harvestoc.net blog, Thursday, July 30, 2009
Table Fellowship with Christ
In our family's breakfast worship this morning, we were in Judges 13. In that chapter Manoah, Sampson's daddy, asks the angel of Yahweh (almost certainly Christ) to eat with him. He answers that He won't eat with him, but He will accept a sacrifice. Manoah brings the sacrifice, and the angel of Yahweh burns it up and ascends upon the flames.
Not so this coming Lord's Day evening. when we come to the table for the supper, we are proclaiming the Lord's death and eating and drinking as participation in Christ, in remembrance of Christ. No longer does He bar us from supping with Him because sacrifice is required. He has offered the once for all sacrifice and now invites, yea even commands, Christians to come sup upon Him and with Him.
Let's therefore not be in our hearts Romanists, who believe that more sacrifice is yet necessary. We may not be as crude in thinking that physical sacrifice is taking place. But do we not often treat our self-examination and repentance as something we offer to gain communion with God? Do your examining and repenting beforehand--that's not what the table itself is for. There, let us rather tremble at the delightful nearness of our God, who is a consuming fire; but, let us not tremble in fear of being consumed. Let us indeed tremble with joy that Christ endured the fire, was not consumed, rose again, and now meets us at the table!
What joy, dear Christian, there is for us in the New Testament! This Lord's Day evening, let us come with joy that Christ has offered the sacrifice to which nothing can be added, and invited us to a full fellowship from which nothing may be taken away!
Not so this coming Lord's Day evening. when we come to the table for the supper, we are proclaiming the Lord's death and eating and drinking as participation in Christ, in remembrance of Christ. No longer does He bar us from supping with Him because sacrifice is required. He has offered the once for all sacrifice and now invites, yea even commands, Christians to come sup upon Him and with Him.
Let's therefore not be in our hearts Romanists, who believe that more sacrifice is yet necessary. We may not be as crude in thinking that physical sacrifice is taking place. But do we not often treat our self-examination and repentance as something we offer to gain communion with God? Do your examining and repenting beforehand--that's not what the table itself is for. There, let us rather tremble at the delightful nearness of our God, who is a consuming fire; but, let us not tremble in fear of being consumed. Let us indeed tremble with joy that Christ endured the fire, was not consumed, rose again, and now meets us at the table!
What joy, dear Christian, there is for us in the New Testament! This Lord's Day evening, let us come with joy that Christ has offered the sacrifice to which nothing can be added, and invited us to a full fellowship from which nothing may be taken away!
Labels: Lord's Supper
¶ 11:26 AM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Psalm 40:6-10 (29-Jul Prayer Meeting)
Don't forget prayer meeting tomorrow evening! Pastor Matt will be leading us through Psalm 40:6-10, so please pray for him today, then come tomorrow to study, sing, and pray. There are study questions for next week's text included in the booklet.
Labels: Prayer Meetings
¶ 8:18 PM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Monday, July 27, 2009
Elder Election Time, Ice Cream Social
How sweetly tender is our God with us to give our little corner of His flock such undershepherds as we have and as we are about to affirm this Friday! The time for the meeting to do so is set for 6:30p.m. with an ice cream social immediately following. Each family is to bring their favorite ice cream topping.
Labels: Announcements
¶ 3:10 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Gen 24:63-67 'Marriage: Companionship and Comfort' (26-Jul Evening Sermon)
[click here to listen, right-click to download/save]
We finally finished Genesis 24. God has been merciful to show us many wonderful things in this chapter. In this final sermon, we saw and heard parallels with Genesis 2. We rejoiced to see in Rebekah and Isaac God's wonderful design of wife and husband for each other, His wonderful design for marriage as an image of the church and Christ, and how God's design for our own role in marriage is a great comfort (in addition to whatever comfort our spouse might give us!).
We finally finished Genesis 24. God has been merciful to show us many wonderful things in this chapter. In this final sermon, we saw and heard parallels with Genesis 2. We rejoiced to see in Rebekah and Isaac God's wonderful design of wife and husband for each other, His wonderful design for marriage as an image of the church and Christ, and how God's design for our own role in marriage is a great comfort (in addition to whatever comfort our spouse might give us!).
Labels: Sermons
¶ 2:58 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Gen 24:59-62 "Marriage Building and Advancing the Kingdom" (26-Jul-09 Morning Sermon)
[click here to listen, right-click to download/save]
In this sermon, we traced Rebekah's family's blessing upon her back to its origin in God's blessing upon Abraham in Gen 22, and the blessings up to this point in Genesis. What we found is that God has given marriage in general (and this marriage between Isaac and Rebekah in specific) a special place in both His plan to make for Himself a multitude of image bearers in Christ and His plan to destroy Satan and his authority.
