Don Elmore Sermons

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February 21, 2016

Scripture Reading:  Jeremiah 7:13-20

Last Sunday I had not even started on my message for this week.  I had one certain topic that I was considering, but when I saw an article in the newspaper, I was interested in what it said.  As I investigated, it got even more intriguing as I had never known about this situation at all.  I had no knowledge of this event that is one of the most celebrated events in the world.  It certainly opened my eyes and I hope that it opens yours if you have never heard about this subject.

As you read Jeremiah 7 you have to ask yourself this question:  What was it that provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger?  What were the descendants of the Kingdom of Judah doing that made Him so mad?  The children of God were worshipping the gods of the Canaanites, in particular the Queen of Heaven.

Who is the Queen of Heaven?  What peoples worshipped this Queen?  And if Israelites were guilty of this sin in their history, are they guilty of this sin today?  Do they worship the Queen of Heaven today?

The Assyrians did, the Babylonians did, the Canaanites did, the Syrians did, the Greeks did, and the Romans did; in fact, most of the world did and does today.  Let’s study some history!

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February 6, 2016

Scripture Reading: Obadiah 1:14

Today's scripture reading is the only reference to a crossroads that I could find that is located in the Bible.  It tells of the evil that the Edomites did when they cut off the Israelites that had escaped the destruction that they were facing in their captivity.  The Edomites stood in the crossroads and killed the escapees.   

The father of rock ‘n’ roll and king of the Delta Blues, Robert Johnson, met the devil who had taken the form of a huge black man at a crossroad. The devil took Johnson’s guitar, tuned it, and proceeded to play before handing the guitar back to Johnson. From that point on, Robert Johnson had mastery of the Blues and the guitar. He was able to play incredible new songs instantly without taking the time to write the lyrics or compose any music.

A memorial to Johnson reads: “Robert Johnson stands at the crossroads of American music, much as a popular folk legend has it, he once stood at a Mississippi crossroads and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for guitar-playing prowess.”

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January 24, 2016

Scripture Reading: Revelation 18:4

Who is told to “Come out of her” [mystery Babylon]?  It is “My [the God of Israel’s] people.”  There is a warning for the covenant people of God to come out of something that is “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” Revelation 18:2.

It says that “all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication….”  And that “all the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” Revelation 18:3.  So, God’s people can be in something that is world-wide, rich, powerful and wrong.  It is so wrong, that our God warns us “to come out of her.”  If we stay in, then we will partake of her sins and receive her plagues.

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January 17, 2016

2 Chronicles 15:9-15

What did the Kingdom of Judah do which enabled themto have rest from their enemies?  They made a covenant with their LORD God; just like the Vortrekkers of South Africa did in 1838. This covenant gave the covenant seed of Jacob/Israel another miraculous victory; one that saved their race from complete annihilation in South Africa by the Zulus.

In fact, the covenant that Judah and many of the righteous people of the House of Israel, who had come to Judah, was a covenant with a death penalty attached with it.  Any person who failed to participate in making this covenant was to be put to death.  It was a serious covenant that each person who was living in Judah made.

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January 3, 2016

This sermon will be different than most of the ones that I have brought.  First, we won’t have an introductory Scripture.  This will not continue in the future, but I didn’t know what Scripture to use without giving the answer to who “King Palindrome” was.

Naming a child is one of life’s most unusual gifts.  Does the name affect the child as he grows up?  Some thinks that it does. A strange name certainly might.  But what if you name them with a palindromic appellation, one with perfect symmetry and balance—meaning one that reads the same backwards and forwards. 

For example:  Hannah.  It reads the same backwards and forwards:  H + A + N + N + A + H.

Other examples include:  Bob, Anna, Eve, Nan, Ada, and Otto. 

And there are palindromes that are long sentences, ignoring punctuations and capitals:

Won’t cat lovers revolt?  Act now! 

