Crossway Baptist Church

I’ve got some anticipation building for Sunday.

Brother Charlie will be in 1 Peter 3. I’m looking forward to hearing how he handles this passage.

And I’m excited to be in the pulpit Sunday evening. I’ll be considering how nobody knows the troubles we’ve seen – nobody but Jesus, that is.

Hope to see you there.

SDG,

David

Our merciful Father,

Your Church is now drawing near to you with much confidence as we walk the path the Christ has opened for us by His sacrifice of blood and resurrection, passing through the curtain by which we had been excluded from your presence, but has now been opened to us through the opening of Christ’s own flesh.  We enter in with full assurance of faith, having been washed clean by his blood and the baptism of the Spirit.

We enter in clinging to Christ and the confession of our hope that as we come through him we will not die, because you are faithful to your promise that all who trust in him will not be put to shame.

As we enter your presence together today, teach us to consider how we might encourage our brothers to love and good works.  We seek your face as we meet together, not merely by our physical presence in this building, but that we might be truly meeting together with love and concern for one another, seeking to encourage one another as we look for your Son’s return, Lord, come quickly!

It is in the name above all names, the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray,

Amen.

…from those ancient pagan nations listed in Genesis chapter 10, after all.

We may not sacrifice our children to Molech or Nanna, but we murder them on the altars of “freedom” or “choice” or “rights.”

But, praise God, there is mercy and forgiveness in the Cross of Christ.

SDG,

David

Well, I wouldn’t say we now have a nursery so much as a nursery area.

We’ve set it up in our classroom. There’s a brand new gliding rocking chair, a changing table, a portable crib, and a baby monitor so whoever is back there can still hear the sermon.

Mind you, we love and want all the children to join us for the service. But sometimes, it’s true, those younger kids don’t want to be with us! And, even though kids do not bother me or Jeremy or Charlie, we know that sometimes the parents feel a little self-conscious about them. I’ve been there myself.

So, it’s set up and ready to go tomorrow morning.

SDG,

David

Death is not Dying video from Rachel Barkey on Vimeo.

After four and a half years of vigilantly fighting breast cancer, the 37 year old wife and mother of two was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

But for Rachel the essence of life is found in her relationship with God through Jesus. And that’s why Rachel is convinced that death is not dying.

On March 4, 2009, what started out as a small talk to a women’s group at her church grew into an event attended by 600 women from around Vancouver, giving Rachel an opportunity to share about her hope in the midst of terminal cancer.

Rachel’s honest and thought-provoking talk touched women of all ages and left a hunger for discovering more about Rachel’s journey and the faith that has so deeply affected her life.

Please, go watch the video.  It’s 55 minutes, but worth every second.

I recently bought the first new computer I’ve ever owned.

It’s fast. Really fast. I like that. And what I really like is the free 20″ widescreen monitor that came with it. What a difference it makes to be able to see everything so big and clear.

But then, the other day, I’m in a co-worker’s office and I notice that the monitor sitting on the desk is 22″ and the first thing I think is I wish I had a 22″ monitor!

Amazing! How quickly I fell into covetousness and discontentment and ungratefulness!

Our wicked hearts are so subtle…O God, may I be content with what I have…

Blessings,

David

I think the next time I’m asked what our worship services are like I’m going to answer, “Unremarkable.”

Recently, I’ve been visiting various church websites to see the different descriptions given.  One website described their worship as, “Dynamic!”, another as “Relevant”,  “Exuberant!”, and one website even described their ‘Ministries Pastor’ pretty much as, the guy every guy wants to be and every girl wants to date.  Now, those are my words, but that is the impression I got from their description which actually says, “He’s the one you want to take home to mama.”  That’s their words.

I’m sticking with “Unremarkable”, as a description of our church, worship, ministries, and leadership.

Why?  Because our worship style, our leadership, and our service to God doesn’t deserve praise.  Our God deserves praise.  Our acts of worship in singing, preaching, giving, praying, serving, and loving are only what God has asked of us.  And when we offer Him this worship we shouldn’t expect praise in return from Him or anyone else.  In fact, Jesus said this,

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (Luke 17:7-10)

You know what’s remarkable?  Someone who goes above and beyond in their service and worship of God.  That’s the person I’m going to praise.  Do you know where that person lives?  Right now He is seated at the right hand of His Father where He rules over everything and everybody.  Jesus is the man who became obedient to the point of death on a cross and that God speaks to and says, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” (Psalm 110:1)

