Prayer & Preparation for December 11th, 2022
This Lord's Day
Hey church,
Here are some details about this week's services:
Songs: "It Came to Pass (Worthy, Worthy)," My Soul Magnifies the Lord," His Name Is Wonderful," "Prepare Him Room," "Lord, Make Me Clean," and "His Mercy Is More"
Sermon text: Ezra 9-10
Sermon title: "Repentance & Reformation"
Quotes I find helpful and/or challenging:
"In an age when worldliness is a mark of the church, zeal for holiness makes no sense at all. We focus on the problems that followed this reform [in Ezra 10] and miss the need for separation that was its motivation. Holiness becomes God's house and the Christian's home and bed...In opposing the legalism of fundamentalists, we assert our Christian freedoms and exercise them, even flaunt them, parading our interest in alcohol, literature, movies, and the opposite sex on personal webpages for all to see. But perhaps it is time for us to hear another biblical note."
Derek Thomas
"May God ready us for revival as we face the facts: our ignorance of what sin is could cost us our soul."
Rosaria Butterfield in the Foreword of Knowing Sin by Mark Jones
"Other than knowing God, your greatest advocate, nothing else in this world is more important than knowing sin, your greatest enemy...Christians should know that a proper understanding of grace requires a thorough grasp of sin. A distorted, weak view of sin will lead to a disfigured, anemic, and unproductive theology. Thomas Watson (c. 1620-86) well said, 'The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we taste in Christ...' Godly sorrow over our sin is not a popular topic of teaching in pulpits today...The North American evangelical church today suffers by not stressing godly sorrow in our Christian experience and, as a result, also missing a certain type of godly joy that accompanies such sorrow. For such sorrow brings us to God, through Christ, by the Spirit. Pray earnestly for this sorrow over your sin and for preaching that cultivates such a spiritual disposition."
Mark Jones in Knowing Sin
And please let that last line resonate in your soul and practice between now and this Lord's Day: "Pray earnestly...for preaching that cultivates such a spiritual disposition (i.e. sorrow over your sin)."
By His Grace & For His Glory,
Jeff Tague
