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RTS 2024 Generosity Report

Many of our Reformed Theological Seminary friends and supporters have probably been receiving the RTS 2024 Generosity Report that was just recently mailed out. It is a testimony to God’s generous provision and to the faithful, sacrificial giving of thousands of our partners. We give thanks for what the Lord has supplied, what he has enabled us to do, and indeed what he has given us the privilege to do for him, for the church, this last year. Below are just a few of the highlights. In 2024, RTS donors contributed $12.9 million to RTS, supporting 2,038 students, and enabling them to take…

Obey Your Leaders

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. We’re going to be looking at verse 17 as we return to our study of this book and its last chapter. If you were going to give a topic heading for Hebrews 13:17-19 it would be, “The Responsibility of the Congregation to Its Spiritual Leaders.” And I think you could outline it in two parts: obey and pray. And we’ll look at the obey verse today, verse 17, and then we’ll look at the pray verses, 18 and 19, Lord willing. I’m really glad that I’m getting to preach this text to you now because it will be apparent that there’s no agenda in it for me. My purpose in preaching this sermon is not to get you to obey me. As the text unfolds, in fact, the reference is not to one person but to…

Ten Principles for Christian Giving (Part 2)

A Continuation of Ten Principles of Christian Giving: Very often people ask or wonder “what are the basic biblical principles for Christian giving?” As we seek God's answer to that question and contemplate our own giving to the Lord's Church in response to the clear teaching of His Word, perhaps it would be wise and helpful to review those principles. First, I would encourage you to read the following passages in the Word of God itself: Matthew 6:1-4; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8:9-15; and 2 Corinthians 9:6-7. In our review of these four New Testament passages, we find at least Ten Principles for Christian Giving: 6. The Bible teaches that Christian giving should be done in light of the incarnation. Many Christians argue about whether the tithe (10% of our…

Pastor’s Perspective November 22, 2013

Last Sunday morning I announced that our church is now debt free. This is a cause for thanksgiving to God and for a little explanation. When I arrived as your pastor back in the summer of 1996, you had just completed the Study Center, and we had significant debt on the books in association with that project. We paid that off in a couple of years, and, as I recall, we were debt free in 1999. Then came Twin Lakes expansions, phase one and phase two, the purchase of houses and property adjacent to our church campus, the purchase of property for Twin Lakes, and of course the sanctuary expansion project. All in all in my time with you, the congregation has undertaken well north of $20,000,000 in capital projects improving, expanding, and extending our facilities and church property (not…

What is the Gospel?

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to the gospel of John. We’re taking a break from our series in the book of Hebrews to look at the Gospel – what is the Gospel? There are wonderful summarizing statements of the Gospel all through the New Testament; there is none more familiar, more beloved, or clearer than this one. This passage comes in the middle of a conversation between Jesus and one of the most learned teachers in all of Israel, a man named Nicodemus,…

The Sum of Your Word is Truth

If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Psalm 119, verses 153 to 160. And you note, in the very opening words of this portion of Psalm 119 that the psalmist again is dealing with his own affliction and is crying out to God. How often we encounter this theme in the psalms. And so we should not be discouraged when we encounter affliction in our trials in this life. The psalmist himself knows this affliction. And I would say that this whole section is about how the…

Live Life as a Sacrifice of Praise

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. We’re going to be looking at verses 15 and 16 today. As we have worked our way through the book of Hebrews together, we have seen the theme repeated that we should continue to trust in Jesus. William Hendriksen says that the exhortation and argument of the whole book can be summarized this way: “Jesus is worthy of your faith. Have faith in Him and do not fall away.” Now the way we’ve been putting…

With My Whole Heart I Cry

Well we’re back in Psalm 119. You may have forgotten; I did! We were working on the sermon schedule and somebody said – I think it was Sean, he said, “Well Ligon, you need to finish the last four sections of Psalm 119.” I said, “I’ve already finished Psalm 119.” He said, “No you haven’t!” And I looked back and he was right! I hadn’t finished Psalm 119! And so we worked it into the schedule and I’m delighted that we have because this is a great psalm and…

Firstfruits

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to the book of Proverbs. We’re going to take a break this morning from our series in the book of Hebrews to look at the text that has been chosen by the deacon stewardship committee for our theme verse for Commitment Sunday. Today is the Lord’s Day on which we make our commitments to the support of the church’s work and worship for the year to come. And so at the end of this service we’ll make our pledges for the 2014…

Let Us Go to Jesus

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13 and look at verse 8. Our reading is going to be from verses 8 to 14 but go ahead and allow your eyes to scan just a little bit back up the page all the way to verse 1 and notice something. Before we do the reading, I want you to note two interesting things. The first thing I want you to note is this whole chapter is filled with exhortations about living the Christian life. We’ve emphasized that already. …