Or, a word square in which every row and column reads as a word in both directions:

Now, let me give you a couple of clues and see if you can guess who is this King Palindrome that is the focus of our study today:

•  This King is in the Bible.
•  He was one of the Kings of Judah.
•  He has a very short name, three letters.
•  He is listed in the Bible as a king that “did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.”
• He was the third King of Judah.

Does anyone know what his name is?

Yes, it was King Asa:  A + S + A.  And today’s sermon will be a study of King Asa’s life as found in 2 Chronicles chapters 14-16. 

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December 20, 2015

Scripture Reading:  Jeremiah 30:11: 

“For I am with thee saith the LORD, to save thee; though I make a full end of all nations to which I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.”

This is just one verse of Scripture, but it tells a very unpopular story.  For it tells that all the countries of the world are not equal in the eyes of God.  It says that Yahweh is with some group of nations for the purpose of saving them.  And He makes the promise that although He will make a full end of all the nations that He has scattered His people to, yet He will not make a full end of them.  He adds that He will punish them, but He will not see them totally destroyed. 

Who are the nations that God will not make a “full end of?”  That is the story that is told throughout the Bible.

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December 6, 2015

Scripture Reading: Leviticus 19:33-34

Referring to the Scripture reading, if these were the only verses in the Bible, then we could conclude that we must love all strangers as ourselves.  So, any stranger who comes in our land, we should consider him as being one born among us.  We could adopt Asians, marry Mexicans and welcome all the different strangers to be citizens of our land.  We could be a great multi-cultural society.  But there are other verses in the Bible.  What do they say?

Numbers 1:51: “And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down:  and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up, and the stranger who cometh near shall be put to death.”  

Jeremiah 51:51: “We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; shame hath covered our faces; for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’S house.”

After church service last Sunday, I got home and I read the Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer.  I eventually got to the Forum Section and I couldn’t believe the headline:  “Anti-Semitism that can’t be Ignored.”  I wondered what that was all about.  The title got me interested enough to read the article.

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November 1, 2015

Scripture Reading: Matthew 13:10-11

Jesus and his disciples preached the gospel of the ?   What is the missing word?  When I read the Bible through each month, many years ago; this question was a major inquiry that I had no idea of how to answer.  What was the gospel that our Savior and His disciples preached:  It was the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.  I had no idea what the kingdom was!  Let alone the gospel of the kingdom.

I knew the gospel of personal salvation.  I did not know the gospel of the kingdom.  So, when I went to Florida one summer for a couple of weeks about 40 years ago, to help out an independent Baptist preacher with his personal, secular contract work, while there I asked him this question:  What is the kingdom?

He answered:  “I will study it out and preach you a sermon on it this Sunday.” 

I was excited.  I would finally have a whole lot of Scriptures come out of the darkness into the light if I knew the answer to this question.  But I will never forget what happened. 

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October 11, 2015

Scripture Reading:  Genesis 27:39-41

Esau passed his hatred of Jacob to his children.  They waited for Jacob to return from Syria after he had left by his father’s and mother’s request.  Esau was ready to murder him.  Let’s review:

• Jacob received the birthright from Esau in a deal in which Esau traded it for a bowl of red lentil soup.
• Isaac had blessed Jacob; but Jacob obtained it deceitfully from him with help from his mother.
• Jacob had been sent to Syria to take a wife of his own kind.  Jacob was charged not to take a wife of the Canaanites.  He married his mother’s niece.
• Esau’s Canaanite wives did not please his parents, so Esau married his father’s niece; an Ishmaelite.
• Jacob obeyed his parents by going to Syria.  He was there for 20 years.

Before Jacob left on his journey, his father called to him and blessed him and gave him a charge:

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September 27, 2015

Scripture Reading:  Acts 15:7-9

The Roman Catholic Pope came to America this week.  At the same time the Unholy Father dropped in on the nation’s capital, the Jews were celebrating their holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur; which was from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening.  And the Muslims were celebrating one of their two most important festivals, from Wednesday evening to sundown Thursday.