Podcasts about nine marks

Join Rev. Clay Mason for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson concludes our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, looking at the importance of missions. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Join Revs. Josh Hall and Jacob Chilton for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson continues our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, looking at the importance of prayer, both personal and corporate. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Join Revs. Josh Hall and Jacob Chilton for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson continues our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, looking at the importance of church leadership. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Join Revs. Josh Hall and Jacob Chilton for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson continues our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, looking at the importance of church discipleship and growth of the membership. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Join Revs. Josh Hall and Jacob Chilton for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson continues our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, looking at the importance of true church discipline within the membership. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Join Revs. Josh Hall and Jacob Chilton for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson continues our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, looking at the importance of true church membership. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Join Revs. Josh Hall and Jacob Chilton for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson continues our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, looking at the importance of true conversion and evangelism. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Join Revs. Josh Hall and Jacob Chilton for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson continues our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, looking at the importance of Gospel Doctrine. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Join Revs. Josh Hall and Jacob Chilton for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson continues our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever, looking at the importance of Expositional Preaching. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Join Revs. Josh Hall and Jacob Chilton for Wednesday Night Bible Study. Tonight's lesson begins our study of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever. To learn more about First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, visit https://www.fbctlh.org.

Guest Pastor Jimmy Dodd explores the power of community, perseverance, and faith as exemplified in the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. We learn that no task is too menial when it is done in service to God, and that opposition does not necessarily mean we are outside of God's will. Ultimately, we are reminded of the extravagant grace and unconditional love God has for us, despite our flaws and mistakes.

2024 Graduate Appreciation DayGalatians 5:22-23Murray Van Gundy, Youth & Family Pastor/ElderMay 19, 2024

The Acts of the Apostles SeriesActs 17:1-15Chris McKnight, Lead Pastor/ElderMay 5, 2024Message 52 in the series on Acts

This is the first of two sessions from our most recent prospective members' meeting (3/23/24). You can watch this message here.

In this episode of Priscilla Talk, Keri Folmar, Erin Wheeler and Jenny Manley interview Mark Dever about how the nine marks of a healthy church benefit women... and his love for ice.

It's easy to stumble when we forget that this world isn't our permanent home. We can find ourselves adopting the values and habits of those solely focused on the here and now. But today, we're going to dive into what God teaches us about living for the Kingdom of God. Join us as we explore the changes needed to be faithful citizens of this eternal kingdom. Sermon Notes John 17:15–18 (NIV) 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.   1 Peter 2:11–12 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits   Hebrews 11:13–16 (NIV) 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.   Matthew 5:14,16 (NIV) 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. More Resources: Clowney, Edmund P. Living in Christ’s Church. Great Commission Publications, 1986. Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. Crossway, 2000. Keller, Timothy. Center Church. Zondervan, 2012. Speaker: Rev. Samuel Sutter

In the latest episode of the Straight Truth Podcast, Dr. Josh Philpot and Dr. Richard Caldwell explore the nuanced issue of when it's appropriate to leave a church. They argue that decisions should be based on biblical principles rather than personal preferences like service length or amenities. Dr. Caldwell emphasizes that while no church is perfect, believers should commit to a local body for spiritual growth and fellowship. However, if your current church is unhealthy and there's a better option available, it may be time to move on. They caution against substituting online services for real community and point out that factors like doctrinal soundness, leadership qualifications, and how a church handles sin should be pivotal in your decision. The episode also highlights resources such as 9Marks Ministry's -Nine Marks of a Healthy Church- and Tom Pennington's -Three Hallmarks of a Biblical Church Member- to guide believers in evaluating their church's health.

In this episode of Sunday Talks, Pastor Larry White discusses the book "Nine Marks of a Healthy Church" by Mark Dever.

I hear our Lord gently saying to us as we read Acts 2:42 (“and they were devoted to the Apostles' teaching”) “go and learn what this means.” These young Christians were barely dry. Not one of them had a New Testament handed to them as they came up out of the water, because it had not been written yet. Paul had not written his majestic letter to the Romans, or to the Corinthians, or to any of the churches for that matter. He wasn't even a Christian yet! With no New Testament, this early band of believers “devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching.” What exactly did they devote themselves to? The sermon today is titled "The Apostles' Teaching." It is the third installment in our "Community" Series. The Scripture reading is from Acts 2:42 (ESV). Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on May 7, 2023. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under DISCOVER: A New Community.Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):Alistair Begg, "The Apostles' Teaching." Truth For Life, Parkside Church (Jan 2, 2020). Tish Harrison Warren, "Chapter 9: Calling A Friend: Congregation and Community," in Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life (2016), pp. 119.Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, 4th ed (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), Chapter 1.Scott Adair, "Devoted to the Apostles' Doctrine," Fan the Flame: Renewed by the Power of the Holy Spirit (Acts), Harding University Lectureship 2019 (Sep 30, 2019). Audio and Video.I'd love to connect with you!Watch sermons and find transcripts at nathanguy.com.Follow along each Sunday through YouTube livestream and find a study guide and even kids notes on the sermon notes page.Follow me @nathanpguy (facebook/instagram/twitter)Subscribe to my email newsletter on substack.

Here are Nine Marks of a False Teacher: They disguise themselves as servants of righteousness They reject the narrow way They sound attractive to our flesh They are often popular They often allow idolatry They twist Scripture They often allow sexual immorality They often deny God's wrath They speak like the world You can watch the message here.

Ephesians 1:13-14

While many parachurch ministries do well for the name of Christ, many of them do not. Sadly, many of these which are founded by women are simply steam valves for rebellious women to usurp, feed their flesh, and introduce false doctrine. I review one of them called The Transforming Center. Final part of a 3-part series on parachurch organizations. Here is GotQuestions with more information on Spiritual formation a la Richard Foster's Renovare. And more info on spiritual formation itself: What is the spiritual formation movement? Remember, Founder Barton earned her degree from a Jesuit Catholic University. Are Roman Catholics Christian? Is ecumenism good or bad? Answer: Together Against Ecumenism Gender Roles: What about Parachurch Ministries? Nine Marks of a Healthy Parachurch Ministry This episode is also available as a blog post: http://the-end-time.org/2023/01/28/the-issue-with-parachurch-organizations-especially-ones-founded-by-women-part-3/