In this sermon, we traced Rebekah's family's blessing upon her back to its origin in God's blessing upon Abraham in Gen 22, and the blessings up to this point in Genesis. What we found is that God has given marriage in general (and this marriage between Isaac and Rebekah in specific) a special place in both His plan to make for Himself a multitude of image bearers in Christ and His plan to destroy Satan and his authority.
Labels: Sermons
¶ 2:52 PM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Saturday, July 25, 2009
26-July Worship Booklet Now Available
[click here to view it, or right-click to download/save a copy]
Labels: Worship Booklet
¶ 9:42 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Nothing New under the Sun
A prescient (1680s) quote from Turretin: "You may perhaps that [the world was] arranged by chance and by a fortuitous course of atoms. But I know not whether such an impious and absurd opinion is worthy of refutation, since these things evidence not chance but the highest art." (HT: Wes White)
¶ 8:17 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
¶ 8:17 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
harvestoc.net blog, Friday, July 24, 2009
Aug-Oct '09 Lord's Day Worship Preaching and Teaching Plan
If you're interested, you may wish to view our plan for the preaching and teaching through October.
Labels: Announcements, Worship Services
¶ 4:06 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Pray for the Traveling Kobzas
The Kobzas request that we remember them in prayer as they travel out east. They will be gone until the 31st and are particularly concerned with some big-city driving that awaits them.
Labels: Prayer Requests
¶ 2:28 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
The Importance of Romans 13 and Historical Realism for Modeling to Our Children the Keeping of the Fifth Commandment
I was convicted as I read this article, as it referred to this one (and I don't even watch Fox News).
Labels: Best of the Web, Church and State, Parenting, Pastoral Counsel
¶ 2:27 PM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Psalm 40:6-10 (22-Jul Prayer Meeting)
Don't forget prayer meeting tomorrow evening! Pastor Matt will be leading us through Psalm 40:6-10, so please pray for him today, then come tomorrow to study, sing, and pray. There are study questions for next week's text included in the booklet.
Labels: Prayer Meetings
¶ 3:15 PM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Monday, July 20, 2009
Gen 24:29-58 'A Match Made in Heaven' pt2 (19-Jul Evening Sermon)
This was the second half of the morning sermon. We finished thinking about Rebekah's family's consideration of her, especially as the text turned back to the thought of her willingness--this time, her family's consideration of her willingness, rather than the servant's testing of it. We then moved on to the main point of the text from a human perspective--consecration: that all of this was from God and for God. And we concluded by applying the fact of Jesus' death and resurrection to our practice of the Scriptural wisdom that we have gleaned from this text.
Labels: Sermons
¶ 4:44 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Gen 24:29-58 'A Match Made in Heaven' pt1 (19-Jul Morning Sermon)
Many thanks to Matthew Fedders who engineered a way to get the audio through the soundboard again. I think the audio quality is significantly better. We got halfway through the sermon in the morning (despite my determination to read it from a manuscript this time in order to curtail length!). Hearing about the family situation that God used to provide not just a wife for Isaac and ancestors for Jesus but an example for the church, we learned that godly family leadership involves communication and consideration. The second part, the rest of consideration and the aspect of consecration, were left for the evening message.
Labels: Sermons
¶ 3:47 AM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Saturday, July 18, 2009
Afterparty Location Change--the Van Essendelfts'
The Van Essendelfts have invited the congregation over to their home after worship tomorrow evening, so the afterparty will be at their place, not the Hakims'. HAPPY LORD'S DAY everyone!
Labels: Announcements
¶ 5:03 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
19-Jul Worship Booklet
[click here to view; right-click to save]
Labels: Worship Booklet
¶ 10:35 AM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Friday, July 17, 2009
Psalm 40:1-5 (15-Jul Prayer Meeting)
As we began this Psalm, we found a focus upon how God's great acts on behalf of those who trust Him show God's gracious affections toward those who trust Him, and how we who are the objects of such affection and action respond. There are study questions for next week's text included.
Labels: Prayer Meetings
¶ 3:15 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Rom 9:6-13 "God's Successful Word" (12-Jul Evening Sermon)
This passage declared to us that the Word of God has NOT failed! In fact, it is the unfailing, eternal Word of God--His purpose, His election, His calling--that is the sure and only guarantee for all who believe in and therefore love Jesus.
Labels: Sermons
¶ 3:08 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Gen 24:10-28 "A Diligent, Strong, Enduring Wife" (12-July Morning Sermon)
As we watched with Abraham's servant to see if God had prospered his journey, we saw Rebekah being diligent, strong, and persevering. We then discovered that this is a theme in Scripture for what an excellent wife is, and further that these are heart-qualities produced by the Spirit as He uses the Bible to shape us into Christ's mold.
