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 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”—Psalm 2:1-6
It seems like there are only gatherings. The church is a gathering which is the flock of saved sheep. Sheep separated from the flock are in more danger than they know. Jesus’ action in salvation in ingathering, not checking to make sure the lone sheep who have “asked Jesus into their heart” are okay out there by themselves. He brings them into the fold, which should arrest those who smugly claim, “You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” Hebrews 10:25 speaks specifically on this.
But that is one kind of gathering, and this Psalm speaks of another kind. This is a tower of Babel kind of gathering where people “take counsel together” and rage and plot as nations and people. Their claim is freedom from the oppression of God’s law and truth. They are shockingly diverse yet utterly unified against the Lord and his Anointed.
When you think of God, do you ever think of him laughing? We sometimes like to think that he laughs with us or lovingly at the goofy things we do, but the Psalm says he laughs at them in derision. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, and this is the laughter of opposition. It is insulting and completely right. Imagine the horror: God laughs at you!
But take heart, Believers, he will speak to that great assembly in his wrath and terrify them in his fury with something. What is it? What terrifying thing does he tell them? Oh, the gospel. Yes, he tells them that He has set his King on Zion to reign. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 1 that the gospel “was promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.”
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
We Gather Together
Let All Things Now Living
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. –Psalm 1:1,2
This Psalm opens with a threefold prohibition which is as beautiful as it is brilliant. The danger is moving from walking in sin to standing in sin to sitting in it. What a picture of sin’s dread sway! But the following positive description is most shocking: this person not only delights in the law of the Lord, but delights in the law of the Lord through meditating on it day and night. Whoa!
Anytime I meditate on the law of the Lord, I find it convicting and frankly painful. We chant in our liturgy every few weeks, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”
How is it perfect? It is perfectly holy, perfectly righteous, and perfectly infallible. If perfectly exposes the disease in me. That means it’s going to hurt. But how does it revive? How does it make the person of Psalm 1 blessed?
It is because this person who has been given new birth by the Spirit is precisely the other-worldly, counter-intuitively, supernaturally kind of person who welcomes, yea, even delights in being told by God, “You are wrong.” This person delights in hearing something to the effect of, “I’m not okay; you’re not okay. We’re criminals and villains who regularly trample underfoot not only the law of the Lord, but also the grace of the Lord too!” God have mercy on me, a sinner!
What cure is there? The law exposes the disease without hope to cure. Can anyone actually delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night? Yes. Thankfully there is One. Hebrews 10:5,7, “When Christ came into the world, he said… ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the Law.’” Jesus is quoting Psalm 40, “I delight to do Your will, O my God. Your Law is written within my heart.”
Jesus Christ was so saturated by the Law of God that He meditated on it day and night. He does it in the morning in Mark 1, in the evening in Luke 6, and all night long in Matthew 26. Did the agony of the cross stop him? No. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was meditating on Psalm 22 even on the cross. He has learned to meditate on the Law of God so much that everything He did was an outworking of His meditation.
Here is a trustworthy statement deserving of full acceptance: there is but one truly Blessed Man who never walked, stood, or sat outside the law of the Lord, but instead delighted and meditated on it literally all the time. And thanks be to God, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
O Worship the King
Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart
Crown Him with Many Crowns
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 A couple of years ago, I started writing down a list of questions along the lines of “you might be a redneck if…” except on the issue of pietism. Most pietism is an enemy of the gospel. Click here for a really nice article on the subject. I can’t find the list I was making, but I found a few entries. Enjoy!
If anyone has ever asked you for mercy, and you instead offered them a righteous reason why you wouldn’t give it to them, you’re probably a pietist.
If, when matters arise about the preaching the gospel, you feel the need to bring “balance,” you’re probably a pietist.
If you can look back in your life and find one relationship after another (family, friend, co-worker, church member, etc.) that is broken because of _______ (fill in with their sin); if you are always the righteous one in these situations and it was their fault, you’re probably a pietist.
You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.-Luke 22:28-30
I’m struck that the privilege assigned to being enthroned by Christ is getting to eat with him at his table. At the Last Supper, Jesus made himself ever so clear that the Supper itself was being institutionalized as the Kingdom’s feast (Matthew 26:29). That is, when we participate in the Lord’s Supper, it is bringing the future feast to the present. Now, why would you not want to do this every time the Word is preached?