Mark Nine: Biblical Discipleship by William Klock I grew up where white oaks grew everywhere, but here they're relatively uncommon.  The Comox Valley is right on the northern edge of their native growth zone.  Apparently, in the latter half of the 19th Century the climate here was more ideal for them.  Acorns that fell to good soil had a pretty good chance of becoming trees.  Now the climate's changed and getting those acorns to turn into trees is much more complicated.  Every year—except this year!—the oaks around the church here drop their acorns and time and again I've tried to grow trees from them.  I've never had any success.  But trying to grow acorns into trees has a lot in common with the subject of discipleship and that's the last mark of a healthy church to be covered.  Brothers and Sisters, a healthy church will have a concern for discipleship, for its members to grow in the faith.  But back to my attempts to grow oak trees.  The first year I  was here I gathered several handfuls of acorns on a Sunday morning.  I left them on my desk, figuring I'd do something with them later.  I was gone for a few days and came back to discover little worms crawling all over the place, building little cocoon-like webs around my lamp and between my books.  I tossed them all in the garbage.  The next year I did a little research—emphasis, I suppose, on little—and put the acorns I'd collected in damp potting soil in the refrigerator.  I took them out in the spring only to find the potting soil full of little dead worms and rotten acorns.  A few years later I researched how to collect acorns and how to sort out the good ones that the worms hadn't got to yet.  I put them in the refrigerator over the winter and in the spring I planted them in little plastic cups to sprout.  And sprout they did.  But they were outside, there was a late freeze, and they all died.  I had better luck the next year.  They sprouted in the little cups, then I transferred them into gallon pots.  They grew for a while, then stopped.  I did more research and found it was because the little cups and then the gallon pots had caused the roots to curl up into a ball.  Oak trees need to start with a long, straight tap root.  Instead of using small cups and then gallon pots, I should have planted them in 2' lengths of PVC pipe and then transplanted them into the ground when the roots emerged from the bottom.  I did transplant several, but none survived the winter.  At that point I decided it was too complicated.  But that was, I think, the most success I'd ever had with growing anything from seeds.  Usually, I plant seeds at the wrong time of year, or I forget to water them, or I water them too much, or the rabbits come and nibble away the stalks when they emerge.  It takes the right conditions for plants to grow.  They need sunlight and water and oxygen.  They need to be given the proper space to grow.  They need the right temperature.  And they need to be protected from the critters that eat them.  But given those things, they grow, because that's what God made them to do. God's people aren't all that different.  Listen to the first three verses of Psalm 1: Blessed is the man          who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners,          nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord,          and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree          planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,          and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.   This was written in the context of the old covenant so we might change it a little bit here and there, but it's basically true for the Christian.  Plant yourself in God's word—which is itself an act of faith and obedience—and steer clear of wickedness, sin, and the ungodly, and the Spirit will cause you to grow.  God gives us means of grace: his word, his Spirit, his sacraments, his Church, and they are to us what sunlight and water are plants. We're like plants in other ways, too.  Things that are alive grow.  We were once dead, but God has grafted us into his Son, he's filled us with his Spirit, and we grow.  Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches.”  Live vines grow, don't they?  So should Jesus' people—and not just individually.  Together we're this vine called the Church.  We grow together, rooted in Jesus, and supporting each other.  St. Paul, in Romans 8, describes the growth that God gives his people as being “conformed to the image of his Son”.  Or, as he writes in 1 Corinthians 3:18: We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.   God has made us alive and living things grow.  And growth is essential.  Think of our study of Revelation and Jesus' repeated exhortations to his people there to persevere in faith and holiness in the face of persecution and even martyrdom.  Brothers and Sisters, that kind of perseverance not only requires life, but it also requires growth.  Think of a salmon.  It spends its life in the ocean, growing and building strength so that it can return to the river where it was born, wage a vigorous battle upstream, fighting the current all the way, so that it can spawn and reproduce itself, creating the next generation.  God's people aren't all that different.  The salmon remind me of the well-known quote from Nikolaus von Zinzendorf: “Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.”  We grow strong over time on God's grace by word, by sacrament, by prayer, by fellowship and we persevere, fighting against the currents of the world.  We raise our own children to do the same and we proclaim the good news about Jesus, we witness his kingdom, and by that the Spirit raises up the next generation to continue the battle.  If we have produced a new generation of disciples, Brothers and Sisters, we have done well.  But take away the means of grace, and we die before the mission is ever accomplished.  Some years ago I went to an ecumenical clergy breakfast at the hospital.  They had a morning prayer service led by some liberal Presbyterians.  Another pastor said to me afterward, “What was that?”  They prayed and they sang, but it all felt utterly dead and completely disconnected from God.  The feeling was palpable to many of us there and it made sense.  It was sad, but it made sense.  These were folks who had given up on the authority of God's word and, like dead salmon, were floating downstream—floating with the world's currents, wherever they might lead. And that highlights the importance of discipleship.  Our growth as disciples, our growth into Christ's likeness, our growth in the fruit of the Spirit and in holiness is essential—and a healthy church will have a healthy concern for it.  Living things grow.  Living things fight the current.  Dead things don't.  And so Paul writes to the Ephesians: Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16) If we will lean on God and immerse ourselves in the means of grace he has given, he will grow us.  To quote Paul again, this time as he wrote to the Colossians: Jesus is “the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God” (Colossians 2:19). Notice: Jesus is the head.   We don't cause the growth.  The best preacher or the best Bible study leader in the world cannot grow Christians.  Only God's word and Spirit can do that.  Paul again to the Corinthians, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthian 3:6-7).  Even when Paul congratulates the Thessalonian Christians on their growth, he gives the thanks to God for it.  Look at 2 Thessalonians 1:3: We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.   And knowing that it is God who grows his people, Paul prayed for them to grow.  For the Thessalonians he prayed: May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else….May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13) He prays similarly for the Colossian Christians: And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:10) Or let's flip over to 2 Peter and hear what he has to say.  Here's 2 Peter 1:5-8: For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.   And if we flip back to Peter's first epistle, in 2:2-5, he writes this: Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.  As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.   Brothers and Sisters, our growth in the Lord, our growth in faith, our growth in holiness ought to be a priority—for each of us individually, but also collectively as the Church.  As the writer of Hebrews tells us, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24).  Christian growth, discipleship, whatever we want to call it, will always be a priority for a healthy church. Now, in case I haven't been clear, Christian growth—and, again, by that I mean discipleship or Christian maturity—that is not the same thing as Church growth, by which I mean the numerical growth of the Church in general or of the local church.  Our age has developed an obsession with the latter, and while we don't usually outright ignore discipleship, we often inadvertently sacrifice it for the sake of church growth.  We put the cart before the horse.  And, sometimes as I've said before, we confuse the things that are our responsibility with the things that are God's.  Discipleship—the growth and maturing of God's people—needs to come first.  That doesn't mean we sideline missions and evangelism until we're all mature.  It just means that we trust God to do his part while we do ours.  When we prioritise evangelism and mission, we usually end up compromising the very things that are needed to grow God's people—like tree-planters who want a huge forest and plant a ton of trees, but don't properly prepare the soil, or neglect to water them.  When we put evangelism or missions first, we often downplay things like expositional preaching, a biblical understanding of the gospel and of conversion, we downplay the need for commitment and discipline—because we want to see bigger numbers and these other things have a tendency to scare people away.  If you plant oak trees, they will make more oak trees if you plant them and care for them properly in the first place.  If you just poke a ton of acorns into the ground—at least around here—you'll end up with very few full-grown trees capable of reproducing themselves.  But that's often how Christians do things these days.  Friends, real Christians who truly know the love, the grace, the mercy of God revealed in Jesus will enthusiastically proclaim that good news and, with the help of the Spirit, make new Christians—but we'll do it God's way and trusting him to bring the fruit.  