My 12/6/15AM sermon, Abiding: Him and Us from 1 John 4:13-16, sought to expose one thing from the text: how do we know that we abide in God and He abides in us. And, the answer is pretty simple: God. Yes, God’s given us His Spirit, which allows us to confess His Son and this is all an overflow of His love. So, if you’re weary from burning your wheels to impress God, abide in Him. Be freed from all the burden and rest in what He’s done to give His people assurance. I hope it blesses you.
This weekend, our family was able to return early from holiday with extended family and beat the worst part of the ice storm. On Sunday, our church had to cancel services due to the parking lot being a sheet of ice. And, also on Sunday, some in our church were hurt, literally, by falling branches weighed down by the ice (here’s some coverage of their story in our local newspaper).
So, in a sense, I still feel like I’m digging out of the weekend. I hope you had a productive one. Unfortunately, I don’t have a sermon to link to. I’ll pick up where I’ve been in 1 John next Sunday, Lord willing.
My 11/22/15AM Sermon, God Is Love from 1 John 4:7-12, is now online. I love how big this truth of God’s love works through the lives of those who are believers. Here’s one quote I used from Paul Tripp:
“If you ceased to love, you’d be an unpleasant human being but you would cease to be human. The same cannot be true of God, though. If He ceased to love, He’d cease to be God, because He IS love.”
Because God is Love, we are compelled to act in very specific and pointed ways. This sermon tried to tease out some of these and I hope it proves helpful for you.
Wrapped up a huge weekend at Crestview.
Before that, though, I was blessed to serve my family on Friday as Meg’s great aunt passed away. The memorial service was Friday afternoon in Coldwater, KS. I tried to encourage them with the truth of Jesus being the Resurrection and the Life. It was a great time remembering lost loved ones with them.
I hustled back to Hutch for a Bible Intensive Retreat with Jim Elliff and Kole Farney. Our Elders had benefitted from this earlier in the year, so we met as Elders and Deacons with Jim and Kole to think about John 10 together. It was rich fellowship seeing Jesus is the Door, the Good Shepherd, The Christ, and the Son of God — truths that must be responded to.
Jim graciously filled the pulpit for me on Sunday morning with a sermon out of many passages in Hebrews on the Dangers of Declension. We included Jim’s handout 5 Resolves for Personal Revival in the bulletin. I know God used this sermon to call me out of staleness to vibrancy and I’m praying God uses this entire weekend in our body to awaken us to the realities of who He is and what He’s done for us.
My 6/28/15AM sermon, An Advocate from 1 John 2:1-2, is now online. I can’t think of better news in a day when sin doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal and then people in the church think the world’s sin is a bigger deal than their own than to point to our one and only Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, The Righteous. I hope this sermon encourages you as you walk in this world.
My 6/21/15AM sermon, Careful Confession from 1 John 1:8-10, is now online. This sermon is the third in our series on 1 John, teasing out some implications of what it means to be believers. I hope it helps you have assurance in your relationship with God.
My 3/22/15AM sermon, Jesus Is The Door from John 10:7-10 is now online (Small Group Questions here). I had been out of the pulpit a couple of weeks with my India trip, so it was good to return to this series that our church is doing through this Easter season.
This particular sermon highlighted how Jesus is exclusive from other religious leaders, how He’s the Savior and how He gives abundant life. So, I’m hoping this sermon was helpful and engaging and promoting a deeper reliance on Him.
My 2/8/15AM sermon, Scripture in Romans, is now online (Small Group Questions here). In this sermon, I seek to unpack how we are led to understand the Bible fitting together as Romans handles all kinds of OT references and quotes. Typically, at the start of the year, we begin with a sermon related to prayer and then a sermon related to the importance of God’s Word (our Elders feel these are important rhythms for us). So, this sermon is there to help us draw near to God through His Word, encouraging a love for the Scriptures. Hope you enjoy it.
Just realized I never posted a recap from my Sunday’s sermon…been a busy week in church life. We kicked off our Week of Prayer on Sunday and my sermon was a conglomeration of texts from Romans related to prayer. I entitled the sermon Prayer In Romans. We’ve also produced some resources related to our Week of Prayer. One is simply a prayer devotional that people have been using each day to fire their hearts for prayer, based on Juan Sanchez’ recent article the Priority of Prayer (in Credo Magazine’s How Then Shall We Pray?). We’ve also launched a Passport to Prayer, a way for people to connect to us throughout the year in prayer. It features 10 different prayer stations and different requests related to church life. I’ve heard great things about this so far. It’s still not to late to join our Week of Prayer. Join us!