Treasureland Boy Feeds the Homeless

After a conversation with his parents, Ty, a fifth-grader in Treasureland, felt compelled to help feed people who were hungry. He decided to raise money to buy and make sandwiches and serve them to hungry people living on the streets. He asked people for donations and raised over $100. Ty told his Sunday School teacher, Lori Elliott, that he thought that he would bless people through his actions but was surprised when they in turn said to him, "God bless you."

Ty shared his experience at Treasureland and it sparked a student led discussion of how they could help people in need.

Pastor Scott and Marcia to Israel

Marcia and I leave at 6:30 tomorrow morning for Israel. We are going with a tour from Western Seminary where I am the chairman of the board of trustees. We will return on June 6th.

We are going to learn about the Holy Land, to be sure. But, our chief motivation for this trip is our 25th anniversary. For our honeymoon we traveled all of 85 miles to Yellowstone park and stayed three days for less than $400 before we were snowed out and came home! We are very excited about this opportunity. The trip highlights how thankful we are for the work God has done in us, and to a lesser degree, through us in these past 25 years.

We would appreciate your prayers for our safety as well as for our encouragement and growth. We look forward to sharing what we learn. Thank you.

Preaching the Gospel to Yourself

A few weeks ago I had more good stuff than I could cram into a sermon. Here are some of the quotes I would have used if the sermon had lasted 2 hours!

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in this psalm] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.’” Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1965), 20.

“If I have observed anything by experience, it is this: a man may take the measure of his growth and decay in grace according to his thoughts and meditations upon the person of Christ, and the glory of Christ’s Kingdom, and of His love.” - John Owen

“Sin is therefore fundamentally opposition to God, rebellion against God, which roots in hatred of God.” – Anthony Hoekema

“Reminding ourselves of the Gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish. If the Gospel is the most vital news in the world, and if salvation by grace is the defining truth of our existence, we should create ways to immerse ourselves in these truths every day. No days off allowed. . .Your audience is your own heart. And the message is simple: Christ died for you sins. It’s a matter of sitting down, grabbing your own attention, and telling yourself, “Hey, listen up! This is what matters most: You’re forgiven! You have hope! Your hope is based on the sacrifice of Jesus. So lets’ not view this day any other way. Let today be governed by this one defining truth.” (Living the Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney pg. 132‐133).

“God did not give us His Gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted. Actually, He offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps on giving to us everything we need for life and godliness... We extract these benefits by being absorbed in the Gospel, speaking it to ourselves when necessary, and by daring to reckon it true in all we do.” (The Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent pg 5).

“My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me.” (Morning and Evening‐Sept 25 by C.H. Spurgeon)

There is simply no other way to compete with foreboding of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the Gospel.” (The Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent, p. 14)

“You are loved and accepted by God through the merit of Jesus, and you are blessed by God through the merit of Jesus. Nothing you ever do will cause Him to love you any more or any less. (Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges, p 73)

“Remember, therefore, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee‐it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee‐it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument‐it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to thy hand with which thou art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to thy hope, but to Jesus, the source of thy hope; look not to they faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul.” (Morning and Evening‐ June 28 by C.H. Spurgeon.)

“Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him and say, ‘Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; yet set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not’.” (Martin Luther)

Remember the Gospel! – “There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live... it is always on His ‘blood and righteousness’ alone that we can rest.” (B.B. Warfield)

Preaching the Gospel to Christians (Week 5)

A New Sermon Series on the Reality of Grace in a Save-Yourself World

Tim Chester, You Can Change

[We] grow towards maturity by “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
We build one another up through the words we say. . . . We need to be communities in which we encourage, challenge, console, rebuke, counsel, exhort and comfort one another with the truth. We need to be communities in which everyone is speaking truth to everyone. In verses 17-24 Paul reminds us why “speaking the truth in love” is central to change. He reminds us firstly in verses 17-19 that the underlying causes of sinful behavior and negative emotions are futile thinking, darkened understanding, ignorant minds, hardened hearts, indulged desires and continual lust. In other words, we think or believe lies instead of trusting God’s word (chapter 5) and we desire or worship idols instead of worshiping God (chapter 6) (170).

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church

We need to take responsibility for eachother’s godliness – not only at the level of behavior but of attitudes and underlying idolotries. Paul encourages the Christians in Ephesus to “speak the truth in love” to one another (Ephesians 4:15.). This means recognizing that apparently insignificant moments are actually full of significance (170).

Here are the Life Group study guides to accompany last Sunday’s sermon from The Gospel Lived:

Preaching the Gospel to Christians
Preaching the Gospel to Christians (Leader’s Guide)

Also, don’t forget: you can still pick-up a copy of Milton Vincent’s excellent book, A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God's Love, at the church office or on Sunday morning for just $5.

Juneau Mission Team Banquet Invitation

The Juneau Mission Team, made up of 17 High School Students and 8 adults, would like to invite you to the "Juneau Mission Team Banquet". The banquet will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 pm this Sunday (May 16) at New Life Robinwood (19915 Old River Drive in West Linn).

The team will serve a full dinner. You will get a chance to interact with individual team members, and there will be a program explaining what the team is hoping to accomplish on this trip. This will also be a great opportunity for you to express your support for this team with prayer and a financial gift. If you are planning to come, please send an email, stating the number of people you are bringing, to office@newlifenw.com or call 503-656-8600 by Noon on Wednesday.

Thanks so much for your support!

The Juneau Mission Team

Preaching the Gospel to Yourself (Week 4)

A New Sermon Series on the Reality of Grace in a Save-Yourself World

Tim Keller, The Gospel in Life

What makes you a sexually faithful spouse, a generous—not avaricious—person, a good parent and/or child is not just redoubled effort to follow the
example of Christ. Rather, it is deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out the changes that understanding makes in your heart–the seat of your mind, will, and emotions. Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding and identity, and our view of the world. It changes our hearts. Behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting (26).

Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer

The gospel is so foolish (according to my natural wisdom), so scandalous (according to my conscience), and so incredible (according to my timid heart), that it is a daily battle to believe the full scope of it as I should. There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the gospel (14).

Here are the Life Group study guides to accompany yesterday’s sermon from The Gospel Lived:

Preaching the Gospel to Yourself
Preaching the Gospel to Yourself (Leader’s Guide)

Also, don’t forget: you can pick-up a copy of Milton Vincent’s excellent book, A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God's Love, at the church office or on Sunday morning for just $5. As a staff, we simply can’t recommend a better, more straight-forward, more practical, or more powerful book that focuses on actually living in light of the gospel.