talk to yourself

Here's my sermon on Psalm 42. It is adapted from Lloyd-Jones book on Spiritual Depression. You can listen below or download it here.



-joe

titus 3

Last Sunday (not yesterday) I preached a sermon on Titus 3 and the importance of insisting on the Gospel to do good works.

Paul says it well in verse 8: The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

You can listen below or click here to download the sermon.



-joe

Jesus' rabbit hole

Nate Irwin, one of the pastors of College Park Church in Indianapolis, gave a sermon this past Sunday that was powerful. I encourage you to listen to it here.

He begins by recounting part of Alice in Wonderland and then shows us that Jesus, like the rabbit, unveils to us a hole to go down that is completely different than anything we have ever seen before.

Near the beginning of the sermon Nate makes these statements about the standard worldview of many people today:

"We believe we have the right...to do anything that we want...and not to do anything that we don't want. We believe that we're free to love whoever we want and ignore whoever we want as long as we don't do them harm."

He then contrasts that with the worldview (the rabbit hole) that Christ calls us to:

"Jesus says, 'In my world you do not have the right to live, but you have the requirement to die. In my world you do not have the freedom to love, you have the responsibility to love.'"

The requirement to die and the responsibility to love. Powerful.

-joe

church today

It was a busy day. I preached today on Luke 8:40-56 and we had a youth fundraising lunch.

Thankfully I left the planning of that up to several ladies in our church and it went flawlessly. I called on Saturday night to check on things and they had it all set up and ready to go for today. Fantastic. I'm so glad the body of Christ has room for idiots like me who can't plan a dinner at home, let alone a dinner for a church.

And, I'll end the day with the Senior High tonight...going through the rest of Colossians 1. Good stuff.

Here's a link to the sermon and a quick outline if you're interested:

Jesus miracles teach us things about Him and what He came to do. The two miracles in Luke 8 show us that:

1. You must be cleansed of your sin
2. You must be raised from the dead
3. These two are intertwined and cannot be seperated

For those who don't know Christ as Lord and Savior the text is there for you to hear the Gospel and believe.

For those who've experienced the grace of salvation it is there to lead us to fearful worship.

-joe

Act Like Men

Sunday I preached from 1 Corinthians 16:13-14.

The sermon can be summed like this:

Act Like Men

Listen here:

Or download here.


-joe

Missions: Go or Send

Missions was the topic during yesterday's sermon. There are two extremely influential sermons and one book that have shaped my view of missions over the last two years. I reference all three in the sermon. I encourage you to listen to them or read them:

Paris Reidhead's sermon "10 Shekels and a Shirt"
John Piper's book Let the Nations Be Glad
(I am working on finding out the name and hopefully audio link from the sermon on Revelation 5 that was preached at College Park Church in early 2006)

My sermon outlines two ideas: What is the point of missions and evangelism? and What should we do because of that?

The answers: God is the point of missions and evangelism. He is worthy of all praise and adoration and glory because He was slain for our sins. He deserves the reward of his suffering.

We should go and send missionaries because of this glorious truth. We all have the duty as Christians to be sending and going for the cause of Christ because He is worthy. Jesus said "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." We must go, because we are commanded.

Here is the audio from the sermon:

You may also download it here.

-joe

Israel is our example; Christ is our Rock

Yesterday I had the great joy to preach on 1 Corinthians 10:1-22 in an ongoing series in our church in 1 Corinthians titled "The church that didn't have it all together."

The basics of the sermon are this: Israel screwed up, a lot, and God got mad, a lot. But, thankfully, God was also merciful because of His love, through Christ.

So, I work through several of the old testament stories mentioned in the text and then I sum it up with a warning against idolatry and an encouragement that Christ can be our victory.

The sermon is about 35 minutes long.


-joe

ipod

I bought an ipod mini a few weeks ago. It is unbelievable how useful this thing has been to me. I have it loaded with hundreds of sermons and now I can listen to sermons and books on tape anytime...anywhere.

If you don't own one and you can afford the expense, do yourself a favor and buy. Then, sign up for the Desiring God and Mars Hill (Driscoll) podcasts. Get the Don't Waste Your Life vodcasts and you will thank me.

I love it that I don't have to sit at my computer and listen to a sermon because when I'm at my desk, I like to work and not sit and stare at nothing. But now I can grab my ipod and put together furniture at the store, walk or drive and take in a sermon or two. What a great way to get more of God crammed into the day.

sidenote: My sister is safely to Honduras. Keep up with her at her blog.

-joe

upcoming and a funny

I am stoked about Sunday. You wanna know why? 2 reasons.

#1. I am preaching from Ephesians 4:11-16. Ephesians to me is like Galatians to Luther. I may call my future wife Ephesians. I can't wait to talk about Christ on Sunday. I'm jittery with excitement.

#2. I am talking through the first half of Romans 8 with the Sr. High. That passage is such a good follow-up from chapter 7 and there is a nice little break (in my opinion) that will allow me to teach for a couple of weeks on Biblical manhood and womanhood (a requested topic).

and now...the funny. (and no, I'm not going to tell my sweet knock-knock joke).
This is Dr. Jim Orrick. I have no idea who he is or what he thinks, but I saw this on Hershael York's blog and thought it was hilarious. Old man rap...gotta love it.



-joe

worship

today i gave a sermon on john 4:21-24
i borrowed heavily from piper (yeah, that dude rocks) and cited various verses throughout to unpack the idea of spirit and truth. showing that Jesus rejected the idea of the "place" of worship as well as the outward "action" of worship. that it indeed is an outpouring of the Spirit of God through our hearts in reaction to the truth of God as revealed in Scripture and through Jesus Christ.
in order for us to worship him fully, we should seek to understand and know him more. (read: study the Scriptures and the Gospel accounts diligently) after which, by way of the Holy Spirit, our hearts will be quickened, we will respond to the truth in unbelievable joy in our God. then, we will worship. then we can begin to know the idea of corporate worship.
my challenge to the congregation (as well as myself) was to meditate on one aspect of the Gospel each day this week. here's the short version:
Monday--Jesus on the cross bearing the weight of our sins
Tuesday--Jesus in the grave, dead for our transgressions
Wednesday--Jesus is risen and we serve one who conquered the grave
Thursday--Jesus ascending to the heavenly realms, what glory filled the sky
Friday--Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father
Saturday--Jesus triumphant return when every knee will bow

i invite you all to consider the simplicity of our faith this week and fall more deeply in love with our Savior and more completely delight in Him. in that he receive the glory.

-joe