Bible › 1 Samuel
- August 23, 2010
- August 29, 2010
In 1 Samuel chapter 13 God had rejected Saul as king, and in chapter 16 David is anointed, yet Saul remains in authority for 40 years! Waiting for God to fix politics can feel agonizingly slow unless you look behind the scenes and realize God is always at work, using the very politics we hate to work for His good.
- September 5, 2010
Saul went from shy and timid to being suddenly gifted with the "Spirit of God" (1Sam. 11:6), and becoming a confident, decisive leader for twenty years (1Sam. 14:47–38). But all of this was lost as suddenly as it had been gained—the Spirit removed his gift. The Lord was with David, and Scripture also says He was with Saul — until "the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him." What does this tell us about the Holy Spirit? What is the difference between the anointing of the Spirit for ministry, vs the indwelling of the Spirit that begins at regeneration? Dr. Kayser explains how, though believers can never lose the Spirit's hold upon their lives for eternal salvation, they can lose the Holy Spirit's anointing and infilling and become so vulnerable to Satan that demons can mess around with their lives. In this sermon we follow Saul's trajectory of repeatedly grieving the Spirit, and what it did to him.
- October 24, 2010
- October 31, 2010
This highly motivating and inspiring sermon explains why the doctrines of grace, election, and Jesus' lordship created the Protestant work ethic that transformed Europe. Dr. Kayser shows how Europe turned upside-down when the Reformers rediscovered what Scripture says about the dignity of labor, the valuation of time, the blessing of wealth, the power of family business, the freedom of children to find individual callings apart from the family business, the privilege of changing vocations, the nobility of every vocation, the importance of cultural engagement, the power of giving, and much more.
- November 7, 2010
What has robbed the church of a visionary faith? Why did David run towards the front lines of his culture wars instead of away from them? What is the difference between faith and presumption? How do we put off the lies of the Old Man that tend to eviscerate our faith? How do we develop the ability to see opportunity where others see only giants? These are a few of the questions that are answered by this sermon that examines the key components of the visionary faith of David.
- November 14, 2010
- November 21, 2010
- January 9, 2011
When God told Job to gird himself like a man, he was in effect telling him to take off his dress and act like a man. David showed himself to be a man's man in this battle, and in the process stands as a model for all time. Too many in the church have failed to be forceful, vehement, and manly in their spiritual warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is no wonder that they lack success. This sermon gives practical, powerful guidance for more consistently gaining victory in our spiritual battles.
- January 16, 2011
Studies have shown that success often becomes the occasion for moral failures and carelessness. But it need not be the case for Christians. In the process of giving sound advice on how to build on the successes that God brings into our lives, this sermon also gives practical advice on developing friendships, handling praise, dealing with idolatrous celebrity worship, and other issues.
- February 6, 2011
Some problems — in marriages, in churches, in politics, in friendships — are too irrational to explain humanly. Sometimes demons are the cause of the problems we face, and if we fight as if the problem is only in the flesh, we have a missed a critical battlefront. This sermon looks at Saul's irrational paranoia of David, and the evil spirit that fueled it. It shows how to recognize and resist temptations that come from demons rather than the flesh, and reminds us of God's promises as to why we need not fear Satan.
- February 13, 2011
The third battlefront that the Scripture calls us to engage is the "world." What exactly is that? How does the world impact us? Why are we so frequently blind to the way we have been conformed to the world? Saul and David give us insight into the constant tug that the world has upon our flesh, and how Satan uses the world to make us ineffective. It also explains why we so seldom get places when we argue with people without dealing with their presuppositions.
- February 20, 2011
This sermon gives us ten lessons on friendship that help to improve not only our horizontal relationships, but also our walk with God.
- February 27, 2011
The only way God can guarantee that all things work together for our good and for His glory is if His providence governs all things. This remarkable section of Scripture shows God's governance of all of the details of life. Not even the sins of demons and of men can thwart His purposes. If you need faith when life seems to be falling apart, this sermon may be helpful.
- March 6, 2011
Have you ever wondered why some people seem oblivious to the presence of sin in their lives? Have you ever wondered why others don't care that their sin guarantees ruin and disaster for them? Have you ever been amazed at the convoluted rationalizations that some people engage in? This sermon discusses the mystery of such self-deception and what we can do about it. It shows how all sin is self-destructive and all sin is irrational. It gives great reasons why we need to cling to God's grace every day.
- March 13, 2011
Dr. Samuel Johnson wisely said, "A man, sir, should keep his friendships in a state of constant repair." Too many times friendships break up when one person will hurt the feelings of another. This passage shows how the Gospel can keep our friendships strong and in a constant state of repair.
