Advancing Word Podcast

The questions asked at many places in the Bible opens and pushes back the panoramic horizons of spiritual reality and truth. Whether, God asking Adam in Genesis Chapter 3, “Where are you?” or the disciples on stormy sea in an act of desperation asking the Lord, “Care not that we perish?”, questions can be profoundly provocative and redemptively revealing. One of those questions is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter Twenty-Two, verse 71. “What need we any further witnesses?” This sermon offers three responses to that question and is a reminder that Christian witnesses are needed in our world today, but experience is necessary.

One of the Apostle Paul’s favorite metaphors for Christian life and ministry was the military. 2 Timothy, Chapter 2, verses 3 – 4, is one of many places in his writings where this image and analogy is used. One gets the sense when reading his letters in the New Testament that Paul was all too familiar with the clank of armor, the thump and thud of soldiers’ feet as they marched under command and in formation, brandishing swords, shields and spears. As we celebrate the contributions of those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, this sermon leverages the Apostle words in the text to develop a “biography of a good soldier” for the Christian life is not a playground, but a battleground and every Christian is a soldier in the Lord’s army.

The final installment of the sermon series “Improving Our Serve” focuses on the call of Isaiah to the prophetic ministry recorded in Chapter Six, verses 1 -8 of the book that bears his name. This passage reveals that before the prophet committed to be a servant before his Sovereign, he also acknowledged being a creature before his Creator and a sinner before his Savior. God requires the same from any of us who are serious about ministry.

A mother who could quality as the poster child for “bad luck magazine” is driven into Jesus's presence because of a personal crisis. Her faith will not allow her to settle for crumbs from the Lord's table because she believes she can have the crust. She learned, as can we, that "Jesus is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think!"

While the church grows stronger through worship, larger through evangelism and witnessing, deeper through discipleship and wider through ministry, we grow warmer through fellowship. This sermon, Part 4 of the series “Improving Our Serve” focuses on the account of the victory that David and his army won against marauding Amalekites. Although an Old Testament passage, this account recorded in the Book of First Samuel, Chapter 30, verses 18-25, is a timeless precedent and primer on what authentic fellowship is in the life of the church.

Someone defined discipleship as “thought accompanied by endeavor.” In the Book of Judges, Chapter 7, Gideon leads three hundred Israelite soldiers with unconventional weapons to victory against a vast Midianite army. Their actions demonstrate the characteristics that should be present in the life of every disciple. In this sermon, Part Three of the series, “Improving Our Serve”, Dr. Stubblefield shares “The Three B’s of Discipleship”.

In Part 2 of the series, “Improving Our Serve”, this sermon focuses on the account of Naaman the Syrian general recorded in Second Kings, Chapter 5, verse 1 -15. Despite his position of power and prominence in the Syrian nation, military renown, and wealth, Naaman was a leper. His visit to the prophet Elisha in Israel began with the faithful witness of a Jewish slave girl and culminated in healing and spiritual wholeness as he experienced firsthand the awesome power of God. Naaman became a witness too!

In the first of a series of sermons around the theme, “Improving Our Serve,” Dr. Stubblefield focuses on worship. Using Second Samuel, Chapter Six, verses 12 – 15, he makes the compelling case that worship is the church’s SPD, “Spiritual Prime Directive”. Worship is the pressing priority of the church and the perennial occupation of heaven. Worship is compliant, costly, compelling and contagious. Like King David in the text, worship gives every child of God an opportunity to “breakout”!

If the life of Jesus was a movie, the Transfiguration recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and in the Second Epistle of Peter is a “spiritual trailer” and “a preview of coming attractions.” It revealed God’s purposes regarding the death of His Son on Calvary and is the precedent that is the future hope of the Church because Jesus tasted death for all of us and His transformation on Mt. Hermon was the powerful pregnant prelude to His resurrection. On a practical note, this sermon reminds us that the “glimpses of glory” God gives us in everyday life and in ministry stabilize us when we are facing challenges.

This sermon focuses on the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter Nine, verse 36, and the compelling profile there of Jesus’s ministry as the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep. His compassion is the hub around which this text and sermon pivots and pulsates. Jesus models compassion with His searching awareness, His sincere affection and His sobering assessment. These commitments propel the sacrificial accommodation that is the powerful prelude to Resurrection Sunday. Jesus gave His life on the Cross for those who are helpless, harassed and hopeless. He lives now not only as the Compassionate Shepherd but also as the Conquering Sovereign.