Monday, March 09, 2009

A long fortnight

I thought I would bust out some old english there and talk about my last couple of weeks. I was given the privelege by my pastor to preach the last two Sundays while he took a much needed break to focus on the vision and mission of our church. God led me to preach on the excellency of Christ. God prompted me to do this when I was looking out at an amazing sunset by Kayla's house and my mind went to a paper of Jonathan Edwards titled "The Excellency of Christ" where he talked about Jesus as the Lion and Lamb and the incredible beauty of Christ displayed in that amazing paradox. So I talked to Tom about him doing that series or something like that. A couple weeks later he asked me to preach a couple of sermons on that so he could take those weeks off. I readily agreed and was looking forward to it.

Needless to say, that subject is so far beyond me or my ability to preach on it. I found out quickly that I was biting off more than I could chew. That topic is beyond Edwards, let alone me. But, I trusted in the grace of God and pressed on with it and used my pitiful words to try to exalt our great God and Savior. I love the words of John Piper when he says that God loves to bless desperate pastors. I was desperate for His Spirit to take over and speak. He did. It was amazing. It wasn't of me. God spoke powerfully through me and gave me the grace to be a faithful servant. Last Sunday was especially powerful as I spoke on the humble and exalted nature of Christ from Phil. 2. I learned that it's not just about me. It's not just about that one man that stands and gives the message. It's about that one Man who came and died for our sins and rose victorious. And in order for that one Man to be exalted in our Sunday services it requires a great deal of men and women working together, building each other up in love, and serving our risen Lord to make it happen. I've known that intellectually and theologically, but never as experientially as last week. Worship was fantastic and Spirit-led and Christ-centered. That required the efforts of our worship leader and worship team (I was blessed to be on the team this week). During worship, one of the ladies in our congregation was especially moved by the Spirit to share some verses and ask us to repeat one of the songs so that we might enter into the joy of God and it was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. Communion was powerful, as it usually is, and then I got up to speak. That doesn't even account for the numerous people that get there early to set up chairs, the stage, the sound, the greeters table, the coffee and food tables, and other ministries like nursery and children's church. So much happened that Sunday that led us to Christ in the power and grace of the Spirit so that we might see the Father. We were ONE body working toward ONE head in ONE Spirit with ONE mind. It was amazing. A couple weeks ago I thought I had been in one of the most powerful church services I could remember. This week topped that. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise His grace. Praise Him. Praise Him. Come Lord Jesus.

If you want to listen to those sermons, not that they're that great or important, you can download them at www.ccc-utah.com and click on the sermon tab.

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