The Invention of Dying
Blog | Resolved to Reflect: Easter | John Bale
9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death. – Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions
The legendary comedian Lenny Bruce once joked that, “If Jesus had been killed 20 years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.”
The joke is funny because it’s probably true. But it also serves to highlight the fact that we are uncomfortable with The Cross and what it represents, so we try to avoid it. Just look at the Easter holiday we just celebrated— how many people have replaced The Cross with a magic bunny rabbit?
It is easy to appreciate and celebrate the things that Jesus did in life, but his death makes us uncomfortable. So we look for ways to separate the purposeful life he lived from the brutal death that seems like it must have been some sort of tragic accident of cosmic proportions.
But the truth is that the purposeful life of Jesus cannot be separated from his purposeful death.
The Gospel truth of Easter is that God Himself invented death so that Jesus could die.
Paul Sees Jesus!
Easter Sunday 2012 | Selected Texts | Pastor Duane Smets
This year’s Easter sermon follows the experience and eyewitness account of Paul beginning with his reflections on life before believing in Jesus, which included hatred for Jesus and his church, all the way through his conversion and life lived for Jesus until his death. This sermon was originally preached April 8th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
An Invitation to Invite
INVITE SOMEONE AND BRING THEM WITH YOU THIS EASTER!
Blog | Robert Knox
Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Luke 10:2. As we celebrate the joy of Christ’s resurrection this Easter, God is calling us to look upon our city and share our excitement. Jesus is asking us to pray earnestly and act boldly by inviting people to His celebration.
On Monday evening a group of people from our church body went out into the neighborhood surrounding our meeting halls and invited our neighbors in Bay Park to celebrate Easter with us. The group handed out hundreds of invitations to people in the neighborhood and left many more invitations for nearby residents. We shared the gospel with residents we encountered and prayed over the invitations we distributed. It was a gratifying experience and everyone should be excited to meet the neighbors who turn out for our Easter services!
As the Apostle Paul put it, “I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” Philemon 1:6. God is calling us to be on mission this Easter and, by inviting our friends and neighbors to join us, God intends that we realize yet more the blessings we have in Christ.
INVITE SOMEONE AND BRING THEM WITH YOU THIS EASTER!
Reflections on The Men’s Retreat #2
Blog | 2012 Resolved Men’s Retreat | Ryan Calihan
Two weekends ago was the Resolved Church’s Men’s Retreat. It was a perfect chance to take time off from work, romp around in the snow, and do manly things. We ate, we drank, and we fought (All in moderation, mind you); and in general had a really good time just doing stuff together. Some highlights for me were hiking in the snow (I think my hiking shoes are still a little wet from that…) and Derek’s right hook to my jaw that made me see stars for half a minute.
I was also particularly excited for men’s retreat because it was a weekend filled with worship and teaching, and because at least half the guys going were people I had never gotten to know before.
Sandwiching an array of the manly, rowdy, and raucous behavior were 2+ hour long sessions of worship, teaching, discussion, and prayer. During these times we looked into the biblical qualifications and callings of manhood. Duane separated each of these sessions into the following themes: The High Calling of, The Hindrances of, The Head and Heart of, and The Habits of Manhood (notice the clever alliteration). Each session was both deeply convicting and encouraging, giving us some of practical knowledge and skills we need to grow up and man up.
Resources on Money
Blog | Pastor Duane Smets
I remember my first piggy bank my parents got me as a child and I remember the day I finally cracked it open to get out all those coins. I remember the first big ticket item I saved up and purchased. I was in Junior High in the late 80′s and bought myself a boombox stereo. I remember my first credit card I signed up for as a freshman in college and I remember having to cut that credit card up six years later in order to better care for my new marriage. I remember making a mess of my bank account and spending hours trying to balance an unbalanceable checkbook. I remember having to learn some financial lessons the hard way. And I remember most of all the grace of Godly men who took the time to talk to me about money, how to handle it properly, how it can so easily grab ahold of a person’s heart and how only the gospel is sufficient to save us from serving money.
We live in a world where cash flow is constant. We spend money almost every single day…whether it’s coffee, a meal, gas, groceries, a household necessity…we are constantly using money. Radio, TV, movies, product placement, billboards, brochures, pop-ups, sponsors and all kinds of other mediums are ever pressing in for our attention asking us to spend money on their item or service. Without a view of money and without a plan of how to handle it the likelihood of becoming overly indulgent, overextended or both is quite high. But even worse is how the human heart will either become elated in a sense of power in the wielding money or become covetous and jealous in the desire for money.
The Bible teaches that none of us own anything. All we have is God’s and all the money we ever get comes from him (1 Chr 29:11-12). Money is meant to be a means to glorify God. This is the most important lesson we could learn about money. When we truly view money as something God has entrusted to us it changes our whole outlook of how we handle it, since it’s coming out his bank account.
Many have never have been taught well about money. Many have been foolish and rebellious with money. Many have never learned the superior joy of generosity versus greed. Many have never learned the discipline of first-fruits, the giving of a first portion of one’s income back to God. Most of all many have never seen how the message of the gospel is truly a trade of our personal poverty for the riches of the redeemer.
For information on giving and online giving options go to http://www.theresolved.com/giving to find out more. Below are are articles, books, sermons and interviews from various Godly and trusted resources that will help you learn and apply what God has told us in his book for our good regarding money.