- April 10, 2011
- June 5, 2011
What does Scripture say about surviving during times of emergency? How does God provide? What happens when the government confiscates the fundamental needs of people? What if they confiscate articles of self-defense? What kind of resistance to tyranny is allowable? What laws can be ignored? This sermon seeks to answer these and other questions that arise during difficult times.
- June 12, 2011
When times get tough for Christians, fleeing a state or country is one of the options that the Bible provides. But how can Christians do this without succumbing to ungodly fear? How can Christians do this without jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire? What does the Bible say about the subject of seeking asylum?
- June 19, 2011
Many people have at some point faced overwhelming feelings of loneliness and the crushing sense that no one cares about them. David faced those same feelings. How did he not only survive, but thrive? This sermon examines that question and five other practical issues as 1Samuel 22 is compared with three Psalms written during that period.
- July 3, 2011
Is America still the land of the free? This sermon and the next one provide a convenient set of principles by which any nation can be evaluated on this pressing question. Too many nations are headed down the path to tyranny that Saul was on. We need to pray that God's grace and His law would once again be restored as the foundations for liberty for our nation.
- July 10, 2011
Is America still the land of the free? The previous sermon and this one provide a convenient set of principles by which any nation can be evaluated on this pressing question. Too many nations are headed down the path to tyranny that Saul was on. We need to pray that God's grace and His law would once again be restored as the foundations for liberty for our nation.
- July 31, 2011
What do you do when regrets gnaw away inside of you and make you cringe? This sermon gives some practical steps on how to be forever rid of the debilitating feelings of regret that keep people from serving well.
- August 7, 2011
What are the limits of civil disobedience? This sermon seeks to give the Reformed answer to that question.
- August 14, 2011
Last week's sermon dealt with the limits of resistance to tyranny, which must be kept clearly in mind. This text goes verse by verse through this passage to illustrate what the law says about the practice of resistance. This is a key sermon dealing with various forms of interposition.
- August 28, 2011
What things must be in place if a church is to be an encouraging church? This sermon gives practical suggestions for perfecting the grace of encouragement.
- September 4, 2011
Betrayal is extremely painful. David felt the pain of betrayal keenly, but handled it without getting bitter. This sermon shows us how we can do the same.
- September 25, 2011
Why can't you just "Let conscience be your guide"? Some don't have any conscience issues over things that are clearly unscriptural, while others are tormented by an overly-sensitive conscience over things that the Bible gives liberty on. Consciences are useful if they have been regenerated, trained, sanctified by the Spirit, and fine-tuned to the front sights of the Scripture. But by themselves they are not a reliable guide. How do we keep our consciences from being either insensitive or legalistic? What is involved in retraining the conscience to function as God intended it to function? What bad things automatically happen when we fail to retrain the conscience? This sermon will show you.
- October 9, 2011
How much of our life will be burned up as hay, wood, and stubble at the Second Coming of Jesus? It all depends on whether we are pursuing God in everything we do (like David did) or pursuing everything in a way that turns our goals into dead dogs (like Saul did). This is a sermon about to exchange a life of vanity for a life of fulfillment.
- October 16, 2011
Last week's sermon dealt with the difference between pursuing God in everything and pursuing everything as a substitute for God. This fundamental difference between David and Saul can even be seen on so-called 'spiritual' issues such as worship, prayer, and the topic of this weeks sermon: repentance. 1 Samuel 24:16-22 goes to the heart of what constitutes genuine repentance and what is counterfeit repentance. It is designed to help us press into God's grace more deeply when we repent and when we grant forgiveness to others who repent.
- November 20, 2011
- December 4, 2011
This sermon digs deep into what "going the extra mile" looks like in every area of life, and why it is that God prospers those who embrace this principle so much.
- December 11, 2011
Many people struggle with anger and do not understand why they cannot gain the victory over their tempers. This sermon seeks to understand how anger works and gives practical steps in sanctifying the emotion to the Lord. If you have ever struggled with anger, this is a sermon that must be listened to.
- December 18, 2011
When people are blind to their addictions, abusive behavior, or other destructive lifestyles, it is imperative that godly Christians engage in an intervention. But how should they do so? And how can they avoid crossing the line into meddling? What is a wife to do when it is her husband who is guilty of criminal behavior? This sermon gives detailed information on every facet of the difficult subject of interventions.
- January 8, 2012
Abigail was able to stop an angry army in its tracks because of her amazing peacemaking skills. This sermon will look at the characteristics of her peacemaking efforts and apply this wonderful grace to our own peacemaking.
- January 15, 2012
One of the challenges of the Christian life is learning how to graciously respond to rebuke. This passage gives ten practical guidelines to responding to rebuke in a God honoring way.
- January 29, 2012
Are our churches prepared to minister God's grace to new converts whose families are messed up? We live in a time when families have sometimes been irreparably harmed. They too need a sanctuary. Pastor Kayser gives us guidance that is so relevant to our times by examining the messed up families of Abigail and David.
