The Ground of all Grace to Sinners

by | Jul 26, 2006 | Faith

Some more notes from Piper’s sermons at New Horizon…

* The universe exists to display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God.

* Rev 13:8 – Even before creation, in God’s mind there would be a slaying of the Lamb. This means that Jesus death was not Plan B!

* Rev 5:9-12 – God is not evil, to will evil, that he hates. (Struggled to get my head round this point at first… think I’m getting there.)

* Lam 3:32 – Translating the Hebrew word for ‘willingly’ literally here means ‘from His heart’. So God might ‘will’ evil, but it does not come from His heart.

* Every blessing we enjoy was bought by the cross, by His suffering. There are 7 blessings we receive through Jesus sufferings:

1) Jesus absorbed our wrath (Gal 3:13)
2) Jesus bore our sins and our guilt (1 Pet 2:24)
3) Jesus provided perfect righteousness for us (Phil 2:7-8)
4) Jesus defeated death (Heb 2:14)
5) Jesus disarmed Satan (Col 2:14)
6) Jesus purchased perfect, final healing (Isa 53:4)
7) Jesus brings us to God, which is the goal of the Gospel (1 Pet 3:18)

Summary:
1) The point was to give God glory
2) That plan came to its pinacle on Good Friday in His suffering
3) Therefore, we will praise Him forever.

Suffering in the Body for the Missionary Cause

by | Jul 25, 2006 | Faith

Some notes from John Piper’s sermon last night at New Horizon…

Key verse:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24)

* Pauls life was a life of freely chosen suffering.

* 1 Cor 15:30-32; Paul only lives this way because he absolutley believes it, there is a better way if all you want is pleasure.

* In the western world we have made Christianity too domesticated… we must learn to accept risk.

* Col 1:24; The incompleteness mentioned is not that Christ’s suffering is inadequate in atonement for our salvation without our suffering, but that others observe His suffering through our suffering. M. Vincent comments that what was lacking was a “presentation of His suffering by the church.”

* Christians have the chance to suffer so they can magnify Christ in their lives. (Gal 2:20)

* During suffering, although it is sorrowful, we must also rejoice! Think of Paul in the Phillipian jail – awaiting death and yet singing in the middle of the night!

Excitement

by | Jul 25, 2006 | Books, Everything Else

Birthdays are great for getting books… I now have 6 more books I wanted to read! So currently in the book queue is:

A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren
The End Of Poverty by Jeffery Sachs
God Created The Integers by Stephen Hawking
Turn by Max Lucado
Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge
Wild At Heart by John Eldredge

Ohh excitement!!

In other news, I have been up at New Horizon for the last few nights, heard John Piper give two amazing sermons… hopefully heading up for all day Thursday and Friday, so I can get to seminars also. Very exciting indeed… I shall post up some notes from Piper’s sermons later.