How the Gospel Transforms Work!

I unearthed a lot of good material that did not make it into today's sermon. If you would like to think more about how the gospel transforms your work, I suggest you look at these sites.

I was pleased to find out the August 28, 2010 issue of World Magazine is about work and labor. In that issue they pointed me to a work in progress called, Theology of Work. Though it wasn't helpful now, I am hopeful that a future visit to this site will yield some useful insight. Another site they recommended did have more content, Monday Church. The Biblical Theology of Vocation is very helpful.

The Wikipedia article on Labor Day even includes ideas for celebrating the holiday if you are bored next weekend. May you work and rest, labor and take holiday, to the glory of God.

David Livingstone on Sacrifice

A few weeks ago I included this quote from David Livingstones address to students at Cambridge University in a message and was asked to share it:

People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of the great debt owing to our God, which we could never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward of healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with such a word, such a view, and such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering or danger now and then, with a forgoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I NEVER MADE A SACRIFICE. Of this we ought not to talk when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us. (Quoted in Desiring God, John Piper, Multnomah Press: Portland, 1986, p. 201)

New Books in the Library

These are the new and donated books now found in the library at New Life Riverfalls.

Teen Section:
Extreme Faith by Dave Parker
Stories for a Teen's Heart by Alice Gray

Non-Fiction Section:
The Message by Eugene H. Peterson (225.5)
Pain's Hidden Purpose by Don Baker (231)
A Young Woman's Friend and Guide by John Angell James (248)
Crazy Love by Francis Chan (248.4)
Gladys Aylward (Missionary to China) by Sam Wellman (266)
Being the BODY by Charles Colson & Ellen Vaughn (262)
Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper (232.96)
Inside Afghanistan by Franklin Graham (958.1)
Home-Making by J. R. Miller (248)

Fiction Section:
The Crossroad by Beverly Lewis
The Redemption of Sarah Cain by Beverly Lewis
The Courtship of Nellie Fisher:
The Parting (1) by Beverly Lewis
The Forbidden (2) by Beverly Lewis
The Longing (3) by Beverly Lewis
What Once We Loved by Jane Kirkpatrick
A Name of Her Own by Jane Kirkpatrick
Over Coffee (We shared our Secrets) by Julie Surface Johnson
The Women of Catawba by Hilda Stahl
Walks the Fire by Stephanie Grace Whitson
A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers

Garage Sale for the Guatamala Team

The New Life Church Guatamala Mission team will be holding a fundraising garage sale on August 20 and 21 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at 4254 Spring Rock Circle in West Linn.
Donations to the garage sale would be appreciated. (No clothing please.) Call Val Matijacic at 503-322-7639 or 503-657-9070. If you have large items to donate, Val can pick them up.
Please come support the mission trips to Guatamala.

Worship in the Sun

We had a wonderful day of worship and fellowship on Sunday as we met outside in Wilsonville for our annual, combined, outdoor service and picnic. People praised God together and got a peak at what is to come in Wilsonville. It is so exciting to see God's people gathering together, encouraging one another, and planning to be a part of this next chapter of New Life Church!

Calling All Artists for Help with Sermon Artwork

Want to help the church and work on something worthwhile? We are looking forward to a great fall. We'll begin a new series of messages on Sunday mornings from the book of Galatians called, Rooted in the Gospel. We're inviting anyone who wants to create graphic artwork for this series to submit it by September 1 to the church office. We'll publish all entrants on the blog and want to use one for a PowerPoint background and handouts. We may let blog readers pick their favorite.

Outdoor Service and Picnic

Our annual outdoor service and picnic will be next week, August 15th, beginning at 10:00. The picnic will follow.

We will hold it at the future home of New Life Church Wilsonville. You can find a map along with the address here (the link is fixed).


We are doing this for several reasons:

• It is a great opportunity to bring someone with you who might not come to a church building.
• We want to hang out together. It will be great to have our Robinwood and River Falls congregations together.
• We want to expose you to the church plant work that is going on in Wilsonville and solicit your prayers and help.
• And, it was always the most popular teachers in high school who took class outdoors -- it is just fun.

I hope you can make it. It will be a good day, as always, for New Life Church.

Rafting Trip on the Clackamas River

Men's Ministry is hosting a rafting trip down the Clackamas River on August 8th at 2:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome (children with parents) but space IS limited. Meet at Barton Park at 2:00. Parking at the park is $5.00. Transportation will be available to the launch site at Carver. Life jackets and ice cream will be provided.
If interested contact Larry Richardson at 503-320-1171.

Kickball Fun!

We had a great turn out at the All Family Kickball Night in Wilsonville yesterday. It was good to see families playing together and encouraging each other. Several families from New Life Church turned out as well as some neighbors and friends. Parents and children alike played and enjoyed themselves as was evidenced by the big smiles, cheers, and the number of times people said, "This was so much fun!"

