Sermon Poetry, 8 November 2009
Sermon Text – John 18:1-13
Preacher – Pastor Mike Tardive

Kind Jesus, Your people are suffering life
With sadness and sickness and poverty strong
They’re crying with voices of weakness and sorrow
With quavering lips they are singing their song

You’ve given us cups with a drink hard to swallow
We haven’t the strength to survive Sovereign Will
We’re crying with voices of frailty and mourning
Come calm with Your mercy and make our hearts still

We suffer as people who worship our Savior
We follow our Jesus, our Suffering Lord
He drank from His chalice, prepared by the Father
Fulfilling the Scriptures, God’s beautiful Word

Our Father is Sovereign, with Providence Holy
His will is accomplished, no matter how sad
So as Jesus swallowed, our sins were forgiven
We’re bathed in His blood, and our mourning is glad

We’re washed in His mercy, we’re cleansed by His blood
Through death are we living, through blood made alive
In Him is salvation, we’ve access to Yahweh
Once sinners of darkness, now Children of Light

Ecclesiastes 7:1-13

This is a passage written by a man who is tired.  This is a man who is tired of life.  This is a man who is tired of sin.  This is a man who is tired of the wickedness and the injustice of the world.  This is a man who has tried to be wise and tried to be good and tried to be just, but who has found out that it cannot be done.

Who can really blame this man for his despair?  Who hasn’t felt the pull of despair or the tickle of such dark cynicism?  Who hasn’t at times found it more comfortable to live in the house of sorrowful mourning rather than joyful feasting?  Who hasn’t at times wallowed in black thoughts and feelings?  Who hasn’t tried to keep God’s Law and failed?  Who hasn’t tried to be wise for wisdom’s sake alone?  Who hasn’t felt more comforted in sorrow than laughter?  Who doesn’t feel passionate frustration at the cruelty of the oppression of the weak?  Who hasn’t felt utter frustration at the laughter and tomfoolery of fools?

Still, even more depressing, we are more often than not the fools!  We laugh at our stupidity when we should mourn over our sin.  We oppress and we bribe.  We would rather hear the songs of fellow fools rather than feel the stinging rebukes of the wise and just.  We’re proud people with proud spirits and we don’t want to think about our own mortality nor consider or immorality.  We are impatient and selfish.  We are discontent with our own lives, always looking back into the past or selfishly looking into the future, hoping for what we alone want.  We dwell in the house of mirth, unaware of our foolishness and not caring.

Surely such a reality should drive us to madness!  What depression we should naturally feel when forced to see the blackness of our own hearts!  We try and try to be wise and be good and holy but we can’t, won’t and to try only drives us to despair.

Thanks be to God for Christ!  In Christ our hearts are made new and our sins are forgiven.  We are given hearts of flesh to replace those dead hearts of stone.  Although we still sin we know our sins are forgiven and covered by the blood of Christ.  We once wanted only to engage in our wickedness and now we desperately want to be like Jesus.  In Christ death is defeated!  We now are free to laugh and enjoy what God has given us!  We need not despair over our sin because Christ died for us!  We need not try to keep God’s Law to save ourselves because Christ kept it perfectly and in Him we are made righteous.  What love, what Grace, what Mercy!

I am not a righteous man.  tells me this.  I don’t truly fear the LORD, nor do I greatly delight in His commandments.  In fact, I seem to sin more than do good.  I am prideful in my sin against God.  Although I want to do good, I often don’t.  I’m rarely ever gracious and merciful.  I hate men in my heart and I covet what other people have.  I’m not a grace giver, and my pride keeps me from being a humble grace receiver.  

I do not deal generously.  When I do give it’s always with the taint of grumbling and selfishness.  The idea of lending without expecting a return is a hard concept for me.  Bad news scares me.  Hard times frighten me.  My heart quakes and my soul shakes when faced with the unknown.  I’m scared about the future and I have a hard time trusting the Lord when I am forced to deal with things outside of my control.  I’m stingy with my possessions.  I don’t give to the poor.  When I see the poor man, I am repulsed and I shy away from him.  

I’m a wicked man.  In my soul no real righteousness dwells.  My offspring won’t be mighty in the land, and if left to me, my generation would not be blessed.  My righteousness does not endure forever because I have no righteousness within me.  My heart is moved and I will not be remembered forever.  I will be forgotten.  I will not triumph over my adversaries in my righteousness.  I will not endure forever and I will not be exalted in honor.  

But God sent His Son for me.  Christ, the Righteous One, died for me.  Christ kept the Law for me.  Christ suffered for me.  

