Harvest Carnival tonight! The event is from 6-9pm. Volunteers are asked to arrive at 5pm. Please eat before you come. Don’t forget that there is a costume contest for teens and adults as well as for kids. See you tonight!

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Is the gospel functioning in your life? That was Mike Bullmore’s basic question for us yesterday. If you didn’t hear this message, you need to listen to it as soon as possible. If you did hear it, listen to it again. Get it here.

Mike explained that “all of our behavior must flow out of the gospel. In fact, it’s a big part of our lives as Christians to make the connections between gospel and conduct: this is how we harness the power of the gospel.”

I love the concentric circles diagram.

• In the center is the gospel itself: “Christ died for our sins” 1 Cor 15:3.
• The second circle contains gospel truths: doctrines that are true because of the gospel, such as Rom 5:1, Rom 8:1, and Rom 8:32.
• The third circle represents gospel conduct: behavior that results when the gospel is understood and applied. We see examples in 1 Cor 6:18-20, Eph 4:32, Eph 5:25.

Mike then gave us four implications of these circles:

1. The functioning gospel must operate in our own private lives.
2. We must look for the functioning gospel as we receive teaching. We must pursue “the continual rediscovery of the gospel.”
3. We must use the functioning gospel in our care for one another. We have to help each other make the connections!
4. We must be careful not to just pick up the vocabulary. Don’t be content with mere words.

Two applications questions for you to take to your parents for discusssion:

1. What part of the gospel do you think I need to grow to understand better?
2. What is one area in my life that I need to connect to the gospel?

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Don’t forget that tonight at 2am, Daylight Saving Time ends, and we all get to turn our clocks back one hour. I recommend turning your clock back when you go to bed, rather than getting up at 2am to do it, but that’s up to you.
According to Wikipedia, Daylight Saving Time was introduced so that people could “save” daylight by not sleeping well past sunrise in the summer months. Maybe we should just get up earlier.

You might be interested to know that Hawaii, Arizona, and parts of Indiana don’t observe Daylight Saving Time.

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More about grace from Randy Alcorn. He argues on page 32 of The Grace and Truth Paradox that the better we understand the seriousness of our sinfulness, the more amazed we will be by the grace of God:

“The worse we realize we are, the greater we realize God’s grace is.

“For some, human depravity may be an insulting doctrine, but grasping it is liberating. Why? Because when I realize that the best I can do wihtout Him is like’filthy rags’ in His sight (Isaiah 64:6), it finally sinks in that I have nothing to offer. Salvation therefore hinges on His work, not mine.

“What relief to realize that my salvation cannot be earned by good works–and therefore can’t be lost by bad ones.”

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We need to be often reminded that while God offers his grace to us for free, it did not come cheap. It cost our Savior dearly. I like how Randy Alcorn describes grace on page 29 of his book The Grace and Truth Paradox:

“Hounded by the Pharisees, betrayed by a friend, forsaken by His disciples, brutalized by police, beaten by His inquisitors, led in disgrace to a rigged trial.

“Arrogant men sitting in judgment over Him, crowing Him with thorns, mocking and disdaining. Beating Him without mercy, nailing Him to the cross, the worst of tortures, stretched out between thieves.

“Miserably thirsty, utterly forsaken by His Father for the first time, the picture of complete aloneness.

“Hell on earth! Not just one man’s hell, but the hell of billions. At any moment–in a millisecond–He could have called legions of angels to deliver Him and destroy His enemies. Instead, He bears forever the scars of sin, rebellion, mockery, and hatred…the scars of God’s Grace.”

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An important reminder: Sunday morning is the last opportunity to pre-order five15wear shirts. Short T’s, Long T’s, and Hoodies–they are all on sale: $11, $13, and $18, respectively.

So bring your bills if you want a shirt.

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Starting tonight, various leaders from our church will be attending the Small Group Leaders’ Conference at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD. Charles Spurgeon once said, “A man can do me no greater kindness than to pray for me.” Would you please do us this kindness?

Here are a few ways you can pray:

• That we would have safe travel to and from the confrence.
• That we would be filled with the Spirit during worship, messages, and fellowship.
• That we would experience illumination, conviction, and repentance where necessary.
• That we would come home refreshed in the grace of God and better equipped to lead in the church.

Thanks in advance for your prayers! I look forward to letting you know how it goes.

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CJ Mahaney’s latest book is out: Humility: True Greatness. There are a lot of great books out there, but few that will help us grow as much as this one. The basic premise of the book is that pride is our greatest enemy and humility is our greatest friend. I like what pastor Mark Dever (Capital Hill Baptist Church) says about this book:

“C.J. Mahaney is not humble. At least, that’s what he’ll tell you. And that’s one reason he’s so well qualified to write this book. I’ve read it. I’ve seen humility in his life–and in the lives of those he’s taught. If you’re fighting pride–like I am–you should read it, too. And if you’re not fighting pride, you really need to read it!”–Mark Dever

I finished reading this book a few days ago, and it took a lot of self-control to not underline the entire book. I’ll share some favorite quotes with you over the next few days. For now, here is a basic outline of Humility:

• Part 1: Our Greatest Friend, Our Greatest Enemy. This section introduces us to the battle between humility (friend) and pride (enemy).
• Part 2: The Great Reversal. In this section, CJ shows us the Savior’s perfect example of humility, and how, through his death, we can begin to apply this to our lives as well.
• Part 3: Our Great Pursuit. 8 chapters, 17 helpful and practical suggestions about how to cultivate humility.

It’s not in our bookstore yet, but will be soon. I’ll let you know.

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Yesterday, Mark Mullery served us by introducing us to the book of 1 Corinthians. We’ll be covering 1 Corinthians on Sundays for the next 9 months. Mark’s message yesterday was called Connect: Linking the Gospel to Everything We Do.

Mark talked about about the “functional centrality” of the gospel: meaning that an intelligent person should be able to look at our lives and work backwards to the gospel.

He’s going to be explaining more about what this means in the coming weeks and months. In the mean time, here are a few questions you can ask your parents as a way to begin making 1 Corinthians real in our lives:

1. Do you have a favorite verse in 1 Corinthians?
2. How can you tell that my whole life is connected to the gospel?
3. Are there any areas of my life where it seems like I am “dropping calls,” that need to be better connected to the gospel?

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I was just humbled by my brother-in-law, Brian. He crushed me in two straight Stratego matches. But then I managed to beat my nephew, Andrew two games in a row. Of course, Andrew is 5, so it wasn’t impressive victory for me. He’s predicting that he’ll take me in a rematch. We’ll see…

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