Sermon by Pastor Vincent Bourrel

Thanks to Desiring God and Cruciform Editions, we have distributed free copies of John Piper’s book “God is the Gospel” in the last weeks, if you do not have yours, I encourage you to pass by the bookstore to pick one up. If you have one but have not yet started reading it, I would like in this message to give you a little bit of content, so it will encourage you to go until the end. 

So, this morning I am in the skin of John Piper and hopefully I will not betray his thought too much, but above all, that we will have a clear understanding of God’s Gospel.

Reading of 2 Corinthians 4 : 3-6

« And even if our gospel is veiled ; it is veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is he image of God. For he do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servant for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. »

When a person becomes a Christian and perceives the beauty of the gospel for the first time, they usually have an overwhelming urge to share this good news with those close to them. But what a surprise and what a disappointment when you realize that their enthusiasm is not as contagious as you imagined. Why do your friends seem blind to the new realities that now shine before your eyes?

Sermon by Pastor Sam Niblack

More than any of Paul’s letters, Philippians is the most joyful, the most uplifting, the most encouraging. (We thought it would be useful to study it considering the covid situation…) In this letter, we discover that Paul himself is a joyful and encouraging person. This is extremely unusual given his circumstances! This letter lists things that could rob us of joy: in ch 1) prison, persecution, ch2), the illness of a close friend, ch 3) the yoke of a religion and the feeling of never being able to do enough for God, or the pride of those who believe they are succeeding, (it’s hard to be a proud and joyful person!); ch 4) interpersonal conflict (which seems to impact the whole church), with thoughts that invade us, that bother us. But each time, Paul says: I rejoice, you too: rejoice!

But there is a topic that has not been addressed so far, it is perhaps the one on which our society makes us depend on joy the most easily: it is about money, about material goods. A bill, a statement at the end of the month, a tax return, there’s nothing quite like it to deprive us of joy…

Sermon by Aurelien Duperchy, apprentice pastor

Introduction:

Can we speak of peace in an era when conflict is everywhere in the world? It’s daring, but yes, I believe we can, as the Bible addresses it. But Christians are not immune to conflict, the church is not an atomic bunker. The adversary tries to sneak into the church and unfortunately succeeds. And unfortunately, it happens all too often. If we don’t take refuge in Jesus who is the prince of peace, we are doomed. We need to take refuge in him because he is better than any bunker.

When we hear about peace, we usually mean the absence of war, but in the Word of God, peace goes beyond an absence of evil, of suffering of any kind, and today, we are going to see how peace goes beyond the absence of evil.

Our source of peace is in God and it is because the world does not seek God, that it is not at peace. How can we find peace and become peacemakers in this world depraved by evil?

Sermon by Damien Jourdain

THE PROBLEM
Last Sunday, Vincent preached his message on the first part of Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 to 11. He showed us how Paul effected a drastic transfer in the bank account of his life. All the qualities, the successes, whatever gave him a name and a reputation, he transferred them from the “profits” column to the “loss” column. For he understood the excellence of Christ. And when you take hold of it, the « Excellence of Christ », everything else pales in comparison. There is no competition, Christ becomes the ultimate gain, and everything else becomes loss.

Like many of you, Sara and I on Tuesday evening logged onto Zoom to discuss this message with our cell group. One of the questions asked was « What is Paul’s goal? Is it also yours? » Paul’s goal, it was clear, was Christ. Christ, Christ, Christ. That was the easy part to answer. Now, is that also your goal? So there, a little more embarrassed silence … I think it was Donatien who broke the silence for us: “Yes, well, we too must have Christ as our goal. But do we do it?… that’s harder to answer. » Indeed, it is more difficult…

Sermon by Pastor Vincent Bourrel

Introduction
In verse 1, Paul, who is in prison, addresses the Philippians who (as we know from reading 2 Corinthians 8) were very poor and were in great need. He said to them « Rejoice in the Lord » and to consider Christ as so precious, as such a great treasure, that although being in prison, in affliction or in poverty, to know and belong to him and to be with him forever gives you joy. ‘Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same
things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.’

In church, we need to remind one another of this truth. Paul never tires of repeating the same things, both for them and for us. But what exactly is he talking about? I believe he is introducing what is to follow, it is intimately linked to our joy. And these things are so important that he is willing to repeat them as often as needed because they are beneficial, because they are for our salvation.