Our worship and our service are unremarkable.  Nothing great and by no means perfect, but we do seek to worship God in the ways He has commanded us to worship in Scripture.  And we long for the day when our worship and service to God becomes perfect.  Not complete, our God is infinitely worthy of worship that will continue throughout eternity.  But perfect worship and service from a glorified heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Now that’s not to say that we can be lazy in our worship.  We strive to be the servants and worshippers that God wants us to be.  That’s why we do the things that we do.  We believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, therefore we look to God’s Word to tell us what He wants.  And here’s what He wants:  preachers who will preach His Word ‘line upon line, precept upon precept’, Christians who will hear His Word and obey, worshipers who will lift their voices to Him in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs.  He wants His Word read publicly, He wants us to encourage one another and build each other up, bear one another’s burdens, care for the widows and orphans, give cheerfully to His work through the church, and love Him and our brothers and sisters and our enemies.

On second thought, maybe I would consider a church that did all of those things remarkable…at least from a human perspective.

Easter is quickly approaching.  This is one of my favorite times of the year.  While every Sunday is a celebration of our Risen Savior, Easter Sunday is normally set aside as a day to focus almost exclusively on the Resurrection.  However, the Resurrection does not occur without Christ’s  life and death.

So, in preparation for Easter we have some special services that will focus in on the significance of Christ’s life and death.

The first service will be Wednesday, April 8th a:00 at 7:00pm.  We will being celebrating the Lord’s Supper on what we believe to be the anniversary of the Last Supper.  I will be preaching from Mark 14 in this service.

The second service will be Good Friday, April 10th at 7:00pm.  I will be preaching from Mark 15 on the death of Christ in this service.

Then on Easter Sunday, we will celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection from the dead.  This will conclude our study of the Gospel of Mark as we look at the sixteenth and final chapter.

We will also be having some outreach opportunities leading up to Easter.  We have New Testaments to give away, as well as booklets by John Piper titled, “History’s Most Spectacular Sin.”  This booklet tells of the betrayal of Jesus and his murder by the hands of men.  This truly was the history’s greatest sin, but when we stop to think of God’s purposes even in that horrible sin we find that God had a spectacular plan for the redemption of man.

The early Church used to begin there gatherings with these words, still used in many Churches today.  The Pastor would say, “The Lord has risen!”  Then the gathered Christians would respond, “He is risen indeed!”  May we also with this same spirit of joy announce to our community through this Easter season that Christ our Lord bore our sins, died, was buried, but on the third day rose from the dead.  He is risen indeed!

Coming before God in worship is a serious matter.  How we worship God has eternal consequences.  Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, did not come before God in the prescribed manner and they were struck down ( Leviticus 10:1-2).  Eli did not discipline his sons and because of their abominable actions before God, both sons and Eli were killed on the same day as punishment for their false worship (I Samuel 4:12-18).  Jesus said the Pharisees of his day worshiped God in vain (Mark 7:1-13).  In these three examples there are three dangers we must avoid.

First, we must avoid the temptation to do things our own way. God has written His own worship book and He wants it to be followed.  Nadab and Abihu brought fire, but it was not the fire that God had commanded (Leviticus 16).  It was ‘strange fire’. We can put together our own orders of worship, but what is included in our orders of worship is not optional or exchangeable.  The Scriptures must guide our worship.

Second, we must avoid the kind of worship that comes from a wicked, selfish heart. Eli’s sons were known for their excesses in whatever they did.  They would take more of the sacrifice than was allotted for them and commit fornication with the women who came to worship at the Tabernacle (I Samuel 2:12-17, 22-25).  Worship is not about us, it is about God. When we come together to worship, we must come not to receive but to give.  We come to give worship to God.  We come to give comfort and encouragement to our brothers and sisters.  When this order is followed we will all ‘get something out of’ the worship service, but what we get must not be our focus.

This does not mean we ignore our personal needs.   We must also be ready to receive God’s Word, love from the congregation, and allow the Spirit to work grace in our hearts.

Finally, we must avoid elevating tradition to the place where it obscures God’s rules of conduct and worship. To allow tradition to guide our worship is to render our worship useless.  Vain worship is pointless worship.  It is the observance of ceremony and ritual simply for the sake of ceremony and ritual.  Tradition is fine in it’s place.  But when it is exalted above the authority of Scripture or it’s commands receive as much importance as Scripture’s commands, we have ceased to worship God.  Tradition dictates many things about our worship, but it must be subject to change in closer conformity to God’s Word.