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Help When Sin Is Confessed…

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…from The Blazing Center…
Do Respond Humbly

Do Identify With Their Struggle

Don’t Act Shocked

Don’t Blow It Off

Do Follow Up Later

Do Remember the Gospel

The post gives additional insight on each of these. I have found that I do well at some of these, but don’t do a good job of following up later. So, we need to be inviting those who are struggling with sin, but we can’t be satisfied with mere confession (as important as it is). We must be an instrument in God’s hands for their sanctification. So, let’s pursue this…

Keller on Cultivating a Healthy Marriage…

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This sermon, Cultivating a Healthy Marriage by Tim Keller was recommended to me and I’ve found it helpful. Here’s a summary of one section and how the Gospel brings perspective:

Human Heart Presupposition:
I’ll be the spouse I should be; if and to the degree you’re the spouse you should be.

Gospel Reenactment:
I’ll be the spouse I should be even if you’re not the spouse you should be since Jesus loved me in spite of me.

Listen and all your message to be shaped by the Gospel.

(*Updated with the following outline…)
Cultivating a Healthy Marriage
Timothy and Kathy Keller

1.Think of marriage like a garden
A. Whether rain or draught is going to take lots of work
B. Marriage is not the flowers, sod, or leaves but it’s to the best fruit out of the “garden”
C. Can’t walk away from a garden for a few days and think it took care of itself

2.Planning/Planting
A. Why did you get married?
1. Happiness?
2. Family Stability?
3. Both 1 and 2 are unbiblical!
B. Gospel Reenactment is the purpose
1. Requires Gospel Motivation
2. Sacrificial love creates freedom
3. Sacrificial love is always an action first and feeling second
4. Servant or ministry perspective should always be used

3. Headship – both husband and wife play Jesus
A. Husband is the head of the family like Jesus is head of church
B. Wife plays Jesus submitting to the Father to glorify and serve
C. Both headship reveal God’s character because male and female are both created in God’s image
D. Helper possesses strengths the other doesn’t

4. Authority
A. Never used to get something they want
B. Always a gift and used in service to the best interests of the other
C. Voluntary submission between equals
D. Jesus gave used His authority as a sacrifice and will be forever in glory

5. Submission
A. Jesus revolutionizes headship and submission
B. He is exalted above all for His service to God’s children
C. Never submit to a man who is habitually sinning against God

6.Communication
A. Always ask, “What is the goal in what I’m about to say?”
B. Remember the log in your eye
C. Attack the problem not the person
D. Slow down your responses and let the other talk

7.Love Language
A. Behaviors that others do to make me feel loved
B. Speak in the same language. If you speak in French or German your English speaking spouse won’t get it.

8.Conflict Resolution
A. Conflict avoiders and conflict confronters, which are you and why?
B. Use all your energy to solve the problem instead of attacking
C. Keeping a scorecard is a recipe for death in any relationship and especially marriage!
D. The occasion of the conflict never supersedes the cause of the conflict. The cause is always a sinful heart!!

9.Repentance and forgiveness
A. Truth without love ends in breaking people apart
B. Love without truth leads to avoidance of the problem and zero growth
C. No excuses, center on the wrong, and offer to change

Encouragement in Scripture Memory

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Our church is in the midst of a Scripture memory program. The Elder sit down and try to anticipate what the theme will be on Sundays throughout a year and find appropriate passages of Scripture to memorize. We are in the midst of memorizing Hebrews 1:1-4 now to coincide with our Hebrews sermon series starting this weekend.

Here’s a few encouraging links on Scripture memory I’ve found recently.

Andy Naselli blogged on helping younger children memorize and recently updated that post.

Sojourn Church is memorizing Romans 8 in 40 Days and have a devotional with some great tips. We will be memorizing Romans 8:31-39 later this year.

So, I hope you have this week’s verse down (or it’s in process)…

Hebrews 1:1
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets…

Ash Wednesday, Lent and Other Things…

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Today is Ash Wednesday (cue the yawn from most of Protestantism). We don’t tend to think or observe these days in the church year because we perceive that in some cases what they mean has been hijacked for empty ritual (in the best thinking) or we are just plain ignorant (at worst).

