Notes from 9-13-2009 PM Sermon – God’s Alluring
Hosea 2:14
== God's drawing the unworthy ==
"Behold, I will allure her."
Man's evil is so complete impending judgment (what Hosea has been talking about so far, and what will still come) could never turn man back. (cf. Gen 8:21) Instead of giving up, God lovingly entices us back. This is grace. (cf. Rom 5:20)
- This means God will gradually unfold before them the majesty of his excellence. He opens their eyes.
- God will out love all former lovers combined. More love, honor, respect than any other has ever been able to give. The pleasures of God are greater than the pleasures of sin.
- It comes by surprise. The people weren't expecting it. (eg. Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis). (cf. John 6:41-44)
== God's bringing to the truth ==
"And bring her into the wilderness."
When God saves you, he puts you into a new wilderness - a new awareness of sin and guilt. He lets you see the truth about yourself. (cf. Luke 7:40-47)
== God speaks to the heart ==
"And speak tenderly to her."
(cf. John 16:8-11) The root of sin is unbelief. God speaks kindly to the heart, convincing sinners they have been given the credit of God's righteousness - unconditional forgiveness. It is God's work, and his means is the ministry of the gospel.
The full kindness of God is beyond our ability to comprehend. (this morning's sermon)
Notes from 9-13-2009 Sermon – Idolatry
Hosea 2:8-13
Idolatry's Punishment
== Israel's Sin ==
- (v. 8a) Deepest ingratitude: (They do not know.) God had lavished wealth on Israel, but their hearts were so hardened in sin, they did not recognize that it was God. (cf. Hebrews 3:13, 2 Cor 4:4) Wealth is dangerous, but poverty is not a virtue. The issue is your heart. (v. 13) "She forgot me."
- (v. 8b) Most offensive use: They turned their unmerited blessings and used them openly in betrayal. Idolatry is in the heart. 'Do you misuse blessings by looking TO them for your joy, rather than looking THROUGH them for your joy?' (cf. Prov 22:2)
- It is the converted heart that causes genuine worship. It can not be codified through extra-biblical rules and laws.
== God's Response ==
- (v. 9, 12) He will remove their blessings to get their attention.
- (v. 10) He will bring public humiliation to demonstrate his power and the impotence of their false gods. Not all humbling is a response to sin. Occasionally it is to bring about maturity.
- (v. 11) He destroys false worship. Why do you go to church? (cf. Amos 8:5)
- (v. 13) Imagery (not meant to be legalistically interpreted) of a wife dressing up erotically for an affair, rather than for her husband. (cf. Ezekiel 16:10-13)
Christ has adorned us with grace. We are married into royalty. Repent of spiritual adultery.
Sermon Notes: God’s Kindness and Love – Titus 3:4
*** Intro ***
Titus 3:1-2 = Conduct of the Changed
- Ready for the good deed. Be peaceful. Show every consideration for all men, as much as possible. Titus 2:11-14 = Grace of our God.
Titus 3:3 = Conduct of the Unchanged
- Foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, envious.
- All of these things, the saved once were.
*** The Hope of God’s Kindness and Love ***
Titus 3:4
Romans 5:8
Sermon Notes: Resting – Mark 6:30-32
5/31/2007. AM service. Jeff Noblit.
It is biblical to rest from ministry. It can be prideful to think that you do not need rest.
*** The Commission for the Disciples ***
Integrity. (Mark 6:30) The disciples reported everything they had *done* - not just what they taught. We ought to be doing what we are teaching. Today there is a lot of great writing (a lot of bad too), but the doing seems disproportionately behind - even though we are getting good instruction.
Accountability. (1 Corinthians 4:3 "It's a small thing that I'm examined by you.") (Mark 6:7 - the disciples were sent out two by two.) (Ecclesiastes 4:9) (Proverbs 27:17)
*** The Concern for the Disciples ***
Mark 6:31 - As much of a command of the Lord as it was to go out a preach the gospel. The context is mostly preachers and preaching, but it applies to all saints. Some call it a hobby, or an escape, but really it is a mandated spiritual discipline.
We are encased in weak flesh. We have a limited physical capacity and a limited emotional capacity. Jeff: "You have to rest, or people don't want to be around you the next day. God does not have to rest, and he's wonderful everyday." (Genesis says God "rested" but this is an anthropomorphic illustration to say that God was done with the creation work. The Bible also says that he never rests.)
However, when the work gets tough, don't let this be an excuse to drop the work of the gospel first. Take all matters to the Lord and allow him to judge.
*** Conclusions for Practical Application ***
#1 - Get away WITH Jesus, not from Jesus. Don't let God only remind you of your work boots. Associate him with your slippers as well.
