A Royal Wedding

Everyone loves a wedding, well almost everyone.  All day long, the news was filled with highlights of William and Catherine's (Kate) wedding.  People gathered outside of Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace just to get a glimpse of the wedding couple.  Some people in America woke up at 4am to watch the wedding.  The news cycle was filled with stories about the wedding gown, the wedding cake, the couple, their families, the guest list, even people from the bride's hometown.  People could not just get enough.

What the news did not tell you is that there is a greater royal wedding coming.  This wedding is greater not because of the bride but because of the groom.  He is a prince, the Prince of peace.  He is also a King, the King of kings.  His name is Jesus and the bride is His church. 

There were only a limited number of invitations for the wedding today.  They were reserved for dignitaries, royalty, and the famous.  There were a few invitations sent to commoners, who were friends of the bride.  The good news about the greatest wedding is that there is an invitation for you.  You are invited not to be the guest but to be the bride.  The invitation is to have faith in the God who sent His only begotten Son, so that you would not have to perish but have everlasting life.  Have you confirmed your reservation today?  Think about it.

Where is the Lamb?

One of the temptations to corporate worship is to stay there.  Like Peter, when God moves in awesome ways through the worship service, we want to pitch a tent and stay there.  I know what you are thinking, "no one wants to stay at church all day."  I know people want to make it to the cafeteria before the line gets too long.  When I say, we want to stay there, I mean we just want to gather weekly for corporate worship and that be the extent of our worship.

But, for worship to be true, there must be sacrifice.  On the way to Mount Moriah, Issac got it right.  He said, "Father (Abraham), I see everything we need to make a sacrifice, but where is the lamb."  Father, we can't worship without a sacrifice.  Now, I do know that Jesus is our sacrifice.  He is the once for all sacrifice that was made that covers all our sins and ushers us into the presence of God.

 Yet, is there not something that I can give.  Paul says yes!  We are to lay our lives down as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1).  For worship to be real, we have to respond to God by saying, Here am I, send me.  For worship to be true, I have to leave the gathering of God's people and go back into the world and to live as a missionary to my workplace, neighborhood, school, and home.   God is calling me to live faithfully  in my world as a witness to the God that I worship.

In many ways we act like sponges in worship.  We wring ourselves out in worship, giving God our glory and praise as well as confessing our sins and our anxieties.  God then fills us with forgiveness and peace and His presence.  We are then called to wring all that God has filled us with out onto a world that needs to hear from their creator. 

So the question is have you really worshipped this week?  Think about it.

Our Greatest Sin

So what is our greatest sin?  Well when I use the word greatest, I use it to mean that sin which is far reaching.  What is the sin in the church that is most common to all.  It will surprise you and that most will not see it as a great offense testifies to how serious it really is.

The greatest sin in the church today is idolatry.  I know what you are thinking, I don't have any carved statues laying around my house to which I bow down.  I can't be an idolater.  I put money, possessions, power and fame in their proper place, I can't be an idolater.  It will surprise you but most of us really are.   Calvin said that the human heart is an idol maker.  But what idol do I have?

It is an idol that will surprise you, but an idol, none the less.  The idol that most people in the church worship today is the God who is less then the God who is.  A.W. Tozer in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy said, "Left to ourselves, we immediately reduce God to manageable terms."  We cannot bear the altogether glorious nature of God so we bring him down  to us.  We put God into the box of our understanding and we keep Him there.  Granted, our box may grow bigger over time, as our knowledge of Him grows.  However, we must never think that God is all that we think He is, for He is so much more.  He has revealed Himself in Scripture so we can know Him.  But we must always remember that no matter how great we believe God is, He is always greater.  We need to understand that God cannot fit into our box and begin to live and worship accordingly.  Think about it.

Truth Speaks

I have been accused of having selective hearing, I only hear what I want to hear.  Sometimes that is true, but I say I have focused hearing, I only hear one thing at a time.  I just choose what that one thing is.  So, If I am watching the ball game, I hear the ball game and nothing else around me.

In some ways, we all have selective believing.  We choose to believe what we want to believe.  Jesus told Pilate, those who are on the side of truth, listen to my voice.  Trusting Christ has a lot to do with what you do with truth.  This morning, in my message, I said that we believe the resurrection by faith, but our faith is not blind faith.  Our faith is a reasonable faith.  There is evidence that demands a resurrection.  If you take the time to investigate the truth claims of the Gospel, you will find that our faith is reasonable.  However, you have to choose to see the truth.  The Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.  He is who He claimed to be. The question is "are you on the side of truth?"  Think about it.

