Category: Sermons

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Psalm 72 – A Prayer for Righteous Government

Psalm 72 is one of the clearest passages in Scripture on what righteous government is supposed to look like. It presents a king not as a messiah of bureaucracy, not as a manager of every corner of life, and not as a celebrity for the crowds. Instead, it presents a ruler who receives judgment from God, governs with righteousness, defends the needy, crushes oppression, and brings peace to the land.

This matters because many Christians know they should care about government, but are not always sure how to think about it biblically. What should civil rulers actually do? What is justice? What should believers pray for when they pray for presidents, governors, judges, or local officials? And what does Psalm 72 teach about the relationship between righteousness and national blessing?

This psalm answers those questions with unusual force and clarity.

Deuteronomy 16:18-20 – God’s Prescription for Righteous Government

Every election cycle, especially presidential ones, the same line gets hauled back out onto the stage, dusted off, and presented as though it were a settled axiom of Christian political wisdom: we must vote for the lesser of two evils.

But here is the obvious question. Is that biblical?

Not is it common. Not is it strategic. Not is it what the consultants tell us. Is it biblical?

If we are going to talk about civil government, Christian responsibility, justice, and righteous leadership, then the place to start is not cable news, not campaign mailers, and not whatever panic the moment has served up. The place to start is the Word of God.

Deuteronomy 16:18-20 gives us a remarkably clear pattern:

The people are responsible to appoint rulers, and those rulers are responsible to govern with justice.

And if we have ignored that pattern for generations, it should not surprise us that the result has been more corruption, more confusion, and more evil, not less.

Luke 22:63-23:25 – The Trial of Jesus

Early Christians had to answer an obvious challenge. How can this man be the Savior of the world, the Messiah, the Son of God, if the authorities condemned Him as a guilty criminal? That is not a trivial question. It goes straight to the center of the Christian message.

But when you slow down and examine the trial of Jesus, the supposed embarrassment becomes one of the strongest confirmations of who He is. His enemies could not convict Him honestly, so they had to rig the process. The judges indicted themselves. The rulers exposed their corruption. And above all of it, God was accomplishing salvation for sinners through the very wickedness of men.

Deuteronomy 16:13-17 – The Feast of Tabernacles

One of the more revealing modern complaints about worship is this one: “I just didn’t get anything out of it today.” That is a wonderfully efficient way of announcing that the whole thing has been misunderstood. You did not come to worship because you are the object of worship. God is.
And in the law of God, that point was built right into Israel’s calendar. When Israel came before the Lord at the appointed feasts, they did not stroll in empty-handed, hoping for a religious pick-me-up. They came bearing gifts, sacrifices, tithes, thanksgiving, praise, and remembrance. Worship was not a consumer event. It was covenant renewal before the living God.
That brings us to the Feast of Tabernacles in Deuteronomy 16, the third of Israel’s great annual feasts. Like Passover and the Feast of Weeks, this feast was not filler. God does not hand out meaningless appointments. Every one of these feasts taught Israel who He is, who they are, and what He had done for them. And every one of them pointed forward to Christ.

Deuteronomy 16:9-12: Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) -From Sinai to Zion

“You shall count seven weeks for yourself.” With that simple command in Deuteronomy 16, Moses opens up one of the richest feasts in Israel’s calendar.

The Feast of Weeks was not an arbitrary religious holiday, and it was not merely a harvest party with some pious decorations added on top. God appointed it to teach His people how to remember, how to rejoice, how to give thanks, how to care for the poor, and ultimately how to understand what He would later accomplish in Christ at Pentecost.

If we read these Old Testament feasts carelessly, we can treat them as little more than ancient Israelite scheduling. But Moses was not filling space. These feasts had design, order, and theological weight. They were shadows, and Christ is the substance. They were appointed signs, and in the New Testament their meaning bursts into full bloom.

Luke 22:31-62 – Victory through Obedience

In Luke 22, Jesus walks toward the darkest hour with a kind of spiritual clarity that almost feels unfair. While the world gathers in confusion, while plans unravel, and while courage collapses in the most predictable places, Christ keeps returning to one center point: submission to the Father’s will.

This is not just “what happened” on the road to the cross. It is a pathway to victory. The strange secret is that victory is not achieved first by strength, but by surrender. The victory is decided before the battle is finished, when the will is brought under obedience.

Psalm 70 & 71 – Preparation for Old Age

Have you ever stopped and wondered what old age is going to look like for you?

Some people are closer to it than others, of course. But even if you feel decades away, Psalm 70 and Psalm 71 press the same question into every generation: Are you preparing to live faithfully when your strength fades?

These psalms are not vague religious poetry meant for “later.” They are the prayers of a man facing real danger, real enemies, real weakness, and still trying to worship with integrity. And that makes them surprisingly practical. They teach how to respond when life gets harder, not just how to feel spiritual when life is comfortable.