Remsen Bible Fellowship

Weakness  4/26/2020 for Remsen Bible Fellowship Introduction: I want to paint a picture for you. You’re walking through a garden, and it’s late. The night has a definite chill. You look over to your left, and there is a man, kneeling in prayer. Tears stream down his face and roll off his beard. His prayer seems almost feverish, and his stress eventually rises to a place where the capillaries near his skin begin bursting. He’s experiencing a condition known as hematidrosis: sweating blood. Does this strike you as a man full of strength, embracing the power of positive thinking, or claiming his best life now? Or does he come across as vulnerable, perhaps weak? Many of you will, of course, recognize the man in our story. It’s Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, just hours before he heads to the cross. Jesus is the one imploring the Father to change the circumstances he is about to face. Jesus is the one who needs God to send an angel to comfort him. And Jesus is the one, who a

Psalm 4 Remsen Bible Fellowship, Online, 04/19/2020 Introduction Good morning, and welcome to our second Youtube live sermon. I deeply, deeply, look forward to the day when we are meeting again in person, but until that time I trust the Lord will be using his word and these sermons to encourage and strengthen you. Let’s pray before we get rolling. Father God, thank you for your word. Please speak through this poor stammering tongue, and work your word down deep into the hearts of your people. We are saved, not by perishable seed, but imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. As that word, the Gospel, is preached this morning, transform hearts, Father. Make fretting hearts peaceful. Make rebels into children. Fix our eyes on Christ we pray. Amen. Where do you look for peace? We tend to think of peace as an absence. The absence of conflict, of hostilities, of war. I’ve heard the history of the world described as the history of conflict temporarily interrupted by m

Oh death, Where is your sting?  1 Corinthians 15 Easter Sunday, 4/12/2020, Remsen Bible Fellowship, Online Sermon Why does the resurrection of Jesus matter? Why, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, for two millennia have people celebrated Jesus’ rising from the dead? We face no fiercer or more menacing foe than death. It looms over us all, waiting to swallow us. Proverbs 27:20 tells us that Sheol and Abaddon [the grave and death] are never satisfied. Death is coming for me, and it’s coming for you. We can try to ignore this, we can distract ourselves from this truth, but Ecclesiastes 7 tells us that death is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart. We can’t live with wisdom while this truth: we are mortal. And this very mortality stands as a judgement upon us. We were created by God to live as his representatives here on earth-death was not meant for us. And yet here we are. What can be done? Into this bleak reality burst the words of P

Glory Through Suffering Psalm 22; Remsen Bible Online; 04/10/2020 Good evening, loved ones. On this evening, which we traditionally call Good Friday, I want to open with a simple question: how can the day when we remember Jesus’ crucifixion be, in any sense, Good? For our answer, I would direct your attention to Psalm 22. Psalm 22 was written by King David during a time of extreme duress in his life. While it obviously had application directly in his day, Christians ever since the time of Jesus-including Jesus on the cross-have recognized the ultimate fulfillment of this Psalm in the Son of David, Jesus, the Christ. This won’t be my normal sermon style. What I’ve done is broken Psalm 22 into chunks, and interlaced those sections with New Testament quotations. I won’t read the reference after each quotation as I normally would (if you want a full list I’ll post those on the church blog and put that link in the video notes). My aim for this good Friday teaching is to simply allow the w

Where to Find Strength and Peace Psalm 29; Remsen Bible Online, 04/05/2020 Introduction Where do God’s people find peace? Where can you find the resources you need to build an inner resolve, a steadfast strength which is unshaken by the storms of life? These are questions which are important, not only to us, but for God’s people throughout history. Of course, the short answer is that we find comfort, peace, and strength in God himself. But how helpful is that broad and general answer? If you think of God in the abstract, as some being who lives in a distant place of whom you know very little, then it probably isn’t helpful at all. But here again, the Psalms come to our aid. Because in the Psalms, God is thought of not as some abstract or ethereal sky-being, but as the God who wins battles, forms mountains, conquers foes, comforts the brokenhearted. He is pictured as light, a rock, a shepherd, the one who fashions stars with his fingers, and makes the earth his footstool. Co