From One Degree to Another

Phil Auxier's Blog

Connect

Weekend Recap – Thanksgiving Week

by

We enjoyed a wonderful day yesterday at Crestview celebrating Thanksgiving. We continue to use our 2021 Gratitude Guide to reflect on God’s goodness and how we have reason to give thanks. My sermon on 11/21/21, I Thank God (Luke 18:9-14), dug into the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector to give us some diagnostic questions to consider as we think about our gratitude to God.

If you don’t follow the church’s facebook or instagram accounts, check them out. We opened our dinner last night thinking about Psalm 92:1, It is good to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praise unto Your name, O Most High. We had time for people to give thanks and we also opened by singing praise to God’s name as we sang the Doxology together. Here’s the video:

Have a great Thanksgiving week, giving thanks to God for His many blessings.

Weekend Recap – The Darkness

by

Yesterday, at Crestview, I preached sermon #2 in our mental health series. The sermon, Confidence in the Darkness (Psalm 43), focused on how God gives us firm footing for the mental health challenges we are facing. In this series, the graphics were designed to show the light and the darkness. Where week 1 was after eliminating the stigma around mental health, this sermon was about giving people in the darkness some sort of spiritual ballast to stabilize them in the fog of mental health realities. I hope the sermon encourages you.

Weekend Recap – Walking In The Light

by

My sermon at Crestview from 11/7/21, Walking In The Light (1 John 1:5-10), is online. This sermon was my intro to a short series on mental health and aimed to remove mental health-related stigma among church people. God has meant for His people to be a people shaped by the good news so that people can open up about their realities and be helped with the Gospel, safely, over time. John wrote this passage so that believers can know they have eternal life, and one application would be how we’re walking in fellowship with others. This issue and others were at play in this sermon.

Also, in the sermon, I mention a quiz related to whether we’re part of the stigma. Visit NAMI’s Pledge to Be StigmaFree for more info.

Weekend Recap – Ref Day 2021

by

My 10/31/21 sermon at Crestview, Reformed and Always Reforming (2 Corinthians 3:18), is online. Reformation Day rarely falls on a Sunday, so I used this opportunity to think about how the church can grow (or semper reformanda, always be reforming). Specifically, we dug into how we need more love and more Bible (transformation), leading to a new of more Jesus. I hope this sermon encouraged you, and if you haven’t heard it, it will bless you.

Weekend Recap – Free From Anxieties

by

My 10/24/21 sermon at Crestview Bible Church, Free From Anxieties (1 Corinthians 7:25-40), is now online. The challenge of this sermon was that the original situation Paul is addressing was related to unmarried people in the Corinthian church, so I worked to apply this to unmarrieds in our congregation. But, because Paul’s overarching concern was to free the people from anxieties, I gave some applications to those of us who struggle with anxiety. And, in that sense, I hope this sermon encourages you.

Weekend Recap – Contentment

by

My 10/17/21 sermon, The Rare Jewel of Contentment (1 Corinthians 7:17-24), is online. This sermon dug into the thrice-repeated words to recognize the life we’ve been given from the Lord. We are called to certain actions in light of this. This passage, then, invites us into contentment so that we might walk in a certain way. I think this particular section unlocks the book of 1 Corinthians. So, I hope the sermon encourages you.

A Long Overdue Recap

by

Sept 12 – Who Judges Who? – 1 Corinthians 5:9-13

Sept 26 – The Gospel and Our Bodies – 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Oct 3 – On Marital Intimacy – 1 Corinthians 7:1-7

Oct 10 – Called To Peace – 1 Corinthians 7:8-16

As you can see, I’ve been neck-deep in the book of 1 Corinthians. This book is challenging in some ways. But, as I continue to work through the content, my heart is so encouraged because the central aim is that the good news of what God has done for us through His Son should impact the way we live. And, in these passages that I’ve summarized in these sermons, you can see how the Gospel informs judgment, how we use our bodies, how marital intimacy is enjoyed, and how relationships can find peace.

I hope these encourage you.

Weekend Recap – A Clean People

by

My 9/5/21 sermon, A Clean People (1 Corinthians 5:1-8), is now online. Among other things, this sermon dug into how the church at Corinth needed to take action with a notorious sinner, doing things that both God and the surrounding culture knew were wrong. Instead of addressing it, though, they are arrogantly boasting in this sin. Paul directs them to restorative action in light of the sacrifice Christ has made for sin. In giving them direction, Paul helps all of us deal with sin, as well. I hope this sermon encourages you.

Weekend Recap – Fixing Pride

by

My 8/29/21 sermon at Crestview, Fixing Pride (1 Corinthians 4:14-21), is online. In dealing with the arrogance of the Corinthian church, Paul encourages them to flee pride as a father admonishes his children. They are encouraged to step into this action out of what Christ has done for them and with the examples they have around them of people living this way. Moreover, what’s needed is action, not mere talk. I hope this sermon encourages your fight against pride. n

Weekend Recap – Regarding Ministry

by

My 8/15/21 sermon, Regarding Ministry (1 Corinthians 4:1-5), is now online. In the day and age we live in there is a lot of confusion about what ministry is and what we should make of it. Using Paul’s instruction to the church at Corinth, I try to help us chart a way forward in thinking about these things. I hope it encourages you.