North Avenue Church Podcast

Church Unity in Matters of Opinion | Romans 14:1-15

When Scripture neither commands or forbids an action, Christians will often come to a variety of views as to what is best. How do we maintain Christian unity when we will never be uniform in all disputable matters?

This is week six of the sanctification series.

You can watch this message here.

How the Gospel Changes Lives & Transforms Relationships | Philemon 1-3

This message introduces the Paul's shortest NT letter. It is often neglected and yet contains much that is edifying and encouraging!

1. The Senders: From Paul & Timothy (v. 1a)
2. The Recipients: To Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, & the Church (vv. 1b-2)
3. The Grace We All Need: From God our Father & the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 3)

Mark found Malcolm MacLean's excellent chapter on this passage especially helpful in outlining and preparing this message.

You can watch this message here.

The Second Beast who is the False Prophet: Looks Like a Lamb, Speaks Like a Dragon | Revelation 13:11-15

The second beast is later called "the false prophet" in Revelation 16:13 and 19:20. This beast is at work, we argue, throughout the church age. It represents all false religion, philosophy, ideology, economic pressure, and idolatry that turns us away from Christ, especially to worship the first beast. This includes false teachers in the church today who look like a lamb, but speak like a dragon.

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What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord? | Sanctification: Week 5

Jerry and Greg walk us through some of what Scripture teaches about what it means to fear the Lord. This is the antidote to the fear of man!

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Hezekiah's Imperfect Faith & God's Perfect Faithfulness | 2 Kings 18-19

Greg walked us through a dramatic and important Old Testament story involving King Hezekiah's virtues and flaws, along with Assyria's attempt to intimidate and intice the people of Jerusalem with their powerful army to not trust the Lord.

1. Hezekiah's strong start (18:1-8)
2. Hezekiah's fateful misstep (18:9-35)
3. Hezekiah's renewal in faith (18:36-19:19)
4. God's perfect faithfulness (19:20-37)

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The Idol of the Fear of Man | Sanctification: Week 4

Surely one of the great idols of the human heart is the fear of man. We often care inordinately what other people think about us. How can this idol be identified and how do we begin to conquer it by God's grace?

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What is Missions? | Acts 14:19-28

Zach Petty preached for the first time today and did a great job answering the question, "What is missions?"

The three-legged stool of mission:

1. Gospel proclamation (v. 21a)
2. Church planting (v. 23)
3. Church strengthening (v. 22; 15:41)

You can watch this message here.

The Beast who Makes War on the Saints | Revelation 13:1-10

We seek to answer five questions about this passage:

1. What is the beast from the sea? (vv. 1-2) [Rome? The Antichrist? Something else?]
2. When are the "42 months" wherein the beast exercises authority? (v. 5b)
3. What is the mortal wound that is healed? (v. 3a)
4. How does the beast obtain worship? (vv. 1-5)
5. How do the beast and saints seek to "conquer" each other? (vv. 6-10)

You can watch this message here.

Contentment vs. Discontentment | Sanctification: Week 3

The battle for contentment is more important than we may often think!

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Make Disciples of All Nations, Baptizing and Teaching Them | Matthew 28:18-20

This is the last (and the 130th!) sermon in the Gospel of Matthew. We are thankful for this great book and for the Great Commission at its conclusion! The message breaks the commission into four points.

1. Go therefore
2. Make disciples of all nations
3. Baptizing and teaching them
4. I will be with you always

You can watch this message here.

The Red Dragon and the Woman in the Wilderness for 1,260 Days | Revelation 12:7-17

There are three controversies about this chapter that must be addressed before we can apply it appropriately to our lives.

1. Who is the woman?
2. What time period do the "1,260 days" (v. 6) and the "time, times, and half a time" (v. 14) refer to?
3. When is Satan cast out of heaven (vv. 7-12)?

You can watch this message here.

Humility vs. Pride | Sanctification: Week 2

It has been rightly said that pride is our greatest enemy and humility is our greatest friend. While we will struggle with pride until the day we die, we can still grow in humility over time. But how?

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Introducing the Great Commission | Matthew 28:16-18

Our mission as the church is clear: We are to make disciples.

And the breadth of the command is global: Of all nations.

Three main points:

1. A Mountain in Galilee (v. 16)
2. Some Doubting Disciples (v. 17)
3. The All-Authoritative Christ (v. 18)

Application (adapted from John MacArthur):

1. We need to be present and available.
2. We need to worship the resurrected Jesus.
3. We need to go to Him with our doubts.
4. We need to humbly submit to and find great encouragement in His supreme authority over heaven and earth!

You can watch this message here.

The Woman, Her Son, and the Dragon | Revelation 12:1-6

We started back in Revelation for this summer's Table Talk series.

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Sanctification: A Critique of Second Blessing Theology in Wesleyan, Kewsick & Pentecostal Traditions

How we understand progressive sanctification and it's relationship to justification is a matter of great importance in the Christian life. Catholic theology falls into heresy by merging to the two together. However, "second blessing" theology has the opposite error of seperating the two entirely. The Reformed view (and, we would argue, the one Scripture clearly teaches) is that justification and sanctification must be clearly distinguished but never chronologically seperated. Justificaiton is a one-time event at conversion, and progressive sanctification begins immediately at conversion. There is no time gap.

You can watch this message here.