Hold Up The Book

The 175-year-old hymn, "Night with Ebon Pinion," uses strange choices of words to paint a picture of the oppressive darkness under which Jesus found himself praying in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion. This talk attempts to elucidate the meaning of the hymn's lyrics and paint the picture of the scene which they describe.

Humility just fits us. Pride is out of place in so many realms of life, but humility helps us in every way. As creatures before our creator, as sinners before a holy God, and as saints before our Savior, we have every reason to live in meekness.

"Humble pie is not always bitter when it's made by God's recipe."

This message illuminates the splendor and joy of Christ's humility in his whole life; that he was submissive to God and mankind in spite of the fact that he was God himself. He sets the template for the ideal version of humility — a thing that ought to define every Christian.

This is the beginning of a series, titled Humility and Absolute Surrender, based on Andrew Murray's writings under the same title.

This message, the third in our preaching theme series for the year, drills down on the idea that as God's people, the church truly are God's people. That's why we do things his way, why we serve him happily in humility, and why we glory only in his name—not in our own. We are HIS.

In considering our theme for this year, the discussion is about who "We Are..." as the people of Jesus Christ. And so, this message was framed as mock orientation for a new church member. What would we want to tell people who are new to our church family so that they will know who we are and what we expect of them?

A favorite hymn by Fannie Crosby, Near The Cross prays for the ability to keep ourselves near Jesus' Cross at all times so that everything about our lives reflects the depth of God's love and truth seen in the sacrifice of Jesus.

In many churches, a daily Bible reading program is put forward for the members, but in many cases, it just becomes background noise and is easily forgotten. Like a forgotten New Year's resolution, there is some excitement around it in January, but then that excitement fizzles and the idea lies dormant until the next January. In this episode, we talk about some helpful methods and mentalities to make a DBR program work well and gain more traction in the lives of church members. Since we're told to "let the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly," it's my hope that these methods help you and your people accomplish that better than you've ever done before.

Note from Dan: There's a fair amount of generalizing about Christians' habits in this episode, so please don't take any of it as a personal attack, but rather as an effort to understand crowds and therefore to help the greatest number of people in the best ways possible.

It seems impossible to distill everything about a person's essence into an accurate description of that person. And as it is with an individual, it's that much more so with a group of people. And yet, we should try, because it helps us explore who "we are" supposed to be as individual Christians and as a congregation of Christians.

This year, we'll be digging deep into the idea of identity: the nature of God's people, who we are and who we're supposed to be. And it starts with four focuses that ought to define us:

We Are...
- Each focused inward. (The importance of discipleship.)
- All focused toward. (The importance of fellowship.)
- Together focused outward. (The importance of evangelism.)
- Always focused upward. (The importance of theology.)

This message quickly runs through five types of resolutions that spiritual people can consider making at any time — whether New Year's or any time that progress in the faith is warranted.

In the first week of a new year, I always think about leadership. I think about how I will lead myself, my family, my church family, and the lost into better things as regards our faith. And so, this lesson reminds me and anyone who listens of some helpful and important ideals that every godly leader should aspire to, for the good of others.