July 2011 archive

Sermon Restoring the Tabernacle of David, Pastor Chuck Longworth, Covenant Tabernacle

Jeremy Longworth

Why didn’t God choose to restore the Tabernacle of David instead of the Tabernacle of Moses or the Temple of Solomon? As far as furniture/trappings, this Tabernacle was bare-bones. God wasn’t looking for a building, but rather fellowship and intimacy. In fact, David desired to build God a “house” or permanent dwelling, but God restrained him from doing so. Why is there so much emphasis in the body of Christ, today, on praise and worship and especially returning to pure praise and worship w/o entertainment?

Sermon, Why We Must End Abortion NOW – And Who Is My Neighbor? Pastor Bryan Longworth, Covenant Tabernacle

Why We Must End Abortion NOW, And Who is My Neighbor? The Scribes and Pharacies were always trying to trick Jesus into saying something that would get Him in trouble. They laid such a trap for Jesus when a lawyer asked Him which is the most important commandment. Jesus answered the question with a question. The lawyer answered correctly that we are to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus affirmed the answer directing the man, “do this and you will live,” but the lawyer wanting to justify himself said and who is my neighbor? Jesus then shared one of the most powerful parables in the Bible, the parable of the good Samaritan. A Jewish man is robbed, beaten, and left for dead. A priest came by and walked right by, refusing to be neighbor to the injured man. A Levite did the same. Then came a Samaritan. you may recall that the Jews despised Samaritans and viewed them as half breeds which they were because they were from Jewish decent whose parents had intermarried with pagan nations. The Samaritan bandaged the man’s wounds, carried him on his donkey to an inn, cared for him, and paid the inn keeper additional money to care for the man until he could care for himself. The Samaritan, was neighbor to the man in the ditch.

The lawyer asked, “and who is my neighbor”? In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus flips the question and asks who will you be neighbor to? The Priest wasn’t neighbor to the man lying in the ditch. The Levite wasn’t neighbor to the man lying in the ditch. But the despised Samaritan was neighbor him.

And how about you? Preborn baby girls and boys are lying in the ditch scheduled for slaughter by safe, legal abortion. Will you pass by on the other side of the street, or will you be neighbor to the preborn?