Message: 1 John 2:28-3:3

Soon
We are Yours
You Hold Me Now
Glorious Day

Mystery

All Praise to God by Billy and Cindy Foote
The Broken and the Tired by Elevation Worship

1 John 2:18-27

Till I See You by Hillsong
How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin
To Know Your Name by Hillsong

Hosanna by Hillsong

The songs above are linked to iTunes so you may purchase them. Come with expectant hearts this Sunday. Come ready for Jesus to move and come having prayed that he would move. Pray for salvation and brotherly affection. Pray for the Word of God to do what God promises it will do, cut to our core and make us into the image of Christ. Pray for ears to hear and eyes to see the truth of the Word so that you will be more like Jesus. Meditate on this week’s text and, as always, continue to memorize the book of 1 John.

I love you guys and look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday through the preaching of the Word and songs of praise in Spirit and Truth!

Cameron

You Hold Me Now by Hillsong

1 John 2:15-17

From the Inside Out by Hillsong
All We Need by Charlie Hall
You Hold Me Now by Hillsong
You Deserve by Hillsong

Mighty to Save by Hillsong

I’m looking forward to worshipping Jesus with you. Please pray for the service. Ask that God would send His Spirit, that Jesus may be glorified through song and the preaching of the Word and how we speak to and love one another. Pray that the lost would be saved by Jesus to the glory of God. Pray that affections would be stirred and hearts would be moved to love Jesus and live for Him. I love you all very much.

With Grace in Jesus,

Cameron

1. Your personal walk. Remember David’s words in Psalm 119 (the longest chapter in the Bible devoted to the glory of the WORD of God) “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). When Jesus was tempted by Satan, he fought and resisted with Scripture (Luke 4:1-13). Ephesians 6:17 calls the Word a SWORD. Know it and use it.

2. It benefits the body of which you are a part and for whom Christ died. We can put the issues of 1 John into practice as we love one another. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16).

Here’s the plan for this Sunday:

Confession by Mars Hill Music

Sermon: 1 John 1:1-4

Our Redemption by Remedy Music
How Great Thou Art (Public Domain)
Here is Love by Mars Hill Music
Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed by Sojourn Music

Sending: Go and Send and Pray (Music and arrangement by Remedy Music)

A note on the new song, “Confession.” The lyrics echo Paul’s lament in Romans 7. Read through that chapter this week when you get the chance. We can all relate to Paul as he cries in verses 21-25,
“21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
Though we are redeemed and regenerated by the Holy Spirit to love Jesus and delight in God’s law, we have an entire life of sin to leave behind and our bodies have to leave behind the evil habits which once controlled us. This is not easily and quickly done. Sanctification is a long process and it is a struggle while we are still in our sinful bodies to always and constantly honor Christ. “Confession” moves lyrically from a place of despair to eventually a place of rejoicing in the freedom bought for us only by the blood of Jesus. Jesus became sin for us so that we would be forgiven of all of our sin past, present future. As Christians, we are already righteous in Christ but are not yet perfected until the day of redemption. Therefore, we move from singing the first verse,

“I am obstinate, my neck an iron tendon
My head is like a stone, I want to do what I want
Wretched, wretched, bound, gagged and shackled
You give, You give life, I ignore it”

To the final chorus,

“Chains are broken, I’ve been chosen
Sin is put to death, is put to death!”

Amen. Live in the Gospel this week. It is ALWAYS ALL about Jesus.

Love

Cameron

So, we began memorizing the book of 1 John today as a church.  This is going to be such a great thing for us as a church.  God will use His Word to shape us, challenge us, convict us and grow us into His image and likeness.

There are a few things I want us to remember as we begin this great journey…

1.)  You can do this!  It’s only 1 verse per day, and usually around 4-5 verses per week, with 2-3 days of review.  I know that you can do it.  It is much easier than you think.  Don’t think of it as memorizing the book of 1 John, instead, think of it as just memorizing A verse of Scripture today.

2.)  It takes about 10-15 minutes in one day to memorize a verse.  We have 1,440 minutes in one day.  Surely we can take 10-15 out of those 1,440 and memorize the Word of God.  The benefits are so great for us spiritually; how could we not?!

3.)  Don’t be legalistic or prideful.  Don’t turn this into a legalistic thing where you begin ending up dreading it and see it as a burden, instead of a great thing that God can use to grow you. There’s always track B. (more on that in #4).  Also, don’t be prideful.  Don’t boast on yourself as you memorize and think yourself to be better than those that aren’t having the same success that you are having.  Instead and be humble and remember as Paul, that anything you do is really God doing it through you and you can’t boast.

4.)  There’s always track B.  Let’s face it, some of us are very busy.  We have 4 children, ages are newborn, 2, 4, & 6.  There’s really no realistic way my wife is going to be doing track A.  But, she can, by God’s grace, attempt track B.  For those of you who are busy, but still see the value in memorizing God’s Word, then maybe track B is for you in this season of your life.  Here is one of the coolest parts, every 2 weeks, we’ll hand out new cards.  So if the last 2 weeks, were busy, but the next will not be busy, then you can pick which track you want to try to do for each 2 weeks.

The goal is to get the Word of God in you, as many verses that you can memorize, so you are growing in your walk with Christ and God is using His Word to shape us and make us more like Jesus.

I love you and believe God is going to do some really great things in our study through 1 John.

Below are both tracks for memorizing in case you missed them today.

Sunday, March 21, we will begin a study through the book of 1 John.

This book is jam-packed with such great applications on what our lives as Christians should look like.

“Here Is Love” has so many meanings.

Christ is love.
Here is where love should be present in your life.
Here is how you should love your fellow man.
Here is love in the Gospel of Jesus and NO OTHER PLACE.

Oh, that we would desire to see Christ as the most precious reality in the world as John, his beloved friend, saw Him!
May God grant us glimpses of what John sees and CHANGE OUR LIVES!

We have some GREAT things planned during this series.  Things that will, Lord willing, CHANGE OUR LIVES.

Come Sunday ready to see “Here Is Love”.

March 21 service:

Come Thou Fount – Hymn

Sermon – 1 John Intro

Only Your Blood is Enough – Sojourn
How He Loves – John Mark McMillan
You Reign – Hillsong United
All My Tears – Emmylou Harris (Ex Nihilo version)

Sending – All Creatures – Mars Hill

See you Sunday!