In Christ my sins are forgiven.  In Christ my heart is made new.  In Christ my affections are changed.  In Christ my desires and will are completely remade.  In Christ I am covered by His Blood.  In Christ I am clothed with His Righteousness

In Christ we will endure forever.  In Christ the Light dawns for us.  In Christ we are truly blessed.  In Christ we are remembered forevermore, by God and for God.  In Christ our hearts are held firm by His Pierced and Steady Hands.  In Christ death is defeated and bad news has no power over us.  In Christ our Enemies are defeated.

He’s the Savior of the poor, broken and downtrodden.  He’s the Salvation of Sinners and the Hope for the Lost.  His Righteousness endures forever and He is forever exalted.

I once saw Christ and I was angry.  I gnashed my teeth at Him and hated Him.  Yet, my desire perished.  My heart was remade.  Christ defeated me and made me new.  I am born again, in Christ, and I am forgiven.

Leviticus 14:1-32

At first glance, this passage in Leviticus 14 is simply a set of ceremonial rules to make a formerly leprous man ceremonially clean once again.  This passage is not giving rules for making a leprous man clean or verifying the leprous man had been cleansed (that was provided in the immediate context).  But, if a man had been cleansed, this passage lays out some rules to make him once again clean and acceptable to come back into the camp of God’s people.

This is more than just an emotionless, rote religious ceremony.  In the rules themselves we can see something of the holiness of God.  It is interesting that it is not enough for the leprous man to simply be made well, but that that man must also take the extra steps to be made clean.  It’s not enough to simply not be dirty or defiled, but to be even in the same camp as God a man must be truly clean and set apart

Yet, who can really do this?  If simply having leprosy was enough to defile you before God, what about the more vile and wicked things we do?  Do those not separate us from God even more?  After all, the man cleansed from leprosy had to take two birds, kill one, dip the live bird (along with hyssop, cedar and scarlet yarn) in the blood of the dead bird (over running water) and then sprinkle that blood and water mix over the man seven times (the number of completeness) in order for the man to come back into the camp.  Yet, that man was still not ready to enter his tent, as he had a bit of bathing and shaving and waiting to do and then he had to sacrifice a spotless lamb for a guilt offering and some grain for a grain offering and after all of that, then he could be cleansed!

Thank God for Christ!  In Christ we are cleansed!  We’re washed with HIS blood and clothed with HIS righteousness.  We no longer need the sacrifices of lambs and birds and grain to atone for our defilement.  Christ’s work on the Cross was greater than Namaan’s miraculous healing at the hand of Elijah or Christ’s healing of the Ten Lepers.  His sacrifice was complete and his body was broken and bruised.  Like the killed bird and the sacrificed lamb, Christ was slain so that we might be acceptable before God.  In Christ and Him alone we have access to the Father and we are always admitted into His body, the Church.  Christ’s work accomplished a spiritual cleansing; something much deeper than anything the Old Testament priest could provide. In Christ, that work of salvation has been completed and our sins are forgiven and Christ loves us and we are loved by the Father, no matter our sicknesses, foibles or sins.  In Christ even the poorest and nastiest and grossest of us can have forgiveness and admittance and access to the Father.  Thanks be to God!

Sermon Poetry, 11 October 2009
Sermon Title: “Resurrected and Reconciled to Worship”
Sermon Text: Ephesians 2:19-22
Preacher: Pastor Larry Vincent

I once was dead, I’m now a saint
In Christ I’m made alive
No growth exists where death is king
In Christ does life now thrive

In Christ, the Jew and Pagan live
His Grace is large and wide
So all who do believe in him
Might live in Jesus Christ

In Christ the Gentile and the Jew
Are saved and made as one
We are the Church, the Bride of Christ
The Body of the Son

Of every tribe and race and tongue
Are men and women saved
To glorify our God above
And worship all our days

United are the Father’s Own
In Christ our hearts remade
To join the worship of the Lamb
By Him our souls are saved

Sermon Poetry – “Salvation’s Found Alone in Christ”
Preacher – Dr. Tom Ascol

Come look what God has done in Christ
He sent His Son to live and die
He died for us, so you and I,
Can praise His Holy Name

Salvation’s found alone in Christ
The Bleeding Savior from on High
Be covered by His sacrifice
And love the Son of God

Because of Christ I strive to be
A vessel so that men might see
How Jesus Christ has love for me
Sweet Jesus, give me strength!

