The Gospel in the Exodus.

Getting Out - Tim Keller - TGC 2011 from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

A plead for the family.

One thing that I have learned over the years and still to this very day and now preparing for Levi my first son to be born is how can I balance my family and ministry. I think that one of the biggest things is always and I do mean always put your family first. I could tell you a few times that my wife and I got into it because I put ministry and friends first before her and it did not go well. So if you are a young pastor or even just a lay leader in your local church this video applies to you as well.

His Heart.

A chapter in the bible that I read every year and I try more then once a year is John 17 the whole chapter. This is the "real Lord's prayer". I love how Christ knows that He is about to be betrayed by men and yet He prays for us.

I love to read 9-11 and how He prays for those who God has chosen to be with Him and then He prays for those who will hear from His own that they may Hear God's word and be saved as well. As you read this chapter I feel that you truly get the heart of Christ. He wants to glorify His father as His father has glorified Him and He prays for His children.

I can easily find myself overwhelmed by the love of Christ in this chapter and knowing that starting in chapter 18 Judas comes and it starts. But the great thing about all of this is that Christ says in verses 4 that He is finished. Yes He has to go all the way to death on the cross but my sins and yours were taken care of in the garden when Christ said He will drink the cup. May you take a few seconds this good Friday and be thankful for this prayer of our Saviour.

John Chapter 17

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, "as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. "Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. "For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received [them], and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. "And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. "Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We [are] "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. "But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; "that they all may be one, as You, Father, [are] in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. "O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare [it], that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

Thinking

So here we are a few days away from the day that Judas betrays Christ. As we know and celebrate on Friday Jesus Christ went to the cross and died for the sins of Man. It is because of His sacrifice that we are free from sin and death. You may think to yourself "well ya a church is suppose to talk about this". One aspect of the death of Christ that we should think about is Judas. People blame him but we are all Judas. Thousands of years ago Christ died so that we can be free but yet everyday we fall to sin and we betray the grace of Christ. God does not want to see His children be separated from Him and his perfect love. So may you take some time this weekend and just think about how God loves you and fall in love with the one that loves you Jesus Christ. Also may this Sunday as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour may it be a time for you to rejoice and celebrate as well that you are no longer dead to sin but alive in Christ.

Chosen?

Yesterday at Mosaic Eddie talked a little about this idea of predestination/elect. I thought that I would share just a short thought on this. A few years ago when I started to take a real hard look at what is called Reformed Theology this doctrine was a hard one to swallow at first. The main thought towards this that people do not like is the idea that if everything is predestined for us then all we are all God's little puppets. This is so wrong it is not even funny.

John Piper has a great sermon that clearly shows much more on this beautiful doctrine.

1 Peter 2:9-10

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

In this text Peter comes right out of the gate and says that we are the chosen race. This is such a amazing thought. God ,who is perfect and holy in every way you can think, turns to some and calls them a royal priesthood. This is a such a sign of love and grace and mercy. At first this is a hard pill to take but if you really sit back and think about how amazing this doctrine truly is you will bend your knees and be so thankful.

God turns to some and pulls them out of the crappy life that they where in because of sin and rescues them from hell. We are adopted into his holy family. We are because of God's grace now called God's people. This goes back to moses rescuing ,not all but some, of the Israelites from pharaoh. Look at what He did through those people and they where called the chosen race/people. This is us and I am so thankful for it. Yes again this can be hard to think about but it is called the doctrine of Grace because by God's grace we are saved and called into His holy family.

Watch the above sermon and if you have any questions please feel free to email me and we can chat about it.

What a great week.

So the last few days I have been at the Gospel Coalition in Chicago and let me tell you it was a great week hearing and seeing some very godly men preach and teach God's holy word. I have been thinking about how I could share everything and even some of my thoughts about this week with you and I really think that it would take me forever and you would most likely get very bored. So what I have done is below are some links to some blogger that I follow that have done some reflections and even posted notes up on there blogs. Also I have shared below a few links for the videos and/or audio of the sermons and talks. Recommendations would be to listen to Tim Kellers sermon (two words its amazing) and Mbewe sermons.

