Zion Evangelical & Reformed Church

How to Get The Most Out of Your Pastor’s Preaching

Posted on October 5, 2011 by blund

Over at TrueWoman.com, a website to help women “discover and embrace God’s design and mission for their lives, reflect the beauty and heart of Jesus Christ to their world, intentionally pass on the baton of Truth to the next generation, pray earnestly for an outpouring of God’s Spirit in their families, churches, nation, and world;” asks the following question:

Do you ever find yourself:

waking up on Sunday morning and wishing you didn’t have to go to church?
having a hard time staying awake in church?
daydreaming during the message, or making a mental “to-do” list while the pastor is preaching?

… and several other questions. Can you relate? What is going on?

Nancy Leigh DeMoss notes, “If we’re not benefitting from the ministry of the Word as it is publicly proclaimed in our local churches, the fault may not lie in the one proclaiming the Word. It may lie in our readiness to hear, receive, and respond to the Word.”

So what can we do in these situations? DeMoss gives the following suggestions that ties in nicely with the articles in our recent newsletters:

Before the service
1. Pray for your pastor as he prepares for Sunday. Pray that his schedule would be free from unnecessary distractions. Pray that God will give him understanding into the meaning of the Word. Pray that God will speak to him personally through the Word and that he will respond in humility and obedience. Pray that God will help him to communicate the truth with clarity, freedom, passion, and power.

2. If your pastor is preaching a series from a particular book of the Bible, take time during the week to read ahead and meditate on the text. Ask God to speak to your heart before you even hear the message.

3. Prepare for public worship the night before. Turn off the TV, limit social activities, and instead do things that will cultivate your appetite for God’s Word.

During the service
1. Participate—you need to be there. You’re not going to get a lot out of church if you don’t go.

2. Get to church early enough to spend a few minutes before the service quietly preparing your heart for worship. Pray for God to move—in the pastor, in your heart, in others’ hearts—and surrender your heart to whatever God will say.

After the service
1. Ask God to give you at least one takeaway from the message—a key concept, phrase, or verse that you can review throughout the week. Jot it down so you don’t forget.

2. While it’s still fresh on your mind (before you leave church, on the way home from church, over the meal following the service, etc.), discuss the message with others. Share how God spoke to you.

3. Be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer (James 1:22). Apply what you heard Sunday morning to real-life, everyday circumstances and situations throughout the week.

Making It Personal

Do you highly esteem, respect, and reverence the Word of God (Neh. 8:5; Ps. 138:2)?
Do you prepare your heart to hear the Word of God (Ps. 119:18)?
Do you find delight in hearing the Word proclaimed?
Do you listen attentively when the Word is being read or preached (Neh. 8:3; Ps. 85:8)?
Do you expect God to speak to you every time you hear His Word proclaimed?

These are just a sampling from DeMoss’ article, so be sure to click over to her article and read the whole thing. Women and men can benefit from her sage words in thinking about how to hear and live from God’s Word.

Posted in ministry, resources | Tagged DeMoss, preaching | Leave a comment

Basics of the Reformed Faith: Scripture’s Authority

Posted on September 27, 2011 by blund

Here on the Zion blog, we will be offering a series that will cover the basic subjects of Reformed theology. You can see the whole series of “Basics of the Reformed Faith” here. This week: The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture.

In Genesis 1:1 we read “in the beginning was God.” Echoing the opening declaration of the Bible, in John 1:1 we read that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” But John goes on to say “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The fact that God chose to reveal himself in the person of Jesus Christ (the eternal word made flesh) brings us to the subject of the inspiration and authority of the Bible.

It is important to understand what the various human writers of the Bible say about the Bible itself. What kind of book is it? What do they testify about it?

The Bible never claims to be an “inspirational” book which grants its reader some sort of spiritual insight or self-enlightenment. The Bible was not given to motivate us to live better lives, or to motivate us to do great things. As we have seen, the Bible is given by God as a testimony to the Word made flesh (Jesus).

The testimony of the biblical writers is paramount. As Paul says in his second letter to Timothy, “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” Although the term “inspiration of Scripture” is used to describe God’s revelation of himself to us in written form, modern translations of the Bible (such as the ESV) correctly note that the verb which the King James Version famously translated as “inspired” (theopneustos) is better translated as “breathed out” by God. This emphasizes the fact that the various books of the Bible (Scripture) are given to us by God (”breathed out”) through the agency of human authors. This is why in Romans 3:2, for example, Paul can speak of the Old Testament as “the very words of God.”

Since the Bible is the very words of God (it doesn’t merely contain the word of God), it comes to us with the authority of God himself. The Bible is God’s word written and must be seen as divine speech through human agency. As one writer (B. B. Warfield) so aptly put it, “It says, God says.” Continue reading at WSCal Valiant for Truth Blog…

Posted in resources | Tagged 2Timothy 3, Genesis 1, John 1, Reformed basics, Reformed theology | Leave a comment

Update | Outreach Opportunity: Courageous Movie

Posted on September 24, 2011 by blund

First posted earlier this fall, but updated with more resources, contact information, and clips of the movie!

Four men, one calling: To serve and protect. When tragedy strikes home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering.

Continue reading →

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Youth Fiesta Progressive Dinner

Posted on September 22, 2011 by blund

Calling all youth! Join us this Sunday (9/25) at 4 p.m. for this month’s fun & fellowship as we scramble around Garner for our annual progressive dinner! We’ll leave from Zion E&R Church and enjoy delicious appetizers, food, desserts, and lots of fun. Fiesta attire is not mandatory, but it is encouraged! (Especially ponchos and sombreros!)

