Free to Serve

Sermon Study Guide: John 13:21-30

This is an interesting and difficult passage. Why would Jesus be so troubled that Judas would betray him? Was it merely Jesus contemplating his upcoming death, or was the Lord troubled that he'd be betrayed by one of his own disciples? I think it's both. Jesus loved Judas and was hurt to see him fall away.

As you read this passage, be thinking about your own life, acts of betrayal you have committed and acts of betrayal you have received. Where does the gospel fit into all of this? At the end of the day, we know that Jesus understands betrayal better than we ever will and, not only that, he has the only answer.

Download John 13.21-30 MVBC SSG

Sermon Study Guide: John 13:1-20

Jesus humbled himself by washing the feet of his disciples. The Lord of Glory took off his clothes, put on a towel, and washed the smelly feet of his sinful disciples. And yet, as scandalous as this act of foot washing is, it's nothing when compared to the humility Jesus displayed when the Son of God took on flesh and died on the cross. 

This great truth should lead us to think seriously about how we serve God and our neighbors and the church. I pray the attached Sermon Study Guide would be of use to you as you seek to heed Jesus' command to humble serve.

Download John13.1-20 MVBC SSG

Sermon Study Guide: John 12:44-50

In one short paragraph, we find a summary of all of Jesus' teaching in John 1-12. I pray that this study guide would press you deeper into God's Word, especially as you revel in the fact that Jesus is the Light, the Lord, and the Lamb.

Download John12.44-50 MVBC SSG

How Can Hard Work Seem Easy?

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

                                                                                                                                 Genesis 29:20 (ESV)

 Jacob’s marriage to Rachel is one of the most important in the entire Bible. Through her came Joseph, the man God used to provide Jacob’s family refuge in Egypt. Jacob had gone to his father’s homeland to find a wife, and Rachel caught his eye.

It’s hard to know why Jacob loved her. We are told she was “beautiful in form and appearance” (29:17). One can only hope that Jacob cared about more than her looks! The text doesn’t say. What we do know is that Jacob wanted Rachel to be his wife, and he longed for her so deeply he was willing to serve her father for seven years for the right of her hand in marriage.

But here’s what’s so amazing: Those seven years of service “seemed to him but a few days.” His work was easy because he was in love. His work was light because he had something wonderful to look forward to.

This principle holds true for all of us, doesn’t it? It’s not as hard to get out of bed for the last day of work before a vacation. We have an amazing capacity to endure drudgery when we know there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Each of our lives is full of hard labor. There are difficulties around every bend. Everyday we are reminded of life’s troubles. How can we persevere in the midst of these trials? How can we happily go to work even when our boss is unhelpful at best and demeaning at worst? How can we roll up our sleeves and change diaper after diaper? How can we pursue holiness when the road is paved with landmines of temptation?

Jacob’s days flew by because he looked forward to being married to Rachel. Our days can seem light and easy because of the promise of everlasting life. Consider Jesus. The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured the cross, “for the joy that was set before him” (Heb 12:2). What was that joy? Being back in the presence of his Father, “seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

This world is not our home. Instead, “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil 3:20-21).

Your days on this earth will be hard, very hard. They will be full of backbreaking discouragement and frustrating disappointment. And yet your days can seem easy because of the joy set before you. Because Christ died for sinners, if your faith is in him, you have a new home to look forward to, a new body to anticipate, and the full presence of God to long for. With all this around the corner, don’t give up fighting sin. Don’t stop pursuing godliness. Don’t let the weight of the world discourage you. After all, by God’s grace we can persevere with confidence that “this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor 4:17).

Sermon Study Guide: John 12:36-43

Finally, another sermon study guide! I pray this helps you dig deeper into one of the most difficult NT passages. More than that, I pray it helps you throw aside anything that would keep you from loving the glory that comes from God most of all.

Download John12.36-43 MVBC SSG

Male Friendships

Mike Emlet of CCEF points out that men typically have a harder time talking about personal issues, but they really need to. We are okay on topics like sports and work but not so good when opening up about purity and marriage. Do you think he's right?

 

Challies on a Sunday Evening Service

One of the first changes that I made when I came to MVBC was to add a Sunday evening service. Of course, the church had an evening service years ago, but the nineties were not kind to these meetings.

It has been a huge blessing for my family and I to gather with the body on Sunday evening. It's not convenient (we have four kids in our home, and the service seems to be right in the middle of typical dinner time), but it's such a sweet time for singing, praying, hearing a godly man from the church speak, and getting to know my brothers and sisters in Christ better. 

