I am attaching a sermon that a friend of mine gave a few years ago. He asked me to import it from a cassette tape. I am posting it here so that he can download it. Plus, it gave me an excuse to add an audio player to the blog.

Download the sermon by right-clicking on the link:

The Relevant Church

I like to listen to Mark Driscoll’s sermons. He works through books; he is funny; he is real; he is direct. I know he isn’t perfect, but I still like his sermons. I was listening to one of his sermons in the car yesterday, and he threw out this quip, which made me laugh. It shows just how far technology has changed.
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So, in my training blog, I posted about expository preaching and said that I need to explain more about it.

This post is intended to be my reasons why I believe that expository preaching is one of the best systems for a church to use.
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Over at JollyBlogger, David Wayne has posted a great post about the dangers of putting too much into deep exegesis.

JOLLYBLOGGER: The Problem of Over-Exegesis
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Was back at Cruise Intervals again tonight. This time I upped the intensity a little bit by trying to maintain a HR within the Aerobic Capacity range (167-172 HR) for 12 minutes. So this was an increase in intensity and in length. The reason for this is that I am increasing intensity for three weeks. Next week, I will drop back and take a recovery week before starting to increase intensity again. Apparently, this is the way to increase fitness.

First, let me say that this workout was a challenge. There were a couple times that I was feeling a little light headed on the bike. I was able to finish all of the intervals, and felt okay, but tired afterwards.

Now the statistics:

Warm Up, 10 min., 119 Avg. HR.
Cruise Interval, 12 min., 165 Avg. HR.
Recovery, 2 min., 150 Avg. HR.
Cruise Interval, 12 min., 164 Avg. HR.
Recovery, 2 min., 148 Avg. HR.
Cruise Interval, 12 min., 165 Avg. HR.
Recovery/Cool Down, 10 min., 136 Avg. HR.
Total Workout, 1 hour, 152 Avg. HR, 172 Max. HR.

During the workout, I listened to not one, but two sermons by Erik Braun. The first was on the Word of God, the Church’s Ultimate Authority. This was really an extension of the sermon I listened to last week on worship. Erik and I agree that the teaching of the Word is not distinct from worship. Rather, it is one expression of worship. The Word of God is also an authority for both the church and for individual believers. The commandments and ordinances within scripture should be seen within our lives. He made a point that I really liked. The measure for all churches is the standard within scripture. No church meets this standard. The goal for churches is not to compare our church with their church. Rather it is to compare our church with the standard of scripture, to realize that we are lacking and to endeavor to improve in our areas of weakness. Very good stuff.

The second sermon was The Community of Believers. In this sermon, Erik discusses the need for churches to “remain in brotherly love.” He jokes in the sermon that we should all live in Philadelphia, but that is a rather stiff application of the phrase. We should have fellowship, evidenced by love, meeting needs, prayer, and support. The gospel compels us to love our brothers, and to love strangers. That is pretty much everyone. It is obvious that the church falls woefully short of this standard.

Tags: training, bicycle, cycling, bike, Erik Braun, worship, Word, Community