SCENE ONE: John Seeks Counsel John is a church member who has been struggling with a besetting sin. He is meeting with an elder in the church for counsel and the elder defines repentance for him this way: “Repentance is a turning away from sin to God that is motivated by love for God and…
The Heart of Repentance (Part 2)
A broken and a contrite heart. Laughter turned to mourning. Godly sorrow. There is no repentance in your life if these things aren’t happening in your heart. EXPERIENCING WORLDLY SORROW It’s possible to have sorrow for sin that doesn’t please God. There is a type of brokenness that won’t lead to repentance. Paul called it…
Have I Repented and Am I Repenting? (Part 1)
In Jesus’ letters to the seven churches, there’s a recurring phrase: 2:5 – Repent, and do the works you did at first. 2:5 – I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 2:16 – Therefore repent. 2:21 – I gave her time to repent. 2:22 – I will…
Bearing Each Other’s Sin Burdens
Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” While the principle of this verse applies to all sorts of burdens, the context surrounding this verse shows us that God is speaking of sin burdens specifically. In 5:16-26, the apostle Paul describes the inner warfare of a Christian between sin’s desires…
Gospel-Shaped Worship: Response
[Gospel-shaped worship is a way to describe an order of service which moves us through the progression of the gospel from the beginning to the end of a service. In every service, we want to see the glory of God, humbly come to him in our need as finite, sinful, broken men, see and embrace…
Gospel-Shaped Worship: Christ
*Gospel-shaped worship is a way to describe an order of service which moves us through the progression of the gospel from the beginning to the end of a service. In every service, we want to see the glory of God, humbly come to him in our need as finite, sinful, broken men, see and embrace…
The Gospel in Joshua
I just finished reading through the Old Testament book of Joshua. This book traces Israel’s conquest of and settlement in the promised land under the leadership of Moses’ successor Joshua, and God has much to say about the Gospel to us through it. These are just two themes I took away from my reading of…
Gospel-Shaped Worship: Man
*Gospel-shaped worship is a way to describe an order of service which moves us through the progression of the gospel from the beginning to the end of a service. In every service, we want to see the glory of God, humbly come to him in our need as finite, sinful, broken men, see and embrace…
Gospel-Shaped Worship: God
*Gospel-shaped worship is a way to describe an order of service which moves us through the progression of the gospel from the beginning to the end of a service. In every service, we want to see the glory of God, humbly come to him in our need as finite, sinful, broken men, see and embrace…
Gospel-Shaped Worship
After my freshman year of college, I had the amazing opportunity to spend a summer in Hong Kong and to do an internship with two worship pastors. I had been leading worship in youth and college group settings for a few years, and I was very excited to see how to better develop a worship…