Grace Blog

Here’s an update of what is going on at Grace...

UPCOMING EVENTS AT A GLANCE:

May 12 – NO Youth Large Group this Sunday night
May 18 – Women's Ministry Bible Study, 9am
May 19 – Church Picnic, 11:30am
May 21 – Serving Course, 7-9pm
June 28-July 9 – GBC Short-term Trip to Terkey

THIS SUNDAY’S SERMON: Psalm 61 | Merritt Anderson

GET INVOLVED:

• Short-term Trip to Turkey: We are asking our whole church to participate in sending a team from Grace Bible to help our long-term workers in Turkey this summer. If you would like to contribute, please make the check out to Grace Bible Church, leave the memo blank, put it in an envelope designated to the Turkey Trip (envelopes are available next to the black offering box in the auditorium), and drop it in the offering box or in the mail. You can also click here to give online.
• Church Picnic: Come join us on May 19 at 11:30am for a church-wide “round up!” Please note that we will only have the 9am service that Sunday. Learn More>>>
• Serving Course: Please consider joining us as we explore what God has to say about biblical serving to all of us. This class will also serve the purpose of equipping men to be potential deacons. Click here for more information and to register.

MEN'S MINISTRY: Monthly Meetings will resume in the fall. Learn more>>>

WOMEN'S MINISTRY: Bible Study: Approx. two Saturdays a month, 9am at GBC. Next meeting is May 18, in the upstairs room.

STUDENT MINISTRY: Wednesday Small Groups for junior/senior high, 7:30pm. Large Groups, second/fourth Sunday nights. Learn more>>>

One of the most striking aspects of Luke’s account of the birth of Christ is who was first chosen to receive news of His birth. In our human wisdom it would be plausible for the King of Kings, God in the flesh, the second person of Trinity, and the Word of God in the flesh to arrive with much pomp and circumstance. World leaders at that time should have been notified. Kings, Caesars, generals of large armies, and the like would certainly be on the list of people we’d likely want to notify. Not God the Father. His birth announcement went first to some of most normal people in first century society … shepherds.

The Father didn’t skimp on His announcement either. He sent a brilliant and dazzling angel to announce this most important news. Shocking! God the Father signaled that His Son, our Lord & Savior, was making a statement with this announcement. Shepherds, some of the world’s most common people in those days, were important enough in the eyes of the Father to hear the world’s greatest news.

For all of the years since Jesus Christ’s birth, perfect life, willing sacrificial death, and resurrection, God the Father is still very much pleased to come to similarly everyday people with the greatest news this world will ever hear. A Savior has been born … a King who reigns over all the earth and has made reconciliation with God possible for those who would have had no hope prior to His arrival.

We can find much encouragement in how God worked in Zechariah. Zechariah was a priest, a faithful man who served the congregation by taking care of the sacrificial responsibilities at the Temple. Zechariah was godly and mature. He knew the promise of Malachi 5:5-6; that God would send a prophet to prepare the way for the Messiah. And he believed the promise; he lived in expectation of it. Yet when told that God was going to fulfill that promise through them, he and Elizabeth, because of their old age he doubted God.

Zechariah was a spiritual man, who still had much to learn about trusting God. Fortunately, God is faithful. He rebuked Zechariah, he disciplined Zechariah, but he did not do so to crush him or hurt him. He did it to grow his faith. God took Zechariah through a period of silence. Every day for nine months he had occasion to recall his doubt, and reflect on God’s faithfulness – God fulfills his promises in his time and in his way. And when the time came when Zechariah could finally speak, his first words were words of praise to God.

God is faithful with us as well. He loves us right where He finds us, and continues to love us perfectly and unhesitatingly through each step of our spiritual journey. He doesn’t think more highly of those who are farther along the journey, and he doesn’t think less of those who are less far along the journey. He loves all of His children equally, right where we are, and with amazing love and grace he steadily grows each of us in our faith, often using means we would not expect. He is faithful.

Many of us wonder what the future holds for us and often we may have questions about the future rolling through our minds. Will there be prosperity? Will there ever be peace in our extended family? Will I experience a significant trial or trouble? What is my bank account going to look like in 10 years? There are obviously many more questions that could be added.

Living life without a clear view of the future is a challenge to most, if not all, of us. When we think about the future from a purely human perspective, we are left with tremendous uncertainty and very few guarantees as we try to peer into the haze ahead of us. For the believer, however, the future has certainties in this life and the life beyond because of God’s promises through His word. Those who have turned from their sins and placed their faith in Christ can now live life knowing that the God who spoke the universe into existence is sovereignly ruling over every big and small aspect of our lives. The Bible speaks often of the benefits we receive living as God’s children under His perfect and never-failing reign. Psalm 121 is a song meant to remind God’s people of one of the great realities that is always true of us as we live life here without a perfectly clear view of the future—that God is our constant help and protection.

