Hold Up The Book

When Christ opened people's eyes to God's unique brand of forgiveness, there were some naysayers and skeptics. And today, there are still naysayers and skeptics, even among believers. On some level, we all struggle to understand the depths of the forgiveness that we've received and the depths of the forgiveness that we should offer. This message helps us to see them both more clearly.

The second word in the Ten, like the first, has some major theological value as it teaches us about God and gods. This message looks at the commandment in its ancient context, pagan context, and Christian context.

In this message, we work our way through what I'm calling the 2nd movement of Romans — from 3:27 thru the end of chapter 5. There are four big ideas that we're taught about righteousness and salvation:

1. Not By Moses’ Law, But By Faith (3:27–4:25)
2. Not Just For Now, But For Eternity (5:1–5)
3. Not By Our Power, But By Christ’s (5:6–21)
4. Not Only For “Us,” But For All  (a theme throughout these passages)

This message is dense with information and asks us to think deeply about how we view our brothers & sisters in Christ. It's a lot to take in all at once... just like the book of Romans.  :)

The Ten Commandments are ubiquitous. To this day, they are the foundation to the greatest moral national law ever laid down for any earthly nation. And the first one makes it plain why they are so great: because they are from YHWH God.

For the next 10 weeks, the TBT sermons will be a whole series on the Ten Commandments.

The 23rd Psalm reminds us that we shouldn't picture God as an eternally dissatisfied parent who is always frustrated with everyone all the time—even with his faithful ones. This psalm helps us see the joy and comfort and peace that we can have when we know the Good Shepherd. He gives what we need, and he fulfills our longings that we can say truthfully, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

Ezekiel 34 is a heart-rending passage about how miserably the leaders of God's people have failed to care for them. And yet, the same passage is full of hope as God promises that he will shepherd his people and care for them in place of their failed human leaders. Promises like these make us love God all the more.

In this message, we simply work our way through Acts 16's account of the conversion of the Philippian jailer (vv. 16-34). The passage is a great place to look to observe the necessity of baptism for salvation by faith, and the urgency of it. The outline of keywords through the story is as follows:

• Prayer (v. 16)
• Power (v. 17-18)
• Problems (vv. 19-22)
• Prison (vv. 23-24)
• Praise (vv. 19-25)
• Protection (v. 26)
• Preaching (vv. 27-32)
• Plan (v. 33)
• Peace (v. 34)

When Christ was born, his family followed Old Testament law and took him into the Temple to be dedicated to God. There, the baby Jesus met an old man named Simeon who celebrated God's gift to humanity that He was giving through this infant. Simeon's love for God on this occasion is a powerful reminder for us about the joy that we can have in believing God's promises.

The story of Daniel in the lions' den is typically taught to young as a moral example of faithfully standing up to persecution, but its allusions to the Gospel are strong. It, like so many other Old Testament accounts, foreshadows many elements of Christ's crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

Who and what determines who we are? Do we each determine our identity ourselves? Or does our identity come from someone outside of us? The Christian perspective is obvious: that each of our identities are inherent to our being created by God, in his image. This message is very counter-cultural in our current cultural moment, and that's what it makes it that much more important.