A Note of Thanks

Bridges to Change, a non-profit organization providing transitional services, included this note of thanks in their August 2010 newsletter:

"A special thanks to New Life Church and their most generous congregation for their on going giving spirit in supplying food boxes, thoughts and prayers for our clients. We have a heart full of gratitude for all of your support. It takes a community to affect change and we cannot do this alone."

Juneau Team Report and Potluck

I hope you can make space in your calendar to hear what God has done in and through the team New Life Church sent to Juneau earlier this month. They will be reporting at a potluck on Sunday, July 25, at 12:15 at New Life Church River Falls.

I have been part of many teams our church has sent out. This, however, has been one of the most transformational experiences yet.

If you are interested in browsing some of their pictures you can seen them here.

Worship Thoughts

Here are a couple additional thoughts that didn't fit into the message on Worship. They won't fit in a couple weeks when I share it at Robinwood either, so no spoiler alert necessary.

The Resurgence, a ministry I recommend you pay attention to, highlights the false gospel preached by rock & roll in this blog post. Their observation about the music we entertain ourselves with is similar to my concern for our worship. Your music preaches a gospel...is it the right one?

My message hardly qualified as a sermon on worship without this quote by William Temple, former archbishop of Canterbury, which everyone who writes on the topic of worship loves. Here it is in two different forms:

To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.

Both for perplexity and for dulled conscience the remedy is the same; sincere and spiritual worship. For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin. Yes – worship in spirit and truth is the way to the solution of perplexity and to the liberation from sin. – William Temple, Readings in St. John’s Gospel, (1942-44).

Juneau Mission Team in the Newspaper!

Yesterday a reporter and photographer from the Juneau Empire (the local newspaper) showed up at Sports Camp. We aren't really sure how they found out about our camp, but it was great publicity! There were 3 full color pictures and a short report about our camp on the front of the Sports Section of today's paper. Here is one of the pictures. You can see the rest of the pictures they took along with the caption here.

Juneau H20 Adventure #1

Hi, New Life Church, this is Lindsay Goff. I am a part of the youth group. You may have seen me around. I started coming at the end of last summer. Alaska has been amazing. I am so thankful for this opportunity to be here. When I look back on and reflect on what has happened so far wow is all that really crosses my mind. Don’t get me wrong, as a group, we have all been having our ups and downs but I can truly say that I have never felt more like a true Christian and felt as much burning love for Christ our Savior as I do right now, right here. This place, to sum it up simply, is kind of sad. It’s full of so many lonely people who have had terrible lives and yet the Spirit of God is still here and still working miraculously. I have always believed that you can’t have great joy without great suffering, but here I realized, “what do I know about suffering?” Last night I had a really amazing experience and it really opened my eyes and brought me closer to Christ and it is something I would really like to share with all of you.

Our free time was coming to an end and many were busy shuffling around chairs and tables preparing for our Alaskan guests coming for lunch. We ate our lunch, we laughed, we giggled, we prayed before we ate, but nothing truly seemed to be that different. As lunch came to a close Lauren stood up to talk about the events planned later for the day. We were going to hand out H2O bags around Juneau. H2O is an organization that Lauren and Leslie Reavely had started as a way to reach out to homeless people. She explained some ways of how to approach and talk to these homeless people. One of our Alaskan friends named Travis came to talk to us about the people that make up the homeless community in Juneau. One thing that seemed like an exaggeration, but I later found to ring true, was the statement that if someone is homeless in Juneau it is because they drink.He made sure we had a proper grasp and a proper fear for the situation we were about to thrust ourselves into. Their talks were helpful, yes, but I don’t know what could have really ever prepared me and many on our team for what was about to unfold.

Small groups were necessary because we didn’t want to overwhelm them and many of the homeless were not really centrally located. My group was the first to get started on the task ahead. We were to go to the woods and meet people that resided there. Our group consisted of Joe (our Alaskan friend), Cale, Andrew K, Sarah C, Bethany, Josh H. and myself. We got to the woods and stepped out of our car. We prayed for what we were about to do and began our task. We were all a little frightened but we were all ready. The Spirit of God was most definitely with us. Even the bear warning that Joe had given us couldn’t put down the spirit in our group. We began walking into the forest and immediately heard screaming and yelling in the distance. We were freaked out but we knew that we wanted to do this and jumped into the situation.

