Josh Parnell of Monette, Arkansas, is preaching sermons at the Crockett church this week of July 21st using a technique in sermon delivery which I call ‘The Essence of a Subject’. First the essence of the Holy Spirit within the cleansed servant’s life. The essence of God’s plan at baptism for forgiveness of sins as well as the gift of the Holy Spirit to be a part of our mind (heart of the inner man) is the idea of 1 Corinthians 6:19; Enjoy the study with us all.
The second sermon dealt with the ‘essence of love’ and the disciples of Jesus who were told by this ‘love all men will know you are my disciples’ (John 13:35). Jesus told us the importance of faith (John 8:24) as well as repentance and baptism (Luke 13:3; Mark 16:16), but those things as important as they are, are not the ‘essence’ of ‘love’ in what others see in our lives. Let’s be sure we grow in this trait of life.
His third sermon developed the ‘Essence of Use What You Have’ in God’s service (John 6) in reference to the little boy who gave only what he could and look at the result of the Lord’s power with others. By using what we have and asking God to use it, we are never alone, Again, enjoy the ideals of salvation as well as a life of service.
The fourth sermon deal with Retaliation or What Alternatives do we use to deal with hurts and harms from others. Psalms 109 was used to demonstrate King David’s desire to be avenged of harmful people. He wanted retaliation in like kind; this is not the best way nor is the choice to take within the hurts of others and explode later on our own family sometimes. Why not turn the hurt over to God, the Father? Jesus did this and left us an example to walk in his steps (1 Peter 2:18ff). Enjoy the detailed essence studies presented by Josh on this topic as well as the others.
The fifth sermon in this series dealt with the essence of understanding God’s answers to our prayers with a No or a Yes or a Delayed answer to allow His providence to work in the lifetime of those who love Him and are called to serve Him (Romans 8:28). There are ready answers as to why ‘No’ is from God for certain misbehavior, but it is more faith on our part involved when we ask God for deliverance from physical illnesses which seem to have ‘No’ as the present answer. Why is this the case is the study of this sermon. This sermon searches within us as it did with Paul (2 Corinthians 12) and the ‘thorn in the flesh’ which God allowed to stay upon Paul to cause His strength to become evident in Paul’s lifetime and he learned to also appreciate the fact he could yet serve God in spite of his weakness staying with himself.
The sixth sermon of this series emphasized the need to help the Short people of the world to get to see Jesus instead of being a stumbling block in their view (Luke 19:1-10). Historical background to a Jewish Roman Tax Collector in that error of time.
The seventh sermon this week brought to a close the series with a thoughtful lesson of Jesus in Matthew 6:19-21 as to the heart and its treasure which can be taken away by moth or rust or stolen from us if it is to materialistic. By making the treasure really loved and thereby making the life and heart commit to that love be more spiritual in life, we will overcome through God’s help. We will not lose out if our life is filled up with family name and relationships or filled with hobbies which tend to fade at the end or have treasure made up of our successes in health, money or position in this world. Those things can be taken from us; but, never the spiritual love, mercy, hope and peace. What a wonderful meeting and resulted in reviving any spiritual heart which listened.