The Church and Money
The Church and Money | The Book of Acts | 4:32-37 | Pastor Duane Smets
This an expository sermon on Acts 4:32-37. It covers the example of the early church in how they were caring for one another and the church financially. The sermon focuses on the importance of a church has a oneness of heart and mind by focusing on Jesus, what needs are, the resources and responsiblity we have to take care of the needs, how we are to trust the church leaders to make wise financial decisions and how only the Gospel can fuel generous giving that is not motivated by either guilt or the desire to control. This sermon was originally preached on April 1st, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego,CA.
Reflections on The Men’s Retreat
Blog | 2012 Resolved Men’s Retreat | Brad Hutchison
My weekend at camp…
I used to work at camp- for a long time… It’s where I met my wife. I’m a huge believer in camp ministry. The night before a number of us left for The Resolved Retreat, I realized that I had been on the service end of like, a hundred Men’s retreats, but this was ging to be my first as an attendee. With all my camp experience, I had some expectations. Foremost among them: I was expecting a camp.
What I was not expecting was a giant house.
How I Came To Embrace The Doctrine Of Predestination
Blog | Pastor Duane
I grew up in a home where we were in church every Sunday as a family. We had a plaque with the ten commandments hanging on our wall, prayed before every meal and were taught the Bible as the Word of God.
In my teenage years I rebelled against God and tried to one up the prodigal son the best I could. After nearly four years of eating the pig stie-food of the world my restless heart came to rest in the gracious arms of the Savior.
It was my freshman year of college. I had never read the Bible before, didn’t know anything about God other than what I had heard growing up and I literally cut out cussing, smoking, drinking, and drugs over night. It was as if Holden Caulfield got saved.
I’ll never forget that first year as a new Christian. Everything about Jesus seemed easy back then. The Bible was new and exciting to me, filled with a ton of stories and every one of them seem full of life and immediately relevant to me. I found deep and close friendships with other Christians, many of whom I’m still close with today.
The next year wasn’t quite the spiritual joy ride, though the college years are nevertheless still the easy ride in comparison to the responsibilities of “real life.” As my new found faith began to mature I soon discovered there were a lot of different types of Christians out there and not every one of them believed the same thing.
In regards to the topic of this blog I remember one pointed conversation I had with a surfing buddy of mine. It was after a Bible study from a ministry called “surf ‘n’ serve” I was a part of. I don’t remember how we got talking about it but he brought up the doctrine of predestination and was showing me some verses in the Bible about it. I had never heard of predestination before in my entire life and the mere idea of it just made me angry.
My buddy and I ended up in a shouting match and I remember yelling at him and saying, “I don’t care what you say or what you think the Bible says, but I know that I CHOSE TO PUT FAITH IN CHRIST!” And then I went back to my dorm room, got a hold of a concordance and looked up every verse I could that talked about making choices to live for God. Verses like Joshua 24:15 “Choose this day whom you will serve” and Deuteronomy 30:19 “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life…”
The Church In Prayer
The Church In Prayer | The Book of Acts | 4:23-31 | Pastor Duane Smets
This an expository sermon on Acts 4:23-31. It covers the prayer meeting of the early church followed by Peter and John’s release from prison. The sermon focuses on the importance of a church united in prayer, the significance of God being sovereign and predestining all things in accordance with our prayers, the relationship between good deeds and prayer and praying for God to empower us to speak the Gospel. This sermon was originally preached on March 25th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
Report on the Ligonier Conference
Blog | Josh Feil
Last weekend Pastor Duane and I got a chance to attend the Ligonier National Conference in Orlando, Florida. Ligonier is a ministry of Dr. R.C. Sproul that exists to help Christians grow in their knowledge of God and his holiness. This was the 25th year of their national conference.
We wanted to share some highlights of the conference and show how God has been working in some of your leaders, especially the one who preaches the Word week in and week out.
The theme of the conference was “The Christian Mind.” The line-up was stacked with professors and pastors from all over the country who spoke on the importance of having a mature, disciplined and renewed mind.
One of the points that every speaker touched on in some way or another was that without the Holy Spirit renewing our mind to think rightly about God, we can never worship God rightly. They fleshed this out by touching on the connection between the heart and the mind, the effects of sin on the mind and how important it is to fill our minds with Scripture so that we can understand more and more of who God is.
Pastor Duane and I had a number of opportunities to process through the lectures together and after having a few days back in San Diego, he gave me three points to share with the church that really stuck out to him from the conference:
1. As a pastor, there aren’t many opportunities to get challenged at a high intellectual level, so having three days to sit under and learn from some of the brightest theologians and preachers in the country was a real privilege.
2. Most of the people attending the conference were well into their later years. Seeing the legacy and seriousness with which these men were taking their roles as ministers gave great perspective on leaving a legacy and being a mature man.
3. The importance of and the connection between the head and the heart. Nothing worshipful can happen in our hearts unless our minds are filled with the knowledge of God and his holiness. We really sensed a renewed spirit of vigor and hunger for sound theology, especially in understanding the impact of theology on life and daily decisions.
The elders of the church recently asked Duane to attend two conferences a year for his personal and pastoral growth. It is vital for those who are pouring out so much energy and time to have a chance to be filled and poured into by men who have spent a lifetime digging into and exploring the things of God. So thank you for allowing your pastor to have a break from teaching so that he can be taught and enjoy sitting under the Word, which alone contains the words of living water.
To find out more about Ligonier and the great resources they offer, visit