Labels: Sermons
¶ 2:59 PM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Saturday, July 11, 2009
A Prayer for Lord's Day Eve
Tim Challies has posted this (quoting from elsewhere) over at his blog. I'm guessing it's from Valley of Vision, though I don't have my copy ready at hand. God grant that it would be as useful to you as it has just been to me:
Another week has gone and I have been preserved
in my going out,
in my coming in.
Thine has been the vigilance that has turned threatened evils aside;
Thine the supplies that have nourished me;
Thine the comforts that have indulged me;
Thine the relations and friends that have delighted me;
Thine the means of grace which have edified me;
Thine the Book, which, amidst all my enjoyments, has told me that this is not my rest,
that in all successes one thing alone is needful, to love my Saviour.
Nothing can equal the number of they mercies but my imperfections and sins.
These, O God, I will neither conceal nor palliate, but confess with a broken heart.
In what condition would secret reviews of my life leave me
were it not for the assurance that with thee there is plenteous redemption,
that thou art a forgiving God,
that thou mayest be feared
While I hope for pardon through the blood of the cross,
I pray to be clothed with humility,
to be quickened in thy way,
to be more devoted to thee,
to keep the end of my life in view,
to be cured of the folly of delay and indecision,
to know how frail I am,
to number my days and apply my heart unto wisdom.
Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews, Prayer Requests
¶ 4:47 PM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Friday, July 10, 2009
Another Easy (and free) Calvin Read
Ligon Duncan describes THL Parker's Portrait of Calvin as an easily read (He says one sitting) biography that gives you a real feel for Calvin. Well, Desiring God is offering it for free download, or $2 for the paperback (make sure to read Dr. Duncan's cautions for the reader).
Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews
¶ 4:40 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Excellent Offer from Ligonier
This weekend, go to http://rymoffer.com and donate any amount, and Ligonier will send you a copy of John Calvin: a Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology. It's Calvin's 500th birthday today, by the way. I recently recommended this book to a friend who is an ordinary housewife in the Chicago area, and she found it easily readable and deeply spiritually helpful. It's a collaborative work of several authors, so some chapters may be much more helpful than others.
Labels: Best of the Web, Book Recommendations and Reviews
¶ 4:32 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
8-Jul Elders' Meeting Roundup
The elders spent the entire meeting this week considering a few sensitive pastoral issues. We are grateful to God for your prayers and believe He has brought us to Scriptural and wise courses of action. Please pray that He would bless the action and permit us to see fruit from it. We have an adjournment meeting planned for the 29th to complete the July agenda. As always, these meetings are public, and the elders would love both to have your input available to us and to have you witness and "catch" the Scriptural Spirit in which we are pastoring the congregation by God's grace.
Labels: Announcements, Elders' Meetings
¶ 12:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Help Me Prepare Sermons!
I know that this is what I get paid the big bucks to do. But, I really would like your help.
If you have questions about or objections to the ideas of predestination or election, I want to know what they are. Or even if you have friends with such questions and would like to learn how better to help them. Romans 9 is the place to do it (Eph 1 would be great too).
Knowing which questions/objections are the most troubling will help me decide how much attention to pay, and how best to illustrate and apply in the pulpit what we learn from the text.
Send me your questions and objections! (e.g. stuff like: Doesn't this make God mean? How can it be fair to punish people for what they are predestined to do? etc.)
Labels: Announcements
¶ 10:33 AM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Psalm 39 - Divine Protection against Our Loose Lips (8-Jul Prayer Meeting Lesson)
It'll be a little more effort to get the gold out, since it's in the form of an inductive study, but you're welcome to download [tonight's prayer meeting handout] for the lesson on Psalm 39.
Labels: Prayer Meetings
¶ 6:57 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Pray for Your Pastors
With Paul and Spurgeon, I--and, I'm sure, all of your pastor-teachers at Harvest--ask, "Brethren, pray for us"! For what do we need prayer? [click to read Spurgeon applying Paul's words]
Labels: Best of the Web, Prayer Requests
¶ 11:57 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
In the Tradition of Pilgrim's Progress
History will tell if Kevin DeYoung is a gift from Christ to the church in the way that Bunyan was. But you don't have to wait a few hundred years to profit from the allegory he's been spinning at his blog. Click the links below (and print out to read and discuss with your children) to follow along:
[Part 2]Labels: Best of the Web
¶ 10:36 AM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Monday, July 6, 2009
Your Suffering Doesn't Just Belong to You
Tim Challies again. This time pointing us to a quote from Ligon Duncan's Does Grace Grow Best in Winter? Seeing Randy Rowenhorst in worship yesterday and hearing his testimony of rest in Christ was strengthening to me. Ligon's (ie Paul's, ie God's) point is spot on.
