Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Acts 20:1-16

Theme: Love the church the way Christ did by investing time, truth, and relationship into people.

Notes:

1. Discipleship takes time
2. Discipleship takes truth

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: 1 Peter 5

Theme: Submission

Thesis: God has called us to willingly yield our will and desires for God’s glory and for other’s good

Notes:

1. The resistance to submission
2. The rules of submission
3. The reasons for submission

Despite being in the midst of a hostile environment, Peter exhorts his audience to submit to God-given authorities.

We can submit to flawed authorities because we trust in God, the ultimate authority

God ordains authority in our–lives for our good, the good of others, and His glory

• Civil
• Ecclesial
• Familial
• Vocational

Resistance

• We cannot be rebellious to our God-given authorities and claim to be in submission to God.

Reasons

1. Submission is for everyone
2. Submission is a vital part of discipleship
3. Submission teaches us humility
4. Submission reveals our heart

What Submission is Not

• Submission is not unquestioning, unqualified obedience and/or loyalty
  • All legitimate authority is derived from and delegated from God–not equal to God
  • Any authority who asks for that–civil, ecclesial, familial–is an authority who plans to abuse you
• Submission does not equal total agreement
  • Christ desires thoughtful, rational obedience

Application

• Spend time in prayer this week and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal areas of resistance to submission
• See Christ as your example
• See Christ as the power to submit

Note on 9/11

• Jeremiah 29:7, “seek the peace and prosperity” of where we live

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Acts 19:23-41

Theme: God guards us through providence

Notes:

Romans 8:28-30

Providence includes God’s care and control

Isaiah 46:9-10

Nothing happens outside the will of God

Frederick Nolan, missionary to North Africa

Tim Challies, son recently passed away suddenly at age 20

God never promises to keep us from pain and difficulty–He promises to walk with us as we experience them

Ephesians 1:4-6

While God orders/ordains/orchestrates all things, He is not the author of sin

The pressure that God allows in our lives is meant to mold us, but not to break us.

Psalm 55:22

Because God is in control of all things, then our suffering is not meaningless or purposeless

1. God uses people providentially
   • God uses people who are for you in your life
   • God uses people who are for themselves in your life
     • Don’t underestimate the things that God can teach you through someone acting selfishly
     • There are sometimes sins we are blind to in our own lives until we see them in others
   • God uses people who are against us in our life
2. God uses governments providentially
   • God used the roads and infrastructure instituted by the Roman government to help spread the gospel
   • God worked through those in Babylon and Persia to return the Jews to Israel, to rebuild the temple, and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem
3. God uses circumstances providentially
   • Psalm 34:18
   • God hates sin
   • God cares for His children
4. God grieves with us when we hurt
   • Isaiah 53

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Acts 19:23-41

Theme:

Notes:

Providence: God’s control of all things for His purposes and glory.

We must interpret our circumstances by our knowledge of God, and not interpret God by our circumstances

Each of us has fears that will tempt us to act inconsistent with our identity in Christ

Satan uses (and abuses) people to do his work

1. Satan uses fear to control people
2. Satan uses fanaticism to control people
3. Satan uses financial gain
   • Simon Magus, Acts 8
   • The slave girl’s owners, Acts 16
   • Demetrius, Acts 19
   • Spurgeon–was an English abolitionist, yet professing Christians (or “Christians”) in Alabama threatened violence if he were to come to America
4. Satan uses religious fanaticism
   • Buddhists in Myanmar
   • Muslims in Nigeria
   • Hindus in India
5. Satan uses political fanaticism
   • We must be very careful about mixing our Christianity with our patriotism
     • We should be thankful for how God in His providence has worked in our nation
     • Yet our true citizenship as Christians is in God’s kingdom–not in America
     • Examine church history and note that whenever you mix church and state it doesn’t make the state better, it makes the church worse
     • Forcing American and Judeo-Christian moral values will not change hearts or eternal destinies
     • We should proclaim the truth and vote
     • But we should have no illusions that marrying the church with political power will turn out well
6. Satan uses cultural fanaticism

Four Characteristics of Mob Mentality

1. Irrational fear
2. Uncontrolled anger
3. Informational confusion
4. Close-mindedness

Live It Out!

1. Instead of irrational fear, exercise faith in God
   • In His providence
   • In His goodness
   • In His ability
2. Instead of uncontrolled anger, exercise righteous anger
3. Instead of confusion, cling to the truth
4. Instead of close-mindedness, exercise gentle reasonableness

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Acts 19:11-22

Theme: Marks of Real Ministry pt2

Notes:

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Acts 19:11-22

Theme: Marks of Real Ministry

Notes:

Real Ministry Attracts Frauds

1. Satan deceives through imitation
   • 2 Corinthians 11
   • 2 Timothy 3
   • 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10
2. Satan distracts through confusion
3. Satan destroys through perversion
   • Jude 4

Real Ministry Defeats Satan

• Daniel 4:7
• Psalm 33
• John 12:31
• John 14:30
• Ephesians 2
• Colossians 1:13
• 1 John 3:8
• Hebrews 2:14-15
• It was not just Christ’s death and resurrection that defeated Satan, but His life as well
• James 1:15
• 1 Corinthians 15
• Genesis 3
• Colossians 2:13
• Luke 10
• Romans 16:20
• Revelation 20:10
• 2 Peter 3:14-18

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Romans 13

Theme: 4 Reasons We Should Submit to Government

Notes:

Context: written by the Apostle Paul, who was:

• A Jew
• A Christian
• A Roman citizen

The Roman Empire was a foreign occupying force in Israel

• They dislike for both Jews and Christians alike.
• They saw Jews and Christians as traitors, as neither would bow to their gods, whose worship was enmeshed with the civil government.

