After the persecution of Stephen, believers scatter throughout the known world and the gospel becomes open to the Gentiles.

Following Pentecost the early New Testament church begins to grow and as it does it teaches us how to grow the right way.

God reminds the people that He knows their thoughts and calls them to a higher standard than rote religious ritual.

An impure heart makes for contaminated worship. Haggai uses the rebuilding of the temple to teach us that our worship should emanate from a sincere and pure heart.

Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser said, “In no prophet is the love of God more clearly demarcated and illustrated than in Hosea.” In this sermon, Hosea illuminates for us the characteristics of God’s great love.

God created us as a people of worship, but often we rebel and worship something other than God. Zephaniah instructs us to humble ourselves and to return and seek the Lord.

It seems that God is reluctant to rid the world of injustice, but Habakkuk teaches us where we should take such complaints and that some things we call injustice are, in fact, not injustice at all.