Please read Psalm 121 and join us this Sunday so we can benefit from this passage together.

In ancient times when a new king was elected or selected and crowned, often the neighboring nations would rebel against the authority of the new king. In Psalm 2 God reminds the nations that it is foolish to rebel against Israel’s newly selected king for to rebel against the king is to rebel against the LORD who treats Israel’s king as his own son and such rebellion will incur the wrath of Almighty God.

Allen P. Ross reminds us that “just as with the Israelite kings of the Old Testament, so today people want to throw off the authority of the true God and his anointed Son. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of the point of this psalm that Christ Jesus will come again to put down all rebellion and establish his kingdom.” So Christian, warn the world not to act foolishly but submit to King Messiah, Jesus Christ and escape the wrath to come!

Some people are driven by the desire to be known. The advance of video technology, YouTube in particular, has caused some people to do and post some of the most ridiculous things—just for a little recognition.

Those people who are born either into poverty or into the wrong social circle have little hope of having their name become renowned. However, from time to time we hear of a success story where a person either through sports, a business, music or some other means rises to become famous. Ruth, a poor Moabite widow, became famous by marriage—or more so by her son born from her marriage to Boaz. But it was ultimately the Lord who made Boaz, Ruth and her son famous, for the elders had prayed a prayer of blessing for Boaz, “May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.” Proverbs says, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches” (Prov. 22:1)

Children adopted from a certain life of poverty sometimes do not appreciate what their adoption meant until they return as adults to the place of their childhood and see what their redemption out of poverty meant—then they often fail to value their redemption. However, adults, who have lived through poverty, abuse, war or some other desperate situation, often understand more of the significance of being redeemed.
 
Humanly speaking, few of us have experienced or lived through a situation where someone redeemed us from a hopeless situation. Not Ruth. She was in need of a redeemer—a redeemer who beyond giving her safety, refreshment, stillness, help and hope would save her husband’s family name, line and estate. So she asked to live under the wing of Boaz just as she had come to live under the wing of the LORD, the God of Israel. She knew that she needed to live under the wings of a redeemer. Do you?

A new sermon pluggin has been installed on the website. There were two big reasons for making this change.

1. It allows each specific sermon to have it's own unique URL and or Share option (via email or social media) so you can share GBC sermons with friends. This way you don't have to email someone, "Hey you should listen to the sermon from two months ago on 'The Gospel & Gifts that Build Up The Church'". Then proceed to tell them to go to the sermons subpage and look for it and just hope they find it. Now you can either provide them the unique URL in the URL line in the popup window of the player or you can click "Share" and select the method best for you to share a specific sermon with a friend or friends on social media.
2. It allows you to "Filter by" the sermons in a more ways. This allows the user to better search through the archives of sermons that have been preached here at Grace Bible Church.

Praying these are helpful enhancements!

www.gracebiblelorton.com/sermons

As a child who was raised in a country and agricultural setting, I have many great memories that God has used to make the Bible come alive to me. One of my earliest memories was watching a mother hen hatch and care for a brood of chicks. Whenever a storm approached or the hen felt near danger, she called to her chicks and they came running to her and found protection, refreshment and comfort under her wings.

Consequently, one of my favorite pictures of God is that of a bird offering protection, refreshment, and comfort under His wings. This imagery of God occurs many times throughout the Bible. Near the end of the Exodus, Moses wrote a song describing God “like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone did lead them” (Deut. 31:11). Similarly, the Psalmist writes, “Hide me in the shadow of thy wings, from the wicked” (Psalm 17:8). Safety, refreshment, stillness, help, relaxation, and hope are the words associated with God’s “wings.” And, it was to these wings of God that Ruth came to Israel with Naomi to find refuge (Ruth 2:12).

Missiology is a real word, I promise. It's a word we don't hear very often in the church but it's an important word because it is the study of mission in the Bible. This has tremendous import for how we think about global missions, the role of the local church, and our own lives. Whether or not we were aware of this, a lot is being written these days about mission. Believers are being told to live "missional" lives and to be "on mission" wherever they are. This can be a good thing when the Bible is given the chance to define "mission" and what "missional" living is to look like.

This Sunday we're going to have the privilege to let the Bible define mission on three levels. We're going to hear from Scripture that the center of any true mission from God's perspective is the Gospel and its advance to those who have not yet heard and believed. Sunday's message will define global missions as we hear about the Gospel's advance to the ends of the earth. We will hear about the critical role the local church is to play since it is the centerpiece of God's mission here on earth in this era of redemptive history. Finally, we will also learn to think biblically about our individual role in God's plan to seek and save a people for Himself. Since the Gospel's advance is in view it would be difficult to overstate the importance of this Sunday's topic!

