Be Overflowing with Praise

Umm mmm mmm, did we have a wonderful time as the gathered people of God at X1 yesterday morning or what? Certainly feeling God is shifting things in our very culture with respect to our sung out worship of the King together. As the Lead Elder I can only pray for more and more of the same.

As part of that desire for a shift to be pronounced and affecting in our minds, hearts, and actions I shared a message that had been on my heart as a pastor for over a year. I entitled it, "Be Overflowing with Praise." The simple thesis of the whole message being: Christians are empowered and filled with the Spirit of God in such a way as to overflow with expressive, exuberant praise for their God at all times - even in the dark, dark hours of the soul. (Not with fake outward adherence, or as a religious must, but from deep within a soul aware of all who God is and all HE's done.) Anyway enough of my thoughts, I wanted to re-share the thoughts of Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 103, the text I used for yesterday's sermon.

Here it is:

"As in the lofty Alps some peaks rise above all others so among even the inspired Psalms there are heights of song which overtop the rest. This one hundred and third Psalm has ever seemed to us to be the Monte Rosa of the divine chain of mountains of praise, glowing with a ruddier light than any of the rest. It is as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, and its golden fruit has a flavour such as no fruit ever bears unless it has been ripened in the full sunshine of mercy. It is man's reply to the benedictions of his God, his Song on the Mount answering to his Redeemer's Sermon on the Mount. [here] David awakens all the melodies of heaven and earth in honour of the one only living and true God."

Beautiful isn't it?
Bless you Lord for giving us the words and ministry of such a golden throated orator thoroughly consumed with love for you.

Simon

A Healthy dose of Piper

I'm sorry this man has so richly blessed me in His absolute fascination with my, and his, God for so many years now, and in this sermon he does it again. I have to place some excerpts here for all of you to read and taste.

"When David says, 'I will magnify God with thanksgiving, he does not mean: 'I will make a small God look bigger than he is. He means: 'I will make a big God begin to look as big as he really is.' We are not called to be microscopes, but telescopes. Christians are not called to be con-men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality, when they know the competitor's product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God...

...We are called to be telescopes: people who make the greatness of God seem as great as it really is. This is what it means for a Christian to magnify God. But you can't magnify what you haven't seen or what you quickly forget. Therefore, our first task is to see and to remember the greatness and goodness of God. So we pray to God, "Open the eyes of my heart," and we preach to our souls, 'Soul, forget not all his benefits!'

...There are only two groups of people in the world whose differences from each other are of any eternal significance: those who love to magnify God and those who love to magnify themselves. At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one's own greatness. For genuine gratitude admits that we are beneficiaries of an unearned bequest; we are cripples leaning on the cross shaped crutch of Jesus Christ; we are paralytics living minute by minute in the iron lung of God's mercy; we are children asleep in heaven's stroller. Natural man hates to think of himself in these images: unworthy beneficiary, cripple, paralytic, child. They rob him of all his glory by giving it all to God. Therefore, while a man loves his own glory, and prizes his self-sufficiency, and hates to think of himself as sin-sick and helpless, he will never feel any genuine gratitude to the true God and so will never magnify God, but only himself."

On Psalm 69: 30 - 32. (See sermon here)

Let's be overflowing with praise - it gives glory to He who deserves it and it's truly missional!

Simon

Corporate Praise

As a family we've been away from Christ First for a couple of weeks, missing two Sundays in the process. In that time we've been either traveling or a significant distance away from an evangelical church so have not had the opportunity to worship with the people of God. This Sunday was a return for us to our family within the body of Christ and it was truly sweet to worship within them once again.

We live at a time where there is a significant number of believers who are not at all 'bothered' about gathered worship (admittedly there are, of course, those who think that is all 'church' is). In fact even within X1 a typical attendance pattern for many would be 3 Sundays in every 5, and as the summer is upon us I see that figure shifting more to 2 in 5.

So many of us are so 'infected' with the rampant, prevailing individualism that makes capitalistic, consumerist culture exactly what it is that we can not detect in ourselves how our 'selfish' pursuit of Christ ("it's my faith", "it's about me and Jesus" mentality) is in exact opposition to God's intended pattern for us as members of God's body. Keeping that idea in mind, the idea of the body, to state, "Ah just kinda want it to be about me and Jesus this Sunday, I'll sneak in a little quiet time and then be still with Him," is like the toe saying to the knee, "Ah just going to take a break from the body today, you guys get on without me would you..."

There should be a hunger within us to be with the people of God, to gather to praise and worship the risen King. In that there is this astounding dynamic that as we lift up Yahweh, focus on Him, set our gaze upon Him, our affections are united, our emotions engaged and elevated, and, I hope in almost every case anyway, our faith reinvigorated and stoked for further mission fulfillment!

I think this is what we felt yesterday anyway, and it was good, very good, to be back with our 'family' knitting hearts and being blessed by the presence of the living God in our midst.

Simon

Struck by a plague of insects - well one.

Thought we were an accursed people this Sunday - thought the Lord had declared His final say upon us. I guess you probably need me to explain. IT APPEARS WE WERE STRUCK BY A PLAGUE OF INSECTS! Well not really - just one, and a little one at that, but he/she did enough to bring the morning service at X1 to a halt.

Humorously, the exact timing of us as a people needing to gather our things and rush to the nearest fire exit was dead in the middle of me leading us in a corporate prayer of confession using David's prayer in Psalm 51. There I was down at the front of Vue Screen 7 reading out this stunning prayer and one of our key coordinators for Sunday mornings comes running up to me (I have to say I just did not know what was going on) and says, "The fire alarm is going off they are evacuating the building. Well there you go - one of the down sides of meeting in 'public space' was that we had to respond, gosh we couldn't even pass it off as some form of desperate final attack by the enemy to stop us meeting and stand against with raised voices and vociferous faith, we just had to up and leave.