From the church, we’ll go to:
The Haacks: Appetizers
The Davisons: Smoothy Drinks
The Steens: Main Course
The Hammitts: Dessert
The Parsonage: Pinata, Closing, and Bonfire

Interested in coming? RSVP to Pastor Brian. We hope to see you this Sunday at 4 p.m.!

Posted in news | Tagged announcements, events, youth | Leave a comment

Basics of the Reformed Faith

Posted on September 22, 2011 by blund

Here on the Zion blog, we will be offering a series that will cover the basic subjects of Reformed theology. The series will offer bite-sized explanations of key doctrines to give new believers and people new to the Reformed faith an easily understood tour of key tenets of the faith, and it also serves to remind those of us who have been at Zion for a long time what we mean when we say that we are a Reformed church. Most of these articles come from Westminster Seminary California, our pastor’s alma mater and one of our new Missions of the Month. First up, “In the Beginning: God.”

The Bible opens with a remarkable statement in Genesis 1:1– “In the Beginning, God . . .”

This simple assertion is packed with meaning. Some of the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith are found in this short declaration, and it is important to give them due consideration.

The first thing this passage tells us is that before anything was created, God already was. In fact, God always was, without beginning or end. Since God alone is uncreated, we speak of him as eternal. God exists before time itself, and is not bound by the succession of moments (time) as are we.

As the creation account unfolds in the subsequent verses of Genesis 1, we learn that the eternal God creates all things. Whatever now exists, exists only because God created it. There is no such thing as eternal matter. There is no eternal realm of mental forms (or ideas) as Plato led us to believe. There is no eternal convulsing of matter–ever expanding, ever contracting–as taught in much of contemporary science. There is only the eternal God who created all things, and who already was in the beginning. This indicates that nothing exists apart from the will of God, and all created things (the heavens and earth, humans as well as angels) are necessarily contingent, and depend upon God for their existence.

Unlike his creatures who are bound by both time and space, God has no such limitations. Because God is unlike us in this most fundamental way, he must be distinct from that which he has created, and can in no sense be dependant upon created things. God has no needs, as do we. God has no parts, as we do. Although he is personal, he does not have the kind of passions or emotions that we do as creatures. This is the God who gives orders to the sun and the stars, who gives life to inanimate matter (as when he made Adam from the dust of the earth – Genesis 2:7), and who is Lord over death. This God utterly transcends his creatures. Continue reading at WSCal’s Valiant for Truth Blog…

Posted in resources | Tagged articles, Genesis 1, Reformed basics, Reformed theology | Leave a comment

Two Articles for Busy Parents in the 21st Century

Posted on September 22, 2011 by blund

Pastor Brian has posted about two articles on his website for parents as we think about raising our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord for the 21st century. Times are tough for parents, and hopefully the following will be of some help to you. The two articles are:

5 Lessons for Parenting in the Digital Age
1. Technology No Longer Has Boundaries
2. Know When to Cut It Off
3. The Difference Between Preference and Addiction
4. Focus on Technology that Connects Us to Our Children
5. Model the Balance

Children Suffer from Second-Hand Stress
A quote from the article: “… few [parents] consider the dangers of secondhand stress. If you make yourself miserable to do a special favor for your child, he might enjoy it. But if he senses your negative feelings, he might come to share them. Secondhand stress is one of kids’ leading grievances.”

Read more about both articles here and how you can keep stress and digital tech from hurting your family.

Posted in resources | Tagged articles, family, parenting, pastor | Leave a comment

Fall Conference 2011 – Dr. W Robert Godfrey

Posted on September 17, 2011 by blund

Dr. W. Robert Godfrey is the featured speaker at the Fall 2011 Conference sponsored by Covenant URC in Pella, IA. The conference will be held on October 14-16, 2011. The topic is “Living Christianly in a Post-Christian World Conference.” He will be speaking on 2 Peter 2:1 – “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”

Check back for here for specific times, but put October 14 – 16 in your calendar right now! Go to covenantpella.org for more information.

Directions

About the Speaker

Dr. Godfrey has taught church history at Westminster Seminary California since 1981. Continue reading →

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Summing Up Regeneration

Posted on September 17, 2011 by blund

We recently wrapped up our last sermon series on regeneration, and we’ll be diving back into book study of 1 John: Light, Life & Love. As we begin this new study, this would be a great time to invite a friend to church to get in at the start of this series!Before we totally turn our attention away from the topic of regeneration, it would be helpful to summarize what we’ve seen concerning this doctrine from God’s Word.

Few living teachers are clearer on Scripture and God’s Truth than R.C. Sproul. He reminds us of the highlights of regeneration:

Our natural prejudgment of reality is against God. To receive the truth of God requires that our “anti” bias be changed. The key work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration is not giving new knowledge to the brain but changing the disposition of the heart. Before the Spirit turns that heart of stone into a heart of flesh, we have no desire for the things of God. We may desire the blessings that only God can give us, but we have no affection for the things of God. At the moment of regeneration, the eyes of the heart are opened somewhat, but this is just the beginning. The whole Christian life involves an unfolding and enlarging of the heart’s openness to the things of God.

Regeneration is the divine work of God the Holy Spirit upon the minds and souls of fallen people, by which the Spirit quickens those who are spiritually dead and makes them spiritually alive. This supernatural work rescues that person from his bondage to sin and his moral inability to incline himself towards the things of God. Regeneration, by being a supernatural work, is obviously a work that cannot be accomplished by natural man on his own. If it were a natural work, it would not require the intervention of God the Holy Spirit.

Continue reading →