Preparing for Sunday, 4/29/12

We hope you'll make a point to be in church with us tomorrow morning. There are some really good things in store, which will make for a little bit of a unique morning.

We'll sing as usual to open the time or worship together, and then the kids choir will sing after our greeting. It's always so good to incorporate the kids choir into our main corporate gatherings. If our church is actually the family of God, all ages from our families should take part in the worship from time to time. Tomorrow the kids will sing "Because You First Loved Me," and we'll worship by listening as they sing about the transforming love of God in the Gospel.

We'll also take the bread and cup of communion together before preaching, which will be a time of reflection on the Gospel, and a time of reminder that Christ's sacrifice has purchased us, washed away our sins, and brings us to God.

After bread and cup, we'll sing "Nothing But The Blood," which talks about these same things: "What can wash away our sin?/What can make us whole again?/Nothing but the blood of Jesus."

Jordan will preach from 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, on unity and divisions in the church. One point he'll be making is that the cross of Christ levels all of us, so that our pride doesn't elevate some people above others in God's family. So that we don't follow men over Christ, or think we're better because we follow such and such a teacher. We need Christ alone, and our job as a church is to make much of Christ together, and help each other do that when we gather together.

See you tomorrow at 9:00!

The Idolatry of "Youth Culture" in Church Worship

This is a great round table discussion between 3 very solid pastors of church worship and music. Mike Cosper, Isaac Wardell, and Kevin Twit talk about what church music should be, and they discuss some of the unbiblical, and incorrect ways of thinking about it that have become pretty widespread in our culture. Their discussion is super insightful, and definitely worth the time. Please give this a watch and/or listen when you have a few minutes to spare.

Preparing for Sunday, 4/15/12

You don't want to miss tomorrow. Jordan is starting a new preaching series in 1 Corinthians, which will take us about a year as we study through the whole book as a church. Tomorrow he will give background and context for Paul's writing of the letter, and introduce some of the major themes we'll come across in the study. Jordan may also focus on verses 1-3 as part of the intro. Go here for all of chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, as you prepare and read ahead to get a sense of where the preaching is headed.

In our singing, tomorrow we'll focus on the calling of God, as He has called us out of our sin, and made us spiritually alive together with Christ. God is a loving Father who has redeemed us, paid for our sin, and brought us into His family, the Church. Here are the songs:

1. Open the Eyes of My Heart
This is a favorite of our church, that I believe is a great opening "call to worship" type of song. This really gives words to what our expectation and prayer should be as we gather for corporate worship - that God would open our eyes to his glory and goodness, and that He would be lifted up in our gathering as worthy of all worship. We ultimately gather as a church to proclaim and remind one another that God is of highest value.

2. How Deep the Father's Love For Us
A great modern hymn, this song focuses on God the Father, making a way for us to be saved and adopted as His children. The 2nd verse holds some weighty truth - that our sins held Christ to the cross; that we would be the scoffers if we were present at Christ's death. The line says "It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished/His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished."

3. Here I Am To Worship
This is a favorite, that describes how Christ, the glorious Son of God, "stepped down into darkness" to bear our sins to the cross. This will continue to focus on how God has made a way to bring us to Himself.

4. Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
This is our final response to the grace of God, and His sovereign grace that has saved us. This song's last verse expresses hope that even though the things in this world may pass away, our calling in God is sure and fixed, and we have a future with Him forever that Christ secured with His own blood.

A Quote To Ponder

"When people step into worship services, they should sense that heaven has stepped down."
- Steve Lawson

This isn't just because of the band or the preacher, but mostly because of the presence of the gathered saints of God, singing and communing together. The gathered Church is the powerful witness and picture of heaven. Do we play this out when we gather on Sunday mornings?

Easter Sunday, 4/8/12

Here we go - Easter Sunday tomorrow and a very significant morning to celebrate as a church body! Jordan and I and some of the staff guys were talking through things earlier this week, and we decided against a big "production" for a special day of worship. We'll definitely have visitors and folks returning to worship with our church who have been away for whatever reason, and the last thing we would want to do is give anybody a false impression of what goes on at Grace Brethren Church on any normal week.

But that said, we WILL celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Savior, and we'll proclaim loudly that "He is risen, He is risen indeed!" The resurrection means that not only Christ's death and payment for sin, but his resurrected, glorified, perfect life is substituted to us too, by faith. Our Savior lives, and intercedes without ceasing before God for all of His people. That is reason to celebrate.

Here are a couple of Scripture passages for reflection and worship as you prepare to gather with the church family tomorrow morning:

    "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
    For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
    Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."

Romans 6:1-14 ESV

    "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death."

1 Corinthians 15:20-26 ESV

Jordan's sermon is titled "The People Who Missed Easter," and will take us through the people in the Gospel accounts who experienced the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, but still missed what actually happened, even to the point of rejecting Jesus.