The Doctrines that I hold as true
Are false without my Savior who
Came to this earth for me and you
I praise His Holy Name

NOT LIVE

Sermon Poetry, 13  September 2009
Sermon Title – “Christian Liberty #3 – The Nature of Evil”
Sermon Text – Romans 14
Preacher – Steve Garrick

Much evil dwells
Within my heart
Oh, who can know my sin

My wickedness
Is black and foul
There dwells no good within

I take what’s good
Expressing sin
Engaging wickedness

What God has made
I take and use
I foul what God has blessed

I judge the one
Who’s bought by Christ
I am a hypocrite

Ignoring specks
I’m seeing logs
I’m blinded to the light

I am so weak
Lord make me strong
To battle sin within

Lord, teach me to
Your armor use
In Christ, the battle win

I set the sword,
The Scripture’s point
So I might fall on it

My sin’s exposed
My heart is pierced
That black and stinking pit

A sinner great
Is what I am
God’s love I cannot earn

Because of sin
I do deserve
In hell to scream and burn

But thank the Lord
He does not look
To me to save my life

He sent His Son
The perfect One
The bloodied spotless Christ

In Christ I’m saved
I’m covered with
His holy righteousness

I’m favored by
The Lord above
In Christ by God I’m blessed

In Christ I live
To do the will
Of God, Creator King

Although I sin
Christ prays for me
My song God’s glory sings

I thank the Lord
For sending Christ
So sinners might be saved

God does forgive
My sin within
In Christ my heart’s remade

(set to the tune of “There is a Fountain”)

Lord when it’s hard to live for Christ
And when it’s hard to stand
Help us to fix our Gaze above
To our Eternal Land
To our Eternal Land, to our Eternal Land
Help us to fix our Gaze above
To our Eternal Land

Lord God it’s by Your grace alone
That we are justified
Please give us comfort in Your Blood
The Love in which You died
The Love in which You died, the Love in which You died
Please give us comfort in Your Blood
The Love in which You died

Lord give us grace to know Your Truth
You’ve given us Your Word
By it we know of Jesus Christ
By it we call You Lord!
By it we call You Lord, by it we call You Lord
By it we know of Jesus Christ
By it we call You Lord

Lord give us hope in Who You are
Our Maker and our Friend
Our Sovereign King, and Savior Sweet
Whose Mercy has no end
Whose Mercy has no end, whose mercy has no end
Our Sovereign King, and Savior Sweet
Whose Mercy has no end!

12 July 2009
Preacher: Jarret Downs
Sermon: “The Lampstand”
Text: Revelation 2:1-7

Jesus loves me and He died for me
And He lives that I might live
I was lost and dead, for I loved my sin
I was set against my God
But now I’m saved
Now I live for Him
Now I’m one with Jesus Christ

I shine the light of Jesus’ love for me
I shine the light of Jesus’ Truth
For with my mouth and with my frame Christ’s glory I proclaim
God give me strength to live for You, to glorify Your Name

Yet I am not saved in a blackened void
I’m saved into a body
A family with Christ as Head
All, sinners, justified
In Christ we’re saved
For the Father’s Name
By the Spirit sanctified

We shine the light of Jesus’ love for us
We shine the light of Jesus’ Truth
For with our mouths and with our frames Christ’s glory we proclaim
God give us strength to live for You, to glorify Your Name

With tears we come before You, God
We’ve lost our Former Love
Forgive us when we Your Name impugn
We’ve Truth, but haven’t love
Teach us to obey
To each other love
Please forgive your sinners own!

We shine the light of Jesus’ love for us
We shine the light of Jesus’ Truth
For with our mouths and with our frames Christ’s glory we proclaim
God, give us strength to live for You, to glorify Your Name

Lord we beg to tell Your Name
To a lost and deadened world
With Your Love we long to preach Your Truth
And to love the Lost and Low
Help us shine Your Truth
To proclaim Your Word
So that sinners might be saved!

We shine the light of Jesus’ gracious love
We shine the light of Jesus’ Truth
For with our mouths and frames Christ’s love we must proclaim
God give us strength to live with You, to glorify Your Name

Jesus come preserve Your Sons
And Your daughters weak and frail
If it’s left to us we’ll surely fail
We need your grace and steadfast love
With Your love we love
To Your Name proclaim
So Your greatness will be known

We shine the light of Jesus’ lasting love
We shine the light of Jesus’ Word
For with our hands and tongues, God’s greatness we proclaim
Christ, give us strength to live for you
To magnify
To amplify
To glorify Your Name

There is no easy way to lead a church to understand, embrace and practice church discipline. It is hard work and pastors must not allow themselves to become paralyzed by the myth that “there’s got to be an easier way.” There isn’t. If we are going to be faithful shepherds then we must roll up our sleeves, dig in our heels and do the hard work of lovingly, prayerfully and persistently leading our churches to obey Christ at this point. It is not easy, but it is worth it because God will be glorified, the church will be strengthened in holiness and mission and individual believers will be helped. … Many of the good things in ministry occur over long periods of time. Though God may well lead a pastor not to spend the better part of his life in one church, there are wonderful blessings that come from doing so.

- Tom Ascol (http://www.founders.org/blog/2009/07/long-journey-in-church-discipline-pt-3.html)

“Ni ceart go cur le cheile” – “There is no strength without unity”

There is a scene in Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life” where the evil villains, the Grasshoppers, are chilling under their sombrero hangout when Hopper, the gang’s ringleader, hears grumbling about going back to Ant Island to gather “The Offering” from the puny ants.  Hopper jumps over to the bar in typical grasshopper fashion, grabs a seed from their large seed dispenser at the Grasshopper bar and throws it at the complaining party.  He asks the guilty one if it hurt (it did not), throws another seed (“are you kidding” being the response) and then releases the whole bunch of heavy seeds onto the whiner, crushing him.  The moral of this story?  “There was that ant who stood up to me … if one ant stands up, they all might stand up”.

Just as that one seed did not hurt the grasshopper, so Flick (that one brave ant) did not stand a chance alone.  Yet, Hopper knew something profound: if those thousands of ants in that colony decided to stand together, as one, unified (which they finally did) then his evil reign of terror would end (which it did).

Unity is a powerful thing.  One strand of string is easily broken, but if you were to twist dozens of strings together into a rope, that string would suddenly be much more difficult to break.  One vote is hardly enough to swing an election (usually), but if you get a majority to vote the same way, as one unified voice, then democratic power can and does assert itself.  Yet, unity is not simply about numbers.  There might be thousands of soldiers fighting in a battle, but if those thousands are not fighting for a unified purpose or goal and do not fight as one, then they are easily dispatched.

Just as unity is vital for ants, strings, voters and warriors, it is so for followers of Jesus as well.  We are one body, in Christ.  The Church, Jesus’ Bride, is not made up of a bunch of self-autonomous parts.  We are joined and knit together, a unified, redeemed Body.  Yet, “unity” can be, and in our pluralisticly philosophical and cultural milieu, often is, misleading.  Believers in Christ cannot be unified with those who deny the insanely radical and thoroughly exclusive nature of Christ and the Cross.  Believers in Jesus cannot be unified with those who call Jesus a god but who do not ultimately bow their collective knee in abject submission to the Lamb.  Believers in the very Son of God cannot be united with those who deny the everlasting Love of Jesus and Grace of God.  Yet, with true believers and followers of Jesus, the Christian IS unified and this unity finds it strength not in the collective might of those unified but in the One who is the Great Unifier.  This unity and strength is for His Glory and for our Good.  It is not just strong, it is everlasting.

There is perhaps no more powerful expression in human experience than the Story. It grabs our imagination and entices our intellect. A good story does to language what music accomplishes in a somewhat different way: it allows us to feel the ideas that words express as well as consider them rationally. The Story, the Ballad, the Parable allows us to think and to feel and to relate and to consider. Great stories posit great Truths, but they also allow us to express and imagine those great concepts. They captivate our creativity, using both the mind and the heart, the analytical and the sensual and the emotional.

In the biblical narrative of Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection we can know some things. Christ was born to a human mother. Jesus grew and learned. He preached and ministered. Jesus never sinned and He died and He rose again. These things can be known analytically from the Biblical accounts. Yet, in Narrative, I can feel the joy and excitement of Jesus’ birth. I can sympathize with my High Priest who first sympathizes with me. I can feel horror and disgust at His scourgings. I can mourn with His disciples at His death.  I can weep at what my sin did to my Sin-Bearer and Savior. I can experience pure exultation and surprise at His resurrection and I can glory in His exaltation. Through narrative I can indeed know the objective truths of Scripture, yet I can also feel and more fully understand those Truths, in Christ.

(These are written thoughts taken from my journal.  Straight from my head to you, uncut, un-edited and totally random)

I am thankful for God’s Standard. In this age especially there are so many ideas and so many beliefs and so many ideologues it gets very confusing. So many people want you to see things their way and attempt with all their ingenuity to get you to do so. There is such a comfort in knowing that God has revealed Himself to us in His Word and through His Son. How gracious of Him to do this for us!

Arminianism
Responsibility => Ability

Calvinism
Responsibility ≠> Ability
No Ability ≠> No Responsibility

We are most fully ourselves when Christ most fully lives in us and through us…

-Andrew Peterson