It's relatively easy to fill a church with people; it's a lot more work to fill it with actual disciples, but that's what we've got to do, because only true disciples will go out and make more disciples.  This is why understanding these marks of a healthy church is important. And all these other marks we've looked at over the last two months will grow disciples.  To briefly recap: A healthy church will have a commitment to expositional preaching, whether that's preaching the lectionary or preaching through whole books or parts of books.  The point is that such a church's preaching will be rooted in God's word.  The preacher's agenda will be God's agenda.  The words and ideas preached will not be the preacher's, but God's.  There will always be parts of the Bible that Christians would rather avoid, but expositional preaching challenges the preacher and the church to hear those hard things, to wrestle with them, and to be obedient to them.  Brothers and Sisters, my thoughts will not give you life.  Only God's word can do that.  And that's what we must preach. An expositional ministry in the pulpit also establishes where our values lie.  A people who value Bible-centred preaching is more likely to be a people who are themselves Bible-centred—who invest time in reading and study and praying the scriptures themselves and who gather together to read, and study, and pray them.  And we do this knowing that God's word give life.  It's the raw material the Spirit works with to grow us in faith, in obedience, and in holiness. Preaching grounded in the Bible will give a church biblical theology.  It will bring us closer to the God who has saved us, because it ever more reveals who he is.  Biblical theology also reveals who we are and what God wants for us.  Biblical theology tells us the story into which God has called us.  Biblical theology causes us to grow in our love for God, our love for each other, it causes us to grow in holiness, and it gives us our mission—to proclaim the good news about Jesus and to make disciples. Biblical preaching and biblical theology will lead us to a right and biblical understanding of the gospel—of the good news about Jesus, crucified, risen, and ascended.  A biblical understanding of the gospel reminds us that human being stand before God as rebellious sinners condemned to death, but it also reveals God's loving faithfulness at the cross, and as we look on the risen Messiah we are reminded that by faith, that God has redeemed us and made us his own sons and daughters.  A biblical understanding of the gospel reveals the sinfulness of sin and the amazing graciousness of grace, it teaches our hearts and minds to love the one who sacrificed himself for our sake, and it drives us out those doors in to the world to proclaim what he has done. A biblical understanding of the gospel, like these other things, lies at the root of discipleship.  Getting the gospel wrong undermines everything else.  If, for example, we confuse the gospel with messages of prosperity, we will never understand the meaning of sacrifice.  We will never understand God's discipline.  When life is difficult or persecution comes to the Church, the prosperity gospel will turn out to be rocky soil and those planted in it will wither and die, while those who have put roots deep into the soil of the biblical gospel will thrive in the midst of trials.  There are many false gospels.  Many confuse good works for the gospel, many today are preaching self-love or self-esteem or self-actualisation as the gospel.  None of those messages will save and none will make disciples of Jesus who will persevere hardship and make new disciples of Jesus who will carry on the mission Jesus has given us. A biblical understanding of the gospel will ensure that we have a biblical understanding of conversion and as we understand conversion, we'll understand that to be a Christian is to be transformed by God's word and Spirit.  It's to understand that the change that takes place in our lives is the fruit of God's grace at work in us.  A biblical understand of conversion will make us a humble people, not proud of our works, but a people ever more reliant on the grace of God.  And the more we rest in his grace, the more he will continue to grow us. A biblical understanding of evangelism ensures we know what a Christian actually is.  Mark Dever makes this observation, “The lack of spiritual growth in people who call themselves Christians is often an evidence that they have been wrongly evangelized.  We have taught people who are not Christians to think of themselves as though they are…The church is not finally a booster organization.  We're telling people a serious message about their condition before God, and about the tremendous news of the new life God is offering them in Christ.  And we're inviting them to enter into that life by dire and desperate means—repentance and faith.”[1]  Too often we throw acorns on the ground and call them trees.  We not only ignore the hard work needed to make them grow, but we're too ready to call them trees when there's no evidence of transformation and growth.  Filling pews isn't the same as making disciples, but it's a lot easier to do the former than the latter.  In a culture obsessed with numbers-based success, it's easy to just count noses and pat ourselves on the back.  But a biblical understanding of the gospel, of conversion, and of evangelism will ensure we're actually making disciples.  It also ought to prompt us to be growing as disciples ourselves, because you can't make disciples if you aren't one yourself. A biblical understanding of church membership, which is rooted in God's sacraments is also essential to discipleship.  The sacraments remind us that we are God's people.  We have taken hold of his promise by faith in our baptism and we come each Sunday to the Lord's Table, where we participate again in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  God renews his covenant with us.  That not only strengthens our faith and renews our hope, but in reminding us that we are his covenant people, it reminds us of God's faithfulness to us and of the obligations covenant membership has for us.  Biblical church membership reminds us of our commitment to God—just as it reminds us of his commitment to us.  And it commits us to one another, to walk with each other, to exhort and rebuke each other, to experience joy and sorrow with each other, to love and to forgive each other. Biblical church membership leads to biblical church discipline, without which we have little accountability to grow as disciples of Jesus.  God has made us his people that we might give him glory and cause the nations to give him glory as they see our witness.  Church discipline holds us accountable to that mission and keeps us faithful witnesses. And, finally, biblical worship that is centred in word and sacrament brings all these things together as it gathers the people of God together to hear him speak, to be reminded of his covenant grace, and ultimately to give him glory in response.  All of these marks send us out into the world to be the people God has called us to be, to do the work he's given us, to be salt and light and to proclaim the good news about Jesus, but all these marks also draw us back together in corporate worship so that we can be refreshed and refilled, so that we can be reminded once again of what God has done for us in Jesus, and—most of all—so that together we can give him glory and have our faith and hope renewed.  And then we go back into the world again to do and to be the people Jesus has made us. And that's the note I want to end on.  A healthy church tells the story of God and his people, draws us in, and makes each of us integral parts of it.  A healthy church binds us closely to Jesus and to each other so that we can accomplish the mission he has given us.  Let me close with a quote from Tom Wright's little book, Simply Christian. “According to the early Christians, the church doesn't exist in order to provide a place where people can pursue their private spiritual agendas and develop their own spiritual potential. Nor does it exist in order to provide a safe haven in which people can hide from the wicked world and ensure that they themselves arrive safely at an otherworldly destination. Private spiritual growth and ultimate salvation come rather as the byproducts of the main, central, overarching purpose for which God has called and is calling us. This purpose is clearly stated in various places in the New Testament: that through the church God will announce to the wider world that he is indeed its wise, loving, and just creator; that through Jesus he has defeated the powers that corrupt and enslave it; and that by his Spirit he is at work to heal and renew it. The church exists, in other words, for what we sometimes call ‘mission': to announce to the world that Jesus is its Lord. This is the ‘good news,' and when it's announced it transforms people and societies. Mission, in its widest as well as its more focused senses, is what the church is there for. God intends to put the world to rights; he has dramatically launched this project through Jesus. Those who belong to Jesus are called, here and now, in the power of the Spirit, to be agents of that putting-to-rights purpose. The word ‘mission' comes from the Latin for ‘send': ‘As the father sent me,' said Jesus after his resurrection, ‘so I am sending you' ( John 20:21).”[2] Let's pray: Almighty Father, when we rebelled against you and corrupted your creation, you could have destroyed us and wiped us from its face, but instead you set forth to make yourself known to a people who had forgotten you and to restore us to your presence.  You established a people to be your light in the midst of the darkness, and you gave your own Son to humble himself as he became one of us and lived and died and lived again to give life to this people—to us, to your Church.  Keep us faithful to you, to what you have made us, and to the mission you have given us, we pray.  Grow us by your word and fill us with your Spirit.  Give us the grace to persevere and courage to proclaim your good news.  Make us good stewards of your grace and cause our labours to bear fruit and your kingdom to grow so that you are glorified.  Through Jesus we pray.  Amen. [1] Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2004), 209. [2] Simply Christian (New York: Harper Collins, 2006), epub edition.

