Posts by Billy Arnold (Page 7)
What Really Happens When the Holy Spirit Comes Upon You?
In this section of our teaching series about Building His Church, we are spending a few weeks teaching through the aspects of the Kingdom Wall in the life of the church. This week, we are spending time on the Holy Spirit’s work in us. Most of us know about Acts 1:8 as the marching orders for the church, and we consider it our duty to comply—much like joining the army during wartime. But let’s not overlook the critical piece here:…
King for the Day
When our son was a toddler, my wife made up a song to make his bath time a little more fun. The song went something like this: “King for the day—I am the king for the day!” She would put a towel over his shoulders, which he felt for sure was a royal robe, and she would sing it loud and proud: “I am the king for the day!” It was quite cute and highly entertaining. (He’s a grown man now…
Preparing for This Sunday: Building His Church
This Sunday, September 12, marks the official beginning of our academic year. We are launching the teaching series for the year—“Building His Church,” the focus of study that will take us through Easter 2022. The series is constructed on the foundation of last year’s series, “The Book of Jesus” (September 2020 – May 2021). How are we going to do this? Well, we are going walk through the building process together. Let me illustrate: If you were building a new,…
An Overview of Our Summer Study in Proverbs
We have spent twelve Sundays over the course of the summer taking a good look at the book of Proverbs. You may not have spent much time in this book of the Bible before this summer, but I do pray that the series has helped opened up a wealth of wisdom for you. If it has, then mission accomplished! If you missed any of these summer services, you can find them in the sermon archive (or in the list below).…
This Fall at LifeWay
This Sunday is Labor Day weekend, and then next Sunday, September 12, we officially launch into the new academic year. Where are we going this new year? you might ask. What will Fall at LifeWay look like? What is our new schedule? What are we teaching? Read and find out! 3 Doors to LifeWay Church When COVID-19 began, we moved our worship gathering time to 10 a.m. each Sunday, which will continue for both in-person and online worship this fall.…
The Word of God—How Does It Shape You?
Proverbs 30:5-6 (NIV) Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar. We are nearing the end of our summer series focused on Proverbs, and God’s wisdom merged with our real lives. This Sunday we are coming into what I consider one of the most important proverbs, all about the wisdom of God’s Word. To shape…
Remembering Elgin Taylor
RECOGNITION OF A LIFE OF COMMITMENT AND SURRENDER TO CHRIST A few days ago, LifeWay Church lost one of its dear church members, Elgin Taylor. Elgin and Dorothy Taylor came into our church family about 9 years ago, and this was his final earthly church to be part of. This coming Monday, August 23, at 1 p.m. at LifeWay Church, we will be holding a celebration of his life and a “glory to God” memorial service. Everyone is invited to…
Iron Sharpens Iron
Have you ever worked with a dull tool? I have a chainsaw. In fact, I have had many chainsaws in my life. My friend always warned me to be careful to keep the chain away from the dirt because it will grow dull quickly. I have struggled with heeding his warning. The last time I used the saw, it seemed like it took forever to cut through a piece of firewood that normally would have taken me just a quick…
Making Plans: Does It Really Matter?
If we have learned anything over the last 17 months, it’s that when we make a plan of any kind, we’d better be prepared for the reality of needing to change those plans. Just about every plan you’ve made over the course of this year and half has probably needed to change. We’ve changed vacation plans, financial plans, school plans, work location plans, wedding venue plans, and more. Our summer study in Proverbs is all about learning to merge God’s…
Wisdom and Wealth
How impressed with money are you? Imagine for a moment that you are at a large gathering of people—a wedding, or some kind of party. Then a wealthy person walks into the room, someone famous and super-rich! (Insert a name here.) Would you notice? Would you be impressed? Most of us would. But why? I think it is because we are impressed with money and those who make lots and lots of it. Somehow we equate wisdom and success with the accumulation…
God’s Wisdom in My Parenting
We are continuing to study Proverbs all summer, which is a merging of God’s wisdom with our real lives. Many of the proverbs we have highlighted are not well known at all. I encourage you to continue to read through the book of Proverbs for the summer, and highlight some that stand out to you. Some you will find interesting—and a few you will even find odd-sounding. But this coming Sunday’s focus verse is actually one of the most famous…
God’s Wisdom and My Pleasure
What does God’s wisdom say about my pleasure and leisure? Rarely do we discuss what God says about “pleasure” and “leisure” in church—but Proverbs does have a quote about it. Proverbs 21:17 (NIV) Whoever loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich. There it is. We have already learned that Proverbs has many wise sayings about many subjects that are all over the board. Some make perfect sense to us logically; some challenge…
A Proverb of Personal Alignment
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. I have many, many Bible passages that I review, pray through, think about, and from which I apply truth at different times in my life’s journey. But this passage, Proverbs 3:5-6, ranks in the Top 2 for me. (The other is 1 Peter 5:6-11.) This proverb is a cornerstone. It seems to…