#2 - Don't turn yourself into a sloth. (Proverbs 6:6-11) (Mark 6:31 "... for a while")
#3 - Expect it to be difficult. Even as he went to rest, crowds would still follow Jesus. We probably won't have that problem. We may deal with guilt.
#4 - You can take mini breaks to draw closer to God while separating from the world.
Music I *almost* idolize
One of the things I admire about my church is its commitment to Biblical lyrics. I'm heard our music minister, Tom Clay (@brotom / thomasclay.blogspot.com) say "If we can't preach [the lyrics] from the pulpit, we don't sing it." And I assure you, for those unfamiliar with Grace Life CotS, what comes from the pulpit is highly scrutinized against a biblically doctrinal understanding of the Bible. (Yes, the way I described that is unnecessarily complex, but I wanted to fully qualify what I was saying for purposes I'd rather not go into, lest I fall completely off topic. If you're really curious, just search for Jeff Noblit or Paul Washer on YouTube.)
However, in the flesh, I am a sinner tempted in all sorts of ways, and likewise, when we sing these wonderfully true, powerful songs, it is tempting to idolize them. By this, I mean I am tempted to revere the song itself rather that reverencing God.
I try to avoid this form of idolatry by thinking upon the truths of the lyrics and their implications. It may not feel as emotionally "powerful" as when the song is also enjoyed for its musical pleasantry, but it does keep me grounded in the truth of the song, rather than its emotional appeal.
On the other hand - and I shall seem to talk out of both sides of my mouth here - sometimes I will treat the song simply as good, pleasing music and set aside the theological truths. This way, I'm not ascribing any more worth to the song than it's due, instead I'm simply enjoying it as something good that's excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).
But thankfully, most often I am able to do both - to both enjoy the song for its musical qualities, and to worship my God for his eternal qualities. Although I rarely sing publicly - my heart indulges itself in rejoicing and praise through biblical music.
Likewise, I would like to share with you some songs that I *almost* idolize, but praise be to God - this is a sin I constantly overcome, allowing me to rejoice with other believers in the worthiness of our God.
I am using Lala.com to embed these songs (legally). You should be able to play them once, full quality, without signing in and for free. If you are not able to, you may need to clear your cookies and your Flash cookies. I strongly encourage you to patronize them if you are able and willing. They "get" the new business model.
The Power Of The Cross - Stuart Townend
Be Unto Your Name - Robin Mark
Before the Throne of God Above - Dave Hunt
update: I truly should include "In Christ Alone", even if this particular arrangement isn't my favorite. The lyrics here are so comprehensive and deeply rich with truth; truly an example of the kind of song that could be preached from the pulpit. (That's not to say that it is equivalent to the Word, as certainly, there are some phrases here and there that are extra-biblical, but the truth of its message is certainly in line with truth.)
In Christ Alone - Stuart Townend
PS. This is a good time to also mention that I dissociate myself from many stereotypes given to Christians, and at the same time, I confess I am a fallen sinner. I do not view myself as "more holy" - quite the opposite - nor do I desire to "push my beliefs" onto anyone.
God's grace to you,
- tollie
Facebook Fail
Excepted from myself on Facebook:
The social graph model had a 10x more interesting Home feed. The twitter-clone home stream is almost completely uninteresting and not Facebook.
The highlights preserve some of the interesting aspects of the old home feed, but they are too few, too cluttered, and no longer able to be "tweaked" with sliders or "less of" links.
Additionally, the new home stream lacks filters for profile changes like groups, relationship statuses, and interests.
Basically, my iPhone has become my only interesting way to use Facebook, as it still gives me the social graph model of the Home feed-- don't screw it up, and you should *really* consider revamping the "new" twitter clone to be less of a clone, and more true to what kept Facebook interesting.
Go here for ways to take action: http://bit.ly/2Oz3i (links to Facebook note).
And don't forget to use http://iphone.facebook.com - maybe, hopefully, they'll see the spike in traffic to that website from non-iPhone browsers.
UPDATE: In my continuing campaign to get Facebook to fix the "great mistake of 09", I ended up writing out my thoughts in bullet points. Here they are:
*** 1: The new design didn't add significant functionality. ***
1a- The old design already had live updates (actually live though), and filtering by friend group, status, photos, etc.
1b- The only "new" functionality was to filter by 3rd party applications - most of which are rubbish.
1c- Indeed, the old functionality of being able to dial up or down what and who you found interesting - it's gone.
*** 2: The new design is dumb, rather than intelligent. ***
2a- The old "social graph" algorithm worked for me. It digested hundreds of friends and thousands of "data" into a digestible, interesting, useful home page.