Saturday Living

As a child, I could not wait until Saturday.  I loved Saturday because I did not have to go to school and for my generation that was the only time you could watch cartoons.  Saturday was the best day of the week.  I longed for Saturday.

But there is one since, it which Saturday is not the best day but an in between day.  On Friday, Jesus died in our place.  He suffered the wrath of God on the cross.  He cried out, "It is Finished!"  The debt had been paid and Jesus died.  Sunday would be the day of resurrection.  The stone would be rolled away from the tomb entrance not to let Jesus out but to let us in to see that it was empty.  It was the day that proved that Jesus was who He said He was, and it proved that what Jesus had done on the cross was true.  Sunday was a great day.  But Saturday lay between.  Saturday was the day of mourning for the disciples had lost their Lord.  Saturday was "in between".

In some ways that is where we live.  We live in between Christ's coming.  He came the first time to die for us.  He came into our hearts as we trusted Him as our Lord and Savior.  But He is coming again one day to receive us to Himself.  That day will be resurrection day for us.  If we died, our bodies will be raised from the ground.  If we are alive we will be raised and changed.  It will be the day that we will receive all for which we hope.

But right now its Saturday, it is the" in between" time.  Yes, we have hope, but our hope has not come.  Yes we have been saved from our sin, but we still live with sin.  Yes,  we have been freed from death, but death still touches us.  Our bodies die, even though our spirit continues to live.  We have joy but we still mourn in the "in between" time.  The good news is that we mourn and grieve with the hope that Sunday is coming.  Think about it.

Why Good?

This week my daughter asked me, why do they call it Good Friday.  She said, Jesus was beaten and crucified, why call it good.  The answer is found in the reason that Jesus died.  Jesus died in my place.  Paul reminds us that He that knew no sin became sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.  Jesus took the punishment for my sin so that now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Ultimately Good Friday is good because it shouts to us of the love of God.    Spurgeon said,

We never should have known Christ’s love in all its heights and depths if he had not died; nor could we guess the Father’s deep affection if he had not given his Son to die. The common mercies we enjoy all sing of love, just as the sea-shell, when we put it to our ears, whispers of the deep sea whence it came; but if we desire to hear the ocean itself, we must not look at every-day blessings, but at the transactions of the crucifixion. He who would know love, let him retire to Calvary and see the Man of sorrows die.

Today, would you know the love of God by considering what He did for you on the cross.  Think about it.

The Rocks Cry Out

He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."  Luke 19:40

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday, the crowds began to cry out in praise and adoration.  They cried out, “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”  The Jewish leaders hated the sounds of the crowd so they came to Jesus and demanded that He silence the crowds.  His response, if they stop praising, the very rocks will cry out.

What is interesting is after that day, the crowds did stop shouting.  Well, they stopped shouting praises.  The very next time the crowds shouted, there words were not Hosanna, but “Crucify Him.”  The crowds no longer wanting to proclaim Jesus as King, they now proclaimed Him to be a criminal.  They no longer wanted to follow him, but to flog Him. They did not want to crown Him, but to kill Him.

The good news is when the crowds stopped praising, the rocks did cry out.  The rock, into which a tomb was hewn, shouts, “empty”.  The stone, which had been placed to seal the grave, rolled away and says, “He is not here.”   The rocks that were used to bury Jesus now proclaim and shout, “He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”  He has conquered sin, death, and Hell.  The very stones cry out in praise and adoration.  The question today, do you hear their call?  Will you believe and be saved? Think about it.

Remember the Price

The easiest way to live the Christian life is to live on a deserted island.  That may not work for everyone.  There was the man who was deserted on an island for ten years.  When he was rescued, the rescuers found that he had built three buildings, so they asked him what they were.  The man said, "the first building is my home and the second building is my church."  They asked, "what was the third building."  He replied, "that is my old church that went to until I got mad and left."

I know that whenever two or three are gathered together in the Lord's name, He is there in the midst of them.  But I have also found it to be true that when two are three are gathered, you have the potential for hurt feelings and broken relationships. Too often those hurt feelings lead to disharmony and disunity within the church.  When that happens the church does not function for we are called to live and work together as one body.

Yes, it may be easier to live the Christian life alone but what would be the point.  Jesus prayed that our unity and love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ would be a testimony to the world that He was sent by the Father.  That is the end result of our learning to love one another, points to the veracity of Christ's mission.