Oh, pietism, I almost forgot, has an answer: you must turn inward, you must examine yourself. No, that wasn’t enough examining: more, I say, MORE! No, it’s not examining to see if you are objectively in the kingdom or not. It’s examining to see if you’re subjectively cleaned up enough, if you’ve been a good little boy or girl. Have you asked forgiveness enough?
Spare me! This nonsense prevents experiencing the privilege of sinners having a meal with Christ. And who needs it more than sinners?
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
All Creatures of Our God and King
May the Mind of Christ My Savior
Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (with Rev. Dave Lewis) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. –Matthew 7:24-27
In The Great Divorce C.S. Lewis paints us a fictional scenario where a self-described decent, righteous guy finds himself in heaven on a break from eternal judgment in hell. On the outskirts of heaven, Decent Guy meets up with a former employee of his.
Right off the bat, Decent Guy expresses his shock at finding this other guy, a murderer, in heaven!
“What about Jack?” asks Decent Guy.
“He is here,” said the other. “You will meet him soon, if you stay.”
“But you murdered him.”
“Of course I did. It’s all right now.”
Despite Murderer’s assurance that his sins (which exceed murdering Jack) are forgiven and do not matter anymore, Decent Guy can’t let it go.
“What I’d like to understand,” said The Decent Guy, “is what you’re here for, as pleased as Punch, you, a bloody murderer…”
More than that, Decent Guy can’t give up his own righteousness that he thinks should earn him his right to eternal life. “I gone straight all my life. (…) I done my best all my life, see? I did my best by everyone, that’s the sort of chap I was. (…) I’m not asking for nothing but my rights. (…) And what I don’t see is why I should be put below a bloody murderer like you.”
In the end of the Sermon on the Mount Christ distinguishes two trees, two gates, two types of people, and two foundations. The Decent Guy and the Murderer demonstrate these two categories. Some point to their righteousness, “I only want my rights. I’m not asking for anybody’s bleeding charity.” But others like the murderer know that Christ has cancelled their debt and imputed righteousness to them they did nothing to earn or merit. Christ has paid it all, ours is only to receive.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
It is Well with My Soul
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST/GODLY MANHOOD AND HUSBANDRY
Men’s Prayer Breakfast is this Saturday, November 5, at 8:30 downstairs in the Tuscan Café. Use the front chapel door for entry. The reading will be pages 29-48. We have more books available if you need one. Don’t miss it!.
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ENDS THIS WEEKEND
Don’t forget to set your clock back an hour Saturday evening before bed. If you plan properly, you’ll get an extra hour of sleep!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. –Matthew 5:1-12
Blessed.
That’s how Christ opened his sermon to the people sitting on the Mount of Olives. Those people listening to Him have something in common with us reading this sermon thousands of years later. We all want to be blessed. We want to be happy. If you’ve lived in the USA for long, you have gotten a flyer or opened up your email inbox and saw a subject line that read something along the lines of, “Fool proof steps to happiness. 100% Guaranteed!” If you’re like me, you wondered what it contained, but you didn’t open it. Maybe you thought it was a scam. Maybe you told yourself, “There is no such thing as a fool proof guarantee of happiness.” Maybe you dismissed it as fictitious advertising and threw it in the trash.
I’m afraid that some people approach Jesus’ words with the same skepticism. They read, “Blessed (or happy) are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and they think, “Yeah right. The poor in spirit are really happy.” From there we conclude that God doesn’t really care about whether we’re happy or not. He only cares if we’re holy. Right?
Wrong.
At the very core of who you are, there lives a deep desire to be happy. You might have heard that God doesn’t care about whether you’re happy or not, just obey. Just do the right thing. I disagree. I’d like you to know that God is infinitely committed to your happiness. As a matter of fact, He’s so invested in your happiness that He has bound up His eternal happiness up with ours. His oath and covenant are the promise, Christ, His only begotten Son is the guarantee. 100% Guaranteed.
Pay attention though. Jesus doesn’t say, “Blessed are those who are happy.” Sometimes we get the cart before the horse and try to pursue happiness as the end in and of itself. It doesn’t work like that. Happiness is a by-product. Here’s a guarantee for you: make happiness your number one goal in life, you’ll be miserable.
