SUNDAY 11TH JUNE 2017
TOPIC: OVERCOMING LOVE
TEXT: Acts 2:39 “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call….”
The gospel is a message Of love — and love is not presented by reason, but by loving. If you fell in love and wanted to ask a lovely girl to marry you, would you ask a lawyer to come and present your case to her? Imagine it! Would you win any woman?
Marriage is either love or it is not marriage. The gospel is both power and life, or it is not the gospel. Preaching is not a three- point homily. Preaching is a man burning in the pulpit for everybody to see. A sermon may be a neatly turned and engineered presentation — like the casing Of an armour — piercing shell- but it needs filing with explosive, or it will bounce Off the case-hardened minds Of unbelievers. Their prejudice are fortified with argument, but the explosive power in a sermon filled with the Holy Spirit can demolish it.
When Peter stood up to preach that day in Jerusalem, he recounted instances from the ancient Holy Scriptures which illustrated what was currently happening. He also sharply pointed out that the same Jews, who called for the death Of Jesus were being offered an opportunity to repent Of their great sin: Acts 2:17-39. The gospel is always a surprise attack. It gets at people from a direction they never planned to defend. They are prepared for argument, but the gospel does not argue. They are prepared for sentiment, but the gospel is not sentimental. On the
day Of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was outpoured, and that transformed the disciples totally. Man power had been filled with God’s power — and that is your secret for your life today.
MEDITATION: Acts 1:8; Luke 24:49
BIBLE STUDY
Deut. 16; Ps- 103; Isaiah 43; Rev. 13