At MVBC we encourage every member to come to an evening service (we also meet Wednesday evenings) but there is something unusually edifying about Sunday evening.

I was so pleased to run across this brief article by blogger-extraordinaire Tim Challies on why he loves the Sunday evening service at his church. He says it wonderfully, please read it.

http://www.challies.com/articles/why-i-love-an-evening-service

Reaching Out in a Local Church

Yesterday, at Mount Vernon's Church in Conference (our members meeting) I wanted to make some remarks about how we can be deliberate about folding people into the body. Time ran short, and I wasn't able to give those remarks. So, here's what I wanted to say! I pray that God would use you to help others believe and belong to a local church.

Resolved to Love

How fitting that the first sermon this year at MVBC is on the nature of God's love. 1 John 4:7, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God."

Based upon that verse, there is nothing more important than knowing genuine, Christian love. It is the kind of love that John says is "from God." And if we have this love, then we give it away.

There is, sadly, a beastly side to all of us. It is the side that tends to keep love to ourselves, for ourselves. We can be miserly when it comes to love. We hoard it in our heart, constantly looking for others to love us instead of loving others. Like a nation experiencing a trade deficit, we import love from others without exporting it away. That is not the Christian way.

Many of us this New Year have made wise resolutions to be more faithul to read the Word, to enjoy it, to share it, to teach it. That's good. But are we resolved to love more? How can we do this? 

1. Pray for a heartfelt concern about others. We need God's grace to love others. Love is not natural to the fallen human heart. We need God's grace in our lives. We need God's Spirit filling us with God's love. And so we must pray, "Lord, help me love others."
2. Communicate a heartfelt concern for others. Love is more than words, but it is not less. We are communicative beings--we are designed to speak. Our words should do more than communicate data: "Your lunch is on the table." "You have a 2pm appointment with the doctor next week." Our words should communicate love: "I'm thankful for you." "You are a gift from God to me." "I love you."
3. Rejoice in God's heartfelt concern for you. I end here, but this is where it all begins, does it not? Our God loves us. That's amazing. Though we did not deserve God's love, he gave it to us. God's heartfelt concern was never more beautifully or finally expressed than on a tree in Golgatha nearly 2,000 years ago. 1 John 4:10, "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

This Sunday at 10:30am, our own Dustin Butts will be preaching from 1 John 4:7-12. Pray for him as he comes to preach. But pray for all of us, that we would be marked by the kind of love that God, through John, demands of us.

A New Year's Prayer

            Father, how thankful I am for another year. Every year seems like a new beginning, a fresh start, a clean slate. I know that it does not work exactly like that, but I’m still very glad to be able to feel like I’m beginning again. It is hard, Lord, not to make resolutions. This year I want to be more committed to your word, to seeking your face, to enjoying your presence in my life. I want to draw near to you with greater reverence as well as greater frequency. I want to glorify you more and honor you more deeply.

            It begins with praise. Heavenly Father, I praise you as the Creator of heaven and earth. You made everything out of nothing. Those words stun me. Love made the world. You are a good God; you must be a good God to create a world filled with this kind of beauty, with this kind of majesty. I see you in everything you made—in the water that flows down the falls, the leaf that crinkles under my feet, the sun that glares over my head, the wind that blows through my hair. Your creation is beautiful.

            And who am I that you would make me? The pinnacle of your creation is humanity, O Father, thank you for making us. And not just for making us, but for making us in your own image and likeness. To think that the stamp of the Triune God is in my DNA is too much to comprehend and almost too much to accept. Let me never forget your glory is at the heart of every single human.

            But more than anything, this morning I want to praise you for my redemption. You have called me, like Ruth, to leave comfort and home and familiarity and to follow you. You have given me a new heart and a new life. Because the sinless Savior died for me, I have been charged to live for him, and I have been equipped to live for him by the indwelling presence of your Holy Spirit. Thank you, Father, for adopting me into your family through the work of your Son. I am more grateful to you than words can ever tell.

            The clock never stops, Father. Help me to make good use of the days you have given me. Let me serve my family with joy, my church with love, and my friends with kindness. Let me lay aside ambition and pride and selfishness and pick up humility, and peace, and self-control. Thank you for being worthy of all the attention and affection that I can muster, and help me give it all to you this coming year.

            Amen.