Advent
Last year, North Church produced a booklet designed to read daily through the Advent season. We want to encourage you to share this link and ask someone to read it with you as you wait with expectation for THE COMING
Some thoughts from today
I am bound by time and I am bound by my lack of faith. Time chains me to my worry and stress because I cannot see the coming redemption and glory of the Lord. My lack of faith binds me because I do not trust the sovereignty of the Lord and surrender to His goodness with my family, my church, my friends and my finances.
So I find myself bound in darkness of stress and worry and sleeplessness. My mind races to places of insecurity and doubt and when I arrive at that destination I am willing to remain there.
But the truth is, Jesus is has defeated all darkness in all forms. Any chains that bind me are imagined. KNOW THAT and soak it in to your spirit.
Have a great day in Jesus today.
So I find myself bound in darkness of stress and worry and sleeplessness. My mind races to places of insecurity and doubt and when I arrive at that destination I am willing to remain there.
But the truth is, Jesus is has defeated all darkness in all forms. Any chains that bind me are imagined. KNOW THAT and soak it in to your spirit.
Have a great day in Jesus today.
The Advent Season is here
The Advent Conspiracy is a movement that we connected with last year during this time and we are doing so again this year. Check out the link to learn more about them.
This year it will be a bit different for us as we highlight four different missionaries that North Church is connected with. Each week during Advent we will see a different missionary present who they are and what God has called them to and tell us how we can connect with them.
Here are the four missionaries that we will connect with::
Ryan and Jamie Wagner with Campus Crusade for Christ (November 28)- Ryan and Jamie will be moving from St. Louis to Boulder Colorado sometime this winter to take the gospel to the campus of the University of Colorado. Ryan and Jamie are still raising support and looking for partners for their ministry. You will be given a chance to partner with them.
Vernon and Amber Burger with His Voice for Sudan (December 5)- His Voice's mission is "empowering orphans, widows an church leaders to make disciples of all nations. His Voice reaches out and supports local indigenous churches in The Sudan. There is an epidemic of orphans in the Sudan, so the practical way they are doing this is building, staffing, and equipping orphanages in The Sudan. You can also purchase this song on iTunes and every dime goes to build orphanages in The Sudan.
Dave and Kelly missionaries to Southeast Asia (December 12)- We have been praying with and for Dave and Kelly for more than two years as they take the gospel to this highly populated and gospel suppressing country.
Randy an Hannah Riggs with World Impact (December 19)- Randy and Hannah have are missionaries to the inner city of St. Louis. They help to run ministry center on North Grand in North St. Louis City. Poverty, gangs, drugs, absent parents, and gun fire are all dealt with daily. But God has called them into the culture and has allowed them to see fruit and they have begun to raise up leaders within the culture for the sake of the gospel.
We will be giving you opportunities to connect with time, money, prayer, and other ways to partner with each of these missionaries during the Advent season. Take time to pray for them today and consider how you might partner with them this Advent season.
This year it will be a bit different for us as we highlight four different missionaries that North Church is connected with. Each week during Advent we will see a different missionary present who they are and what God has called them to and tell us how we can connect with them.
Here are the four missionaries that we will connect with::
Ryan and Jamie Wagner with Campus Crusade for Christ (November 28)- Ryan and Jamie will be moving from St. Louis to Boulder Colorado sometime this winter to take the gospel to the campus of the University of Colorado. Ryan and Jamie are still raising support and looking for partners for their ministry. You will be given a chance to partner with them.
Vernon and Amber Burger with His Voice for Sudan (December 5)- His Voice's mission is "empowering orphans, widows an church leaders to make disciples of all nations. His Voice reaches out and supports local indigenous churches in The Sudan. There is an epidemic of orphans in the Sudan, so the practical way they are doing this is building, staffing, and equipping orphanages in The Sudan. You can also purchase this song on iTunes and every dime goes to build orphanages in The Sudan.
Dave and Kelly missionaries to Southeast Asia (December 12)- We have been praying with and for Dave and Kelly for more than two years as they take the gospel to this highly populated and gospel suppressing country.
Randy an Hannah Riggs with World Impact (December 19)- Randy and Hannah have are missionaries to the inner city of St. Louis. They help to run ministry center on North Grand in North St. Louis City. Poverty, gangs, drugs, absent parents, and gun fire are all dealt with daily. But God has called them into the culture and has allowed them to see fruit and they have begun to raise up leaders within the culture for the sake of the gospel.
We will be giving you opportunities to connect with time, money, prayer, and other ways to partner with each of these missionaries during the Advent season. Take time to pray for them today and consider how you might partner with them this Advent season.
From the Sermon this week
The Gospel Coalition is an organization of gospel minded church leaders across the globe. This is a tweet from their Twitter account from today that stuck me as I prepared for the message this week. "The gospel doesn’t just make you right with God, it frees you to delight in Him."
Works based justification makes you pay attention to who you are and what you have done and honest evaluation of this always makes you feel the weight of your inadequacies. Faith based justification puts the work on Jesus and what he has already finished and always leaves us filled.
This all reminds me of a verse that I am struck with lately (Genesis 2:25). I long to be so Christ focused that I am naked and unashamed.
Works based justification makes you pay attention to who you are and what you have done and honest evaluation of this always makes you feel the weight of your inadequacies. Faith based justification puts the work on Jesus and what he has already finished and always leaves us filled.
This all reminds me of a verse that I am struck with lately (Genesis 2:25). I long to be so Christ focused that I am naked and unashamed.
Two Points:: Thursday November 18
Point 1
"You are no more capable of doing better than you are of creating new world." A W Pink.
