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Weekend Preview – Noah, Faith & Obedience

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By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)


Noah.  We don’t think of him as a man of faith.  Sure, he received grace from God.  But, our verse for this Sunday shows that he was a man who heard a clear (unseen) message from God.  And as he exhibited faith in God, it served to save and condemn.  


Come this Sunday and learn how Faith Obeys…

T4G12 Recap – Part 3

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Having summarized T4G through Wednesday, here’s a summary of Thursday.

We got off on another strong start from Ligon Duncan and his sermon The Underestimated God: God’s Ruthless, Compassionate Grace In the Pursuit of His Own Glory and His Ministers’ Joy (audio/video).  This exposition of 1 Kings 19 helped each attendee identify with Elijah, who wanted God to do amazing things for His glory, but wasn’t allowed to see those things at the moment he wanted them.  This proved to be a great follow up to Platt’s message in helping us continue to trust our God.


In the afternoon, Matt Chandler walked us through Revelation 21 & 22 to see The Fulfillment of the Gospel (audio/video).  Most people’s lives are wrapped up in the here and now, but this vision of where all of history is headed will sustain us through trials and help us see the aim of our work for the Gospel.


Finally, John Piper rounded out the conference by unfolding Jude 24-25 and how Glory, Majesty, Dominion and Authority Keep Us Safe For Everlasting Joy (audio/video).  We ought to be stunned that we are Christians and Piper explained how God allows this to be so.  It was one of the best sermons on the subject of perseverance that I’ve heard and was a great encouragement to see how God will get the glory for salvation by keeping us from the past, through the present and into the future.  


This was an amazing conference.  The sermons seemed to build on each other and continue to help me see a greater, deeper, richer and fuller picture of the Gospel.  I would encourage you to take advantage of the free audio and video resources and allow your soul to be refreshed in the Underestimated Gospel.  

T4G12 Recap – Part 2

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Yesterday, I summarized my trip to Louisville and the happenings on Monday and Tuesday.  In this post, I would like to summarize Wednesday, which was a full day.

Our day began with Thabiti Anyabwile asking Will Your Gospel Transform A Terrorist? (audio/video)  This exposition of Paul’s letter to Timothy ended with the point on celebration for all that our powerful Gospel is able to accomplish.

Quickly after Thabiti’s sermon, Kevin DeYoung came and urged us to pursue holiness with Spirit-Powered, Gospel-Driven, Faith-Fueled Effort (audio/video).  There’s lots of discussion these days as to how the Gospel relates to holiness or, as DeYoung said, how the good news produces good works.  DeYoung answers calling on us to simply obey, which is not against the Gospel of grace.

After some afternoon breakout sessions, we had our final talk of Wednesday in the evening with David Platt speaking on Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions (audio/video).   Many felt that this was the most memorable sermon on missions they had ever heard (including Lig Duncan and John Piper).  It was certainly an amazing sermon from Revelation 5.  There were moments where I stopped taking notes because of what was being said.  God was certainly up to something through this.  We can only hope that this kind of sermon will result in amazing application like we’ve never before seen so that all the nations worship at the Savior’s feet.

I’ll wrap up my summary of everything tomorrow…

T4G12 Recap – Part 1

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As you may or may not know, last week was a slow week blogging because I was with 8000 some odd others at the 2012 Together for the Gospel Conference.  I enjoyed an amazing week with some guys from Crestview.  We left Easter Sunday and got in to St. Louis that night, then drove on into Louisville on Monday.

On Monday night, we attended the Dinner and Dialogue at Southern Seminary.  The food was amazing and the dialogue included Josh Harris, Carl Trueman, Matt Pinson, Jeff Bethke and J.D. Greear, hosted by Russell D. Moore.


On Tuesday, before the conference began, I took in the Band of Bloggers meeting.  This panel included Owen Strachan, Timmy Brister, Justin Taylor, Collin Hansen, and Tim Challies.  These are the uber-bloggers of the Christian world.  This panel included some great discussion as to how our tone should be on blogs and how we can be light to our world.


