Hard Hitting Sermons

Sometimes, my sermons are pretty harsh. It's just my nature to be blunt and loud, but it's the nature of God's word to divide and conquer your flesh. I once heard an old preacher say that if it seems as though the preaching of God's word is stroking the cat the wrong way, it's not the job of the pastor to change the word, it's the responsibility of the cat to turn around.

When my preaching is loud and abrasive, my concern and prayer is that my tone will not overshadow the message of God's word. I hope that my messages always convey the love of Christ to his people and the love of this pastor toward his church. My prayer is that my love, however, will always be true love that speaks the truth and never feigned love that lauds sin in the name of being nice or elevating self-esteem.

Marriage and Men

This is a sermon that every man and every married couple in America should watch. This makes a great follow up to my last post concerning men performing as Spiritual leaders in the home.

Mark Driscoll never minces words, and this is a great example of a hard hitting sermon challenging men to step up to the plate.

Training Men To Lead Their Families

I've posted a great article here about training men to lead their families. This is an article that I wish every member of our church--especially the men--would read. Even though God is doing great things in our midst, we are (like many other churches) in dire need of strong men to step up to the plate and lead in the home and in the church.

The Bible is clear about the responsibility of the husband/father in the family to lead as Christ leads his church. It is my hope and prayer that God will raise up men in the church to lead. It is also my conviction, however, that in our church and in every church it is the responsibility of the church to seek out the men and challenge and train them up to be the leaders in the church and in their homes. For all interested, this is the reason for our one day men's retreat on May 2nd.

For The Sake of His Steadfast Love

Last night, I preached from Psalm 6:4 where David cries out for God's salvation with these words:

"Save me for the sake of your steadfast love."

I would challenge you today to ponder on this thought, God's salvation is not ultimately because of anything I've done or even because I am worthy of it. Rather, God has chosen to save us for the sake of his steadfast love.

Jesus' death on the cross accomplished all that was needed for our salvation (see my sermon on The Ten Accomplishments of the Cross), but his motivation was not my sin. Rather, his motivation was the will of the Father, And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will (Matthew 26:39).” It was the love of God that held Christ on the cross. The love of God for himself and his own glory ultimately, and the desire to see his creation restored to right relationship with him.

We must be careful as Christians to view the cross, not as man-centered, but as God-centered. On the cross, Christ reconciled sinners to himself, but he did so so that God would be glorified through his acts of grace and mercy. He saved us, not for our own sake, but for the sake of his steadfast love.

Twitter in Church?

Ok, some of you don't even know what Twitter is (click here for the wikipedia definition). Basically, Twitter is a relatively new way of Instant Messaging, only you send one message that can be read by anyone who follows you at the same time. Think of passing notes in class, but instead of passing one note to one person, you can pass one note to tons of people all at the same time. You can do it via the internet, your smart phone, applications on your computer desktop, or simply with text messaging. Anyone with a computer or a cell phone can twitter, and it is EASY.

Below, I have pasted a link to a video about Mars Hill Church in Seattle which encourages twittering in church. It's a concept I didn't really think about, but that is probably worth while. Click to watch Congregation at Seattle Church All A Twitter.

I don't know if this will catch on in Camden soon, but if it is an opportunity to spread the gospel, why not?

Also, as a side note, there was a time when I told a friend (Terry) that I did not see any value in Twitter...I confess that I was wrong and repent in dust and ashes. You can follow my tweets (messages sent through twitter) on the left side of this page.