The Plowman

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This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, January 6, 2008, and was taken from Mark 12:18-27.

We live in a time and culture where the Christian faith is under attack. This may be a good thing, because the Christian church has become comfortable, spiritually complacent and lazy. We have our own music, our own books, our own stores, and therefore have become increasingly irrelevant to the culture we live in. In a similar light, there is reason to be concerned about the changes that have also occurred here in our church.

Notice in this exchange between Jesus and the Sadducees, we find something which we need to wrap our minds around:  An intricate knowledge of Scripture apart from a belief that they are authoritative, trustworthy, and sufficient, leads to a worthless and deadly faith.

1. A profound knowledge of Scripture governed by intellectual pride leads to theological foolishness and skepticism, ending in utter unbelief. We should allow the Scriptures to inform our thinking, and the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds.
2. Simple trust in the word of God and God’s power leads to a knowledge of who he is and what his power is.

There should be a grave concern over those who have an understanding of the Bible, who enjoy it because they find it interesting, but nothing more. Their reading of the Bible will lead them further and further away from a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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This Message by Andrew Hoyt was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, December 30, 2007, and was taken from Ezekiel 37:1-14.

There are three points of encouragement for the Christian from this passage:

1. God guides us where ever we go. He gives us his Spirit.
2. God renews us daily.
3. God promises never to leave us.

As we face a new year, we can be assured that God will be there to guide and renew us, and never to leave us.

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This message by Reverend Bill Parker was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, December 30, 2007, and was taken from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

What would Jesus explain to us at the end of this year. If Jesus were to teach us something we don’t know by using something we do know about, he might begin with one of our bridges around Tulsa. In the text before us Paul shows us three bridges that need to be built and crossed.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, ESV

1. A bridge to God – verses 17 & 21: We are new creatures in Christ. God must do this. We cannot. Only God can change you. Only God can keep us spiritually ready. Jesus is the only bridge from here to eternity.
2. A bridge to one another – verses 18-19: As Christians we have a ministry of reconciliation. We are to be bridge builders between ourselves and our brothers in Christ.
3. A bridge to the lost – verse 20: We are to build bridges to the lost world around us.

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This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at a Christmas-eve service at Trinity Baptist Church on Monday evening, December 24, 2007.

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This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, December 23, 2007, and was taken from Luke 1:46-56.

In this song of Mary we see a heart that has been touched by the grace of God. Four things stand out in this song which typify such a heart:

1. gratefully acknowledges God’s mercy.
2. joyfully extols the character of God. Mary’s focus is on God and not herself.
3. reverently bows before God’s judgment and mercy.
4. humbly rejoices in God’s faithfulness.

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This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, December 23, 2007, and was taken from Matthew 2:5-6. Due to technical difficulties, this recording begins about five minutes into the message.

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This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, December 16, 2007, and was taken from John 1:14-18.

The problem of darkness is that the more you are around, the more you adjust to it. Darkness began in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had everything in the garden. Then the serpent came along, and through his temptation, man perceived a need, an emptiness. And so man fell and plunged the whole human race into the darkness of sin. Man hid from God, and yet God continued to reach out to man. God was not caught unawares. He had a plan even before the fall.

Because mankind today is so advanced, enlightened, so wise, we have a hard time admitting that we are in darkness. Our problem is not ignorance or poverty. The problem is deeper than that. The problem is a sin problem. That great problem was addressed in the Christmas story.

1. God can only be known through self-revelelation.
2. God has perfectly revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ.
3. God offers life to all who will believe and trust in him.

Turn to the light and live in the light, the light of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

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This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Wednesday evening, December 5, 2007, and was taken from Matthew 1:1-17.

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This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, December 02, 2007, and was taken from Luke 1:26-38.

There are many things about our faith that are mysterious. We simply cannot wrap our tiny little minds around them. So it is with the virgin birth. It would not be surprising as a tabloid headline, but in the world of reality, first century or twenty-first century, the virgin birth was and still is a startling thing, to say the least.

In this passage we discover a marvelous fact: God’s grace exceeds our wildest imagination.

1. The grace of God reaches the most unlikely people in the most unlikely places. If you are a likely recipient, then it’s not grace.
2. The grace of God accomplishes the most extraordinary things.
3. The grace of God provides a most unbelievable peace. Look at Mary’s response: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Ponder what the rest of Mary’s life must have been like, and ponder Simeon’s prophecy of pain she would bear at Jesus’ crucifixion.

For us, then the grace of God is extended freely. Repent, believe, and follow.