Archives for January 11, 2021

This morning I finished teaching my 16-hour class on Reformed experiential preaching to Dr. MacArthur’s doctoral students at TMS. It was great to be with these men and to interact with them over the past five days. Pray that God will bless their classes for a lifetime of fruitful ministry. 

We are now winging our way home from California, and must now pivot to get ready to begin a new semester at Puritan Reformed Seminary next week. Please pray for God’s indispensable blessings for another year of teaching our 200+ theological students. Without Christ, we can do nothing. Pray that God would rend the heavens and come down and bless our school and its faculty, staff, and students mightily with the power and unction of His Holy Spirit.  

We enjoyed a good time of fellowship with Michael and Janna Riccardi and their family yesterday afternoon. Rev. Riccardi is a pastor at Grace Community Church who often preaches for Dr. MacArthur. He is a gifted, godly young man who also spoke at our last PRTS Conference. Presently, he is completing his PhD degree—hopefully by April. Pray that God will continue to use him greatly for His kingdom.

Yesterday morning I was privileged to preach for Dr. John MacArthur at Grace Community Church on “How Should We Live and Die?” to about 3500 attendees. My good friend Dr. Steve Lawson (see photo above) followed up my message from Philippians 1 by preaching an unforgettable sermon in the evening on persevering in running the Christian race from Philippians 3:11-14. Particularly moving for me were his three points about “forgetting what is behind” while pressing forward. He stressed that if we are in Christ we are to (1) forget our past sins because they are nailed to the cross, (2) forget our past sufferings, and (3) forget our past successes—and put all our energy into running for the high prize of our calling in Christ. It was a blessed day.