February 23, 2020
Upside Down
Michael Gossett
Love your personal enemies with your actions, your speech and your heart.
Trust Tag
October 6, 2019
Jesus is the Only Gate to Heaven
IT’S PERSONAL Our Good Shepherd deals with each one of us individually. Have you noticed all the personal encounters Jesus had in this study? He was one-on-one with Nicodemus. He spoke to the woman at the well. He spoke to the paralyzed man at the Pool of Bethesda. He dealt personally with the man who was blind from birth. Jesus redeems individuals, not groups. John 10:1-10.
May 24, 2015
From Great to Good
March 23, 2014
The Crushing of Gethsemane
I’ve heard of the Garden of Gethsemane most of my life, but it was only a few years ago I learned the meaning of Gethsemane. Gethsemane is a parable of what Jesus endured. The olive tree is called the tree of life because it provides oil for light, medicine, food, and soap. To harvest olives, cloths were spread under the branches, and then the harvesters took heavy sticks and beat the branches to make the olives fall onto the cloths. That reminds me that Jesus was beaten with wooden sticks by both the Jewish guard and the Roman soldiers.
August 14, 2011
The Miracle that Never Happened
If one angel warrior could kill 185,000 soldiers, then 72,000 angel warriors could kill 13.2 billion soldiers. That’s over twice the population of the earth today! And the night Jesus spoke these words, it is estimated there were less than one billion people on earth. In other words, if Jesus had given the word, these angel warriors could have literally wiped out the entire population of the planet.
November 21, 2010
Kids in the Kingdom
As an adult you may be waiting until you understand salvation before you accept it. You’ll never understand it. You only have to accept God’s free gift of eternal life. That’s easy for a child to understand, but difficult for an adult. God isn’t looking for childish behavior, but He is looking for a childlike spirit. In a real sense, only children go to heaven–God’s children.
April 22, 2007
Why Do Bad Things Happen to God’s People?
The biggest question about our suffering is not “Why?” but “What?” What am I going to do in response to my suffering? You have a choice in the matter. When pain comes, some people grumble, some people gripe, some people groan, others grieve. Some people grunt and growl, but there are some people, like Paul, who GROW. The choice is yours!
October 22, 2006
Do Not Hold Back!
Remember I told you our students are trading up a tiny paper clip for something more and more valuable? When Aaron received his paper clip, he contacted one of the car dealers in town, asking if they would like to please trade him a car in return for a paper clip! But guess what? Because he had big faith in a Big God, he got one. That’s right, he got a great-running used car for his paper clip. I like that kind of faith! Even more, I like what that kind of faith says to everyone about the kind of God we serve—He’s BIG. And he wants us to not hold back when we come to him. The Bible says in James 4:2, “You do not have, because you do not ask God.” People say you never know until you ask. I say you never know how big God really is until you ask Him to show you.
August 14, 2005
Setting Your Life on God’s Cruise Control
Has there ever been a time in your life when you consciously surrendered control of your life to God? After studying the life of Joseph, I’ve learned it isn’t about Joseph; it’s about what God did for Joseph. It’s not about you and it’s not about me, it’s about what God can do in and through us.
January 9, 2005
Surrender Your Trust
You often hear the statement, it doesn’t matter WHAT you believe, as long as you’re sincere. Not really. You can be sincerely wrong. In other words, you can have a great faith in the wrong thing, and it won’t help you. But a little faith in the right object of your trust can make all the difference.
May 23, 2004
Is There an “Out of Order” Sign on Your Life?
We expect life to be fair. We can’t understand why good people suffer, and bad people seem to be getting all the breaks. We want to say, “It just isn’t fair!” No, life isn’t fair, but God is good. And when it seems like your life is out order–when life malfunctions, there are four ways to respond.
February 3, 2002
Don’t Worry–Be Faithful!
The challenges in life can be divided into two broad categories: those things you can’t do anything about (like the weather); and those things you can do something about. Don’t worry about the first category, because there’s nothing you can do about those things. Don’t worry about the second category, because if you can do something—do it, don’t worry about it! Many years ago, I learned a little poem that has helped me overcome worry. It says, “For every evil under the sun, Either there is a cure, or there is none. If there be one, seek ’till you find it. If there be none, never mind it!” Jesus said, “Do not worry” because it’s a waste of time!