Mbewe: Jeremiah 23:1-8

Timothy Keller: Exodus 14

The rest of the media

Blogging Theologically: He has great sermon notes from every speaker.

So I hope that you enjoy these links. I was very blessed by what God spoke about through these men of God. May you be blessed jus as much. If I find more

Blame God.

A few years ago when I was a teenager I had a bumper sticker that said Blame Canada. As you may think this sticker got me in trouble many times with people from Canada. Even though I thought it was funny I ended up taking it off my 1989 white van ( I was pimping).

I feel that at times we use the thought of Blame God when bad things happen to us. When a family member dies or a major earth quake happens we blame God. But yet when good things happen then we take all the credit for it right? This is all so wrong it is not even funny. Why do bad things like someone getting cancer or losing there job or a husband or wife running out on there family happen? It is because of sin and not God. We have to take the heat for it. When God made us we were made perfectly in the image of Him. Adam and Eve took and ate the fruit and at that very moment sin entered in the world and us. Bad things happen because sin entered the world.

This means that we should not be blaming God for the bad things but take some of the blame ourselves and lay it at the cross of Christ. Today I spent a long time in prayer and meditation on who God is and I started to cry uncontrollably because of how great God is. I do not blame Him for anything. But instead I thank Him that even though I am sinner He brought me into His family to live a life for his kingdom. To me that is a humbling thought.

A Mom's pride.

I am sitting here in my office reading Matthew 20:17-21 and can not believe what I am seeing. Jesus is talking about Him being betrayed and crucified and that He will return in three days from the dead and the first thoughts of the mother of Zebedee's son's was OK Jesus that is fine and all but make sure my sons sit with you in heaven.

Sometimes in our lives we can become so full of pride that there is no way to see our own sin. We are all ,sadly, full of pride and self but if you truly come to the cross and want to be humbled by it your pride will start to melt away. It takes years for it all to fall away but by the grace of God He helps us every step of the way.

The other sad thing is that as I read this story I can see my self in her shoes. Here Jesus is painting the bigger picture and all she sees is her own little world. We as called to be people that are kingdom focused and not self focused. So may we all pray for this to happen in our own lives as well as for those around.

Some thoughts on Love Wins

The past few weeks or so I have been listening and reading what a lot of pastors are saying about Rob Bells new book Love Wins and I just want to let you know where I stand on this peace off work. First I want to say that over the years I have learned a lot from Rob Bell. I really think that the way he communicates is amazing. He can tell a story in ways that I could never. However, his theology and doctrine is so far out of wack it is not even funny. I have seen over the years Rob Bell fall further and further away from the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now as this new book has come out He truly has become and false teacher. I known that there are people who would say that I am judging him by saying that but I am only looking at what he teaches and testing it to the Word of God and it does not line up.

We do not know if someone goes to hell or heaven. It is not for us to judge that but God is the Judge. There is a real place called Hell Jesus himself preached about it and called people sons of hell. If there was not a place of punishment then I would say that God is not a father at all. God as our father does not want to send people to hell but if someone does not believe in him then they are punished. It is just like a father when there son or daughter does not obey him he punishes them. To me the God of the bible ,who is the God I serve, would not be that God if everyone was welcomed into heaven. Then tell me what is the point of Jesus on the Cross and being or sacrifice for our sins. This would be pointless.

This week I will be preaching on how we as Christians need to test everything to God's word before we let it influence us and so I say church do not let this false teacher and his other gospel influence you.

Rob Bell I will be praying for you but as for me and my house you are not aloud in it anymore.

COME TO SAVE US

Jesus came from heaven to us in a manger. This is not just a christmas story but it is the story of God restoring a broken relationship. May you ,today know Jesus Christ and know that he did not come to condom but to save.

Deal with it.

I was part of a church once where because of sin the church fell apart and is now at a slow death. One of the problems of what happened was that the elders just wanted to sweep the sin under the carpet instead of dealing with it. We do this all the time in our own life's as well. Lately I have heard and seen sin in myself and others like Idol worship, pride, greed and the list can go on and on.