So many of us, even those who seek to know, understand and apply the gospel, are plagued by this need to do better, to be better. I was involved in sports and church as a kid. A lot of my sports teams were very good and we were pushed to work hard, practice hard, give max effort all the time and that would yield success.
In church, I was taught the same thing. Our offering envelopes that got mailed to our house every three months had boxes on them to check off. The boxes were giving, bible brought, bible read daily, Sunday School attendance, outreach attendance and some more that I do not remember.
The point of these boxes was to get the minds of the members to think about such things. But the result that was poured into my conscience was that these are things that I could do to make God happy, to be a good Christian. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these things. But there is something very wrong with my working to get to God.
Point 2
Genesis 2:25 says that Adam and Eve were (pre-sin) naked and unashamed. Gen 3:7 says that Adam and Eve (post-sin)knew they were naked and so they did things to cloth themselves.
What if we stopped focusing on who or what we are and started to focus on who and what God is? What if that took away this need to try harder or try to cover ourselves? What if our problem is that we are too focused on ourselves and we need to get back to that place in the garden where we were naked and unashamed. Between Genesis 2:25 and 3:7 the physical thing that happens to Adam and Eve is that their eyes are opened to who they are. That is, they are distracted from God and His pure beauty and provision by themselves.
"You are no more capable of doing better than you are of creating new world." A W Pink.
So many of us, even those who seek to know, understand and apply the gospel, are plagued by this need to do better, to be better. I was involved in sports and church as a kid. A lot of my sports teams were very good and we were pushed to work hard, practice hard, give max effort all the time and that would yield success.
In church, I was taught the same thing. Our offering envelopes that got mailed to our house every three months had boxes on them to check off. The boxes were giving, bible brought, bible read daily, Sunday School attendance, outreach attendance and some more that I do not remember.
The point of these boxes was to get the minds of the members to think about such things. But the result that was poured into my conscience was that these are things that I could do to make God happy, to be a good Christian. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these things. But there is something very wrong with my working to get to God.
Point 2
Genesis 2:25 says that Adam and Eve were (pre-sin) naked and unashamed. Gen 3:7 says that Adam and Eve (post-sin)knew they were naked and so they did things to cloth themselves.
What if we stopped focusing on who or what we are and started to focus on who and what God is? What if that took away this need to try harder or try to cover ourselves? What if our problem is that we are too focused on ourselves and we need to get back to that place in the garden where we were naked and unashamed. Between Genesis 2:25 and 3:7 the physical thing that happens to Adam and Eve is that their eyes are opened to who they are. That is, they are distracted from God and His pure beauty and provision by themselves.
From the Sermon Tomorrow (11.13.10)
We are justified by faith and not by the law.
There is no amount of right doing that will get us to God. In fact, it is detrimental to our getting to God, because our success and failure in following the law places our focus on self and not on God. The old chorus, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus gets it exactly right. It says, "Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."
This is a theme that is all throughout the book of Galatians and will be all throughout the sermon in church tomorrow. It is a message that is worthy of redundancy, because we just do not get it. Our bend is always toward religion and trying to earn our way. Even in earthly relationships, we try to earn things. But our relationship with God is based only the fact that Jesus Christ suffered a death that we should have suffered to satisfy the penalty for sin that we could not satisfy so that sin could be put away and we could live.
The thing is that even that understanding of the gospel can self focused. Our right view of God and the gospel can be the things that puffs us up and we wind up centered around our right understanding of God, rather than being centering around Christ Himself.
There is no amount of right doing that will get us to God. In fact, it is detrimental to our getting to God, because our success and failure in following the law places our focus on self and not on God. The old chorus, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus gets it exactly right. It says, "Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."
This is a theme that is all throughout the book of Galatians and will be all throughout the sermon in church tomorrow. It is a message that is worthy of redundancy, because we just do not get it. Our bend is always toward religion and trying to earn our way. Even in earthly relationships, we try to earn things. But our relationship with God is based only the fact that Jesus Christ suffered a death that we should have suffered to satisfy the penalty for sin that we could not satisfy so that sin could be put away and we could live.
The thing is that even that understanding of the gospel can self focused. Our right view of God and the gospel can be the things that puffs us up and we wind up centered around our right understanding of God, rather than being centering around Christ Himself.
The Gospel is at Stake Update
We are a few weeks into our series on the book of Galatians called, "The Gospel is at Stake." We have just finished the first chapter. So I thought it would be a good idea to bring us up to speed on what is going on and reintroduce the central theme of the book as we study.
Context
Paul is the author of the book and he has started churches in various cities and towns in the region of Galatia. In each one of the cities, Paul had previously preached the gospel and started churches by appointing and training leaders of those churches. While preaching, Paul was threatened with death if he continued to preach by religious power wolves. Paul was actually stoned just outside of one of the cities and left for dead.
This did not stop Paul, he would get up and go to the next city knowing full well that those same power wolves would follow him into the city and cause chaos. But the gospel was more important to Paul than his safety. So he went in and taught these people the gospel.
Theme
It is very simple and it is the message that Paul preached to the people prior to him writing the book. The theme is salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone and not through any religious activity.
Chapter 1
Through the first chapter of the book Paul has reinforced two things strongly. First, the gospel. Paul very simply points out the gospel in Galatians 1:4 and points out, with vigor, his purpose for the book in Galatians 1:6. In the second half of chapter one Paul continues by proclaiming that his message of the gospel is the message that God has charged him with teaching. It is Paul's authority to proclaim the gospel.
What is ahead
This week we begin to look into the mission of Paul and the mission that we have as men and women "entrusted with the gospel". We hope to see you Sunday at 10:00 am at 660 Charbonier in Florissant. You can also check out the podcast of the message linked from our website and Facebook page.
