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Archives For Exhortations

Not Even Death

March 31, 2013 — Leave a comment

When we say Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! We are not merely making a declaration about what happened to one man 2000 years ago. We of course mean that too, but we also mean much more than that. We mean much for than that because what happened means much more than that.

When Jesus burst out of the tomb the first Easter morning, He did so as a promise. One of the first great promises God gave us was after the flood. He put a rainbow in the sky and promised to never destroy the world like that again. On the first Easter, Jesus emerged as God’s living promise that God will put all things right. Continue Reading…

In Church Calendar, Exhortations

The Kind of Lovely that Stays

March 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

Jesus came as the Second Adam, and this means the renewal of the human race. Last week, the exhortation was particularly aimed at men. This week the exhortation is for the women.

Ladies, the Bible teaches that your glory, your strength is found particularly in your beauty and your powers of nurturing life. This glory and power is found in those women who fear the Lord, who place their trust in the God who runs the universe, and who consequently obey His word regardless of their circumstances.

But fear is often the great crippler of women. After the first sin entered the world, God told Eve that her temptation would be to rule her husband. Peter tells wives to win over disobedient husbands without a word, to use their gentle and quiet spirits, their beauty inside and out. But women often see dangers coming, see the way things might go wrong, see how their husband or father or friends are missing something, and they wrongly think that they should talk about it. Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 Peter, Bible - Proverbs, Exhortations, Family, TRC

Tiny Empires

March 18, 2013 — 1 Comment

Jesus came as the Second Adam, the beginning of a new human race. And this means the restoration of men and women to their respective glories. This week I want to address men in particular, and Lord willing, next week I will address the women.

Men, you were created to be strong. You were created to work hard. You were created to sweat and bleed and die. You were created to study, consider, explore, evaluate, and then to focus your energy and strength to provide, protect, create, and lead your people. That’s all heroic sounding, and every boy dreams of growing up to be a hero like that. But life is messy, and men are sinners, foolish, selfish, arrogant, cowardly, and sometimes they’re just wrong and they make mistakes, sometimes real big ones.

And this is precisely where many men sin. They try to carve out safe space where they can be mini-heroes, or at least heroes in their own head, in their imaginations. They refuse to take risks because they are afraid of failure. They carve out tiny empires in their homes, in the garage, in the study, at work, and then they bluster and strut and take offense when they don’t feel like they’re getting the respect they deserve. They buy expensive toys that make them feel strong, but often this is no better than a little boy tying a cape around his neck and running through the hallways with his arms out. Continue Reading…

In Exhortations, Family, Manalive, TRC

Jesus is Not Optional

March 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

A few weeks back, as we were beginning the Lenten season, Pastor Leithart reminded us that Lent is normal Christian life. At different times of the year we focus on different things, but we focus on different things which should all be normal Christian living. The themes of Advent, Epiphany, and Trinity season are always true all the time, but we plan to consider those themes annually.

One of the ways of thinking about Lent is as a countdown to Easter. During Advent many of us do Advent calendars and wreathes, recounting the story of salvation leading up to the birth of Jesus as Christmas. At Lent, we are specifically focusing on the faithfulness and obedience of Jesus even to the point of death on the cross for us and for our salvation. But Jesus laid His life down specifically with the full intention of taking back up again on the third day. We are counting down to Easter, counting down to Resurrection.

But this is true all the time. Everyone of us will soon meet our Maker. We hope and pray for long lives of faithfulness, but we do not know the day or the hour when our Master will summon us to appear before Him. And all men must appear before Him sooner or later. There are no other options. Jesus is not optional. And on the great last Easter, all men will be raised from their graves, God’s beloved children will be raised to glory, and those who do not know Him will be raised to eternal judgment. And there will be no lies on that Last Day. All will be laid bare before Him. Nothing will be hidden. Continue Reading…

In Church Calendar, Exhortations, Lent, TRC

A Pro-Life Meal

January 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

Today around this country, many Christians are remembering the Roe vs. Wade decision from 40 years ago which left some of the weakest, most vulnerable members of our society undefended, unprotected. And millions of lives have been taken as a result. We stand with our brothers and sisters protesting this monstrosity, this barbarian holocaust. And we plead with Jesus to hear their cries, to forgive us, and to turn us from this great evil.

At the same time, I want to call us this morning to be more consistently pro-life. We are pro-life, but we have to recognize that there is more to being pro-life than merely protecting the life of the unborn. It certainly includes that, but there is more than that. And I want us to consider two areas in particular. First, we want to continue to grow up into a community that shelters and protects women, particularly those coming from abusive relationships, in crisis pregnancies, those most tempted, most vulnerable to considering abortion. And we also want to offer forgiveness and cleansing and healing through Jesus to all women who have had abortions. And there are many. There are some in our churches, and there are many in our community. Continue Reading…

In Eucharistic Meditations, Exhortations, Family, Food, Grace, Justice & Mercy, Theology - Sacraments, TRC

Planting Weeds & Hoping for Roses

January 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

One of the great lies of modern culture is that if you mostly mean well, everything will end up good in the end. The world says that if you have good intentions, and you do nice things here and there and the good mostly outweighs the bad, you’ll end up OK. No matter that you neglected your children, no matter that you spoke disrespectfully to your parents. No matter that you lied here and there, and cheated a little on the side. No matter that you spun things to make yourself look better than you really are. No matter that you did end runs around your husband or your wife, to get what you wanted before they could object, before they could stop you.

