New Life Baptist Church, College Station Texas

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Quotes from Last Night’s Message

Yes­ter­day, we were encour­aged to per­sist in prayer with con­fi­dence that God will answer us because he is good and always keeps his word to his chil­dren. You can lis­ten (or lis­ten again) to the ser­mon here.

Here are a few quotes from the mes­sage that you can con­tinue to med­i­tate on as you apply the mes­sage this week:

Some­times a fail­ure to per­sist in prayer proves that we were not seri­ous about our request in the first place.  At other times God wants us to per­sist in prayer in order to strengthen our faith in him.  Faith would never grow if all prayers were answered imme­di­ately” (Don­ald Whit­ney, Spir­i­tual Dis­ci­plines for the Chris­t­ian Life, 81).

The great fault of the chil­dren of God is, they do not con­tinue in prayer; they do not go on pray­ing; they do not per­se­vere.  If they desire any­thing for God’s glory, they should pray until they get it” (Roger Steer, George Muller:  Delighted in God!, 310)

There­fore, broth­ers, since we have con­fi­dence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and liv­ing way that he opened for us through the cur­tain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assur­ance of faith, with our hearts sprin­kled clean from an evil con­science and our bod­ies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19–22).

Enjoy and pur­sue God’s grace this week.  He delights to give it to those who ask!

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Persistent, Confident Prayer Tonight

This evening we will study con­sider Jesus’ call to per­sis­tent, con­fi­dent prayer in Matthew 7:7–12.  Far too often, we don’t per­sist in prayer and lack con­fi­dence in prayer because we do not under­stand God’s nature or believe his promises.  God is good, and he gives good gifts to his chil­dren.  He always keeps his Word, and he has promised that those who ask, seek, and knock for grace will receive it.  We hope to see you tonight at 5 pm!

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Continuing to Apply Matthew 6:25–34

A few weeks ago, we stud­ied Matthew 6:25–34 and learned that we are to exer­cise cal­cu­lated trust in God.  He has promised to meet all of our needs!  On Thurs­day, Justin Tay­lor posted Scrip­tural evi­dence that we should never be anx­ious.  I encour­age you to read through the Scrip­tures he posts, believe God’s promises, and by grace deter­mine to live the truth of the Word.

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Living the Cross-Centered Life: Intro and Chapter 1

After blog­ging our way through Total Church in the sum­mer and The Supremacy of Christ in a Post­mod­ern World in the fall, we’ll be turn­ing our atten­tion to CJ Mahaney’s Liv­ing the Cross-Centered Life this spring.

My blog entries for the pre­vi­ous books were essen­tially chap­ter sum­maries with some addi­tional com­men­tary and appli­ca­tion added.  Our blog entries for LCCL will look a lit­tle dif­fer­ent.  I will offer a few thoughts on each chap­ter, but my main empha­sis will be writ­ing dis­cus­sion ques­tions for you to use for per­sonal reflec­tion, in con­ver­sa­tions with oth­ers, and in Life Group (for those groups read­ing the book together).  I hope you will find the new for­mat enjoy­able and helpful.

In the book’s intro­duc­tion, Mahaney notes that each of our lives is cen­tered on some­thing.  Every one of us has some­thing (or things) that define us, most excite us, and cap­ture our hearts.  What is that thing (or things) for you?  Is it God and his glo­ri­ous Gospel, or is it some earthly activ­ity, trea­sure, or person?

I am going to assume that you, like me, gen­uinely want to keep the Gospel at the cen­ter of your life and your affec­tions.  And I am also going to assume that you, like me, are con­tin­u­ally pulled away from the Gospel.  On page 16, Mahaney notes the three main ten­den­cies that draw us away from the Gospel:

1.  Sub­jec­tivism, which means bas­ing our view of God on our chang­ing feel­ings and emotions;

2. Legal­ism, which means bas­ing our rela­tion­ship with God on our own per­for­mance; and

3. Con­dem­na­tion, which means being more focused on our sin than on God’s grace.

While you have no doubt expe­ri­enced all three at var­i­ous times, which ten­dency most reg­u­larly tempts you to leave the Gospel of grace?  Why do you sup­pose this is?

In the first chap­ter, Mahaney poses the ques­tion, “Why should the cross define our lives?”  For the apos­tle Paul, the answer was sim­ple:  because it is the one essen­tial truth of this life.  There are many impor­tant truths, but the mes­sage of Jesus’ sub­sti­tu­tion­ary death and res­ur­rec­tion from the dead is the one essen­tial truth.  Paul sums it up well:  “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preach­ing is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14).  If Jesus did not die in our place for our sins and rise from the dead so that we would be declared right­eous by faith, noth­ing else mat­ters.  Here are a few ques­tions for application:

1. David says, “Restore to me the joy of your sal­va­tion” (Ps. 51:12).  How did God work in your life to bring you to repen­tance and faith?

2. Does the cross define your life today?  What evi­dence could you give to sup­port your conclusion?

3. What changes can you make in your think­ing and in your habits to cen­ter your life on the cross?

4. How can you facil­i­tate cross-centered think­ing and con­ver­sa­tions within the local church?

Next week, we will con­sider chap­ter two and con­sider the dif­fer­ence between what we feel and what is real.  May God bless your med­i­ta­tions and conversations!

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Applying Righteous Judgment

Last night we were chal­lenged to judge right­eously, which mean our judg­ments must be made with grace, truth, and dis­cern­ment.  We must judge with grace, because we have received grace our­selves and are in con­tin­ual need of God’s grace.  We must judge with truth, because God’s peo­ple are called to make judg­ments based on his per­fect, objec­tive stan­dard, not our own slid­ing, sub­jec­tive stan­dards.  And finally, we must judge with dis­cern­ment, as the Scrip­ture says, “Answer not a fool accord­ing to his folly, lest you be like him your­self” (Prv. 26:4).

I encour­age you to watch your­self care­fully this week.  Are you enter­tain­ing thoughts toward other believ­ers or unbe­liev­ers that are harsh and crit­i­cal, or thoughts filled with grace, truth, and dis­cern­ment?  Ask God for help to apply this mes­sage, that we might build up the church and be God’s instru­ments to share the good news of Jesus with unbelievers.

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