New outtakes from the Wilson/Hitchens movie, Collision.

Repenting Husbands, Wives and Children

As we look again today at our roles as husbands, we find that we will not fully measure up to Jesus as he husbands the church. And when our eyes are opened in this way, we find the need to repent of our sins and shortcomings and look to Jesus so that we can be more like Him.

         This is true of husbands but it is also true of wives as they look at the Church and how they should completely honor and respect their husbands.

         And you children, as you think about how you are to be the sort of children who absolutely honor your parents, no doubt, if you are honest you find fault with yourselves.

         So, all of us have a need to repent; husbands, wives, and children, but the end of this process of repentance is not grievous but joyful. We suffer for a little, as we realize how we have fallen short but the Lord calls us to confess and turn away from following our way and turn to Christ and follow His. He forgives us and grants us His Spirit to do that which He has called us to do. And in this we find both joy and peace as husbands, as wives and as children.

A Virgin at Table

The ultimate goal of these sermons on Father, Mother, Husband and Wife is unity. As we learn to be like Christ and His Church, then the Lord grants us peace and unity.

         As we partake of Communion, we are learning that Christ has given Himself up fully for the sake of the Bride. Because of this, the bride is washed in the Word, cleansed and presented to Jesus as a chaste virgin. She is restored to her former glory and receives the most glorious husband she could even have hoped for. In fact, in her defilement, she would never have even conceived that she could receive such a husband.

         But because Jesus loved her and gave himself for her, she has been made new, a fitting wife for such a husband, in Him, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

         Let us rejoice in this precious gift to us, we have received Christ our bridegroom and He has received us a chaste virgin, a fitting bride for such a glorious husband.

Communion- Risen in Jesus!

Christ is Risen and thus, we are risen with Him. The life that the Father gave to Jesus, He also gives to us in Jesus. We are crucified with Christ and our sins nailed to the cross. We entered into the grave with Him and were raised to life with Jesus. We have not yet received the Resurrection of the body. That is still a future promise for us but we have entered into eternal life and the Father has given us the Holy Spirit as the promise that He will raise our mortal bodies to immortality.

         So, we eat and drink the body and blood of the crucified Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered up for our transgressions.  But we also eat and drink the body and blood of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who was raised for our justification. For you who believe in Jesus the Christ, there is no condemnation. You are freely and fully justified by the Resurrection from the dead and are therefore recipients of God’s promise to be raised from the dead, never to die again.

         He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

Easter Exhortation

Today is Easter. It is a glorious day, the day we remember the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus, Who was delivered up to the cross for our offences, and was raised again from the dead for our justification.

         There is no better time to confess your sins and receive the Resurrection Life of Jesus Christ and be justified in the sight of God. You cannot please God without faith in Christ and you cannot have faith in Christ without confessing your need for Him to be your substitution on the cross.  It is true, that Jesus died for sinners. St. Paul was willing to say that he was the chief of sinners. Having confessed this and taking up His faith in Jesus for forgiveness, God reckoned his faith as righteousness, just as He did with the patriarch Abraham.

         So, where are you? The chief of sinners, without claim upon God except upon His grace by faith?  Or, still clinging to your sins in the hope that they and you do not have to die.  We sometimes speak of the cross as if Jesus had to die so that we do not have to die. But Paul said, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. So, too, must you and your sins die on the cross with Christ.

         Dear saints, you cannot give yourself for Jesus but you most certainly can give yourself to Jesus. You do this when you confess your sins, lay down your will, trust in God for forgiveness through Jesus and then rise up justified to walk in newness of life empowered by the Holy Spirit. Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Today is the day of Salvation.

Exhortation-Savior Lord

Is Jesus Lord? The answer is of course, yes, Jesus is Lord of both Heaven and Earth. His rule is over all. This much is an established fact. But what does that mean to us? It means that He is our ruler and not like those who are only earthly rulers. Their authority over us is limited. But the authority that Jesus has over us is completely unlimited. He rules all of our affairs as well as rules in our hearts and minds. We are to render our allegiance to Him not only in our deeds but also in our words and even our very thoughts.

         When we see the Lordship of Christ in this light, our failure to absolutely submit our wills to Him becomes obvious. We have not been perfectly faithful in our deeds or our words or our thoughts.

         But thanks be to God that Jesus is our Savior Lord. He requires absolute submission but also provides forgiveness for us who struggle against the flesh in this earthly body. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

         So, let us confess our weakness and sin and look to Christ for His grace and mercy.

Communion-Identify with Christ

One of the great truths of Communion is identity with Jesus Christ. He is ours and we are His. We should hear these comfortable words each week as we eat and drink, remembering all that Jesus did and does for us.