Mark Seven: Biblical Church Discipline by William Klock The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism famously asks, “What is the chief end of man?”  And the answer, drawing on scriptures like Psalm 73, Romans 11:36, and 1 Corinthians 10:31, is that, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”  God created human beings to give him glory.  He created us to bear his images—to be the priests and stewards of his temple and to exercise his dominion over creation.  We rejected the vocation he gave us, and ever since then, God's great project of redemption and renewal—of new creation—has been working towards our restoration to that vocation.  One day, when the project is completed, redeemed humanity will once again live to the glory of God.  In the meantime he has called forth, created, redeemed, and renewed a people for himself—a people who, however imperfectly, exist to give him glory.  Not only that, but this people—you and I—exist to make the living God known to the nations: his faithfulness, his love, his mercy, his mighty and saving deeds, so that one day the nations will bring him the glory he is due.  One day the knowledge of his glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Jesus said to Israel, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).  That was Israel's mission, just as it is the mission of the new Israel.  It has always been the mission of the people of God and will always be.  A couple Sunday's ago, we read that passage from Micah 4 that looked forward to the day when the nations would come streaming to the Lord saying, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths” (Micha 4:2).  And this past summer we looked at John's vision in Revelation, the fulfilment of that prophecy, where the nations that once thumbed their noses at God, are seen streaming into the New Jerusalem to give God glory. Although we see the theme all through the New Testament, Revelation very dramatically reminds us that in the Church, God has created a people who—just like Jesus—have given up everything in order to know him, to live in his presence, and glorify him, and by their witness—even sometimes a witness that leads to death—to draw the nations to him. Brothers and Sisters, this means that as the people of God, as the Church, we are accountable not only to God, but to each other for our witness.  The Protestant Reformers understood how important this is.  Over these last weeks I've quoted several times from the confessions and formularies of a variety of Protestant traditions: Lutheran, Reformed, Presbyterian, and our own Articles of Religion.  All of them affirm in some way that a true church is found where God's word is faithfully preached and where the sacraments ordained by Jesus, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, are administered.  But in conjunction with the administration of the sacraments, those confessions also stress the essential nature of church discipline.  The Belgic Confession, after listing the preaching of the gospel and administration of the sacraments as marks of a true church, adds: “if church discipline is exercised in punishing of sin.”[1]  The Scots Confession puts it this way, “Lastly, Ecclesiastical discipline uprightly ministered, as God's word prescribes, whereby vice is repressed, and virtue nourished.”[2]  Article XIX of our Articles of Religion, again, puts it all this way: “The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.”  “All those things that of necessity are requisite to the same” covers a range of “things” from the ordering of ministers and liturgies to, notably, church discipline.  In our case, the specifics are found in the rubrics at the end of the liturgy for the Lord's Supper—those instructions the minister is bound to follow.  Here's what we read there (this can be found on page 116 of the Book of Common Prayer if you want to follow along): If among those who come to be partakers of the Holy Communion, the Minister shall know any to be an open and notorious evil liver, or to have done any wrong to his neighbours by word or deed, so that the congregation be thereby offended; he shall warn him, that he presume not to come to the Lord's Table, until he have openly declared himself to have truly repented and amended his former evil life, that the congregation may thereby be satisfied; and that he has recompensed the parties to whom he has done wrong; or at least declare himself to be in full purpose so to do, as soon as he conveniently may.   The same order shall the Minister use with those, between whom he perceives malice and hatred to reign; not permitting them to be partakers of the Lord's Table, until he know them to be reconciled. And if one of the parties, so at variance, be content to forgive from the bottom of his heart all that the other has trespassed against him, and to make amends for that wherein he himself has offended; and the other party will not be persuaded to a godly unity, but remain still in his frowardness and malice; the Minister in that case ought to admit the penitent person to the Holy Communion, and not him that is obstinate. Provided, That every Minister so repelling any, as is herein specified, shall be obliged to give an account of the same to the Ordinary, within fourteen days after, at the farthest. Years ago another evangelical pastor started asking me questions about the Prayer Book, so I loaned him a copy.  A couple of weeks later he came back with his finger on these rubrics and said—with a lot of consternation—“You don't actually do this, do you?”  I said that we do and that up to the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, so did virtually everyone else in Christendom.  It's there in our liturgies, our confessions, our formularies and books of order regardless of what tradition you're a part of.  What happened?  Because today church discipline is virtually unheard of—and it's not because Christians today are somehow more holy and less in need of it than previous generations.  Gregory Wills, in his book, Democratic Religion, writes, “After the Civil War…observers began to lament that church discipline was foundering, and it was.  It declined partly because it became more burdensome in larger churches….Urban churches, pressed by the need for large buildings and the desire for refined music and preaching, subordinated church discipline to the task of keeping the church solvent.  Many…shared a new vision of the church, replacing the pursuit of purity with the quest for efficiency.”[3]  And as the church in the West has bought into our culture's therapeutic values, there's little chance of any major change in course in the foreseeable future.  Today's conventional wisdom says that you grow churches by toning down talk of commitment.  Forget opening the doors wider—just take away the walls.  Let anyone and everyone come to the Table, whether they're baptised or not.  That used to be the position of theological liberals, but it's now commonplace in many evangelical churches.  Accountability?  Maybe you'll have small groups where people are voluntarily accountable to each other—maybe—but to the church?  It's almost unheard of.  Everything is meant to make us feel good, whether it's the preaching or the music.  Historic Christian worship was always built around giving glory to God.  It's often now built around the worshipers themselves and giving them a feel-good experience.  Even the gospel we often preach has become focused on the therapeutic.  Paul writes that when the Spirit gets hold of us, he transforms our hearts and we confess the lordship of Jesus—we repent, we turn from sin and idols, we embrace rejection, suffering, even martyrdom for the sake of Jesus, all to give glory to God.  But today's gospel often has little if anything to do with that.  It's about God making us feel good, giving us what we want—all too often it's a message promising material prosperity rather than what Jesus promised: that we will take up our crosses and follow him in the way of sacrifice.  Today's gospel is far too often all about “me”.  God is here for us, not we for God.  And so we balk at the very idea of such accountability.  But there it is.  And the Reformers didn't make it up.  Writing about eighty years ago, in his wonderful little book Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer summed it up so well: “Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one's community back from the path of sin.”[4]  Discipline was once the norm.  And all of this is deeply biblical.  So let's look at the Bible and as we do that, keep the big biblical story in the back of your head and be thinking about the fact that our vocation is to give God glory and witness him in a such way that his kingdom is made known and the nations come to bring him glory too. So, first, let's turn to 1 Corinthians 5.  Here's what Paul writes: It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.  And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.   It's hard to be any clearer than that.  Notice that Paul doesn't go on the hunt for sin.  This sexual immorality was right there in the open.  And the church tolerated it to their shame.  It doesn't sound as if they were turning a blind eye.  That Paul rebukes them for their arrogance says that they were proud of themselves for their tolerance.  But as he points out to them, this sin was scandalous even to the pagans.  What kind of witness did they have?  Maybe they thought they were witnessing the love of Jesus by being so tolerant, but that's not the way it works.  “Let him be removed from among you,” Paul insists.  He goes on:     For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.  When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Notice—this is vitally important—church discipline isn't done to be vindictive.  It's done to purify the witness of the church, but it's also done in the hope that it will bring the unrepentant sinner to repentance that he will be spared from God's judgement.   Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.  Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.   At the Passover the Israelites purged their homes of leaven and ate unleavened bread, remembering the new life the Lord had given them when he delivered them from Pharaoh's bondage.  Just so, as we come to the Lord's Table, we are reminded of the new life we have in Jesus and the Spirit.  This Supper is for those who have believe, who have repented, who have been baptised—who have given their full allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom.  Those who have not have no place here until they do.     I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.  But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.  For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?  God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”   Paul quotes Deuteronomy, recalling Israel's duty to holiness: “Purge the evil person from among you”.  Again, Paul doesn't tell us to go turning over rocks looking for sin.  The sins he lists here as examples are sins that are flagrant and public—obvious to most if not to all, a scandal to the church, and that compromise the witness of the church to the world—even though in some cases, the world might think we should tolerate such sins. But this is remedial discipline.  This is what happens when the church has failed in discipleship and in the early stages of discipline that we often don't even think of as discipline.  So I want to back up and look at where discipline starts.  Let's look at Hebrew 12:1-14, where we see that discipline is inherently positive and part of God's design.  It's on the long side and our time is limited, so I won't offer any commentary.  Just hear God's word. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.   Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,          nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,          and chastises every son whom he receives.”   It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.   Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.  Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Brothers and Sisters, the Lord disciplines his children because he loves them—he loves us—and he calls his church to discipline because of that same love.  He desires what's best for us and what's best is holiness.  And now one more passage.  Like I said, scripture doesn't tell us to go turning over rocks looking for the sins of our brothers and sisters.  It tells us what to do when sin confronts us—either something open and scandalous as in Corinth, or when we find ourselves sinned against by a brother or sister.  Look at Matthew 18:15-17.  Here's how Jesus tells us to deal with the sins of others. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.  If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.   If your brother (or your sister) sins against you, go and talk to him (or her).  But before things even go that far, consider the love we ought to have for one another as brothers and sisters in Jesus.  Peter writes: Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.  (1 Peter 4:8) Have you ever thought about that?  If we really are loving each other as we should, I think this part probably tends to happen without us even thinking much about it.  We just forgive and move on.  Love covers a multitude of sins and our desire ought to be for fellowship and community with each other.  People leave the church.  It happens over and over and it so often happens over things that are so small in the grand scheme of things.  Something is horribly wrong with our perspective.  I was sitting at lunch on Tuesday with some other pastors and one was on the verge of tears talking about differences over pandemic politics decimating his church, people leaving because their views were different from those of others.  Another pastor talked about his continuing struggle to hold his church together.  He figured it was split 50/50 on these issues and they've only managed not to split over it because the pastors have made a point of avoiding those issues.  And I have to wonder, would these same people leaving the church over differences of opinion on government policy relating to a temporary problem, would they abandon their biological brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers the same way?  I doubt it.  Because family is important.  And yet consider Jesus' words: But he replied to the man…“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”  And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”  (Matthew 12:48-50) Brothers and Sisters, in Jesus we have a bond with each other stronger than blood—because of his blood.  And that ought to translate into a deep and profound love for each other that only overcomes out various differences—that love also ought to cover a multitude of sins.  To quote from Bonhoeffer's Life Together again, “I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.”[5] But back to Matthew 18, sometimes a sin or an offense has to be dealt with.  Jesus says to go to your brother to talk to him about it.  Communicate.  Sometimes that's all it takes.  The single biggest cause of marital breakdown is a lack of communication.  You've probably seen that meme with the couple sitting on the couch or lying in bed, their backs to each other.  Both look very concerned…even upset.  And the wife is thinking, “I bet he's thinking about another woman.”  And the husband is thinking, “I've tried everything.  Why won't my motorcycle start.”  She's getting worked up and angry, assuming that because he's not talking, he's thinking about another woman.  No.  He's just trying to think through a problem.  But these things blow up and marriages fall apart.  Because people don't talk.  So go to your brother, go to your sister and talk.  It often turns out that sin or offense was unintentional.  It's often the case that you've been like the wife in the meme, thinking it's one thing, when in reality it was something else entirely.  We're Christians after all, people of the Spirit, manifesting his fruit.  We don't often go out of our way to deliberately offend each other.  Go in Christ-like love, assuming the best of each other, and with a desire for reconciliation. But maybe the sin was real.  Still, go and talk about it.  Hebrews calls us to exhort one another to love and good works.  Confronted by his sin, your brother—more often than not, if he really is full of the Spirit—will realise what he's done, he'll be sorry, and he'll make things right.  And, Jesus says, “you have gained your bother.”  Remember, our desire is to glorify God and we do that by maintaining the unity and the witness of the Church.  We not only manifest the life of the Spirit when we reconcile with one another in love, but we witness the love of God for sinners—modelling to others and to the world what God, in Jesus, has done for us. But, Jesus says, maybe your brother won't listen.  Step two is to go back to him with one or two witnesses.  This means that you've brought the grievance to at least another brother or sister.  Maybe you're out of line with your accusation.  Involving another person or two may, in itself, clear up the problem.  But if they agree that you've been wrong and that the other person has sinned, then you all go to him.  If this doesn't resolve the situation, Jesus says, you take the matter to the assembly—in this case that means the local church.  At this point the presbyters or the bishop must confront this man with his sin.  And if he still refuses to listen, Jesus says he is to be treated as a gentile or a tax collector.  That means he's to be treated as someone outside the community—in Israel as someone unclean and in the Church as someone who has forsaken his baptism and is now barred from the Lord's Table. But, again, the point is not vindictiveness.  The goal is restoration, as Paul stresses in 1 Corinthians 5.  This man may well be a believer, but in refusing to repent of his sin, his life does not match his profession and so, in an effort to restore him, he is barred from the sacramental life of the Church—from the markers of membership.  Especially thinking from the perspective of the new covenant, what is the church's goal when it comes to gentiles and tax collectors?  It's not to kick them to the curb and to walk away.  These are people who need to hear the gospel—the good news about Jesus.  Excommunication isn't the same as shunning.  Excommunication shows us those who need to be evangelized anew and brought back to Jesus. So to summarise: The Church is called to discipline her members for their own sake and for the sake of the larger church.  It is a call to the sinner to holiness.  It is a reminder to the rest of us of the need for holiness.  And it is essential to the integrity of the wider church's witness.  Brothers and Sisters, if we desire to glorify God and if we desire to see the nations glorify God because of our witness, we have to deal with sin within the Church and deal with it in the way scripture tells us.  Again, it's not optional, which is why all of our confessions and formularies, canons and liturgies stress church discipline as essential to the nature of the Church.  Stop practicing it, and we cease to be the church in the same way that we cease to be the church if we stop preaching God's word or if we stop administering his sacraments. And, I think, our abandonment of discipline lies behind the rapid decline of the Western church over the last century.  Consider Jesus' warnings to the churches in Revelation.  The Laodiceans were neither hot nor cold.  The Ephesians had lost their love.  The Thyatirans tolerated “that woman Jezebel” who enticed the people to idolatry and sexual immorality.  And Jesus warned them, “Repent…If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (Revelation 2:5).  In the West we have lost our first love.  We are all too often lukewarm.  We have corrupted the gospel and centred it on ourselves instead of on God.  We have turned worship into little more than a therapeutic exercise.  And we tolerate nearly anything and everything in our churches.  Preachers mock the very concept of repentance and are shocked by the idea of discipline.  Our salt has lost its savour.  Our light has grown dim.  Our lives misrepresent the Lord and the kingdom we proclaim with our mouths.  Will it be any wonder if that Lord removes our lampstand?  Brothers and Sisters, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Let's pray: Heavenly Father, you have created us, you have redeemed us, you have brought us together as your Church for the sake of your glory.  You have washed us clean and filled us with your own Spirit that we might glorify you by our life together.  Forgive us for our failures to be the salt and light you have created us to be.  Forgive us for our failures to be the holy community you have made us.  Fill us anew with a passion for your glory that we might desire, in all we do and say, to honour you and to make your glory known to the world.  Through Jesus we pray.  Amen. [1] Article XXIX [2] Article XVIII [3] Quoted in Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2004), 180. [4] Trans. Daniel W. Bloesch (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015), 83. [5] Ibid, 64.