Back to the 'plague.' After a few moments standing outside with everyone from the other screens the fire crew checked the building, declared it safe for re-entry and we were back in. Turns out that our creche lights were the problem - to be more exact a bee roasting away in one of our creche lights (and as we know there's no burning bug without smoke - or is that smoke without fire, mmm...) which set the alarm off and brought all proceedings to a stand still.

Bit of a laugh really, and I am actually so proud of the people of X1 for there patience and togetherness. All part of 'worship' I guess.

Oh yes here's a pic of the unfortunate perpetrator of the pestilence



Simon

You looking forward to church?

My co-elder Andy said a beautiful thing during the welcome at X1 yesterday. He highlighted that several years ago when you went on holiday from the UK often you could not purchase many things that you enjoy in the UK and so you could not wait to get back to partake of those 'home-comforts.' That situation has changed he said; but this time while they were away in Austria skiing all he had missed and that which he longed to return to was the worship gathering at Christ First.

He is a man of integrity so I know he was not just people-pleasing. I have thought about it since yesterday and am prayerful and hopeful that many of us at X1 have that mindset about Sundays.

I know I have got to a place at some of the churches I have been serving at where I felt no desire whatsoever to go on Sundays. That is a tragic, probably consumerist, view of things but it was where I had got to. What about you? How much do you look forward to your worship gathering with your church? If you don't why not? Are you serving or just taking cause that can make a massive difference? Is God joining you by His Spirit? If not why not?

Pray for a heart change if so, also see if there is an opportunity for you to talk to your leadership about your waning affections and see what changes can take place.
As for our little gathering of folk, I pray that they will continue for many a year to ache for our gatherings together and to come prayerfully expectant!

Simon

Why I would suggest extreme caution to any watching God TV

I have become increasingly aware that living in a media-heavy age enabling us to access resources literally from every corner of the globe has, like many things, its pros and its cons. One thing that has struck me in the past two to three years is the prevalence of God TV as a reference point for many believers. Often in conversation with individuals I will hear a reference to this channel (or group of channels) and more and more it has left me more concerned than encouraged.

It is often easier to just stay silent on topics like this; but as someone called to shepherd the people entrusted to my/our care I have come to see that it is essential to speak for truth in order to protect. Such words do not need to be heeded, but that does not necessarily mean they should be left unsaid. So I place here, briefly, three reasons why I would be extremely tentative in encouraging anyone to spend much time watching the predominant portion God TV:

1) IT DOES NOT REFLECT AUTHENTIC BIBLICAL COMMUNITY - All of the writings, commands, exhortations of the NT are written to those living out the reality of being immersed within an authentic, damaged, often difficult, grace-demanding body of believers. This is church, and unless you are pursuing your Christian life within such a context you are not actually pursuing your Christian life. God TV offers you an 'edited' world which can withdraw you from and actually make you sour towards the local church. Seek to immerse yourself within 'actual' community with all its flaws for that is true Church.

2) MANY TEACHERS DO NOT SHARE YOUR THEOLOGY - I think it would shock (even rock the faith) of many of the individuals spending many hours watching God TV that some of the most 'profiled' speakers on these shows differ in some absolutely fundamental elements of Theology to them. One such teacher is Modalist Trinitarian something which is totally unbiblical but this man is often referred to by those I have conversation with. Many Western Christians are spending little if any time locked into God's truth and so can be easily misled by those who do not actually have an intention to pastor them and care for their faith discipling and interacting with them relationally. Be very careful, be pastored by 'real' people who are your shepherds, share your values and Theology.

3) ULTIMATELY THESE MEN AND WOMAN ARE NOT YOUR LEADERS - Many people can, sadly I believe, be 'pastored' more by these mega-stars of the Christian world then their own pastors. As I mentioned earlier (point 1) people can actually remove themselves from community and submission to biblical-spiritual-governance because they slip into 'lazy perfect church' that is beamed into their lounges without accountability or responsibility.

Be careful friends, pour your lives into local-biblical community. If each of us is doing that there will be radically different churches reflecting the stunning reality of Gospel-living to those without God.

'The Splendour of His Holiness'

Struck by a phrase in Psalm 96 this morning, "Worship the Lord in the Splendour of His Holiness; tremble before Him all the earth."
WOW!! When was the last time you walked away from a worship service at your local contemporary church hearing people remark with wonder, "I was struck today by the splendour of the Holiness of God!" No no no, more than likely there will only be conversation about the quality of the music heard and the quality of emotion felt during any modern-day worship session.

Can this be right? Do we EVER TREMBLE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD ANYMORE? I fear not, and if this is the case surely we should be alarmed. If the Psalmist is telling us this is how we should worship, why then is this such a foreign, even alien, experience in the life of a modern 'worshiper'? Well the answer is simple-- WE WORSHIP A DIFFERENT GOD, A MAN MADE GOD. And made not by the outworking of our tumbling into a secularly dominated culture, but by us as Christians ourselves. We have made this new God, this God of love devoid of Holiness. A God who must love us, a God who needs us, a God itching to grant us our multitude of wishes BUT IN NO WAY THE GOD OF DAVID AS REVEALED IN PSALM 96.

Please, my friends start crying out to God that He would show you more of who He is. Are you bold enough, are you humble enough?
For I will say these words that I spoke to our student group two years ago

“Our understanding and belief in what the Holiness of God means will define every other thing in life.”
“No other thing is more important for Xtians and Xtianity today than a God-given understanding of His holiness.”

Believe it, its true.

Simon