Category: 2012 Sermons

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2012-07-01: Spiritual Disciplines – Silence

Sermon: Spiritual Disciplines – Silence
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: James 3:2-12
Duration: 29:29
Size: 13.5 MB

Spiritual Disciplines
Silence
James 3:2-12

Have you ever opened your mouth without thinking and said something you regretted later.

The tongue is the most powerful part of the body with the power to curse & the power to bless, the power to start fires and the power to put them out.

Silence of the Mouth

One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless.

By observing a silence in our lives on a regular basis, we are training our tongue so that we learn to control it rather than have it control us.

In our personal relationships, our words often express a lack of faith, a lack of trust – if we do not trust some one to drive properly; we take to back seat driving.

We need to find ways of practicing silence in our everyday life.

Silence of the Ears

Even if we cannot keep a time of silence ourselves, we can learn to live without the constant noise of background music, TV or radio.

Interior Silence

Keeping silent on the outside, either through not talking, or shutting the noise off, is easy compared with learning inner silence.

As Eli teaches the young boy Samuel, we have to learn to say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening“, and then actually listen.

Posted on

2012-06-24: Beyond the Walls

Sermon: Beyond the Walls
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Scripture Text: I John 3:16-18
Duration: 47:24
Size: 21.7 MB

Beyond the Walls
I John 3:16-18

I hope that you have a desire to be a caring person and someone that lives out the same kind of love that Jesus Christ modeled for us.

Step 1: LOVE (verse 16)

Love, for the Christian is a love that centers on Jesus Christ. He is our model. He is our standard.

Love is “laying aside” yourself on purpose and putting someone else first.

Our first step towards caring for others must be that we have the same kind of love that Christ showed… which lays aside ourselves and puts another first.

Step 2: PITY (verse 17)

Pity is feeling deeply for someone in the bowels of who you are… to your core.

It begins with love like Christ, but it must be more than that because Jesus was more than that.

Our second step towards caring for others is that you have to feel love and concern and compassion about others to the very core of your being and allow it to affect your heart.

Step 3: ACTIONS (verse 18)

As we have talked about, caring for others begins with love that lays aside self and feeling what the other person is going through… but action must follow.

  • God needs you to work beyond the walls of the church with Christ-like love!
  • God needs you to work beyond the walls with heart-felt pity for others!
  • God needs you to stop talking about what you could do… and do it!