Sermon Title – “Christian Unity and the Pastoral Ministry #1”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 4:7-16
Preacher – Pastor Larry Vincent

In Jesus Christ we have our Head
Our slain and living King
He bled and died, the Church to save
Our feeble praise we bring
As Head our Lord has gifted us
By Grace the Church is made
We’ve gifts to build and edify
The Bride who Jesus saved

Our King has conquered sin and death
And ground our stony hearts
He fights against our enemies
His grace to us imparts
Our bruised and broken Potentate
Our Groom of love and grace
Has won our hearts, securing life
Our hope in Christ is placed

The gifts we have, the lives we live
Are from and for our Lord
So we can glorify our King
Our Kind, Eternal Word
Through blood we’re cleansed, by death we live
We’re ragamuffins all
Yet Jesus gifts the Church, His Bride
We Stand, men of the Fall

In Christ we strive to honor God
Because we’re saved by Grace
To follow Him in Word and Deed
In Christ we run our race
We run as one, the Bride of Christ
In Jesus unified
We’re called to run and love and live
The Body justified

In Christ we’ve men who preach the Word
Equipping saints to serve
By heralds’ voice the Word is told
The Words of Christ are heard
The gifts of Christ are ours to use
With liberality
The Body lives, the Body serves
In Christ the Bride is free

In unity we all obey
Our Christ, our living Head
And to each other we submit
In praise to He who bled
We’ve gifts to build the Bride of Christ
To glorify our King
We live and love, rejoicing Christ
As One, His praise we sing

Sermon Poetry, 13 December 2009
Sermon Title – “Keeping the Unity of the Holy Spirit”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 4:1-7

In Christ we’ve life that comes from God
As men once blind we see
We’re called to love our Sovereign King
The One by whom we’re free
The sin within is raging fierce
The Spirit holding strong
Lord, give us strength to keep Your Word
Your worship be our song

In Christ we’re one, we’re unified
Once sinners all, we’re free
How do we love the ones of God?
How do we love our King?
We hate and lie, we cheat and steal
Despising Jesus’ own
Once enemies, now brothers all
We praise our Lord enthroned

We’re children of our Lord and King
Of every race and tongue
But now, in Christ, we all are His
In Christ the Church is one
We all were sinners foul and rank
Depravity was ours
But now in Christ we’re saved and cleansed
His mercy on us poured

We’re called to join with Jesus’ own
Submitting one to all
Forgiving fellows’ heinous sins
And asking love for ours
We’re bound to do the dirty work
Of loving fellow men
We’re called to build relationships
With those redeemed from sin

Lord please forgive us when we lose
The point of Jesus’ love
When pride and arrogance is strong
O’er others placed above
Lord humble us, Your mercy heal
In spirit make us poor
Relying on Your loving grace
To others place before

Your grace convict me to repent
And turn from all my sin
In self-control to love Your own
My family and my kin
You saved my soul, You made me live
You’ve loved me as Your son
In Christ my heart is born again
Redemption You have won

Sermon Title – “Thankfulness for the Great Power of God”
Sermon Text – Revelation 11:15-19
Preacher – Jarrett Downs

I’m saved by grace, through faith in Christ
A sinner, now a saint
A rebel once, in Christ a son
All thanks to God, I’m saved

Although I’m saved, this life gets dark
God’s Hand is heavy still
When I despair of life and love
I thank His gracious will

God’s promises are sure and good
He loves His rebel own
When we are beat by lords and kings
Our God is on His Throne

The Church is beat and raped and killed
But still she marshals on
She’s kept by God, sustained by Grace
And loved by Christ the Son

The rule of God is over all
In times of love and strife
The Spirit keeps the Saints of God
In Christ the dead have life

The Church is made of sinners all
Of every kind and tribe
All sinners we in Christ are free
And loved by Him on high

All thanks to God who saves by grace
Through faith in Christ the Son
The Spirit moves and keeps the Church
Whose freedom has been won


Preacher – Dr. Tom Ascol

The Father is seeking and saving and loving
To save all His children He loves
He sent Christ tas Savior to bleed and to suffer
So sinners like us might be saved

He loves us with fervor, ’tis shown on the Cross
christ died so that sinners might live
He sought us as rebels and loves us as son
The Father His Grace to us gives

We’re called as the Body to go to the World
And tell of the Gospel of Christ
We’re called on a Mission, to tell of the Savior
So sinners like us might be saved

Dear Father, please help us to speak of Your Son
To family and friends all around
To witness of Jesus and of our salvation
So sinners once lost might be found

Oh Father, come finish Your plan of Salvation
Your Spirit come send to convert
So sinners believing might have Christ’s Salvation
Together we worship Your Name

Lord, why do babies have to die?
Why do the mothers have to cry?
Why are they killed to ease our pain
So we can live our lives our way?
Why do the young ones perish
The children that we cherish
No chance to live and learn and love?
Why is there so much bloodshed
Young lives unlived and unled?
Please answer, Father God above

Lord, why the battles and the wars
The bloodied bodies on the floors?
Why do the young men have to die?
While broken families mourn and cry
Why do we hate our brothers
And take the lives of others
So we can right the mournful wrongs?
Such promise burned and wasted
Once love, now turned to hatred
Lord, hear my sad, lamenting song

Lord, why are women raped and killed
To satisfy the sinner’s thrills?
A girl’s sweet innocence is lost
None to repay that awful cost
They’re haunted by the darkness
They feel adrift and helpless
What’s lost can never be regained
Lord, come and hold your children
To know your mercy for them
To see our Savior King who reigns