2b- The new stream is always the last hour, and if I didn't block every 3rd party app I find, it would probably be littered with quizzed and sheep throwing. Further, since I check Facebook late at the end of the day, my home stream is almost exclusively west coast people, instead of my local friends who are most interesting to me.
2c- Twitter is about the "stream", it was founded as a micro-blog. Facebook is NOT about the stream - it was founded as, and ought to be, an intelligent address book that functions like a yearbook, collecting memories with photos, and your friends scribbled notes on the inside "walls" of the book.
MOST IMPORTANT TO ME:
*** 3: The new design reverts Facebook back to 2005. ***
3a- Profile changes (groups joined, relationship status, interest changes) are left completely unpublished, and thus we're left having to go profile to profile, and trying to remember what was and was not there, in order to find out some of the most interesting aspects of our friends (for me, namely, their relationship statuses - completely and totally obscure now).
3b- The new highlights section has SOME group joins, and you can even hack the URL to filter by groups, but neither are nearly as sufficient as the old Home Feed. And of course, it's cramped, minimal in number, and absolutely not customizable, so I don't count it.
***********
Notes from 2-20-2009 Sermon – Brokenness
Where does depression hurt? It hurts everywhere. It's like the 'Check Engine' light is on, and we've learned how to break the light. We have no sense of being crushed under our own sin. Instead, we try to remove that weight.
Unbiblical, anti-truth:
- Rob Bell: "no need for brokenness"
- The Shack (endorsed by Eugene Patterson, and Steven Curtis Chapman): "God submits to, needs people."
- Rick Warren: "You don't have to tell people they're sinners; they already know this."
Psalms 51:1-19
"Blot out" - like the flood
"Wash me" - like on a washboard
"Cleanse me" - a ceremonial style
=== I ===
Ps 51:8
Brokenness is an appropriate response to sin because sin leaves behind 'scar tissue' - a mark on us. See Romans 7:23-24.
=== II ===
PS. 51:3
Brokenness is an appropriate response to sin so that _we_ don't forget our sins. God can forget, but _we_ can't. We must realize that sins create memories that stay with us. This is good because:
1. If you could forget your sins, you could never testify to the forgiveness of God!
2. If you could forget, you wouldn't be warned against doing them again. Imagine if we could forget that fire is hot...
3. If you could forget, you couldn't celebrate your victory over sin - our triumphs through Christ.
=== III ===
Revelation 19:11-16
Brokenness is appropriate response to sin because our sin is an affront to a holy God.
"People don't know that they're bad. They watch the nightly news and think that _those_ people are bad." Compare this to Rick Warren telling preachers that people already know they're sinners.
We need to be done with this image of Christ as a weak, needy, feeble guy. Revelation 19:11-16. He is a God capable of great wrath.
He demonstrates his own wrath when he poured it out on his own son! How dare we think that he would do that to his own son, but because we're "not that bad" he could never be that wrathful against us!
Unbiblical: "He wants you. He needs you. He's desperate for you. You're breaking his heart."
Biblical: "He's going to break you."
People come into church looking to be appeased, thinking they're owed something. Preachers are guilty of "trampling [his] courts" (Isaiah 1:10-18) when they hold these services that "target" sinners, gearing them towards a man-centric goal. These people say things like "_I_ prayed a prayer. _I_ have changed my ways." No. Preach the word!
=== IV ===
Brokenness is an appropriate response to sin because sin is a hindrance to the true worship of a holy God.
Ps. 51:7-10.
Worship is an outward expression of brokenness.
In some churches, they say brokenness is an inappropriate response to sin. They say "you're a Christian - you're forgiven." May it never be that we forget the weight of our sin. Brokenness is the _only_ appropriate response to sin. It's not to wallow and indulge in self-pitty (that would be just as wrong); it's not to make you feel bad. It's to get you in the place where you realize God's grace and glorify HIM.
In an of myself, all that I can do is continue to crumble under the weight of my own sin.
Notes from 2-19-2009 Sermon – Radical Depravity
Romans 3:9
=== I ===
There is no difference between ministers past and present, here or there. All are under sin. Compare Romans 3 to Genesis - a moral change took place in their beings; same today.
=== II ===
Romans 8:7 - People fall under two categories. Those whom are saved (the Spirit has fallen) and those in whom the Spirit has not worked (the unrepentant).
The unrepentant, unsaved: (a reminder) Hostile to God. Enemies of God. May be religious. May be church going people who worship a god of their own making. For example, may worship a god who doesn't mind that they are living in sin; a god who "tickles them" in the midst of their sin. Romans 8:8 - they _cannot_ please God.
