Read: Galatians 5:16-6:10
Text: Galatians 6:9
Why We Need a Building
Thanksgiving
The Lamb and the Scroll
A Vision of Heaven
Facets of Thanksgiving
“Therefore let your words be few.”
Read: Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
“It is actually dangerous for sinful human beings to be in the presence of God. This idea was at the heart of the worship of the temple in the Old Testament. The temple was the dwelling place of God and the only way that God could continue to dwell in the midst of his sinful people was through the offering of sacrifices that provisionally atoned for the people’s sin until the final sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ on the cross.”
Sermon Series: Ecclesiastes
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image…” (3) The Regulative Principle
“This is why worship that is authorized by the Bible is so simple and unadorned. God wants us to focus on what he is saying to us and on what we say back to him. He wants our attention to be focused like a laser on him, and anything that detracts from that is counter-productive as far as what God is looking for in our worship is concerned. God is not interested in us feeling worshipful because of a worshipful atmosphere. God wants us to love and rejoice and adore and tremble and fear and exult because our attention is riveted on what he is saying to us.”
Sermon Series: The Ten Commandments
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image….” (1)
“You see, God has made us reflectors. We do not have independent existence. We are images. We are not originals. We are images of some original. That is our essence. And that is all that we can be. We are God/god reflectors. We are images of some God/god. It is not possible for us not to be an image of some God/god. Either we reflect the true God, or we reflect some false god. Just like a mirror is always going to reflect something so we are always going to reflect some God/god. When God said that he made us in his image he said that he made us as mirrors to reflect him.”
Sermon Series: The Ten Commandments
Truths of the Reformation (3) Glory to God Alone
Read: Psalm 96
“Our greatest good and joy and satisfaction is experienced in glorifying God while the greatest harm for us is not to glorify God. We were made to find our greatest good in seeing and appreciating and worshipping and adoring God. The greatest blessing that we can know is to be filled with love and adoration for God. And the greatest curse that we can know is to be without love and adoration for God.”