Our most recent baptism at Grace Bible. Glory to God!
GBF Baptism 1-29-17 from Jason Carney on Vimeo.
Religion vs The Gospel
Admittedly, pinning the term religion against the gospel isn’t entirely fair. There are many things that can be done religiously in a very good and God-glorifying way! Religion that is “pure” can be practiced (See James 1:26-27). Not to mention the fact that Christianity IS by definition a religion. BUT, you and I can’t make our way to God on our own, no matter how hard we try, and when we attempt that we, by our actions have pinned religion agains the Gospel. I’ve found the following by Tim Keller to be a good heart check as to wether or not I am Christ-centered or merely religious.
This mullet might save your marriage!!!
Ok, so a mullet CAN’T save your marriage, but Jesus can! And the lyrics of a song by a man with a mullet can help identify the problem in many marriages and relationships–PRIDE
The following is an email I shared with a group of men this week:
Tuesday morning me and some men were working through Genesis 2 and I thought of a song I hadn’t heard in years. A song by one of the greatest mullets wearers of all time, Travis Tritt. Haha. You can laugh at his mullet, but you can’t laugh at these these lyrics:
He relives every word they spoke in anger
He walks the floor and punches out the wall
To apologize to her, would be so simple
But instead he cries, ‘I’ll be damned if I crawl’…
…Chalk another love lost up to foolish pride…
He walks the floor and punches out the wall
To apologize to her, would be so simple
But instead he cries, ‘I’ll be damned if I crawl’…
…Chalk another love lost up to foolish pride…
That sound familiar? And I’m not asking if you are a fan of 90’s country music (though maybe you should be). I’m asking if you’ve ever done something similar? Ever let conflict go on way too long because you were too prideful to say what needed to be said? Even worse, ever let somebody you love walk out of your life because you were too prideful to admit you were part of the problem. What about your kids? Especially teenagers. Are you letting your pride stand in between you and your son or daughter? Pride–like every other sin, it over-promises and under-delivers. But with Pride it’s not just what it fails to pay, it’s what it costs. And it DOES cost, big time. Here’s the chorus of the song:
Turn out the lights, the competition’s over
The stubborn souls are the losers here tonight
And while the bridges burn
Another hard hard lesson’s learned
As in the ashes, passion slowly dies
And this romance goes down to foolish pride
The stubborn souls are the losers here tonight
And while the bridges burn
Another hard hard lesson’s learned
As in the ashes, passion slowly dies
And this romance goes down to foolish pride
Pride is a killer when it comes to our relationship with God too. 1st Peter 5:5 says that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. As Christians, we have nothing to be prideful about. We’ve turned from ourselves and turned to Jesus Christ for everything. We are sinners, who HAD TO BE saved by grace because we could never get it right ourselves. And we only mess things up worse when we try! We follow Jesus, the most humble man to ever walk the face of the planet. Men, the “foolish pride” in this song is just not for us. Don’t let pride cost you what Christ has afforded you. Say what needs to be said. Apologize. Forgive. Be the bigger, humble man God’s called you to be. Do it for your own good, for the good of your relationships, and most importantly, for God’s glory.
btw you can dog on Travis’s mullet all you want, but he couldn’t have sang that song in skinny jeans 🙂 IMO, country music needs to stay just that, country.
IN THE WORLD, NOT OF THE WORLD, SENT TO SERVE THE WORLD
“I don’t want to be a comfort-seeking, entertainment-addicted, security-craving, approval-hungry Christian.” -John Piper
Sunday we discussed some of the very same things covered in the short video below. Of course, John Piper says it much better than I did. Check it out:
Beyond The Sermon, John 17:14-18
In John 17, Jesus prayed to God the Father, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent theminto the world.” Jesus has SENT us into the world on a mission to sacrificially serve and make Christ known. So we talked about how this presses us to go beyond the statement “In the world and not of it.” It would be more appropriate to say “Not of the world, but sent to serve the it.”
Here are some resources that go along with the teaching:
Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper (free pdf)
Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper (Amazon)
Are You Missional? 10 Diagnostic Questions
Some questions for reflection:
What does John 13:1-17 teach us about how we should relate to the world that he has sent us to?
Charles Spurgeon said “Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor.” How does John 17:18 prove his statement true?
What is the difference between living safe and living sent?
Has your experience of the Christian life been boring? Could it be that you missed the fact that Jesus has commanded and sent you to go into a world that doesn’t know Him, to serve and make Him famous?
Genesis Explained – 6 Minute Vid
W’ve been going through the first 11 ch’s of Genesis in our Tuesday morning Men’s Bible study. Below is an excellent, but also short, overview of the entire book:
John 17:20-26 Beyond The Sermon
Here are a couple of resources pertaining to Sunday’s sermon from John 17:20-26 on Christian unity.
