“When through the deep waters I call you to go, the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; for I will be with you, your troubles to bless, and sanctify to you your deepest distress.”
—How Firm a Foundation
God's Exposing Wind (Jonah 1:4-6)
“The dismaying news is the every act of disobedience to God has a storm attached to it…The Bible does not say that every difficulty is the result of sin—but it does teach that every sin will bring you into difficulty.”
—Timothy Keller, The Prodigal Prophet
[Unfortunately, sermon audio is not available for this week. Please check back for the next sermon in our series.]
Setting the Stage (Jonah 1:1-3)
“At odds with God, Jonah typifies those who see the divine attributes of justice and mercy as functioning for their own convenience; mercy for themselves, but justice for their enemies. Fortunately, however, these attributes are not directed by human motives or desires. As the book of Jonah makes plainly obvious, God is sovereign, his justice is totally impartial, and his mercy may extend to anyone.”
—Desmond Alexander
The Definition of True Love (1 John 4:7-21)
“O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.”
—George Matheson, O Love that Will Not Let Me Go
Beloved, Empowered Children (1 John 4:1-6)
“God’s purpose was not only to secure our sonship by His Son, but to assure us of it by His Spirit. He sent His Son that we might have the status of sonship, and He sent His Spirit that we might have the experience of it.“
—John Stott, The Message of Galatians
Guarded by the Promise (1 John 5:13-21)
“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou doest overthrow
Die not, poor Death, no yet canst thou kill me…
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.“
—John Donne, Holy Sonnets
Test and Discern (1 John 5:1-12)
Bending towards God (Psalm 115)
“There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship…is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.“
—David Foster Wallace
Identity in Adoption (Galatians 4:1-7)
“If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity,, find out how much they make of being God’s child and having God as father.”
—J.I. Packer, Knowing God
From Haters to Lovers (1 John 3:11-24)
“If I were sitting on the end of the pier on a summer day enjoying the sunshine and the air, and someone came along and jumped into the water and got drowned ‘to prove his love for me’,I should find it quite unintelligible. I might be much in need of love, but an act in no rational relation to any of my necessities could not prove it. But if I had fallen over the pier and were drowning, and someone sprang into the water, and at the cost of making my peril, or what but for him would be my fate, his own, save me from death, then I should say, ‘Greater love hath no man than this.’ I should say it intelligibly, because there would be an intelligent relation between the sacrifice which love made and the necessity from which it redeemed.”
— James Dennon, The Death of Christ