My 3/20/16AM sermon from Palm Sunday 2016 entitled Calling Followers from John 1:35-51 is now online. This passage was an amazing journey in helping us see the journey that goes with being a follower of Jesus: seeing Jesus for who He is, following Him, and being set on a course to awe Him. I hope it encourages you and helps you grow as a follower of Jesus.
Jesus Calling Peter (or something like this)
(from Josh Harris & Z)
Platt is Radical..
Just watch this video and see if you aren’t stirred by the words of Jesus Himself…
Fight Club Discipleship
This morning, I opened my email inbox and had minutes from the latest Men’s Ministry meeting. One thing they seemed to be burdened about is the need for men to be discipled, a need that, no doubt, exists and they are seeking to intentionally serve.
I was reminded of this helpful free E-book online at The Resurgence. The book is entitled Fight Clubs by Jonathan Dobson. It is a fairly easy read (I read it in about 30 minutes) full of what practical discipleship looks like in the local church. The book is a free resource and here’s a blip of what they write on their site:
If you’ve struggled to follow Jesus by veering away from the gospel into duty-bound legalism or moralistic indifference, then this book is for you! Fight Clubs is a radical call to fight the fight of faith in the strength of the gospel. Jonathan Dodson calls us to join the fight against sin, legalism, and license by looking to Christ and His gospel. Fight Clubs equips us to fight the fight of faith by exposing the fleeting promises of sin and drawing us into the grace-saturated promises of God. Displacing defective forms of discipleship, Dodson keeps the gospel central by tapping into various layers of biblical motivations that promote joyful obedience to Christ. The book also provides a strategy to fight sin as the church—small fighting communities called Fight Clubs. Read this book; form a fight club; and start fighting in the strength of the gospel.
I commend this to you for your consideration.
Serious Discipleship…
I’ve seen this resource (Fight Clubs: Gospel Centered Discipleship)numerous places on the internet, so when this afternoon presented an open season for fun reading, I took the free pdf download and gave it a read. Awesome stuff. What it really gets at is how accountability groups that make us feel bad aren’t what the Gospel is really all about in conforming us to the image of Christ. This is a better picture. It’s Scripturally-solid, full of practicality and bleeds Gospel. This is a great resource to consider. Download the free pdf or buy this book.
Sunday Review – Following
Thought we had a good morning yesterday. The sermon, entitled Following Jesus, from Mark 15:39-47 is now online. The thrust of the passage, obviously was on the burial of Jesus. In Mark’s Gospel, with last week’s clear picture of who Jesus was, I think Mark intentionally gave us some pictures of what it means to follow, since that has been a major theme of Mark’s Gospel.
My three applications to conclude were:
Confess – speak of Jesus before men
Serve – identify with Jesus by serving Him
Courage – don’t be driven by the fear of man; courageously honor Christ
Hope you had a great Lord’s Day!
Weekend Preview…6/21
We are anticipating a good Lord’s Day. We’ll probably have some special arrangements to make for children and students in light of the mess. The sermon will be from Mark 15:39-47. Yes, we will be looking at the centurion, again. His confession is a capstone to this excellent book. The focus, though, in the burial of Jesus will be on these three remarkable characters we meet who are followers of Jesus. The centurion demonstrates his following in boldly confessing Christ. The women demonstrate following in identifying with the Savior and serving His needs. Joseph (of Arimathea) shows his following of Jesus in courageously extending honor to Him. We are thinking of what it means to follow Jesus, therefore, which is a huge theme in Mark. Hope to see you there.
Weekend Preview – Judgment & Following
This weekend, Lord willing, I will be back in the pulpit and looking forward to a full Lord’s Day.
In the morning service, we will be exploring Mark 14:43-52. For a while, we’ve been looking at the theme of spiritual weakness and how the disciples got on a path of that when they argued that they would stay devoted with Jesus to death and, then, how in the Garden, Jesus urged them to watch and pray and, thus, escape temptation, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. In this passage, we see these followers wrestling with courageous following. The problem: they pursue it with misguided actions, forget that Jesus sees the ultimate purpose of all events and ultimately fail to be devoted to Jesus.
In the evening service, we will be looking at Hosea 5:1-15. I alluded to this in my last post. Hosea 5 really unfolds how God is righteous in His judgment. He will punish His people because they fail to look to Him. If they will only repent of their adultery and turn to Him, God would give them grace, but until they do, God will be content to keep them under His righteous judgment.
Hope to see you this weekend and I’m praying that God works in amazing ways through His Word.