What Is Christian Unity? — An article by John Piper
Some questions for reflection:
- Of the many things that Jesus could pray for his followers in John 17, why do you think he made it a point to pray that “they may all be one”?
- Some might that a focus on Christian unity would distract from reaching those who don’t know Christ as Savior. How does the end of 17:21 say that Christian unity benefits those outside the Christian faith?
- What is the correlation between Jesus prayer for oneness, and his command in John 13:34-35?
- How could you personally help to maintain and promote Christian unity?
Charles Spurgeon: “Where the Spirit of God is there must be love, and if I have once known and recognized any man to be my brother in Christ Jesus, the love of Christ constraineth me no more to think of him as a stranger or foreigner, but a fellow citizen with the saints.”
A prayer and reflection for Christian unity from the apostle Paul in Romans 15:5-7– May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live insuch harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together youmay with one voice glorify bthe God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Grace Equip — Marriage, Wednesday Feb 1st
Wednesday night, February 1st, 6:30-7:30pm, in the Grace Bible auditorium we’ll be providing a “Grace Equip” seminar on the subject of marriage.
Marriage is a way of life given by God to put the gospel of Jesus on display, and provide a husband and wife with help, comfort, companionship, and love. There are few things more wonderful than a biblical marriage. But at times, there are also few things more difficult. Our marriages will fail without God at the center of them. We need God’s Grace in order to make it work.
In our time together, we’ll be looking to God’s Word and discussing practical steps to strengthen our marriages. You can come as a couple or come by yourself, Married or unmarried. The only prerequisite is that you’re seeking God’s will for your life and marriage. Bring a Bible, pen, something to take notes on, and be ready to smile. In keeping with Grace Bible’s approach, this time will be biblical, relational, and fun:)
Got 6 Minutes??? Get equipped to answer questions like–Are all religions the same? What’s the difference? Is there anyone who is truly NOT religious? What makes Christianity different?
I hope all of my church family and friends will take just a few minutes to watch this video. Tim Keller has been a great help to me and so many people, and then this video puts together some of his most simple, but VERY helpful observations on religion and the gospel. CHRISTIANS YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS STUFF. Get equipped. Check it out…
The 10 Year Anniversary of the iPhone–And Why I Bought An Alarm Clock
This week marks the 10 year anniversary of the iPhone. Does it seem like that happened fast??? I remember the first time I saw an iPhone. I was a youth pastor, and a student was showing off his shiny new caseless iPhone on a youth trip. My first thought was that it looked REALLY COOL, and breakable, and expensive, and hard to hold on to, and…breakable. I remember being fearful that my student’s mom was gonna kill him (or me) if his new phone was broken on our youth trip! A few years later I’d have my own iPhone, and just a few hours later, we would disassemble a restaurant booth to try and retrieve my student’s new iPhone, because, you guessed it, he dropped it. BUT, good news is it didn’t break!
iPhones have been life changing for our culture. So many conveniences afforded to us as the push of a button! So many ways to stay in contact with people we love! Access to so much great entertainment and information right in the palm of our hands! But have we become too dependent on our iPhones? Have we become LESS relational by trying to keep up with too many people and activities? Has so much instant access made us less patient with the people we love?
This week I did something that I haven’t done in a couple of decades. I bought an alarm clock. Weird right? Why would I need an alarm clock, when there’s one on my iPhone? Here’s the deal, I’ve formed a bad habit of making the last thing I look at before I go to sleep, and the first thing I look at when I wake up, my phone. I’ll even scroll through sports scores in the middle of the night when I wake up. But what’s wrong with that? Nothing really. Except for the fact that I use to spend my last waking moments talking to God about the day’s events. I use to talk to God in the morning before I saw the weather, the news, or social media too. I use to spend more time talking to my wife in the morning and at night rather than scrolling through timelines and newsfeeds. Those things were better. So, I’m moving my phone charger across the room, and I’ve invested in an old school alarm clock instead of using the one on my phone. I could still hear my phone ring if someone called with an emergency, but it’s much less accessible. No big deal, just a small adjustment that also serves as a reminder of my priorities.
Maybe the iPhone is all good for you! Or who knows, maybe you’re still rocking one of those gigantor bag phones from the 90’s wouldn’t even fit on your night stand. But if you’re like me these simple questions might be worth asking:
- Does my iPhone negatively effect my relationship and time with God?
- Does my iPhone negatively effect my relationship and time with my spouse?
- Does my iPhone effect my relationship and time with my kids?
- Am I less patient with people than I was before I started using an iPhone?
- What, if any, adjustments do I need to make to use my iPhone in a healthy god-glorifying way?
I’m sure there are more/better questions than these. What would you add?
Pastor Roy Layman 