Jun 20

Worship Service 06/20/2021

Preacher:

Text: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Theme: 4 Principles To Be A Disciple-Making Dad

Thesis:

Notes:

  • We are called to emulate the character of our Heavenly Father and be a father to the fatherless.
  • Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians to encourage the believers in Thessalonica to continue in the faith.
  1. Our mission is gospel-centered
  2. Our methods are God-dependent
  3. Our motives are God-glorifying
  4. Our manner is grace-based

 

  1. Our mission is gospel-centered
    • Parenting is disciple-making
    • God gives us children for His glory
    • Our primary goal is to point them to Christ, that they would follow Him
      • All other goals are secondary at best
    • What you praise your children for is a good indicator of what you truly find important
    • The goal:
      • v12, “…that you would walk worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom….”
      • Not making us or our our children happy
      • Children develop their attitude toward God by how they respond to their God-ordained authorities
  2. Our methods are God-dependent
    • vv3, 5, “…our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive…we never came with words of flattery….”
    • Only Christ will empower your kids (and anyone else) to do what is right
    • Lying, tricking, emotionally manipulating are all wrong methods of parenting
  3. Our motives are God-glorifying
    • v4, “…just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel….”
      • You, as a believer, has been entrusted with the gospel
      • As a believer, and also as a parent, a spouse, etc.
    • God-glorifying motives vs motives that rob God of glory
      • Pleasing God vs pleasing ourselves, our children, or anyone else
      • Doing what is best for the child vs. doing what is convenient for me
      • Being concerned about what God thinks about your children, vs. being concerned about what others think about your kids and/or your parenting
    • Parenting is not about us
    • Children will not make us whole or complete
      • Wholeness will never be supplied by anything apart from Christ–even good, Christ-given gifts
    • Our children do not exist to make us feel loved
      • You cannot make right, gospel-driven choices if we are slaves to our appetite for our children’s approval

 

Live It Out!

  1. Be honest and open about your failures
    • With your kids
    • With your self
    • Make excuses with neither
  2. Embrace grace
    • There is grace for your kids–and for you
  3. Prayerfully plan changes
    • Talk to God, talk to your spouse
    • Don’t overwhelm yourself
    • If you realize you have a lot of changes to make, start small and be consistent
  4. Get help
    •  Find godly people in your church
Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Jun 13

Worship Service 06/13/2021

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Proverbs 3

Theme: Everyday Wisdom

Thesis:

Notes:

Prov 1, “…the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”

Wisdom is neither internal or instinctual–wisdom is outside of us, and must be pursued and applied.

Wisdom enables us to hold a right tension between truth and mercy, balancing them perfectly.

Wisdom starts with faith–because you won’t follow who you don’t trust.

Trust = faith

  • “…trust the LORD with all your heart….”

 

Hebrews 11, “…without faith it is impossible to please Him….”

There is nothing off-limits to wisdom–including money.

  • The Scripture talks extensively about money; your view of money is a clear window into your soul.

 

“Blessed/happy is the man who finds wisdom.”

  • Happy–man’s perspective
  • Blessed–God’s perspective
  • Both are true

 

Wisdom helps you avoid unnecessary pain

  • “The way of the sinner is hard.”

 

Live It Out

  • Test everything by God’s Word, 1 Thess 5:20-22
  • Actively and intentionally pursue wisdom in your home, inform your kids why you do what you do, Deut 6:5-9
    • What does the Bible tell us to do in this situation?
    • What do you want to know and know how to do biblically by the time they leave home?
      • Book recommendation: Shepherding A Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp
  • Stay humble and hopeful
Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Jun 06

Worship Service 06/06/2021

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Proverbs 3

Theme: Wisdom for Every Day

Thesis: When you choose the path of wisdom, you choose joy, peace, and purpose.

Notes:

What Qualifies As Wisdom?

