Adam's Podcast

March 22, 2009 - Series: At the Cross Sermon: No Condemnation - Luke 7:36-50; John 3:17; Romans 8:1 We’ve all seen people struggling through an airport weighed down by all the baggage they are trying to carry. People who would love to be relieved of their burden - grateful if someone removed just some of that weight from their shoulders. Today, we read the story of a woman who shows up at a dinner party carrying all sorts of baggage. The luggage of her sin weighs her down, the knowledge of what she has done bears heavily upon her heart and mind. The collective weight of her condemnation is crushing her. This morning, we sang that familiar hymn “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” Some churches have sought to soften the message of those lyrics by changing “saved a wretch like me” to “saved someone like me.” One theologian, surprised at this change, muttered: “If I’m not a wretch, grace isn’t amazing.” The woman in this story understood how amazing grace was because she stum

March 15, 2009 – Acts 2:37-41, 8:34-38, 16:30-33 – What shall we do? (Baptism Service) We had some problems with the recording equipment on Sunday morning so this a "re-recording" of the sermon. That Sunday evening we further discussed Baptism and I went into detail about modes (methods) of baptism and why it is we baptize adults and not infants. I included this extended discussion as part of the recording. We opened our baptism service with a clip from the movie O Brother Where Art Thou. You can watch the (unedited) clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82_bhD0_Trw (link opens in a new window). Or watch here:

March 8, 2009 – Wise Investments - Series: "Being the Church" - Matthew 25:14-30, Ephesians 2:10, 1 Peter 4:10-11. Today’s sermon is NOT about money. It's about something much, much more important. As we wrap up our series on “Being the Church” I’d like us to consider another type of investment. As a part of the Church - as a member of the Body of Christ - how will you invest what you’ve received? According to 1 Cor. 12:7, we who are part of the Church, have all received gifts - “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” So all of us who have been called to be a part of the Body of Christ have been filled by the Spirit of God and been given gifts by His Spirit for us to use for His glory. So the question is: “how will I make a wise investment of what I have received?” At one church’s VBS program, the kids always prayed at dismissal time: "I will do the best I can with what I have where I am for Jesus' sake today." How about you? How will you best invest what you

Date: March 1, 2009 Series: Being the Church Sermon: Loving Leaders, Faithful Followers Text: Acts 20:28; Heb. 13:17; 1 Thes. 5:12-13; 1 Tim. 3:1,13; 5:17 “Question Authority!” We live in a world that is inherently suspicious of authority. In our fear and suspicion, we have a tendency to throw the concept of authority completely out the window. We try to level the playing field and create a system somehow devoid of any real authority. As such, in our town governments here we have the familiar "New England town-hall" style of meeting. And somehow this "authority-less" form of government has crept its way into use in many of our New England churches. We live in a fallen world and we have seen the heinous abuse of authority. We all know well that spiritual authority is not exempt from such abuse. All one must say is “don’t drink the kool-aid” to remember how horrible and utterly tragic and abuse of spiritual authority can become. But the question with which we must wrestle this morning: is all authority

Date: 02/22/2009 Series: Being the Church Sermon: Internally Strong, Externally Focused Text: Matthew 28:18-20; John 17:14-18 There is a conversation that cycles through the church community – “where should we put our attention?” Should the Church’s emphasis be on becoming internally strong - GROWING the Saints? Or should our attention be focused externally - GOING to the lost and suffering? Should we be focused on GROWING or GOING? This question gets danced around, dissected, and debated in the church today: Internally Strong or Externally Focused? And I am here this morning to tell you that the answer is YES. YES, we need to be INTERNALLY STRONG - we dare not ever forsake our fellowship or our study. YES, we need to be EXTERNALLY FOCUSED - we dare not forsake a lost and dying world. These two emphases are NOT competing interests or mutually exclusive but rather we will see that these two realities are complementary. To be INTERNALLY STRONG we must be EXTERNALLY FOCUSED. At the same time, we canno