The first man we came upon was not homeless but directed us to where a man named Kioki lived. We walked up to his “shelter”, or a spot where he had placed sticks and leaves together and was littered with a mixture of bottles and cans of different alcohol substances. When we arrived we were greeted by a slurry of curse words and yelling. Our group persisted to reach into the shelter area and hand them bags and speak with them. Two men in the shelter accepted them. Their names were Robert and John. John, I really got to know that night. He’s had so much sorrow in his life and just a handshake or a hug from a stranger meant so much to him. Kioki, the man who had been yelling and lived there, didn’t accept anything from us but we left a bag anyway. We talked to them a little bit about God’s love and continued on. After that we continued down the path. So much more happened that night. God was really present. We saw John and Robert again along the path and met more homeless people that really accepted God.

One story of many from that night that was truly inspiring had to do with Kioki. We had been on the path for about thirty minutes we had prayed with John, Cherri, Bobby and Robert ,when Kioki Started to walk toward us in a drunken stupor. He was closing his eyes and walking all over the place and was really a frightening person to see. It starts to get a little fuzzy past this point but I remember him coming to us and questioning us about where Jesus had died and how he had fought in a war there and seen such horrible people and horrible things. He walked away in his stupor. As he was walking away something came over me and I yelled “God still loves you” or something to that affect. He stopped dead in his tracks and turned around toward us totally irate. He got in Joe’s face and started yelling at him questioning his faith intensely. Something came over Joe and he answered with grace and truth about God and his love. It was so heated and intense but we ended up praying with Kioki that night. I encourage you all to pray for him and the other people we met that night. The Holy Spirit was really there that night in the forest. It caused me to realize we don’t really do anything. It is all God and His power that works through us and he picks such strange ways to do it. There is so much more I would like to share and would love to when we get back. I hope all is well and thanks for reading our blog.

Here is a conversation that was recorded with one of the the homeless men...

Juneau Mission Team Day 3

Yesterday, we went on a “3/4 of a mile” hike. The hike represented way more than a journey. It represented, at least I know, my walk with Christ, and I am sure more people also. Our team got lost countless times, and there were times I lead us into an immediate dead end. You could say that we were lost if you meant that; we didn’t know where north was, or we didn’t know the long./lat. But we just put our trust into the trails that we found, just like we put trust in God when we don’t know where He’s taking us. We found our destination after taking many detours and falling down many times. The hike turned out to be 2.5 miles. All in all I believe that the team grew closer those two hours. We overcame obstacles to help other people the entire trip, and we grew close in our love for one another. After the hike we rode a tram down, then watched a parade. It was nice to have a little down time. Right after that we went to the huge Independence Day Parade, we had a Mega Sports Camp booth, and we helped serve a church in the Douglas community.

There were a few moments that stood out while in downtown Juneau, A ton of the people that we talked to about sports camp had already heard 2 or even 3 times either through Crossroads Church or through our previous canvassing. The team thought that was awesome!!! Also the team did not only serve the community, but we served the Douglas Methodist Church. Thomas had a great conversation with one of the members of their congregation. That was a nice reminder of how we need to preach the gospel to our brothers and sisters in Christ just as much as the lost. I know that I learned many things and I am sure others did also.

When we returned many of us were attacked by the evil one, temptations arose, either to break down in fear or confusion or to be slowed by sickness. Being fully realized of our brokenness, the team grew once again closer, our brokenness gave God opportunity to show his greatness. On a side note, I used to ask God for opportunities to have him work in my life and others, I realized this week that God has placed opportunities all over the place, all I need to do is trust him and hold on for the ride. All in all I cannot wait to see how we grow and how God will work through us in the following days. Thank you for your prayers, they are helping.

Andrew M.

PS Just for fun... A Picture of a Juneau Bear (Don't worry, the teenagers are safe!)

Juneau Update- Day 2

Hello, New Life Church. This is Grayson and I want to tell you about how our first full day in Alaska went, also mentioning some prayer requests along the way. Today started really well for all of us but we are still in recovery from the sports camp back home so prayer to have full nights of rest would be much appreciated. Anna Alcutt led us in a group devotion after breakfast about having a heart for the poor and broken, and for me that was really powerful because we were about to go canvassing in some pretty run down places.

My high of the day really was when the canvassing group I was in (Greg Elkins, T.J Elliot, and I) got a really positive response from the people going door to door, sure some people didn’t answer, but it was so encouraging when we had people just sign up on the spot and said they’ll see us there. Now, I wasn’t expecting that, but it was evident that God was working in this small town, opening the hearts and doors of the people.

Although things have been looking up on the trip so far there is one thing that is looming ahead of us for the coming days and that is the weather. It does help having nice weather when trying to teach kids sports. Please keep us in your prayers, that we stay strong what ever happens. Pray for God’s Will to be done.

I should go and get some sleep now, thanks for checking the blog, we’ll update again soon.

P.S. There is proof of the rainy weather below.

