Pastor Dave's Corner
Sermons and More

Read through the Old Testament in 1 year

(Read about 3 chapters each day, Monday through Friday)

We start out by reading one chapter from the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy), one chapter from the Writings (Psalms through Ecclesiastes) and one chapter from the Prophets (Isaiah through Malachi). We'll read through the whole Old Testament, except for Leviticus, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Job & Song of Solomon.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - Exodus 1, Psalm 51, Isaiah 51

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - Exodus 2, Psalm 52, Isaiah 52

Thursday, March 13, 2008 - Exodus 3, Psalm 53, Isaiah 53

Friday, March 14, 2008 - Exodus 4, Psalm 54, Isaiah 54

Monday, March 17, 2008 - Exodus 5, Psalm 55, Isaiah 55

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - Exodus 6, Psalm 56, Isaiah 56

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - Exodus 7, Psalm 57, Isahai 57

Thursday, March 20, 2008 - Exodus 8, Psalm 58, Isaiah 58

Friday, March 21, 2008 - Exodus 9, Psalm 59, Isaiah 59

Monday, March 24, 2008 - Exodus 10, Psalm 60, Isaiah 60

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 - Exodus 11, Psalm 61, Isaiah 61

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - Exodus 12, Psalm 62, Isaiah 62

 For notes from previous days, request by email: pahson@earthlink.net

Our themes for the year are Desire, Obedience and Witness. We also will focus on the basics of life from the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Each month I hope to present one sermon on each of the 3 themes, and present a sermon on one of the chapters from the first book of the Bible.

On the first Sunday of each month (January through November) I will speak on human desire – what it means to want, and what drives or motivates us to strive to obtain what we want. This is also our Communion Sunday, so the sermon will introduce our desire for God as expressed in our celebration of the commemoration of Christ’s atoning death for us.

On the second Sunday of the month the topic will be Obedience or Holiness. We’ll examine what God expects from us – what He desires from us. How can we be sure we are growing in grace and becoming more like Him?

The Third Sunday of each month will be spent considering our Witness to others. What do they need to see or hear from us so they too can satisfy their desire for a closer relationship with God? How can we satisfy our desire to share our faith, and how can we demonstrate our obedience to the Lord’s command to be His witnesses?

On the fourth Sunday of each month, January through November, we’ll be studying the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Sometimes we’ll cover a full chapter and other times we’ll divide a chapter over two or more sermons. We’ll consider the flood in chapters 6 through 8 in one sitting. These beginning chapters of the Bible address fundamental truths that are foundational to our faith – our desires, obedience and witness.

Sunday, January 6, 2008 – Anticipation and Desire, based on Psalm 40, Genesis 1 & 2, and Isaiah 5. What was God looking for when he created us? In Genesis 1 & 2 it’s obvious that God desired to created humans who could engage in relationship with Him. He designed a perfect world for us, and He even walked with Adam & Eve at the end of every day. In Isaiah 5 the Lord plants a vineyard, perfect in design, but the vines would not grow grapes. Have we lived up to God’s hopes for us? Each of us has a built-in need to relate to God. We show it by our desires for things that we hope would satisfy us. We anticipate closeness, like God anticipated closeness with us. But we have disappointed God and ourselves because of our failure to devote our attention to the desire for God. Instead we are distracted by desires for unfulfilling things.

Sunday, January 13, 2008 – Living as a Sacrifice of Obedience and Holiness. Romans 12:1-8. How can we assure that our desire for God would be fulfilled? We offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God. We are able to do this when we become skilled at not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but rather to think with of ourselves with sober judgment. When we are available to God, He can come within us and enable us to be whole.

Sunday, January 20, 2008 – Witnessing the Holiness of God. Isaiah 6:1-10. When Isaiah saw the Lord he was instantly ashamed of himself and of his less than perfect speech. He had misrepresented the truth and even said harmful things about others. And he was considered a holy man! Compared to God, he was a wicked sinner. But God purged him of sin and sent Isaiah back to the people to be a witness for the Lord. We desire to see God – beware, it may happen, and it will not be pleasant to stand next to absolute holiness! We know God wants us to be holy, and we settle for some artificial standard that can’t cut it when we see the Lord. God calls us to be witnesses for Him, so we bumble around spouting off opinions and canned mumbo-jumbo. Perhaps we should see God in His dazzling holiness first.

Sunday, January 27, 2008 – What was God thinking in the beginning? Genesis 1:1-2:3. Why did God make us? After looking at the first five and a half days of creation, leading up to God’s creation of humans on day 6, we wonder what God had in mind for us? Obviously God wanted to provide for all of our needs – and the universe reproduces for us everything we need to sustain life. Obviously God wanted to fill us with awe – and there’s plenty out there to keep us curious and inspired in our quest for more knowledge and healthy entertainment. Clearly God wanted us to seek Him – to turn our desires toward Him. To crave Holiness and Obedience to Him. To bear witness of Him to those who don’t yet have a clue!