Mark Five: A Biblical Understanding of Evangelism by William Klock In early 2007 Bishop Dorrington reached out to me to ask if I'd be interested in coming to pastor Living Word Church.  The first thing that told me this might be a healthy church was that you had started as a group of about a dozen after leaving St. Peter's, and that you'd grown to around sixty to seventy people.  Not just that, but most of those people added to your number were previously unchurched and nominally churched.  That told me you were a people committed to evangelism and a commitment to evangelism is one of the marks of a healthy church.  Let me be clear, it's not about the numbers.  A people can be committed to evangelism and still not see much numerical growth.  And there are sadly plenty of churches with impressive numbers, that have utterly failed to truly evangelise people.  Our work is to proclaim the good news.  Changing hearts and turning them to God is the unique work of the Holy Spirit.  Get that reversed—and it happens all too often—and you've got a recipe for an unhealthy church. So, first, what is evangelism?  In short, it's the proclamation of the evangel, the good news.  But, of course, it's not quite that simple, is it?  In a very real sense it should be.  But we've got so many conflicting ideas about evangelism circulating around us that it complicates the whole thing.  But at its very simplest, at its very core, evangelism is telling others the good news that we have experienced ourselves.  Stefan Paas is a professor of missiology in Amsterdam.  I read his recent book on evangelism in a secular age earlier this year and found he had a lot of excellent insights (and not a few problems, too), but I like the perspective he gives.  Think of it this way: “Human life is inescapably missionary.  Everybody evangelizes.  Whenever people become impressed by certain experiences, views, products or services, they feel the need to commend them to others.  Whenever people are struck by their own success or by the failure of others, they feel the responsibility to share something of their own blessings with others.  Clearly, there is nothing high and lofty about ‘mission' as such.  It is fully wedded with our social nature; we are witnessing, sharing, helping beings.  ‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart…' (Rom. 10.8)”[1] Have you ever thought about it that way?  When we have a good experience somewhere, we tell our friends so that they can share our good experience.  We spread the word about restaurants, mechanics, dentists, fishing holes, and hiking trails—and we make converts.  Back when I first started working as an Apple technician, Apple's marketing department was actually called “Apple Evangelism” and it wasn't surprising to me that so many people converted from Windows to Mac with an almost religious zeal.  This kind of telling is just what we do.  It's in our nature.  And yet, there's something different about actual evangelism, about the gospel—isn't there?  Nobody's going get angry with you for telling them they should give your favourite restaurant a try.  You're not going to lose a friend by giving them the name of your dentist or your mechanic.  And, of course, that's because none of these other things calls us to a completely new kind of life.  But this very basic human phenomenon really does get to what evangelism is at its core.  It's not complicated.  It's simply telling others the good news about Jesus that has been utterly good for us.  Yes, the thing that makes it different is that if it's true it doesn't leave you any choice.  You've got to repent, believe, and be baptised…and no restaurant or mechanic demands that kind of commitment…but it really is that simple when you boil it down.  In Jesus, God has done something wonderful for us and it should be instinctive for us to want to tell the people we know.  Paas goes on and writes this: “Like all people in all times and places the first Christians were social beings; they were steeped deeply in all kinds of communicative behaviour.  It would certainly amount to over-theorizing in most cases to ask about the missionary ‘methods' that they used.  They did what all people do: they bonded with friends, talked with relatives, raised their children, they ate together, played together, worked together.  And of course they shared the ‘tidings of great joy' they had heard; they ‘gossiped the gospel'.”[2] The gospel also went out in more formal ways.  Paul deliberately set out on journeys with a missionary purpose.  He went to the synagogues to confront his fellow Jews and he went to the town centres to preach and to confront the Greeks and Romans.  And some people are called to that kind of evangelism.  But, Brothers and Sisters, have you ever considered how simple everyday evangelism really is?  God, in Jesus, has done something amazing and you have experienced it.  Do you gossip the gospel…as Paas puts it? As we've been working through what it looks like to be a healthy church, I've been trying to frame these marks with the big narrative of scripture and I think that big story helps bring into focus what it means to evangelise and to be an evangelistic people.  The first thing the story helps us to get right is our purpose as the people of God.  Right from the beginning, when God created human beings, his purpose for us—the vocation he gave us—was to be his image in creation.  Other peoples built temples for their gods and put images of wood or stone in those temples—the images of their gods—to represent their rule on earth.  The point—or one of the points—of the Genesis story is to tell us that God created his own temple—and that makes him truly sovereign and better than all the other gods—and instead of putting a stone idol in it to bear his image and to represent his rule, he put human beings in that temple to be his stewards, his regents—first and foremost, his priests.  We were created to serve him.  Of course, part of that is serving each other.  He loves us and so we love each other, as St. John writes.  But it all first comes back to the fact that we exist to serve God.  Even today, our calling to proclaim the good news to the world is to make him know so that others will give him glory and commit themselves to his service. Sometimes we forget this.  We are called to serve others.  We are called to be a light to the nations.  But sometimes we forget that these things grow out of our duty to God.  In the Anglican Church in North America we have a diocese called “Churches for the Sake of Others” or locally, there was a church that used the motto, “In the Valley for the Valley”.  I'm sure these folks are well-meaning, but it's not surprising when their mission drifts and starts to be consumed by social and political agendas and, as C4SO's bishop put it this week, “hankering after cultural acceptance”.  If we aren't anchored first in our duty to God, our duty to others can easily be swept off-course.  If our churches exist “for the sake of God”, the “for the sake of others” part will come naturally.  If we're in the Valley for God, the part about being “for the Valley” will come naturally and—more importantly—will square with God's mission for the world, not the various human agendas that are out there. Second, the big biblical story gives us our model for evangelism.  Before his ascension, Jesus commissioned his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:18-20) “Go.”  I think that word “go” sums up how most of us have been conditioned to think about evangelism—often so much so that we feel guilty or we feel like we're falling short if we don't leave everything behind to go to a far off country to proclaim the good news.  Brothers and Sisters, let me suggest that scripture's narrative tells us that when it comes to the mission of the people of God, we ought to think first not of “go” but of “presence”. Think of Israel in the Old Testament.  God chose them as a people and lived in their midst.  His presence was with them, first in the tabernacle, and then in the temple in Jerusalem.  As his people, he set them apart by giving them his law, and their calling was to be a light to the nations.  Their witness was meant to reveal the Lord, his love for his people, and his mighty deeds to the nations, so that the nations would come to Jerusalem to give glory to the Lord and to learn his ways.  We see this model throughout the prophets, but here's what we read in Micah 4:1-2. It shall come to pass in the latter days          that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains,          and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,          to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways          and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law,          and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.   The Lord did send some of his people out on rare occasions to the nations.  He did that with Jonah.  But his mission for Israel was primarily through his presence in the temple, in the midst of a priestly people who then mediated that presence—they made it known—to the nations and drew them to the Lord.  This is what we see fulfilled in Revelation with the New Jerusalem and the nations streaming to it to worship God.  This model of mission is what Jesus gets at in the Sermon on the Mount when he reminds the people of their calling to be salt and light and the city on a hill.  He said, In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  (Matthew 5:16) Let your light so shine before others, so that they will be ultimately moved to give glory to God.  That's Israel's mission in a nutshell right there.  And, of course, it didn't work.  Israel—or most of Israel—hid her light under a basket.  The Lord came in judgement.  He threw the unsalty salt into the street where it was trod underfoot.  But he also came himself in Jesus, died and rose from the grave, and did so to create a new people, forgiven and full of his own Holy Spirit.  And here's where Jesus' great commission enters the story. The old temple in Jerusalem was gone—or about to be gone at the time Jesus spoke—and a new temple was created.  Instead of an earthy temple of bricks and mortar in which the Lord was present in the midst of his people, through Jesus and the Spirit he made the members of this new people, themselves, to be his temple and the place of his presence.  “Living stones,” St. Peter calls us, built on Jesus, the living cornerstone.  And so Jesus sent his people out—not all of them, but some of them—to establish outposts of this new, living temple, first throughout Judea, then Samaria, and throughout the Roman Empire.  