Tag: Discipleship

Sermon Songs: Isaiah 61

On By BrianIn Isaiah Hymns

MusicNotes

Jesus the Lord’s Anointed One
Proclaims the year of grace
A great reversal, salvation
For us, the human race

The poor receive great hope anew
The humble His mercy
The mourning find His comfort true
The captive liberty

Those ruined by their sin and shame
Once broken and hopeless
Now beautiful in Jesus’ name
Clothed in His righteousness

So go to Jesus every hour
Find grace to meet your need
In all your weakness, seek His power
Upon His favor feed

Our Lord will come, end suffering
All evil He’ll defeat
We’ll praise Him with great rejoicing
Our salvation complete

– From a sermon on Isaiah 61
(To the tune of “O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing”)

Go to Jesus

On By BrianIn Book of Isaiah

In Isaiah 61, we are encouraged to go to Jesus.

Go to Jesus with your poverty and affliction and receive good news of hope for future.

Go to Jesus with your mourning and sorrow and find his comfort.

Go to Jesus with your captivity to sin and find freedom.

Go to Jesus with your sin and receive forgiveness and righteousness.

Go to Jesus with the ruins of your life and let him rebuild you into something beautiful.

Go to Jesus with your shame and dishonor and receive the honor and joy found in him.

What do you need to go to Jesus for today?

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts primarily aimed at young adults, but with some good wisdom for all of us:

Students! Seize the Summer to Grow in Godliness, Not Decline in Laziness – Geoff Kirkland
If you don’t plan you’ll fail. If you don’t busy yourself with the right things you’ll make yourself busy with time-wasters.

Letter to Teens Unboxing Their First Smartphone – Tim Challies (DG)
It is an incredible piece of technology that can be used in many different ways. It can be used to do so many good things, but if you are not wary, it can also be used to do an awful lot of bad things. So before you power it on for the first time, I think it would be wise to invest just a few minutes in thinking and planning.

Lessons For Young Men – Geoff Kirkland
Our world desperately needs men. Real men. Manly men. Godly men. Holy men. Courageous men. Men who fear no one because they fear their God more.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!

There Is A Fountain – Verse 6

On By BrianIn Sermon Songs

I didn’t preach this past weekend, so I don’t have a new sermon song this week. But a few weeks ago as I was working on the worship service, I wanted to include William Cowper’s hymn “There Is A Fountain.”  It is a great hymn, but the last verse leaves us in the grave. What about the great hope of our resurrection? So I wrote a sixth verse. Below are Cowper’s original five verses and my final verse:

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
Wash all my sins away, Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.
Be saved, to sin no more, Be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave.
Lies silent in the grave, Lies silent in the grave;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave.

When Christ shall come with trumpet sound,
We’ll rise forevermore,
To sin and death no longer bound,
Our Savior we’ll adore.
Our Savior we’ll adore, Our Savior we’ll adore;
To sin and death no longer bound,
Our Savior we’ll adore.

Sermon Songs: Isaiah 60

On By BrianIn Isaiah Hymns

MusicNotes

Arise and shine, forever praise, Our gracious glor-ious King
People of God your voices raise, Forever let us sing.
For Christ our Savior will return, New Jerusalem bring
We look forward, our spirits’ yearn, For our Lord’s soon coming.

Our glor-ious Lord with us will dwell, In everlasting light
In brilliance no mere words can tell, He’ll banish the dark night.
His people He will gather all, Each daughter ev’ry son
From all the nations He will call, The children of Zion.

Great songs of praise declare His worth, And tell of His glory.
Great wealth will flow from all the earth, Abundance from the sea
Zion in glor-i-ous beauty, The sights, the smells, the sounds
The brilliance of this new city, Ever expands, abounds.

But what of us, vile and sinful, How shall we enter in?
Our Lord make us each beautiful, Cleansing us from our sin.
We’ll walk in humble righteousness, Trust in Him and His grace
We’ll dwell in peace, joyful gladness, Of sin and death no trace.

This glor-ious day is guaranteed, To all who will receive
Turn from your sin, His offer heed, Your Savior now believe.
And in the trials of these days, To this great promise cling:
We’ll dwell with God, forever praise, Our gracious glor-ious King!

– From a sermon on Isaiah 60
(Words: Brian Mikul. Copyright 2015)
(Music: To the tune of “I Sing The Mighty Power of God”)

Look Forward

On By BrianIn Book of Isaiah

Isaiah 60 calls us to look forward to the New Jerusalem where:

  • God will dwell with us in all of his glory with such brilliance that there will be no need for the sun or moon (v1-2, 19-20, see also Rev. 21:3, 23).
  • God’s people will be gathered from the nations to dwell with God forever (v3-4, 9, 21, see also Rev. 21:2-3).
  • God will make the city a place of glorious beauty (v7, 13, 15, see also Rev. 21:2, 11, 18-21).
  • Great wealth, abundance, and praise will flow into the city for an ever-expanding glorious beauty (v5-7, 9, 11, 13, 17, see also Rev. 21:24-26).
  • Great salvation from sin will be completed as everyone trusts in him, submits to him, and walks in righteousness before him (v9, 10-12, 14, 17-18, 21, see also Rev. 21:8, 27).
  • Great salvation from the consequences of sin become a reality as peace reigns, mourning comes to an end, and joy abounds (v11, 15, 20, see also Rev. 21:4, 25)

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

God Is an Inexhaustible Fountain of Love – Jonathan Edwards (via Trevin Wax)
And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love.

Fountain of Love, Fill Our Souls – E. B. Pusey (via Trevin Wax)
O God, Fountain of love, pour your love into our souls,
that we may love those whom you love with the love you have given us…

Conflicts: Our Laboratories of Love – Jon Bloom (DG)
Here’s the good news: Conflict is the laboratory in which love (agapē) grows. Conflict is the construction area where humility is built. Conflict is the radiology department where pride is exposed. Conflict is the field where our treasure is unearthed. Conflict is a discipline God uses to make us holy and bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:10–11).

Worship God as Our Father – Stephen Miller (DG)
Worship is responding to God — who he is and what he has done. And the truth that God would give his own Son that he might make us his sons and daughters ought to produce awe and wonder and amazement in us. It ought to make us stop for a second — or for a Sunday morning — and say, How great is the love of the Father! How could we not sing? How could we not shout? How could we not respond, with all that we are, to all that he has done for us?

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping our Father and loving his people!