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Recapture Your First Love!
Article by John O. ReidFirst love is the purest kind of spiritual love we as humans can demonstrate. It is a love that truly shows one's heart is completely given to God.
What Is the Work of God Now? (Part Four)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughThe scattering of the church was an act of love by God to wake us from our lethargic, faithless condition. The feeding of the flock is the priority now.
Keeping Love Alive (Part One)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughWorks demonstrate our faith, our response to God's calling and His freely given grace. Reciprocity is always a part of our relationship with God.
How to Know We Love Christ
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughWe cannot become weary of well-doing, allowing our first love to deteriorate, looking to the world for satisfaction. Here are 8 tests of our love for Christ.
The Five Warnings of Hebrews
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughThe modern church stands in danger of allowing salvation to slip away. Hebrews gives warnings to help us turn our lives around so we do not fall short.
Be There Next Year!
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughWhether we do or do not make it to the Feast of Tabernacles next year depends on our faithfulness at stirring up the gift of God's spirit within us.
What Is the Work of God Now? (Part Three)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughTo preach to the world and ignore a disintegrating flock is like a husband and wife paying attention to other people while the family is falling apart.
Cloak of Zeal
Sermonette by Bill OnisickZeal is characterized as ardent, passionate, energetic, or being on fire. Jesus Christ exemplified this kind of zeal as He drove the moneychangers from the Temple.
Hebrews (Part Two)
Sermon/Bible Study byHebrews is addressed to a people living at the end of an era, who were drifting away, had lost their devotion, and were no longer motivated by zeal.
What Is the Work of God Now? (Part One)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughThe preaching the gospel to the world is at best the beginning of a complex process of creating disciples through steady feeding and encouragement to overcome.
What Are You Leaving?
Sermonette byThe Ephesians had a strong sense of duty and served as a vanguard in the battle against false doctrines. What was lacking was devotion to Christ.
Loving Christ and Revelation 2:1-7
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughThere is a direct relationship between loving Christ and doing the right works. God's love for us places us under a compelling obligation to reciprocate.
The Providence of God (Part Five)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughGod uses calamities as part of His creative process. Like Jacob, who initially succumbed to weak faith and fear, we must repent of our loss of devotion to God.
What Is the Work of God Now? (Part Five)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughNeglecting to feed the flock has been detrimental to preaching the gospel to the world. Because of neglect, members succumb to feeling insignificant.
Does Doctrine Really Matter? (Part Four)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughLoss of devotion begins when faith gradually erodes under the pressures of daily life, allowing the world to lure attention away from God and His purpose. This erosion appears first in reduced prayer, study, and attendance, then in excuses that justify turning aside from the path. The process mirrors Israel's experience after leaving Egypt, where initial joy and conviction gave way to unbelief that left countless corpses scattered across the wilderness. End-time conditions intensify the danger. Iniquity abounds, love for God waxes cold, and constant information overload produces a stressful stress that burdens the mind with cares, entertainment, and material pursuits. These distractions function like a snare, drawing the called into spiritual lethargy without any dramatic rejection of truth. The result is a divided loyalty that preserves outward profession while inward conviction fades. Presumption accelerates the decline. When God does not immediately punish wrong attitudes or omissions, the heart concludes that everything remains acceptable. This self-satisfaction, identical to the Laodicean claim of needing nothing, prevents the self-examination required to hold fast the original confidence. Fear of sacrifice reinforces the drift, because denying the self its demands feels threatening and costly to pride. Without love that actively trusts God's word and oversight, fear grows unchecked and produces choices that protect the self rather than submit to God. Endurance to the end therefore depends on maintaining the faith that first led to repentance and baptism, refusing to let the surrounding culture replace the vision of the Kingdom. Those who allow devotion to slip will find themselves unprepared when greater trials test loyalty, just as many in Israel failed to reach the Promised Land despite having begun the journey.
Ecclesiastes Resumed (Part Twenty)
Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)Our supreme objective in godly living is attainment and cultivation of wisdom, which consists of attributes giving us skill in living.