The Lord's temple gradually established in every city and town, establishing his presence amongst the nations, and building the kingdom of God and declaring the Lordship of Jesus in anticipation of the Empire's conversion. Brothers and Sisters, Jesus shares his ministry with us.  That means we are a priestly people.  We mediate the presence of God to the world.  We are a prophetic people, meaning that we are called to proclaim the good news about Jesus, crucified and risen, we are called to confront the world with the good news that he is Lord, and we have a duty to call the world to repentance and faith—to allegiance to him and to his kingdom.  And Jesus shares his dominion with us.  We are a royal people who anticipate the day when we will rule with our Lord.  The church mediates God's presence and proclaims his good news and his kingdom where we are.  There will always be those called, like Paul, to “go”—to establish beachheads of the kingdom in other places, but for most of us our calling is to be gospel people right where we are, to be the church—the tabernacle of God's Spirit—and to mediate this God who is present with us to the people and to the community around us. But what is it that we need to communicate?  When I talk about presence, it's easy to think that all we need to do is be good Christians and people around us will become Christians by osmosis.  There's a popular saying, falsely attributed to St. Francis: “Preach the gospel at all times.  Use words if necessary.”  It gives people an out and reinforced this idea that we fulfil our calling and avoid offence by witnessing with our lives.  Brother and Sisters, our lives should be a witness of Jesus and gospel.  We are to be salt and light.  We are to be the light on the hilltop.  But you can't preach the gospel without words.  It's the way God works.  As I've stressed so many times, his word gives life.  We ought to live our lives and we ought to live together as the Church in such a way that we make the people around us constructively curious.  But at some point we will have to use words and explain what it's all about.  That's the challenge.  Sometimes we're afraid of offending people or of being rejected.  Sometimes we just don't know what to say.  And that last part is getting increasingly difficult.  Just a few decades ago, most people in our culture had respect for Christians and had a general idea of what Christianity is about—even if some of their ideas were wrong.  We largely all shared a common understanding of the nature of sin.  That's not really the case anymore and that means we need to be prepared more than in the past.  We need to know our Bibles.  We need to know the story.  We need to understand what the gospel is.  And it means that effective evangelism is going to take place in the context of long-term relationships with people—not in a short encounter while you sit next to someone on an airplane or in the doctor's waiting room.  In many ways that's a good thing, because it's in those relationships that we have the opportunity show the gospel and to make them curious. But at some point we will need to tell people the story and we will need to explain to them what God has done in Jesus and what each of us needs to do in response.  We need to tell them the truth and to be honest with them.  They're not joining a social club.  Jesus has died to forgive sins and he has risen to give life.  He has ascended and reigns as Lord.  He gives his Spirit to those who repent and believe to transform them from the inside out.  He is making all things new and the point of all of this is to make a new and holy people ready to be part of God's new creation and live, once again, as his priests and stewards.  When a person passes through the waters of baptism, it's to take hold of this good news and its promise, and to cross into a new life and a new world on the other side.  Repentance is costly.  It means living God's new creation now—being heaven-on-earth people—even when it's counter to everything around us.  It means letting go of our idols and our sources of security in order to trust in God and to commit to his vision for humanity and the world.  But in doing so we are set free from our bondage to death to share the presence of the living God. And not everyone will be receptive.  Brothers and Sisters, remember that changing a person's heart is not our duty.  Again, evangelism goes wrong when we confuse our part with God's part.  Speaking at the Lusanne conference on evangelism back in 1974, the great evangelical Anglican preacher, John Stott, said: “Evangelism must not be defined in terms of its results, for this is not how the word is used in the New Testament. …There is no mention whether the word which was “evangelized” was believed, or whether the inhabitants of the towns and villages “evangelized” were converted. To “evangelize” in biblical usage does not mean to win converts (as it usually does when we use the word) but simply to announce the good news, irrespective of the results.”[3] That conference went on to give this definition of evangelism in what's known as the Lausanne Covenant: “To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that, as the reigning Lord, he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who repent and believe.”[4] Brothers and Sisters, we do the telling.  The Spirit does the converting.  Getting that wrong inevitably leads to all sorts of pragmatic and manipulative practises.  We water down the message to make it more palatable.  We use manipulation to win people over.  We start acting like salesmen and all too often we end up treating the gospel as if it were a car with a bunch of flaws to be hidden from the customer.  And we start treating our listeners like customers and laying high pressure sales techniques on them to produce a decision.  Friends the gospel itself is powerful—more powerful than you or I can ever be.  Proclaim God's word and let the Spirit do the work. Keeping this perspective also keeps us from feeling as though we've failed.  Many Christians don't evangelise because they don't think they're able to convince someone to choose Jesus and some have been crippled by what they see as past failures.  Hear me: If someone doesn't believe, it's not your fault.  That part's not up to you; it's up to God.  Again, trust God's word and God's Spirit.  And sometimes you may end up surprised at the ways the word and the Spirit work.  Charles Spurgeon tells how George Whitfield, “he great eighteenth-century evangelist, was hounded by a group of detractors who called themselves the “Hell-fire Club.”  When Whitfield would stand outside preaching this little group of guys would stand off on the side and mimic him.  They didn't believe a word of it.  The ring leader was called Thorpe.  One day Thorpe was mimicking Whitefield to his cronies, delivering his sermon with brilliant accuracy, perfectly imitating his tone and facial expressions, when he himself was so pierced that he sat down and was converted on the spot.”[5] Brothers and Sisters, sometimes our duty is merely to plant the seed.  Sometimes it's to water what someone else has planted.  Sometimes we reap the harvest that results from decades of others planting and watering.  But never forget that it is the Spirit who brought the growth. Now, let me close with one last very important thing.  Knowing that the fruit of our evangelism is not produced by us, but by the Spirit, Brothers and Sisters, pray.  J. I. Packer, in his wonderful little book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, wrote this: “In evangelism…we are impotent; we depend wholly upon God to make our witness effective; only because He is able to give men new hearts can we hope that through our preaching of the gospel sinners will be born again.  These facts ought to drive us to prayer.  It is God's intention that they should drive us to prayer.  God means us, in this as in other things, to recognise and confess our impotence, and to tell Him that we rely on Him alone, and to plead with Him to glorify His name.  It is His way regularly to withhold His blessing until His people start to pray. ‘Ye have not, because ye ask not.' ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.'  But if you are too proud or lazy to ask, we need not expect to receive.  This is the universal rule, in evangelism as elsewhere.  God will make us pray before He blesses our labours in order that we may constantly learn afresh that we depend on God for everything.  And then, when God permits us to see conversions, we shall not be tempted to ascribe them to our own gifts, or skills, or wisdom, or persuasiveness, but to His work alone, and so we shall know whom we ought to thank for them.”[6] Friends, pray.  Pray you will be captivated by the glory of the gospel yourself, by love and faithfulness of God made manifest in Jesus and that your daily life will make the people around you constructively curious.  Pray that God will give you a heart for the lost.  Pray for opportunities to proclaim the good news.  Pray for the eyes to see those opportunities.  Pray for the boldness and courage to take advantage of them when they come.  Pray for the words to say—but don't let that be an excuse for not being prepared in advance!  And most of all, pray for the Spirit to be at work in the hearts of those to whom you preach.  Pray.  Pray.  Pray.  And with that, Brothers and Sisters, let's pray: Almighty God and Father, be at work in our hearts by your Holy Spirit and fill us with passion, with enthusiasm, with gratitude, with joy for what you have done through Jesus.  He died and rose again to deliver us from sin and death and he has ascended to your right hand and reigns with power and authority.  You have shown us your glory and I pray that your Spirit will give us a passion to make your glory known—to be salt, to be light, to be a city on a hill—to cause the nations of the earth to come streaming to your temple to give you glory and to know your ways.  Be at work in our hearts we pray.  Fill us with a desire to proclaim your good news.  And be at work in the hearts of the people who hear our proclamation.  Make them fertile soil for the word that we plant.  Cause your word to take root and grow that all the world might give you glory we pray.  Amen. [1] Pilgrims and Priests (London: SCM Press, 2019), 6. [2] Ibid. 7 [3] https://lausanne.org/content/john-stott-biblical-basis-of-evangelism [4] https://lausannecanada.com/lausanne-covenant [5] Charles H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim, 1974), 34:115, cited in Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004), 141-142. [6] J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 1991), 122

