I summarized the theme of the text this way: the victorious reality of our future resurrection anchors us in an unshakeable constancy in ministry. Work for God fueled by the fire of a gospel-resurrection hope will be an amiable, abounding, arduous, assured, and awarded kind of work.
Here are Charles Spurgeon’s words with which I closed:
Take this henceforth for your motto—All for Jesus, always for Jesus, everywhere for Jesus. He deserves it. I should not so speak to you if you had to live in this world only. Alas, for the love of Jesus, if thou wert all and nought beside, O earth! But there is another life—live for it. There is another world—live for it. There is a resurrection, there is eternal blessedness, there is glory, there are crowns of pure reward—live for them, by God’s grace live for them. The Lord bless you, and save you. Amen.
Sunday’s message is now on the web. You can listen to the audio here.
We have now completed the New Year’s emphasis on Godward priorities in prayer and the Word.
Part three focused on the word of His grace and the importance of regularly putting ourselves under the reading and hearing of the gospel.
Oh that the cry of John Wesley might be our cry as well:
I am a creature of a day. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me the book of God. Let me be a man of one book.
May the Lord make of us a people committed to ultimate priorities now and always!
Yesterday’s message from Acts 20:17-38 is now on the web. You can listen to the audio here.
Here’s how I summed up this second installment of what has become a three-part New Year’s mini-series:
Given grave threats to the church’s wellbeing, what it needs most is leaders and followers alike who focus on ultimate priorities – seeking the Lord in prayer and hearing His word of grace. What manner of people will we be at OGC in 2012 as we open our building and move into a new phase of our ministry? Let us be a Godward people. Two ideas for application this week:
Determine some place and time where you will regularly meet with God for prayer and time in the word.
Create some prayer cards for the most important people in your life per Paul Miller’s suggestion in his book, A Praying Life, and be sure to include a Scripture verse you will pray through regularly for each person/card.
Jesus taught that a disciple has to make his relationship to God the dominating concentration of his life, and to be carefully careless about everything else in comparison to that.
For one of their recent Church-of-the-Week programs, WTLN, 950 AM, Orlando, chose to feature, as they have done in the past, Orlando Grace. They aired a message from The Graces of Gospel-Shaped Community series called The Grace of Clothing with Humility from 1 Peter 4:19-5:7. You can listen to the audio of that message here.
Before broadcasting the message, they played a recording of an interview with me about my ministry and the ministry of our church. If you missed that program the afternoon of October 30, you can listen to the interview audio here.
My thanks to Bill Rhoden of the radio station for his kindness in making the copy available to us at OGC.
Yesterday’s message in Hebrews 3:1-14 is now on the web. You can listen to the audio here.
As promised, here are my bullet points on the qualities of the godly exhorter and exhorted:
Seven Qualities of a Godly Exhorter
First, gripped by biblical necessity.
Prov. 27:5 – Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
Proverbs 28:23 – Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue.
Second, committed to relational proximity.
Prov. 18:24 – A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Third, known for spiritual dependability.
Prov. 17:17 – A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Prov. 27:6 – Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Fourth, strengthened through vertical security.
Prov. 29:25 – The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.
Fifth, clothed with personal humility.
Prov. 11:2 – When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
Gal. 6:1 – Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Sixth, aware of situational sensitivity.
Prov.15:4 – A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
Prov. 20:5 – The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
Seventh, anchored in gospel reality.
Prov. 18:24 – A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
The Singular Quality of the Godly Exhorted
Committed to favorable receptivity.
Prov. 9:8-9 – Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
Prov. 12:1 – Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.
Prov. 13:18 – Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored.
Prov. 15:5 – A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.
Prov. 15:31 – The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.
Here is the video about the persecuted church that we tried to play at the beginning of the message:
I had to laugh out loud when I got copied on an email today from one of our elders to certain brothers in the body that he wanted to challenge to attend Recharge, our retreat coming up on Nov. 18 and 19.
