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…