The sermon text this Sunday morning will be from Luke 18:9-14, which you can read here, and which concerns the well-known parable about the Pharisee and tax collector. The Pharisee is haughty and self-assured, hence, "[Jesus] told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous" (18:9). Jesus says that the tax collector on the other hand—even though it is assumed that he is unjust (he is a tax collector after all)—is "justified" (18:14). Why is he justified? Is it because he is shameful? He "stands far off," and does not even "lift his eyes to heaven," obviously because he is ashamed of his sin. But note that his justification is tied to repentance: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" is the focus of the paragraph. The apostle Paul says that justification is a gracious gift from God: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom 3:23-24). So what the tax collector exhibits in Luke 18 can only be from God. His justification and faith come not through good works, the arbitrary kind that the Pharisee is boasting about. Rather, his justification is the result of his repentance before God and faith in God. Paul asks in Romans 3:27-28, "What becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." It is comforting to remember that God is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Indeed, he is all our boast. Songs we will sing this week include the following, provided in a playlist here: 1. Come, Thou Almighty King (The Church at Brook Hills) 2. Always (Kristian Stanfill) 3. Your Love, Oh Lord (Third Day) 4. Come to Me (The Village Church) 5. Sovereign Over Us (Aaron Keyes).

The sermon for this week is from Luke 17:31-37, which you can read here. This is a particularly difficult text to interpret as it concerns when the Son of Man will be revealed and the coming of his kingdom to earth. We do not know with any precision when this great day will arrive. At the heart of Jesus' message, rather, is that people should prepare for his coming: Luke 17:33—Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. This idea is akin to what Paul did for the churches in Acts 14; indeed, it is what all believers should do in a wicked age—churches should "strengthen" their "souls." We must continue in the faith, Paul asserts, for "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). So, we can begin by putting away our end-times graphs and charts. That's not how Jesus tells us to prepare. What he does say is that we should be faithful witnesses of him in our daily lives, and commit ourselves to ethical conduct befitting our repentance. God will ultimately bring vindication and judgment upon the wicked while giving redemption to those who are his offspring by faith. Songs we will sing this week include the following, provided in a playlist here. .

We may think that the goal of worship is to gaze upon God and be changed. This is certainly true to some extent. When we repent and come to faith in Christ, we are indeed asking God to change us, to conform us into the image of his Son. It is interesting to note, however, that in revelation—the divine activity of redemption—God gazes upon us and changes us, rather than the other way around (J. Todd Billings, The Word of God for the People of God, 80). This is example we have in Isaiah 60, where the nations come to God after he returns to Zion, and he irradiates them with his glory. They become reflections of his majesty in a similar way to Moses when he came down from Mt. Sinai with a shining face (Exod 34:29-35). This change is also the core idea of Aaron's Blessing in Numbers 6:24-26: The Lord bless you and keep you The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you The Lord lift his countenance upon you, and give you peace. I wonder how much more God-saturated our worship time may be if our utmost plea is that God irradiate us with his goodness and for his glory. Then we would be changed from the inside out. Songs we will sing week include the following, provided in a playlist here: 1. A Mighty Fortress is Our God 2. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing 3. How Sweet and Aweful is the Place 4. Be Thou My Vision.

We are having a guest preacher this Sunday, Dr. Stephen Presley, who also preached last summer at Founders. He will be dealing with two narratives that follow the birth of Christ (in keeping with the season!): Sunday Morning: The Christmas Effect Part 1: Matt 2:13-23 Sunday Night: The Christmas Effect Part 2: Luke 2:21-40 Songs that we will sing this week include the following, provided in a playlist here: 1. Come Thou Almighty King 2. Our Great God 3. You Are Worthy 4. In the Name of God 5. There is a Fountain.

The New Year is here. For many this means personal reflection and renewed commitment: what can I do to help better myself for my new year? Can I implore parents to stave off personal New Years resolutions for a moment and concentrate on their kids? In thinking about this we can look to one of the central texts of the Old Testament—if not the central text—which is Deuteronomy 6:4-6:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, The Lord is one. You shall love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And theses words shall be on your heart.

No doubt, most Christians know this verse very well. But have you ever stopped there without reading on to verses 7-9?

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The natural outflow of loving God with heart/soul/strength is telling others about this love, or about the object of that love. For those with young children in their families, is it too much to ask Christian parents to imbibe the the notion of teaching their children about God and his way? Indeed, is it too much to ask them to do it in the home and with regularity? Many parents work late into the night, and so making it their daily routine to read and teach the Bible to their children is more difficult (though not insurmountable). But too many parents are just lazy, too lazy to take 15 minutes of time before bed to pass the truth on to their children because they are more interested in TV and iPhone time free from distraction. We should be chided for our laziness. I want to encourage you to renew your commitment to your family this year. Let the Word be part of your daily routine. Let it be like an aroma in your house, and part of every full day: when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Our text this week is from Luke 17:22-37, which you can read here. Songs we will sing this week include the following, provided in a playlist here: 1. Come Thou a Almighty King 2. The Solid Rock 3. 10,000 Reasons 4. O Great God.