The four NAC elders discussed most of the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church in this message along with the Church Covenant.

The four NAC elders finished discussing the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church and walked through some of the distinctive that they teach.

Join Pastor Ryan and the manager of hipster, Noah Gartland, as the discuss Psalm 11, Mark Dever's - Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Daylight Savings, favorite smartphone apps and more! For more info on MMBC, check out www.mmbcky.org --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ryanmarcum/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ryanmarcum/support

Do you share your testimony? What is a testimony? Join Pastor Ryan and Noah Gartland as they discuss Psalm 9, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church - Church Discipline, Testimonies, Russia/Ukraine, and more! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ryanmarcum/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ryanmarcum/support

Guest: Dr. Mark Dever | Dr. Arnold interviews Dr. Mark Dever on the subject of baptism. Topics of conversation include, 1) What is baptism? 2) How this practice differs among different denominations, 3) Modes of baptism, 4) Issues of re-baptism, 5) Age considerations for baptism, 6) Resources for a biblical understanding of baptism. Dr. Mark Dever serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. and is the president of 9Marks Ministries. Dr. Dever earned his PhD in Ecclesiastical History from Cambridge University, and is the author of several books, including What is a Healthy Church? (Crossway, 2007), The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, (Crossway, 2007), and Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Crossway, 2013). Read full show notes here: https://ps.edu/what-is-baptism-dr-mark-dever/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We released Nine Marks of a Healthy Church more than 20 years ago. Today, we celebrate its fourth edition.In this Pastors Talk episode, Jonathan chats with Mark about the book's history, and how this edition introduces two “additional” marks.

Last week on the podcast, we discussed infant baptism. On this week's episode, we examine the view that we hold to at Providence Church, called credobaptism, also known as believer's baptism. We are joined by Bobby Jamieson, who is a pastor in Washington, D.C. and has written a number of books and articles specifically related to baptism, to help us think through this topic.Check out this conversation to find out more about our stance on baptism. Also, if you're interested in baptism and its importance to our involvement in the local church, check out Bobby's book, Going Public. If you have any thoughts or questions on this topic, email us at formation@providenceomaha.org.

The post Nine Marks of a Worthy Church appeared first on Trinity Bible Chapel.

To be a Christian in the present time is, by definition, a status of waiting. God's people are blessed with a sure hope of heaven, Christ's return, and vindication on the last day. Such a glorious hope is to be accompanied by profound anticipation. Yet veiled by present challenges, countless Christians tend to think little about the future. In this episode, Zack and Alex seek to reclaim the discipline and grace of Christian anticipation – that is, how Christians live faithfully in the present in light of their certain future. They also discuss Samuel Rutherford's “The Sands of Time are Sinking.” Zack and Alex reference an Article by Aaron Menikoff recently published by Nine Marks: https://www.9marks.org/article/thank-god-for-the-pie-in-the-sky-why-the-heavenly-minded-do-the-most-earthly-good/ And another by Matthew Westerholm: https://www.9marks.org/article/the-church-should-sing-for-heavens-sake-when-and-why-we-stopped-singing-about-heaven-and-how-to-start-again/ “The Sands of Time are Sinking” tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oMDrNmXvrg “The Sands of Time are Sinking” from the Metropolitan Tabernacle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acjj0m8Hh6g

Membership in a church context helps us understand we belong to a community. Greg Gilbert and Alex Duke press into the importance of church membership and why it's crucial for leading, serving, and pastoring in the church.

