Last Sunday we opened a new series we have entitled “Life in the Church.” We bit off a bit of a chunk (no pun intended) with our first message dealing with the Lord’s Supper out of 1 Corinthians 11. The goal in this topical series is to address some matters that we do not get the opportunity to address on a regular basis in our preaching schedule that we feel are vital to the life and health of our local church family. In my estimation, preaching in an expository manner through books of the Bible is always the best way to address our lives and our faith in the most holistic manner. The Holy Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures, knows far better than the staff at LifePoint what needs to be addressed. Nevertheless, I think topical series, rooted in different texts from Scripture, can be utilized occasionally to address pertinent and pressing matters in the local church. This is what we hope to accomplish in this current series.
With this in mind, let me lay out for you our preaching schedule for the next month or so. I have not finished up the entire series as of this writing, but here is what lays ahead for us in September and October:
September 30: “Once for All” from Jude 1-7. Here we will address the pressing need we currently face in holding fast to the faith that has been delivered to us in a final form. Our world is demanding that we acquiesce to a new way of seeing truth, but we must use God’s word as our final authority.
October 7: “Why We Worship” from Psalm 33:1-9. Back in the Psalms again! What is the reason for our gathering together corporately (and individually and as families in our homes) for worship on a regular basis? What is worship?
October 14: “Teach Your Children Well” from Deuteronomy 6:1-9. One of the primary responsibilities of Christian parents and grandparents is to train their children in the faith. Single persons in the church family have a corporate responsibility here as well. We must train up the next generation of Christ-followers.
October 21: Pastor Nate Meece will be sharing with us on the topic of baptism and its role in the church and in our lives.
October 28: “Rich in Poverty” from 2 Corinthians 8:1-15. We will look at the biblical concept of stewardship. What does it look like? Why do we give? How do we give? Are we bound by the 10% tithe to the church? Here is a topic, quite frankly, that we probably have not given enough direction in here at LifePoint. Nevertheless, God continues to bless us in the area of finances.
As we move into November we will hit at least a couple more topics. We then may take a couple weeks prior to Advent to take a look at Paul’s short letter to Philemon. We may also simply decided to stay with our “Life in the Church” series through November and look at Philemon in the future. We’ll play that by ear for now.
If you find it helpful to know where we will be in terms of our preaching text each week prior to Sunday (I certainly do : ) ) you can always go to our website (www.lifepointindy.com) and click on the worship tab. There you can find our text for the coming Sunday and the songs we will be singing as part of our worship. You can also follow me on Twitter if you care for that sort of thing. I “tweet” a few times each week. Nothing pithy, just some quotes usually from books I am reading, and always a heads up for what is coming up at LifePoint the next Sunday. You can follow me on Twitter @pastorjym.
Hope you are enjoying the turn in the weather. It’s fun to live in Indiana!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym