Matthew 6:16-21:

Matthew 6:12-15: Sermon Summary: Jesus teaches us to pray for a separation between us and sin. Cognizant of it, we confess it with pleas for forgiveness. As we're in a state of grace, we'll be marked by grace. Forgiveness should flow from the forgiven, grace from the justified. Against trusting in ourselves, we pray not to be led into temptation, but to be delivered from evil. We're to pray for a preparedness to walk in faith with our Lord. Jesus expands on the earlier request for forgiveness: an unforgiving spirit is its own penalty. Should it characterize us, is a soul actually justified? Should it be a thorn in our side, will it not wall up God's 'yes' to our prayers? Peace with our debtors supports peace of conscience with our Father.

Matthew 6:11: Sermon Summary: Among what we might perceive as more important requests, Jesus invites us to pray each day for bread that day. Our Father in Heaven is not above meeting the needs of our bodies. We're taught to realize our perpetual reliance upon the Lord for everything whatsoever related to living and moving and having our being. By the invitation to ask for daily bread, there is implied a divine willingness to provide for His children all the items that He judges good for us. The climax of this is the treasure of His Son, the true Bread that came down from Heaven. As our Father is sensitive to the needs of our bodies, He is no less to the need of our souls. In the end, we learn from Jesus that our Father is a 'baker' for His children, but then His children do not live by bread alone.

Matthew 6:9-10: Sermon Summary: As the heading for our lives, Jesus teaches His people to prioritize the heavenization of earth to the fame of our heavenly Father’s Name in prayer.

Matthew 6:1, 5-8: Sermon Summary: The Lord's prayer for the Lord's people comes to us in a context of the Lord's warning. It's not a warning for those who do not pray, but for those who do pray, only not in Christ's way. There's a temptation that clings so closely to righteousness, and it's to practice our righteousness to gain the favor of people. To this, the hypocrite succumbs, while the pagan likewise prays in a way that betrays unbelief. The disciple of Jesus however avoids such pitfalls. They understand prayer to be a part of true righteousness in practice, but their primary pursuit has nothing first to do with man or publicity at all. It's to have private conversation with our Father in Heaven. It's to believe we are completely known and completely loved by God. It's to cultivate the application of Gospel realities in secret. Indeed, private Christianity is the soul of any legitimate public Christianity. In the prayer closet with Christ, the heart is guarded, as needs are met, for the open practice of what's right in God's eyes.

Revelation 21:1-22:5: Sermon Summary: To encourage believers facing trials and tribulations, the Apostle John describes the splendor of the new heaven and the new earth, where God’s people will at last dwell forever in peace with the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb in fulfillment of centuries of prophecy. This new creation is the consummation of God’s plan for humanity and for His own glory.  Heaven, John reveals, is the glorified people of God, rescued from the just punishment of God, proclaiming the praises of God in the eternal presence of God.

Hebrews 12:22-29: Sermon Summary: Old Testament believers needed a mediator to go between them and God. When God met them on Sinai, they were terrified of Him. In order for God to dwell with His people, he gave them the law whereby only one man at a time could come into his presence, and even then only once per year. However, Christ, the Mediator of a new covenant, came from the Father’s presence and made a way for believers to gain access to the city of the living God. There, all believers will worship him for their salvation. The reality of that future worship demands “acceptable worship, with reverence and awe” now.  As such, our “already, but not yet” gatherings as a body are a dress rehearsal and preparation for an eternity of praise for our great Savior. Our corporate worship is a foretaste of heaven as we sing, pray, and hear from God as we worship.

Sermon Outline:

The Corporate Gathering is a Heavenly Gathering (12:22-24)

The Corporate Gathering is an Unshakable Gathering (12:25-27)

The Corporate Gathering is a Holy Gathering (12:28-29)

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:5:

Acts 7:54-60: Sermon Summary: Christ has accomplished his work on earth and ascended to rule at the right hand of God. His followers, full of the promised Holy Spirit, have become his witnesses in the world. One of these, Stephen, is now speaking with such wisdom from the Spirit that the Jewish leaders cannot withstand him. They instigate a false trial against him, but Stephen turns the trial on its head and accuses them of being the ones who reject God. Enraged to the point of being murderous, they reach their breaking point when Stephen tells them of his vision of Christ standing at the right hand of God, as if Jesus himself is a witness against them. They rush Stephen and stone him outside the city. How is Stephen’s faith able to hold against the strongest affliction, even to the point of a violent death? Led by the Spirit, he sees the truths of heaven— that God sovereignly rules over the earth, that Christ is at his side as the victor over death, that Christ’s resurrection guarantees the eternal resurrection of all who are in him, and that he has his people (like the watching Saul) who he intends to call out of the rebellious world. Convinced of these things, Stephen stands firm for Christ to his death— not in defeat, but in sure hope of victorious resurrection in Christ.

John 14:1-3, 17:24: Sermon Summary: As Jesus readies the disciples for His departure, He exhorts them to be untroubled in heart; or on the contrary, to believe in God as revealed in Christ. Trust is the antidote to troubles. And in the grand scheme of His departing consolations, Jesus begins with the preparation of Heaven. His Father has a House of many rooms, and Jesus goes to prepare a place for them, that they might be with Him where He is. Heaven is as real as the Gospel is achieved and true. And in terms of its preparation, Jesus bears the great desire of His heart in John 17:24. It's that those the Father gave to Him would see the glory the Father gave to Him. It's that we'd be with Him in Heaven and, being with Him, that we'd see and savor the love of God manifest toward us in Jesus Christ forever. Heaven is seeing this desire of Jesus for us. It's seeing God's own Christ-exalting love for His Son from all eternity and savoring it as our salvation for all eternity.