Date: 02/15/2009 Series: Being the Church Sermon: Defense of an Old-Fashioned Idea Text: Acts 4:32-33 I stumbled across ARTICLE V of our church Constitution titled CHURCH COVENANT. Did you even know we have a Church Covenant? My friends, I have been in this church coming up on six years as of July. NEVER ONCE have we read this covenant together as a body. NEVER ONCE have we asked anyone to consider or affirm this as part of attaining church membership. NEVER ONCE have we referred to it as we evaluate our corporate life together. It is glued inside the back cover of most of our hymnals, but we never read it, never use it, never refer to it. It is an entire article of our church constitution, however it might as well not exist because we utterly neglect and ignore it. At this juncture, we need to do one of two things: either change our church constitution and remove this Old-Fashioned silliness about covenanting together and being members of one another or start taking it seriously And my friends, if w

02/08/2009 – Series: Being the Church - Body by the Spirit – 1 Corinthians 12 Nowadays we have: Body by Jake Body by Glamour Body by Dr. Ted Body by Victoria and Body by Milk - because Milk does a Body good Corporately, as the Church, we here have a Body by the Spirit. Last week, we discussed how we are a community of the Spirit. What we will see today is that the Spirit makes us even more than a community, but in a real way, a Body. As 1 Corinthians 12:13,27 says, "So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body... Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." It is a mind-blowing concept that in some very real way, we are Jesus’ Body here on earth. We are His representatives, His ambassadors, His Body. We are Jesus to this world - His Body, His Voice, His Hands and His Feet. So to be the Church - we must understand what it means to be the Body of Christ - a Body by His Spirit.

02/01/2009 - Series: Being the Church, part 2 - A Community of the Spirit - Acts 1:4-5; 2:1-41 Last week we said the church is a community founded upon the Rock of the apostolic message – the divinely inspired confession of and message about Jesus Christ. The identity and message of Jesus Christ are foundational to the identity and message of the church. But while the church is gathered around the identity and message of Jesus Christ, the church is more than that. We will see today that the church is a Community of the Spirit. Remember that Matthew is the only Gospel that contains the Greek word ekklesia, that we translate as church (Matthew 16:18 and 18:17). The first occurrence of the word ekklesia after the gospels, comes at the end of Acts 2, the passage we will consider today (Acts 2:47). So while the church is a community built upon the Apostolic message about Jesus Christ, we will see today it is also a community of His Spirit. In the words of one commentator: “We must understand that the church

January 25, 2009 – ekklesia – Matt, 16:13-20; 18:15-18 For what the church is will determine what it does will determine how the church is to be organized. In other words: form follows function, function follows identity. So we must be clear upon the identity - the nature - of the church. On commentator put it this way, “The interrelationship of the three aspects is clear. The church is. The church does what it is. The church organizes what it does. The nature of the church is based on God’s presence through the Spirit. The ministry of the church flows out of the church’s nature. The organization of the church is designed to support the ministry of the church.” So today we embark upon a new sermon series, “Being the Church.” We will study that we might adequately answer this question: what is the church. For in answering this foundational question, all the other pieces will fall into place.

January 18, 2009 – Imago Dei - Genesis 1:27; 9:5-6; Prov. 31:8-9; Matthew 22:37-40 Imago Dei is Latin phrase used by theologians meaning "The Image of God." As Genesis 1:27 says: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." This concept of Imago Dei is an important one for us to understand for the concept possesses far reaching implications for a plethora of moral issues. Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday, a day in which we recognize that all human life is sacred - rich and poor; short and tall; sick and healthy; born and unborn; red, brown, yellow, black, and white – and all human life is precious in His sight. For ALL are created in God’s image And so we remember on this, Sanctity of Life Sunday that Imago Dei – the image of God borne by humanity - makes human life more than dignified, more than valuable, more that respectable - it makes human life sacred.