         On this day of the Triumphal Entry, we remember that Jesus is the ruling King of Heaven and Earth. This should give us a great deal of peace. We need to remember this because we often look out into a world still plagued by chaos, sin, rebellion and trouble. In fact, we still see some of these things in our own lives. But Jesus is reigning and He is bringing all things into submission. And we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. He is a good King that rules in such a way as to accomplish what He intends.  This includes our peaceful place in His kingdom.

         This peace does not come without suffering. We do and will suffer but this suffering should not quench our peace or even our joy. Just as Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him, so we enter into the sufferings of Christ for the joy of victory that is set before us.

         This meal is God’s peace and joy to you.

Communion Meditation- My Beloved

Christ loved the His Church and gave Himself for her. He completely gave Himself, even to death, the cursed death of the cross. He did this because He was more concerned with doing right by her, in loving her, than He was for His own body. He suffered for her in many ways. He was ridiculed, misunderstood, often even by her. But Jesus did not let any of this distract Him from His goal, to do all for the bride and then to dwell with her always, even to the end of the age.

         And we come here each week to hear the promises of God, in Christ, “You are my beloved, in you I am well pleased.” The prayer of Jesus has become a reality and we are intimately connected to Him forever, world without end. Jesus has been raised from the dead and He has raised us up with Him in the heavenly places. There is no ‘til death us do part.’ We have entered eternity with the Lord Jesus and His bride will continue forever until she is made utterly glorious at the Resurrection, in full consummation, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

         For you gathered here, this bread and wine, His own flesh and blood, is His testament to You that He will never leave you or forsake you. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Exhortation-Perils that Separate

Today, we continue our study in what the Bible says about husbands loving their wives. The Scripture says that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This one flesh analogy refers back to the relationship of Christ and His Church.

In Romans, the Apostle tells us that nothing can separate from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He then presents a long list of things that try to separate us. With even a small amount of creativity we can think of how these things relate to modern marriage in America. Have you let these things separate you from your wife? Tribulations, earthly trials and daily trouble. Distress, concern about loved ones, your job or sickness. Persecution, assaults from outside your marriage because of your faith in Christ. Famine, lean financial times. Nakedness, the result of poor decisions or even being exposed as having made huge mistakes or sins. Peril, a scary diagnosis of your future in health, work, prospects, family. Sword, things beyond your control in the government, taxes, elections, wars and rumors of war.

         And these are just the earthly powers. The rest of the passage talks about all kinds of spiritual forces that seek to separate us from the love of God. Husbands, there are many perils that can separate you from your wife. Have you let them?

         There is a dual need here. First repent for your lack of diligence in protecting this relationship as jealously as Christ protects the Church. Secondly, seek the power and the wisdom of the Spirit to keep that which God has entrusted to you.

         Single men and ladies, wives and children, you also must look at how God protects those relationship that are dear to Him not letting earthly or spiritual forces intervene. How, then, are your relationships? Seek Christ in them now.

The Beautiful Bride

As we gather here we represent a communion, a closeness of relationship between us, the gathered people of God, and our Lord Jesus.  Outside of Christ and His Church, there is no relationship closer than that of husband and wife.  It is a wonderful picture, Christ the bridegroom, we the bride. And just as Christ loves His Church and makes her beautiful, so husbands are to do so with their wives, love them and make them beautiful.

         And from Christ and His Church spring forth numerous children, further declaring the communion of many into one glorious unity.  Thus, a family, as a representative of Christ and His Church is to show forth this unity.

Sometimes the nuclear family is broken, husband to wife, or children to parents. This is another reason why there is so much beauty here, in Christ’s Church. He takes all these broken people, broken families, broken relationships and makes them all one in His Church.

         So, we are to image God’s unity in our marriages and in our homes but if we have failed to do so, for whatever reason, we can come here and find God’s family unified in Christ. In Him, we are all one and the Lord will continue to knit us together, in Him, through His Spirit until we are without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

Husbands, Love Your Wives

There is always enough sin around for us to find the need for confession and repentance. Today, we speak of the call for husbands to love their wives, even as Christ love the Church and gave himself for her.

         No doubt, you men understand that you have not loved your wives in this way. None of you have died for her. But you should all be dying for her. You should be sacrificing yourself to nourish and cherish her. This should be done in tangible ways and she should know it.

         We all wax and wain in our love towards our wives. This being the case, we need to be continually called back to God’s purposes for us as husbands, washing our wives in the Word, calling them to the high calling in Jesus Christ, cleansing them and sanctifying them by our love and service to them.

