Haddon Robinson is the senior director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Prior to joining Gordon-Conwell, Dr. Robinson served 12 years as President of Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary. He also hosts the radio program "Discover the Word" (formerly "Radio Bible Class") and writes regularly for the Our Daily Bread devotional.
Session One
A Life of Devotion
God's loyalty toward us is to be the loyalty we display to those he has put in our lives.
2 Samuel 23
In his loyal love, Jesus takes our acts of devotion, tarnished and polluted though they be, and sanctifies them and brings them to the Father. What is more, his loyalty never ceases. He never betrays us. He never turns against us. It's loyalty forever, the high pitch of devotion.
Session Two
A Life of Resisting Temptation
Satan comes in disguise and attacks God's character so that we doubt God's Word and his goodness.
Genesis 3:1-6
What is it that lures us to destruction? If you're a Christian, temptation dogs your path and trips you at every turn. The questions you must face are, "How does the Tempter do his work? How does he come to us? How does he destroy us?" Here, early in the ancient record, we have one of the themes that is woven again and again throughout the Scripture—the theme of sin and its destructive power.
Session Three
A Life of Eternal Value
Pursuing riches and success is foolish, for these things are not eternal.
Luke 12:13-34
It just makes good sense to live your life for that which is eternal, that which will outlast you. When Jesus talks about making his kingdom first, he doesn't mean it's at the top of a list and there are other things second, third, and fourth. He means first in the sense that you make it central. There's a way in which life is like a wheel. At the center of the wheel is a hub, and out from that hub come spokes. What you put at the hub of the wheel determines its strength.
Session Four
A Life of Humility
Humility comes from looking at God and then seeing ourselves.
Luke 18:9-14
One of the benefits of living in God's presence is this: when you really see God, you see yourself; when you see yourself, you see your sin; when you see your sin, you cry out to God for grace and forgiveness, and you receive it. The saint is always more aware of his need of God than his successes in God, always more aware of how far he has to go than how far he has come.
Session Five
A Life of Prayer
We learn how to pray by following the model set forth in the Lord's Prayer.
Luke 11:1-13
In Luke 11:1, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. He responded by giving them what we call the Lord's Prayer. There's a way in which this prayer is misnamed. Instead, we might call it the Disciple's Prayer. It is a model prayer. It tells us what we are to pray for, and it gives us the order of the requests.
Session Six
A Life of Kindness
Little unremembered acts of kindness are important to the King.
Matthew 25:31-46
Jesus taught that the judgment would hold surprises for everyone involved. In the story he told in Matthew 25, not only do the goats ask the question, "When did we see you hungry…," but the sheep ask that question too. They are as confused as the goats. Scholars disagree on when this judgment will be, but it seems the basis of it is going to depend on the little, unknown, unremembered acts of kindness and love that we hardly think about—but which are important to the King.
Session Seven
A Life of Persuasion
Like Paul, we should do anything to win people to Christ.
1 Corinthians 9
Paul was committed to preaching the gospel. He had to preach it. He said, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel." You would expect him to say, "Woe to the world if I don't preach it. After all, if I don't get out the message, they won't receive it. They can't believe." But for Paul the preaching of the gospel was both a commission and an obligation.
Session Eight
A Life of Trust
You can trust the sovereign, good, and righteous God.
Ecclesiastes
The preface of the Book of Ecclesiastes is also the premise of the book. When Solomon says that life is vain, futile, and meaningless, he does not mean it's not worth living. He means that try as we will, you and I can never figure it out. This preacher is looking for the key that will unlock the mystery of life. He discovers that God is the keeper of that key, and he never gives it to men and women.
Total number of pages - 84
