Dead to the Gospel?

Men and women who hear the Gospel regularly, I often fear much for you. I fear lest you become so familiar with the sounds of its doctrines, that insensibly you become dead to its power. I fear lest your religion should sink down into a little vague talk about your own weakness and corruption, and a few sentimental expressions about Christ, while real practical fighting on Christ’s side is altogether neglected. Oh, beware of this state of mind! Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. No victory—no crown! Fight and overcome!

~ J.C. Ryle

Puritan Prayer~ Heart Corruptions

May thy Spirit speak in me that I may speak to thee.

I have no merit, let the merit of Jesus stand for me.

I am undeserving, but I look to thy tender mercy.

I am full of infirmities, wants, sin;

thou art full of grace.

I confess my sin, my frequent sin, my wilful sin;

All my powers of body and soul are defiled:

A fountain of pollution is deep within my nature.

There are chambers of foul images within my being;

I have gone from one odious room to another,

walked in a no-man’s-land of dangerous

imaginations,

pried into the secrets of my fallen nature.

I am utterly ashamed that I am what I am in myself;

I have no green shoot in me nor fruit, but thorns

and thistles;

I am a fading leaf that the wind drives away;

I live bare and barren as a winter tree,

unprofitable, fit to be hewn down and burnt.

Lord, dost thou have mercy on me?

Thou hast struck a heavy blow at my pride,

at the false god of self,

and I lie in pieces before thee.

But thou hast given me another Master and Lord,

thy Son, Jesus,

and now my heart is turned towards holiness,

my life speeds as an arrow from a bow

towards complete obedience to thee.

Help me in all my doings to put down sin

and to humble pride.

Save me from the love of the world and the pride

of life,

from everything that is natural to fallen man,

and let Christ’s nature be seen in me day by day.

Grant me grace to bear thy will without repining,

and delight to be

not only chiseled, squared, or fashioned,

but separated from the old rock where I have

been embedded so long,

and lifted from the quarry to the upper air,

where I may be built in Christ for ever.


(Taken from ‘The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers)

Meaghan's Notes~Nov13

Here are my daughter's notes form my sermon this past weekend. We covered Hebrews 3: 7-19. Here is the sermon text followed by her notes. I love her heart and her willingness to allow the gospel to transform her.
....I also love the idea of reading these and at least seeing what a 14 year old girl is hearing


Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

*************************

Hebrews 3:7-19
Psalms 95:7-11
'The rest for the people of God'
-exhort one another every day as long as it is called "today"
Today; is telling us what is taking place, time of opportunity.
The background; people of Israel were slaves of Egypt, God redeemed them out of Egypt, was not Gods will for them to stay in Egypt or wonder in the land for 40 years but to enter into the lans of cannan.
-Holy God, but also a JUST God
He didn't need a reason to punish us, -God is Holy but has Grace
As a result of their disobedience they were not aloud into the Holy Land.
Hebrews think with their mind and heart, Israel went their own way. They continue in the false belief even after God had blessed them everyday, they had manna every day.
Israel put God to test.
Is their times in your life you test God?
Yes we all do, daily, but how often?
When we test God we are putting him on trial, when it doesn't work your way you just are done.

Rest- no activity, 'be still and know that I am God' getting into a place where we can in our own mind set rest.
scripture says for us to rest in Christ alone. We as people try to do things on our own and disobey, when Christ is in control. 'You of little faith why did you doubt me?'
Cease striving
God is in control
How often do I offend God?

-When I step out in my own human effort I'm just making noise.

Even with our talent we still must rest in the talent He has given you.
The more you dig into his word the holy spirit will lead you.
We need to be a people who will enjoy the rest we find in Jesus.

The gospel is not based on what we can do for him but what he does for us.

Eph 2:8-9 'grace'
I and the the father are one
Romans 8 'the apostle Paul' 39 nothing can separate from the love of God, God will glorify us, he wants us to enjoy him forever
What can we do to walk and hopefully get on the mind set of resting in him?
Encourage one another everyday!
Lead each other closer to christ and rest in him so none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of men.
We are called to love one another.
We are his house, God rules and rains.
Hold onto Jesus
Consider Jesus
When you got Jesus you can make it through anything.
Even on the mist of blessing they disobeyed so they had to wonder.
Eph 1:3-14
We shall be holy and blameless before him. In him we have obtained an inheritance. 14Who is guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are Gods possession- to the praise of his glory.
At the time of doing our own thing that is when we start to have a hardened heart, praise be to God that we can have rest in him.
We need to find our rest in him, no matter what we go through.
Be the body that rest in Christ alone, Rejoice in ALL things

-Meaghan
Sunday November 13

Drifting?

William Barclay said, "For most of us the thrust of life is not so much that we should plunge into disaster, but that we should drift into sin. There are few people who deliberately and in a moment turn their backs on God; there are many who day-by-day drift farther and farther away from Him. There are not many who in one moment of time commit some disastrous sin; there are many who, bit by bit and almost imperceptibly, involve themselves in some situation, and suddenly awake to find that they have ruined life for themselves and broken someone else's heart. We would do well to be continually on the alert against the peril of the drifting life"

Hebrews 2:1 "Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it"

Meaghan's Notes- Nov6

Once again, these are the notes my daughter took from my sermon this morning. Loving that my daughter is listening and taking it all in.
I will also issue the warning that there is a great deal of type text in these notes. Hopefully you can follow. Thankful she is willing to share with me what she is getting out of the messages.

"Oh praise the one who paid my debt" Psalms 107

Hebrews 3:1-6- Jesus greater than Moses 

The builder of all things is God. 
We are to be holy because he is holy we must consider his holiness. He is an apostle and high priest. Consider Jesus

He is the high priest. He represents us, he pleads  with us the cause of God and pleads with God our cause.

Reconcile to our God, he was faithful to him just as Moses was faithful to his (God) house. 
Exodus 32:9
Delivering Gods people, did they even appreciate what Moses had done, were they rebellious, yea. 

Jesus came in the flesh to recapture and restore all of us! Jesus is our deliverer. Do we appreciate what He has done? Or are we just like those who Moses led out of captivity ?

Have we made other Gods in our lives? 
Moses delivering Gods people, Moses pleads for the forgiveness  of the people on their behalf. 

Even as Jesus walked in flesh, he still gave it all even when he was ridiculed by the people. Jesus is greater than Moses.
He is:: Creator
Sustainer
Redeemer
Beneficiary 

Moses was a servant for the house of God. Christ is faithful and over the house of God. He adopted us as children of God.
Jesus is Gods son, over Gods family which moses is apart of.
Moses is Gods servant. Jesus is the Son. Jesus is over the family. Moses is a part I the family.

Have we settled for something other than Christ alone?
He has for all of us great plans

Who is Jesus to you? Is he better than everything else to you? 

Thank Jesus for doing all that he does for you. 

We still have to be disciplined to what Christ wants us to do in our lives. 

Our body is the temple of the living God! We are the house. We are His. Our body is what God has given to us. 'Jesus you you hold me together when everything falls apart your the only hope for this heart.'          

  God teach me to what it looks like to be faithful to be an apostle to be a servant to walk in the gospel where ever I go.

Jesus is greater than everything. He is before all things. He was sent in the flesh,  He laid the foundation, he is our high priest, and He restores and rescues us.

God is in control even when I look around and see chaos I have to understand that He is in control. 
He will never leave you nor forsake you.
He is a Reckless lover. Created us.
Called us 2 worship him, will we worship in the fullness of who we are? EVERYTHING!!  
Consider Jesus!!

-Meaghan