In the body of Christ, we will get our feelings hurt because we are all sinners saved by grace.  We are at the same time just and sinner, and have the capacity to hurt and disappoint one another.  Therefore, we must be willing to go the second mile in giving grace to those who hurt us.  When someone hurts or disappoints me, I need to see them as "under construction" for God is not done with them yet, just as He is not finished making me into what He wants me to be.  I must give grace upon grace and love upon love to all those in the body of Christ.

When I grow tired of protecting the unity of the body of Christ, I need to remember how valuable that unity is.  The Bible teaches us that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.  In so doing, He reconciled us to each other.  But what was the price for this reconciliation.  On the cross, Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me."  The Triune God existed in perfect unity for all eternity,  except for one moment on the cross, when my sins were placed on God, the Son.  In that moment, the relationship that had been in perfect unity was broken, so that we could be reconciled to God and to each other.

The more valuable something is, the more careful you are in handling it. Apparently, God places a high value on our unity for He paid the highest price to purchase it.  If our unity is that precious, we should handle it with care.  Think about it.

Something Worth Saying

“The motto of all true servants of God must be, ‘We preach Christ; and him crucified.’ A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.”  C.H. Spurgeon

The only thing worth saying from the pulpit is Jesus Christ.  Yet, today there are too many people who clamor but we want something relevant.  As if Jesus Christ is not relevant.  For too many Christians, Christ is how we enter the Christian life but not how we live the Christians life.  When we forget that we need Christ to live the Christian life, we become self-righteous pharisees who focus on how good we are, not how good Christ is.

That is why Luther said,  "May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint.  I want to be and remain in the church and little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help who believe in the forgiveness of sins."  Think about it.

Duty, Dance, Ditches and the Glory of God

I have a confession to make, I am a dance dad.  I have three daughters and they all take dance, so that makes me a dance dad.  I have to admit that I was not to thrilled when my oldest first wanted to take dance.  My experience with dance up to that point was not great, I won’t go into details I just did not care for dance.  But we forged ahead and over time I changed my mind.

My daughters take dance at Cabarrus Dance Academy and it is there that I have not only learned to appreciate dance but also learned a greater lesson.  1 Corinthians 10:31 says, so, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.  Whatever you do includes dance.  Fortunately, Cabarrus Dance offers sacred dance where my girls learn to worship through dance but sacred dance is not required for dance to be worship.  When dance reflects truth, beauty, and grace it reflects the character of God and is done to His glory.   Not all dance reflects God’s character, dance like every other endeavor can glorify self rather than God.  But I can honestly say that I have seen God’s glory on display even at a dance recital.

But what if I don’t dance can I bring glory to God.  The answer is yes.  Luther reminds us that there is not a difference between a janitor and a preacher when it comes to God’s glory.  When our work reflects honesty, integrity, truth, beauty, grace and all things that reflect God’s character, we work to the glory of God.  So whether you are a soldier doing his duty, a dance teacher, or dig ditches, whatever you do, you can do it to the glory of God.  Think about it.

Who Am I

John Stott said, “Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you.  It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’  Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross.  All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary.  It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.”

As we approach the Easter season we not only need to meditate on who Jesus is but who we are.  As we grow in grace, it should lead us to greater humility not less.  Too often that is not the case.   There are too many Christians who grow so much in their righteousness that they forget that they are sinners.  We become proud Christians which is an oxymoron.  We must always remember the words of Martin Luther who reminded us that we are at the same time just and sinner. 

When we forget who we are, we look down on people in the world as if we are better than them.  When we forget who we are, we spend more time criticizing the faults of our fellow believers than we consider our critical attitude.  When we forget who we are, we forget the meaning of the cross.

Paul in one of his later books, 1 Timothy says that Christ died to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.  The longer Paul was a Christian, the more sinful Paul considered himself.  Why?  You can hide dirt in the dark but not in the light.  The more time you spend in the light, the more sin you recognize in your life.  I can justify myself when I compare myself with you, but not when I compare myself with God.
Think about it.

Its about Time

Today, while on a field trip, I walked across the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill (not my favorite school).  As I walked, it dawned on me that I was twenty five years older than most of the students.  I could not believe it, twenty five years passed so quickly.  In fact, I thought to myself that the first twenty years of my life went by a lot slower than the last twenty five. 

But is that true?  Did time miraculously begin to speed up at some point in my life?  Was time some how passing slower when I was a child?  We know the answer, of course not, time is a constant.  We just perceive time differently at various stages of life.  If you would ask my children, they would tell you that this school year feels like an eternity, while I cannot believe it is almost over. 

