"But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown" (Matthew 13:23 NIV)

"From that time on Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.'" (Matthew 4:17 NIV)

"If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9 NIV)

"Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." (Romans 10:4 NIV)

"It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy." (Romans 9:16 NIV)

"In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Romans 8:37 NIV)

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18 NIV)

"...through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2 NIV)

"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25a NIV)

"But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." " (Luke 2:10)

"So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

"But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights as sons." (Galations 4:4 NIV)

The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news." (Luke 1:19)

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances." (I Thess. 5:16-18)

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." (Romans 6:22 NIV)

"For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17 NIV)

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1 NIV)

"The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead" (Romans 4:23-24 NIV)

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:10 NIV)

"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin" (Romans 3:19-20 NIV)

"You who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself..." (Romans 2:1 NIV)

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen..." (Romans 1:20 NIV)

"And you are also among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ." (Romans 1:1-17 NIV)

"..and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever." (Ps. 23:6 NIV)

"Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life." (Ps. 23:6 NIV)

"You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." (Ps. 23:5 NIV)

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." (Ps. 23:5 NIV)

"Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." (Ps. 23:4 NIV)

"Even though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;" (Ps. 23:4 NIV)

"He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake" (Ps. 23:3 NIV)

"He restores my soul" (Ps. 23:3 NIV)

"He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters..." (Ps. 23:2 NIV)

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." (Ps. 23:1 NIV)

"The LORD is my shepherd..." (Ps. 23:1 NIV)

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21 NIV)

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (I John 3:1 NIV)

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." (Matthew 6:33-34 NIV)

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers [sisters], whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance...Blessed is the man [woman] who perseveres under trial..." James 1:2, 12 NIV

"...from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15 NIV)

"He lives. He lives. Christ Jesus Lives today! He walks with me and talks with me, along life's narrow way. He lives- He lives- Salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart." Alfred Ackley

"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." (Luke 11:1 NIV)

"About eight days after Jesus said this, He took Peter, John and James with Him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As He was praying,the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning." (Luke 9:28,29 NIV)

"Once when Jesus was praying in private and His disciples were with Him, He asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"" (Luke 19:18 NIV)

"One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles..." (Luke 6:12-13 NIV)

"But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Luke 5:16(NIV)

"And as He was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove." Luke 3:21-22 (NIV)

"so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet." John 13:4-5

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others op according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29

"I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven." Matthew 18:18

"Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 2 Corinthians 1:31

"I fear there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder." 2 Corinthians 12:20

"There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him: ...a lying tongue..., a false witness who pours out lies..." Proverbs 6:16-19

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness;" James 3:9

"Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serve as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be;" I Peter 5:2

"The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." John 1:1-18 (v.5)

"The Lord is my light and salvation-whom shall I fear?" Psalm 27 v.1

"But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been through God" John 3:1-21 (v.21)

He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12)

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6)

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back...He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him (Luke 17:15-16)

Christians are to be faithful in the exercise of our gifts and talents. In the English Standard Version, verses 10 and 11 read: "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace"

The writer of Ecclesiastes provides us with some helpful counsel on this subject. Solomon begins this familiar passage with the words: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." The Hebrew word for time has the sense of being scheduled or of the idea of a special appointment, so that all the dimensions of life that follow have their own appointed time.

The Bible reminds us that "the earth is the LORD’s and everything in it." Because the LORD created everything and because it is in Him that "we live and move and have our being," we are not owners, we are managers … we are stewards.

In the concluding verses of the letter of Jude before us this morning, we can see and perhaps hear the joyful strains of a doxology. In these verses, he directs us to the keeping, ever-preserving love of God in Christ.

As Jude speaks of the negative effect of these heretical or unorthodox teachers, what are the faithful in the church to do? How shall we remain true to Christ and persevere in these tough times? Jude gives us the answer to this question in verses 20-23. He turns away from his rebuke of these false teachers to some "how-to’s" of persevering and remaining firm in the faith.

In our text, we find a warning that is not false, but rather one that is very real and very serious. Jude gives a warning regarding the false teachers that had slipped into the life of the believers.

What if, like the word "hate," there is a time to be "contentious"? What if, in a good sort of way, there is such a time to be contentious? I believe our passage leads us to an answer.

