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Watch Weekend Sermon - Entries from January 2011
SunSundayJanJanuary30th2011
“ALL IN”, EVEN WHEN I FAIL (Exodus 2:11-25)
This Past Weekend’s Message Summary:
Bad news about failure:
1. I can expect to fail when I move ahead of God (v.11-12)
2. I can guarantee consequences to my sin/failure (v.13-15)
Good news about failure:
3. God does not give up on failures (v.16-22)
4. God will use me despite my failures (v.22-25)
Weekly Bible Reading Plan:
- Day 1: Exodus 9
- Day 2: Exodus 10
- Day 3: Exodus 11
- Day 4: Exodus 12
Weekly Devotional:
Read Exodus 2:11-25
- Put
yourself in Moses’ place. How would you have felt knowing that the
Egyptians were oppressing your family? What did Moses do in an attempt
to demonstrate his commitment to his family, the people of Israel? Why
was his reaction ultimately moving ahead of God?
- How
do you react to provocation, injustice or being treated unfairly?
Why? How can you avoid letting your emotions draw you into unwise
actions?
- What
were the consequences Moses faced for his sin? Read Galatians 6:6-10.
What do these verses teach us about the consequences of sin? How have
you seen this illustrated in your own life? Why do we sometimes fail to
believe this important truth about consequences?
- Moses
fled to the wilderness of Midian where he would spend 40 years in
preparation for what would be his life-defining moment. As you consider
your own life, do you embrace the “wildernesses” of your life, or do
you try to escape them? How can you better maximize and embrace your
wilderness experiences and allow God to teach and prepare you?
- How
did the Israelites’ condition affect God? What four words do verses
24-25 use to describe God’s response to His people? Do you believe that
God hears, remembers, sees and knows YOU? As you reflect on this, how is it a blessing or encouragement to you today?
- Knowing that we all fail, in what ways are you greatly encouraged to not give up knowing that God will never give up on you?
WedWednesdayJanJanuary26th2011
THINK GREATLY OF THE GREATNESS OF GOD
John Owen lived over 300 years ago at the absolute peak of the
Renaissance period in Europe. It was a time of monumental thought and
achievement. Everywhere people were digging into classical literature
with a hunger unseen before this time, and almost overnight the old
writings of Rome and Greece become all the vogue. In this stream, and
while the rest of the worldly folk are reading guys like Cicero and
Plato, followers of Jesus like Owen start grabbing copies of the Greek
and Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible. With discipline and study these
men and women become absolutely titanic thinkers, blessing you and me
with their writings even today.
 One of
Owen’s books is a tiny but wonderful little piece called The
Mortification of Sin, in which he outlines the methods and means
by which we can actually put sin to death in our lives. Dogged by
lust? Haunted by a thought life out of control? Chased by a tongue you
struggle with reigning in? Hounded by anger and jealousy? Owen gives
answers to killing this sin from God’s Word that are super helpful and
downright lethal to our flesh.
I want to summarize one
of his answers, or methods for killing sin in our lives today, and that
is, to “Think Greatly of the Greatness of God.” By this Owen
means that our hearts are to be daily focusing on the majesty of God in
contrast to ourselves; to think much of the awesomeness of our God and
of our humbleness in his light. When the gap between God’s glory and
ours is more clearly seen, the end result is that sin is hated, worship
rises, and we can say with Job...
“I had heard of you
by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise
myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5,6).
But
then, taking what God has revealed of himself and making ourselves
teeny is just one part. Owen encourages us to think also of how
little we actually know of God. It is entirely true that we know
him almost exclusively through what he has done. For example, we know
God is a loving God because he acts in love, he does stuff because he
loves us, and chiefly he sent his Son to die for us. In contrast we do
not, nor can we ever know the essential and infinite nature of God’s
love completely. The same is true for his goodness, his holiness, his
justice, his mercy, his wrath, his faithfulness, and so on. Our
thoughts are low, says Owen and unworthy of his glory with any attempt
to reach God’s perfections failing completely. To put our finite minds
around such limitless concepts is a bit like trying to stack the
mountains on the surface of a penny…it just can’t be done. In the light
of his vast glory we can’t even begin to comprehend the awesomeness of
our God.
Far from being a fruitless effort, when the
mind recognizes its inability to completely grasp God’s complete
character, sin is hated even more and worship rises here also.
When the blinders are taken off and we actually catch a glimpse of his
transcendence, our jaws should drop and our lives should change.
So
with that, here are three passages that speak directly to the
majesty of our God. All three take us to the eternal throne room of
God and leave us with a deep sense of his greatness. If you read
these, do me a favor and take note of the authors fumbling for words to
describe what they saw, and note also their drastic response to the
greatness they saw.
- Ezekiel 1:4-28
- Isaiah 6:1-13
- Revelation 1:9-20
SunSundayJanJanuary23rd2011
ALL IN PARENTS (Exodus 2:1-10)
This Past Weekend’s Message Summary:
- All in parents have faith (v.1-2)
- All in parents have vision (v.2)
- All in parents have a plan (v.3-8)
- All in parents get paid (v.9)
- All in parents are...all in! (v.10)
Weekly Bible Reading Plan:
- Day 1: Read Exodus 5
-
Day 2: Read Exodus 6
-
Day 3: Read Exodus 7
-
Day 4: Read Exodus 8
Weekly Devotional:
Reflection/Discussion Questions (for families, couples or individuals):
1. How
did God plan for the infant Moses to survive Pharoah’s murderous plot?
