I was back in the pulpit preaching at Crestview and got back into our series on 1 Corinthians. My sermon, Seeking Your Neighbor’s Good (1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1), is online. While most Christians think that loving their neighbor is a great idea, many struggle to do this well. And, as Paul gets to the end of a larger section in this book, he draws our hearts up and out to apply this well. I hope the sermon encourages you.

My 2/6/22 sermon at Crestview, For the Sake of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14-23), is online. If I put the sermon in a sentence, it would be that we die to ourselves and serve all because the good news of Jesus has captured us. But, of course, you know the context here is about Paul laying aside his rights to payment or support from the Corinthians so that his preaching and witness are distinct from the orators of the day there. And in this passage, he lays out what drives him to do what he does. So I hope the sermon encourages you.

My 1/30/22 sermon at Crestview, Freedom? (1 Corinthians 9:1-14), is now online. On the heels of 1 Corinthians 8 with all of its instructions that our freedom or rights should be governed by love and that knowledge won’t deliver on what it promises–it puffs up, but love builds up–chapter 9 comes to question everything. As you read 1 Corinthians 9, you’re immediately struck by how many questions are asked. I summarized this with three questions that inform our freedom. And, I hope my sermon encourages you to lay aside your rights for the sake of the Gospel.

My 1/23/22 sermon at Crestview, Love Preferred (1 Corinthians 8:7-13), wrapped up the first half of the book of 1 Corinthians. And this sermon, in particular, gave some more thought to what I taught last week on the failure of knowledge to deliver. Knowledge puffs up, and love builds up. So, when the Corinthians are flexing their freedoms to encourage the eating of meat sacrificed to idols, they are bypassing love and smashing the weaker Christian. The warning for us is that it damages our souls too: we are sinning not only against someone for whom Christ died but are also sinning against Christ Himself. The stakes are high. Love is the most excellent way. I hope this helps you walk in it.

Each year at Crestview, we begin with a Week of Prayer and then end with a sermon emphasizing the importance of God’s Word for our lives. This year, I preached the sermon on getting Into God’s Word in 2022. I’ve been reading and studying Deuteronomy a lot, so this proved to be an excellent time to use an essential part of the ending of that book.

Deuteronomy 32 is a song of Moses that came after his closing remarks to the people. Immediately after this song, as Ray Ortlund says…

This song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1-47) gave us so much to think about related to God’s greatness, our great sinfulness, God’s justice, and His compassion. I used these realities to apply them toward our intake of God’s Word. And, I hope this word encourages you.

We enjoyed a fantastic day yesterday at Crestview. My AM Sermon, Advent Hope (Malachi 4:4-6), helped connect the notion of hope to the coming of Jesus (both first and second advents were in view). I hope that’s an encouragement.

Speaking of Advent, Thomas Cranmer, an English Reformer, wrote some masterful prayers (called Collects) to help guide people during advent. Here’s the first one:

Collect for Advent I:
“Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son, Jesus Christ, came to visit us in great humility: that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead; we may rise to the life immortal.”

https://theanglicanbreviary.wordpress.com/2016/12/10/advent-collects-2/

The highlight for me was getting to be a part of two young women in our church who gave strong testimony of how Jesus has changed them. Here are some pics I’ve collected from yesterday’s baptisms: