20
Apr '20
Devotional Thought for This Week’s Start
20
Apr '20
Ephesians 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:”
Jesus Christ was angry at evil (Mark 3:5; Matthew 23). How can God’s people be any different? Scripture calls us to be angry without sin. Anger is right when it is directed towards the proper person or thing. When it is held in the proper manner, to the proper degree, for the proper time, and rooted in the proper motivation. That motivation is the resistance to evil. When is anger sin? Simply take all the above and add the prefix “im.” Anger is always sinful when it is directed at the improper person or thing, in an improper manner, to an improper degree, for an improper time, and for an improper reason. How do we know if our anger is improper? Scripture is the guide, not anything or anyone else. Be angry at evil, starting with your own, and trust God to set things straight in His time.
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12
Apr '20
The Day Death Died
12
Apr '20
Fear is powerful. Scripture teaches that the fear of God is the way of knowledge, wisdom, fruitfulness and joy. There is such a thing as healthy fear, but often our fear is unhealthy. You may discern the difference when your fear leads you to sinful practices. Fearing poverty, some put their career before anything and anyone else. Fearing loneliness, many behave against their better judgment thirsting for acceptance. Fearing failure, many will lie, cheat, steal, or worse. This means that the problem isn’t fear but what we do with our fears.
The greatest of all fears is the fear of death. That fears is universal, because death comes to us all. The rich cannot buy their way out of it. The intellectual can’t outsmart it. The physically gifted cannot outrun or outlast it. Death is the great leveler of humanity. No event is so sobering because no event is so final or so mysterious. The prospect of going through the veil by ourselves is enough to overwhelm any of us with fear.
Fear is what has humanity by the throat right now. We’re afraid to touch or be touched. We’re afraid of the air we breathe because we’re afraid of COVID-19. Our fear what we don’t understand, and we don’t know much about this new coronavirus other than out fears that it is a death sentence, either for ourselves or our loved ones.
Good news for the fearful!
Here is some good news. Christ Jesus came into this world to free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. John 11 recounts the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and provides a preview of Christ’s own resurrection. That chapter teaches us some comforting truths as we think about our own mortality. That will be our text this Easter morning.
One of my favorite passages of all scripture is John 11:25-6, “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
View this morning’s livestream by following this link or by clicking the “Watch Video” button on our church’s Facebook page. A Facebook account is not required to visit that page.
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29
Mar '20
This Sunday’s Sermon
29
Mar '20
We are making our way through Mark on Sunday mornings. Today we will walk in 9:38-50. As we work through this text we should learn about…
- the folly of misplaced zeal,
- the seriousness of discipleship,
- the necessity to deal drastically with your own sin, and
- the fact that we are called to be salty rather than sinful Christians.
As Sinclair Ferguson writes in Let’s Study Mark:
“Our Lord’s point is that unless we maintain the purity of our own lives and are purified by the flames of testing, and remain faithful to Christ, our lives will have no preserving influence on this corrupt world. If we begin to fall into the same patterns of life as those which are characteristic of the world, we will never be able to point men and women to another world.”
Sin is serious. Discipleship is, too, and both must be treated as such. Dealing seriously with sin will enable continued spiritual growth. That will produce increased joy, no matter the circumstances. This is serious and for our joy.
We will not gather for worship today, but the sermon will be live-streamed. Follow this link to watch the video feed.
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