I assume each of you men have signed up for the retreat and are looking forward to a spectacular day and a half together. Please let me know if you have any barriers to joining us that we can help to overcome such as: finances, transportation, work schedule, too long of a honey-do list, can’t find a babysitter, afraid you will be home sick, don’t want to sleep in a strange bed, afraid you will miss your football game, allergic to sand or surf, Saturday is your day to sleep in, think you already know how to make disciples, or quite possibly your wife won’t let you out of the house. We will try to help in any way we can.
That just about covered the list of objections in my mind, except for one. I call it two-men-in-a-bed-phobia. In an attempt to keep costs down and to enable us to fly in our speaker Jonathan Dodson from Austin, Texas, we decided to book four men to a room. That means two guys per queen bed. Now I get it. I don’t relish this prospect myself. I like my space. Sleeping next to some snoring brother with hairy legs just doesn’t sound like my favorite way to spend the night.
I already decided that I would bring my own mat, pillow, and blankie and take a spot on the floor in my room just for my own comfort.
And then today I learned about a couple of brothers that have ruled out coming only because of this arrangement! So I thought, why not make it official and offer one of them my bed to help overcome the objection?
It makes me wonder how many other men out there suffer from the same phobia? Maybe more than we think.
So here’s my challenge. Who else will join me in such an offering? Who will voluntarily give up his space in a bed for the sake of some who struggle with this unfortunate affliction?
The gospel can help you do this! Paul tells us in Phil. 2:5-11 to imitate Jesus in His looking-out-for-the-interest-of-others example based upon His magnificent stoop from heaven to earth to become obedient to the point of death. Let’s defer to one another, serve one another, and stoop for one another from the bed to floor in the name of Christ Jesus, shall we?
If you think the Lord wants you to make such a gesture for the sake of our diseased brethren, please let me know in an email so I can apply this gospel medicine for their healing and relief. Many thanks!
Well, it’s certainly not because I don’t believe that the series matters. I continue to pray that God will use our fall emphasis on loving community motivated by the impetus of God’s love in the gospel (1 John 4:7-12) to shape us into a people fiercely devoted to one another. I hope you do too!
But some Sundays deserve special attention and warrant given their historical significance. The next two at OGC are no exception. This week, on October 30, we observe Reformation Sunday. It marks the anniversary of the magisterial reformer Martin Luther’s posting of his famous 95 theses on the church door at Wittenburg on October 31, 1517. That daring feat unleashed divine tectonic forces that launched the monumental event in the history of the church known as the Protestant Reformation.
Now we are a distinctly reformed, baptistic, protestant church. We owe our existence and distinctives to the sovereignty of God displayed in this historical event. That I have failed to acknowledge this significant Sunday in years past (last year excepted) during my watch as pastor-teacher at Orlando Grace borders on the unforgivable. Shame on me for my ignorance and neglect.
Never again. I simply must preach on something pertaining to and emblematic of the significance of the event. And so I will turn to Romans 1:16-17, what some have called Luther’s text, as my sermon text in a message entitled How Not To Be Ashamed of the Gospel. I will undertake to show you five glories of the gospel that should make us all eminently eager to “preach” the gospel to the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike.
In addition to the special emphasis during the morning service on this theme, in the evening at the SDA, beginning at 6 PM, we will have a special worship/educational/fellowship celebration commemorating the reformation that you won’t want to miss.
Whether you do Halloween the next night or not (let your conscience guide), I urge you to enter into the superior celebration the night before that is commemorating a heritage without which we might still labor under the tyranny of Rome’s work’s gospel without access to the treasure of all five solas – scriptura, Christus, gracia, fide, and deo gloria .
For more insight into the history and significance of Reformation Sunday click here.
Today’s message from 1 Peter 4:19-5:7 is now on the web. You can listen to the audio here.
John Calvin said this of the proverbial expression, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble:
We are to imagine that; God has two hands; the one, which like a hammer beats down and breaks in pieces those who raise up themselves; and the other, which raises up the humble who willingly let down themselves, and is like a firm prop to sustain them. Were we really convinced of this, and had it deeply fixed in our minds, who of us would dare by pride to urge war with God? But the hope of impunity now makes us fearlessly to raise up our horn to heaven. Let, then, this declaration of Peter be as a celestial thunderbolt to make men humble.