It is almost as if, time is foreign to us.  There is an old proverb that says, "If you want to know what water is don't ask a fish."  A fish is meant for water, so it never takes the time to think about what water is?  We don't stop and consider air.  We don't say, "There does not seem to be as much air as their was when I was a kid."  We don't stop to consider air because we were meant to breathe.  But we do think about time.

We think about time because we were not created for time but eternity.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has placed eternity into the hearts of men.  So the next time you say, my how time flies or I wish it would speed up.  Remember, that you are destined for eternity.  The question is where will you spend it.  Will you spend it in heaven or in hell.  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man can come to the father but by me."  Will you trust Jesus for your eternal destiny?  Think about it.

What Comes First

C.S. Lewis once said, "when first things are put first, then second things are not suppressed but increased."   For example, in the home, if the husband and wife love God with all their heart, then their relationship is better.  When husbands and wives make their relationship a priority over their relationship with their kids, then the parent child relationship is made better.  Someone said, the best thing that a father can do for his children is love their mother.

Given that what is the first thing for the church?  Some would say missions and evangelism quoting the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19-20, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."  We are called to go and make disciples of the world, therefore the priority would be going and sharing the gospel.  Others say the priority is teaching.  We are called to make disciples.

However, I believe the priority of the church must be worship.  We quote the Great Commission but leave out first 18.    And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  All authority belongs to Jesus therefore He alone is worthy to be worshipped.  If we make worship the priority then I go because I worship the one who has all authority.  I share because I worship the one who has all authority.  I baptize because I worship the one who has all authority.  I teach because I worship the one who has all authority.  I do all these things because people need to worship the one who has all authority. 

When the church gets its worship right then its evangelism, its missions, its teaching, its baptizing, its going will not be suppressed but will be enhanced.  For all of these flow from our worship rather than create our worship.  The reason I know this is because one day in heaven all the other activities will cease but worship will go on for eternity.  Think about it.

Going Home

Malcolm Muggeridge once said, "The only ultimate disaster that can befall us, I have come to realize, is to feel ourselves at home here on earth."   What is sad is that too many believers have succumbed to that disaster.  Too many believers are not too heavenly minded that they are no earthly good but too earthly minded that they are no good for heaven or earth.  C.S. Lewis said that the people who have done most for this earth, have had their minds and hearts on heaven.  So set your hearts on things above.  Think about it.

I Need You

Our culture glorifies the rugged individual who pulls himself up by his own bootstraps, beats all the odds and makes something of himself.   Our nation idolizes the self-made man.  The church, however, is called often times to be counter-cultural.  We serve a God who reminds us that His ways are not our ways.

In the body of Christ, there are no self-made Christians.  I know you think, I am stating the obvious, but follow me for a moment.  Yes, I know that salvation is a work of God and that no man comes to Christ unless the Spirit draws him.  And so in that sense, we are God made Christians.  But there is something more that we as a church too often forgets.

The book of Hebrews reminds us that we as believers are not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day draw near. (Hebrews 10:25)  Those who persevere to the end will be saved and we really need each other to help us to endure.

As a believer, I need other Christians.  I need people in my life who take my heart-struggles seriously.  I need people who will spur me on in the faith.  I need Christians who will preach the gospel to my heart daily.  I need Christians who understand that sin can harden even my heart. And I need to be that Christian for someone else.

I need encouragement and accountability in order to continue in the faith.  I cannot be that for myself, for my heart is deceitful above all.  In that sense, there are no self-made Christians, but God made Christians who need others to them keep the faith.  Think about it.

Knee Power

C.H. Spurgeon said,  "The greatest thing anyone can do for God and man is pray. It is not the only thing, but it is the chief thing. The great people of earth are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray."

Many times we Christians will say, "I'll pray for you."   and then go on with our lives without uttering a prayer.  Later we may see the person again and in a moment of guilt quickly utter God bless them when we remember our commitment to pray.  We then beat ourselves up for our lack of concern.

 Here's an idea the next time someone shares a concern, say let's pray about that now.  Go ahead and pray it is the best thing you can do for them and yourself.  Think about it.

What Kind of Church Will We Be

When the question is asked about hat kind of church do you have, most people assume that the person's question is about stiyle.  Is the church contemporary or traditional?  Is it formal or informal?  However when I ask that question about River Rock, my concern is not style but focus. Will the church focus be on itself as an institution or will its focus be on God and His mission.

