It’s not often that a church gets the opportunity to celebrate the launch of a book by one of its members (unless its pastor is John Piper or some other author). But on Saturday evening PBC had such an opportunity. One of our former pastors, Sam Simpson, who is retired and once again a member [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Church’
November 9, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
Sunday morning (Remembrance Sunday, so we began our service with a short act of remembrance) was the second week of a new series I am preaching on the life and times of Moses. Last week I started with an overview, looking at the three phases of his life which DL Moody famously summarised as 40 [...]
September 27, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
This morning we finished our series on the heroes of faith of Hebrews 11. I actually preached on the first two verses of Hebrews 12, where the spotlight moves from those who have run their race and have taken their seats to us. The basic command of the verses is that we are to run [...]
September 21, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
Faith refuses to accept the inevitable but it learns to keep trusting in the unexplainable. That seems to be the clear teaching of the final section of Hebrews 11 where the writer talks about faith’s wonderful accomplishments then goes on to talk about people who by faith were sawn in two.
In yesterday morning’s sermon we [...]
September 16, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
Sunday was a Daniel-themed day. In the morning, which was also our ministry fair, with various ministries displaying their work and encouraging people to be involved, we got to Hebrews 11’s mention of the prophets and of people who by faith muzzled lions and quenched flames.
As we looked at the stories of Daniel and his [...]
August 31, 2009
Sunday preaching
Yesterday was our last summer Sunday at Portstewart Baptist. Truth to tell, summer weather has been in short supply for a few weeks now, but it’s still August. So it was our last family service of the season (led by the local SU worker). My summer Sunday morning series has turned out to be longer [...]
August 24, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
Every picture tells a story. The one on the left doesn’t quite reflect much of the weather that has been seen on the north coast over the past week. Summer is winding down and yesterday was the penultimate family service of the season, led by the team that was responsible for our holiday Bible week [...]
August 17, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist Church
There are only two more weeks of our summer schedule to go this year. Tim Robinson who leads the work of Exodus in Coleraine took our family service and I was preaching at the other morning service and at the communion service in the evening.
The morning was the next part in the Hebrews 11 series [...]
August 9, 2009
Preaching on hope in a warehouse!
This morning I was preaching at Glenabbey Church in Newtownabbey. It was my first time to preach there, though I have visited the church several times over recent years. It’s a vibrant church that is built on a very contemporary style, allied to clear and relevant Bible teaching.
My brief was to preach one part of [...]
August 3, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist Church
Yesterday was the first Sunday in August – though the weather here the past few days has been more like the last weekend in October. I was preaching at two services at PBC, in the morning continuing the series on Hebrews 11 and in the evening spending a bit more time on the story of [...]
July 28, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
I preached at just one of our three services this Sunday – our 11 a.m. service where I resumed the series on faith from Hebrews 11. This week the focus was on the faith of Abraham whose faith, along with Sarah’s faced the future when the future was uncertain (his call to leave home), when [...]
July 25, 2009
Gospel-Centered Discipleship: How It Looks | TheResurgence
Gospel-Centered Discipleship: How It Looks | TheResurgence
Let the gospel be the heart of your church from beginning to end.
July 20, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
New Horizon Sunday tends to be our biggest Sunday of the year and yesterday was no exception to this.
We had members of some of the New Horizon Scripture Union teams leading our family service to start the day. That service was no sooner finished than people were beginning to arrive for the 11 a.m. As [...]
July 17, 2009
Ray Ortlund at PBC
This Sunday morning we welcome Ray Ortlund as the guest speaker at our 11 a.m. service. Ray is visiting Northern Ireland as one of the main speakers at New Horizon, which gets underway tomorrow evening.
Ray is the Pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville. He contributed the notes on Isaiah to the recent ESV Study Bible. [...]
July 15, 2009
A History of the Baptists – 400th anniversary in 2009
Mark Thompson, blogging in County Down, has written about the history of Baptists – 400 years old this year. After a couple of paragraphs on 17th century Baptists in Northern Ireland, he posts an article on Turning Points in Baptist History. The article was written by Walter Shurden from the Center for Baptist Studies in [...]
July 13, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
This past weekend was the start of what is known in these parts as “The 12th Fortnight” – the two main summer holiday weeks. Today and tomorrow are public holidays in connection with the Orange marches that look back to the days of William of Orange over 3 centuries ago. Anyone who knows anything about [...]
