From One Degree to Another

Phil Auxier's Blog

Connect

Gospel Friday – Blessed in Christ

by

ephesians_1_3

All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing we could possibly dream of in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)

You’re blessed today, as a believer, with things like:

  • having your sin erased
  • having God’s wrath towards you removed
  • being declared righteous
  • being born again
  • being made holy
  • destined for glory
  • being made right with God
  • having abiding life in the here and now
  • being redeemed with precious blood
  • being raised from death

So, thank God for these amazing blessings and walk tall today because of who you are In Christ.

Happy Thanksgiving

by

givethankstolord2016

Happy Thanksgiving. While this day will have all kinds of fun with family, friends, football, and food, don’t forget to give thanks to the Lord.  I’ve enjoyed using a Gratitude Guide that I wrote for Crestview this season.  I hope it encourages you to give thanks to the Lord.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Gratitude Guide

Weekend Preview – Jesus Rose From the Dead and Sent Us Out

by

This coming Sunday, we’ll continue making our way through the Gospel of John, settling in John 20:1-18.  The narrative breaks into Peter and John’s footrace to the empty tomb and then Jesus talking to Mary Magdalene.  To put it simply: when Jesus rose from the dead, this good news was meant to be shared.  John believed these things as an eyewitness.  Mary was sent with the news.  I hope you’ll join us at Crestview this Sunday, 11/27, 10:15AM to help us celebrate our Risen King.

Isaiah 12

by

Recently, we encouraged our church to memorize Isaiah 12.  There’s so much in this chapter related to God, us, gratitude, and His praise going global eternally.  There are many things to love about this chapter.  Here it is.  I hope it encourages you this Thanksgiving Week:

[1] You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.

[2] “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

[3] With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

[4] And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.

[5] “Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.

[6] Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

(Isaiah 12 ESV)

Weekend Recap – Jesus’s Death

by

We enjoyed an amazing Sunday at Crestview yesterday celebrating Jesus’s death and having a Thanksgiving service together.   In the morning, I preached from John 19:16b-42 on Jesus’s Death.  Jesus prepared to die, triumphed through death, and did actually die.  This is something we are to respond to by believing.  And, for those of us who do believe, there is great comfort for us in His love while dying.  He also, in actually dying, further qualified Himself as our faithful High Priest by facing death for us.

In the evening, we gathered together for our church-wide Thanksgiving Dinner.  This special gathering is always a highlight of our church year.

 

Gospel Friday – Sanctified

by

gratitude-guide-nov18-16

There’s amazing good news for those who are in Christ Jesus:
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, [31] so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

(1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

In Christ Jesus, then, you have become righteous, sanctified, and redeemed.  Thank Him and praise Him for this reality in you today.  Download the Gratitude Guide to continue nurturing gratitude this week.

My Heart Is Filled With Thankfulness

by

This month at Crestview, we’re learning Keith Getty and Stuart Townend’s song My Heart Is Filled With Thankfulness.  Here’s the lyrics:

“My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who bore my pain;
Who plumbed the depths of my disgrace
And gave me life again;
Who crushed my curse of sinfulness
And clothed me in His light
And wrote His law of righteousness
With pow’r upon my heart.

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To Him who walks beside;
Who floods my weaknesses with strength
And causes fears to fly;
Whose ev’ry promise is enough
For ev’ry step I take,
Sustaining me with arms of love
And crowning me with grace.

My heart is filled with thankfulness
To him who reigns above,
Whose wisdom is my perfect peace,
Whose ev’ry thought is love.
For ev’ry day I have on earth
Is given by the King;
So I will give my life, my all,
To love and follow him.”

— WORDS AND MUSIC BY KEITH GETTY & STUART TOWNEND COPYRIGHT © 2003 THANKYOU MUSIC

You can listen to a recording of it from Together For The Gospel earlier this year here.

How Gladness and Gratitude Are Robbed From Us

by

20140715_robber

I was listening to Matt Chandler’s sermon Just Men last week and I came across this quote, which gave me a good deal of insight in to what robs us of gladness and gratitude.  To put it another way, because we’re not content with what we have, we easily lose sight of how good God is.  Here’s the quote:

We see economic selfishness all the time.  Now, when I’m talking about economic selfishness, I’m not necessarily talking about lack of generosity, in fact, you might be some of the most generous people I’ve ever been around in my life.  What I’m talking about on this one–we really need to be kind of ferreted out–is that what we see happen often is an inability to be grateful and glad at where we are.  But always wanting more.  So, when I’m talking about this kind of economic stronghold I’m talking about– we seem to lack the ability to go “look at how generous God is, look what He’s given to us, how gracious and great is God that He’s given all of this” we seem far more dialed in to what we don’t have than what we do.  So this robs us from gladness.  This robs us from gratitude.  It steals from us the ability to rejoice, despite the fact that God’s been so generous to all of us, to all of us.

-Matt Chandler, Village Church, TX (from the 9:55 to 10:52 mark of the sermon)

Search your heart.  Maybe gladness and gratitude are being robbed from you.  Grab our Gratitude Guide to nurture your heart with how good God’s really been towards you.

 

The Church’s Responsibility in This Particular Time

by

responsibility

I was skimming over What Is the Mission of the Church? by DeYoung and Gilbert again, and came across this great quote from J. Gresham Machen.  Think of the Great Depression and the pressure that it put on the church as well as theological liberalism provoking schisms within the church.  What is the church’s responsibility in this new age?

The responsibility of the church in the new age is the same as its responsibility in every age.  It is to testify that this world is lost in sin; that the span of human life — no, all the length of human history–is an infinitesimal island in the awful depths of eternity; that there is a mysterious, holy, living God, Creator of all, Upholder of all, infinitely beyond all; that he has revealed himself to us in his Word and offered us communion with himself through Jesus Christ the Lord; that there is no other salvation, for individuals or for nations, save this, but that this salvation is full and free, and that whoever possesses it has for himself and for all others to whom he may be the instrument in bringing it a treasure compared with which all the kingdoms of the earth–no, all the wonders of the starry heavens–are as the dust of the street.

An unpopular message it is–an impractical message, we are told.  But it is the message of the Christian church.  Neglect it, and you will have destruction; heed it, and you will have life.

(J. Gresham Machen, “The Responsibility of the Church in Our New Age,” in J. Gresham Machen: Selected Shorter Writings, ed. D. G. Hart (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2004), 376 and quoted in Kevin DeYoung & Greg Gilbert, What Is The Mission of the Church? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2011), pp.248-249)

Today, we have presidential election aftermath, the pressure of our economy, and an impulse to give up what the church has always believed (and what the Bible teaches) about a good many issues.  May it never be that we would neglect THE MESSAGE and our responsibility to share that message with those around us.