Sermons from August 2016
Growing Together
This is the one day when you can peruse all of the PBCC ministries and see where you can get connected!
There are new ministry opportunities available since our last Fair. You are God’s people being prepared for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. Don’t miss this opportunity to get plugged in and use your gifting so that we all mature and attain to the fullness of Christ!
To give ample time for you to peruse the Ministry Fair tables, our Sunday morning service will only run for 30 minutes (8:30am – 9am & 10:30am – 11am), so make sure to arrive on-time. Andy Drake will be preaching on Growing Together.
Wisdom for Relationships
As we saw last week Samson was a man ruled by his passions and desires and this manifested itself primarily in relationships – wife, parents, in-laws, and not so good friends. Samson’s problems with women continued after his wedding. In Judges chapter 16, Samson sees a woman in Gaza and then he loves a woman in the Valley of Sorek named Delilah, who ended up costing him his eyes and eventually his life. Relationships can be a real “killer!” In light of Samson’s weakness we realize that we need incredible wisdom and life-changing truth from God and his word. And so this will be our topic for this Sunday, seeking wisdom for interacting with the many different people in our lives.
Timber! I’m Falling in Love
Judg 14:1-20 After an amazing birth narrative in Judges 13 one would have expected an equally amazing life. But that is not what we see when we turn to chapter 14. Despite a special calling on his life, Samson sees a Philistine woman and immediately wants her for a wife. We see in Samson a man who is physically strong and Spirit-empowered but one who is ruled by his passions, especially lust and anger. Like Samson all of us can be tempted by our desires to act outside of God’s will. But as recipients of God’s grace through Christ we are called to have control over these desires, to “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” (2 Tim 2:22 ESV)
Entertaining Angels
Judg 13 This Sunday, we begin a 5-week excursion into the life and death of Samson – outwardly powerful but inwardly flawed. Just like his immense strength, Samson’s mistakes are obvious, the motivations easy to see and really the only puzzling thing is why God would even choose to use this man in the first place. And yet Samson too, like the flawed Jephthah last week, makes it into the Heroes of Faith of Hebrews 11. In our opening scene this week, Samson, himself, actually barely makes it onto the stage. Instead we meet his parents and are faced with questions like: What does a faithful God do when His people are too lost to even cry out to Him? What would YOU do if an angel showed up? Are we missing the wonders that God is already doing in our lives?