We'll sing the following songs, with a special surprise thrown in here or there:
1. Christ The Lord Is Risen Today
2. Happy Day
3. Christ is Risen
4. In Christ Alone
5. You Are My King
6. The Glories of Calvary

Services are at 9:00 and 10:45. See you there!

Preparing for Good Friday, 4/6/12

Good Friday is upon us. We celebrate tonight together as a church, the day that our Savior was crucified, bearing all of our sins to the cross. The crucifixion of Jesus was a tragedy, but a tragedy that God ordained to bring even greater good to His people. He has nailed all of our sins to the cross, and by faith in Jesus we are adopted as God's children, with our sins completely forgiven.

Mike Cosper wrote on his blog,
"Good Friday can be good while nonetheless being a day of grief. No matter how we spin the story of the cross, it’s a tragedy. The world wasn’t meant for tragedy and death. When sin entered the world, it began to spin out of control, bringing disease, decay, and suffering to all of us...

...Good Friday is where the disease of sin finds a profound and surprising remedy. From the cross, God reveals a conspiracy of redemption, turning back the curse and restoring the world through Christ and his church."

As you prepare for tonight, read through John, chapters 12-13, which we use as a model for our 3 Fold Communion services at Grace. These chapters in John detail some of the last hours Jesus spent with His disciples, before He went to the cross. Christ gives them an example of humble service (by washing their feet), which He expects from believers in His church, toward one another. Christ's kingdom is a kingdom of glory and joy, but which only comes through service and dying to self. Christ did this for us, and he commands this to be our attitude toward each other.

Tonight we'll sing the following songs, broken up throughout the evening:
1. Blessed Assurance
2. In Christ Alone
3. The Wonderful Cross
4. Jesus Thank You

Join us at 6:00 in the main building tonight at Grace Brethren Church. We hope to see our whole church family there.

Looking to Good Friday and Easter

"[T]he deeper I go into the gospel, the more I comprehend and confess aloud the depth of my sinfulness. A gruesome death like the one that Christ endured for me would only be required for one who is exceedingly sinful and unable to appease a holy God. Consequently, whenever I consider the necessity and manner of His death, along with the love and selflessness behind it, I am laid bare and utterly exposed for the sinner I am.

"Such an awareness of my sinfulness does not drag me down, but actually serves to lift me up by magnifying my appreciation of God's forgiving grace in my life. The more I appreciate the magnitude of God's forgiveness of my sins, the more I love Him and delight to show Him love through heart-felt expressions of worship."

Milton Vincent, in A Gospel Primer


"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

1 Timothy 1:15-17 ESV

Looking to Good Friday and Easter

"Everlasting Creator-Father,
I have destroyed myself,
my nature is defiled,
the powers of my soul are degraded;
I am vile, miserable, strengthless,
but my hope is in Thee.
If ever I am saved it will be by goodness undeserved and astonishing,
not by mercy alone but by abundant mercy,
not by grace but by exceeding riches of grace...

Thou hast devised means
to rescue me from sin's perdition,
to restore me to happiness, honor, safety...
I rejoice that [Christ] failed not, nor was discouraged,
but accomplished the work Thou gavest Him to do;
and said on the cross, 'It is finished."

I look to a present and personal interest in Christ and say,
Surely He has borne my griefs, carried my sorrows,
won my peace, healed my soul."

(From The Valley of Vision)


    "Surely he has borne our griefs
        and carried our sorrows;
    yet we esteemed him stricken,
        smitten by God, and afflicted.
    But he was pierced for our transgressions;
        he was crushed for our iniquities;
    upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
        and with his wounds we are healed.
    All we like sheep have gone astray;
        we have turned—every one—to his own way;
    and the LORD has laid on him
        the iniquity of us all."

Isaiah 53:4-6 ESV

Looking to Good Friday and Easter

The goal for this week, aside from posts preparing for Good Friday and Easter corporate worship, is going to be to have a quote a day by various pastors and theologians, reflecting on the significance of these days that we observe as the Church.

2 days ago I posted up a quote by Tim Keller to help prepare us for Palm Sunday. Hopefully as we continue the series of quotes, it will be helpful as an aid to all of our worship as we prepare to gather for Good Friday and Easter. The quotes will be by different people, focusing on what Christ accomplished through His death and resurrection. So often we take our church "holidays" for granted, missing opportunities for them to be transforming in our lives. Take this opportunity to read these quotes and accompanying Scripture passages, and prayerfully worship God this week, preparing to gather Friday and Sunday as a church body.

J.I. Packer says,
"Calvary...not merely made possible the salvation of those for whom Christ died; it ensured that they would be brought to faith and their salvation made actual. The Cross saves."

(From Introduction to John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ)

    "For in [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."

Colossians 2:9-14 ESV