Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme: Love

Text: 1 Corinthians 13

Notes:

Love is defined by what it does–not what it says or what it feels.

Love:

• Is Patient/Longsuffering and Kind
  • Patient with the faults and failures of others–and is still kind to them
  • It is not possible to claim to be patient if you are still unkind
  • How do I react when other people let me down?
  • God is patient with many who will reject Him
    • “God is good to the just and the unjust”, Matthew 5:43-48
    • Psalm 145:9
    • Romans 2, “the goodness of God leads us to repentance”
  • Kindness is love in working clothes
    • Augustine in Confessions, Ambrose moved him by his kindness;  “that man of God received me like a father”
    • Amy Carmichael in India
• Rejoices in and speaks the truth
  • Our love for God and our love for others are rooted in the truth
  • Ephesians 4, truth matures us and unifies us
    • Ephesians 4:15, “speaking the truth in love”
  • The truth speaks love–but it always speaks lovingly
    • 1 Timothy 2:1-4
    • 2 Timothy 2:24-45, the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome
  • Revelation 2:1-5, it doesn’t matter how many things you get right–if you get love wrong

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme:

Text: 1 Corinthians 13, Ephesians 4, Galatians 5

Notes:

Ephesians 4:15, We are not to hold to love (at the expense of truth),
nor hold to truth (at the expense of love);
both constitute a false dichotomy.

From 1 Corinthians 13:1-3:

1. Being spiritually gifted is not enough
   • Exercising gifts apart from love is not beneficial to anyone, not even the one serving
2. Being biblically knowledgeable is not enough
   • Speaking the Word of God without the heart of God is not beneficial to anyone
3. Having great faith is not enough
4. Grand gestures are not enough
   • Selling all you possess to give to the poor
   • Giving your body through martyrdom
   • Yet if done without love these gestures are fruitless
5. Ministry without love is nothing
   • It does not benefit anyone
   • It does not glorify God
   • It may even be destructive

Biblical love motivated by and empowered by the Spirit is glorifying to God and beneficial to others
–and ourselves.

Anything else is nothing.

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Preacher:  Pastor Jeremy Herbert

Theme:  Prayer

Text:  Matthew 6:5-15

Notes:

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme: The Humanity of Christ

Text: Hebrews 2

Notes:

Christ came not to redeem only our soul, but to redeem us in our entirety, heart, soul, mind, and emotions.

1. Jesus submitted his emotions to the Father, and so should we
2. Jesus wants to redeem every part of you–including your emotions

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme: Knowing and Glorifying God Through Prayer

Text: John 17

Notes:

• 1 John 3:22
• John 11

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme: Prayer

Text: John 16

Notes:

“Prayers are soul-shaping conversations with God”

Fruitful ministry must be watered by prayer.

We must make time for prayer–we will not find it.

“Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance.
It is laying hold of his highest willingness.”  –Archbishop Trench

The Father is for us, not against us.

Luke 15:11-32

Neither son in the parable of the prodigal son understood the heart of their father–
one who is loving and loves to do good to those who cannot merit it.

If we don’t understand the heart of our Father, we won’t seek holiness–we’ll just seek loopholes–and we will not have joy.

God answers prayers according to His will, your good, and your joy–
and none of those are opposed to the other.

God not only knew every sin you had committed,
but every sin you would ever commit when He set His love on you.

God knows each of us by name

• Isaiah 43:1, “I have called you by name”
• Acts 26:14
• 1 Samuel 3

“Taste and see that the Lord is good”

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme:

Text:

Notes:

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme: Prayer

Text: John 1, John 16, Philippians 4,

Notes:

Prayer is about spending time in God’s presence–and enjoying it.

Israel’s failures were precipitated because Israel lost its heart for God,
and then lost its heart for God’s words.

When I pray, what am I really after?

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