Gospel Dynamite with J. Allen Mashburn

It’s Time to Make Up Your Mind | J. Allen Mashburn

In this message, Pastor Mashburn examines the Scripture that demands us to make up our own mind whom we will serve.  

Thoughts About the Body of Christ | J. Allen Mashburn

Join Pastor Mashburn as he teaches about the Body of Christ.

What is Truth? | John 18 | J. Allen Mashburn

This passage records what may have been the last intimate, personal conversation that Jesus had with another individual before He was crucified.  In this exchange between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, we see two men with opposing agendas.
Pilate comes across as one who is agitated at having been placed in the middle of what he sees as a religious dispute between Jews.  His sarcasm and short answers reveal his irritation.  Jesus, on the other hand, uses this conversation to reveal His true identity to Pilate.  When asked if He is really the King of the Jews, Jesus pulls no punches, but responds in the affirmative, v. 37.
Then Jesus tells Pilate that His mission in coming to this world was that of going to the cross and dying to bear witness to the truth.  At this point, Pilate asks a question born out of pure cynicism.  He asks Jesus, “What is truth?”  This was a rhetorical question.  Pilate did not really want an answer, and he did not wait around to receive one.  In essence, he was telling Jesus, “What is true for you may not be true for me!  You say ‘to-may-to’, I say, ‘to-mah-toe’. Don’t talk to me about truth for truth cannot really be known!”    So, Pilate threw away a glorious opportunity to come to know the truth for himself.  He looked truth in the face, refused to see it and walked away, forever lost in his sins!
I would like to take Pilate’s question this evening and ponder it for a few minutes.  I believe the Bible gives us enough information about truth so that we can answer this question for ourselves.  In fact, I want to take the texts I will use to examine truth from just the book of John.  Of the 222 verses in the Bible that contain the word “truth”, 22 or 10% are found in the Gospel according to John.  What is truth? 

Strengthening Our Minds | Philippians 3-4 | J. Allen Mashburn

Join Pastor Mashburn as he speaks about building a fortress around our minds.

The Great Pretender Part 2 | John 13:21-30 | Allen Mashburn

We are told that Judas went to the religious leaders because he wanted to “betray” Jesus. Why would Judas want to betray Jesus after he had spent such intimate time with the Lord?
Like everyone else who followed Jesus, Judas thought that Jesus had come to do the work of the Messiah. They saw His miracles, His power over demons, Satan and nature. They heard the way He taught and saw the way He lived, and they believed that he was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah.
Like the rest, Judas was expecting Jesus Christ to overthrow Rome and break the yoke of Roman oppression. He thought Jesus would deliver Israel, establish a restored kingdom in Israel, and richly reward His followers.
When it became apparent that Jesus was not going to do those things, Judas became disillusioned with the Lord. The other disciples slowly began to understand that Jesus was the Messiah, but they also understood that He would accomplish His mission in a way that they could not as yet grasp. Judas never came to that understanding.
Judas followed Jesus because he wanted power and money. He never embraced the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Why did he stay with Jesus? I think he was looking for a way to use Jesus to make himself rich. We must also remember that Judas kept the money that the little band collected as they traveled from place to place, and he was stealing from it.
So, part of the problem with Judas began with confusion as to the identity and ministry to Jesus. As time went on, he became disillusioned and what fondness he may have had for Jesus turned to pure hatred.

The Great Pretender | Mark 14:10-11 |J. Allen Mashburn

Our text today deals with a man named Judas Iscariot. He is, without a doubt, the most notorious and most vilified of all the disciples. His name appears last in every list of the disciples, except in Acts 1, where his name does not appear at all. Every time he is mentioned in the Bible, the Word of God reminds us that he is a traitor who betrayed Jesus to His death.
Judas was a failure as a disciple. He was exposed to the same teaching the others heard. He saw the same miracles and was involved in the same ministries. 
Yet, Judas never came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Judas spent three years with the Lord Jesus Christ and he died lost. The others were converted during their time with the Lord; Judas only became spiritually hard, calloused and hateful.
The other eleven disciples were used of God in amazing ways. Their lives demonstrate the truth that common, ordinary people can be used of the Lord in extraordinary ways. Judas, on the other hand, stands as a stark warning about the dangers of wasted opportunities, hardness of heart, wicked lusts, and spiritual carelessness.
While Judas was a failure as a disciple, he was the most successful hypocrite of all time. 
 
He played his part so well that no one but Jesus Himself knew that Judas was a fraud and a pretender. He was as common and as ordinary as the rest of the disciples. He was so ordinary that he never stood out from the rest. He hid behind the camouflage of hypocrisy and no one but Jesus ever realized it.

Who Owns You? | Mark 12:13-17 | J. Allen Mashburn

Things are heating up in Jerusalem. Jesus has offended the religious powers and they are out to get Him, Mark 11:18. They want Him dead, so they come to Him in an effort to lay a trap for Him. They want Jesus to make a verbal misstep that they can use to their advantage.
The text before us today is the first in a series of attacks launched by the enemies of the Lord Jesus. Their goal in all of these attacks is to either discredit Him with the people or to have a reason to accuse Him before the state. They are out to get Jesus and they do not care how they accomplish their goal.
In this text, they come to Jesus with A Question Of Ownership. This challenge from these evil men has something to say to our hearts today. I just want to share two thoughts with you today. I want you to see The Jews And Their Attack and I want you to see The Lord And His Answer.
Who owns you?

God’s Idea of a Good Father | Genesis 18:14-19 | J. Allen Mashburn

In the Bible, we are confronted with many poor examples of fathers.
Such as, Ahab – 1 Kings 22:52; the men of Israel, Psa. 78:8, 78:57, Jer. 9:14. These Scriptures, along with many others, give glaring proof that there are bad fathers all about. In our day, the bad father is not hard to find. They are everywhere. However, finding that man who stands out as an example of what a good father ought to be is a hard animal to track down. About 3,500 years ago, God looked down on Abraham and declared him to be a good father. If a person will take the time to look at the life of Abraham, the reasons for this glowing assessment become abundantly clear. 
Today, we are going to look at Abraham’s life and see God’s idea of what makes a good father.