What surprised you about how God chose to deliver Moses?
2. What did Moses’ survival cost his mother and sister? What has been the most costly thing you’ve had to do for God?
3. Why
do you think Pharoah’s daughter defied her father’s orders? In what
circumstances is it appropriate for children to do this?
4. What
vision does God have for your life/family? Have you taken the time to
ask Him? What is the next step to take in seeing God’s vision fulfilled
in your life/family?
5. Moses’ parents had a plan for their son. Do you have a plan for how you and your family can be more All In
for God? What are some things you might plan to do this week to be
more intentional in your life/marriage/family? (see some suggestions
below)
7 Ways to Be More Intentional at Being All In with your Family this Week:
- Read a story or chapter from the Bible and discuss it together
- Pray for and with one another
- Memorize a verse together as a family/couple
- Seek out an opportunity to boldly share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone you know
- Crank up loud some songs of worship on your stereo
- Find a way to minister to someone who needs to be loved in a special way this week
- Spend
time just being together (i.e. eat dinner as a family, play a board
game, do a puzzle, go for a walk, build a snowman, etc)
6. Like in the case of Moses’ parents, God will bless and reward those who are truly All In
for Him. What reward are you living for? Are you more about this
world or about eternity, in how you are living as an individual or
family? How can you tell?
7. Reflect together on the following verse:
“He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the
treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews
11:26, ESV)
SatSaturdayJanJanuary15th2011
ALL IN: THE STAGE IS SET (Exodus 1:1-22)
As we begin our new series on the life of Moses, we want to provide some resources to you to help you go after the “All In”,
fully devoted life for Jesus Christ. Each week we will provide a
summary of the key points from the previous weekend’s sermon, as well as
a weekly devotion with reflection questions that you can do either
individually, as a couple, or as a family. We will also provide four
days of reading in the book of Exodus that will have you to the end of
Exodus when this series is completed. We pray that this will be a
helpful and fruitful resource for you as you seek to be “All In”!
This Past Weekend’s Message Summary:
- We see blessing by the hand of God (v.1-7)
- We see growth in the midst of affliction (v.8-14)
- We see the fear of the Lord in the face of pressure (v.15-21)
Weekly Devotional:
Reflection Questions (for families, couples or individuals):
- Even
under great affliction from the Egyptians, the people of Israel
continued to grow and be fruitful. What does this say about how God
works in our lives and the promises that He makes to us in the midst of
our trials? How is that an encouragement to you today?
- The
midwives faced great pressure to give in to the commands of the king of
Egypt. What pressures are you facing to compromise or do wrong? What
does it look like to fear the Lord above all else in these
circumstances?
Weekly Bible Reading Plan:
- Day 1: Read Exodus 1
-
Day 2: Read Exodus 2
-
Day 3: Read Exodus 3
-
Day 4: Read Exodus 4
ThuThursdayJanJanuary6th2011
God’s Faithfulness in My Pursuit of Holiness
I was reading recently the story of Abraham’s encounter with Abimelech in Genesis 20. If you need a quick refresher, the story goes that Abraham and Sarah misled Abimelech, the king of Gerar, by pretending that Sarah was Abraham’s sister. Abimelech, ignorant of the truth, proceeded to take Sarah as his own. But God confronted him on this in a dream, warning Abimelech that if he did not return Sarah, God would strike him down dead. Abimelech pleaded with God, making the case that he was ignorant of the situation and had acted with a clear conscience.
God responded by saying this:
Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her." (Genesis 20:6, ESV)
Since reading that account, one of the things that I’ve been reflecting on is how it is that you and I actually pursue holiness and seek to be free from sin in our lives. The fact is that temptations to sin are sure to come, whether we walk into them ourselves in our flesh, or we encounter them in other ways. And as Christ-followers, we cannot ignore the clear commands by God from Scripture to flee sin and to pursue what is holy, right and pure. You and I have a responsibility before God to take holiness seriously and to go after it with all that we have.
Yet, without minimizing our responsibility for holiness, God’s response to Abimelech indicates an encouraging truth for us as we endeavor to keep ourselves from sin, that God is also active in our pursuit of holiness. He, in His unlimited power, has the ability to keep us from sinning against Him.
Consider this familiar promise:
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13, ESV)
Because God loves us, and because He desires to see holiness in our lives even more than we do, He wants to come alongside us in our pursuit of holiness if we allow Him. In His faithfulness, God will always make the way for holiness for us. But we simply need to choose to walk that path in His strength.
So as you begin this year, reflecting on God’s faithfulness as you seek to pursue greater holiness in the days ahead, here are some ways you might respond:
- Express your gratitude today for the gospel, that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has already taken upon himself what we truly deserve for our sin.
- Confess your sin to the Lord and receive His forgiveness and cleansing through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
- Acknowledge to God your need today for His help in your pursuit of holiness. (You can’t do this alone!)
- Choose the way of holiness in the face of the temptations that will surely come.
- Praise God for His faithfulness toward you in this pursuit.
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