Together for the Gospel Conference

Here's another great preacher at the conference called "Together for the Gospel." Mark Dever is a Baptist preacher in the DC area and the title of his sermon is "The Church is the Gospel made visible." Give it a listen...

T4G 2010 -- Session 1 -- Mark Dever from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Hey everyone,

Together for the Gospel conference is going on and here is Piper's sermon. This may be a challenge to fully understand but try to stick with it. You will be blessed...

T4G 2010 -- Session 6 -- John Piper from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Prophecy for Today?

On Sunday I preached through Eph. 4:11-13 which says,

"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."

Paul is talking about offices in the church (with their accompanying gifts) that are to equip the church body for the work of ministry. The question that arises is whether the office of Apostle or Prophet should be in operation today? Did they serve their purpose in the 1st century and become extinct?

Briefly, I believe Apostles were unique to the 1st century because of their qualifications. When Judas defected, the rest of the Apostles wanted a replacement and the criteria for that office would eliminate everyone of us today - they had to have followed Jesus from the time of His baptism and had to be an eye-witness of His resurrection (Acts 1:21-22; 1 Cor. 9:1).

What about a prophet? Is that for the church today? Yes and no. Scripture level prophecy, add it to your Bible kind of prophecy, no! The canon of scripture is closed, but a prophecy given to a particular person, group of people, or a local church, yes!

Sound crazy? Listen to my sermon on Feb. 21 "Body Building - Doing Church" to hear more. If you would like to read more on the subject, click here to see what Sam Storms and what John Piper have to say.

Offering for Haiti and Abort73.com!

The total offering collected this Sunday for Haiti and Abort73.com was...


$25, 229.07!


$24,586.52 Offering of both services
----$642.55 Kids bake sale
__________________________
$25,229.07 Total

Harvest Leadership Team (elders) decided that 60% of the funds would go to Haiti through Children's Hunger Fund which amounts to $15,137.44 and 40% would be given to Abort73.com which amounts to $10,091.63

Amazing generosity!

Last Sunday's offering (1/24) totaled $16,500 which is an amazing response of worship to God. Wow!

Just to give you the backdrop of this story: On Sunday January 17, I told the congregation that the leadership group (Elders) of the church felt led to dedicate the entire offering we receive on Jan. 31 to help in Haiti and to support abort73.com in their effort to bring an end to another tragedy - abortion. As soon as we decided this and got the word out on Facebook and Twitter, our roof began to leak and the estimate to fix the thing was scary. Now we needed the offering we had just committed to Haiti and abort73.com!

We decided to go forward with what we had promised and I told the church that we needed a generous offering on Jan. 24 so that we could keep "Basecamp" (our church) operating. Last Sunday (1/24) our offering was $16,500. That is $4,000 over our weekly need! I am so pumped. What an amazing response of worship to God!

I can't wait to see what God enables us to do for Haiti and abort73.com next Sunday!

"Now to Him to able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus..."
(Eph. 3:20-21).

Initiating Gospel Conversations

Check out this helpful article by J. D. Greear!