         This calling as husbands is a high calling, indeed and one that we cannot accomplish with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Let us ask the Lord’s forgiveness for our failures and call upon Him to empower us by His Spirit to do that which He has called us to do.

         Incidentally, one of the chief callings of husbands is that of faithfulness. So, if you men, women or children have been unfaithful or disloyal to your spouse or Lord, in thought, word and deed, now is the time to confess this sin and seek the Lord’s forgiveness.

3:33 and 4:44

Woke up again this morning at 3:33am. I awoke exactly 1:11 later at 4:44.

This happens with a great deal of regularity. It no longer surprises me but it always pleases me. When I wake up, I always utter a brief prayer, "Thank you Lord for reminding me of your love and kindness towards me, even in the watches of the night," or something equally groggy and similar. Not much of a prayer and I promptly fall back into a peaceful sleep.

Waking at this hour, 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44 and 5:55 has been going on for the last 12 years or so, since I became a pastor. It does not happen every night, usually once or twice a week, often on Saturday nights when my mind is thinking about Sunday worship service. And I don't always have two like last night, waking at both 3:33 and 4:44. Usually just once in the night.

It always reminds me of the Trinity and God's love and care for me.  I am not sure if my body time clock has figured out how to count time exactly during the night, or if the Lord specifically wakes me up to comfort me.  Either way, I am amazed at God's care over His creation, me, either to make such a creature that can tell time in his sleep or that He would deign to gently wake me up just to remind me that  He is still there. Both are reasons for awe and thanksgiving.

Dear Saints, we are once again seated at the Table of the Lord. It is the table of the Father but also the Table of Jesus and His Bride.  We have come to the place where we are fed and nourished. This is a place of peace and rest, a place of feasting and toasting, a place of fellowship and joy.

This is one reason that we do not make this a personal private moment, a place to examine yourselves and your motives. That has already happened. The Lord has examined you and He has applied the grace of Jesus to you so that you could come here without such inward and discouraging thoughts. The time of introspection is over. It is time to look up, look to Jesus, bask in the glory of God, the Father, the risen Lord Jesus, the joy of the Holy Spirit, the presence of the saints, the food at God’s table, the joy of fellowship, the peace of forgiveness, the welcome of friends.

This is not a personal private moment but rather a public feast of food and wine in celebration of the name of Jesus, the High King, who has taken on a bride, His Church, the mother us all. We are at home here, a place of peace and rest and joy.

Exhortation- Road to Encouragement

It is true that we come to church for encouragement. We come out of obedience but it is an expectant obedience. We come to worship because it is right but in doing right we have expectations of reward. This is good. God expects us to do right but it is not merely out of duty. He teaches us that if we do what is right, He will bless us. It is also true that we cannot always tell what that blessing looks like. Sometimes, blessings come in the form of what call hidden blessings. Trials and tribulations produce in us the good fruit of patience, perseverance and even peace amidst the storms. These trials then become the means of all sorts of other blessings. So, the expectation of reward does not come without the reality that the reward is often the result of enduring great difficulties.

         In this sense, I want to encourage you through this difficult time we call Confession of Sin.  Trials often cause us to examine ourselves. Sometimes our trials are a result of our sins, for example, a financial meltdown caused by negligence. Other times our trials are no fault of our own, say unforeseen health issues that we face ourselves, or in a spouse, parent or child. But whatever the trial, we often look at ourselves to examine our hearts, motives and actions. And this is good. We seek to be pure vessels through which God can pour out His grace, mercy and blessing.

         So, this time of confession is just that. It confronts us with our own failures and sins but is a means through which we open ourselves up to the searching wisdom of the Holy Spirit, seeking to forsake every evil way, currently known by us or not, and asking God to cleanse us and bless us through this purging. Nobody wants the pain of the searching but we all want the result of the blessing. But first things first. Be open. Be honest. Confess. Repent. Be forgiven. Be a vessel of honor, ready for blessing and reward.

Cariad- My Love

Love at first sight is not an isolated phenomenon.  Many lovers explain the sense of knowing that this one is to be my one and only cariad. In saying this, I do not diminish the truth that many have fallen slowly in love.  This is why we call it falling, not leaping (sometimes we do!).  But some have experienced the true thrill of a bungee jump as they set eyes on the girl of their dreams. I am not talking about the rush of blood and heart at the sight of a temptress.  A good man does not confuse this with love, but, rather, the more serene and deeper thrill of a thoughtful gaze through the eyes, pretty ones, to the soul. A knowing look that reaches beyond the surface into that place where secrets are kept and she, and he, does not blush to have them revealed. We often laugh (or scoff) at the Hollywood version of True Love and Following Your Heart. But such stories arise from realities, even realities that are not commonplace, none-the-less, real.

