By Andy Farmer

Last week in our Acts series Jared spoke on the Gospel breaking out into the Gentile world as Peter came to speak to the household of Cornelius (Acts 10-11). You can catch the message at: http://www.covfel.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=120107

One of the main points of the passage is that the Gospel moving beyond its Jewish roots resulted in a transforming moment in human history. God was making salvation available to all mankind – regardless of race, ethnicity, or social standing. The Gospel invasion into the Cornelius household is the end of prejudice. Jared defined prejudice as when we give our own preferences and perspectives authority in how we accept or reject others. For a faithful Jew like Peter to fraternize with Gentiles was defiling – to potentially accept a Gentile as a brother was an abomination.

As I listened to Jared I was thinking, ‘who is the Gentile in my world?’ Since I’m a Gentile myself I have to go farther afield than Peter to answer the question. I think of someone of another race than me – but I live and fellowship in a multiracial church so that doesn’t seem to be a big challenge in my day to day experience. And then I thought – the Gentile in my world is gay.

It is clear from Scripture that Peter had a more than passing familiarity with the Gentile, yet to him they were patently unclean. I’ve had a variety of experiences with people in the homosexual community. I have had acquaintances and co-workers who were openly gay. I had homosexual professors who served as my academic mentors in college. Tragically, I have had childhood friends and even relatives who died of AIDS contracted in the homosexual lifestyle. There are brothers and sisters of mine in the Lord who struggle with homosexual temptation. I also have been the target of accusations that I’m a bigot and a fascist because my Christian faith defines homosexual behavior as sin.

In short, I’ve had plenty of reasons to have conflicting attitudes about gay people. And those reasons come not just from life experience but from a heart that recoils against people who seem different than me in ways that unsettle me. Like Peter, it can be hard for me to see my personal gentile as a real person whom God has created in his image. At best he or she is profoundly different – there is a gulf between us where no bridge is possible. At worst my mind conjures up the radical, anti-Christian activist who seems to delight to tear down the moral institutions that matter to me most.

So homosexuals make great modern day Gentiles. But if you’re perceptive you might object and say something like, ‘the gay person is not the same as Cornelius the centurion. Cornelius was born a Gentile; homosexuality is a choice.’ Even if that’s true (and you’ll get some pretty strong responses if you put that as your Facebook status), there’s a larger point here. In Acts 10:28 Peter made a radical confession; God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean. When God declared the Gentiles ‘clean’, he wasn’t declaring them saved. He was declaring them eligible to receive the Gospel. In other words, there was no sin or state of being that set any person outside the call of grace. Whether a homosexual repents of his or her sins (rejection of Christ, not simply sexual preference and behavior) or not, we should see all men and women as worthy of our mercy and beyond the pale of our prejudice. We must never forget that somewhere, somehow, we are someone else’s Gentile.

Who is the Gentile to you? Who would you cross the street to avoid? Who would you instinctively dismiss from meaningful personal relationship? Who do you fear or reject simply because of what they are to you? Who in your mind is unclean and ineligible for the only hope for all mankind? There is a Cornelius experience out there for you – are you, like Peter, willing to go and meet it?

By Rob Flood

Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Psalm 3:8

Psalm 3 is said to be written by David when he was fleeing from his own son, Absalom.  This is the same man who, a few decades earlier, had been fleeing from the reigning king of Israel, Saul.  The same man who charged into battle against Goliath.  The same man who is said to have slain ten thousands in battle.  David knew something about dependence…and he knew that salvation belongs to the Lord.

Like David, we take nothing of worth to the case of our salvation.  All of our righteous deeds are like filthy rags ((Isaiah 64:6).  Any presentation of our own case works to indict us…not save us.  If we are to be saved, in any and every case, it is entirely because of God.  One song that captures this well is Augustus Toplady’s classic hymn, Rock of Ages.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.

When we get out of the way and stop trying to contribute to our own salvation, then we hide in Christ.  The most fruitful and appropriate action for us to take in salvation is to hide in Christ.  Only there can be we saved from the wrath of God.  Only there can we have our blood-stained garments washed pure.

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Yet, we do try…don’t we.  We rest in the confidence of our own efforts, in the contribution of our service, in the depth of our sorrow over sin.  Our hands, our zeal, our tears are all wonderful when deployed in service to Christ, but useless in salvation.  If we are to be saved, it must be God alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

Lower…still lower.  Whatever perspective we have of our own sin…no matter how humbled we are by it…it is never low enough to be accurate.  Toplady declares the simple truth: We ought bring nothing in our hands.  All that we have…all the good that we’ve achieved…all comes from God.  Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians 4:7 when he says, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”  We come naked…we come helpless.  And we receive dress and grace.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold Thee on Thy throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

And when all of life is through, should we be given final moments of reflection, we will look back on the fruit and grace poured through us and see only the fingerprints of Christ.  We pass through death to eternal life and we rise to worlds unknown.  We do it on the merits of Christ.  We rest only in the work of Christ.  When we are at our best…functioning purely and totally in grace…we hide in Christ.

What a God we have to treasure.  What great news we have to proclaim.  When we know something of dependence, we share the same vantage point as King David.  We say humbly…we saw thankfully…we say with great jubilation… “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”  Our God saves.

by Jared Mellinger

Are you up to anything this coming Sunday evening?  On June 27 at 6:00 pm, there will be two 30-minute sermons from two of the men who have been participating in the Preaching Lab.  We call this Preach the Word.  It will be a low-key event, but it is open to the entire church.

The guys who are preaching are Christopher Campbell and Jacob Young.  Both of them are going to be preaching on the resurrection, which is a Gospel truth of first importance to Christians.  Jacob will be preaching from Matthew 27:57-28:15, and Christopher will preach from 1 Corinthians 15:12-28.  These guys have been working hard in preparation, and I have seen the sermons and I can’t wait to hear them Sunday evening.  It’s going to be good.   

We want to do all we can as pastors to identify and train future preachers.  This event gives us an opportunity to do that, while benefiting from the teaching we will receive.  It also gives us an opportunity to encourage these young men and celebrate the grace that is on their lives.   

I can still remember the first sermon I ever preached.  It was the summer of 1999, in Wildwood, New Jersey.  I was 18 years old.  I was living with two friends, and the three of us all had jobs working at a pizza place close to the boardwalk.  We worked through the night and enjoyed going to the beach to watch the sunrise before going home and going to bed.

We all had ambitions for pastoral ministry.  We all wanted to preach, but there weren’t exactly any opportunities to do so.  So we decided that we would preach sermons to each other, and invite anyone else who wanted to come.  The makeshift pulpit was a big living room chair, with a trashcan turned upside-down and stacked on top of the chair.  No kidding!  My handwritten sermon notes were on top of a trashcan, and 6 or 7 people were seated all over the small living room.  

I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anything spectacular about the sermon.  None of us knew enough about preaching to determine whether or not the sermon was any good (which in hindsight, really worked to my advantage!).  The sermon was probably quite forgettable.  But one of the young women there had parents who ran a ministry for youth, and she told her parents they should have me speak to the youth, which led to other opportunities to preach. 

The encouragement I received from people early on went a long ways in building my faith for how God might use me in preaching.  I can look back and see the kindness of God in the opportunities he provided.  I don’t know what God will do with the men who have been participating in the Preaching Lab.  But I can guarantee you that the sermons that will be preached on Sunday evening will be better than my first sermon!  And, they will be preaching from a pulpit rather than a trashcan.   