  • The application of God’s truth to everyday life
  • We are naturally bent toward foolishness, it takes the application of external truth to help us be wise

 

An Overview of Proverbs

  • Short sayings of encapsulated truth
  • Most of the book of Proverbs were written by Solomon
  • Solomon was supernaturally gifted by God with wisdom, 2 Chronicles 1:7-13
  • Proverbs teaches us to live God’s way
    • Proverbs1, “…to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity….”
    • Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
      fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

 

  1. The Rule of Wisdom
  2. The Root of Wisdom
  3. The Realm of Wisdom
  4. The Rewards of Wisdom

 

The Rule of Wisdom

  • Proverbs 3:1-8
  • Something will always rule your heart and your thinking
  • God wants us to:
    • Love Wisdom
      • Foolishness happens as a natural matter of course
      • Wisdom only happens by purposeful application
    • Learn Wisdom
      • Gardening takes intentionality
        • Weeding
        • Pruning
        • Fertilizing
      • Gathering wisdom takes intentionality
        • Foolishness grows naturally
          • Judges, “…every man did that which was right in his own eyes….”
        • Jeremiah 17:19
        • Proverbs 22:15
    • Live Wisdom
      • A right application of wisdom isn’t knowing the truth
      • A right application of wisdom is living the truth
      • Proverbs 1:2, “…length of days and long life….”
        • “Length of days” is not the same as “long life”
        • Length of days refers to purpose and productivity
        • Christians who lived short, meaningful, God-honoring lives
          • Jim Elliot
          • Augustus Toplady
      • Wisdom helps you balance grace and truth, so that you can hold and apply both rightly
      • Proverbs 3:3, “…bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart….”
        • Take wisdom and internalize it, and it will result in external ornamentation to your spirit

 

Live It Out

  1. Build a love for wisdom
    • Listen to godly teachers
    • Read godly books
    • Develop godly friendships
  2. Learn wisdom by consistent Bible study
  3. Live wisdom through meditation and application of God’s word
    • Identify wrong thinking in your life
    • Replace it with right thinking from God’s word

 

 

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

May 23

Worship Service 05/23/2021

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Matthew 6:5-8

Theme: Prayer When It’s Hard to Pray

Notes:

Check Engine Lights

  1. Get Real
    • God desires authenticity
      • Matthew 6:1, ““Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
      • John 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
      • When I am not praying, I should ask myself what it says about my relationship with God.
  2. Get Right
    • John 14:14, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
    • Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
    • 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,1 a thorn was given me in the flesh, ha messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
      8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
      9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
      10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
  3. Get Revved Up!

 

When You Don’t Know What God Is Doing, Remember…

  1. God is not just working for me, He is working in me
    • James 1:2-8
  2. It is not just conversation, it is communion
  3. God answers in unexpected ways

 

When You Don’t Like Where God Is Going, Remember…

  1. Rough roads shake us from our comfort zone.
    • God often shows us where we need to change before He starts changing us
  2. Rough roads keep us from feeling like we’ve got it all figured out
    • They show us where we are still weak and immature
  3. Rough roads knock off the rough spots in our life
  4. Rough roads help us experience God’s sustaining grace and power

 

When You Don’t Know Where God Is Going…

  1. Focus on the driver, not the passenger
    • Rough roads don’t necessarily indicate we displeased God
      • Job
      • John 9:1-3, “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
        2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
        3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
  2. Focus on the light (God’s word) and not the darkness (situation)
  3. Focus on faith, not fear or feelings
    • How you feel isn’t necessarily wrong
    • But God’s word is the measure of truth, not how you feel

 

Live It Out

  1. Plan, prepare, and protect your prayer time
  2. Remember that God is working in you and for you
  3. Discipline your delight in God
  4. Look to Jesus to rescue your prayer life

 

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

May 16

Worship Service 05/16/2021

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text:

  • Colossians 4:2,
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

 

Theme: Prayer

Thesis: A vibrant prayer life needs both discipline and delight

Notes:

Prayer and the word of God are both necessary to know God properly.