Lord, why must people starve and die?
Their famined lands are scorched and dry
They haven’t food to fill their guts
They live in shoddy shanty huts
The poor and weak and homeless
Are dying by the thousands
Their lives are full of grief and loss
They need the hope of Jesus
The one who saves the helpless
Our homeless Savior on the Cross

Lord, why do Christian’s separate?
Why all the fighting and the hate?
Why can’t your people unify
Together worship Jesus Christ?
Why are there wars and schisms?
We fight with judging prisms
Not recognizing liberty
We take the truth and skew it
And hate our brothers through it
We soon forget that we are free

Lord, why are sinners lost to Hell?
Your wrath and judgment on them fell
They die without the hope of Christ
They try to pay the sinner’s price
They need to hear of Jesus
Our Gospel Savior near us
In Christ our sins are washed away
In Christ we have redemption
His blood is our salvation
For sinner’s souls do Christians pray

Lord, why the sin within my frame?
I’ve none but me to point the blame
Your holy Will I long to do
To glorify and honor You
But still, the sin and darkness
It seems to grow and flourish
I want to do what I don’t do
Jesus, I need your mercy
To fight the sin within me
My lovely Savior kind and true

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

I’m led to believe that people are not as persuaded by those things as we think they are. What they are convinced by is the love of Christ communicated in real, tangible ways as they behold the church in action as well as being witnessed to in word and in deed.  A resurgence of the Great Commission does not need to be propped up by programs, personalities, or principles of church growth; rather, it needs a passion for the gospel, the mission, and the lost that provides more than what money can buy and points them clearly to Jesus our Treasure and Savior.

Keep it simple, centered, and strong, and park the Great Commission at the heart of the church.  Jesus will send you to the heart of your city where darkness needs light, despair needs hope, and death needs life.

-Tim Brister (http://timmybrister.com/2009/07/07/parking-the-great-commission/)

Pastor Jarrett preached yesterday out of Revelation regarding the letter from Jesus to the Church in Ephesus. In this letter Jesus commends the Ephesians for their doctrinal purity, patient persistence in the midst of trial and for their steadfast service to Him. Yet He (rightly) accuses them of leaving their first Love. Jarrett reminded us of Paul’s words that if we are living and breathing and serving without love, then all of our effort is of no intrinsic value and is unprofitable, worthless and generally rather annoying. These words hit me where it hurts! I love Truth and Persistence and Doctrine and Ideas (even if I suck at all of them!), but what good is that to anyone if I’m not loving (as Jesus first loved me)? Is it even Truth that I believe in if I’m not loving? Do I love the same people that Jesus loves? Do I love them the way that Jesus loves me? Or am I the guy who has been forgiven a massive 10 million dollar debt, but can’t forgive a measly five dollar IOU?

Do I love Jesus’ Church, His Bride and Body? Do I love the sick and the poor and the widow and the orphan? Do I love the unclean, the unrighteous, the homosexual, the adulterer, the murderer, the thief and the child abuser? Do I love those on the edges and margins of society? Do I love those who would commit heinous crimes against me? Do I have “faith” without the corresponding works of love (and it IS work!)?

Yet, a more profound and searching question must be asked. Do I love Jesus? Or do I love my understanding of Jesus? Do I love the teachings of Jesus more than Jesus Himself? Am I too much like the serving Martha in her bad moments (as important and godly dutiful service can be …) and not enough like the enraptured-with-Jesus Mary? Am I stuck-up, haughty, arrogant and prideful about my understanding and faith, or am I abased and humbled and broken and contrite before the One who saved a wretch like me?

Lord, break me and abase me before Your Son and be my strength to love you more and more each day! I’ve not the strength in my frame and I’ve not the will to obey, apart from Your Grace …

I love my Savior God
I long to do His Will
But oh my soul I’ve lost my way
Woe unto me, I’ve left my love

I’m steeped in doctrine pure
I know when error comes
With patience I endure so well
Woe unto me, I’ve left my love

I toil and bear for Christ
I’ve not grown tired yet
Like Martha, service is my Call
Woe unto me, I’ve left my love

Jesus with the flaming eyes
Jesus with the two-edged sword
Your eyes see all, your mouth speaks Truth
Woe unto me, I’ve left my love

You control the skies above
You calm the raging seas
And oh my God, come calm my heart
Jesus please show me Your Love

I do no love the one’s you love
A hypocrite is what I am
I show my knowledge is not complete
All of my brothers I don’t love

I know it was for me you died
Your love was pain and suffering
With patience you endure Your own
Jesus I know it’s me you love

Jesus bring me to the day
When pain will melt away
I’ll dwell with you for all the days
It’s you, my God, I love

Please protect me from myself
The sin that dwells therein
Until I die keep me from my sin
Jesus keep me in Your Love

Tears of the Saints from Acts1v8 on Vimeo.

Come now ye Church and sing
To Your kind God above
He is your Lord, He is your King
Who showers you with Love
Come now and worship Christ
Come bask in Jesus’ light
Come look and wonder at the sight
With new and seeing eyes

Come now ye Church and love
Come love the weak and poor
You’re granted grace from God above
You’re weak before the Lord
You’re blessed with much to give
So show the Love of Christ
You have the Word by which to live
Come live with Jesus’ might

Come now ye Church of Christ
You sinners made anew
You’re called to live most holy lives
This calling won’t be through
Till Jesus comes again
With trumpets and with might
Come live for Christ, you Born-Again
Come live before His Light

“Let the careless and scoffers, who thank God because the Church met them half-way, speak and testify. Let the heavy laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment had been God’s link in the chain of their conversion, stand up! There are none to answer. The mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today’s ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.”

-Spurgeon