Grace Abounding

Sermon Title: Of Shepherds and Sherpas
Speaker: Jonathan Matías, Pastor
Series: The Church – To Know Her Is to Love Her

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Sermon Title: “Advancing God’s Glory Through Prayer”
Speaker: Jonathan Matías, Pastor
Text: Exodus 15:1-21
Series: The Church – To Know Her Is to Love Her

I. Pray In Light of God’s Mighty Deeds (15:1-10)
II. Pray In Light of God’s Wonder (15:11)
III. Pray in Light of God’s Promises (15:12-17)
IV. Pray For The Spread of God’s Rulership (15:18-21)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Want to keep apprised on news and issues concerning the City of Alexandria? Here are two free resources that you can get sent to your email inbox:

FYI Alexandria for Alexandria City Residents

FYI Alexandria is the city’s e-newsletter, and I highly encourage you to check it out. You can sign up for it here.

The Compass For West End Residents

If you live in West End Alexandria and especially in Cameron Station (the planned community where our church meets), you’ll find The Compass, Cameron Station’s e-newsletter, invaluable for learning about community news, trends, and events. Below, I’ve included the ad you’ll find about Grace Church of Alexandria in the May/June ‘10 issue of The Compass.

Let us know of other helpful newsletters and sources of information for enjoying and getting involved in the community, and we’ll share about them on our blog.

This Sunday at Grace Church of Alexandria, we discussed this prescription for our Christian relationships: The Gospel + Relationships = Growth. This was drawn from 1 Thessalonians 2:8 where Paul says he delighted to share with the believers “not only the gospel but also our own lives as well.” The place where God transforms us and sanctifies us is when we live in friendship and relationship with other believers and speak truths of the gospel to each other. The sermon was not successfully recorded, so here is a summary.

How To Give And Get The Most From Your Christian Friendships
From 1 Thessalonians 2:7-14, we saw seven ways to build your relationship with another Christian (your spouse, an accountability partner, a new Christian, an elder-in-training, your kids) so that you both grow up in Christ.
1. Focus on Discipleship, Not Church Growth (2:9).
2. Follow Others’ Example (2:10).
3. Cultivate Close Relationships (2:11).
4. Come out of the Shadows with your Sin (2:12).
5. Care for Others’ Burdens (2:12).
6. Ask Each Other Hard Questions (2:12).
7. Pray For, Pray With Each Other (2:13).

Questions Someone Should Be Asking You
In particular, we saw our need of opening up to other Christians so they can help us to live a life worthy of God’s glory and rulership, as verse 12 commands. I pointed to four friends of mine who meet regularly for accountability and spiritual sharpening as a great example of how to implement #6, that is, ask each other hard questions.

Every few weeks my friends get together and ask each other the following four questions and honestly, transparently answer them:

- Have you spent focused time in the Word and prayer this week?
- Are you building gospel relationships with believers and unbelievers?
- How are your interactions with the Body of Christ? Are you neglecting the Body?
- Are your thoughts glorifying to God?

If they’re falling short of pleasing God in one of these areas, my friends speak truths of the gospel to the struggler that will help them turn away from their sin and honor Christ. Then, after they’ve each answered these questions, each man gets asked two questions tailored to their weaknesses. If I were meeting with these friends, they’d need to ask me questions like this:

- Jonathan, has your wife been your #1 priority or have you allowed church duties to compete with your love for her?
- Jonathan, have you taken time to share the gospel with non-Christians when you had an opening this week?

I urge you to find a Christian friend who can ask these questions of you, and to whom you can ask these kinds of questions. Cultivating relationships that deliberate focus on Christ is essential to rooting sin out of your life and living to God’s praise.

Enjoy these photos from singer/songwriter Jeremy Casella’s recent concert at Grace Church of Alexandria on May 1, 2010:

Our current sermon series, The Church: To Know Her Is To Love Her, is designed to stoke our passion for the church and equip us to participate in God’s plan for the church.

This past Sunday we discussed how to “Unleash the Gospel in our Community.” Taking our cues from Jesus’s conversation with the outcast Samaritan woman at the well, we discerned seven principles for effective evangelism from John 4:1-42. The audio for this sermon didn’t record, so I’ve included the outline from Sunday’s text here:

Seven Reminders For Effectively Sharing the Gospel
1. Make Connections With Non-Christians (John 4:1-9).
Follow Jesus’s example and go out of your comfort zone to meet people with whom you can share the gospel.

2. Weave Christian Truth Into Your Conversations (John 4:10-15).
Don’t stop short and fail to bring up spiritual matters and Christian truth in your conversation that will lead to talk about the cross.

3. Be Clear On What Is the Gospel (John 4:16-20).
Discern what the person you’re talking with doesn’t believe or doesn’t know and make all the gospel clear to them, especially that slice of the gospel.

4. Overcome Your Fear With Worship (John 4:21-24).
Guilting you into sharing the gospel can never be as powerful a motivator as remembering God’s awesome majesty and indescribable grace, then responding to his glory by seeking to gather worshipers for him.

5. Make the Gospel Attractive By How You Live (John 4:25-30).
Our visual witness to the gospel is as important to our verbal witness. So fight sin in your life and work hard at loving the body of Christ so you are living proof that the gospel is true and works!

6. Ask For A Response To the Gospel.
By revealing his identity to her, Jesus called for the Samaritan woman to respond to who he is. It is a reminder to ask the person you’re speaking with to respond to Christ with faith and repentance.

