The next six weeks are some of the busiest on the calendar. Between now and Christmas, life can easily swallow us up in a whirlwind of holiday preparation and activity. Yet, these busy weeks also hold some of the most sacred moments of the entire year…if we will intentionally look for them.

Sermon outline: This is an abbreviated outline with the complete sermon downloadable at the bottom of the post. The devil is a dirty liar. Among the most dangerous and effective of his lies is this: “It is hard to do right and easy to do wrong.” This statement seems true to us sometimes.

Daniel’s testimony was that light could be seen in his life—the light of God. Our world is definitely a dark place. If ever a light could shine brightly, it is today. What affects my brilliance as I let my little light shine?

There are many strange and unscriptural ideas abroad about revival and just as many about the “end times.” One harmful combination of such false notions is the idea that there will be no great revivals in the last days, that the eras of awakenings are past, and that we live in a time just before the second coming of Christ when no revival can be expected.

Worship and music are as essential to each other as worship and preaching. It seems there is always tension between time dedicated to music and time dedicated to preaching. In our world today, preaching is being shoved into a smaller and smaller time constraint while it seems the services are filled with what amounts to little more than an emotional rock concert.

Every pastor wants his church to grow. Many pastors do not realize that they often hold the key to significant growth. We know that God ultimately blesses a church with numerical growth as He sees fit, but the pastor can unlock the door to usher in this growth if he is willing to pay the price.

Have you ever thought of your trial as a stewardship from God? It is. And when stewarded properly, God will use your trial to give you some of His greatest gifts. God has given us an incredible, amazing resource with which to steward our trials. It’s called grace.

As a little girl I remember fearing that something or someone was under my bed. I found myself running and jumping into bed every night and then willing myself to hang over the bed and look under it so that I could go to sleep without fearing that something or someone was going to get me.

We all hit points of plateau in our Christian life—times when we don’t seem to be growing like we wish or when we are struggling to gain momentum in spiritual growth. Are you there? Do you want off the plateau?

I heard someone quote an old preacher who said regarding this text, “I believe in chasing buzzards off. I don’t believe in chasing buzzards.” It seems to me that this text and the thought given by that man of God now in Heaven are especially significant to us today.