is to exalt Christ so as the make the hearer a worshiper or to refine the hearer's worship. The aim of true preaching is to encourage and instruct the hearer to make Christ of supreme value in every area of life. The Biblical principle behind this is the law of the seed and the fruit: you reap what you sow. If the result of true preaching is worship, then preaching itself must be worship.

Since the Bible records God's dealings with humanity, the Bible tells us how God's glory intersects human existence. Revelation 4:11 says, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” You and I and everything that we can see were created to exist exclusively to glorify God. The Bible also tells us how mankind rebelled against his purpose, plunging himself into judgment. The story does not end there. God saw mankind in his need and offered Himself to bring man back into a position where he can willingly glorify God. We call this offering of God redemption. The majority of the Bible tells us this story of redemption. Redemption is not the end of the story though. The end of the story is the restoration of all that exists to a place where God is once again the center of all worship. While all things will ultimately focus upon the all-glorious God, there is one truth that impacts the way you live today. If you take one truth from this message, I want you to take the following: You must do all to the glory of God.

Greeks wanted to see Jesus, and Christ spoke cryptic words in response to the Gentile believers. The words Christ spoke were in essence Christ's self-portrait. How can we know what revival looks like? How can we know when revival occurs? We will know revival has occurred when we simply obey Jesus because we have seen Him exalted. Your measure of faith and obedience will only come to the measure that you see Christ. If you take one truth from this message, I want you to take the following: You must see Jesus.

The Puritan preacher Thomas Watson wrote, “Christ went more readily [to the cross], than we do to the throne of grace.” Christ went to the Cross knowing with divine omniscience exactly what it all meant. Christ went to the Cross knowing that the Cross meant full surrender. You must surrender all you are to Christ to have an effective prayer life.

Caleb fully followed the Lord. What does it mean that Caleb fully followed the Lord? We typically have a lofty view of the heroes of the Bible. We tend to think of them as giants of the faith, as men and women who were more godly than any other human being could ever hope to be. Actually, Caleb was a mere mortal. I dare say that if he were alive today and we had met him, we would probably think of him as an ordinary guy. Caleb was certainly a godly man, but he was far from perfect. He had the same weaknesses and faced the same temptations as we do. Caleb fully followed the Lord simply means that he had a close fellowship with God. One commentator explains the idea in more picturesque language: “In the Hebrew that is quite a striking word -- more striking than in the English. It is a pictorial word in the Hebrew, and describes a ship at full sail.” What does all of this mean? Caleb believed, as another commentator writes, “if the Lord deserved to be followed at all, he deserved to be followed in full.” We need to follow the Lord our God fully as well. As a matter of fact, to follow the Lord fully is simply another way to say that we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, the first, the primary commandment. If you take only one sentence from this message, I want you to remember the following: You too must fully follow the Lord your God.

If we see in Jesus anyone or anything other than the glory of God, we see a God who is too small. We see God as we imagine Him to be rather than who He really is. Because our minds are limited, we imagine a limited God. For this reason, the only way that we can understand God is in His own identification of Himself: I Am. For this reason, God commanded that no images would be made of Him. God does not want man to manufacture his own finite understanding of an infinite Being. So, when Simeon saw Jesus, he did not just see a baby. He did not just see the one who would help his fellow Israelites. He did not just see the Saviour of the world. He saw God's glory. It is no wonder, then, that the angels sang to the shepherds, 'Glory to God in the highest.' Over the next few moments, I want to focus your attention upon the glory of God in Jesus Christ. You must believe in Christ because He is the glorious God.

What a person believes about the truth of God’s existence and character will be revealed by his lifestyle. Belief affects behavior. You will act in a way consistent with your beliefs; you will act consistently with what you believe to be true.

The Word of God concretely reveals truth, teaching us in no uncertain terms that truth exists being found only in God. The truth is simple and absolute. We may choose to believe or reject truth, but truth still remains. Truth gives meaning to our lives; it gives us hope. Our hope is not based upon some whim or some imagination. Our hope is based upon the foundation of Christ.

Let us say that you are playing a game of baseball. You must have an established set of rules so that the game may be played successfully. If the rules can be changed in the middle of the game, what is the point of playing it in the first place? If there are no foul lines, then why run around the bases? If the runner does not need to be tagged in order to be out, then why hit the ball in the first place? There must be an established set of standards; there must be absolute truth. When it comes to life, as opposed to a baseball game, the same is true. We need an absolute set of standards by which to live. We can make our own standards based upon our own opinions, but everyone else has his own set of conflicting standards, and no one is right. God has given us truth, the fact of His existence and character. If we can believe in absolutes in sports, can we not believe in absolutes in matters of utmost importance such as the issues of life?

Christ said in Matthew 10:16, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” We as believers must be aware of what is happening in our world. We cannot hide our head in the sand as we wait for the Lord to return. We must engage our culture with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To that end, I want to explain to you the mindset of the society in which we live so that you may better understand how to minister effectively the Gospel of Christ to the people you meet every day. This message will introduce a series of three messages in which we will examine truth as an absolutely reality.

We think of Paul as a high and lofty idyllic example of a Christian to which no believer since could ever dare hope to aspire. The reality is that each of us can achieve the same kind of love and passion for Christ that Paul had. Paul said that he pressed toward the prize. What was the prize? It was Jesus Christ. Christianity has nothing to do with how much we sacrifice or what losses we suffer for Christ; Christianity is the pursuit of Christ simply because He is worthy of pursuit. Thus, you must pursue Christ to make Him your own.

The story of Christmas teaches us that there is more to life than meets the eye. When we see the baby in the manger, we are not merely looking upon innocence. Christ is not an innocuous infant about whom we may be indifferent. Either Christ is worthy of our worship, or He is not. Why would Christ be worthy of worship? Either Christ is Lord, or He is not.

The legitimate concerns and issues of life do not simply disappear because a holiday falls upon a certain day of a certain month. That being said, holidays ought not to be fearful, especially not the Christmas holiday. The world considers Halloween to be a frightening holiday, but Christmas ought to be the exact opposite. Next to Easter, Christmas ought to be the most joyous holiday of all. We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour! We celebrate the birth of the only person who can truly bring love, joy, hope, and peace to this world.

If we only had the faith to allow God to work, we could see Him do great things. This kind of faith is what Jabez possessed, and we have the same kind of faith as Jabez. Our faith today is no different than Jabez’s. Either you believe or you don’t; it is as simple as that. Either Christ can work as powerfully today as he did in the times of the Chronicles, or He cannot work at all. So, the issue at stake is simply, ‘Will I believe that God can do a powerful work in and through me?’ ‘Can God really accomplish great things in and through me if I do what I ought?’ The answer is ‘Yes.’ Jabez’s prayer teaches us this wonderful truth. So, what are we to learn from the Prayer of Jabez? We ought to pray a prayer similar to Jabez. We must ask God to enlarge our ministry.

We worship because we have a desperate need; we worship because we have a void in our souls. Our worship is an expression of that need, our soul-thirst. Unless we worship with the full sense of our own absolute insufficiency, our utter dependence, and our complete emptiness, we cannot truly worship Christ.