The author describes himself as Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. Jude has been identified as one of the half brothers of Jesus. But out of humility, deep reverence and respect, Jude did not choose to refer to himself as this. He chose instead to identify himself as "a servant of Jesus Christ."

Text: But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." (50:20 NIV)

Benediction: it is a familiar word to most of us, as we normally conclude every service of worship with a benediction. But while many of us may be familiar with the place of benedictions in our services of worship, I wonder how many of us realize the fact that the Bible is full of blessings and benedictions.

"A full disclosure." That is what happened when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. "I am Joseph! I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!" Now, another "full disclosure" occurred. After more than twenty years of believing Joseph to be dead a full disclosure is now given to Jacob by his other sons. We do not know if the brothers started out slowly with a preface or preamble, or if they just blurted it out. But it all came out nonetheless: "Joseph is still alive!" they said. "In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt."

By now, having studied Joseph’s story for a while, we are able to see the prevailing theme of God’s Providence. This theme runs throughout the Joseph narrative, but in fact, it runs throughout the whole Bible.

A teenager of 17 years cast into slavery by his brothers. Thirteen years pass by, perhaps most of which were spent in prison. Then, to amaze us, at the age of 30 he is not only freed from prison, but he is elevated to a position second only to that of Pharaoh, the most powerful monarch on earth. Talk about "rags to riches"! Talk about a "rise to fame"! Talk about a "success story" without parallel!

And he said, "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them"

Waiting, waiting, waiting. Most of us do not do this very well, do we? Letters by the US Postal Service are now called "snail mail" compared to the much faster e-mail of our sophisticated computer age. Now we even send "e-cards" to each other! We do not like waiting in lines for too long, and we like our "fast-food" to be … well … fast!

Well, if you didn’t know the story of Joseph before this series began last Sunday, you can already testify to the truth of my introduction: "It is an exciting story, a story of God’s providential care that unfolds in the flow of tremendous drama."

God rules and overrules in all the circumstances of life. Do you believe this to be true for you and for others? This seems to be the conviction of so many of our Founding Fathers. Although there are many who would seek to rewrite history for us, seeking to convince us that many of them were mere deists, believing in a Creator who is disinterested in human affairs, the primary documents tell us otherwise.

April 17th, 2005 – that is the day when this all started: a series of sermons on the entire book of Acts. Of course, we haven’t gone straight through, Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year. This is why it has taken us so long to get through the entire book. But today, we close this lengthy series with our final passage.

Encouragement is a wonderful thing, wouldn’t you say? To encourage others means to inspire them with courage, spirit or hope; it means to spur them on towards endurance; it means to give them confidence as we cheer them on.

Just because a person happens to be a veteran sailor or a seasoned traveler, does not mean that peril at sea will be taken lightly. In fact, it will be taken all the more seriously! And along with this, the knowledge that you are not ultimately in control of all that is happening! This is what we see in the description of Paul’s sea voyage.

This text before us in 1st Kings is about waiting; it reveals to us how Elijah waited on the Lord in his time of need. Truth be told, faith and waiting go hand in hand, for “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb 11:1). When we can’t see yet have hope, we are waiting, waiting for something we cannot bring about through our own strength or resources.

A "Spirit-filled Christian." Have you ever heard this term before and if you have, would you have a definition of what this means? How would you describe such a person? What would a Spirit-filled Christian look like to you?

Last week, we looked at a wonderful passage that brings forth several principles for us to consider in regard to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the passage before us this morning, we find additional insights in how we are to operate as a church under the Lordship of Christ and empowered for ministry by the Holy Spirit.

No church on earth is exempt from problems of one sort or another. We can see this in the New Testament churches, and the church in Corinth was no exception. As a matter of fact, they knew they had problems and so they wrote a letter to Paul about some of them, asking about such matters as marriage, food sacrificed to idols, the nature of the resurrection of the body, and spiritual gifts. As we continue our series on the Holy Spirit, I find the teaching of Paul on spiritual gifts to be very helpful. Here, we find solid counsel on the use of spiritual gifts in the life of the church.