Lent was a traditional time in the early life of the church when converts would prepare themselves for baptism. It was a time of deep reflection and purification preparing one’s heart to celebrate the passion week events of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter. Ash Wednesday marks the day in which we’re 40 days out (of Easter).

If you are looking for help in going deeper with God this season, check out the amazing tools at Apostles Church NYC. Specifically, they are doing 40 Days of Prayer, including a daily devotional. Here’s their description of Lent and what they hope to accomplish:

Lent is intended to be a time of refinement, reflection, repentance, worship, and preparation to really celebrate the death of Jesus on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. In 40 Days of Prayer, we sincerely hope to lead our people (and ourselves) through Lent and into a deeper delight in Jesus, appreciation for the gospel, and desire to “seek things above” out of his goodness.

Find ways to seek the Savior and honor Him in this season. May the grace of our Lord be with you richly as you think about Him and His work.

Weekend Recap – Affluenza, Money, & Family

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Yesterday was a great day at Crestview as we journeyed together and thought about what God had to say to us about money, possessions, eternity.

In the AM service, my sermon Affluenza (2) from Matthew 6:21 is now online. This sermon sought to show how our hearts follow treasure (and yes I did quote O Brother Where Art Thou — “Do NOT seek the treasure”, thanks for wondering). Seriously, though, we must keep our hearts with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life. I sought to encourage people to check their hearts in terms of the treasure they lay up.

In the PM service, we continued examining what a Gospel centered family is by looking at Families and Money from 1 Timothy 6:17-19. We are given good things from a good God so that we can do good (be generous and ready to share with others) for a good foundation for eternity. Applications were given about instilling these virtues in our children.

I hope this short series of sermon was helpful. Glorify God in these things, they have eternal ramifications.

Learning To Pray (Again)

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As a church, we’ve spent a great deal of time over the past few months thinking about prayer and what that means for us. Today, I was encouraged to read a post by Thabiti entitled Learning to Pray…Again. I would commend the post to you because he gets to some core struggles we all face (not praying enough, thinking we don’t pray well, etc.) and offers some wise and godly encouragement. Here’s his conclusion:

I’m learning to pray this way again. I suspect that once I’ve “learned” this time, the Lord will teach me yet more.

Why not head over and check out this post and learn to pray…again, yourself.

Confession as a path to change…

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Over at the Desiring God blog, they posted part 1 of The Grace of Confession by Paul Tripp. Meanwhile on Take Your Vitamin Z, Zach Nielsen posted an excerpt from Tripp’s book, What Did You Expect, highlighting this same truth (No Change Without Confession). Here’s the excerpt:

The couple is stuck in a cycle of repeating the same things over and over again. They repeat the same misunderstandings. They rehearse and re-rehearse the same arguments. They repeat the same wrongs. Again and again things are not resolved. Night after night they go to bed with nothing reconciled; they awake with memories of another bad moment, and they march toward the next time when the cycle will be repeated. It all becomes predictable and discouraging. They hate the cycle. They wish things were what they once were. Their minds swing between nostalgia and disappointment. They want things to be different, but they don’t seem to know how to break free, and they don’t seem willing to do the one thing that makes change possible—confess.

They tell themselves they will do better. They promise they will spend more time together. They promise they will pray together for a moment before they start their day. They decide to spend more time together outside the house. They promise they will talk more. But it is not long before all the promises fade away. It is not long before they are in the same place again. All their commitments to change have been subverted by the one thing they seem unwilling to do: take the focus off the other and put it on themselves. Here is the point: no change takes place in a marriage that does not begin with confession.

Confession is the doorway to growth and change in your relationship. It is essential. It is fundamental. Without it you are relegated to a cycle of repeated and deepening patterns of misunderstanding, wrong, and conflict. With it, the future is bright and hopeful, no matter how big the issues that you are now facing.

Confess sin and see if God doesn’t work to impart grace and begin to change you.