May God strike us with humility’s celestial thunderbolt! Then we will have sheep who submit to their shepherds. Then we will have people given wholeheartedly to lowly-mindedness toward one another.
What could be lovelier before our eyes and more glorifying to our God than a report like: Oh yes, I know OGC, a more lowly-minded, humble community you will rarely find!?
Today’s message in the Graces of Gospel-Shaped Community series is now on the web. You can listen to the audio for Romans 14:1-15:7, The Grace of Welcoming,here.
Here is how I summarized the message:
The gospel shapes our community by constraining us to manifest the grace of welcoming – an ongoing determination to embrace others in spite of differences over morally neutral matters. The ground for this grace is two-fold: the gospel of God who has “welcomed” us in Christ and the judgment of God before which every believer ultimately stands or falls. The goal of this grace is the glory of God reflected in the harmony and unity of His church.
For the full text of the Max Lucado piece, Life Aboard the Fellow-Ship, with which I closed the message, click here.
It started in ’05 with my 53rd birthday. I attached to September 15 that year and every year since a little rhyming ditty to capture the spirit of another year in my life post-cancer.
Allow me to review:
53 and cancer free
54 and ready for more
55 and staying alive (with apologies to the US government)
56 and up to the same old tricks
57 and not ready for heaven
58 and feeling great
Normally I know well in advance what the next year’s slogan will be, but not so for my 59th. That one didn’t gel until the day before on September 14 at 6 AM in the pantry. Why then and there I have no idea. But it hit me like an all-pro linebacker tackle on a 4th and one.
59 and gospel primed.
Let me explain. Not too long ago someone came to me after I embarrassed myself in one of our services with a tirade in our announcements. This brother confessed that he walked away from that Sunday suffering from an ecclesiastical identity crisis. It took a lot of guts for this person to confront me. To be honest I reacted at first rather defensively. The more I thought about it the more the Lord convicted me that he was right! I determined then and there that I would never let that happen again if I had any say in it. Since that time I have enjoyed something of a gospel renaissance in my personal and pastoral life that I never want to lose a grip on.
Ergo this year’s saying. At every turn I want to be primed for gospel-action, preaching, counseling, obedience and to commend the same to everyone with which I come into contact.
Lord Jesus, one of the many things I cherish about the Bible is the way it robs me of my penchant for hero worship. Who but God would write a book documenting the foibles and failures of so many of his sons and daughters? Who but God would chronicle the ways his chosen leaders, like Peter, limp along and prove themselves to be in constant need of mercy and grace?
This gives me great encouragement and hope. It also gives me freedom to acknowledge that I need the gospel today just as much as the first day I believed it. This will be just as true tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. Keep me convinced, Jesus, because I’m much like Peter.
It’s one thing for me to get irritated and angry about the ways this generation is downplaying your work on the cross. But it’s quite another to see the subtle ways I try to keep you from the cross. Deal with me as you dealt with Peter.
When I mute my heart to the insult of grace, I deny your cross. When I think, even for one moment, that my obedience merits anything, I deny your cross. When I put others under the microscope and measure of performance-based living, I deny your cross. When I wallow in self-contempt and shame, I deny your cross. When I’d rather do penance than repent, I deny your cross.
When I gossip juicy tidbits more than I gossip the gospel, I deny your cross. When I pout more than I praise; when I show more fear than faith; when I want to be right more than I want to be righteous, I deny your cross. When I talk about people more than I pray for the same people, I deny your cross. When my grip on grudges is tighter than my grasp of the gospel, I deny your cross.
By the gospel, help me to mind the things of God more than the things of men. May your cross get bigger, and may my boast in it grow louder. Jesus, you’re the main hero in the Bible. The rest of us are totally dependent on you. That’s never going to change. I need fresh grace today. So very Amen I pray, in your patient and persistent name.
What he prayed.
Only 361 days until I turn sixty. For every day God gives me may they know fresh grace and gospel power for God’s glory, my joy, and the joy of those who attach themselves to my so often flesh-compromised ministry.
curtheffelfinger.com 