"Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." So here we are. We've walked through the arrival, the applause, and the anguish. We've watched the shepherd come on His terms, watched the crowd celebrate without understanding, and watched Jesus weep over a city that didn't recognize the One standing in fron...  Read More

"And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, 'Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will ...  Read More

"And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, 'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!' And some of the Pharisees in th...  Read More

"And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, 'Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, "Why are you untying it?" you shall say ...  Read More

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? There's a word buried in the middle of this parable that most of us read right past, and it's the word that carries the whole thing. Until. Not if. Not maybe. Not when He gets around to it. Until.Jesus tells a story about a s...  Read More

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. And so here we are. Five days of looking at the stewardship that will be reviewed, the God who is watching, the shrewdness that converts the temporary into the eternal, and the faithfulness that proves you can be trusted with what really matters. It all...  Read More

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? Jesus calls money a very little thing. That should stop every one of us in our tracks, because for most of us money is a very big thing. It determines where we live,...  Read More

“The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” There is a manager in Luke 16 who is about to lose everything. He has been called ou...  Read More

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Yesterday we talked about the certainty that a day of accounting is coming. Today we need to talk about what God actually sees when He reviews the tape. Because He is not checking in once a year like some annual performance review. He is watching right now, and He is weighing ev...  Read More

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. There is something about the word "accounting" that makes most of us uncomfortable. We hear it and immediately think of taxes, audits, someone looking over our shoulder. But in the kingdom of God, accounting is not a maybe, it is a certainty. A...  Read More

But I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. If the story ended with the shepherd saving the sheep, it would already be the greatest story ever told, but Jesus doesn't stop there. He says something in John 10:16 that stretches the whole picture wider than we expect. He says, "I have othe...  Read More

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn't own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn't care about the sheep. There is a difference between someone who is paid to watch and someone who owns wh...  Read More