Sojourn Community Church released a video this past Sunday at church showing the beauty of what God has done and our prayers for what God will do at Sojourn.
It is exciting times for Sojourn as we continue to see God’s mercy in saving sinners and God’s grace in allowing us to plant more churches. Check out the video below:
The Acts 29 Network featured an article from Dr. Sam Storms that defined what forgiveness is and what it is not.
Here are his five “myths” and “truths” of forgiveness:
Five Myths about Forgiveness:
Five Truths about Forgiveness:
Read Dr. Storms’ full article here or get the PDF.
We hear that we should be preaching the gospel to ourselves, but you don’t find many resources on how to do it. In Note To Self, Joe Thorn, founding pastor of Redeemer Fellowship, serves us well by demonstrating in this small but powerful book how we should preach the gospel to ourselves. This discipline of preaching the gospel to yourself has become a popular phrase, but actually doing it hasn’t caught on so quickly. Thankfully, Thorn demonstrates in his book what it actually means and what it looks like to preach the gospel to yourself, so that, through this discipline you may grow in intimacy with Christ and conformity to Christ.
In Note To Self, Thorn begins by introducing us to the idea that it is not just the gospel that we must preach to ourselves, but law and gospel. Thorn states that “just as the lost cannot come to know Christ apart from an understanding of law and gospel, neither will the believer grow in grace apart from the preaching of both law and gospel.” Therefore, Thorn identifies and defines that “preaching to ourselves is the personal act of applying the law and the gospel to our own lives with the aim of experiencing the transforming grace of God.” This is where Thorn begins laying a foundation for us as the practical guide for thinking through the Christian life. He points us in a direction of gospel proclamation and application. And then what I love most is that Thorn doesn’t allow the reader any time to assume what is law and gospel, but rather he goes straight into clearly and biblically defining what they mean. It is through the preaching of both the law and gospel to yourself that you begin to grow in truth.
After we understand what it means to preach to yourself, Thorn then begins to demonstrate for us in 48 real-life situations how the gospel is applicable to every aspect of our life. Thorn is no longer writing in a way that tells you how to preach to yourself, but he is actually showing you how he preaches to himself. I find this writing style to be refreshing and encouraging to read, because Thorn provides for us a model of what it looks like to preach to ourselves.
There are three sections to Thorn’s book on preaching to himself: The Gospel and God, The Gospel and Others, The Gospel and You. And when reading through each entry it almost feels and reads like you have access to Thorn’s journal. Thorn is allowing the reader to gain a bird’s eye view of what it looks like to preach the gospel to oneself. It gives perspective to the war we are truly in and the weapon we’ve been given, and the discipline of preaching the Gospel to ourselves. Therefore, with every discipline the goal is godliness, and this discipline of preaching the gospel to ourselves is a crucial application to the development of personal holiness.
The significance of this book is not only that it is beautifully written, but it is a book for every believer. Therefore, churches should be passing this book out to every member. This small but powerful book is accessible, practical and biblical. Preaching the gospel to yourself is an important discipline that we should be passionate about learning and teaching others how to do. And Thorn has done the church a great service by modeling for us how to preach the gospel to ourselves. This is one of those books that if you practice what has been demonstrated, you will see an incredible change in your relationship with Christ.
During times where everyone is saying you must preach the gospel to yourself, but few are demonstrating how to do it, I find Joe Thorn’s book, Note To Self, a vital resource for the church to learn how to preach to yourself. Through this book you will be encouraged and motivated by the power of the gospel. You will see the importance of this discipline is for the purpose of intimacy with Christ and conformity to Him. Therefore, we should all be writing a book titled, Note To Self, because if we want to live a gospel-centered life that seeks Christ as our treasure then we must be a people committed to the discipline of preaching to ourselves.
Joe Thorn’s book, Note To Self, will be released on April 30th and is one of the books from Re:Lit. I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of this book! It will bring great meaning to your devotional life and affections for Christ. This is a creative, practical, and rich book that I recommend everyone to read and allow it to enrich your love for the gospel.
In addition, I have a free copy of Note To Self that I will be giving away so just enter below:
God is the great doer in this miracle of the new birth. And God wants us to celebrate the miraculous event of regeneration. Here is a video of lives transformed through the gospel at Sojourn Church in Louisville, KY
The new kid who is sweeping the wrestling nation by storm is Stevo Poulin. Stevo Poulin is one of New York’s best youth wrestlers and is only 7-years old!
This kid is like every Acts 29 pastor’s dream child. Lol.