Consider coming out and supporting these guys, and sitting under God’s word with me.  And, mark your calendars for July 25 and August 29 as well, because Preach the Word will continue those nights, with other young men.   

By Chris Radano

“God is over all things, under all things; outside all; within, but not enclosed; without but not excluded; above but not raised up; below but not depressed; wholly above, presiding; wholly beneath, sustaining; wholly within, filling.”  – Hildebert of Lavardin as quoted in A.W. Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy.

I don’t recall exactly when I first learned about God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence…the three omni’s as they’re referred to.  I’ve thought about them, casually talked about them, but am not often amazed by them.  This is perhaps most true of the omnipresence of God.  However, I recently became excited about God’s omnipresence in a way different than his omnipotence or omniscience.  I think generally we have little problem understanding the concept God’s omnipotence, insofar as we can easily imagine a person with bigger muscles than ourselves.  And likewise for us to contemplate omniscience as we know there could be someone out there with a bigger brain than say, Einstein, Aristotle, or even Solomon.  However, when I think of the omnipresence of God, my mind has a more difficult time grasping God’s presence everywhere, fully and not divided, at all times.  Instead, I too often think of God in one place, then quickly zipping around to another place in a microsecond, until he’s finished, brushing his hands until something worth going to comes up.  Or I think of his omnipresence as if he’s some sort of giant looking over the earth addressing multiple things at one time…like a cosmic multi-tasker.  And yet I know it’s more than that.

As I try to grasp an understanding of God’s omnipresence from the Bible, I can too easily get locked into thinking of God’s presence through chronological scriptural accounts, as if he is moving from one story to another, like an episodic television series.  I also underestimate the impact of God’s omnipresence even when it’s explicitly stated in scripture.  For me this awakening moment occurred recently while I was reading the story of Job and wondered of the relative timeline of Job in the Old Testament.  While little is known about the time of Job, speculation of it being as early as the time frame of Abraham or as late as the time of the Babylonian exile excited me.  I grew amazed about the possibility that while God was testing Job through affliction, he could have been making his promises or sealing his covenant with Abraham.  Or while God questioned Job with rapid fire-like intensity, he simultaneously may have been showing Ezekiel revelations of his departing glory from the temple.  Wow!  Now, whether or not these events did in fact overlap doesn’t really matter to me.  Initially, it revealed my unconscious tendency to limit God to doing one big thing at a time in a single location.  But as I meditated on this, I believe God provided a practical picture of his omnipresence, through scripture, to help understand what’s written about his character in scriptures like Psalm 139:7-10.  God is everywhere, fully.  These are the moments when I put down my pen and my book and worship the God that is infinitely greater than me and more glorious than any human being.  Without such a picture, God’s omnipresence looked no different to me than a busy politician going from one appointment to another.

I wonder if we experienced God in the way Job or Abraham experienced Him, that we might feel more blessed than others.  Yet to think that at the exact same time, someone else may be experiencing an equally deep and powerful personal relationship with the same God inspires confidence in the majesty of our God.  Omnipresence is still harder for me to grasp than his omnipotence or omniscience, however, by the Spirit’s continual illumination of scripture, it’s becoming easier to now imagine a God who can do all things and know all things for all people throughout the world…at the same time.

By Jared Mellinger

 

A couple Sundays ago, Joseph Stigora and Leo Parris led us in singing praises to God inspired by the Lord’s self-revelation in the created world.  I enjoyed every second of it.

 

The works of creation reveal so much of the glory of God’s goodness, the glory of his wisdom, and the glory of his power, that when Christians observe the world around us, we cannot help but to break into song.  “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.  Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19:1-2).  Creation reveals the Creator, and God expects us to observe creation as a means of deepening our worship and knowledge of him.

    

Here, we need to learn from poets and musicians, who teach us to slow down and observe the work of God in all he has made.  The Psalmists did this well, frequently studying and delighting in the works of God: “Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2).    

 

Psalm 104 is exemplary.  It is worth reading the entire Psalm, but here is a sample: “Bless the LORD, O my soul!  O LORD my God, you are very great!  …You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.  Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.  From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.  …O LORD, how manifold are your works!  In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.”  (Psalm 104:1, 10-13, 24)

 

We learn from the Psalmists that creation reveals the glory of God and should call forth the praise of God in our hearts.  An awareness of the glory of God in creation must led us to joy and thanksgiving.  And, it is not enough to merely acknowledge that creation reveals the greatness of God; we must pay attention to the details of God’s glory being revealed in rivers and hills, in beasts and birds, in mountains and in all the earth.  It is good to join the Psalmist in singing about these things.  The Psalmists are creational theologians, who have learned to mine and explore and celebrate the revelation of God in the world around them.    

 

This spring provides an opportunity to expand our knowledge of God and deepen our delight in God by studying the beauty of God in creation.  Let’s open our eyes.  Let’s go for a walk.  Let’s leave time to observe and experience.  Let’s not miss the countless manifestations of the presence of God that surround us in cool breezes and massive clouds and glowing stars and green grass and towering trees and falling rain.  All of it is speaking.  All of it declares the glory of God.  All of it provides opportunities to sing to the Lord a new song, and worship him with joyful and grateful hearts.

 

Creation is God on display.  Behold the God who has made us and saved us, study the works of the Lord, and bless his name for all he has done.  O Lord my God, you are very great!

By Andy Farmer

This past week several of the pastors had the opportunity to attend Together for the Gospel, a bi-annual pastor’s conference held in Louisville, KY.  It is a conference that developed out of the friendships between four leaders in the church who come from different places and streams of evangelicalism but have found common ground in the Gospel.  Three of the key guys, Ligon Duncan (PCA) and Al Mohler and Mark Dever (Southern Baptists) represent large constituencies of churches.  The fourth, CJ Mahaney represents, well, us. 

Being at T4G with 7,000 other pastors made all of us Sovereign Grace Guys, maybe 200 strong, feel a bit overwhelmed.  It reminded me a little of the Green Jacket ceremony at the end of the Masters Golf Tournament.  There’s Jim Nance of CBS, Billy Payne of Augusta National, last year’s winner Angel Cabrera, and this year’s champion, Phil Mickelson.  And, oh yeah, there’s this 16 year old kid in sneakers who was low amateur for the week.  That’s us, the low amateurs sitting there trying not to say something stupid.

Anyway, the sessions were outstanding around the theme of “The Unadjusted Gospel”.  The undisputed highlight for me was hearing John Piper proclaim the doctrine of justification as taught by Jesus the Justifier himself.  If you’re familiar with some of the theological debates these days you’ll know that people are trying to redefine the Gospel, often by saying that what we believe Paul taught was different than what Jesus taught.  (Actually this has been going on for a couple of hundred years, but it shows up in different ways from time to time).

Anyway, his message was a passionate and weighty defense of the coherence and consistency of the doctrine of justification as taught by Jesus and the Apostles.  But setting that aside it was also a heart enlarging declaration of the person of Jesus as our Justifier.  I’ve included a link to Justin Taylor’s blog where you can watch the message.  If you don’t have an opportunity to watch the whole thing, there is a compelling discourse on the Jesus and the rich ruler that the Holy Spirit pressed deeply into my heart.  You’ll find it from around 33:00 to 39:10.

I thank God for the men of T4G who are defending the centrality of the Gospel in their ministries and demonstrating it in their relationships. 

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/04/15/did-jesus-preach-pauls-gospel/

By Bill Patton

In Proverbs 1, wisdom calls to the simple and to the scoffer.  She persistently stretches out her hand, offering abundant and valuable reproofs and counsel.  But men refuse to hear wisdom.  They forsake wisdom.
 
So, the Proverbs say, Wisdom will laugh at their calamity.  When distress and terror and anguish come upon them, Wisdom will mock them and refuse to hear their cries.  Because they foolishly rejected the fear of the Lord, because they hated knowledge, because they despised wisdom, fools will reap the distress, terror and anguish their folly inevitably brings.
 
But Wisdom does not laugh at the wise.  Amazingly, the text says that whoever listens to wisdom will dwell securely.  Those who embrace wisdom will not dread disaster.  So Wisdom keeps the wise from anguish; wisdom brings them security and freedom from calamity.
 
So, the question I ponder this morning is this:  Did Christ’s perfect wisdom protect him from calamity, anguish, and disaster?
 
Well, to a point, it did.  Again and again, Jesus escaped disaster.  From the days when Herod tried to kill him, to the many times his enemies hatched murderous plots against him, Jesus was miraculously kept from calamity.  His soul we free from anguish.  Wisdom protected him perfectly.  But then something changed.  
 
In Gethsemane Jesus’ soul is seen to be in great distress.  Up to that moment we read of no calamity, no deep anguish, and no disaster befalling him.  But in the garden we observe something astonishing and strange:  The wisest man who ever lived is in profound distress.  He is in tremendous anguish.  He is facing the disaster of the cross.
 
Proverbs 1 tells us that the simple are killed for their turning away, but Jesus turned not away!  It tells us that the scoffer reaps calamity for his scoffing…but Jesus scoffed not.  Why the calamity of the cross?  Why, upon the cross, does Wisdom mock Jesus?  Why, upon the cross, does Wisdom laugh at his calamity?  Why upon the cross does Wisdom refuse to protect him?
 
Well, the answer is a mystery difficult to fathom:  On the cross, the wisest of all, reaped the fool’s penalty.  On the cross, Wisdom bore the disaster fools deserved.  Wisdom protected Jesus until He took upon himself the folly of the world.  He who knew no folly became folly for those who forsook wisdom.  At that point, Wisdom utterly forsook him.
 
But Wisdom is always just.  So the Father raised Him and made him the King of Kings.  Here is a deep and mysterious wisdom even King Solomon could not fathom:  The love of God for fools.

By Jared Mellinger

 

On Friday I spoke to the wives of the pastors of Covenant Fellowship on the ‘excellent wife’ of Proverbs 31.  In addition to commending their example and thanking God for Meghan in particular, I read to them my version of “the Anti-Proverbs 31 Woman”. 

 

A substandard wife, who can find?

Her husband must micro-manage her,

And he hesitates to delegate anything to her.

She does him harm, not good,

All the days of her life.

She takes no delight in working,

And she labors with unwilling hands.

She finds a large number of tasks objectionable,

And carries them out with a languid footstep.

She looks first to her own interests in everything,

And avoids being inconvenienced at all costs.

Her household receives no attention,

And her children are neglected.

Her life orbits around herself,

She is lost in her own world.

She often sleeps in,

Her mouth feasts on the bread of idleness.   

She is indecisive in decision making,

And her husband is a crutch in all things.

She rarely plans ahead,

And it brings chaos to her home.

She lives in the grip of fear,

Her closest companion is anxiety for the future. 

Her husband is floundering in the gates,

Where he sits among the elders of the land.

She occasionally fears the Lord,

But cares far more about physical beauty. 

She receives the fruit of her hands

When no one praises her in the gates.

 

Aren’t we glad that God’s grace and mercy overcomes our Anti-Proverbs 31, or Anti-Sermon on the Mount, or Anti-First Corinthians 13 tendencies so that we increasingly live conforming to God’s will and obedient to His word. 

By Rachel Gonzales

Editor’s note:  This a testimony about how the teaching in a Vital Life class unlocked some very important issues in a woman’s life.

I recently attended the Vital Life class titled Why Me?  A Pastoral Look at Suffering.  I went searching for one answer.  Not so much Why Me?, but simply Why?  Why had my newborn son died?

My husband and I learned half way through our first pregnancy (in 2000) that our baby was very sick with a very rare condition.  We endured test after test and our baby underwent two experimental fetal surgeries while still in the womb.  Finally we were told there was nothing more that could be done medically and that our son would die soon after he was born.  I carried him for another 3 months, praying for a miracle, yet trying to prepare for the worst.

Elijah was born on January 5, 2001.  He lived for one hour and 40 minutes.

The death of our son…well, it’s hard to put the experience into words.

Since that time I have known the closeness of God in ways that are indescribable.  At times, His presence through the grief has been amazing and powerful, almost physical.  I have also allowed grief to take me to lonely dark places.  I have seen my faith shatter into so many pieces that I, completely exhausted, quit trying to pick them all up and simply pretended to have faith instead.  I have looked at some of the darkest corners of grief and felt my Lord pull me to safety.  I have known His beautiful healing and restoration.  I have known the Lord’s love in ways that have left me breathless.  And I can honestly say that God has used Elijah’s death in ways that have allowed me to see His hope and goodness.

And while I know truth and hope for heaven, the question of Why has never been satisfied in my heart.  I have been asking God Why for a long time.  At times I have begged and implored Him to share with me, as a mom grieving over the unthinkable.  At times I have downright demanded He answer me, practically stamping my feet like a young child.  I have wondered at the possible ways God would use Elijah and his story for His glory and been hopeful.  I have been troubled at the dark possibilities of why God allowed Elijah’s life on earth to be so short and seemingly irrelevant.  I have considered that ultimately I probably can’t understand it all anyway, but I’ve still wanted God to try to explain it all to me.  I have always lived thinking that knowing Why would somehow make losing Elijah bearable.  I simply want the death of my infant son to make sense.  I came to the class hoping for the answer I’ve been waiting for, longing for, and searching for.

And God met me.

The first two classes were led by Joseph Stigora.  I thought the first class was great.  It was compassionately taught and biblically pointed to the expectation of suffering while in the world.  I left that class realizing that I was probably not going to get the specific answer I was longing for.  But I came back again the next week.

Joseph’s 2nd lesson outlined suffering as Christians and our Lord’s promises about suffering.  I left that class a bit refreshed and later reflected on the kindness of our Lord to include all this information about suffering in His Word.  I thought I was fairly well acquainted with scripture about suffering, but had never seen the fact that God had said so much in His Word as evidence of His kindness and care.

The final class, led by Rob Flood, was a look at Job.  To be honest, I have often been troubled by this book and some of the things in it.  There are two truths God revealed to me during this teaching.  One is that I would probably not be satisfied with God’s reasons even if He made it all clear and understandable to me.  The answer to one question would lead to another.  I realized that I would probably even suggest other ways God could have accomplished His purposes.  I was also struck by the realization that Job never knew why God had allowed the circumstances of his life, yet he trusted.  I realized that a lack of trust was at the heart of my question.  That realization led me to repentance and God lavished me with freedom.

I shared with my community group last week about this big revelation and that it felt like a weight had been lifted.  My sweet prophetic friend told me that she saw me being released from heavy shackles.  Yes, that is exactly what it was like.

Thank you, sweet Lord, for your beautiful patience.  Thank you for revealing this truth to me and for your forgiveness.  Thank you for growing my trust.  You are forever faithful.  Lord, thank you also for the ministry of the word through classes like Vital Life, where we can encounter life changing truth and learn to live it out in a community of friends.

If you have never experienced the applied truth in Vital Life the next Vital Life will take place from nine to noon on Saturday April 10.

By Jared Mellinger

This Sunday we began a preaching series that will take us through the entire book in segments over the course of the year.  Here is a prayer I am praying as we look ahead.  I invite you to make it your prayer as well.  

Father,

What great things you did when you first established the church and gave us the amazing story in the book of Acts! 

We read this book and behold you there as the almighty, promise-keeping, sovereign God.  You have given your only Son for us.  And, you have raised your Son from the dead!  You have exalted him to your right hand, and have given him the Holy Spirit, whom he has been pouring out ever since Pentecost. 

Not one of your promises has failed!

We, Father, are a needy people.  There is no book of the Bible that makes us more aware of our need for the Spirit’s fullness and empowering in our lives.  Forgive me, and forgive us, for so often being content with less than the Spirit’s fullness in our lives. 

At the outset of studying this book as a church, we want you to know that we are longing for more of your Spirit and your power and your presence.  Make us rich in our fellowship, united in our prayers, bold in our witness, joyful in our worship, faithful in our suffering, and confident in the power of your word. 

We are trusting you for great things.  With expectant hearts, we “ponder anew, what the Almighty can do.”  And we ask that over this next year, you would do far more than we can ask or imagine. 

In the name of Jesus, Head of the Church, our crucified and risen Lord, 

Amen      

By Jared Mellinger

 

Benedictions are the words a pastor often speaks at the end of a church service to give people hope, encouragement, and comfort as they leave.  The word “Benediction” comes from a Latin phrase meaning ‘to speak well of’.  Benedictions speak a blessing over the people of God in the form of an intercessory prayer for the congregation.  They communicate a desire and hope that God will do something on behalf of his people. 

 

The benedictions we do are short, but important.  Here are some of the reasons we use them:    

 

1.  Benedictions are biblical

The benediction was a part of Israel’s worship.  Perhaps the most popular benediction is the blessing God wanted Aaron to speak over the Israelites, to call attention to God’s protection, grace, and peace: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).

 

In the New Testament, Paul often ends his letters with a benediction, emphasizing the grace and peace of God that belongs to all who are in Christ.  The Trinitarian benediction at the end of 2 Corinthians is elegant and powerful: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).  And, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 says, ^“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”

 

One of my personal favorites comes at the end of Jude: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.  Amen.”  (Jude 24-25)

 

2.  Benedictions tie us to the great historic march of God’s church

The reformers of the sixteenth century used benedictions to end their services.  Martin Luther ended services with “God’s Spirit and grace be with us all.”  Ulrich Zwingli’s recommended benediction was “Almighty, eternal God!  Forgive us our sin and lead us to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  The Book of Common Prayer encourages pastors to speak this blessing: “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be among you, and remain with you always.” 

 

Richard Baxter, in the 17^th Century, used the following: “Now the God of peace, which brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.”    

 

When we listen to a benediction, we connect ourselves not only with God’s truth, but also with followers of Christ over the centuries.  

 

Next time, I’ll give 3 more reasons we use benedictions as a church.

By Trish Donohue

 

Here’s a riddle for you—complete with my own best guesses…

 

What revives the soul,  (strong coffee?)

Makes simple people wise,  (Cliff Notes?)

Makes your heart rejoice,  (a big tax return?)

Enlightens you,  (People magazine?)

Endures forever,  (a bad haircut?)

Is more desirable than gold,  (a cleaning lady?)

Is sweeter than honey,  (boardwalk fudge?)

Offers great reward? (Botox ads?)

 

I was reading Psalms in my quiet time the other day, and I came across this exact riddle in Psalm 19.  As I read it, my eyes opened wider and my grogginess wore off.  I was thinking, “Hey, I need all this stuff!”  My soul needs to be revived, I need wisdom desperately, my heart needs to rejoice, I need to be enlightened, and I definitely want great reward.  This is quite a sales pitch.  And since I found it in the Bible and not in a magazine, it’s got to be true!

 

So are you ready?  The answer is God’s Word.  But now that you know the answer, do you feel a hint of disappointment?  Are you thinking, “Oh, it’s a spiritual answer—there really isn’t anything real and practical that accomplishes all of that.  Bummer.”

 

Those are your idols talking (well actually, they’re mine, but you probably have some of your own.)  They’re jealous because they want you to look to them for relief and refreshment.  They like to make the bold promises. “You want refreshment?” they ask.  “Watch me.” “Buy me.”  “Seek me.”  “Lust after me.”  “Trust in me.” 

 

They’re all liars though.  And as God helps us grow in our faith, we’re getting smarter, and we can read Psalm 19 and believe it. 

 

What will revive my soul?  The perfect law of the Lord!

What will make my simple mind wise?  The sure testimony of the Lord!

What will make my heart rejoice?  The right precepts of the Lord!

What will enlighten my eyes?  The pure commandment of the Lord!

 

In other words, God speaks truth, through scripture, into our lied-to hearts.  He’s given us pages full of perfection, straight from his holy, brilliant, clever, creative, sovereign, understanding, amazing mind. And those words and their results bring all that we desire: refreshment, wisdom, rejoicing, enlightenment, righteousness, sweetness, reward!  What a promise!  What a deal!  And no member fees!

 

Our creator knows us so much better than we know ourselves.  Lord, open our eyes to see that your word is “more to be desired…than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.”

By Trish Donohue

Do you ever wonder how other Christians embark on their Bible reading each morning?  Do they have special tricks?  Are their Bibles magically highlighting amazing truths which jump off the pages at them?  Do they spring nimbly from their beds in anticipation?  Does soft music begin to play as they crack open the well-worn pages?

Just for the record, I don’t have any tricks.  But I know what John Piper does.  (I recently needed some inspiration for my quiet times and perused his website.)  Every morning before he looks into God’s Word he prays the words of Psalm 119:18 which say, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.”

It’s not a gimmick or a trick; it’s just echoing the psalmist’s inspired prayer and asking for divine help.  And I’ve started to do it myself.

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

Why?  Because like Dr. Piper, I find that my spiritual eyes are shut in the morning.  They don’t see wonderful things in God’s law by themselves.  They see interesting stories or familiar passages or lots of tiny letters that morph into a cloud of sleepiness.  They see a legalistic checkmark on the “quiet time” slot or a grocery list or a catalog of worries that are elbowing their way into my time in the Word.  I need God to miraculously touch me if I’m going to see through my sleepy spiritual eyes.

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

And He does.  It’s really amazing the way God answers our prayers, and ridiculous that we don’t pray more.  In the short time since I’ve begun my quiet times with this prayer, not as a mantra but as a heartfelt request, God has spoken to me clearly through his Word, pretty much every time.

I still don’t spring out of bed, I kind of roll out in a coma-like state.  But heavy eyelids are no match for the power of God, and I reach with faith for that big leather book.  There are words of wonder in there, and God’s going to show them to me!

By Jared Mellinger

 

We benefit from our partnership with Sovereign Grace Ministries in countless ways.  One of those ways is the simple fact that we have the ESV Study Bible.  Let me explain. 

 

Wayne Grudem recently spoke at Covenant Life Church and publicly expressed his gratitude for the strategic role Sovereign Grace churches played in the development of the Study Bible.  Sovereign Grace helped provide funding for Grudem to take time off from teaching to serve as general editor of the ESVSB. 

 

I wanted to pass this on to you as yet another example of what your giving to Sovereign Grace makes possible.  You may not have realized it, but your giving to Covenant Fellowship and Sovereign Grace means that you played a part in developing the Study Bible that sits on your shelf.  

Many of you know Justin Taylor from his blog.  Justin served on the Study Bible editorial team as the project director and managing editor, and he sent the following letter.  It is aimed at Sovereign Grace pastors, but we know that we can only give out of what you have given as a church.  So read and be encouraged by all that God is doing through our partnership with Sovereign Grace.  And know how grateful we are for you.

 

Dear Sovereign Grace Pastors,
 
Warm greetings in Christ. I hope this finds you enjoying God’s great grace.
 
It was just one year ago that the ESV Study Bible was published. God, in his kindness, has enabled us to put 400,000 copies of the ESVSB in print during that time. I wish you could see a sample of the encouraging feedback that has come in: prisoners using it as their only source to help them understand the Bible, schools making it mandatory reading for their middle-schoolers and high-schoolers, people using it to explain difficult passages to unbelievers, students in the third world having more between two covers than they do in their whole library. God is graciously using it as a tool to accomplish his purposes.
 
But, just for a moment, put yourself in Crossway’s shoes four years ago. Crossway wanted to put together a Study Bible in the ESV, but didn’t want it to take 7-8 years to produce, as is the typical length of time. But in order to do that, we’d have to find a scholar to serve as general editor. He had to be passionate about God’s glory, moved deeply by the gospel, and committed to an “essentially literal” translation philosophy. He had to be someone that people could trust to help them communicate the Bible at a level they could understand. He had to be faithful and prayerful; careful and joyful; respected in the academic world but committed to his local church.
 
Wayne Grudem was the obvious choice.
 
But from a practical, earthly perspective, how could we ask him to drop out of regular teaching and writing for a few years in order to take on a project that would deal with every book of the Bible and would wind up at over a million words?
 
That’s where you, the pastors of Sovereign Grace, enter in.
 
Without your kindness and generosity in supporting Dr. Grudem’s sabbatical time and reduced teaching load, we would not have the ESV Study Bible that we have today.
 
Thank you, brothers, for your example in the Lord. Thank you for giving not only your resources, but even yourselves, for the cause of the gospel. Thank you for loving Jesus and for laboring for the advancement of the Kingdom.
 
Words cannot adequately convey our gratitude to God for you. Few will know your act of sacrifice and love, but we know that our Father who sees in secret will reward you.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Justin Taylor
 

By Christina Roth

This past September, Bill and I celebrated our twelfth anniversary.  It made me think of that amazing day when we were joined in our marriage covenant.  As the pastor spoke he held up a piece of rope.  “A rope with three strands is not easily broken,” he said pulling on the rope.  Those three strands, he told us, represent Bill, me and the Lord.  This wisdom we will carry with us as long as we live.

However, lately I needed to be reminded of our three strand marriage once again.  The Lord has graciously revealed a trend going on in my life.  I increasingly found myself making decisions on my own, without even speaking to Bill about it.  Recent examples include volunteering Bill to coach my daughter’s soccer team, scheduling various parties to attend, and inviting people over to our home.  When I make these decisions they all seem reasonable, even honoring to God.  The soccer team provides a great outreach opportunity, parties always provide wonderful fellowship with other women, and the Bible is very clear about the importance of hospitality…right?  Well, not so fast.  Each of those choices led into conflict with my husband and consequences that showed me these choices were in fact not as reasonable or God honoring as I thought.

In conversations with Bill I began to realize that I was acting as a single strand, weak and ready to break at any moment.  By not consulting Bill on these decisions, I was not considering him and the wonderful role he has as my husband, my leader, my protector.  I was acting alone, not accessing the wisdom and care that my husband often provides.  Even though we may have ended up doing the very same things that I planned, the process of making decisions alone deprived us an opportunity to seek the Lord together on important priorities in our lives.  As we resolved the conflict, Bill helped me see our three strand marriage vision, the same morning that my faithful Lord reminded me of it in His Word.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.  For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.  But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!  Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?  And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him- a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”  (Ecc. 4:9-12)

By Ramona Doyle

Establishing a devotional habit…

If you are like me, it can sometimes feel like we live in Romans 7, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”  (Verses 19-20)  These verses provide all the more evidence that we need the Lord!  But, sadly, they can also describe the experience we have as we seek to set aside time to daily meet with him.

Though it can sometimes seem like our greatest daily challenge, establishing a fruitful devotional life is critical for the spiritual food and drink we need each day to live and walk in the hope of the Gospel.  You probably have many strategies that have helped you through the years …these are a few that have worked for me.

1.     Assume that God is for you: Don’t let condemnation over past failures keep you from meeting with him.  In Romans 8:1 Paul informs us, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  He fulfilled God’s righteous law and now dwells within us that we might walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, desiring the things of God.  And he promises help in our weakness (Romans 8:26)!

2.     Plan for success:  I find it helpful to develop habits that support my desire to have time with the Lord.  When I needed to supervise very young children, it worked better for me to get up before them in the morning—hence, an earlier bedtime at night.  In seasons of distraction, making a list of pressing needs before meeting with the Lord can help get them “off your mind” during your quiet time.  It also provides a wonderful list to guide your prayers to draw help from the Lord!

3.     Find a quiet place:  If everyone in your house has to walk through your chosen room on the way to the bathroom or kitchen, it’s probably not a great choice of locations.  Find a spot that will minimize interruptions and serve you as you seek to meet with the Lord…a basement room?  An unused guest room?

4.     Train your children to respect your time:  What a wonderful opportunity for your children to learn god-centered priorities as they see how important time with the Lord is to Mom.  Perhaps the children can practice piano, do their chores, or have a quiet play time while you steal away.  Explain the difference between an acceptable interruption and an unnecessary one and enlist their help to make your time successful!

5.     Have a plan B:  Life happens!  Days can be unpredictable.  If something interferes with your plans, try to grab the next available time…perhaps a nap time or during “daddy time” in the evening.  Even 10 minutes is better than no time at all!

Remember that the Lord is even more eager to meet with us than we with him.  We can count on his grace as we seek to establish a devotional habit!

By Andy Farmer

Dwayne Bennett, who does a wonderful job (with his wife Toni) overseeing our Children’s Ministry, sent the following email to Mark Prater with their observations about some of our kids. 

This 8th Grade class has been very responsive to God's moving in their lives both at Youth Camp and at the Cross Culture meetings.  When Toni and I were discussing the 8th Grade response at Youth Camp she made the observation that this is the first class that has had God's Story in Promise Kingdom from Preschool through 6th Grade.  I don't want to take credit from God for their response to the Gospel...  I just want to point out that God may have chosen to use God's Story in their lives in the last 9 years of Sunday morning Children's Ministry.
 
While this group of kids were in the 6th Grade Promise Kingdom class, a few of the Teachers mentioned to me that this group had well thought out questions and rather mature answers to questions posed to the class.  Again, I don't want to try to take away from what God is doing in the lives of this class by pointing out that God's Story may have played a significant part.
 
Thanks,
Dwayne

Dwayne is right on when he cautions against seeing any particular program or leadership approach as capable of producing true spiritual fruit.  But God uses means to accomplish his purposes, and the God’s Story curriculum was developed as a means to show the riches of God’s grace in the Gospel as displayed throughout the entirety of God’s word.  God’s Story is a practical application for our kids of Paul’s words to the Colossians,

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  (Col. 3:16)

So we can just as rightly give thanks to God for the curriculum (and it’s author, Marty Machowski), for the teachers and helpers who make it come alive each week for the kids, and for the parents who draw God’s Story into their families through the devotionals and in everyday conversation.  When Gospel centered resources are put in play, we should expect spiritual fruit over time. 

If you aren’t familiar with God’s Story and how it can serve your family, check it out on our web site HERE.

By Jared Mellinger

Robert Murray M'Cheyne is a Scottish pastor from the 1800's.  I have been writing about his life and example the past few weeks.  These are the lessons I personally have learned from his life, and hope we can all learn from him.  What explains the humility and the eternal perspective that characterized this man's life?  At the heart of it all was M’Cheyne’s insatiable appetite for the Word of God.  In one letter, he described the Bible by saying, “One gem from that ocean is worth all the pebbles of earthly streams.”  

His friend and biographer, Andrew Bonar, was aware of M’Cheyne’s love for Scripture.  Bonar writes, “His desire to grow in acquaintance with Scripture was very intense; and both Old and New Testament were his regular study…Three chapters from the Word was his usual morning portion.  This he thought little enough, for he delighted exceedingly in the Scriptures: they were better to him than thousands of gold or silver.”  As a 20 year old, M'Cheyne wrote the following journal entry: “Rose early to seek God, and found him who my soul loveth.  Who would not rise early to meet such company?”  This was typical of his morning entries. 

A lesson to learn from this: If your time in the word is never anything but discipline and drudgery and inconsistency and joylessness, something is wrong.  Christians are those who treasure the Word.  Reading God’s word is not always the first thing we may feel like doing, but we want to have a growing appetite for God's truth that will make us hunger and thirst for it in greater and greater ways as we go through life.  Over time there should be nights that you go to bed anticipating encountering God in His word the next morning.  Sometimes, this anticipation will even keep Christians awake at night. 

Do you treasure the Word?        

Here is an insightful lesson from M'Cheyne that has the potential to transform your relationship with God and your time in God’s Word: Turn the Bible into prayer.  He writes: “You do read your Bible regularly, of course; but do try and understand it, and still more, to feel it.  ...Turn the Bible into prayer.  Thus, if you were reading the first Psalm, spread the Bible on the chair before you, and kneel and pray, ‘O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man,’ ‘Let me not stand in the counsel of the ungodly,’ etc.  This is the best way of knowing the meaning of the Bible, and of learning to pray.”  

His love for the Word led to one of his greatest contributions and accomplishments, which came just three months before his death.  On Dec 30, 1842, M’Cheyne published a calendar for daily Bible readings throughout the year.  The Bible reading plan was called “Daily Bread.”  It led the reader through the Old Testament once and the New Testament and the Psalms twice during the course of a year.  Since then, it has been promoted and used by many great men: Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, and D.A. Carson.  D.A. Carson has written a 2-volume devotional entitled “For the Love of God” that accompanies M’Cheyne’s Bible reading plan.  It is the best devotional I am aware of, because it will deepen your understanding of the Scriptures through short, yet rich meditations.     

Let us together strive to treasure this holy Word.  “He would be a sorry student of the Bible," M'Cheyne writes, "who would not know all that God inspired: who would not examine into the most barren chapters to collect the good for which they were intended.”  God, spare us the rebuke of being "sorry students" of the Bible!  And help us to daily examine the Scriptures and mine them for all they are worth.

By Deb Demi

Do you know the verse about hiding God’s word in your heart?  (Ps. 119:11)  The problem that I have is once I hide it, I can’t always find it.

Maybe it’s because I’m over 40 or maybe it’s because I have 7 kids (4 of whom are teenagers), but I have a hard time remembering things - specifically scripture.  I can still recall bible verses that I learned when I was in grade school and even ones that I learned in college.  Back then, scripture seemed to stick in my head.  Now, however, I’m lucky to remember a verse that I memorized last month. 

Maybe you’ve experienced this too.  You spend time memorizing a passage of scripture only to be unable to recall five words of it two weeks later.  Maybe you don’t even try to memorize scripture, because it’s just too difficult.  Before giving up on the idea of memorizing portions of scripture, let me encourage you!

This past year, I have memorized Romans 12, Romans 5, 2 Peter 1, and I just finished committing Romans 8 to memory word for word.  I’m not telling you this to pat myself on the back.  Each of those passages took me at least a month to learn.  I’m not a great memorizer.  And, when I just tried to recall Romans 12 – I only could remember two verses (the ones I learned in college).  So, you may be asking, why bother memorizing at all if in less than a year – you can’t remember anything?

Here’s an example of why I will continue to hide God’s word in my heart:   For the past three months (!)  I’ve been memorizing Romans 8.  Every day while I dry my hair, I say the verses aloud from the beginning of the chapter (several times), and try to add a new one.  Then, when I’m driving in my car or lying in bed at night or taking a shower or when I first get up in the morning, I meditate on the chapter as far as I know it.  For the past three months, I’ve been immersed in the gospel promises laid out for us in Romans 8.  Through memorizing and replaying, I did what I rarely have time to do in my quiet times – I meditated on and practically applied these amazing verses on a daily basis.

Though I can’t recall much of what I memorized earlier in the year, when a verse is needed, I know if it’s located in one of “my” 4 chapters.  And, I know that it’s still hidden in my heart somewhere, because when I try to relearn portions of one of the chapters, it comes back almost instantly.

So what are you waiting for?  Find a passage to memorize.  Don’t bemoan the fact that you may not retain it forever; revel in the fact that as do the work of memorizing, your soul is being fed.  Even if you can’t find it next month, you can be confident that God’s word is hidden somewhere in your heart!

“The Word is forgotten but they are still doing their work secretly and the spirit feeds on them and grows strong.”  Françoise Fenelon

By Traci Healey

Pastor’s note:  Traci wrote this in early March.  As we post she is joyfully expecting the imminent arrival of the baby she talks about below.

Sometimes I get afraid people will think I’m silly for getting pregnant soon after getting married (a little over 3 months).  Mostly because I would have thought it was silly.  When we were engaged, I asked Rick to give me at least 6 months before we started trying to have kids.  It could have been longer, but hey, I’m getting old.

But one day I read this and God spoke to me.

Psalm 127
Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Reading this, God showed me my heart and its fears and then He showed me the promises of His Word.  I was convicted of two things.

The first was being afraid of what people (my family and close friends) would think of me.  What would they say about me?  Would they think I was crazy for not wanting more time alone with Rick?  Would they think I was missing out on the newlywed years?  Maybe.  Does it matter?  No.  Because the promise of this verse is that children are from the Lord…a reward…they bring blessing to their parents…there is no downside to kids in God’s economy.

The second is that I was afraid of the future.  What if we couldn’t provide for our kids?  What if we couldn’t buy a house?  What if all the money I wanted to spend at Anthropologie suddenly went to diapers?  Well, the first part of this psalm spoke to my anxieties: “…he gives to his beloved sleep.”  The anxious don’t sleep well, but God’s beloved do.  He cares for them, builds their house and watches over them.  Now that is a promise.

So God spoke to me.  He eased my fears.  And then I very clearly knew what repentance and obedience looked like.  I was to trust Him in all things and have kids.  And now that I’m pregnant?  I know that this is what God called me to do from the beginning…and that gives me great joy.  Even if it means a change in some of my shopping.

Blogger’s Note: I understand that there are perfectly good reasons to wait to have kids.  And I’m not saying my story is the best one to follow.  But it’s a good reminder that God is the one who sets our priorities.

By Jared Mellinger

Father,

What an incredible gift we have in 1 Thessalonians.  Thank you for writing this book, and thank you for preserving your word for me and for Covenant Fellowship.  As I sit and read these pages, my heart is riveted by the example of Paul and the church in Thessalonica.  I continue to ask, as I have asked these past few months, that you would use this book and this sermon series first and foremost to do a work in my own heart.  I want my relationships to be increasingly transformed by the gospel.  I want to live a life of thankfulness.  I want to be faithful to the gospel.  I want to lead your people with humility, gentleness, and love.

You know how I always thank you for Covenant Fellowship.  I’ll never stop thanking you for bringing me to this church.  Thank you for all the men and women who have labored tirelessly over the years to make the church what it is today.  What a humbling experience to serve along side them.  Thank you for saving hundreds of lost sinners through Christ, and bringing us together to live for you.  Thank you for continuing to save people through the witness of the church.  Thank you for the fellowship and community we enjoy with one another.  Thank you for placing in our hearts a love for Christ and a love for one another.  Thank you for all the Community Group Leaders, ministry team workers, and children’s ministry helpers who joyfully pour their lives into the church year after year.  You have given me so much to be grateful for!       

Now, I ask that the message of 1 Thessalonians would leave its mark on our lives throughout this sermon series.  I ask that this short, powerful letter would capture our hearts and motivate us to be a church full of people who live to please you more and more.  You have given us 1 Thessalonians, a part of your sacred word, that we might be taught, reproved, corrected, and trained in righteousness, that we may be equipped for good works through the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 

Father, please do this in our lives.  We dread the thought of being the same people on the other side of this series.  Take the things you are already doing in the church and increase them even more.  Give us real love in how we relate to one another.  Produce in us real thanksgiving for your grace at work in those around us.  Help us to carry out real ministry as we care for one another, and as the pastors lead the church.  Empower us to carry out a real witness in the world, that others might come to know you.  Anchor our souls in the real hope we have in Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. 

We lean on the promise of 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”

Amen.

By Rob Flood

Sometimes opportunity knocks so loudly that you just have to answer the door. 

For many of us, there’s been a constant awareness of a chronic need and we’ve been asking for God to deliver a “can’t miss” solution.  Knock…knock…knock.

As a married couple or as a family, purposeful and meaningful time spent in the Word and in prayer can be a serious challenge.  We want to do it…we know we ought to do it…but how can we do it?  Knock…knock…knock.

The pastors have provided a study guide for the upcoming Sunday sermon series, Real Church.  In addition to the many helpful articles and summary sections, there are studies that have been crafted for each message that will be preached.  At just a few questions each, the studies provide an opportunity to interact with the text and the message on a deeper level. 

How can you use this beyond your personal time with God?  Here are just a few suggestions:

-         As a couple:  This study guide can provide structure for both husband and wife to join arms and both come under the Word of God.  By doing so, you will be able to process the message you’ve heard, discuss the passage in light of your personal circumstances, and open doorways to further spiritual conversation.  A jump start like this can be just what a marriage needs to begin to develop the dimension of spiritual conversation that God would have for a Christian marriage.

-         As a family:  If your children are older…in Junior High or High School…they, too, will have heard the Sunday message.  This guide provides a great opportunity to hear them speak of their own faith in their own words.  It also opens up a greater likelihood to hear their thinking in areas where they might not yet believe.  If your children are younger and in Children’s Ministry during the message, this serves as a great opportunity to fold them into what Mom and Dad are learning and share the truths you’ve heard and learned.

-         As a prototype:  After 15 weeks of practice, you’ll be better prepared to ask purposeful questions of each other in the future.  You’ll have an understanding of how to process teaching and preaching.  Using this study guide can literally transform every drive home from church you have from this day forward.  Rather than your conversation being consumed with where to do lunch, or even on how you “liked” the sermon, you can ask purposeful questions that will help you sow the message more deeply into your hearts.

As a pastoral team, we anticipate with great excitement how God will use Real Church to speak to us as a church.  That, in itself, is a wonderful thing.  Additionally, though, if you’ve been waiting for a “can’t miss” opportunity to come right up to your front door, then wait no longer.  Knock…knock…knock.

by Jared Mellinger

This coming Sunday we begin our next preaching series, called Real Church.  We’ll be spending 15 weeks walking through the book of 1 Thessalonians.  There are many books of the Bible that have been shouting at me to preach them, but none has been shouting more loudly and seems timelier than 1 Thessalonians. 

In the sermon next week, I’ll be explaining our goals for the series and why we are preaching through this book.  The pastoral team is convinced that this book contains a timely message from God for Covenant Fellowship in this season.

One of the things we are excited about (and I hope you are excited about!) is the Study Guide for 1 Thessalonians we created for this series.  If you were here on Sunday we handed them out.  If you didn’t get one we will have copies available at our info center.  We also will be making it available on line in PDF format on the “Resources” page of our web site (www.covfel.org).  We are hoping that this guide will help us get the most out of the preaching series.

Our goal is to provide a tool that would promote the serious study of the Scriptures in our devotions at home and among friends.  So there are 15 studies in the booklet, one for each sermon in the series.  You can use each section to help you prepare for the sermon (jump into the first study this week!) or as a helpful follow-up after hearing the message.  You’ll also find an outline of 1 Thessalonians, goals for the series (derived from the major themes of the letter), articles by men like Paul Tripp and Jerry Bridges, and recommended resources for further study.

Let’s get ready to immerse ourselves in 1 Thessalonians.  Let’s read and re-read this book.  Let’s be praying that God meets us in this sermon series.  Let’s enjoy much fellowship with one another around this book.  Let’s anticipate how God is going to meet us, remembering this is “the word of God, which is at work in your believers” (1 Thess. 2:13).         

By Andy Farmer

 

On Sunday Jared preached the last sermon in our series, In My Place.  For me it has been a tremendous journey through some of the most profound passages in the Bible.  In this series we’ve been fed by the word of God from:

 

·        1 Corinthians 15:1-5 (The Centrality of the Gospel)

·        Exodus 12:1-27 (The Passover)

·        Leviticus 16 (The Day of Atonement)

·        Mark 15:16-47 (The Crucifixion)

·        Romans 3:21-26 (Justified by Grace)

·        Galatians 3:10-14 (Redeemed from the Curse)

 

Why not take your devotions this week and read back through these passages to dig deeper in reflection on the substitutionary work of Christ for you.

 

In his message Jared exhorted us with this:  “If we ever find ourselves in a place where we are saying ‘I've got that, let's move on' when it comes to the substitutionary death of Christ for our sins, we need to wave a great big caution sign over our lives"

 

Let’s face it.  There are a lot of things going on in life where we want biblical answers.  And there are a lot of big issues we face where we’re tempted to say, ‘thanks a lot, that was great stuff, now can we talk about…..’  But I think what Jared is getting at in that statement, and what this series has resoundingly declared, is that any answers or direction that can’t find connection to what Christ has done for us will not lead us to what God wants for us.  So here’s my personal take home in two points: 

 

1. I want to regularly study and meditate on the cross so that it worms its way into all my thinking and feeling and therefore into all my doing. 

By giving consistent attention to this truth of truths I will build connecting bridges into every area of my life.

 

2. I want to regularly study the circumstances and happenstances of my life and trace them back to the work of the cross.      

Are things going well?  Am I grateful because I’m living in the blessings of God purchased by Christ’s blood?  Are things not going well?  Am I in faith for the promises of God that have become mine in Jesus? 

 

Am I living my life in light of what could have been, and where I could have gone, if Jesus hadn’t died in my place?  As J. C. Ryle writes,

 

The more I keep the cross in my mind's eye, the more fullness I seem to discern in it.  The longer I dwell on the cross in my thoughts, the more I am satisfied that there is more to be learned at the foot of the cross than anywhere else in the world.

By Jared Mellinger

It is the heart of the pastors that though we have closed out this series In My Place, we never truly leave it as a church.  A quote from J. C. Ryle stirs me to see that every time I open my Bible I should remember Jesus In My Place.

Depend upon it, the cross of Christ,—the death of Christ on the cross to make atonement for sinners,—is the centre truth in the whole Bible.  This is the truth we begin with when we open Genesis.  The seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head is nothing else but a prophecy of Christ crucified.  This is the truth that shines out, though veiled, all through the Law of Moses, and the history of the Jews.  The daily sacrifice, the Passover lamb, the continual shedding of blood in the tabernacle and temple,—all these were emblems of Christ crucified.  This is the truth that we see honoured in the vision of heaven before we close the book of Revelation.  "In the midst of the throne and of the four beasts," we are told, "and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.”  (Rev. v. 6.)  Even in the midst of heavenly glory we get a view of Christ crucified.  Take away the cross of Christ, and the Bible is a dark book.

One of the ways we’ve tried to make sure we as a church continue to experience the light of the cross in our Bibles and lives is by recommending some great study resources.  If you haven’t seen this list on the web site I’m including it below.  All of these are available through our Book Shoppe.  Why not choose one and make it your devotional reading for this summer. 

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross (ed. Guthrie)
An outstanding compilation of meditations on the cross.  The line-up includes Luther, Piper, Mahaney, Spurgeon, Ryle, Owen, Lloyd-Jones, Sproul, Calvin, Packer, Edwards, Augustine, Keller, and more.  Each chapter is very short and accessible, but deep and powerful as well.  Great for devotions.

Pierced for Our Transgressions (Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach)
A wonderful treatise on the penal substitution of Christ.  Be sure to read chapter 2.  It provides a sound biblical overview of this important doctrine and examines each of the texts preached in this sermon series.  The second half deals with common objections to penal substitution. 

In My Place Condemned He Stood (Packer and Dever)
A compilation of theological essays that celebrate the glory of the atonement which all aim at one glorious purpose in our lives.  That purpose is captured in the conclusion of the book, “True Christ-centeredness is, and ever must be, cross-centeredness.”  To help us cultivate a “cross-centeredness” the book also contains an outstanding annotated bibliography and reading list written by Ligon Duncan.

The Great Exchange (Bridges and Bevington)
Drawn from George Smeaton’s work, “The Doctrine of the Atonement According To The Apostles,” this book is written in a way “to help believers think afresh and more deeply of the gospel.”  Surveys the key New Testament texts on the death of Christ.

The Cross of Christ (Stott)
A classic work on the cross that every believer should read.  Make sure you don’t bog down in the first few chapters, because chapters 5 and 6 are outstanding.  Stott shows that the heart of Christ’s work on the cross is the satisfaction for sin through the self-substitution of God.

Living The Cross Centered Life (Mahaney)
Written with pastoral skill, the short chapters in this book not only capture C.J.’s passion for the cross, but give practical ideas that help you to keep the gospel the “main thing” in your life.  This book is highly accessible – a great place to start – and is guaranteed to stir fresh love for the Savior. 

By Jared Mellinger

Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.”  This proverb teaches us that it’s not proper for us to always be talking about ourselves, and commending ourselves, and praising ourselves.  It summarizes a warning echoed throughout the Bible against self-centeredness.

 

Question: Did Jesus obey Proverbs 27:2?   

 

We’re so familiar with his sayings that its easy to miss how often Jesus is not only talking about himself, but speaking very highly of himself – commending himself, praising himself, saying things intended to cause others to think more highly of him.  Mark Dever observes, “It seems like every time Jesus speaks, he speaks about himself, why he came into the world, or what he will do for those who believe in him.”  (The Message of the New Testament, 103)  Have you ever noticed that?  It seems like every time Jesus speaks, he speaks about himself.  His entire ministry was characterized by self-commendation.  He praises himself constantly, and without apology.  Was he that self-centered?

 

Think about it: Who else besides Jesus walks into a group of people and says, “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here” (Mt. 12:6)?  Or, “Something greater than Solomon is here” (Mt. 12:42).  “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt. 11:29).  “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11).  He is praising himself with his own mouth.  “I, Jesus, am the bright morning star” (Rev. 22:16).  “I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13). 

 

What about Proverbs 27:2, and letting another praise you?  How can Jesus commend himself as he does? 

 

The answer is that Jesus knows who he is.  He knows that the most important message in the history of the world is the message of who he is and what he came to earth to accomplish.  He knows that he alone can save us and satisfy our hearts.  The Good Shepherd is only good if he guides us to himself.  And so the message Jesus brought was the message of himself.  The self-centeredness that Proverbs 27:2 warns against is when people who should not be the center live as if they are.  Jesus wasn’t capable of the self-centeredness that we can display because he is in fact the center of everything that matters in the universe. 

 

In making himself the center of his teaching, and in commending himself as he does, Jesus parts ways with every other religious leader in the history of the world.  Study the teachings of Muhammad, or look at Buddha or anyone else.  Every other religious leader has come pointing people away from themselves to the way of salvation, claiming to direct people to the truth through their teachings, or by providing an example of an ethical life. 

 

Jesus is altogether unique, and his message is entirely and radically different, because the centerpiece of his message is himself.  Jesus did not just come claiming to have the truth, he came saying that he is the truth.  He declares that he alone is the door of salvation, and that he alone is the Good Shepherd.  No one has ever spoken like this man.  Christ stands alone, in a league of his own.  He is worthy of praise, and therefore he praises himself and invites us to join him – not in praising and commending ourselves with our own mouths, but in praising and commending him as our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.