Monday, August 1, 2011

First Sermon Series

One of the things that I hope will become distinctive about Ember is our preaching style and philosophy. I think it's important for us to preach biblically and exegetically, which means that we'll spend a lot of time working our way through whole books, or major sections, of Scripture. We won't be doing a lot of topical preaching, though that may be necessary occasionally.

Our first sermon series is going to be a 12 week journey through the book of Jeremiah. The series is called Run With Horses, which is the name of an excellent book by Eugene Peterson, as well as a powerful metaphor taken from Jeremiah 12:5. It was that verse and that concept that set me on the course of planting this church almost a year ago.


I've finished the first three sermons and am working on the fourth one today. Writing these sermons has been such a joy, even if they are all taken from texts in the second most depressing book in the Bible! I believe that God has drawn me to Jeremiah because he wants to wage war against the idols of our hearts, and idolatry is the primary concern of Jeremiah the prophet. The insights that I've gleaned so far have been extremely challenging, and I can't wait to preach them to you.

God wants to wage war against the idols of your heart. Come join us for our Jeremiah series, and get on the winning side of that war. The first service is August 14 @ 5pm, 401 E. Schrock Rd.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Andy,

Your Ember excitement is contagious! I'd love to be in OH on 14 Aug and join you.

I recently reread Jeremiah (part of my work-through-the-entire-Bible reading plan), and was pleasantly surprised that it was not at all the discouraging book I was psyching myself up for it to be. There were places where it felt like Jeremiah knew me and knew exactly what I needed to here! (Shameless self-promotion: I blogged about Jeremiah here if you missed it: http://wp.me/ppjHj-de.)

So, just out of curiosity, if Jeremiah is the second most depressing book in the Bible, what's the first most depressing book? Lamentations? I'm currently traversing through Ezekiel and finding lots of it to be tough going.

Peace and blessings to you and your family!
~Stan