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Weekend Recap – Law and Sin

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My 7/13/14AM sermon, Law and Sin from Romans 7:7-25 is now online.  We don’t like God’s Word to do the work of exposing the sham of our lives, so we try and discount what the Bible says.  However, as this passage shows, the law was meant to make us aware of how separated we are from God so that we might flee from sin and run to our Rescuer.  This sermon sought to wrestle in these realities.  I hope it helps you and encourages your living in this world.

Weekend Recap – The Bride’s City

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My 11/17/13AM Sermon, The Bride’s City, from Revelation 21:9-27 is online.  This sermon sought to “wow people with God and who He is.”  I was intrigued of how this city is meant to be a picture of the Lamb’s Bride (read v.9) and sought to press applications in light of this.  Specifically, I want my life to show forth the beauty and perfections of the God who can make such a beautiful city.  I hope this sermon was helpful to others and you, if you choose to listen.

Dangerous Calling Email – The Evidence Is In

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Here’s my email to Elders and Deacons at Crestview for 7/2/13:

We continue to work through by weekly email the book Dangerous Calling. I hope, on one level, you are at least considering what I write each week.  I think it was McCheyne who said that the greatest need of our people is our personal holiness.  In other words, our pursuit of being a godly leader will have residual effects in the life of our church.  Today, Tripp points out, in chapter 6 on p.85, what for many of us is the obvious: “you know that every day you give personal empirical evidence that you have not yet arrived.  Every day you think, desire, say and do things that point to the existence of remaining sin within your heart.  Since this is true of us, is it not also true that we need to live in a willingly submissive commitment to God’s normal means of protecting and growing his still-being-sanctified children?”  Yes, Yes, Yes.  We need this. 

Consider your life and walk at Crestview.  Do you give the appearance you’ve arrived?  Or would others be aware that you are a sinner growing in holiness like them?  Let’s avail ourselves to the ministry of the body of Christ and watch God use this for His glory and the good of our people.

Holiness Is Possible…

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It’s amazing that most of our conversations about holiness begin with what needs to be done.  For instance, someone comes and asks, how can I pursue holiness?  The answer we give (in the church) is typically read your Bible, pray, enter community.  And, while all of these things are worthwhile things in pursuing grace, I’m convinced we need to start by looking to the Gospel.  My sermon from 1/15/12 was entitled Holiness Is Possible from Hebrews 10:1-10.  I tried to show from God’s Word that holiness is possible not in shrewd rule keeping, but in Christ and His once for all sacrifice for sinners.  Hope you enjoy it.

Holiness Is Possible, Really!

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This coming Lord’s Day, Lord willing of course, my Sunday AM sermon will be on Hebrews 10:1-10. I’ve entitled the message Holiness Is Possible. Seems like many think of holiness or sanctification as an elusive thing.  It’s more like a goal, but something that we don’t know a real experience of.  But, in this text of Scripture, we are told that we can have real hope for being holy and approaching a holy God because of Jesus Christ, our Lord.  The old covenant spoke of limitations, but the good news is that we can be near God through Jesus.  I hope you come ready to praise God for the joy and holiness that is yours in Christ.

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.

How’s your eyes?

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I got my eyes checked this afternoon.  One year ago I gave up all the squinting to get some glasses.  I realized pretty quickly that my sight hadn’t been clear for a while.

How’s your spiritual sight?  We do such a great job noticing other people’s failures and oversight, but give ourselves a very charitable assessment. Hold up God’s Word to your life by asking other people to assess your blind spots.  In doing so your spiritual sight will be clarified.

The Pastor’s Heart

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This coming Lord’s Day, we will be looking at a sermon entitled Gospel Ministry from Colossians 1:25. I am going to conclude saying something like:

Recently, when I was at the DGPC, Paul Tripp did the pre-conference on the pastor’s heart and said, “The greatest danger [facing the church] is not outside of the church or a weakening theology, but in the heart of the one who stands in the pulpit.” Recently, I’ve noticed that my heart craves a desire to be served or I want people to agree with me because “I am the pastor.” I feel fragile knowing I need to “guard my heart with all diligence” for the good of this body. I want to lead our church well. Tripp mentioned praying 3 prayers each morning, “1) God, I’m a man in desperate need of help, 2) In grace, send helpers my way, 3) Give me humility to receive help when it comes.” I want to be this kind of man, a man who ministers in a God-centered humble way.

In the coming weeks, I plan to post some things related to how we can guard our hearts. But all of this happens because of the amazing truth of the Gospel illuminating the indwelling sin remaining in me. May God use this to make me holy!