The Lord’s Prayer – Part 7 “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread” (Matt. 6:9-15) Whenever we come to God in prayer we begin by acknowledging his heavenly majesty and power. That is why we say “Our Father in Heaven”. We know he is holy and transcendent, but we have personally experienced his fatherly kindness. By sending his Son, the Father made a way for us to be adopted into his family. Through faith in Jesus we pray as children […]

The Misery of Unbelief (Rev. 8:13-9:12) John is writing from exile on the island of Patmos to the Universal Church in order to prepare them for the trials they will inevitably face and encourage them to persevere. The vision includes warning and encouragement. Heavenly glory is followed by divine judgment. Last week, we began the second cycle of judgments looking at the first four trumpets. With each successive blast another judgment resulted in the de-creation of a third of the […]

The Sound of Trumpets (Revelation 8:6-12) Two fundamental truths about the world is that (1) God created everything good, but (2) sin has corrupted everything. Without this understanding, much of life is nonsense. This explains why our desires are so often at odds with what is truly good for us. Man has fallen into an estate of sin and misery that the Westminster Shorter Catechism defines as “the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the […]

The Lord’s Prayer – Part 6 “Your Will Be Done” (Matt. 6:9-15) The Reformed community has a wealth of resources to turn to for guidance in prayer. Typically, the instruction follows the pattern of the Westminster Larger Catechism. Books on prayer take the subject and expound upon the examples and topics we find throughout Scripture. This is not meant to turn our prayers into a simple reading of God’s Word. Prayer is communication with God in our own words. But […]

The Sound of Silence (Rev. 8:1-5) I have loved Simon & Garfunkel ever since my mom chose “Bridge Over Troubled Water” for her brother’s funeral back in 1990. Since then, they have been one of my favorite musical artists. Hands down, their best song is “The Sound of Silence”. Paul Simon wrote the song at the age of 21 in 1963. It was recorded in March 1964 and included on their debut album. The song was a flop until a […]

Part 5 “Your Kingdom Come” We continue our series on the Lord’s Prayer where we have been taking the teaching of the Westminster Larger Catechism and expounding upon it with the Scripture proofs. The Larger Catechism is rich with biblical wisdom to guide us in prayer. I hope you are encouraged and that you are becoming more aware of your dependence upon God. Like evangelism, we oftentimes spend more time talking about prayer than actually praying. Several weeks ago we […]

The Church Triumphant – Part 2 (Rev. 7:9-17) How does the Church Militant become the Church Triumphant? How does our experience on earth, translate to our experience in heaven? Last week we looked at the first two points in your outline. 1. The Salvation of the Church Triumphant (9-10). 2. The God of the Church Triumphant (11-12) . We noted the several allusions to the Exodus out of Egypt and their preservation and suffering in the wilderness. In heaven, everything […]

The Lord’s Prayer – Part 4 “Hallowed Be Your Name” Last week we considered the preface to the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father in heaven”. We considered his Fatherly goodness and our childlike reverence. We talked about coming before God with “heavenly affections” that give us hope for the future and confidence in the present. We recognized that we are praying to a God who is Sovereign and full of grace. This does not weaken our responsibility to prayer but strengthens […]

The Church Triumphant – Part 1 (Rev. 7:9-17) I spend time each week wrestling over the purpose of the passage I’m going to preach because I want to be faithful to present that purpose to you in a way that you can understand and apply immediately. I want to do justice to the author’s intent, both the human author and especially the divine Author of Scripture. As I began thinking about how to do that for this passage, I was […] The post “The Church Triumphant” (Revelation 7:9-17) appeared first on Grace Clovis Presbyterian Church (PCA).

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