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2 months ago | 
theaquilareport.com | David Mathis
The true grace of God for your journey home is not ease and comfort, but many sorrows and suffering here — expected, designed, limited, and rewarded — endured in faith, mindful of God and Jesus Christ, and with inexpressible and glorified joy. Which leads to boundless, uninterrupted bliss when we’re finally home. As I thought about this conference of young professionals, and the opportunity to speak to you about “what to expect on your journey home,” my mind went back twelve years.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
theaquilareport.com | David Mathis
We come [to the King] and keep coming—daily in prayer, weekly in corporate worship. God’s Spirit gives us reverence with confidence, humility with boldness, awe with audacity. In light of God’s might, we approach him with holy fear; in light of his mercy, we come with expectant delight. In Christ, we enter not only assured that we already have the King’s favor but knowing that our Father’s kingdom far surpasses all others.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
theaquilareport.com | David Mathis
When he lovingly brings pastoral trials into our lives — and he does so lovingly — he is working for us and in us, one of the greatest goods imaginable. When He tests us, he is taking action to keep us. And He keeps us not just by protecting our present level of faith and not just by growing, enriching, developing, and maturing our faith. But in testing our faith, he is keeping us alive spiritually. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds . . .
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Jul 24, 2024 | 
desiringgod.org | David Mathis
This message is part 1 of a three-part seminar on practicing the habits of grace in a hectic world. See here for the other two messages:Part 2: We Read to Get God: Scripture as the Chief Means of GracePart 3: When You Pray: Speaking to God Alone and TogetherLet me start with a text before we do some more orienting work on where we’re going this weekend.
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Jul 24, 2024 | 
desiringgod.org | David Mathis
This message is part 3 of a three-part seminar on practicing the habits of grace in a hectic world. See here for the other two messages:Part 1: Go Where God Walks: The Everyday Paths of Astonishing GracePart 2: We Read to Get God: Scripture as the Chief Means of GraceThank you all so much for your kindness, your hunger, your engagement, and your attentiveness. It’s been palpable.
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Jul 23, 2024 | 
desiringgod.org | David Mathis
Imagine that moment when Jesus first opened his mouth to begin his Sermon on the Mount. The Gospel of Matthew sets the scene. Jesus has been baptized by John (3:13–17) and endured forty days of wilderness fasting and temptation (4:1–11). He has quietly begun his public ministry in the region of Galilee and called his first disciples (4:18–22). He started by teaching in synagogues. But now as his fame spreads, the crowds swell, and his ministry is increasingly consigned to open air (4:23–25).
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Jul 13, 2024 | 
desiringgod.org | David Mathis
I was wondering if I had discovered a new world. Home from college after my freshman year, I was pondering what makes God happy. That spring I had read Desiring God and had my soul turned upside down for good. The book exposed how duty-oriented my approach toward God had been, and in the exposure, God’s Spirit opened the floodgates to delight in him, on the rock-solid foundation of the glory of God — since God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
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Jul 10, 2024 | 
desiringgod.org | David Mathis
Greetings from Cities Church in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. We are a nine-year-old church with a century-old building not far from that great civic dividing line called the Mississippi River. Just a few blocks north of us is an area known as Midway, which gets its name from being midway between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Minneapolis is about three miles west; Saint Paul, three miles east.
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Jul 8, 2024 | 
theaquilareport.com | David Mathis
Jesus is first shown to be majestic and mighty. He is king, ruler, the Lion. He is sovereign, and fulfills our longings for greatness, for a ruler strong and mighty to impress us with power and win our trust and protect us and provide for us and give us life. But we long not only for a great human king. We long for God himself. And this Lion of Judah is not just Messiah, a human king. He is God himself. One of the reasons that we love Jesus is his paradoxes.
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Jul 6, 2024 | 
desiringgod.org | David Mathis
At age 43, I can still remember times when I felt like my body was improving. I could tell I was getting stronger, or running faster, or my overall energy was increasing. But now the most recent and prevailing feeling has been that I’m getting older. I notice the incremental declines. I can feel movement slowly but surely becoming more challenging. New aches and pains come and linger. In recent years I’ve felt both the glory and the humiliation of the human body in this age.