  • The word informs our prayers
  • Prayer empowers the word in our life

 

Maintenance Schedules: Regular habits necessary for staying close to God

  1. Plan your prayer time
    • “People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan”
    • “He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.” –Bunyan
  2. Prepare for your prayer time
    • Prepare your Heart
      • “Prayer doesn’t offer you a less busy life, it offers you a less busy heart.” –Miller
      • Don’t multitask–focus on God
      • Intimacy requires focus
      • Luke 5:16, “…Jesus often withdrew into the wilderness to pray.”
      • John 15:5, “…without me you can do nothing.”
    • Prepare your Hands: tools to help
      • Journal
      • Index cards
      • Apps: OneNote, PrayerMate
      • Prayer plan: offers balance to prayer life
        • Adoration
        • Confession
        • Thanksgiving
        • Supplication
Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

May 16

Worship Service 05/09/2021

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Esther 4

Theme: Lessons from the life of Esther

Notes:

Esther takes place between the returns of Zerubabel and Ezra.

1. Lean on God and his promises

2. Listen to wise and godly people

3. Live by faith not fear

4. Love people genuinely and sacrificially

5. Lead others to God at every opportunity

6. Lift those around you

7. Leave a legacy of faith to follow

 

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

May 02

Worship Service 05/02/2021

​

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Texts:

  • Luke11:1-4
  • James 4:1-10
  • John 14

 

Theme: Prayer

Notes:

Road Hazards to Avoid:

  1. Sin
    • Sin cannot break our relationship with God
    • But it can harm our fellowship with God
  2. Selfishness
    • Lack of forgiveness is selfishness–and sin
  3. Surrender
    • Failure to surrender to God’s will yields
      • Chaos
      • Compromise
    • The Lord’s Prayer begins with prayers to align our hearts to God’s purposes
      • Hallowed be Your name
      • Your kingdom come
      • Your will be done
    • Prayer is God’s resource for His glory, for His purpose
    • It is wrong and pointless to ask for those things that God would not desire or that would not glorify Him
    • The gospel should inform all of your choices:
      • Marriage
      • Parenting
      • Work
      • Play
      • Ministry
      • Citizenship
    • Being committed to God’s will is being committed to God’s methods for working out His will

 

Live It Out

  1. Confess and forsake any known sin and ask for God’s grace to fight it
  2. Forgive those who have sinned against you
    • Forgiveness does not obviate consequences
    • Forgiveness does not equal trust
  3. Surrender to God’s kingdom, will, and glory
Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Apr 25

Worship Service 04/25/2021

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Luke 11

Theme: Prayer

 

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Apr 18

Worship Service 04/18/2021

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Luke 11:1-13

Theme: The Lord’s Prayer

Thesis: A model prayer for all Christians, not just a rote prayer

Notes:

  1. Get out of the driver’s seat
    • Your will be done
    • Hallowed be Your name
    • God is not glorified in fulfilling our dreams, but in us finding joy in His will
    • Godly prayer corrects our shortsighted selfishness
    • God desires to rule over all things
    • God desires to conform us (individually and corporately) to the image of Christ
  2. Check it before you wreck it
    • Cynicism: we stop believing prayer actually works
    • Independency: living apart from dependence on God
      • sometimes we disagree practically (what we DO) with what we agree with doctrinally (what we claim to BELIEVE)
      • We treat prayer as a last resort, or a lucky rabbit’s foot
    • Dualism: separating your faith from your everyday life
  3. Focus on knowing God
    • The best part of a roadtrip is the journey with the people you love
    • “What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms.”
    • God is infinite and eternal
    • He is also transcendent and personal
      • Psalm 23
      • Rom 8:15
    • Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, it is laying hold of His highest willingness –R.C. Trench
    • Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to me and I will answer you.”
    • John 20, “…I am ascending to my Father, and your Father”.
    • God hears and answers prayer, not because we are good enough, but because Christ was good enough
  4. Live it out!
    • We must give God control of the journey and destination of our life
    • Reject cynicism, independence, and dualism
    • Get to know the heart of your Father
      • through His written word
      • through conversation with Him
Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Apr 04

Worship Service 04/04/2021

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Sermon Podcast