Fellowship is probably something most of us think is nice but not necessary. However, from God’s perspective it may be more necessary than nice. All Christians need fellowship—not just the lonely and depressed but the joyful and popular. True Christian fellowship is good not only for the Christian but for the church—it is absolutely necessary for both.

True fellowship is necessary for the Christian. It is the common bond that holds us together in love for it is sourced in the same Spirit living in us revealing the Father to us because of the work of the Son for us. Jesus recognized its value when he prayed, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23). Fellowship is sourced in the work of the trinity and their absolute unity, and serves as a model of the Church to the world.

True fellowship is also necessary for the Church. When the church lives well in fellowship it reaches the world with the gospel. J.I. Packer observed, “Both in history and in theology, fellowship and revival go together—indeed, a renewed spirit of fellowship among Christians is one aspect of revival” (18 Words, pg.191). Indeed, fellowship is more necessary than nice.

One of the most painful experiences for most of us to experience is a fall out with a spouse, friend, or colleague. Antagonism is experienced—reconciliation is needed.

In the same way, the Bible clearly and consistently declares that mankind needs to be reconciled with God. God and man are at odds, out of step, and even enemies with each other. Sinful man is opposed to God and everything that is of God. In response, God is equally at odds with sinners. However, unlike man, God, the injured party, took the initiative. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). As J.I. Packer said so well, “God and men were at enmity with each other by reason of men’s sins; but God has acted in Christ to reconcile sinners to Himself through the cross” (J.I. Packer, 18 Words, pgs.121-22).  

Whether we, our spouses, friends, or colleagues realize it, all have experienced a fall out with God. By the blood of Christ sacrificed on the cross, God has done everything necessary for reconciliation to be possible, but reconciliation is not possessed till it is received by faith, trusting Christ’s sin-bearing love at the cross.

Growing up on a farm I had the privilege of watching many births—dogs, chickens, cats, pigs and cows. I never tire of seeing new birth. Today, I still try to make a trip home each spring to see the new born calves.

God also never tires of seeing new spiritual birth. He rejoices over it even more than a mother rejoices over the birth of her child. Regeneration means literally second birth and is the word picture God uses to describe his children born of God—a spiritual birth. The verb is used to denote the decisive, completed new birth. Like natural birth, one is born at a certain point in time. So it is with spiritual new birth, it happens completely at a point in time. And as a child evidences simple trust in, love for, and imitations of his parents, so God said the child of God will give evidence of birth by trust in, love for, and imitation of God his Father because of the new spiritual birth—regeneration, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him” (1 John 5:1-2).

Perhaps no other Bible doctrine has consumed more ink or more paper than justification. The issue for serious readers of the Bible is not whether a person needs to be justified before God, for the Bible makes that point quite often, but the question is how is a person justified before God, and what does it mean?

The Bible is also clear that sin keeps a person from being justified and that only God can decide who is just before him. God’s plan was that through our faith in the substitution of Jesus on the cross, dying in our place on our behalf, God would justify the person who acknowledged their problem of sin and received the gift of free and full pardon and the status of being a child in God’s family.

J.I. Packer tells us what it means for the justified person. “Thus the knowledge of one’s justification is the basis of all true religion. It has always been so; it always will be. The issue is not, can one state the doctrine with full biblical accuracy, but does one know its reality in experience: True religion does not begin till the question presses: how may I get rid of my sins? And it exists only in those who know that the answer is: not by seeing what I can do for myself, but by putting my trust in Jesus and what He did for me” (J.I. Packer, 18 Words, pg. 142).

Doctrine. What comes to your mind when you hear that word? Does your mind run to thick, heavy, and old dusty books in the pastor's office? Maybe you've heard that doctrine is one of the "hard-to-understand" aspects of the Christian faith. Or, maybe you've heard that studying doctrine is something best left to the "professionals."

One of the great revivals in churches today is the renewed interest in the study and application of doctrine. Doctrine (or what the whole Bible teaches about some particular topic) is nothing new since these key truths appear right in the storyline of the Bible! When we're looking for it we find that we constantly run into various doctrines while studying Scripture. Words like justification, reconciliation, adoption, redemption, and many more were purposely sprinkled throughout our Bibles as the Holy Spirit superintended the writing of Scripture. What we don't know about the Christian life can hurt us and it's our desire that each of us be more equipped to engage in the fight of faith in our Christian life.

