Recovering Biblical Families [2024 Reformation Conference Session #1 in Deuteronomy 6:4–9]

Families are God's original plan for humanity, for the church, and for society. He calls them to family worship, morning and evening, and to have His Word as their primary fellowship and identity.

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The Dependence and Devotion of Truly Following Christ [2024.05.19 Morning Sermon in Matthew 8:18–22]

Following Christ can only be done by His grace, because following Christ costs us everything

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The Dependence and Devotion of True Disciples [Family Worship lesson in Matthew 8:18–22]

What can get in the way of true discipleship? Matthew 8:18–22 prepares us for the morning sermon on the Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that pride and half-heartedness are two obstacles to true discipleship.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

How God Protects His Flock from Being Devoured [2023.05.28 Morning Sermon in Acts 20:29–38]

Dependence upon God, in the use of His ordained means, is the only safe path to blessedness.

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Biblical Mandate for Systematic Theology [Family Worship lesson in 2Timothy 1:13–14]

What is the purpose of the official ministry of the church? 2Timothy 1:13–14 looks forward to the second reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that a great part of the official ministry of the church is to guard patterns of words.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Keeping Back Nothing Helpful [2023.04.16 Morning Sermon in Acts 20:20]

A shepherd under Christ—whether pastors in the congregation or husbands and fathers in the home—must keep back nothing helpful. And the great help that Christ requires him to provide is the Word.

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Growth in Godliness, God's Way, for Christ's Servants and the Churches They Pastor [Family Worship lesson in 1Timothy 4:6–11]

How should ministers serve the brethren? 1Timothy 4:6–11 looks forward to the second reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that ministers serve the brethren by teaching good Christology and commanding its application to life.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

How the Lord Built and Sanctified One of the Greatest Churches Ever [2022.08.21 Morning Sermon in Acts 11:19–30]

The Spirit uses preaching, encouragement, and teaching to grace people to turn them to the Lord, continue them with the Lord, and conform them to the Lord.

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How Jesus Makes Disciples by His Power and Presence (Family Worship in Mat 28:18–20)

What does the Lord Jesus do with all the authority in heaven and earth, which He has received? Pastor leads his family in tomorrow’s “Hopewell @Home” passage. In these three verses, we find that Jesus is building His church out of living stones called “disciples,” whom He makes through sacrament (baptism) and Word. Baptism declares that we are His, and so we must believe all that He teaches and observe all that He commands. And baptism declares that He is ours, so we may be sure that we have His power and presence to accomplish this in us until this work is done.

Intergenerational Fellowship for Discipleship, Lord's Day Prep, etc. (2020.11.14 Hopewell Herald)

Hopewell Herald – November 14, 2020

Dear Congregation,

I’ve been thinking a lot about our covenant children this week, preparing the devotional (and evening sermon for the 22^nd) from Ephesians 6:1–3. How blessed we are in them! How high is God’s calling upon them! How great is God’s grace to them!

And we greatly desire that grace for them; how very much they need it, since they have us for parents. Thankfully, God’s grace toward us as parents is also great, which we need, since He has assigned unto us their training and instruction.

As I think about the task before us, there are a couple texts from Proverbs that keep coming to mind.

“He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.”
Proverbs 13:20

“Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him.”
Proverbs 22:15

If we recognize that our children are recovering fools, we should be eager for them to walk with the wise. Are we helping them take advantage of opportunities to spend time with wiser saints?

One way of doing so would be keeping families together more during fellowship times—not as a rigid rule, but as a general strategy—so that they are drawn into the fellowship that the dads and moms are having. Another way of doing so is encouraging them to target specific older, mature saints with whom to build a relationship week by week. It's a joy to see some families/children already taking these approaches, and it would do us well to see more of it.

Of course, it’d be a pretty heavy burden to lay this duty upon them. If the families and the older saints don’t seek them out, then we’ll likely find defacto children’s-group and youth-group pockets forming here and there during our fellowship times. And we wouldn’t be able to fault them for it.

Ultimately, the most important thing for them is to attend well upon God’s own appointed means by which He works His grace. First and foremost: Word, sacrament, and prayer in the public worship. Second, the discipline and instruction of the Lord from dad and mom in the home, especially as it flows out of and into family worship.

But, there is also that mutual strengthening in intentional congregational fellowship that we have been learning about in Ephesians 4–5. Of course, it’s something that they can do to some extent with one another, but it is especially upon us to be modeling it for them as we do it with them.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s portion of growing up together into Christ our Head,

Pastor

Life from Christ via Theology (2020.09.20 Evening Sermon in Ephesians 4:17–25)

Those who are still in Adam are spiritually brain-dead and alienated from the life of God. If we are to put off the old man and put on the new man, we need that life of God that Christ gives to us, as One Whom we learn and hear, and by Whom we are taught. Theological instruction is central to the mission of the church, because the church is Christ's mission, and this is Christ's method.

Sharpened Faces and Ripened Fruit (Family Worship in Prov 27:17–18)

Pastor leads his family in two verses of "today's" Proverb, 27:17–18. Because we are often forgetful that we are before His face, God uses our brother's face to sharpen ours. And God, who has planted us in whatever role we find ourselves, grants to us that if patiently and cheerfully labor in our calling, then in due season we will reap—whether we are farmers or slaves, and ultimately as His own children and servants.

Jesus's Plan for Your Stability: How Not to Be a Doctrinal Toddler in a Rowboat

Jesus equips us by pastor-teachers so that our theology won't have the instability of a toddler in a rowboat.

Maintenance on Members for Ministry unto Maturity in Christ (2020.08.09 Evening Sermon in Ephesians 4:12–13)

Jesus has given us shepherd-teachers to do continual Word-maintenance upon us. We need this maintenance, because we are to be used in each other's lives to make us think like Christ, know Christ Himself, and be like Christ by being filled with Christ.

Being Made Useful for Building One Another up in Christ (Family Worship in Eph 4)

Pastor leads his family in today's Hopewell @Home Scripture, Ephesians 4:12–13. Believers need constant doctrinal mending and maintenance, so that we will be useful in reinforcing one another in Christ's thoughts and desires, as He uses us to help each other grow up into Him and upon Him.

Looking Forward to Learning to Do Things Jesus's Way (2020.08.01 Pastoral Letter and Hopewell Herald)

Hopewell Herald – August 1, 2020

Dear Congregation,

Everyone whom the Lord saves, He brings to the point where they see that Jesus has a way of saving them, and that it is the only way of being saved.

In our Ephesians passages for the next several weeks, we will see that Jesus has a way of keeping us in ministry-shape, a way of building His church, a way of unifying His church, a way of making us know Himself, a way of maturing us, a way of filling us with Himself.

For some of us who walked for some time with the Lord before we learned that He defines ministry, unity, and maturity, this realization was a significant moment in our Christian life—not unlike some who have walked for some time with Him before embracing the doctrines of sovereign grace or before coming to understand the church covenantally or before coming to understand union with Christ.

So, I’m eager for us to be hearing these afternoon texts together and hope that you’ll be praying with me that by God’s helping me preach and all of us to hear, that He will bring us into the enjoyment of those glorious results that He describes in these passages.

Looking forward to His ministry among us in the means of grace tomorrow,

Pastor