But Christ has come to embody these beatitudes for us. They’re about Him. Jesus is poor in spirit and receives all things from God the Father. Jesus mourns over your sins as you mourn over your sins. Jesus, the meek, does not lash out in pride and envy, but instead entrusts himself to the One who judges justly. Jesus hungers and thirsts for God’s righteousness. He gives you God’s righteousness through His innocent suffering and death in your place. Jesus alone is merciful giving you not what you deserve but what He earned for you. Jesus, the pure and sinless, acts as the great Peacemaker between you and the Father and was persecuted to the point of death.
Here is the unflinching truth of the person of Jesus. He is how God has guaranteed your happiness. This perfect life (the only one) is no small deposit on your life. It is, in a manner of speaking, all in the bag.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
For All the Saints
How Firm a Foundation
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST/GODLY MANHOOD AND HUSBANDRY
The next Men’s Prayer Breakfast is Saturday, November 5. The reading will be pages 29-48. We have more books available if you need one.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. –Matthew 7:24-27
Welcome to another commonly misunderstood passage in Scripture! I once worked at a summer music camp for kids where they sang,
Don’t build your house on the sandy land,
Don’t build it too near the shore.
Well, it might look kind of nice,
But you’ll have to build it twice,
Oh, you’ll have to build your house once more.
What a horrible song! It’s commonly taught that the sand that Christ is talking about in this passage is a condition of the heart or mind. It means that if I made good decisions, I was building my life on a hypothetical rock. If I made bad decisions, I was building my life on sand. This would all be evident when the trials and hard times came (the storm). If my house stood after the storm and floods, I’d made good decisions. If my house fell flat, well, that was basically my fault for not having made better, more righteous decisions. You know, for not doing enough good works?
But let me tell you something. The song is missing the point because it’s not about whether it’s a good idea to build a house on a proverbial beach or rock. This gives the idea that it’s about your building, your choices, and what you’ve done. It’s also off because the storm that is being talked about here is also known as the Final Judgment. Want to guess why it’s called the Final Judgment? Friends, if your house is on the shore, you’re not going to rebuild it after the storm comes and rails against it. There is no ‘twice’ or ‘once more.’
Jesus is pointing to the rock. He says that the house built on the rock does not fall. Why? It is founded on Christ. It’s not location; it’s foundation. We’re not talking a hypothetical rock, we’re talking about Christ as The Rock. The Rock of Ages cleft for you.
That’s why the Sermon on the Mount ends with this merciful warning. There is a storm coming and the quality of the part you built (the part that is seen above the foundation) is not going to be enough. It’s all about the foundation, the rock that has been built for you.
Look, everyone’s house (life) has major flaws and defects. No one will be able to stand in the Final Judgment. No one except Christ. He is the rock that withstood the storm of storms.
Christ is made the sure Foundation,
Christ the Head and Cornerstone;
Chosen of the Lord, and precious,
Binding all the Church in one,
Holy Zion’s Help forever,
And her Confidence alone.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord
There is a Fountain Filled with Blood
The Solid Rock (My Hope is Built on Nothing Less)
CHURCH PICTORIAL DIRECTORY
We haven’t updated the directory in a long time, so this Sunday following the service you have the opportunity to have your picture taken or updated. Just come up and ask. Lots of people don’t like doing it, but you are serving others in the congregation when you do so!
COMMUNITY LUNCH THIS SUNDAY!
The Community Lunch will this Sunday, October 23, following the worship service. It will be soups and chili. These are always a great time together so plan now!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ –Matthew 7:21-23
Many will say, “Lord, Lord.” We live in a land where many say “Lord, Lord”. Yet this passage delineates a difference, some people say “Lord, Lord” and enter, others say “Lord, Lord” and are called workers of lawlessness and told to depart. What’s the difference?
Well, first let me clear up any question you might have about there being some trick in the original language. There’s not. It’s the same word. It’s not that some people are saying it differently and that’s what gets them in. We’re looking at two different types of people. The type that enters calls Jesus Lord as an act of worship and adoration of His righteousness, glory, and grace. The type that doesn’t enter says “Lord, Lord, look at all we’ve done and how righteous we are.”
I like spy movies. I like the parts when they have these security systems that you can only get through by a retina scan. Think of our passage like this. These people put their eye up to the scanner, the red light reads their eye, the alarms go off, and the security guards pull their weapons. The interloper’s eyes dart to the man in charge and they beg, “Lord, Lord! Wait!” Then they begin to recite their litany of reasons that they believe they’re eligible to enter by this narrow gate. Lord, didn’t I volunteer at the homeless shelter? Lord, didn’t I forgive my sister when she didn’t even ask for forgiveness? Lord, remember how I gave up chocolate last Lent? Look how committed we’ve been to your cause.
Kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it? Here they are relying on what they’ve done, thinking that that will gain them admission through that narrow gate; the one that only Jesus fits through. These look at how committed they are to Jesus and believe that should earn them an admission ticket.
The others who call Jesus “Lord, Lord” have been in the Gospel storehouse. They know that we don’t earn life by being committed to Jesus. We are given life and salvation because Jesus is committed to them. When they see the retina scan that is required to enter, they step away knowing that their eye will never get them in. It’s only Jesus’.
Jesus offers Himself as your substitute. There’s no need to scam. No need to rely on yourself. As a matter of fact, self-reliance is forbidden. Reliance on Jesus, the only one who loves you perfectly, is the only way to enter.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Rejoice, the Lord is King
Holy, Holy, Holy!
Be Thou My Vision
CHURCH PICTORIAL DIRECTORY
We haven’t updated the directory in a long time, so this Sunday following the service you have the opportunity to have your picture taken or updated. Just come up and ask. Lots of people don’t like doing it, but you are serving others in the congregation when you do so!
OUR NEXT COMMUNITY LUNCH
We will have our next Community Lunch following the service October 23. These are always a great time together so plan now!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. –Matthew 7:13-14
Narrow. It’s not a popular word in our politically correct age. It ranks right up there with taboo words like: exclusive, wrong, and right. Jesus, I have to tell you, would not have been the one to invent sugar coating for medicine. When Jesus said that the gate is narrow, He was talking a life-and-death kind of narrowness. He meant, “You want life? Okay, there’s only one way about this, People.”
To us who get berated and barraged with advertisements and propaganda to be open minded, to open your all-inclusive arms, and shed all your dogmatic notions, Jesus’ narrow gate is hard for us to fathom. Jesus’ exclusivity is a good thing? Exactly.
Now don’t get carried away with some kind of “religious fervor” and start demanding exclusivity over nutrition or single mindedness in child rearing practices; Jesus is talking about faith and worship. The gate He’s talking about is the gate that leads to salvation.
And this gate, Friends, was made by none other than God. He’s the one who requires an authentic righteousness that no one can counterfeit, contrive, or concoct. That’s why the gate is narrow, there’s no room for all the other stuff. There’s only room for Jesus. He is the gate. He is the resurrection and the life. God established that no man can come to Him except he be perfect.
Perfect? As in without fault? At this point, you should be picturing an iddy, teensy narrow gate that you can’t even get your big toe through. Entering through the gate that leads to Life will take nothing short of a miracle.
And it is just this miraculous work of righteousness that Christ created in His perfect life and passion. It is only this Godman’s perfection that the Father will accept, not by a relaxing of the beams of justice, but by actually making us in Christ. God freely and graciously bestowed on us a righteousness we never could have achieved if we’d prayed, fasted, seen God in a vision, witnessed Jesus’ miracles firsthand, or whatever else you think would increase your faith and make you super-righteous.
I hope you can embrace the comforting grace of this narrow gate. Yes, it does point to your inability, but it also points you to Your Savior. Yes, it does mean that there’s only one way, but it also rules out all your searching on all the other paths. It is grace to you.
It is life and salvation. It is the gospel.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul (Psalm 146)
Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart
CHURCH PICTORIAL DIRECTORY
We haven’t updated the directory in a long time, so this Sunday following the service you have the opportunity to have your picture taken or updated. Just come up and ask. Lots of people don’t like doing it, but you are serving others in the congregation when you do so!
OUR NEXT COMMUNITY LUNCH
We will have our next Community Lunch following the service October 23. These are always a great time together so plan now!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. –Matthew 7:1-2
I love the fact that Christ took on flesh. He knew what it meant to be human. When Christ stood on the mountain preaching to the crowd, His mind flowed from being anxious to judging others. It’s a natural progression if you’ve ever lived in skin and had blood pumping through veins. It’s completely normal on both sides of the coin: to be anxious about others judging you or to be aware of the fact that you’re judging others.
No, not you, you wouldn’t judge. Judging is so not you. Fine. Let’s substitute: don’t write people off, or you’re going to be written off. It’s the same idea, right? The only difference is that you definitely would never judge someone, but you often write people off.