Paul is writing this around 56AD–just about a decade before he would be martyred for his faith.

• In Romans 1-11 Paul makes a masterful exposition of salvation by faith.
• In Romans 12-16 Paul lays out how the gospel applies in various practical areas
• In Romans 13 Paul addresses how we live out our earthly citizenship

God gives 4 authorities to live out his creation mandate:

1. Conscience – personal
   • innate sense of right and wrong
   • Romans 2
2. Family – relational
   • Foundation of society
3. Human government – civil
   • 1 Tim 2
   • Isaiah 10
4. Church – spiritual

Each has its own realm of authority; we have problems when they intersect or when one tries to rule outside its given sphere of authority

4 Reasons We [e.g., every soul] Should Submit to Government

1. Submit for wrath’s sake
   • Submission to civil government (and other authorities) is an expression of our submission to God
   • We submit not because an earthly authority is respectable–but because God is
   • This instruction doesn’t give spiritual approval for any specific form of government, eg, socialist/democracy/monarchy
   • Paul’s instructions apply to every Christian, in every place, in every time
     • 1 Peter 2:13-17
     • Titus 3:1-2
   • We are not to speak evil of our leaders
     • Titus 3:2
     • This does not mean we may not call out evil
   • Romans 13:1b, “those that exist have been instituted by God”
     • Some believe this means that God sovereignly appoints each specific government/leader
     • Others believe this means that God sovereignly appoints human government in general
     • Regardless, God desires us to respect our given authorities–until we are being commanded to disobey God
       • Governmental authority is derived authority
       • In those cases we appeal to a higher authority–same as other spheres of authority
         • Children need not obey wicked commands from parents
         • Congregants need not obey wicked spiritual leaders
     • Acts 5:29
   • We may also use the established governmental system
     • We may leverage judicial appeals
       • Acts 25:11
     • We may leverage civil rights
     • We may peacefully protest
     • We may hold civil servants accountable
   • Our default posture is peaceable, respect, and submission
     • We only disobey those orders that violate God’s law–we don’t just disobey all orders because the government issues wrong orders
2. Submit for conscience’s sake
   • Luther, “To act against your conscience is neither right nor safe.”
3. Submit for love’s sake
   • Romans 13:8
   • We submit to government as a specific expression of our love for our neighbor
   • “Owe no man anything” is not a prohibition against borrowing/lending, but an exhortation to pay everything we owe, eg, pay off loans, pay respect, pay others with kindness
   • Jeremiah 29:7, “pray for the peace of the city”–the city of Babylon, where they were going to be captives
   • Titus 3:8
   • 1 Tim 2:1-3
   • Love seeks to actively do good to others–and this includes those who serve in government
   • Seek to live quiet and peaceable–as much as it is possible.
     • Why?
     • As a positive witness to draw people to Christ
4. Submit for Christ’s sake
   • John 18, “…my kingdom is not of this world, if it were my servants would fight.”
   • If you say the Pledge of Allegiance, our allegiance to our national is not absolute
   • We are not to be gripped by the things of this world–no matter how good they may be
   • Our true and primary citizenship is with Christ

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Acts 19:11-22

Theme: The Church on Fire – Overcoming Satan

Notes:

Luke 22:15-20

God is willing to work in people who seek him.

God demonstrates his power over the physical and spiritual worlds to honor His Son and draw people to follow Him.

1. Real ministry focuses on the Word of God not the sensational.
2. Real Ministry exalts Christ, not men or ministries.
3. Real ministry relies on God’s power not manipulation.
4. Real ministry attracts frauds.

1. Satan deceives through imitation.
2. Satan distracts through confusion.
3. Satan destroys through perversion.

Live It Out!

2 Peter 3:14-18 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation–as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you. as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

Be on guard.

Grow in grace.

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Acts 19:11-22

Thesis: God works powerfully in churches who minister in Jesus’s name

Notes:

The miracles performed in Acts were meant to confirm the message of the gospel–not an end in themselves.

There will always be unscrupulous unbelievers who desire to piggyback onto the gospel in order to feed their own appetites.

1. Real ministry focuses on the Word of God, not the sensational
2. Real ministry exalts Christ, not men or ministries
3. Real ministry relies on God’s power, not manipulation
4. Real ministry attracts frauds
5. Real ministry changes lives
6. Real ministry defeats Satan

Real ministry exalts Christ, not men or ministries

• 1 Corinthians 3:4
• Teaching that shifts focus from Christ to a person or ministry leads to cults and spiritual abuse
• Pastors have no right or authority to demand obedience to anything unscriptural
• People are often drawn to the unusual or spectacular as opposed to the ordinary means of grace because they are so “ordinary”
  • The word of God
  • Meditating on the Word
  • Prayer
  • All things available to every ordinary believer
• Why don’t we avail ourselves of these?
  • We don’t really want to change
  • We don’t expect God to work

Live It Out!

1. Make much of Christ
2. Focus on knowing Christ through the ordinary means of grace
3. Focus on living and proclaiming Christ faithfully and fully

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Text: Acts 19:11-22

Theme: God demonstrates His power over the physical and spiritual worlds
to honor His Son and draw people to follow Him

Notes:

God works powerfully in churches who minister in Jesus’ name.

1. Real ministry focuses on the Word of God and not the sensational
2. Real ministry exalts Christ, not men or ministries
3. Real ministry relies on God’s power not manipulation or ingenuity
4. Real ministry attracts frauds
5. Real ministry changes lives
6. Real ministry defeats Satan

Real ministry focuses on the Word of God and not the sensational

God empowers people who give the right picture of Christ

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