July 10, 2009
Summer Sundays at Portstewart Baptist
July and August Sundays get very busy at PBC as many folk visit during the holiday weeks. For the two months we add a second morning service – a short early morning geared for families as well as our regular mid morning and evening services.
On the mornings that I am preaching over the summer, I [...]
June 17, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist Church
Sunday past was the last day before a two week holiday break. In the morning we finished the series on Philippians. It’s the first time I have preached through that particular letter. It’s a rich book with plenty to preach.
For the last message the focus was on the last part of the 4th chapter where [...]
June 10, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist Church
On Sunday morning I preached on the first half of Philippians 4. The issues range from resolving disagreement (the story of Euodia and Synthyche), through rejoicing and refusing to be anxious, to thinking about what is good and excellent. I summed it up by talking about what it means to live positively relationally (seeking agreement), [...]
May 31, 2009
Sunday sermon at Portstewart Baptist
This morning – warm sunshine, summer has arrived – we had a good crowd for a varied service at PBC. Two special parts of the service were, first, a 10 minute talk from a local representative of the Gideons – famous for their evangelistic distribution of the Bible – and, second, a prayer for the [...]
May 27, 2009
This week’s Sunday update from PBC
This past Sunday was a second (smaller) holiday weekend for May – so our overflow was in summer mode to accommodate the morning congregation.
In the morning we were looking at part of Philippians 3 where Paul talks about the difference knowing Jesus has made to his balance sheet of religious status and achievement. The challenge [...]
May 20, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
Already half-way through the week, but here and here are the audio links to the two sermons I preached on Sunday.
In the morning we were looking at the second half of Philippians 2. Technically the first paragraph of that (from verse 12) belongs with the rest of Paul’s appeal that started in 1:27, but we [...]
May 10, 2009
Sunday morning at Portstewart Baptist
This morning’s message looked at then theme of attitude from Philippians 1:27-2:11. The best known part of that section is the group of verses that deal with the humbling and exaltation of Christ. There has been a great deal of speculation that this may have been an early Christian hymn: whether or not that is [...]
May 7, 2009
Men, church and macho hymns
A number of news sources have reported an item this week about men and church. Among the findings is that men prefer to sing hymns that are proclamational or anthemic. There are other comments about hugging and sitting around discussing.
Following is the top ten list of hymns from the survey on which the item [...]
April 29, 2009
Philippians at Portstewart Baptist
On Sunday morning I preached the first of what is planned to be an 8 week series on Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. I’m putting it under the heading of Living a Gospel-Centred Life.
The first message looked at Paul’s prayer for, and partnership with the Philippians (1:3-11).
He was grateful for their partnership.
He was [...]
April 12, 2009
Easter Sunday at Portstewart Baptist Church
Easter Sunday is one of our biggest and busiest Sundays of the year at PBC. The day started (at least for those whose alarm clocks got them up early enough) at 6 with an early morning service by the sea along with two of the other churches in town. Our youth pastor led a well [...]
April 6, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
After a couple of Sunday mornings when we have had guest speakers (March was starting to look like a Who’s Who of the Evangelical world), I spoke yesterday morning with the last part of our vision-related series on becoming a gospel-centred church.
To conclude the series, we looked at the story of the Antioch church in [...]
March 30, 2009
Luis Palau at Portstewart Baptist
March has been something of a guest preacher month at PBC. George Verwer of Operation Mobilisation visited at the start of the month, Ian Coffey from Moorlands Theological College was with us last week and yesterday we had Luis Palau. Luis stands with Billy Graham as one of the most effective mass evangelists of the [...]
March 23, 2009
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist Church
March has been an unusual month for us as we have three visiting speakers over the five Sunday mornings. At the start of the month we had George Verwer of Operation Mobilisation and yesterday we had Ian Coffey who serves on the faculty of Moorlands Theological College. Previously Ian led Crossroads Church just outside Geneva [...]
March 17, 2009
Sunday morning at PBC – the book of Acts
On Sunday morning we were thinking about the mission of a gospel-centred church. I took three themes from the book of Acts which need to be true for the church today if we are to play our part in the ongoing story.
We need to believe in the sovereign control of God.
We need to be convinced [...]