In this episode, Mike and Andrew continue to walk through the Nine Marks of a healthy church. If you are interested in reading the book Mike and Andrew are talking about you can get a copy with the link below: https://amzn.to/2WIvtKa

#BibleStudy #ExpositoryPreaching #MarkDever Mark serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. A Duke graduate, Dr. Dever holds a M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a Th.M. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History from Cambridge University. He is the president of 9Marks Ministries and has taught at a number of seminaries. Dr. Dever has authored several books and articles, most recently, Discipling, The Compelling Community and The Church: The Gospel Made Visible. Earlier books include What is a Healthy Church?, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, The Deliberate Church, Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament, and Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament. He and his wife Connie live and minister on Capitol Hill, with Connie giving much of her time to creating a childrens’ curriculum (PraiseFactory). They have two adult children./ Audio used with permission from Mark Dever

#BibleStudy #ExpositoryPreaching #MarkDever Mark serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. A Duke graduate, Dr. Dever holds a M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a Th.M. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History from Cambridge University. He is the president of 9Marks Ministries and has taught at a number of seminaries. Dr. Dever has authored several books and articles, most recently, Discipling, The Compelling Community and The Church: The Gospel Made Visible. Earlier books include What is a Healthy Church?, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, The Deliberate Church, Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament, and Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament. He and his wife Connie live and minister on Capitol Hill, with Connie giving much of her time to creating a childrens’ curriculum (PraiseFactory). They have two adult children./ Audio used with permission from Mark Dever    

#BibleStudy #ExpositoryPreaching #MarkDever Mark serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. A Duke graduate, Dr. Dever holds a M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a Th.M. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History from Cambridge University. He is the president of 9Marks Ministries and has taught at a number of seminaries. Dr. Dever has authored several books and articles, most recently, Discipling, The Compelling Community and The Church: The Gospel Made Visible. Earlier books include What is a Healthy Church?, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, The Deliberate Church, Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament, and Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament. He and his wife Connie live and minister on Capitol Hill, with Connie giving much of her time to creating a childrens’ curriculum (PraiseFactory). They have two adult children./ Audio used with permission from Mark Dever

#BibleStudy #ExpositoryPreaching #MarkDever Mark serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. A Duke graduate, Dr. Dever holds a M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a Th.M. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History from Cambridge University. He is the president of 9Marks Ministries and has taught at a number of seminaries. Dr. Dever has authored several books and articles, most recently, Discipling, The Compelling Community and The Church: The Gospel Made Visible. Earlier books include What is a Healthy Church?, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, The Deliberate Church, Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament, and Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament. He and his wife Connie live and minister on Capitol Hill, with Connie giving much of her time to creating a childrens’ curriculum (PraiseFactory). They have two adult children./ Audio used with permission from Mark Dever

#BibleStudy #ExpositoryPreaching #MarkDever Mark serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. A Duke graduate, Dr. Dever holds a M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a Th.M. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History from Cambridge University. He is the president of 9Marks Ministries and has taught at a number of seminaries. Dr. Dever has authored several books and articles, most recently, Discipling, The Compelling Community and The Church: The Gospel Made Visible. Earlier books include What is a Healthy Church?, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, The Deliberate Church, Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament, and Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament. He and his wife Connie live and minister on Capitol Hill, with Connie giving much of her time to creating a childrens’ curriculum (PraiseFactory). They have two adult children./ Audio used with permission from Mark Dever

In this episode, Andrew catches up with Mike since Mike had been gone on vacation. They also begin a discussion on the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. The first mark is, "Expositional Preaching." There are a lot of churches out there and many claim to love Jesus but not all preach from the Bible or even use Scripture as the foundation of the messages. This week Mike and Andrew discuss what healthy sermons sound like and do! NOTE FROM ANDREW: Hey all! Wow... this episode was actually recorded July 1st and was supposed to be uploaded on the 8th. But I was gone at RFK camp, then VBS and then vacation. Sorry it's been in a while, but we are all back and should be rolling out regular content each week!

On today’s episode of the Journeywomen podcast, I’m chatting with Dr. Mark Dever about finding a healthy church. So you’ll know him a little better, Dr. Mark has served as the senior pastor of CHBC (Capitol Hill Baptist Church) since 1994 and as president of 9Marks (a ministry to churches and church leaders) since its founding in 1998. He’s married to Connie and they have two adult children, both married, and one grandchild. Dr. Mark has authored a number of books, including 9 Marks of a Healthy Church. Whether you’re on the hunt for a church or if you’re already involved somewhere, we think you’ll walk away from this conversation with Mark encouraged to follow Jesus with his people for his glory.   MARK’S RESOURCES 9Marks Church Search   Nine Marks of a Healthy Church The Church: The Gospel Made Visible Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges   MARK’S SIMPLE JOYS Wife Kids and grandkids Reading history People Architecture   SCRIPTURE REFERENCES Galatians 5 John 13:34-35 Hebrews 10:19-25 Hebrews 12 1 Corinthians 11:28   DISCUSSION QUESTIONS What are the elements of a healthy church? Why is it important to exercise community within the context of a local church? What is the difference between a healthy and unhealthy church? What is the gospel and what does that look like presented in the local church? What are you going to do or implement as a result of what you’ve learned this week?   SPONSORSHIP DETAILS The Marriage After God podcast is intended to encourage, inspire, and challenge Christian marriages to chase after God together and to cultivate an extraordinary marriage. Check them out for yourself by searching for “Marriage After God” wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about them at marriageaftergod.com or on Instagram at @marriageaftergod. Prep Dish is a healthy subscription-based meal planning service. All you need to do is sign up, and you’ll receive an email every week with a grocery list and instructions for prepping meals ahead of time. For a free 2-week trial, go to PrepDish.com/journey. Crossway's purpose as a not-for-profit ministry is to publish gospel-centered, Bible-centered resources that honor our Savior and serve his Church. Crossways’s new book release, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World's Largest Religion explores 12 controversial questions that some say seem to undermine the Christian faith. Learn more about Confronting Christianity and find other resources at Crossway.org/Journeywomen1.   FOR MORE EPISODES OF JOURNEYWOMEN:   SUBSCRIBE Subscribe on iOS, go to the iTunes page and subscribe to the Journeywomen Podcast. On Android, click this podcast RSS feed link and select your podcast app. You may need to copy the link into your favorite podcast app (like Overcast or Stitcher).   WRITE A REVIEW Writing a review on iTunes will help other women on their journeys to glorify God find and utilize the podcast as a resource.   FOLLOW JOURNEYWOMEN Like/follow Journeywomen on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for the latest updates.   *Affiliate links used are used where appropriate. Thank you for supporting the products that support Journeywomen!

Sermon -2 in our Nine Marks series -HT Mark Dever-.

Sermon -2 in our Nine Marks series -HT Mark Dever-.

First Baptist Church and the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church Marks 7-9

First Baptist Church and the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church-Marks 1-3

First Baptist Church and the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church - Marks 4 Through 6

Praise Break Friday "Nine Marks of a Healthy Worship Leader" Join us Friday January 19th  for a great conversation on whats happening in the world of christianity and the local church as we discuss this great article.  "Nine Marks of a Healthy Worship Leader" https://www.9marks.org/article/journalnine-marks-healthy-worship-leader/   The conversation starts at Noon, don't miss it.  Taking The Limits Off Radio", A non-traditional radio show with a vision to spread the Truth of God's Word; that inspires and encourages you to have a meaningful relationship with Christ, through biblical teaching and relevant information. A talk show that "breaks the chains off the norm" to promote a realistic conversation with God and his people. You can also watch the simulcast on Ustream at  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/taking-the-limits-off-with-dana-devon Facebook Live on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TTLORADIO/ Twitter @TTLORadio   INSTAGRAM, follow us TTLORadio  WE DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO MUSIC PLAYED ON OUR SHOW

Keith Yoder preaches through 1 Timothy 6:3-5. This is a sermon from the Calvary archives, originally delivered February 19, 2017.

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