Finally, then, the conference began on Tuesday.  The lineup was pretty amazing and I still almost have to pinch myself to think that I actually got to be a part of this.  


C.J. Mahaney began with a talk on The Sustaining Power of the Gospel (audio/video).  This message really opened the conference up by setting the tone and helping all present see how the Gospel is able to help us in the midst of our ministries, sustaining us to persevere through hard times.


Next up was Al Mohler, offering one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard from him on The Power of the Articulated Gospel (audio/video).  This simple unfolding of Romans 10 helped all present know the importance of verbalizing the Gospel.  


Finally on Tuesday, Mark Dever gave a warning on False Conversions: The Suicide of the Church (audio/video).  There’s a fine line of tension drawn in raising this subject matter, but Dever was up to the challenge and helped me see how God can be honored through holding the line of His Word.  


(I’ll summarize more tomorrow)…

Weekend Recap – Faith Pleases God

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We enjoyed another great Lord’s Day at Crestview yesterday.  My sermon, Faith Pleases God, from Hebrews 11:5-6, got at Enoch’s example of faith and how faith must draw near to God, who exists and rewards those who seek Him.  Another big takeaway is that it is impossible to please God without faith.  One who draws near to God must believe.  Faith is vital.  Or, to put it another way, faith is our pathway to pleasing God.

In the PM, my small group got together and discussed faith.  All in all, it was a great day.

Easter Weekend Recap – Jesus Christ Our Lord

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You can’t get away from Jesus at Easter.  Yesterday, at Crestview, my sermon was entitled Jesus Christ Our Lord from Romans 1:3-4.  In this sermon, I tried to give an overview of who Jesus is and how this relates to the special nature of Easter.  Specifically, we saw that Jesus is God’s Son, fully man and declared powerful in His resurrection.  Hope you had a great Easter Sunday.

Weekend Preview – Easter

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As you probably know, this coming Sunday is Easter.  It’s an amazing day to gather together and worship, celebrating Jesus and His life, death and resurrection.  This Sunday, in the Scriptures, we will be looking at Romans 1:3-4 and specifically who Jesus is.  I invite you to join us.

We will have an Easter Brunch at 8:30AM.
Sunday School at 9AM.
Worship at 10:15AM.

There will be no evening activities this coming Sunday.

On the Elders…

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There have been some good resources emerge lately on Elders, Deacons and Church Leadership.  Thought I’d connect to those here.  Even if you are casually involved in church life, you would do well to listen in / read up on some of these things, so that you can better pray for / support your local church leaders.

Andy Davis wrote a great post on how to lead elders meetings.  We follow a pretty strict model of taking time for prayer, discussing something devotionally oriented to help us in our work, and then talking “church business.”  Andy’s article helped get some ideas going on making these meetings more helpful.

A recent 9Marks interview discussed Thabiti’s new book Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons.  This, also, had much to commend to the local church leadership and the church at large, helping us think and consider the long term leadership plans of the church.  I’m hoping to get all of our elders and deacons to listen in on this.

We have huge work to do, but it is a joy.  Therefore, receive these tools as opportunities from God to more faithfully serve Him.

Weekend Recap – Sheep

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Yes, we are all like sheep, at least that’s what Isaiah 53:6 says.  This means that we are weak, prone to go astray and Isaiah says we’ve actually done it — we’ve turned every one to his/her own way.  But, our great hope this week (and every day) is that on Christ was laid all of our iniquities.  My sermon from 4/1/12AM entitled Like Sheep from Isaiah 53:6 reveled in these truths.

In the evening, my small group finished Jerry Bridges’ book Respectable Sins.  To say this book affected us is an understatement.  God used this to not only reveal sin, but to deepen our dependence on the Gospel.  There are so many good elements and fruit that my group shared.  If any of you are interested, Bridges kept pointing to Thomas Chalmers’ Expulsive Power of A New Affection.  Click that link and digest that content to see what Chalmers (and Bridges) were driving at.

Have a great Holy Week this week.