Sunday, February 3, 2008 – Understanding Desire. Romans 7:14-25. In this lesson from Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome, we learn first the Power of desire – we do what we don’t want to do and we don’t do what we want to do; then the Crisis of desire – this turns our worlds upside-down because we are frustrated by ourselves since we can’t achieve what we want, and we are bogged down by sinful things we don’t want; then the Law of desire – we discover that our minds want what God wants, but our sinful natures overrule us with harmful desires. Who will rescue us? Thank God, Jesus Christ will!

Sunday, February 10, 2008 – Obeying when we don’t know what God’s doing – John 9:1-41. Jesus dealt with a lot of ignorance when He lived among us. Sometimes ignorance kept people away from eternal life, and other times people experience rebirth even though they weren’t sure what God was up to. We’ll look at the blind man who received his sight, but couldn’t explain to others how Jesus did it. All he knew was, “once I was blind, but now I see.” Can we have the same holy faith that obeys even if God doesn’t explain Himself?

Sunday, February 17, 2008 – Why Jesus? Choosing to live by Faith and not by Sight – John 8:1-20. In the portion of John describing Jesus refusing to condemn the woman caught in the act of adultery, we see into the personality and mission of Jesus. He came to save sinners. If we follow Jesus we will not be walking in darkness, but in light. Jesus is able to witness about Himself, because He and the Father are one. Our witness about ourselves is not confirmed like His testimony is. But we can witness about Him, since the Father recorded the truth concerning Jesus in the Bible. When we walk by faith, we are able to witness to others about Jesus, for we are not limiting ourselves by what we see.

Sunday, February 24, 2008 – Genesis 2:4-25 – the Innate Desire to Bear Fruit. God designed the earth to bring forth fruit. In fact, Adam and Eve were part of the fruit produced by God’s created earth. Adam was designed by God to produce fruit – he cultivated the Garden of Eden, he named and categorized all the animals, and he developed, along with Eve, a relationship of one-ness as husband and wife. Times have not changed: we still feel most fulfilled when we labor, exercise ‘naming rights’ over the area of creation assigned to us, and when we develop a relationship of ‘one person’ unity with our spouse. Even those who are not called to wed are happiest when they are devoted to God and His people.

Sunday, March 2, 2008 - Galatians 5:13-26 - Extreme Desire Makeover. One ancient word which we translate "desire" (tesuqa) appears three times in the Old Testament - in Genesis 3:16 God informs Eve that, as a result of eating the forbidden fruit, she will desire her husband, and he will rule over her. In Genesis 4:7 God tells jealous Cain that sin is crouching at his door, and desires to catch him, but he must rule over it. In Solomon's Song 7:10 the woman sings, "I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me!" In each case a conflict of desire seems to be taking place - we don't always get what we want, but even when we do, it's not always as fulfilling as expected. In Galatians 5 Paul presents our desires as conflicted, since we have two separate sources for desire - the sinful nature and the spirit. God's Holy Spirit helps us produce righteous fruit as He changes the desires of our spirits.

Sunday, March 9, 2008 - Matthew 5:43-48 - Be Perfect, Like God. What is it that sets God apart from us? God is able to treat even His enemies the same as He treats His friends - Jesus says that God allows the sun to rise and the rain to fall on both the good and the bad. Jesus is asking us to give over vengeance and treat those who dislike us the same as we treat those who like us. When we pray for the Lord to enable us to do this, we become perfect as God is perfect.

Sunday, March 16, 2008 - Palm Sunday - Matthew 21:1-16 - Witness the Joy! In this account of the Palm Sunday event, we see the devotion of those who were convinced that Jesus represented God's effort to redeem humanity. They did not care what others thought, but gladly, and without thinking, threw their only coats on the dirty ground before Jesus, and boldly cried out, "Lord, Save Us! Blessed is the One Who comes in the Name of the Lord!" We can come to the place in life where we are so convinced that Jesus is the answer to the world's needs that we proclaim this without thinking of the repercussions.

Sunday, March 23, 2008 - Easter Sunday - Matthew 28:1-20 - Learning to Listen. In this familiar account of the appearance of Jesus after His resurrection, we see that the angel had to explain to the women where Jesus was and how He wanted to meet His disciples in Galilee - then the angel emphasized, "Now, I have told you." Then we see that the guards who witnessed the resurrection of Jesus were able to heed the advice of those who bribed them over their own eyesight. Then we saw that Jesus left a message to His disciples that He expected them to obey. In all these cases, our ability to listen is based on our desire to obey - we become devoted to some force - the Lord, or a bribe - and we "listen" to that force that we place ourselves under.

Sunday, March 30, 2008 - Genesis 3:1-24 - Deceit, Denial and Destruction - the beginning of the human dilemma. From this third chapter of the Bible we see how we have gotten ourselves into the sinful mess we face every day - it all began with a deceitful twisting of God's Word, followed by a denial of His truth, leading to the destruction of all God gave us to make us happy: our environment and our relationships. What can be done to overcome this quagmire of falsehood and dissatisfaction? Only the Lord can bring healing from our sin.