When You’re the One Needing to Forgive Yourself A Study of Zechariah 3:1-7 What do you do when you’re the one needing to forgive yourself. Today we’ll begin a study of the remarkable third chapter of Zechariah. If you’re able to be at your Bible, turn there with me, near the end of the Old Testament.  While you’re doing that, let me remind you that as we work our way through the book of Zechariah, we’re finding a lot of prophecies—promises and predictions about the first and second coming of Jesus Christ. Zechariah has been called “The Old Testament’s Book of Revelation.” If you want to ..read more

The Wall of Fire Around Us A Study of Zechariah 2 Scripture: Zechariah 2:1-5 2 Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 I asked, “Where are you going?” He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.” 3 While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him 4 and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. 5 And I myself will be a wall of fire a ..read more

The Global Battle Against Israel and How It Will End A Study of Zechariah 1:18-21 There is a global battle against the nation of Israel, and it’s nothing new, but it’s also not going to end until the very moment that Christ returns. Now, as we continue our study of the book of Zechariah, I want to remind you that we must begin in the book of Ezra. If you want to follow the basic transcript of this message along with a handmade stick-figure drawing that will help you visualize the vision, you can find it right now on my most recent blog at Robertjmorgan.com. If you’re listening to this at your ..read more

Overtaken By the Word of God A Study of Zechariah 1:1-6 Introduction Last week we started a study of the strange Old Testament book of Zechariah. It’s easy to find because it’s the next-to-the-last book of the Old Testament. You have Zechariah, Malachi, and then Matthew. So you can find the Gospel of Matthew that opens the New Testament and go backward through Malachi and you’ll come to Zechariah. The name Zechariah means “Yahweh Remembers” and it was a popular name in the Bible. Two dozen men have this name. The two best known are this prophet in the Old Testament and the father of John the B ..read more

Where To Go When You Need Encouragement A Study of the Book of Zechariah Introduction: A certain man volunteered at a large and beautiful zoo. He showed up five days a week and his job was to walk around the park all day greeting visitors and answering questions. In that way he got a lot of exercise, a lot of sunshine and fresh air, and he was able to interact with people all day long. His shirt had a patch on it that said, “Zoo Crew” and he was full of smiles and encouragement. For the first few weeks, he wandered around following his nose. Everywhere he went, people stopped him with questio ..read more

A Simple Sermon from Psalm 86 Introduction (Verses 1-2): Why pray? Psalm 86 is packed with answers to that question. The Psalmist begins with his primary thesis in verses 1-2: Hear me, Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy…. You are my God. It’s as simple as that. But the author of Psalm 86, King David, wasn’t ready to leave it at that. Having stated his thesis, he wanted to expound on it. He wanted to explain the various ways in which we are poor and needy and in which we need our God through prayer. 1. We Need Joy (verses 3-4). Verses ..read more

 A Study of 1 John 5:4-12 Introduction When I was in college, I was introduced to what was called the Victorious Christian Life. The idea was that God didn’t intend for His children to live defeated lives. We shouldn’t be overcome again and again by sexual sin, discouragement, greed, bitterness, and frustration. We shouldn’t have a Christianity that only comes alive on Sunday. We shouldn’t go around feeling Satan has the upper hand. We shouldn’t be useless or unproductive in the work. Instead, we can let Jesus Christ live His life and do His work through us by the power of the indwelling ..read more

1 John 5:1-5 When I was a child, we sometimes played a box game known as Mousetrap. As you rolled the dice, you were able to put together pieces of a contraption in which one piece would trigger another, causing a chain reaction that eventually sent the cage down on the mouse. We’re all fascinated with chain reactions, and now there are all kinds of elaborate chain reaction videos you can watch as well as books you can buy about building your own chain reaction machines. Well, the principle behind chain reactions is simply the principle of cause and effect. We sometimes see the spiritual equi ..read more

Luke 1:37 Hormoz Shariat, the “Billy Graham of Iran,” is at the forefront of a secret revival occurring in the underground church of Iran. Several years ago, a woman he calls “Dana” began calling into his program, very angry at him. Dina was a high-ranking official in Iran’s Female Secret Police, and she persecuted Christians. One day she called the program to tell Hormoz she and her bedridden mother were going to kill themselves. Dina had grown disillusioned with Iranian corruption, and she was discouraged because cancer was destroying her mother’s body. Hormoz responded, “Since you’re going ..read more

A Study of 1 John 4:7-21 Introduction: Three years before he died C. S. Lewis wrote a book called The Four Loves, based on a series of talks he had given over the radio. He pointed out something that has since been repeated many times but it still bears remembering. There are four primary Greek words for love. This is important to us because the New Testament was originally written in the Greek language.  The first word is Storge (pronounced store’-gay). This is the kind of natural affection people in a family normally feel for each other. It’s being very fond of someone because you are ..read more