7. Pray Together For A Harvest.
Our witness to Christ never saved a person; the Spirit of God draws people to receive the cross work of Christ on their behalf. Thus, a commitment to spreading God’s glory will involve you in gathering with other believers to pray for the success of the gospel.

Last Saturday, May 8, a contingent of Grace Church attenders went to the National Zoo. Enjoy these images from GCA’s photostream:

Sermon Title: The Gospel to the Ends of the Earth
Speaker: Jonathan Matías

Series: The Church – To Know Her Is to Love Her

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Title: How People Change
Authors: Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp
Publisher: New Growth Press
ISBN: 978-1-934885-53-6
Pages: 230

Summary of the Book

Have you wondered why you’ve tried to overcome a sin in your life yet keep falling back into it? How People Change is an effective tool to help you take steps to experience lasting spiritual change. Authors Tim Lane and Paul Tripp help us see just how badly the rebellion of sin has corrupted our everyday lives. Then they show how the cross of Christ provides all the power needed to leave behind our sin and walk in newness of life.

Overview of the Book

Chapters 1 to 6 explain why we struggle to overcome sin in our lives even though old things are supposed to have “passed away” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We need to embrace God’s agenda of change for us and grasp how to apportion the power of the gospel to change us.

Chapter 1 – The Gospel Gap

Chapter 2 – Counterfeit Hopes

Chapter 3 – Here’s Where God Is Taking You

Chapter 4 – Married To Christ

Chapter 5 – Change Is A Community Project

Chapter 6 – The Big Picture

Chapters 7 to 14 walk through the biblical process of change (Jeremiah 17:5-10) and apply it to a wide variety of sinful struggles every one of us faces. The authors guide the reader through a memorable four-part description of change (Heat, Thorns, Cross, Fruit) that diagnoses our sin struggles, applies the cross, and enables us to resemble Jesus more and more.

Chapter 7 – Heat 1: God in the Real World

Chapter 8 – Heat 2: You in the Real World

Chapter 9 – Thorns 1: What Entangles You?

Chapter 10 – Thorns 2: Why Do You Get Entangled?

Chapter 11 – Cross 1: New Identity and New Potential

Chapter 12 – Cross 2: The Cross and Daily Living

Chapter 13 – Fruit 1: Real Heart Change

Chapter 14 – Fruit 2: New and Surprising Fruit

Chapters 15 to 16 show how God’s agenda for change took place in the life of a couple and a church. Through their example, we see that God is powerfully renovating his people and we can experience lasting change just like them.

Chapter 15 – One Couple’s Story

Chapter 16 – One Church’s Story

Recommendation

How People Change has been helpful for me to turn away from sinful habits and pursue Christ’s character, so much so that our church is working through the companion study guide together at our Wednesday Community Group. Any Christian who is investing in the life of another believer or simply wants to grow will find this an indispensable tool to help you pursue holiness for the Lord’s sake and for your joy.

Note: This book review first appeared at Heritage Bible Church’s blog.

Are you new to the Washington D.C. Metro region? I’d like to share some helpful tools with you that have aided our church members in getting jobs, finding housing, and thriving in the area. In particular, I’m blogging this for several individuals and families who are prayerfully planning to relocate to Alexandria in order to help out our church plant.

Find Housing

• Roommate Connection – the best place to find a Christian housemate in the D.C. area, a forum run by McLean Bible Church.

Coffee Shops

• Indie Coffee Houses – Northern Virginia Magazine’s guide to coffee shops. An indispensable tool for a church planting team member.
• Starbucks – For you Starbucks lovers out there, I’ve got good news! There are more Starbucks cafes per capital in the Washington D.C. Metro region than anywhere else in the country. 1.81 Starbucks for every 10,000 people. Here’s where to find them.

Traffic & Travel

• Trafficland.com – View real time traffic cameras before you hit the road for work or play.
• Google Maps – Click on “Traffic” to see the color coded status of the roads you want to travel on. Or search for bus, or bicycle-friendly, or walkable routes.
• Get There Blog – The Washington Post’s Dr. Gridlock & their Transportation Team help you plan on how to get around with so many special events, construction, and traffic incidents in the area.

Cost of Living

• CNN Calculator – Calculate how much utilities, housing, food, childcare, and other expenses cost compared to where you are moving from. An important tool to consult as you prepare to move here.

D.C. Metro Area Alerts & News

• Alexandria City e-News – Alexandria city emails me updates regarding life in the city and how it may affect my day. I highly recommend this e-newsletter.
• Capital Alerts – Want to hear about travel disruptions, weather alerts, and school closings? This email list is the place for D.C. Metro wide announcements.
• Capital Weather Gang – Keep apprised of how weather will affect your commute or recreation travel plans. I follow this blog via twitter as well at @capitalweather

Jobs, Home, & Items To Purchase

• Craig’s List – My wife Christy found both jobs she held in the D.C. area on Craig’s List. In addition, our church families buy all sorts of used items, especially furniture, via this site.
• Google Real Estate Map – See homes for sale where you want to move.

Virginia License, Registration, Voting

• VA DMV – This is an indispensable site for you if you’re relocating to Northern Virginia. You’ll find DMV locations, forms, and explanations for transferring your driver’s license, car registration, and even voting in Virginia.

Grace Church’s Community

• CameronStationBlog.com – This blog shares about community events and news for Cameron Station, the planned community in which Grace Church of Alexandria meets for worship at the local public school.

If you’d like to share a resource that I haven’t mentioned here, please add your ideas via the comments section at the bottom.