But Jesus says that men reap what they sow. One day you will wake up with a field full of thistles and weeds, and it will not be a great mystery how it happened. Your daughter will run off with a man who at least pays attention to her. Your son will run off to some place where people actually respect him. Your marriage will dissolve in silence and coldness or go up in flames overnight. You can’t plant the seeds of selfishness and evil and then hope the flowers of righteousness will grow magically. You can’t refuse to pull the weeds of sin and then be surprised when all the flowers are overgrown and dead. It’s not a great mystery. It’s folly. It’s insanity. Continue Reading…

In Evangelism, Exhortations, Grace, TRC

The Rebirth of the Whole World

October 28, 2012 — Leave a comment

When we say that we are evangelicals, one of the things we are proclaiming is that we believe in reformations. The first reformers in the Protestant Reformation were called evangelicals, and so we align ourselves with them. But the larger point is that we believe that this is how God intents to get this project done. And this project is the restoration of all things, the renewal of all things, the rebirth of the whole world, the whole universe, the new creation. But all reformation begins in the heart; all renewal, all rebirth begins when the Holy Spirit changes a slave of sin into a free man, when the Holy Spirit breathes on a man made of dust and lights him up, making him a man made of Spirit.

One of the great glories of the Protestant Reformation was the insistence on the centrality of freedom. Christ came proclaiming liberty to the captives, and that wasn’t just a Sunday School slogan. The point was that if Jesus set somebody free, they were really free. When Jesus proclaims forgiveness, it echoes into economies and politics and science and technology and medicine. This is because the gospel is the proclamation of the Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Jesus is reformation for the world. Continue Reading…

In Church Calendar, Exhortations, History - Reformation

The Wrecking Ball of the Spirit

October 23, 2012 — Leave a comment

We gathered here for war. We have been summonsed by our King: You are His nobles, His princes, His lords and ladies; You are His hosts, His armies, His lieutenants and captains and infantry. You have been in the fray this week. You have faced enemies, you have faced giants and dragons and sins and pain. You may be coming off of a week of victories; you may be coming off of a week of failures. You may be coming off of a week of a few of both.

But the wonderful thing is that here, now, in this place as God calls us each by name and all of us by His own name, and we call upon Him as our God, our Lord, our Master, our King, as He invites us to lift up our hearts to Him, He lifts us up to Himself, the Spirit lifts us up into His very presence, and we are invited to wage war on sin and death and Satan and all evil in a way that far surpasses anything you might imagine, in a way that far surpasses what you’re able to do during the week. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Genesis, Bible - Joshua, Exhortations, Justice & Mercy, Prayer, Preaching, Worship

God Never Saved A Friend

October 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me.”

Here, in our sermon text for today, God is speaking of Cyrus in particular. God is raising up Cyrus, a foreign, gentile king to perform His salvation for Israel. But Cyrus is a type of every true believer, every Christian. God reveals Himself, God reveals that He is unique and there is none besides Him by saving strangers. God never saved a friend. God never saved someone because they had done their part. God never saved by giving a helping hand. God saves sinners. God saves His enemies. God rescues those who don’t know Him and don’t know they need Him. And He does that by sending Jesus to die for us, in our place. Some men and gods might die for good men, but our God died for bad men, our God died for enemies and strangers and traitors. God clothes strangers and enemies with His glory, so that the world may know that they have never seen a love like this. They have never met a God like this. They have never known grace like this. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Isaiah, Bible - Romans, Exhortations, Grace, Theology - Soteriology, TRC

Go Ahead and Squish It

October 8, 2012 — Leave a comment

Sin, the flesh, death, and the devil are the enemies of God, and therefore they are the great enemies of the Church and every believing Christian. God has not made peace with those enemies, and therefore, we dare not either. But we do not wage our warfare against these enemies in the dark. In the dark, the shadows of sin and failure and sickness and temptation loom large. In the dark, they are unknown; they are mysterious; they are scary. In the dark, you may scuffle, you may try to step around them, but you can’t see where you are going. You can’t see where the enemies are. You can’t see to avoid the next pitfall.

But Jesus has come to bring light. Jesus has come to expose the works of darkness. Jesus has come to turn the lights on so that we can see our enemies clearly. John says that if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Walking in the light means confessing the sin right in front of us. It means confessing the sin you know about. When we confess the real, actual sin right in front of us, Jesus forgives us and turns the lights on. And when He turns the lights on, you find that the big, bad, dark shadows of sin and death, the flesh, and the devil are not nearly as big and foreboding as you thought. In fact, because Jesus is risen from the dead, they are weak and little and shrinking. Jesus already died for all of your sins, for all of the sins you know about, and all of the sins you don’t know about. Jesus already died for them all. They are already taken care of, already paid for, already dealt with. Continue Reading…

In Bible - 1 John, Exhortations, Grace, Wisdom