Here at Grace we want to emphasize what Scriptures emphasize so we can enjoy the grace of God to the fullest. In the coming weeks we are going to take four Sunday mornings to teach through a few critical doctrines every Christian needs to know.

We're also recommending a few books that you might find helpful as part of your regular quiet times in the coming weeks or months.

Near the end of his letter to the church at Corinth, following some final travel plans for Timothy, Apollos and himself, the Apostle Paul ticks off in rapid succession a series of final instructions much like a Little League coach does to his pitcher before he takes the mound. He closes the list by saying, “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Cor. 16:14). If it was good for the Corinthian Church to check everything they do by love, as chapter 13 urged, surely it is good advice for all churches, including us.

All of us like the emotional thought behind that statement. Yet as the Corinthians discovered, when there were things dividing them, it was difficult to do all that they did in love. As we have seen from the letter to the church at Corinth, love included some very pointed and stern rebukes from the Apostle Paul. He considered what he said to be in love when he exposed their behavior that was not in keeping with the gospel message. For this reason he can truthfully conclude the last sentence of his letter by saying, “My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen” (1 Cor. 16:24).

At the end of his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul deals with some very personal issues as well as some final instructions. One of those personal issues is how to handle giving in the church. Paul gives some very practical directions on the collection of money for the poor Christians in Jerusalem. Paul follows up these directions with some more theological motivations for giving in his second letter to the Corinthians in chapters 8-9. In both letters he directs the Christians to give on purpose with a regular giving plan according as the Lord has prospered each Christian. His directions are refreshingly clear, simple, yet honoring to each individual as created in the image of God. He allows each Christian to have control over their giving while urging that giving be on purpose and motived by the grace of the Lord Jesus. Paul writes, “I say this not as a command, but to prove the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:8-9). So, like the Corinthians, give on purpose motivated by the grace of the Lord Jesus who died for you and through God “has given us immeasurable riches of his grace” (Eph. 2:7).

Regardless of what gift or gifts each of us possess, no matter how big or small, they gain nothing and we have nothing of value to add to the church body without love. I Corinthians 13 is often quoted at weddings but the context is a reminder that love is the most excellent way of using the gifts. Some of the gifts will cease or be stilled or will pass away but love will never fail and is greater than faith and hope.

Most of us who know and read the Bible often know how much God values love for He is love in the essence of His being—“God is love” (1 John 4:16). Recently, while reading through 1 Peter, I noticed that in every chapter Peter tells his readers and us who read it today, to “have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart, love the brotherhood of believers, live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble,  love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins and greet one another with a kiss of love” (1 Peter 1:22; 2:17; 3:8; 4:8; 5:14). We know that we are to love and it is easy to love people we like, but like the Corinthians, when there is constant division and friction in the church, we can quickly forget the more excellent way of love.

What extraordinarily rich truth we are seeing in this letter to the Corinthians! On the one hand, that is not a surprise, as this is the eternal Word of God. On the other hand, most of Paul’s message is corrective and, well, many (most?) corrections we are given in life are not filled with rich grace and truth.

Paul bases his corrections in the Gospel, verse seven of chapter four; everything that we have that is of eternal value has been given to us by God – salvation, right standing before God, being made part of His eternal family, the teachers that passed the truth along to us, the ability to even understand such truth, and everything else that is of significance – all are gifts from God. We have no room to boast in achievement, and, having been freed from sinful tyranny to self, we are free to follow the model of Christ Jesus and love and serve others.

Now we are in chapter twelve, and among the many rich nuggets is this: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (Vs. 7) Not only are we greatly privileged to be part of the universal body of Christ, the Spirit has also given each one of us yet another gift(s) – a gift we did not have before – beyond the natural abilities the Father weaved into us before we were born physically. He has given to each of us at least one spiritual gift, through which we have the great privilege of building up the church family.

I find it sadly ironic that so many churches have disputed and even divided over spiritual gifts when the purpose of the spirit distributing gifts to Christians is for the common good of the church body. For the next several weeks I hope we will walk humbly with each other as we discuss the purpose and use of spiritual gifts in the church. Gifted and godly men and women who love Jesus, with whom we will enjoy great friendship in heaven, have different opinions about the meaning and appropriate use of the various spiritual gifts. I hope that at the end of this discussion of 1 Corinthians 12-14, regardless of our individual understanding of the spiritual gifts, all of us will practice our gift given by the Spirit, distributed as he wills for the building up, help, and unity of the church body. As your pastor, I desire that none of us would see our gift as more important or less important for our church rather that we would see all of the gifts given to our church as equally important and necessary for the good of our church family. However, I pray that most importantly, we follow the more excellent way of love with each other (1 Corinthians 13).