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AM Recap from 1/17 – Reconciled!

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Today’s sermon, Before and After, from Colossians 1:21-22 is now online. The sermon sought to highlight snapshots of God’s reconciling work for us. Before Christ, we were in need of reconciliation. We are reconciled through Jesus’ death on the cross and the result of this is positive – we are presented holy, blameless and above reproach before Him. I thought the sermon got to some good truth for me. I need to be humble and patient with unbelievers who don’t necessarily understand the truth of the Gospel. And, I can have confidence for the future only because of Christ, not my performance.

Any thoughts from anyone else?

Weekend Prep — Reconciled & Jesus

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Here’s the scoop for where we’re headed this weekend as we look gather corporately.

On Sunday AM, we will be focusing in on Colossians 1:21-22 and seeing 3 snapshots of our reconciliation, a before Christ element, the element Christ accomplished in His death and an “after” element looking forward into eternity. Pray for the Gospel to be clear to unbelievers who might be present and for God’s Word to richly build us up.

In the PM service, we will be starting a new series overviewing the big storyline of the Bible. The sermon is entitled “Jesus: The Point of the Old Testament.” I hope to give reasons we know the OT is about Jesus in this message, which will be an important framework for the sermons that will follow.

I am looking forward to seeing each of you this weekend.

Piper on God’s Word…

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Each year, Piper begins the year with a sermon on prayer followed up by a sermon encouraging Bethlehem to be passionate for God’s Word. I had a chance to listen to last Sunday’s sermon, Holding Fast The Word of Life in 2010, and was encouraged and challenged to be passionate for God’s Word.

One part was when Piper was showing how the world influences believers so that they think God’s Word is boring. Piper’s response “Avatar is boring.” His point was that when the Almighty God of the universe speaks, it is never a boring thing. Great point and really used by God to awaken me to the sinful reality of my own heart. Listen, watch, or read and be encouraged.

9 Marks E Journal – Jan/Feb 2010

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The Jan/Feb 2010 9Marks EJournal is now online (on Evangelical Liberalism).

This month’s 9Marks Interview is with Matt Chandler. Here’s a special appeal from Mark Dever:

This past August, Matt shared an hour with us to talk about his ministry. In light of what has happened to Matt in recent days, we contacted him about publishing this interview. He said he was very happy for us to present it, and that he was continuing to trust in God for the future. As you listen to this interview, thank God for our brother and pray for him.

As always, please take advantage of these amazing free resources.

Planning…

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Jeremy Carr has an excellent post over at the Resurgence entitled Make Plans, Not Resolutions. He highlights three types of people: the Non-Planner, the Solo Planner and the Proverbs 16:1 Planner. The Proverbs 16 Planner is:

The Proverbs 16 planner understands that God-centered and God-motivated plans honor the Lord, bless the planner, and benefit others.

This short post would be a helpful read for you. We all can plan better. Some of us need to lighten up and center on God. Others need to plan because their lives are jumbled messes. Either way, we can plan effectively because God is a planning God, trusting Him to direct us.

Weekend Wrap Up – Small Groups…

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Our Sunday PM message, In One Body, from Colossians 3:12-15 is also online. This sermon was my attempt to answer the question, Why do we do small groups? This extraordinary passage calls us to put on Godly characteristics, Godly actions and to pursue Godly unity. To have a context to do these things with other believers, we have small groups. We had a great response of people getting plugged in to relationship with one another. This winter/spring, we will be studying the Gospel Centered Life curriculum from Serge. I am very excited about this curriculum which deals with three questions:
1) What is the Gospel?
2) What does the Gospel do in us?
3) How does the Gospel work through us?

I hope you can be plugged into a small group and grow in grace.

Weekend Wrap Up – Scripture Memory…

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Yesterday’s AM sermon, Indwelling Word, from Colossians 3:16 is online. After our Week of Prayer, we take time to consider how God’s Word can be a part of our lives each year and this year, we decided to launch a Scripture Memory Program church wide. We hoped that our lives individually, our lives in families and our life as a corporate body would all benefit. It was exciting to see how people grabbed onto this. We ran out of books (which meant over 1/2 of our congregation will be involved in this). Here’s what I wrote to introduce the book:

As a church, we are embarking on a new emphasis here. Beginning Sunday, January 10, 2010, we will be seeking to memorize a verse of Scripture each week. All of our publications will use the ESV, since that is the translation we use in the pulpit ministry of Crestview.

This emphasis comes for a few reasons:
1) We want to be characterized by widespread Scripture memory together. As God’s Word is hidden in our hearts, the spiritual benefits we can pursue collectively will undoubtedly multiply.
2) We wanted a simple way to promote family worship. By encouraging our people to be hovering over a particular verse each week, we will be encouraging families to be hiding God’s Word in their hearts together.
3) We wanted to create a simple way to deepen relationships we have with one another in spiritual ways. When you get together for coffee, to exercise, for fellowship or study, we can simply ask, “Do you know this week’s verse?” and be able to transition into spiritual discussions.
4) God’s Word being hidden in our hearts should help us fight against sin week in and week out.
5) Many of us believe this is a great thing, but we need a plan. We are implementing a plan, then, to help us remain disciplined in this.

Dallas Willard has said, “Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our mind with what it needs. The book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it. How does it get in your mouth? Memorization.”

It is in this spirit, then, that the Elders recommend this pursuit to you. May it inspire you and encourage you to glorify and enjoy God, forever.

I hope you have a great week storing up God’s Word in your heart. (Our verse for this first week is Genesis 1:1.)

The Gospel Brings You Into “A New Family”

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…so says Tullian Tchividjian:

“You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,” Paul said. In other words, when God adopts us, we not only gain a Father, we gain a whole new family: the Church. The biblical word for “church” does not mean a building or institution, it means “the called out ones.” It refers to those whom God calls out of slavery and into sonship. The Church, in other words, is people: people adopted by God, people who know God as their heavenly Father. When God saves sinners he saves them into a whole new community — the “family of God.” As Frank Colquhoun wrote in his book Total Christianity, “When Christ saves a man he not only saves him from his sin, he saves him from his solitude.” He brings us into meaningful fellowship with others who will help us along the way in our relationship with God. [a meditation from Tullian’s book Do I Know God?]

This theme of adoption is a key component of our Week of Prayer emphasis. I hope you are encouraged today by what God has done to give us access to Himself in prayer.