Why do we write people off? Typically we tend to think we’re right, and they’re wrong. I’m not even saying that we are doing it consciously (which, we’re assuming would be worse), but on some subconscious, gut level, we operate under the assumption that we’re right. Come on, would we seriously be arguing about XYZ if we thought we were wrong? It feels much better to do the, “I’m right. He’s wrong.” Doesn’t it?
Have you noticed how easily we gloss over our own personal shortcomings and failures but get hung up on those of others? What we expect and cherish and nourish in ourselves, we judge harshly in our friends, coworkers, neighbors, church members, and especially family. Jesus says that in the same way you measure others so you will be measured.
This is what Jesus is implying. Do you want to stand with all that you are and be judged by God Almighty? Remember what we’ve studied throughout our study of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s not just committing adultery; it’s thinking about it or wanting it. It’s not committing murder; it’s hating your brother. The law of God doesn’t work on a sliding scale. Jesus says that there will be judgment, and the only person who has the right to act as judge is God. That makes the rest of us the judged.
But don’t despair, God’s judging us is good news. It means that the only one who has the right to judge us also happens to be the one who has executed justice for us. God created the measure by which we would be judged and when we failed to meet the mark, He worked justice by punishing His sinless Son. Jesus bore the wrath and judgment that all our sins deserve and earned the right to offer mercy and forgiveness to those who trust in Him. In a very real sense, God took the measure of righteousness that He expected of us and applied it to Himself in Christ Jesus.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Thy Works, Not Mine, O Christ
Fairest Lord Jesus
Savior, Like a Shepherd, Lead Us
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST/GODLY MANHOOD AND HUSBANDRY
Men’s Prayer Breakfast is this Saturday, October 1 at 8:30. The reading for this week is through page 28. We will meet in the Tuscan Café downstairs by the Sunday school room. If you haven’t replied or signed up at church, please let us know so we can get the right amount of food.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? –Matthew 6:27
Anxiety comes naturally to us. No one has to teach us to worry. No one has to coach us on how to get our stomachs contorted into knots or how to make sure our faces are deeply ridged with our concerns. We’re good at it.
Do you think that there might possibly be a connection between the fact that faith doesn’t come naturally to us (in fact, it has to be given to us) and that anxiety does? I do. As a matter of fact, I think that the only natural predator of anxiety is faith in the provision and omniscience of a good God. The God given remedy to your worry is a full-bodied faith in a loving, all powerful Father who knows what you need.
The Heidelberg Catechism poses the question, “What do you believe when you say: ‘I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?’”
Answer: (…) “In Him I trust so completely as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul, and will also turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this life of sorrow. He is able to do so as almighty God, and willing also as a faithful Father.”
To have no doubt that He will provide… Is that what you are affirming when you recite that with me on Sunday? Christ has been given as the security that God our Father has provided and will provide. Christ cancels out the three million and one concerns that plague you. God will provide. Look at the lilies, Christ tells us. Look at the birds. Look at Christ and trust in the Father who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8:32).
We often notice the carefree nature of children. Kids who are raised in a loving environment have boundless energy and “not a care in the world”. Why is that? It’s obviously because the cares of the world aren’t theirs. Care and worries belong to their father and mother. The only thing that rests on their shoulders is fun and play and growing (which they do without conscious effort). They are like the birds in the sky and the lilies in the field. They don’t worry about paying the electric bill, the rising cost of groceries, the conflict at work, the political climate in D.C., the broken relationship with their longtime friend, the state of the church in America, or whether or not Sam will accept them. They naturally rest in the loving provision of their parents.
Don’t kid yourself into thinking that it’s just a random coincidence that God refers to Himself as our Father in this passage. He is your Father; the one who knows your needs (even better than you do, in fact), and has the resources of the Universe to fully provide, care for, sanctify, and glorify you. You are far more precious to Him than the grass in the field. Rest, then, Precious Child. Rest in your Father’s goodwill to you.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
The King of Love My Shepherd Is (Psalm 23)
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST/GODLY MANHOOD AND HUSBANDRY
Men’s Prayer Breakfast is just around the corner beginning Saturday, October 1 at 8:30. There’s a book we’ll use and you can pick it up this Sunday. If you plan on attending, please click here to let us know so we can get the right amount of food.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
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