January 27, 2002
How to Live Well and Prosper
If you want to learn how to live well and prosper you need to get into God’s economy. It’s going in only one direction! The very first principle in God’s economy is acknowledging that God is the source of your wealth. It’s not your job, or your investments, and some of you got your money the old fashioned way-you inherited it! But these things are not your true source of wealth, God is. Some of you disagree with me because you think you trained, and worked, and slaved and you earned everything you possess. Who do you think gave you the ability to work and earn?
April 1, 2001
Get Ready to Move–Finally!
For us, Kadesh Barnea is a place where we stand with an opportunity before us. This challenge can only be claimed by faith. At Kadesh Barnea, the Israelites failed to seize the moment and claim God’s promise; as a result they wandered aimlessly for 40 long years. As members of Green Acres, standing before a great opportunity, we must avoid the attitude of fear and unbelief.
January 9, 2000
The Daniel Diet
It’s easy to trust God when things are going great, when all your bills are being paid, when your health is great, when everybody loves you and you love those around you, it’s easy to trust God then. But you let the bottom fall out, and that’s when the trial comes. Will you still trust God then? Well Daniel did. And you can, too. The greatest triumph of life is to stay pure in the midst of moral decay.
January 2, 2000
2000–Now What?
The Bible says that the common people heard Jesus gladly. They loved to be around Jesus. Jesus enjoyed being with people, and people enjoyed being with him. The only people Jesus didn’t get along with were those straight-laced religious hypocrites called the Pharisees and nobody can get along with those people. There are some of those obnoxious people around today. When you love God, you will receive His favor and the favor of others.
April 18, 1999
Elijah: A Man Just Like Us
Elijah was one of the most notable characters in the Bible. Not only do we see his miraculous ministry, but also the Bible tells us in the book of Malachi that before the Messiah comes, Elijah is going to return. What a powerful character he is in the Bible! A look at Elijah’s ministry in two perspectives.
October 11, 1998
Joshua DIDN’T Fight the Battle of Jericho
When God tells us to do things sometimes in the word, we look at it and we say, “Why?” That’s not the right response. We should just obey the Lord and not ask why, because God is trying to get us ready for even bigger and better things. Sometimes when God tells us to do simple things in the word of God, we want to look at and say, “Why would we do that? We want bigger and better things!” God is just training us. He is getting us ready.
September 20, 1998
Rahab and the Spies
In this first story about the beginning of the conquering of the Promised Land shows us that God can strike a mighty lick with a crooked stick. In other words, God can use all kinds of people–anyone who’s available to him. I want to go below the level of the actual historical story itself and talk about how what Rahab did is a beautiful picture of what all of us must do if we want to be redeemed, if we want to be part of the family of God, because this is basically what Rahab did. She was a part of the people who lived in the area around Jericho, but she made a decision. She said, “I no longer want to be affiliated with my past with these people of my past I choose to be a part of the family of God.” If you want to be a part of the family of God you have to follow five steps.
April 12, 1998
The Good News About Jesus
Let’s say you own a secular bookstore and everything in your bookstore is classified as fiction and nonfiction. Where would you put the Bible? Would you put it in the nonfiction section with historical truth, or would you put it over here in the fictional section with the other fairy tales and mythology? If you were a librarian and your job is to classify all the books in the library, where are you going to put the Bible? That is a fundamental decision everybody must make.
November 30, 1997
God’s Agonizing Testing of Abraham
Did you notice Isaac had to be a willing sacrifice? We don’t know exactly how old Abraham was, but we do know he was a hundred years older than Isaac. Imagine Isaac is 16. Don’t you think a 16-year-old boy can overpower a 116-year-old man? Do you think when Isaac was tied up with that rope and laid up on the altar, don’t you think a 16-year-old old could have said, “Wait a minute! What are you doing, old man? Stop it!” No not only did Abraham trust God’s plan, but Isaac also was a willing sacrifice. Always remember that about Jesus. They didn’t murder Jesus. He was not a martyr. He willingly laid down his life! And that was God’s plan all along.
August 28, 1994