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God is the Strength of My Heart

Sermon by Martin G. Collins

Loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind is a command that calls for total devotion, encompassing the entirety of our being. God demands a complete response to His truth, as He instructed through Moses in Deuteronomy 6:5, urging the Israelites to love Him with all their heart, soul, and mind. This principle is reiterated by Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:37, summarizing the duty to live God's way of life with total conviction and to obey all His commandments. Heart, soul, and mind are not separate compartments but together represent the whole person, requiring us to give God a love that dominates our emotions, directs our thoughts, and motivates our actions. This complete love is the basis for obedience, ensuring that if we love God, we will also love our neighbor and refrain from harming them in word or deed. God expects us to respond to His commands with vigilance and conscientious effort, keeping His love and law in our hearts. As emphasized throughout history by His servants, from Moses to Joshua, we must offer total love to God, a love that transforms and stabilizes our entire life. The apostle Paul reinforces this in Romans 6:17, commending the Romans for obeying from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to them. This obedience involves the whole person—heart, mind, and will—highlighting that a Christian's life must be a stable, whole life. Failure to engage all aspects of our being in this love and obedience often leads to spiritual depression and instability. God's truth is meant to govern every part of our lives, and only by loving Him with all our heart, soul, and mind can we achieve the completeness and maturity He desires for us.

Peace with God Through Christ

Sermon by Martin G. Collins

Jesus Christ declared that our primary responsibility is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. This call to complete devotion highlights the essence of a right relationship with God, which is the foundation of true peace. While we strive to live in a way that shows our love for Him, we acknowledge that we do not fulfill this perfectly. At times, our love for God and others falls short of the love we have for ourselves, and God is not always our top priority. Yet, through justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the state of spiritual warfare has been transformed into one of peace with God, allowing us to experience a new measure of personal peace and to make peace with others.

Love Thy Neighbor (Part 2)

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)

He who loves God must love his brother, including every fellow human being. Our closeness with God transcends the other human relationships.

Essence of Love

Sermonette by Clyde Finklea

David took all the persecutions from King Saul, and then later showed his mercy to Saul's extended family, he demonstrated the true essence of godly love.

Sin, Christians, and the Fear of God

'Personal' from John W. Ritenbaugh

Scripture takes a very stern view of sin because it is failure to live up to God's standard and destroys relationships, especially our relationship with God.

The Perils of Double-Mindedness (Part One)

CGG Weekly by David F. Maas

God makes it abundantly clear that double-mindedness or split-allegiances place our spiritual growth and development—and ultimately our salvation—in peril.

Four Warnings (Part Three): I Never Knew You

Sermon by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

Christ's third warning in the Sermon on the Mount is to beware of hypocrisy, professing to do things in Jesus' name but habitually practicing lawlessness.

Avoiding the Ruts of Our Carnal Mind

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon by Bill Onisick

If we could see the traffic of our perpetually wandering minds, we would be embarrassed as to how often it strays from God's thoughts and His laws.

The Pure in Heart

Sermon by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

It is the core of our heart that must be cleansed before we can have a pure heart, enabling us to see God as He is.

Obeying From the Heart

Sermon by Martin G. Collins

Failure to obey from the heart, and not having an accurate picture or appraisal of God, is the chief contributory cause of spiritual depression.

Abraham's Sacrifice (Part Four): Providence Manifested

Sermon by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

The story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac encourages God's people that they need never doubt God commitment and ability to give them everything they need.

The Fourth Commandment

'Personal' from John W. Ritenbaugh

At creation, God sanctified only one day, the seventh, as a day of rest. At Sinai, He again sanctified it as a holy day, tying it to creation and freedom.

Don't Take God for Granted

Sermon by John O. Reid

We all tend to allow familiarity to lure us into carelessly taking something for granted. This is particularly dangerous regarding God and His purpose for us.

Being a True Sweet Savor to God

Sermonette by Bill Onisick

The renewing of our minds is a daily sacrifice in which carnality is continuously put to death, replaced by God's Spirit, yielding an aroma desired by God.

Why Does God Keep Secrets?

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon by David F. Maas

By not revealing everything immediately, God has been employing teaching techniques that have taken the educational community thousands of years to discover.

Childrearing (Part Four)

Sermon/Bible Study by John W. Ritenbaugh

Children do not initiate love but reflect it. If a child does not receive a convincing demonstration of this love, he will not become a conductor of love.

Go and Do Likewise

Sermon by Bill Onisick

Without the gift of God's Holy Spirit, it is impossible to understand the kind of love which Christ commanded of His disciples.

The Ten Commandments

Bible Study by Martin G. Collins

God's Ten Commandments are the divine law and standard that regulate human conduct. As our world testifies, they are still very much needed today!

Our Mission Possible

Sermonette by Bill Onisick

If we inculcate the mission statement found in Deuteronomy 6:1-5 (known as the Shema), we will have a high certainty of life and a huge chance at success.

Deuteronomy (Part 4) (1994)

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh

We must seek God as ardently as we would a physical love relationship, spending quality time with Him. If we make no effort, the relationship cools.

Our 'Mental' Deathbed

Sermonette by Bill Onisick

Moses asks God to teach us to number our days, realizing that our physical lives are finite, requiring a sense of urgency to get rid of our sins.

More Righteous Than the Pharisees?

Sermon by John O. Reid

The Pharisees were in the office or seat of Moses. Jesus taught His followers to follow their words (pertaining to the Law of God), but not their personal examples.

Being a Christian

Sermon by Clyde Finklea

Micah provides a formula for being a Christian: 1.) Doing justly, 2.) Exercising mercy and 3.) Walking humbly. These demand total commitment, not a pretense.

The Two Great Commandments: First Principles

Sermon by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

God made male and female in His image and has determined that the binary metamorphize into unitary in order to accomplish higher Spiritual purposes.

Moses, Psalmist (Part 2)

CGG Weekly by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

Because Psalm 91 has no title, commentators reason that the Psalms' editors want the reader to understand that, like Psalm 90, it also came from Moses' pen.

Our Closest Neighbors

Sermon by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

We cannot have peace on a grand scale until we make peace with those closest to us. Without loving our brother, it is impossible to take on God's image.

Focus on the First

Sermonette by Joseph B. Baity

We need to be less concerned about world events and more concerned about our relationship with God. The more serious conflict is the one within our heads.

Those Who Hunger and Thirst

Sermon by Richard T. Ritenbaugh

In the Beatitude, hungering and thirsting for righteousness are present tense active participles signifying continuous longing for God's righteousness.

Conditions of Discipleship (Part Two)

CGG Weekly by Mike Fuhrer

If our worship of God ends in slavish obedience, so does our salvation! While He wants us to obey, God is not looking for obedient drudges but loyal children.

Focus

Sermon by John O. Reid

Though Christ has warned us to be aware of the times, we need to be more alert to how we are living. End-time events should lead us to repentance.