Labels: Best of the Web
¶ 4:47 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Rom 9:1-5 "Sorrow and Anguish for Those in the Shadows" (5-Jul-09 Evening Sermon)
Summary: Is Paul failing to let his yes be yes and his no be no in v1? Or is he revealing something very profound at v2 by telling us that he is saying it "in Christ," and that by the Holy Spirit his conscience bears witness that this is a fact? Indeed, he is saying that v2 doesn't just show his own heart; it shows Christ's! Do we share that grief and anguish? In vv4-5 we find out that we might be in the same danger as the Israelites--after all, who else in history has been in such a nearly identical covenantal position to the Israelites as a church member at Harvest? In Christ ALONE our hope is found; may it be said of us at the judgment: "to them belong Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever, Amen."
Labels: Sermons
¶ 4:30 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Gen 24:10-28 "Whom We Will Marry Is a Secret Thing" (5-Jul-09 Morning Sermon)
Summary: Yesterday morning's sermon was mostly about how the secret things belong to God, and the revealed things belong to us and our children. Whom you should marry? That's a secret thing. It belongs to God until you're married. It's like the answer I sometimes give when someone asks me how to know if they've found "the one." Ans: "when you marry them, they're the one--until death do you part." But there are revealed things, and among them are the characteristics we should look for in a prospective spouse. Of our planned list of 5 we got to #1--kindness.
Labels: Sermons
¶ 4:23 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
God Himself Is the Substance of Our Worship
Tim Challies quotes this excellent statement from Don Carson on worship. It goes quite well with the point that Paul made about Israel's worship in yesterday evening's sermon. May God grant that He Himself, particularly in the person of Christ, would always be the substance of our worship.
Labels: Best of the Web
¶ 8:35 AM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Saturday, July 4, 2009
Gen 24:1-18 'A Humble Wife, Who Can Find?', pt2 (Jun 28 Evening Sermon Audio)
[Click Here to listen, right-click to save]
Labels: Sermons
¶ 2:33 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Gen 24:1-18 'A Humble Wife, Who Can Find?', pt1 (Jun 28 Morning Sermon Audio)
[Click Here to listen, right-click to save]
Labels: Sermons
¶ 2:30 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Rom 8:35-37 'Super-Conquering Love' (June 14 Evening Sermon Audio)
[Click Here to listen, right-click to download]
Labels: Sermons
¶ 2:26 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Gen 24:1-14 'A Godly Wife, Who Can Find?' (Jun 14 Morning Sermon Audio)
[click to listen, right-click to save]
Labels: Sermons
¶ 2:22 PM 0 Comments Links to this postharvestoc.net blog, Friday, July 3, 2009
July 5, 2009 - Worship Booklet
A pdf of the worship booklet is now online [click here to view/print/save it].
By my count over half of the congregation will be out of town this coming Lord's Day morning for the fellowship meal and the Lord's Supper.
Though we shall miss them, yet let us take this opportunity to reaffirm in our hearts that it is the Lord Jesus Himself we come to meet in worship, the fellowship of the Lord Jesus that we enjoy with each other, and union and communion with the Lord Jesus that we enjoy as we commune together.
By my count over half of the congregation will be out of town this coming Lord's Day morning for the fellowship meal and the Lord's Supper.
Though we shall miss them, yet let us take this opportunity to reaffirm in our hearts that it is the Lord Jesus Himself we come to meet in worship, the fellowship of the Lord Jesus that we enjoy with each other, and union and communion with the Lord Jesus that we enjoy as we commune together.
Labels: Worship Booklet
¶ 3:14 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Devotional Tweeting
"Tweeting" is a verb, describing the use of Twitter, a web posting service that requires posts of 140 characters or less. You can use it in a variety of ways, including having "tweets" text-messaged to your phone. I thought you might like to know that I've begun "tweeting" the main ideas of at least 4 chapters of Scripture each day (basically from our family devotions). Use it however you will. I see it as a way to combine cell-phone and internet technology to facilitate a more faithful Deuteronomy 6 style life in the Word. Here's the summary that I just posted to the heb412.us blog:
I do hope soon to have the time to resume writing the daily inductive studies to help you get at the meaning of the passages.Until then, however, you may wish to follow brief summaries of them at http://twitter.com/mcheynedevos (140 characters or less).I have to boil the passages down to this level for my 2, 5, and 6 year old anyway, so there is minimal time expenditure here for me. It won't replicate the back-and-forth catechetical (questioning) interaction that we have, but it will give you at least one big idea that you can be carrying away from the text.
By the way, if you actually "follow" (that's "twitter" language) mcheynedevos, it will give me an idea of how useful this might be to how many people. Thanks!
Labels: Announcements, Website
¶ 3:04 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