- February 5, 2012
Lenin spoke of useful idiots who supported his cause even though he was their enemy. This sermon encourages us to not be useful idiots who blindly support a person, party, ideology, or movement. In the process of exposing the useful idiots of America, Pastor Kayser also gives us some new lessons on Biblical civics.
- February 19, 2012
Self-control Is a key component of godly leadership. Indeed, lack of self-control is one of the defining marks of many of the counterfeits of leadership qualifications. Even self-control can be counterfeited by our flesh. So it is very important that we understand what it means to put on this Spirit-given grace. It is one of the links in the chain of sanctification outlined in 2 Peter 1:5-8, and Peter says that we cannot prosper, be fruitful, and abound in our Christian walk without self-control.
- February 26, 2012
While Scripture says that we should ordinarily not rebuke a fool, since a fool is not interested in the truth or in holiness, there are exceptions to that rule that are laid out in the Scriptures. This passage illustrates one of those exceptions. The rebuke of a fool is useful when it brings warning to those who are witnesses. It can be a part of apologetics and being salt and light in culture. This passage helps us to do a better job at apologetics.
- March 4, 2012
Only God can turn a mess into a message, a test into a testimony, a trial into a triumph, and a victim into a victory. Whether people have misinterpreted your actions and motives as being a mess, or whether they really are, this is a chapter that can be a great help to you. Though it contains controversial themes, it is a wonderful portion of God's Word that we can learn from.
- March 11, 2012
Life is never as neat and tidy as we might prefer. It is filled with disappointments, surprises, unexpected obstacles and opportunities. How we respond to such things often reveals the true character of our hearts. This sermon calls us to not be driven by the expectations of others, and shows us how to handle confusing circumstances with the faith of David.
- March 18, 2012
How did Israel's one-time model Christian king end up consulting a medium? Getting involved in the occult doesn't usually start with overt demonic activity — it almost always starts with something much tamer. We see this in Saul's downward slide toward the occult, which started when he first ignored inspired revelation and rebelled against God's clear command, to which God responded, "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft" (1 Samuel 15:23). When Saul did not repent of his rebellion and stubbornness, he grieved the Holy Spirit (and thus no longer had the Holy Spirit's protection) and gave legal ground for a demonic spirit to regularly demonize him. (Numerous experts in the occult have said that this is almost always the first downward step into the occult.) This sermon helps to understand the demonic influence of the occult both inside and outside the church, and gives strategies for dealing with it. It also tackles the difficult questions surrounding Samuel's spirit talking to Saul after Samuel was dead.
- March 25, 2012
This sermon answers a number of perplexing questions, and in the process engages the hearer in an exercise with the Gospel. Did Samuel appears to Saul? Did his soul really exist in the heart of the earth? How do we reconcile this with Elijah's being caught up to heaven? Did Saul and Jonathan join Samuel in paradise? What evidence is there that Saul repented? How does the Gospel fit into this picture?
- April 15, 2012
Do you tend to look for the opportunities that God is strewing in your path and seize those by faith or do you tend to look at the obstacles Satan is throwing in your way and come up with reasons why it can't be done? This sermon is a challenge to look at all of life through the eyes of faith.
- April 22, 2012
One of the things that distinguished David as a godly leader was his ability to face a crisis without becoming a crisis. The principles learned in this passage are critical principles for any Christian to learn, but they are particularly important for leaders.
- May 6, 2012
This sermon examines the critical preconditions for endurance. While other factors are examined, it especially focuses on the role that hope plays in energizing people to endure. Of course, hope deals with eschatology. Paul said, "If we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance" (Rom. 8:25). Interestingly, this sermon not only analyzes an eschatology of hope for the world as a whole, but gives an eschatology of hope for our personal sanctification (Phil. 1:6), for providence (Rom. 8:28), for finances (Phil. 4:19), for covenant succession in our families (Acts 2:39), and for other areas of life. It is critical that we know how to build all the preconditions for endurance in our children, but giving them hope is of the utmost importance. But ultimately this sermon is a call to endure with the knowledge that we will reap a harvest if we do not lose heart and give up (Gal. 6:9). This is a much needed message for our day and age.
- May 20, 2012
This sermon gives a balanced look at what is involved in Christ-likeness. It is as radical a departure from postmodernism as one can get.
- May 27, 2012
- June 3, 2012
- June 10, 2012
- August 4, 2013
- June 13, 2021
A biographical sermon on a remarkable woman of faith who lived in a suffocating and miserable marriage.
- December 12, 2021
This sermon examines the good, the bad, and the ugly of Hannah's parenting, and in the process shows that Hannah can teach us a lot about processing the pain of abuse.