Mark Dever: Exposition of Ezekiel 37:1-14

I have been meaning to post this for some time, and since my posts have been sparse lately I thought I would go ahead and post this now. When I went to Louisville for the Together for the Gospel conference, I had the pleasure of hearing Mark Dever give a chapel message at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The message was a simple exposition of Ezekiel 37:1-14 and it was just filled with the gospel. It was the first time that I had ever seen Mark preach, and to be honest, I wasn't really sure what I thought of the guy. In fact, my thoughts of him were mostly negative.

To be clear, those thoughts had nothing to do with his theology, but his personality, or rather, what I assumed his personality was from hearing him on the 9marks website. Friends, I could not have been more wrong about Pastor Dever. The message was clear, humble, and loving. His expostion was precise and helpful and as I said before, the message made a bee-line to the cross. Enjoy and be edified friends!





Consequently, I almost wonder if Mark Dever is becoming one of my favorite teachers in the church. While we don't agree on everything, I appreciate his ministry much more now than I did before the conference in April. The message that he gave at T4G was very helpful, thought provoking, and most likely caused the greatest stir in pastor's hearts and minds about their treatment of the gospel in ther home churches. For that, I am thankful for Mark and I find his writings and ministry to be a great and worthwhile resource to the universal church body. Please take a moment if you haven't and visit the 9marks website, and subscribe to their newsletter. Great stuff.

Corporate Prayer in the Local Church

Over the last month or so our church has been really trying to focus on prayer. We did 24 hours of prayer to start it all off, and have been attempting 40 Days of Prayer as well. Our pastors have been teaching on the practicalities of prayer as well as the importance of giving God absolute praise and honor for his interceding on our behalf. Right before we started this whole thing 9Marks distributed a 9Marks eJournal for January/February. Oddly enough, it focused on corporate prayer in the local church. I wanted to make this eJournal available because I greatly respect the heart of 9Marks and their mission to equip local churches for the glory of God. For instance, this is their mission statement:

We believe the local church is the focal point of God's plan for displaying his glory to the nations. Our vision is simple: Churches that reflect the character of God.

First, I have to say that I do not agree with EVERYTHING in the journal, but I was motivated and challenged by a lot of it. Some of the ideas and convictions held in this eJournal will probably bug you if you are really set in your ways, but that just means it's probably good for you.

Second, there is a lot of stuff in this eJournal so be prepared for a long read. It is basically a small pamphlet so be forewarned if you plan to read the whole thing. You may need to read a bit, and then come back to it later. You can also subscribe to the eJounral at www.9marks.com.

I hope that this gives you some new ideas! Enjoy!

Click here to read the PDF version.