A church that focuses on itself is concerned about growing  a great church.  A church focused on God is concerned with growing the kingdom of God.  A church focused on itself is built by the lost coming to the church.  The church focused on God is built by the members going to the lost.  The church focused on itself is concerned about its seating capacity.  The churfh focused on God is concerneed about its sending capacity.  The church that is focued on itself is concerned about location.  The church that is focused on God is concerned about the world.  The church that is focused on itself is concerned about decisions.  The church that is focused on God is concerned about disciples.

So what kind of church will we be?  Think about it.

Never Forget

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."  Mark 2:17

I ready recently that one of the signs that you are growing grace is that it only takes minutes not days or weeks to realize that you have slipped back into works righteousness.  As believers, we are to aspire to holiness but as we live out who we are in Christ, we must never forget that who we are is only because we are in Christ.  But too often we forget and rest in our works rather than Christ.  We forget because religion is the natural inclination of our heart.  Religion is what we do to earn favor with God.  But being a Christian is not about what we do but what Christ has done.

We can come to the place where we are trusting in our goodness rather than his.  When we do, we don't need Christ and in fact we are out of fellowship with Him.  Martin Luther said,

Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one.  For Christ dwells only in sinners.  On this account he descended from heaven, where he dwelt among the righteous, to dwell among sinners.

I have to always speak to myself the words of the Apostle Paul, "By the Grace of God, I am what I am."  Any righteousness that I attain, is not but Christ.  It is by His grace.  I am a sinner saved by grace.  By His grace, I am becoming as holy as a saved sinner can be.  Think about it.

The Voice of Truth

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44

Tomorrow my youngest daughter, Anna will be singing “The Voice of Truth” by Casting Crowns.  She asked me about a month ago if she could sing in church.  I did not answer her immediately because I was not sure she was serious.  I finally asked her why she wanted to sing and her answer was because she loves Jesus and wants to sing for him.

As she has been preparing, she asked me more about the words of the song and how do we listen to the voice of truth.  I told her that Satan will lie to us to try to convince us that we can’t do what is right but we need to listen to Jesus.  She quickly said, we hear from him in the Bible.

As I thought more about Satan’s lies, I began to realize that the voice of lies is not just Satan’s but our own.  Our world is so saturated by his lies that it influences how we think.  That is why D. Martyn Lloyd Jones said, we need to spend more time speaking to ourselves than listening to ourselves,  What goes through our minds is not always the truth of God, but the voice of lies.  Therefore, we must speak to ourselves the truth of God’s word.

But the stone was just the right size

to put the giant on the ground

and the waves they don't seem so high

from on top of them looking down

I will soar with the wings of eagles

when I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus

singing over me,

Take time to listen to the voice of truth by speaking to yourself the word of God.  Think about it.

Cross Action

And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."  Luke 9:23

If Jesus went to the cross for me, why do I then need to take up my own cross?  The answer of course is found in the purpose of His cross and the purpose of my cross.  Thomas Watson said, "though Christ died to take away the curse from us, yet not to take away the cross from us."  The cross of Christ is where God's love and justice meet.  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to die in our place.  The cross is where God's justice is met, as God's wrath is poured out on His son in our place.  The cross says "It is Finished!"  There is nothing left to do in order for salvation to be accomplished.  If we choose to carry that cross, we choose to take the wrath of God upon ourselves.  Sadly, everyone who rejects the Son chooses to their own destruction.

Our cross, however,  is not the cross of the curse, but the cross of blessing.  It is the cross of dying to ourselves.  This means willingly renouncing any so-called right to plan or choose, and to recognize His lordship in every area of life. To take up the cross means to deliberately choose the kind of life He lived. His life included the opposition of loved ones, the reproach of the world, forsaking family, friends, and the comforts of this life.  This life also includes complete dependence on God, obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I recognize that this does not sound like blessing but in fact it is.  For in taking up our cross we find life abundant and free.  We discover and are able to live out that for which we were created.  It is that path that yes may cause us to forfeit all the world has to offer but in return we gain our soul. 

I remember singing as a child the song by Thomas Shepherd, Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone:

Must Jesus bear the cross alone, 
and all the world go free? 
No, there's a cross for everyone, 
and there's a cross for me. 

How happy are the saints above, 
who once went sorrowing here! 
But now they taste un-mingled love, 
and joy without a tear. 

The consecrated cross I'll bear 
till death shall set me free; 
and then go home my crown to wear, 
for there's a crown for me. 

Think about it