This morning in our Men’s Bible Study we began a new focus.

We looked at Matthew 7 where Jesus is saying that when we are judged it will not depend on what we have done so much, but rather on whether we knew God, or better were known by Him.

Our study of the “Fundamentals of the Faith” is to lead us to know God in a deeper way.

check this out! if you like it, there are many more on youtube.

Jesus as our substitute is such a heavy doctrine.

We must believe in it.

There is absolutely nothing good in us. Jesus took our sins and was slaughtered by God for them. We deserved it. Jesus took it. He is our substitute. In exchange, we got His righteousness.

Do you believe this? If you don’t, you are not saved. There is no way. Your sins havent been dealth with.

Trip Lee says “he doesn’t love me because of me, no He loves me because of Him.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”

Do you ever use the word “substitute” when speaking of your Lord or your faith?  Please begin to. Be a light to the world that you do not count your life as having any value except in Christ.

The doctrine of substitution places all of the emphasis on Jesus and NONE of it on you. Thats glorious!

Bob Kauflin  Shai Linne

Revelation 5 describes an amazing picture of everything (creation & the church) falling down and singing “a new song” to the slain worthy Lamb of God, namely Jesus.

Some people may read that text and wonder what “the song” was like. We have the lyrics in that text. They are all about Christ’s redeeming work for His people . But some may wonder about the style.

They shouldn’t. We shouldn’t.

Wednesday night while at a worship service, I heard Bob Kauflin (40 or 50 something year old gray headed man on a piano) lead a large congregation in worship singing some old hymns. The very next song (Kauflin didn’t even leave the stage or the piano), Shai Linne (20 something year old long haired man with a microphone in hand) comes up and leads the congregation in worship with two rap songs.

Both mens’ songs had the lyrics on the screens. Both mens songs were all about the redeeming work of Jesus.

Both mens’ songs did the exact same thing for me… lead me to worship Jesus.

I’m 30 years old, and I sincerely loved both. Either one is fine with me… its the subject not the style.

This week I attended the ‘Together for the Gospel Conference’. It is a pastors’ conference. There were 7,000 pastors there this year.

It was great. I enjoyed it. God grew me through it.

Here are a few reflections from what God taught me/ showed me at the conference:

1)     I have a lot to learn. That was/is obvious. I pray for continuing grace to help me become a better shepherd. I love the people of Fairdale with such a passionate commitment. I am eager to be back spending time with them.

2)     Justification by Faith Alone is so so so so so sweet and precious. I knew that before T4G. I know it better now.

3)     I need to read more. Books were everywhere.

4)     7,000 men of God singing worship songs together is so awesome and humbling.

5)     I love for God to use me to help others love Jesus more and love themselves less. I pray God will continue to give me people who want to hang out with me a lot and that God will cause that to cause them to love Jesus more.

6)     Some people need to love studying less and pray to love investing in others more.

7)     I am very humbled at the way God has used John Piper to teach and mold me into Christ-likeness. This conference was an extension of that.

8)     Jesus is all I have. Jesus is my life.

9)     The 4 point gospel is so helpful.

10)     I love my wife Valeria so deeply. ( i missed her a lot while at the conference.)

11)     I love my sons so very much. ( i missed them so much.)

12)    As much as I truly love discipling young guys, I want to disciple my sons JJ & Eli the most. I want God to use me to make them into faithul sincere men who love Jesus.

There are more I am sure. But these stick out so clearly. God’s grace to shape me this week was mighty.

I am not sure if you have seen this picture or not.

But I absolutely love it. This is my second son, Eli.

Grace is often described as “getting something that you do not deserve.”

There is so much in me and Valeria’s lives that fits that category. Right now, we have two awesome little boys. JJ & ELi are so cool and fun to be raising. It seems too good to be true that I am the dad of two little happy boys. They look up to me. Its amazing!

But we really do not deserve them. We thank God for giving us them.

With that said, Valeria is pregnant again. We are so humbled and happy. God is giving us another child. Valeria is almost 13 weeks and her due date is October 18. I am hoping for a third boy and that way we will only be two short of a basketball team.  Thats partly a joke, we would be thrilled to have a girl or a boy.

God’s grace continues to abound in our lives. We do not deserve it. Please pray for us and this pregnancy.

While preparing for this series on Ecclesiastes, I came across this great quote in John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life.

“the world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God. They are impressed when God is so satisfying that we give our riches away for Christ’s sake and count it gain.”

AFV (America’s Funniest Videos) continues to be the most hilarious show on TV in my opinion. I am thankful that it comes on so often because that means I can find it on TV most anytime. I will never get tired of seeing people crash on bikes, faint during weddings, or get hit by baseballs.

Last night while watching, the host said “it seems that many people are getting involved with this ‘Save the Planet’ movement. After these next videos, I think we need to concentrate more on saving the people.”

I could not agree more. Its not our planet that needs to be saved. It is us… the people. We need to be saved. Our hearts are far from God and we need God to save us.

I want to work hard to see people saved, not the planet.

God is always working. Everywhere, all the time. God is always up to something. He is always working… even in the small things. Are you aware of that? Are you mindful of that? Are you asking Him to use you through it all?

This past Easter Sunday we had a large amount of visitors. At least, a lot more visitors on one day than we are used to having. That is a good thing. That is one of the specific things we have been praying for. That is one of the signs that we know God is working in and around FBCF.

Let me tell you this story that I hope will impact you.

One of the visitors Sunday was a single adult man who is in his mid 40s.  He is a nice guy. He is very friendly and also was dressed nice. He came because a local teenager invited him. He said that he has lived in Louisville for 13 months and this kid was the first person to invite him to church since he has lived here. No friendly Christians in a year and a month. Nobody asking him to come to church in over a year. Thats a shame. What have all of us Christians been doing? Thats a shame to our church and every other church around here. We need to be inviting and hoping that all people would come to church with us.

While I preached, he listened so intently. He sat on the edge of his seat, Bible in hand, eyes focused on me. He seemed to be clinging to every word I spoke.  (I now pray & understand Ecclesiastes 12:10 better) After the service, he made a point to come see me, shake my hand, thank me for allowing him to be a part of our easter morning service (wasn’t necessary, but kind).

The next day (monday) he told the teen that invited him that he would really like to talk with me and that the message from Sunday’s sermon is still ringing in his ears.

Who would have thought? A teenager invites a middle-aged man and God is all over it working and moving and changing lives.

Lets believe Jesus’ words from John 3 when speaking to Nicodemus (3:8) “the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

God is working absolutely everywhere….. Get involved!