Juneau Team Update #1

Sports Camp in West Linn ended at noon and the Juneau Mission Team was at the airport by 3:00 to prepare to depart for Alaska. Before we departed we had a brief time of praise for what God did at Sports Camp this week. Here are a few of the things we praised God for:

• God helped us with challenging children. They grew through the week, and so did we.
• A few days into Sports camp we all felt drained, now we feel recharged for what God will do this week in Juneau.
• The rain didn't stop us from having a great last day of Sports Camp.
• About 25 kids responded to the gospel invitation this week, and we believe about 10 of those truly understood the gospel and trusted Christ for the first time!
• We could go on and on, but just know that we saw God work in incredible ways this week!

Our plane travel was mostly smooth (0nly a 30 minute delay in Seattle) and we arrived safely in Juneau at about 10:00 last night. This morning the team is showering up, eating breakfast, and preparing for a day of prayer walking and canvassing in "The Flats". This is the area where there has not been a new gospel initiative in 40 years. Please pray for us that God would open doors for the gospel, that His Spirit would lead us to pray, that we would be protected from evil, and that we would come into contact with lots of kids who would want to come to sports camp next week.

We will try to update this blog late each night, so check back tomorrow for updates, praise reports, and more things to pray about!

Sports Camp Off to Great Start

New Life Church's Mega Sports Camp got off to a great start. In West Linn, yesterday morning, 57 excited kids played basketball and soccer and heard the good news about Jesus Christ! In our first ever sports camp in Wilsonville last night, 22 kids had a great time playing soccer and hearing that same gospel message. Of those 22 kids, none of them had ever attended New Life Church before!

In West Linn, the Juneau Mission Team in is running the Sports Camp and preparing for their departure to Juneau on Friday. In Wilsonville a team of committed adult volunteers is doing a great job working with the kids.

Please pray that both teams of volunteers will proclaim the good news with boldness and clarity. Pray that God would draw many children to Himself.

Sports Camp is Underway!

Here are some pictures from the West Linn Sports Camp. Looks like great fun.

Alaska Team Prepares to Depart

Hello New Life Church and other friends! This blog is a first in a series of posts to keep you up to date about the Juneau Mission Team. Our team of 17 High School Students and 8 adults (not pictured- TJ Elliott) begins our ministry here in West Linn this Monday with the start of Sports Camp. Sports Camp is an action packed week of sports and gospel messages designed to be a ton of fun and tell kids about Jesus at the same time. Then, on Friday afternoon at 5 PM we will fly out to Juneau, Alaska to lead another sports camp, work with kids in housing projects, do some light construction, and help a new church. You can meet us at the airport at 3:15 on Friday if you would like to send us off.

Please check back each day to get updates about how the team is doing and ideas about how you can pray for us. Thanks so much for your care and support!

Podcast

After a few scattered attempts at creating a podcast, we finally put the Weisses on it and immediately we have a podcast. Here is the link where you can find the New Life Church Podcast. It includes messages from both campuses of New Life Church.

River Falls Remodel Complete

We just got our new sign at New Life Church River Falls. The installation of the new sign is the final piece of our exterior remodel. It was placed and then had to be moved to comply with the City of West Linn's sign ordinance.

I hope you enjoy the renovated street corner this summer and I hope the new sign helps the people you bring with you find the church!

The Gospel in the Old Testament

Last week the message on the value of the Bible referenced what Jesus might have said when he "opened their eyes" to see what was written in the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27). The next morning I read this hymn by William Cowper in the Olney Hymnal about the Old Testament Gospel.

Israel in ancient days,
Not only had a view
Of Sinai in a blaze,
But learned the gospel too:
The types and figures were a glass
In which they saw the Savior’s face.

The paschal sacrifice,
And blood–besprinkled door, (Ex. 12:13)
Seen with enlightened eyes,
And once applied with pow’r;
Would teach the need of other blood,
To reconcile an angry God.

The Lamb, the Dove, set forth
His perfect innocence, (Lev 12:6)
Whose blood, of matchless worth,
Should be the soul’s defence:
For he who can for sin atone,
Must have no failings of his own.

The scape–goat on his head (Lev 16:21)
The peoples’ trespass bore,
And to the desert led,
Was to be seen no more:
In him, our Surety seemed to say,
“Behold, I bear your sins away.”

Dipped in his fellows’ blood,
The living bird went free, (Lev 14:51-53)
The type, well understood,
Expressed the sinner’s plea;
Described a guilty soul enlarged,
And by a Savior’s death discharged.

Jesus I love to trace
Throughout the sacred page;
The footsteps of thy grace,
The same in every age!
O grant that I may faithful be
To clearer light, vouchsafed to me.

Israel Update

If you'd like to see some of our pictures you can see them in this public photo gallery on Facebook.

We're having a great time. And, despite the international incident in our neighborhood, we feel pretty safe.

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.