We'd love to hear from you. Text us. All across the world on Sunday mornings something happens in nearly every continent & in nearly every culture. Preachers preach. It is universally done, but is it biblically done? We all have our thoughts on preaching but what are God’s thoughts? Today we are going to do something very meta. We are going to have a sermon on sermons. Most of us have probably never heard a sermon about sermons. Yet, as we have travers...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Years ago, I came across a piece of wisdom written by a pastor who had a couple of bestselling books & a thriving mega-church, yet at the very same time his wife was locked in a life or death battle with cancer. Eventually the ministries of the church reached a global profile yet in the midst of all that success this pastor’s eldest son took his own life. This pastor who had seen many mountains climbed & yet also lingered in the valley...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Everyone who goes to church has a pastor. Most of us have opinions of what a pastor ought to do, but what is God’s opinion? Biblically speaking what is the pastor’s central calling? Perhaps the clearest Scriptural answer to that critical question is found in our text today in 2 Timothy 4:1-8. Grab your Bible, a pen, & printout the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying study guide & let's get Washed in the Word! Fre...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. The wisest man who ever lived was King Solomon. In Ecclesiastes 4:12 he wrote that “a cord of three strands is not easily broken.” A three-strand rope is strong because when twisted together they increase the diameter of the cord & take stress off the outer fibers. This is the principal behind the cables that hold up our modern suspension bridges. This is how over two billion vehicles have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge since i...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. In 1 Chronicles 12:32 the Bible says the “men of Issachar… understood their times & knew what Israel should do.” The church today needs people like the sons of Issachar. We need to understand our times so that we know what we should do. One of the keys to success in an endeavor is having a clear eyed understanding of your situation. In 2 Timothy 2 God encourages us to be like a hardworking farmer & a good soldier for Chris...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. One of my favorite Far Side’s is the one with the kid pushing with all his might against the pull side of door at the “Midvale School for the Gifted.” I once saw a sign on a shop that said “Push, if that doesn’t work, pull, if that doesn’t work we must be closed.” Life has a lot of push-pull moments. Like ferrous metals alongside magnets we seem pulled into some things & pushed away by others. Friends, the God of nature is the ...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Steven Wright used to say: “right now, I’m having amnesia & de ja vu at the same time. I think I have forgotten this before.” Fred Allen used to say: “I always have trouble remembering three things, faces, names &… whatever that other thing was.”Caroline Rhea used to say: “I constantly walk into a room & I don’t remember why, but for some reason, I think there is going to be clue in the fridge.” We are in 2 Timothy 2 today.&n...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. How do we build the Kingdom of God? On an ultimate level, we don’t. God does. Yet on another level, we are Christ’s ambassadors. We are His witnesses. We are called to make disciples of all peoples. Tragically, many have chosen not to be kingdom builders but kingdom barnacles. Some saints sit, soak, & sour in our services, but other brothers roll up their sleeves & get their hands dirty in the work of the ministry. So...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Today we begin our journey together through the last letter of the Apostle Paul. This is his last word to his protégée Timothy. If Christianity is going to flourish not perish...we must pass it on! If the light of the gospel is not to be extinguished in our land in our day it will be by God’s sovereign grace upon us & our humble faithfulness to "Pass It On!" Grab your Bible, a pen, & download the sermon outline & accompanying...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. When we first began our study in Judges we saw a sad slide from the faithfulness of Joshua’s generation to an utter disregard of the things of God in the next. We saw that compromise leads to consequences. That neglect leads to regret & that rejection leads to God’s wrath. Today, we go to the last word regarding the dark days of Judges. I’m sad to say that today we come to the most sordid story in all of Scripture. It is scandalous,...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. We all have a God-sized hole in our souls. We were created to worship, but we also want to be our own gods. How do we reconcile these competing impulses? An easy answer is to refashion god into a god of our own making & liking. In the beginning, God made man in His image & ever since we have been trying to return the favor. We would like a god who is there for us, who cares for us, but one who demands very little of us. We ...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Samson is arguably the most famous person in the book of Judges. So today we will tread well-worn Scripture in revisiting Judges 16. We shall see Samson at his most audacious & salacious. We will then witness Samson humbled & handed over to those he was supposed to be the deliver from. This self-centered sot will become a sickening site. For a cuddle with a damsel Samson, the able, will become Samson the pitiful while the P...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Today we come to Samson, the last judge chronicled in the book of Judges. Samson was a he-man with a she weakness. Samson is probably the most well-known of all the Judges & yet he is the least heroic, least obedient, & least commendable. Samson is far from a paragon of virtue & so his judgeship demonstrates the sad state of affairs when everyone does what is right in their own eyes. In Judges, it becomes hard to find a hero among ...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. In our modern marketplace leadership books, seminars, & courses abound. But in Jeremiah 6:16 The Lord says: "Stand by the roads, & look, & ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; & walk in it, & find rest for your souls." Today we shall examine a topic that is overstudied from a passage that is too often understudied. We will be in Judges 12 today as we endeavor to discover "Leadership Lessons From Slighted Script...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. After a fast footnote about Tola & Jair our main story opens with a sad indictment in Judges 6:6 "The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD..." We have seen this pattern throughout the book of Judges. God saves His people under a deliverer judge & the very next generation wanders away from the Lord. What is new here is not the pattern, but the progression. For when Othniel was sent to deliver God...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Galatians 6:7 says: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." The God of Nature is the God of Scripture. The God of Nature has made it clear that if you sow pumpkin seeds you get pumpkins not petunias. This immutable law extends to our actions. We reap what we sow. Sometimes there is a long gap between one’s sowing & one’s reaping. Sometimes some folks seem to get away with sowing f...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. When we read the Bible we tend to think the real battles are at places like Mt. Carmel where Elijah stood alone against Jezebel’s 850 false prophets. We tend to think that the big battle is the real battle. The real battle is often not in attaining victory; it is usually in maintaining the victory. This is Satan’s best-kept secret. When we have the faith to trust Jesus & muster for the big battle, Satan knows he is defeated.&n...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Today we meet Gideon. God will use Gideon to deliver His people from Midianite marauders, but in this deliverance, Gideon’s faith will be repeatedly tested. Grab your Bible, a pen, & print off the free downloadable sermon outline & accompanying guided study questions & let's get washed in the Word! Free sermon outlines & accompanying study guides are available at our website: www.washedintheword.life on the Study Guides page.

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. In 1779 Captain William Jones gave the US Marines one of their most iconic recruitment slogans when he advertised “for a few good men.” That slogan well serves the sentiment of Judges 4 & 5. This passage is unique in the book of Judges in that instead of having a person function as the deliverer figure guiding the people into protracted peace instead only here in all of Judges we have two people. A military deliverer & prophetic...

We'd love to hear from you. Text us. Satan loves to sideline the saints. One of his most effective tactics is to keep us from saying “Here I am, Lord, send me.” When God calls forth from heaven: “Whom shall I send, who will go for us?” Satan whispers “Not you!” “You are too feeble, faltering, & filthy. You’re unworthy, your gifting is iffy, & your track record is shaky.” “Better sit this one out & let the ‘real saints’ answer God’s call.” This is why...