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True Light – Weekend Preview 12/11/11

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This coming Lord’s Day, 12/11, we hope to continue our movement toward Christmas by celebrating Advent Week #3.  Our text will be John 1:9-10, which speaks of Jesus being the true light and one who must be responded to.  What do you think of Jesus?  Who do you say that He is?

I think Charles Simeon said it best when he asked these two questions about Jesus the True Light:
1) What light have you received from the Lord Jesus Christ?
2) How far are you reflecting this light to those around you?

Think on this and come expecting God to be glorified in our corporate worship this coming Lord’s Day.

Weekend Recap – 12/4/11

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My sermon from 12/4/11 entitled Word in Creation from John 1:3-5 is now online.  I love it when God turns the light on and I experienced a most amazing thing in delivering this sermon.  It was almost as if while I was delivering it its truth became more clear and I was moved to see it in deeper and richer ways.  I praise God for moments like this.  It is truly very humbling to see God move in such amazing ways.

The sermon itself sought to show just how God got messy when He came to earth.  Specifically, we saw that we were made by the Word (and, as a result made for Him).  We also saw that He is the source of life and His life-giving work can’t be stopped.

In the evening, my small group met and we discussed the Respectable Sin of Anger.  Very convicting and helpful discussion.  What a full Lord’s Day.  I trust and hope that yours was a blessing as well.

Weekend Preview – Word & Creation

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This coming Lord’s Day, 12/4, we hope to return to John 1:3-5 and pick up where we left off last week.   Last week, we saw in John 1:1-2 that the Eternal Word is God and has existed in a personal relationship to the Father forever.  This week, though, we transition to see how this Word came near to us.  Specifically, if He was there in creation, how does He relate us.  The sermon will unfold how Jesus is related to creation as Creator, Life-Giver and Evil-Conquering Head.

There’s a reason that Revelation 3:14 announces that the message to that church was from “The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.”  We all owe our existence to Christ. We truly live to the degree that we function in this reality.  Come hungry this Sunday to see the greatness of Jesus Christ, the Word, as He relates to His creation.

Gospel Balance & Growth

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I’ve been one of those Gospel-Centered guys for a few years now, meaning that I see Jesus on every page of the Bible and believe that the Gospel is the message of first importance.  I’m preached hard against the cold, lifeless and sometimes dead religious works that many do simply out of duty.  When my work on earth is done, I want the greatness of Jesus and not something else to be the motto of all that I was about.

Therefore, I was greatly helped recently by a post on the Biblical Counseling Coalition by Stuart Scott.  The post is entitled Gaining A Balanced Picture on God’s Counsel.  Trying to summarize an article that is so excellent is very difficult.  But, what I would say is, if you’ve ever wondered how being Gospel-centered helps inform your living out the Christian life or if you’ve ever felt a tension in being about the Gospel and “disciplining your life for the purpose of godliness,” then this article is for you.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.  There’s a MS Word version and a PDF available.

I hope it helps you as much as it did me.

Weekend Recap – 11/27/11

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My sermon, The Word, from John 1:1-2 is online.  The sermon sought to show how Jesus, the Word became flesh, has always existed in personal relationship to the Father and is God.  It was a message that should give good theological support structure to those amazing promises we love about how God will never leave us or forsake us.  I hope it was encouraging.

In the evening, our church gathered to Hang the Greens.  Always a good time of fellowship and service, we enjoyed time with other people in the church.

Sunday Preview – 11/27/11

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This coming Lord’s Day, we will jumping into John 1:1-2 and seeing 3 truths about Jesus.  In prepping this sermon, I was remembering how well-served we have been through Athanasius.  Here’s some background articles on him and a link to the Athanasian Creed.  We come this Sunday to worship Jesus, fully God and fully man, born to save us from our sins.  Come ready to look heavenward.

Gospel Centeredness For The Rest of Us…

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Many of you know that I’ve been hugely affected by all things Gospel.  I love the Gospel.  It is the message of first importance to me.  I want to be a Gospel man.  I want it to be continually shaping and forming me.  I’ve often preached against having a disciplined quiet time as a means for being accepted in God’s sight, which has probably left my loving congregation scratching their heads wondering, “Well, then, why even discipline yourself for godliness…?”  Therefore, it was with great joy that I found this article by Stuart Scott this week.

It’s entitled Gaining a Balanced Picture on God’s Counsel.

In this article, he balances the struggle we have to engage the heart or discipline ourselves and shows how important the Gospel foundation and its proper application can prove in the discussion.  I would highly commend this article as a great means to help us in thinking toward a more Biblical way in all things Gospel-centered.  Enjoy.

Weekend Recap – Gratitude…

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My sermon from 11/20/11AM entitled On Faith & Gratitude from Luke 17:11-19 is now online.  I know it was risky to preach on Gospel heart change on Thanksgiving week, but this passage seems to bring home the truth of what faith is and what it produces.

I would love for you to go deeper and noticed this post this AM by Paul Tautges entitled The Attitude of Gratitude: A Bible Study Suggestion.  It might be a wonderful devotional on the AM of Thanksgiving Day.

In the evening our church gathered and celebrated all that God’s done for us this past year.  Hope you had a great Lord’s Day as well.