PM sermon for 6/10/07

The text this Sunday evening comes from Nehemiah 13:11. Nehemiah asks "Why is the house of God abandoned (or neglected)? He comes from the king a second time after the wall is built and dedicated only to find the high priest, Eliashib, making room in the temple for the foreigner Tobiah. Nehemiah also discovers that the Levites haven't received their portions and have gone back to their fields. The question of Nehemiah begs for a sermon but I want to make sure that I put the text in its proper context before making what some might think are obvious applications to the church.

PM sermon for 5/20/07

This Sunday evening I'm going to do something I rarely do - preach someone else's outline and thinking. It will not be a word for word copy since I don't have a manuscript but the outline clearly comes from someone else. I heard this lesson at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando. I cannot remember the man's name but I do know that he is the chief Bible teacher at the Holy Land Experience. Although the lesson had some elements of allegory in it, it wasn't allegorical nor was it one of those "imitate this guy" type of lessons. It really focused on God's faithfulness in the man's life and how God will be faithful in ours. The text is 1Chronicles 11:22-25. I haven't decided on a title. The text is about Benaiah, one of David's valiant men. He wasn't one of the "three" but he certainly gained a name. The lesson will focus on the last part of v.22 where Benaiah goes down into a pit and kills a lion. I'm looking forward to studying this text and then seeing if my study leads me in the same direction as the speaker I heard. I hope to have more during the week.