=== III ===
Romans 3:10-18 is what God says about self-righteous Israel.
Human beings are in a state of mutiny.
Anecdote: We are like individuals who are blind and arguing about whether there is a sun or not, yet the very reason we are having this discussion is because we feel the suns rays! We can not see the full glory of God's face, but we certainly should recognize that he is there.
=== IV ===
It is to people in this state of rebellion that believers are called to preach - "repent or perish."
IMPORTANT: Why? We just said that they _can't_ turn from their sins. They can't please God. They are dead in their sin, and spiritual enemies against their God.
Truth: they _can't_ turn from their sins, this is to the glory of our God - it is his grace redeems them. So that when anyone repents and turns from sin, it can be entirely to the glory of God. This also demonstrates that God is not a passive savior of the past, but he is an active savior in the present, reaching out to sinners. It is in this goodness of God that is our hope. God knows who are his and, through the preaching of the gospel, will bring them to himself.
Related to the anecdote above: "It is in this pitch black darkness of depravity that God is saving souls."
=== V ===
Let us fill the church with unconverted pagans. God, let them hear the Word, and God be glorified.
Notes from 2-15-2009 Sermon – Seek the Lord
Media link: Video - Starts at 3:43 mark.
My thought: today, we behold the bare cross as a sight of hope and somber remembrance. In glory, we will behold the actual countenance of God in complete satisfaction.
Speaker: Conrad Mbewe - pastor from Zambia.
Psalms 2:1-12.
Psalms chapter 1 and 2 serve as introduction to Psalms. They weren't written first.
Psalms 1:1 starts with "Blessed."
Psalms 2:12 ends with "Blessed."
Because true human happiness is only found in God.
Psalms 1: Microscopic view.
Psalms 2: Macroscopic view.
Psalms 2 is divided like scenes from a play; 3 verses per scene.
* Psalms 2:1-3: (Video @ 48:59) God empowered David. David acted boldly because he knew that it was only by God's permission that he was empowered at all.
* Psalms 2:4-6: (Video @ 56:35) God laughed. Consider: Parents walking down hallway, listening to their children in their rooms plotting an overthrow. The parents can't help but laugh- they are plotting the overthrow of the their parents who own the house, bought the clothes, and paid the electric bill. It is laughable their desire to overthrow. The parents further realize that this behavior is wrong and sinful, and ground the children.
* Psalms 2:7-9: (Video @ 67:19) "Son" is talking. Compare these verses to Acts 13 talking about the resurrection. Don't attempt to judge God by the church or by the weaponry of the Gospel.
* Psalms 2:10-12: (Video @ 78:31) Listening to a town crier who is decreeing the news of the King so the people can relate appropriately. Message: "stop - you are headed to destruction."
Notes from 2-8-2009 Sermon – Remember
Anecdote: The church is in trouble. Adultery and worse. Believers suing others and arguing over pastor's pay, as a result the pastor takes no salary. Factions in the church - power struggles... Would you look to the church as a model? God did...
2 Corinthians 9:1-7
*** Principles of Giving ***
** Purpose of Offering **
* Missions (2 Corinthians 9:1)
History of the faith offering. Founder of (?) church: A.B. Simpson. Also, Dr. Oswald J. Smith of The People's Church in Toronto, Canada.
* Motivation (2 Corinthians 9:2)
To motivation Corinthians to give, and to use them as a model for Macedonians.
2 Corinthians 3:2 commentary: "The best proof of Paul's ministry validity."
Acts 17:11.
** Plan for Offering **
2 Corinthians 9:3 - Sent team ahead to prepare the people for the offering.
Titus (2 Cor 8:6,16), and two others (2 Cor 8:18-19,22).
2 Thessalonians 3:7-9.
Bro Jeff: "Did Paul lose his mind here? This is a very pragmatic - I don't even like that word in church - pragmatic approach... to getting people to give."
The Bible allows for great flexibility in how a church supports their ministry. "Give it all to the Lord" - don't make needs known - that's ok too. But so is Paul's pragmatic approach here.
** The provisions for the offering **
2 Corinthians 9:6-7.
Founded by men who faithfully tithed: Colgate, Heinz, J.C. Penny, Quaker Oats Cereal.
"If you can't give joyfully, don't give... Our God honors not the size of your gift, but the greatness of your sincerity."
* Moonlighting for missions
* Lifestyle adjustments for missions
... examples: coke a day, family eating out, turning cable off, not buying a boat.
* Caution: 'Money from nowhere' - if you really feel led to do so, giving on complete faith.
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