My Portion My Cup

Psalm 16

Today, we will take a step back from the series in the book of John. As you saw in your program and as we talked about last week, we will start a new series on relationships in February. But right now, we are going to turn our hearts to focus on God’s provision and prepare to take communion together.

The passage for today is chapter 16 from the book of Psalms. It is a beautiful psalm of trust and of testimony of what God has done for us. Because it is a personal prayer in the first person, I’d like for us to read the entire Psalm together out loud. The words are on the screen, so please direct your attention there and let’s read aloud together. Now since we all have to look up and keep our eyes open in order to read off the screen, I can’t ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes in prayer. But, I want you to read the psalm with a mindset and a heart attitude of prayer. Even though we are all together in a group, I want each person to read it with the frame of reference that you individually are speaking to God.

Let’s try this together. Psalm 16:

Logos.Son

John 1:19-34

Good morning! Today we are continuing our look into the first chapter of the Gospel of John. We focus on verses 19 to 34; most of this passage involves John the Baptist, whom John-the-gospel-writer simply calls John. I think a good place to start is back in Luke chapter 1, where the angel of the Lord appears to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, back before John is even born. Here is the passage:

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” – Luke 1:11-17

Logos.Man

John 1:6-18

Good morning! Today we are continuing our look into the first chapter of the Gospel of John. In order to have some idea of context and continuity, I want to start with a brief review of what we talked about last week. The book of John begins with this:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. – John 1:1-5

Last week we talked about God’s intriguing choice to explain the story of everything through the use of the word “Word,” logos in Greek. The logos was a main theme of this opening to book of John, and our title last week reflected this, LOGOS.GOD, where I explained last week that the title didn’t refer to a website, but instead borrowed on a type of notation found in a variety of computer programming languages. When one writes firstthing.secondthing, it means that the secondthing is an attribute, or property, of the firstthing. And so the idea was that LOGOS.GOD meant that “God” is an attribute or property of “Logos.”

Logos.God

John 1:1-5

[Video shown:  Kimyal Bible 10 minute version – this video shows the great joy the Kimyal Tribe of Papua, Indonesia have as they receive the first copies of the New Testament in their own language.]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. – John 1:1-5

This is our main text today – these 5 verses, the opening of the Gospel of John. In the video, did you notice how some of the themes of these verses were shared by these Kimyal people? They talked about the Word, and they talked about Light. This day they received the Bible in their own language was a glorious beginning for them, as they were receiving the Word.

Who We Are in Christ A to Z

Created by John Hopler, Great Commission Churches

We are…

Alive in Christ
Ephesians 2:4-5 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

Blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

Ephesians 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”