January 11, 2009 - State of the Church address: Grasshoppers or Giant Slayers, Numbers 13 & 14 Joshua and Caleb are men whose names have endured the test of time. Their deeds are NOT forgotten for they are men who never forgot God’s mighty deeds. These are men who, in faith, believed God’s unbelievable promises, trusted his unknowable strength, and knew His generous gifts. As such, these men became Giant Slayers – unstoppable, courageous, and remembered even until this day. However, the other ten men in this story, their names have been forgotten by the majority of people. Their story has been purged from our consciousness. Their existence is but the knowledge of but a few scholars. These men are forgotten for they forgot what God had done for them. These are men who, in fear, could not believe the unbelievable guidance, strength, and gifts of God. So and they became but grasshoppers – easily trampled, frightened, and forgotten. Today, Chestnut Street Baptist Church - as we face the two-hundred-and-fi

11/30/08 - 1 Tim. 6:3-10, 17-19 - Have Yourself a Money Little Christmas. Financial matters are mentioned more often in the Bible than prayer, healing, or mercy. Why? Because our pursuit of money always threatens to derail our pursuit of God. That’s exactly what had happened in the Church at Ephesus. In today’s passage, we will hear Paul condemn "men...who think that godliness is a means to financial gain" (6:4) and in 6:10, those "eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs..." It should cause us to rethink everything, even how we celebrate Christmas. For at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, so shouldn’t we reflect upon how our celebrations might better honor Him? Gift giving is in no way evil or bad. I love giving gifts to my kids and seeing their faces light up. But at the same time we must remember that in America, $457.4 billion was the total expected holiday sales in 2006. In 2007, shoppers around the country spent and average of $859

November 23, 2008 – 1 Tim 1:17; 6:15-16 – Thanksgiving As often happens in Paul's writings, when he begins to dwell upon God and re-tells the story of Grace – the story of Jesus Christ - he often breaks into doxology and thanksgiving (cf. Rom. 1:25; 9:5; 11:36; 16:27; Gal. 1:3-5; Eph 3:20-21; Phil. 4:20; 2 Tim. 4:18) Good theology should always lead us to doxology. Theology (theo - God & logos - words) words about God. Doxology (doxo - glory & logos - words) words of Glory. Right words about God should always lead to praise and giving glory to God. Twice in the short letter of First Timothy, Paul breaks into hymns of praise - both times, these hymns of ecstasy praise pour out as he reflects upon Jesus Christ. And so today - this Thanksgiving Season - we reflect upon what God has done, how he as provided, all that He has given and we too give thanks. Most importantly we, like Paul, remember what God has done for us in Jesus Christ – and we are eternally grateful.

November 16, 2008 – 1 Timothy 5:1-6:2 – House Rules - from the series: "Watch Your Step: A Study in First Timothy." In chapter Five of First Timothy, Paul reminds the church at Ephesus of the House Rules. As Paul wrote in 3:15 - the church is God’s Household. So when you're in God house - in His family - you play by His rules. We remember that the household at Ephesus was in disorder, wrought by the false teachers and the wayward leaders whom Timothy had been left to silence. For Timothy must help the church at Ephesus "Watch Its Step." For many have already been spiritually, theologically, emotionally injured by the landmines of falsehood laid by these false teachers. In God’s Household we play by House Rules - and here we learn that House Rules say: show RESPECT to all.

11/09/2008 – 1 Timothy 3:8-16 – "Leaders Worth Following - Deacons (part 2) - Deacons." From the series: "Watch Your Step: A Study through First Timothy." In the New Testament - and here in the letter of 1 Timothy - we see alongside the Elder another official role of church leadership. A role of equal importance but different function - the role of Deacon. The Greek diakonos that we translate here as Deacon is translated elsewhere in the New Testament literally as servant or minister. So who are these servant leaders? What is their role in the church? How do they function alongside the elders? And most personally, how should they all function today in 2008, here at Chestnut Street Baptist Church?

11/02/2008 – 1 Timothy 3:1-16 – Leaders Worth Following. First Timothy offers ample evidence that some of the false teachers at Ephesus were the very Elders charged with the care of God’s household. This would account for the extended treatment of the qualifications for church leadership here in 1 Tim. 3:1-16 and later the discipline of church leaders in 1 Tim. 5:17-22. Paul had predicted a day when some of the church leaders might go bad in his tearful farewell speech to the Ephesian church recorded in Acts 20:29-31: "I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!" As such Paul has written so that the church at Ephesus will know how people "ought to conduct themselves in God's household" (1 Tim. 3:15) and that the church might have "Leaders Worth Following". For if the church is to catch the Wind of God’s Spirit and be always read