Our passage for this morning is also about change – but it is all about positive change for the better. It’s about a transformation that occurs in the life of every Christian by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit – change that is gradual, but permanent; slow, but steady; in degrees, but life-long. It’s summarized for us in the last verse of our passage for this morning: "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

One of the key questions I and so many Christians have asked regarding the Holy Spirit is this: "Is there a ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ and if so, when and how does it happen?"

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:1-2).

We are not unlike Jesus’ first disciples in this, for they found it very difficult to believe in the resurrection. Jesus seemed too good to be true when he appeared at a gathering of all 11 of his disciples. We can understand the difficulty they faced. After all, they were just coming to terms with the fact that Jesus had died on the cross. All of their hopes had been dashed when Jesus died. They had not understood that this was a part of God’s plan of salvation and had come to think that maybe they had been wrong about Jesus.

Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed (John 20:8)

In the midst of such public events, however, Jesus wanted to teach His disciples a vivid lesson about faith. It began on Monday, when Jesus and the Twelve were leaving Bethany to return for Jerusalem.

What a "world-wind tour"! Three years with Jesus, but the recent events seemed to be fast-paced, exhilarating and exhausting for Peter and the others. In the recent past, Jesus had fed miraculously over 5,000 men, women and children. Jesus then asked His disciples for how they perceived Him, as to who they thought He was, and Peter made his great confession of Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was a high moment for Peter, even though that was followed by Jesus’ startling prediction of His death in Jerusalem.

So far in looking at the portrait of Peter in the Gospels, we’ve seen different dimensions of the call to discipleship that comes from Christ – the call to follow, the call to serve, and the call to trust. In our passage for this morning, we find "the call to confess."

Our passage this morning describes a very tense and stressful moment for Peter. Portraits of the scene help us to appreciate the anxiety of the moment. But none of us can sense fully what that moment must have felt like as this seasoned Galilean fisherman saw his faith dwindle and his life now in jeopardy in a sea of relentless fury.

In our passage for this morning, we look at the calling of Peter and the others to serve, as Jesus called them to Himself, gave them His authority and power to go forth, and directed them how they might serve others as His appointed ambassadors. All these points of calling are clearly relevant to our own with Christ, as we look at each one carefully.

The Biography Channel; the biography section of a bookstore; People Magazine; Entertainment Tonight; even obituaries in the daily newspaper. These are all about people and it seems that we are always interested in people – people of various types and backgrounds, thought and expression. The Bible is also rich in giving us biographies, biographies of the faithful and the faithless, the courageous and the timid, the strong and the weak, the wise and the foolish; and the biblical testimony regarding Peter the disciple has fascinated many of us.

There is something in all of us that questions authority and desires independence rather than submission. This is true in our interactions with other people and it is especially true in our interactions with God. Psalm 2 steps into the midst of our rebellion, proclaiming Jesus’ reign over all creation and inviting us to take refuge in him.

The pastor of the church where I grew up loved to tell stories. He had a story for every situation, and everything that Jesus did reminded him of a story he’d heard somewhere or other. Jesus got left behind in the temple as a boy; Dr. Anderson got left behind one time too. Jesus’ disciples caught lots of fish; Dr. Anderson caught a lot of fish too. Jesus’ feet were anointed by a harlot . . . come to think of it Dr. Anderson never had a story for that, but he did love to tell stories.

The changing of the guard: for those who’ve visited London and who’ve seen this wonderful sight, it is truly awe-inspiring. But the changing of the guard isn’t always this way, as in Paul’s situation, for example. As we continue to look at Paul’s trials before going to Rome, we find a "changing of the guard" in Roman procurators.

Conscience: there it is again for the apostle Paul. It seems to be a common theme for him as we look at his New Testament letters, but especially when brought before authorities to defend himself. When Paul was first arrested by the Romans in Jerusalem and accused by the leaders of the Jewish Council, he began his defense by looking straight at them and saying, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day."

It happens every year on the first Sunday in January – you can expect it! I’m not talking about Holy Communion – although I could, as we have Holy Communion on the first Sunday of every month. But what I’m talking about here is the ordination and installation of new church officers. It’s such a special time in the life of our church, as ordained ministry is critically important ... and I do mean critically important! While not to be seen exclusively, the health of a church is often contingent upon the spiritual health of its leadership.