Sermon Outline: Psalm 127 “God’s Blueprint for a Godly Home of Influence”

Psalm 127 ~ God’s Blueprint for a Godly Home of Influence ~ Pastor Bill Slabaugh

This is the introductory message in a new expository sermon series on Psalm 127 by Pastor Bill Slabaugh. He takes his experience as a licensed architect and applies it to our understanding of God's Word as to what it means when the Lord Builds the House.

Part One of the series is based on Psalm 127:1-2 and is called. "The Lord: the Architect of the Home." In Part One we will look at God's blueprint for a godly home in Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. What is God's pattern for husbands? For Wives? For Children? Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it." 

Part two of the series is based on Psalm 127:3-5 and is called, "In the hands of the warrior." How do we rear our children to be godly men and women of influence who will impact their community and world for the Kingdom of God? The goal of parenting is not just that our kids will survive, or that they are educated, or they will thrive. The goal of parenting is to rear children who are holy and make a difference in this world with gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sermon Outline: Romans 8:23-25 ~ The Believer’s Groan for Glory

Romans 8:23-25 ~ The Believer’s Groan for Glory ~ Pastor Bill Slabaugh

“It’s Better Higher Up”

The famous preacher D.L. Moody told about a Christian woman who was always bright, cheerful, and optimistic, even though she was confined to her room because of illness. She lived in an attic apartment on the fifth floor of an old, rundown building.

 A friend decided to visit her one day and brought along another woman -- a person of great wealth. Since there was no elevator in the building the two ladies began the long climb upward. When they reached the second floor, the well-to-do woman commented, "What a dark and filthy place!"

Her friend replied, "It's better higher up."

When they arrived at the third landing, the remark was made, “Things look even worse here."

Again the reply, "It's better higher up."

 The two women finally reached the attic level, where they found the bedridden saint of God. A smile on her face radiated the joy that filled her heart. Although the room was clean and flowers were on the window sill, the wealthy visitor could not get over the stark surroundings in which this woman lived. She blurted out, "It must be very difficult for you to be here like this!"

Without a moment's hesitation the shut-in responded, "It's better higher up." She was not looking at temporal things. With the eye of faith fixed on the eternal, she had found the secret of true  satisfaction and contentment.

Sermon Outline: Romans 8:18-22 ~ The Sufferings and Glory of God’s Creation

Romans 8:18-22 ~ The Sufferings and Glory of God’s Creation

Why is there suffering in the world?

Will it ever get any better?

What does it mean that all creation groans?

 The Apostle gives us the answers to these important questions

in Romans chapter 8.

Be forewarned.  The answers might surprise you.

Sermon Outline: Romans 8:14-18 ~ The First Fruits of Our Inheritance

Romans 8:14-18 ~ The First Fruits of Our Inheritance ~ Pastor Bill Slabaugh

As parents, we try to do everything that we can to protect our children from suffering. We try to alleviate their pain whether it is physical or emotional.

So if God is our all-powerful and all-loving Father, then why doesn’t He do the same with His children?

Several years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a bestselling book called, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.”  Kushner proposed that God cannot be both all-powerful and all-loving.  Because if He is both, a loving God would certainly do something about our suffering.  Because it was more comforting to him personally, Kushner chose to believe that God is all-loving so He can’t be all-powerful. He believes that God just can’t do anything about our suffering.

In contrast to Kushner’s popular view, in Romans chapter 8 we learn that our suffering in this world is not at odds at all with God’s love for us as His children. 

 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time

are not worthy to be compared with the glory

that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:18

Sermon Outline: Romans 8:14-16 ~ The Marks of the Child of God

Romans 8:14-16 ~ The Marks of the Child Adopted by God ~ Pastor Bill Slabaugh

When we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are immediately adopted into God’s Family. J. I. Packer has a wonderful chapter in his book Knowing God which is called  “Sons of God,” where he writes on the subject of our adoption as children of the Father.

Packer writes,

You sum up the whole of New Testament teaching in a single phrase if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the holy Creator. In the same way, you sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father.

If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.