The Doors to LifeWay Church: An Update
An Update on LifeWay’s Services — Summer 2021 When we went into government-called lockdown in March 2020 (15 months ago!), we were not only in shock a good bit, but like everyone else, we never dreamed this would go on like it has. Within a short time, we created a phrase and a plan, “3 Doors to LifeWay Church,” that helped us all understand how to stay connected both to worship and to the rest of the church family. We…
Merging God’s Wisdom with Real Life
Merging God’s Wisdom with Real Life: Our summer study in the Proverbs Have you ever read the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament? There’s lots of quotes and sayings that go all over the place. But do you know why Proverbs is in the Bible? Here’s how the book opens to help us understand why this is here for us: Proverbs 1:1-7 (NIV) The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight;…
LifeWay’s Theology Test: The Book of Jesus
On Sunday, May 2, I preached a message that helped summarize the whole year of teaching that we have walked through together. We’ve called it, “The Book of Jesus.” I issued a challenge to our church family to test our knowledge and core understanding of what God tells us about himself, what we can know about ourselves, and most importantly, why and how Jesus plays into the whole story. Why is the Bible totally about Jesus? Why would we need…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 10)
Today I bring you the final tip, Tip #10, in the “How to Read Your Bible” series. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. TODAY’S FOCUS—TIP #10: BE A rEADER FOR lIFE! Far more important than reading through the Bible in one year (which is a wonderful goal) is to continue to make God’s Word a book of life for you forever. Read it fast sometimes. Read it slowly sometimes. Read sections of it repeatedly sometimes. Read…
A Test from the Book of Jesus
Many of our college students from LifeWay are in finals week right now. They are collecting all the information from the class notes and all their readings from the year, and they are sitting at a desk or a computer and having the lay out the mounds of information they have learned over the whole semester to prove how well they know the subject. Well, this coming Sunday morning, May 2, I am finishing the year of teaching that we…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 9)
Today I bring you Tip #9 in the “How to Read Your Bible” series. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. TODAY’S FOCUS—TIP #9: It’s All About Jesus This entire school year we have been in a teaching series that we’ve called, “The Book of Jesus.” Why that title? Because if you remove Jesus from any of the storyline of the Scripture, you just have ancient stories. The Bible, all of it, points to Jesus. Whether…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 8)
Today I bring you Tip #8 in the “How to Read Your Bible” series. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. TODAY’S FOCUS—TIP #8: rEAD aLONE On Good Friday this year, we had small groups of people read the Holy Week story out of John 17, 18 and 19 out loud around the room. It was powerful. Hearing the Word of God read aloud with others in this kind of setting is an incredible experience, and…
Why are You Looking Into the Sky?
As you get ready for Sunday’ teaching, I am asking you to read ahead in two places: Luke 24:45-53 Acts 1:6-11 As you heard Scott J. teach last Sunday morning, the book of Acts is actually “Luke Part 2.” Luke finished the story of Jesus’ earthly life, and then continued it with the story of the work and mission of the Church in the book of Acts. This whole year we have been teaching a series called, “The Book of…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 7)
Today I bring you Tip #7 in the “How to Read Your Bible” series. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. TODAY’S FOCUS—TIP #7: Use Bookmarks to guide your reading and Pray for the World This tip to reading your Bible is actually a bridge into learning to read God’s Word combined with spending time praying. If you have followed the pattern of reading from four locations in the Bible (as stated above in Tip #2),…
Easter is Over—I’m Going Fishing!
That’s the statement (in the title above) Peter made in the days after the Easter resurrection of Jesus. I think when we have a tremendous time of failure in our lives, we will often say something like this: “I am just going to do something else and try to take my mind off of the failures that are mine.” Peter was a fisherman by trade. That’s what he was doing when he met Jesus the first time (see Luke 5).…
From the Lowest Possible Place to the Highest Peak
Getting ready for Easter Sunday — John 20 I don’t believe that, humanly speaking, you can get any lower than the events of Good Friday. In fact, even calling it “Good Friday” seems bizarre. There was nothing good about a thrown-together courtroom and trial to convict the totally innocent Jesus to a brutal death on a cross. To top it off, almost all of those who had sworn they would stand by Jesus to the bitter end actually ended up…
How to Read Your Bible (Part 6)
Today I bring you Tip #6 in the “How to Read Your Bible” series. Scroll to the end for a full explanation of each previous tip. Today’s Focus—Tip #6: Treat weekends as worship and preparation As stated in Tip #2, I like to read from four locations from the Bible and I encourage you to consider the same. But I also recommend that you consider this method for the 5 days of the work week, then treat the weekends differently.…