We are called to go to the cross and deal with our sin. We are always going to be sinners but we are told to always stay close to God and repent and be humble. I was just reading today Romans 12:21 that tells us how to fight a good fight Paul writes " Do not be overcome by evil,but overcome evil with good". We feel at times that we are to weak to fight the sin that we deal with always but if you feel like that then you are not believing the words of Christ when he says in Matthew 28:18 that All Authority has been given to me. Christ live's in you so if He has the power then you have the power to fight and deal with your sin.

As I write this I want you to know that even though I am writing this I am not saying that I am perfect. Just as Paul says that all have fallen I have fallen but because of the cross we have hope and grace. Do not let sin run your life but put on Christ and do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Matthew6:1) but deal with it. Be strong my brothers and sisters.

Why the ESV Bible?

I was reading a blog called why the ESV Bible and I really wanted to pass it to you. One of the main reasons that I trust the esv in my preaching and own studying is that I have found that I can trust the way it is written more then any other translation. It does not change the wording to make people happy. It does not change the wording to fit our lifes. But it helps us to understand the the bible is speaking to us. Check the blog and this video below.

ESV Trusted By Leaders from Crossway on Vimeo.

Church stop playing and start being!

May God use this song to stir in you a heart for those who are hurting. A heart for those who do not know Him. A heart for those in africa that have no water. THose in africa who are being thrown into war. THose in your city who may not have a christmas this year because they don't have the money . STOP PLAYING CHURCH AND START BEING THE CHURCH.

Men are not fit for Marriage.

This morning I was reading a devotional and one of the things that hit was that it said " men are not fit for marriage" and this is why we have the problems we do with porn, and sex. We are not brought up like girls are to look forward to the wedding day.

Most men ,because there fathers never have taught them about it, look to the world for who they are to be and sadly that is sex hungry beasts. After reading that today I really think that the men in the church and fathers should start talking to there sons about the wedding day and how the bride is the church and we (the groom) are Christ. We need to take our sons back from the world and show them who they are called to be and not sex hungry beast. Just my thoughts.

Amazing Video and thoughts

The Spirit is not dead

Over the years that I have been following Jesus Christ I have heard and seen a lot of things. I have seen people that where had demons in them be healed. I have seen people speak in tongues the way that the bible talks about. My list can go on and on. One thing that I have seen as being reformed in my theology that there are many reformers that are afraid of the gifts. I saw John Piper talk about his thoughts here. I would agree and disagree with him on this. Some of the gifts you really do want to have them where everyone can see them and give God the full glory for what has happened.

If you have known me at all you may know that ,because of Benny Hinn and others, I never was very big on the gifts of the spirit. But after the last few months I have been turning around and God has been opening me up to the gifts. I will post more on this but here is what I would say to help you. one pray as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:27-30 seeking it and if God wants you to have it He will give it. The second is study what God's word says about some of the gifts and start to understand it more. I hope that this may help and remember that this is just some of my thoughts on this.

Piper on Suffering

C. J Maheny LOL

Jonathan Rourke as CJ Mahaney from Resolved on Vimeo.

This has to be one of the most funniest things I have seen. You get him.

Not a Fan. BUT.

So if you know me at all then you know that I am not a huge fan of Rob Bell. When I was starting to get into reading books a few years back I liked some of Bell's thoughts. But now that I am more focused on the truth and doctrine of the bible I see somethings wrong with Bell but I also think we as preachers can learn form him as well. Even though he is pretty out there with his thoughts I feel that we need to look at the way he communicates. This dude is a beast in how he speaks.

I am only bringing this up to you to tell you that sometimes we need to sit back and stop thinking that we are great preachers and start thinking about what needs to get worked on. This past Sunday I said something in the sermon,that I still stand on and will always, but some people turned me off because of what I said. So Preachers check yourself before you wreck yourself is all I am saying. Not everyone is like Rob Bell or Mark Driscoll or John Piper so don't be like them but learn from them.