Perhaps I am simply an old romantic and romanticism is much criticized in my circles. It has been replaced with the sterile precision of the purveyors of the science of love. Here's how you do it. Just so and don't worry about the fireworks or lack thereof! I suppose there is some method to that madness. But love is not so easily tamed nor so easily named. It often comes when least expected it and lasts, if it really is a godly love to be cultivated, a lifetime.

Such is my story as my love, my cariad, gracefully entered my fifth grade classroom. How could I know then? I cannot tell you how but the fact that I did know is still we with me today.  We survived Mrs. Hellewell, graduated on to sixth grade and grew up and into love, the kind of love that perseveres and gives and sacrifices and lives.

My dear Kate, my fifth grade sweetheart is my ever and beloved darling, my dear wife of twenty-five years. This is mysterious and unexplainable but this kind of love always is.

My dear, you will always be my one and only cariad.

Communion- Mother Church, Bride of Christ

Mothers are to image the Church. But we all gather here as the church. Each one here is not a wife or a mother but the collected church is in the place of wife and mother in connection to Christ.  It is beautiful how God has revealed these truths to us.

         As the bride of Christ, we know that He is ever faithful. He will fully fulfill His role as the husband, beautifying His wife until she is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We all participate in Christ’s washing of us in His Word.

         Furthermore, we, as the Church, play the role of mother. The church is mother to her children, those who belong to God as adopted children; true heirs of the promises of life. The church speaks this truth to her children and makes them feel safe and secure in the love of the Father. So, like a mother, we the Church encourage all of God’s children that we are truly His and thus recipients of His peace and blessing.

         These promises are given to us in Jesus Christ and represented in this meal.

Exhortation- Motherness

Today, in our sermon, we look at Motherness.  I am thankful that we have many wonderful examples of mothers in this congregation. Our church is imaging God as we see faithfulness in our homes in our represented mothers and fathers. And to this extent we get a good example of what God is like. He is a faithful Father and He also represents the nurturing atmosphere provided by mothers. The godly characteristics needed for motherhood flow directly from the Trinity.

         But it is not good for us to reason simply from the creature to the Creator. We have good mothers in our midst but their duty as mothers needs to be derived from God and His Scriptures. We are doing this but must do so more and more. To that extent, we will no doubt find places where we fall short of God’s character and of His law.

         We fathers and mothers may already know where we have fallen short this week, fathers provoking children to wrath, mothers failing to maintain a fragrant and sweet aroma in the home. As we seek to know and apply God’s standard in our roles as mothers and fathers, we will need to repent of our false standards and our failings of His true standard.

Freebie

That was easy.

It is my intent to write a bit more. Not sure how much of that I will be doing on my blog. Some, no doubt. I have devised one simple way to force myself to write a little something each day.

I get a word of the day from the Oxford English Dictionary-OED. For a while I was disappointed in my daily words as they seemed very modern and faddish, unlike the OED. But it was not long until my daily inbox was filled with fascinating words, as most words are. Anyway, my intent is to use these words putting them to keyboard that forces me to understand how the word works in real time, and try to incorporate the words into my regular vocabulary. At the very least, write.

Relax, there will be no extra charge to you for these words or potential extra posts. They will all be freebies.

What Goes Around

Last night at dinner table, my 10 year old son asked to do the Bible reading after our meal. We are reading through Ephesians and have come to chapter 6. It starts this way, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." As my son attempted to continue to read, I interrupted him several times asking him to read that first line over again and again. We had a good laugh, him too, as I said, "Ah, that is music to my ears."

But...a little later the Bible says, "And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath." My little obedient and image-bearing son, unprompted, but apparently highly provoked, read this line over again and again to great laughter and a well deserved 'comes around' to dear old dad.

Communion- Great Father

God is always with us and He keeps us even when we are unaware that He is doing so.  He watches out for us and makes sure that we are clothed, fed and sheltered.  This abundance of grace largely goes unnoticed by us. But even though this is the case, our Father in heaven continues to shower these blessings upon us day after day, anyway.

         We are gathered here again to eat and drink in the name of the Lord Jesus. God has provided the Lamb. He has washed away our sins. He has called us to His home. He has set good food and wine before us. He has provided us with fare that will make us strong enough to withstand the world, the flesh and the devil.  The Spirit, Himself, prays for our weakness, fulfilling the Father’s will in our lives to make us strong in Jesus Christ.

         It is a great Father that watches over us, protects us and is always here in our time of need. These symbols speak these truths to us. Remember this as you eat and drink.