Narrow Wide Door

This sermon’s Scripture from Luke 13:22-30 is a sobering reminder to continuously examine our Christian walk to be certain of our salvation. Jesus tells us that not everyone who believes they are a Christ-follower really is one! How can we know for sure? And what about salvation… is it by God’s grace alone or must there be effort on our part? We will talk about the balance we need to know between God’s work on our behalf and what effort is needed from us.

Follow along with the online sermon notes or download this PDF fill-in-the-blanks sermon outline.

#033: Marriage Prayer

This week I talk about the future of Church Requel, some Westminster theology, and with current news of General Patraeus - 12 ways to affair-proof your marriage.

Here's what I have lined up for you this week:

[07:00] Future of Church Requel - Last night we faced some hard realities about the current finances of Church Requel.  Some changes will have to be made soon.  Listen for yourself to my talk last night and my follow up thoughts this morning.

[30:10] What is God, part 3 - We wrap up the question #4, "What is God?" from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. My discussion is primarily based on G.I. Williamson's book, "Westminster Shorter Catechism: For Study Classes."

[39:38] 12 Ways to Affair Proof Your Marriage - With the news of General Patraeus' resignation in the news every day, we all could use a good reminder of how to "affair-proof" our marriages. Many thanks to Den Guptill over on SermonCentral.com, who provided 8 of these ideas.

Music for this week's podcast is "Marriage Prayer" by John Waller from his album, As For Me And My House.

#031: Back From The Storm

How should we interpret the text of the Bible?  Pastor Steve offers some practical advice for how to study the Bible. Also Mark talks about the topic of forgiveness in prayer and the 4th question in the Westminster Confession: "What is God?"

This week's podcast is published a couple days later than normal. I'm just returning from vacation.  Here's what I have lined up for you in this week's podcast:

[0:00]  Intro. I talk about my trip to Myrtle Beach and the stormy weather on the way back.

[13:45] Forgiveness and Prayer. We continue to consider the Lord's Prayer as our model for our daily prayers. In this week's podcast we discuss the issue of forgiveness - forgiving others and forgiving ourselves.

[25:25] Question 4. What is God? That's an uncomfortable question.  We're much more comfortable talking about Who is God? We'll take 3 podcast sessions to get started on this question. This theological study comes from G.I. Williamson's book on the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

[39:55] CR Sermon: "How To Interpret A Text." Steve does an excellent job teaching for me this week.  Here are some highlights. A verse of the Bible means what it means.  There may be many applications but only one meaning. There are no secrets in the Bible.  We should look for the most obvious meaning. Steve also shares some great advice about prayer. You can't fall when you're on your knees! If God does not give you what you're asking for, he will give you something better. We're not always good at asking for what is best for us. Prayer is the passwoord to all God wants to do in our life. Prayer is not a spare tire to be taken out when things go wrong.  Prayer is the steerin wheel that guides us! Finally this valuable tidbit: Prayerlessness is practical atheism! This is a great talk! Don't miss it! Thanks so much Pastor Steve!

Music for this week's podcast is The Storm from Ray Boltz's album, Allegiance.

#030: Godly Training

The secret to great Bible study is asking great questions. In this week's podcast we talk about the 4 key questions we should ask each time we study God's Word. Our podcast is really godly training because we also talk about meditation on Scripture, prayer, and theology.

I'm publishing the podcast a day earlier than normal so that Mary Kay and I can get away a little sooner tonight after the CR worship service for a week's R&R. Here's what I have lined up for you in this week's podcast:

[05:19]  Meditation and S.P.A.C.E.P.E.T.S. I talk about the reason we should meditate on Scripture. Then we use an acrostic to remember the application questions we should ask when we meditate.

[17:25] 6-Part Model Prayer. We continue to consider the Lord's Prayer as our model for our daily prayers.

[28:19] Question 3. What's God's Word for anyway? This two-part answer transitions us into the rest of our theological study from G.I. Williamson's book on the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

[37:26] CR Sermon: "How To Study The Bible." I've prerecorded this week's 40 Days In The Word sermon for the podcast. We consider 4 questions in every Bible study. In this podcast we use Philippians 2:19-30 as an example of a Bible passage we will study together. At first glance it doesn't appear that there is much here. However, using the 4 questions, we discover 5 marks of a godly man or woman. Many thanks to Rick Warren for writing this sermon and making it available for us to use!

Music for this week's podcast is "Gonna Fly Now (Theme From Rocky)."

God Saves Us

We learn about the 5 Links in God's Plan of Salvation.  We start with the simple children's sermon - simple but filled with truth! Then we put this into the theological language of Romans 8:29-30. Finally Pastor Mark answers 3 questions about God's unconditional election of Christ-followers.