Weekly Email 2.10.15

Dear LPBC,

I pray your week is going well, and by God’s grace your love of Christ is growing more. No matter how our week goes according to our plan, we can always trust our good God. He has not withheld His own Son, but freely given Him to us for our salvation.

Recap-

We gathered together on Sunday to glorify Him and we once again found Him to be full grace and truth.

During our Sunday School hour two courses were taught.

I taught a session on our church covenant in our Membership Matters course. We talked about how the church covenant is central to our identity as a church and how it helps clarify our relationship to one another. Please come out and learn more about our church this week as we study biblical basis for church membership. We begin at 9:30 A.M.

Andrew Nedimyer taught the other class called Meeting with God. This upcoming week, Lord willing, Nate Mouli will lead us in our next section of this class. I pray you will all be encouraged to grow in your personal devotions as result of this seminar. The class is at 9:30 A.M. Pray for Nate as he prepares and encourage him by attending as he leads us in this edifying study.

In the service, we looked at John 6 v60-71. We considered the distinction between true and false disciples. True disciples understand that in this fallen world, there is no better place to turn than to Christ. He alone has the words of eternal life.

Lord willing, this Sunday we will be in John 7. Read and pray in advance. Pray for the preaching of the Word.

In the evening, we gathered again for prayer and song. By grace, we prayed over many people. We asked God to work and use us to see people come to Christ. Sean Slick led us in a thoughtful application from Proverbs 5. Praise God for Sunday Nights! Praise God that we get to come together for prayer and encouragement!

Upcoming-

· Wednesday Night Study- Titus 1 v9 @ 7PM

· Sunday, Feb 15^th – Men in Prayer and Repentance @5PM

Prayer-

Pray that we would be great ambassadors for the King.

Pray for our love for one another.

Pray for all our services.

Pray for our expectant mothers.

Pray for God's guidance for me as a pastor.

Pray that our love Jesus would be greater than our love of sin.

Comments

John Stott on the "old man" and the "body ruled by sin" in Rom 6 v 6

There are, in fact, two quite distinct ways in which the New Testament speaks of crucifixion in relation to holiness. The first is our death to sin through identification with Christ; the second is our death to self through imitation of Christ. On the one hand, we have been crucified with Christ. But on the other we have crucified (decisively repudiated) our sinful nature with all its desires, so that every day we renew this attitude by taking up our cross and following Christ to crucifixion. The first is a legal death, a death to the penalty of sin; the second is a moral death, a death to the power of sin. The first belongs to the past, and is unique and unrepeatable; the second belongs to the present, and is repeatable, even continuous. I died to sin (in Christ) once; I die to self (like Christ) daily. It is with the first of these two deaths that Romans 6 is chiefly concerned, although the first is with a view to the second, and the second cannot take place w...

Boice: “... the federal way of dealing with us was actually the fairest and kindest of all the ways God could have operated. ”

Adam had been appointed by God to be the representative of the race so that if he stood, we too would stand, and if he fell, we would fall with him. Adam did fall, as we know. So death passed upon everyone. “But isn’t that terribly unfair?” someone protests. “Isn’t it cruel for God to act in this fashion?” ... the federal way of dealing with us was actually the fairest and kindest of all the ways God could have operated. Besides, it was the only way it would later be possible for God to save us once we had sinned. In other words, federalism is actually a proof of God’s grace, which is the point the passage comes to (vv. 15 ff.). It was gracious to Adam first of all. Why? Because it was a deterrent to his sin. God must have explained to Adam that he was to represent his posterity. That might have restrained him from sinning. A father who might be tempted to steal his employer’s funds (and would if only he himself were involved), might well decide not to do it if he kne...

Repackaging the gospel? It's more like obscuring the gospel!

Preface : I recognize this post may make me unpopular with some, but I think it is an important issue to blog about here. I’ve had time to reflect on this video and in my opinion, I think what is in this video raises some questions. This gentleman featured below is slotted to speak at the SBC's 2020 Pastors' Conference and it prompted me to think more about this illustration. I want to note that I don't know him and I have no personal issue with him. I assume he is a brother in the LORD. Having said that, I see some significant issues here that relate to this type of preaching being clear on the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, it appears to be obscuring it in my observation. Concern: Should the SBC or churches, in general, be in the habit of holding this up as a good and healthy example? Let's think about it some together. (Watch this clip below here first.) Context: The clip was posted to stand on its own a...

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