Do you pray as a benefactor or a beggar? Do you pray at all?
You won’t want to miss this Thursday’s sermon of the week by Akash Sant Singh, A Praying Family.
Pastor Akash tears down the false notion of God being our cosmic vending machine, and he cuts to the quick regarding our prayer life and the many excuses we make for the lack thereof. As always, Pastor Akash steps on toes but with love and grace, and all for the glory of the Lord.
As a follow-up to last week’s two-part message on Christian work ethic by Brian Borgman (found here), DefCon is pleased to present another two-part message on this same subject by Akash Sant Singh entitled The Gospel Revolution in Work. This is a great message that every Christian should listen to whether they work in the home or outside of the home.
Children are seen as complications, or even obstacles, in the perpetual quest for fun, excitement, and fulfillment. To see this attitude among the ungodly is to be expected. . . . What should alarm us, however, is that Christians are making the same complaint. In reality, these complaints by frazzled mothers worn out by “hyperactive” or “strong-willed” children (an earlier generation would have called them unruly) are merely symptoms of a disease. The root cause of this disease is the rejection of the commands of God: Christian families have brought this affliction upon themselves by following the “empty and deceitful” philosophies of the world. Although most evangelicals pride themselves that they are–unlike the “liberal churches”–true to the Bible, many of these evangelical leaders and authors adhere to the same philosophy of child training as the non-Christian educators and psychologists.
– William & Colleen Dedrick
From: The Little Book of Christian Character & Manners
Those who sweat in worldly pursuits are commonly cold in godly pursuits.
– William Jenkyn
1613–1685
For those who have been praying for Liberia, I wanted to bring your attention to some news coming out just before the election coming up this Tuesday in the West African country. Less than a week before the election the current president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This could only be in her favor for reelection.
Liberia has been slowing rebuilding its infrastructure after emerging from the civil war a few years ago and the Liberian Christians I spoke with seemed to be happy with the peace and progress they’ve experienced under President Sirleaf.
There is fear, however, that if Sirleaf’s opponent is elected, the religious freedom that Liberia is now enjoying may very well be stifled and the country could be cast into more civil unrest. This, obviously, would affect missionary efforts on the ground in that country.
Please commit this matter to prayer and pray that God’s will to be done in this upcoming election and continue to pray for the work being done in Liberia.
Not able to leave people well enough alone, anti-theists are at it again.
This time a national anti-theist organization is targeting a dot-on-the-map town in Tennessee for having the audacity to display a cross atop their water tower.
Now there’s nothing overtly newsworthy about this story, as Atheists have been bullying their way into building a godless utopia for years one litigious threat at a time. But what makes this particular instance intriguing, as reported by Fox News, is what celebrity anti-theist Dan Barker said. In this article Barker is actually quoted accusing the town’s mayor (who is in favor of the cross remaining) of being the one that’s “against religious freedom.”
Your sermon of the week is A Discerning Family by Akash Sant Singh. This is another fantastic sermon as Akash delves into 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, covering such subjects as:
– Do not despise prophecies.
– Test everything.
– Hold fast to what is good.
– Abstain from every form of evil.
Akash covers such topics as what prophecy is and who prophets are, and what the ultimate goal is for those exercising discernment.
This is a message I recommend to DefCon readers and contributors.
Why is it that today’s “prophets” always tell you about their visions after the events occur and never before? In the following case, Jim Bakker tells viewers on August 12, 2011, that he predicted 9/11.
He was only a decade late in mentioning it.
We who home educate, oppose youth ministries, believe Christians should dress modestly, etc. are often accused of believing this way of life makes one a Christian and makes one holy. And of course, we deny those baseless charges of “legalism” but nevertheless, the accusations are still hurled at us.
This is why I’m pleased to present this Thursday’s sermon of the week entitled The Sufficiency of Scripture and the Gospel. Paul Washer (a home education proponent and youth ministry abolitionist himself) proves that not everyone in this camp is a legalist, and to those in this camp who may tend to lean that way, he does for them in this sermon as he did for the lukewarm in his famous Shocking Sermon from 2003 (found here).
Paul Washer addresses the notion that these wonderful family oriented ideals (along with manners, modesty, etc.), albeit beautiful and virtuous and good, they in and of themselves do nothing to save a man’s soul. And he did this at a conference sponsored by the National Center for Family Integrated Churches.
This is classic Paul Washer.
The glorious doctrine of propitiation is the subject of your sermon of the week, How Can God Love Sinners? by Akash Sant Singh.
In this evangelistic-minded message that you don;t want to miss, Pastor Akash expounds on what propitiation is and does:
1. Propitiation is a sacrifice.
2. Propitiation averts God’s wrath.
3. Propitiation expiates our sin.
4. Propitiation cancels our guilt.
Many have lamented the perils of sending kids to liberal, anti-theist colleges (and rightly so), but the following video opposes sending kids to college for entirely different reasons (the same reasons John Stossel discusses in his article The College Scam). Even though these reasons are secular in nature, they’re still very eye-opening.
Almost every natural man that hears of Hell flatters himself that he shall escape it.
– Jonathan Edwards
1703 – 1758
The average American family devotes one-fourth of its spendable income to outside debts. Since 1945, consumer debt in the United States has multiplied thirty-one times. The IRS calculates that the average filer spends ten times more paying off interest on debts than he gives to charitable causes. If all evangelical Christians were out of debt, hundreds of millions of dollars would be freed up for God’s kingdom. Our families would be stronger, because financial pressures caused by indebtedness are major factors in more than half of divorces.
– Randy Alcorn
DefCon is delighted to bring to you this week’s sermon, The Gospel Revolution in Love by Pastor Akash Sant Singh. This two-part sermon is wonderfully encouraging, yet deeply convicting. The text for this message comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 and will prove to challenge you.
Today DefCon wraps up our Saturday Sermon Series by Albert Martin on the fear of God. This timeless message was delivered in 1970 and is as needed to be heard by the church today as it was 41 years ago.
To listen to the previous two installments (the previous six messages) please see parts 1 – 3 here and parts 4- 6 here.
The Fear of God – Part 7 (Relationship to Conduct, Part 1)
The Fear of God – Part 8 (Relationship to Conduct, Part 2)
The Fear of God – Part 9 (How to Maintain & Increase)
DefCon continues its Saturday Sermon Series by Albert Martin on the fear of God. Today you can download parts 4 through 6. You can download the first three messages from this series here.
We will conclude with the final three parts next Saturday (one week from today).
The Fear of God – Part 4 (Ingredients, Part 2)
The Fear of God – Part 5 (Ingredients, Part 3)
The Fear of God – Part 6 (Source)
And to think, for most people on earth, this is the closest they’ll be to ever seeing Heaven.
In addition to DefCon’s weekly sermon of the week (posted every Thursday), we occasionally feature a Saturday Sermon Series.
For the next three Saturdays we are pleased to present a nine-part series (three parts a week) by Albert N. Martin on the fear of God.
This is a powerful message that every Christian can benefit from.
The Fear of God – Part 1 (Predominance in Biblical Thought)
The Fear of God – Part 2 (Definition, Part 1)
The Fear of God – Part 3 (Definition, Part 2; Ingredients Part 1)
Christ Alone Wyoming 