I’m very happy to announce that the five15 meeting sermon audio is now available on for download and podcast from the church website. Retreat messages are up there, too.

Check it out here.

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C.J. hit another one out of the park yesterday, if I can be so crass as to apply a baseball metaphor to a sermon. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that the Holy Spirit was speaking to us in profound ways! Preaching from Acts 4:32-5:18 and 5:40-6:7, CJ helped us see how high expectations sometimes encounter the harsh reality of sin and trial. He made this clear in three points:

1. DECEPTION

Explaining the story of Ananias and Sapphira, CJ helped us see the warning in this passage: that we must not presume upon God’s mercy by continuing in sin that has not been confessed or forsaken.

“He is indeed long-suffering, patient, and slow to anger. In fact He is so slow to anger that when His anger does erupt we are shocked and offended by it. We forget rather quickly that God’s patience is designed to lead us to repentance, to give us time to be redeemed. Instead of taking advantage of this patience by coming humbly to Him for forgiveness, we use this grace as an opportunity to become more bold in our sin. We delude ourselves into thinking that either God doesn’t care about it or that he is powerless to punish us. The supreme folly is that we think we will get away with our revolt.” R.C. Sproul

Ananias and Sapphira’s sin was not unusual, but typical: we do the same thing every time we are tempted to impress others, to leave them with a false impression of ourselves, to make them think we are more spiritual than we really are. It is deception for the purpose of self-exaltation.

“We share Ananias’ sin not when others think we are more spiritual than we are, but when we try to make others think we are more spiritual than we are.” Kent Hughes

We need to ask ourselves: “Where am I tempted to try to impress others, or leave them with the impression that I am more spiritual than I actually am?” The solution is to confess to God and to others, so that this might not spread through the church and weaken the church.

2. PERSECUTION

CJ didn’t have much to say here. Actually, he had a lot to say, he just chose not to say it.

3. DISSENSION

An expanding church is constantly changing. CJ helped us see how the early church–and how our church–will need to change as it expands. Growth and change require sacrifice: things that are comfortable and familiar now may need to give way to make room for people who will be added as the gospel goes forth. The message won’t change, but the methodology will.

Furthermore, the history contained here us our history. This isn’t “just dirt.” (If you don’t get that, go listen to the message.) In the mystery of providence, we are dependent on the faithfulness of those recorded in Acts. Let us be inspired by their example: who out there is awaiting your communication of the gospel?

Categories: Monday Matters, five15 blog
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Before and after every five15 meeting, I pull out my iPod and play some tunes. I know what I like, but what do you like? Got a song you’d like to see added to the five15 Playlist? Maybe Friends Are Friends Forever? Tchaikovsky’s Serenade For Strings in C Minor? Brubeck’s Take Five? The choice is yours…

Here’s how this works:

• Click Suggest A Song here or in the bar above.
• Fill out the form completely. Anonymous submissions will be deleted immediately. Give me a good reason to include the song.
• I’ll consider the song, and if I like it, I’ll add it.
• Country songs aren’t going to make it, so don’t bother.
• And yes, I will be creating mulitple playlists so we aren’t listening to the same songs over and over and over and over.

Curious about the current playlist? Check it out:

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We’ve got a new look, but this is still the five15 Blog you know and love.

Special thanks to Matt H for the facelift and to Mitch & Drew for the photography!

Categories: Announcements, five15 blog
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The last nine chapters of Ezekiel (40-48) contain a vision of the temple that is to be rebuilt in Jerusalem.  For Ezekiel and the rest of the Israelite exiles who were carted off to Babylon, it is a vision of hope and comfort.  The angel who appears to Ezekiel to show him this vision tells him:

“Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you.” (Ez. 40:4)

This is always the right posture for us to have towards God’s revelation.  For Ezekiel, that revelation was a vision of the temple.  Today, we receieve God’s revelation through His Word.  So during our devotions in the morning, or in the preaching of God’s Word on Sunday mornings or at five15 meetings let this be our prayer: that we would look with our eyes and hear with our ears, and set our hearts upon all that God shows us.

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Thanks to all of you who prayed for us during our pastors retreat this week.  We felt your prayers: we got a lot done, had a lot of fun together, and grew in our relationships together.  Thank you!

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If you missed the recent Family Meeting, then you missed the Great Office Chair Race.

Check it out here.

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A reminder: we have a five15 BIG MEETING on Saturday. As always, the meeting starts at 6:30pm, or come early for Pizza and Ping-Pong
at 5:15pm.

We’re continuing our series of message from Proverbs called Drivers Ed. This time: One Way - Proverbs on Wisdom and Folly. If you want to come prepared, read Proverbs 9.

See you Saturday night!

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Tripp on help from outside ourselves:

“The reality of spiritual blindness has important implications for the Christian community. The Hebrews passage clearly teaches that personal insight is the product of community. I need you in order to see and know myself. Otherwise, I will listen to my own arguments, believe my own lies, and buy into my own delusions. My self-perception is as accurate as a carnival mirror. If I am going to see myself clearly, I need you to hold the mirror of God’s Word in front of me.

Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 54.

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On the gospel:

“Very small errors in a person’s understanding of the gospel seem to result in very big problems in that person’s life.”

CJ Mahaney, quoting a friend in Living the Cross-Centered Life, 68.

“Salvation is more than forgiveness. It is deliverance from the death, slavery, and wrath described in Ephesians 2:1-3. Indeed, it includes the totality of our new life in Christ, together with whom we have been made alive, exalted and seated in the heavenly realm. ‘Grace’ is God’s free and undeserved mercy towards us, and ‘faith’ is the humble trust with which we receive it for ourselves.” John Stott, Ephesians, 83.

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