More on marriage.  The most recent post addressed the issue that marriage is a creation ordinance.  It is not established by humans; it is established by God for His glory.  Marriage involves a man and a woman but their relationship primarily is neither for them nor about them.  It is for and about God.  It is to bring to Him the honor and the glory that is due His Name.  It is to exalt and magnify the Lord.  Marriage is the institution through which the world is to be populated so that the first two humans were commanded by God to be fruitful and multiply.  Do you ever wonder how we have either obeyed or disobeyed that one?  We control through abortion and contraception how many children we have, don’t we?  I have a definite stance on the first since abortion by any biblical definition is the murder of children, but contraception can be considered in a different light.  I will let you work that one out in your own heart and home.  Marriage is the institution not only for the population of the earth but it is also the institution through which we are called to provide for productive labor.  Children are to learn both what work is and how to do it daily and dutifully as a result of being in a family.  The ancient rabbis used to teach that a faithful father does three things for his sons:  he circumcises his son in accordance with the law, the teaches them how to live out the law of God and he gives them a job to do so as to fulfill the law.  It is not just that family that worships together that is critical; it is the family that works together that is critical.  So that according to the ordinance of creatiion, marriage/family is brought into being by God into which His people are called and through which His people bring glory to His Name by living as He has called us to live and doing what He is called us to do.  Our happiness in marriage, consequently; is tied directly to our holiness in relationship to God.  We are only as happy in marriage as His people as our lives are wholly dedicated and devoted to Him.  The best book on marriage that is available  is among the least read because this is its foundational principle, Sacred Marriage, by Gary Thomas.  We in our culture even as Christians want “how to” books on everything from sex to parenting so those books that simply say what is the Scriptural understanding of marriage that God is after His glory through our marriage and sends us struggles to shape us in that direction are not too popular with us, even though they are right; and the others are most often way off center.

Marriage is a creation ordinance.  It is also a covenant commitment.  As a covenant commitment, marriage emerges out of the covenant commitment of God to His people.  God has made an inviolable covenant with HIs people.  He has entered into an agreement with His people to save us by His grace and to keep us by His grace.  He will never violate that covenant commitment.  He will keep it.  God says in His Word that even though we may be “faithless” our God is “faithful.”  He is faithful to Himself and to His purpose for His people to the exalting and honoring of His great name.  Now that marriage is a covenant “cuts” in two directions.  First, marriage a covenant is for the covenant people of God.  Like this our not there is a different standard for God’s people and for the people of the world.  God’s people are after what God wants and wills; the people of the world are after what they want.  These desires of these differing people are diametrically opposed to each other.  In my marriage as a child of God I want to boey God and His Word in being to my wife the person God has called me to be regardless of whether that makes me happy as happiness is defined by this world.  The world’s definition of “happiness” has no place in my dictionary as a man devoted to Jesus.  When I seek to obey God in relationship to Anne, then what I receive is the kind of happiness that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away.  Do we see that?  Do we understand that?  And do we understand that as much as there are different conditions for the covenant people of God, there are also different contexts for marriage for the world and for those who belong to God?  We have really missed this one.  The blessing of the church should be given only to those persons whose profession of faith in Jesus is equalled by the expression of that commitment through active involvement in the church apart from which the church is blessing a pagan union while professing the glory of God.  We are inviting God’s judgment on us when we open the doors of the church to bless the union of a man and a woman whose lives do not bless God.  Let them go to the courthouse; let the people of God who are His covenant people come to the church house.  Otherwise, we do great violence to God’s covenant with His people.   More on this later.

 

 Wednesday Evening Message Prayer: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A “pre-election” prayer that should act as an encouragement to believers to pray for upcoming elections, and their leaders.

Be encouraged, and join Pastol Al as he prays!

Fifteen couples from our church along with a wonderful couple from Clayton, GA. will soon travel to Rome, GA. for a weekend marriage retreat.  The prayerful anticipation of this weekend, the work that God allows me to do with hurting couples, and the attempts in our culture to redefine marriage have all combined to cause me to think much about marriage in recent days.  What is the meaning of marriage?

It all begins with the awareness that marriage is what the theologians call rightly a “creation ordinance.”  All this means is that God established marriage from the beginning and its meaning has been defined by Him from that point.  It is to our temporal and eternal peril that we pervert the meaning of what God has so plainly put in place.  Marriage is the union of a man and a woman under the authority of God for the purpose of bringing praise to God by seeking together to fulfill His purpose for them.  The Bible does not recognize any other kind of union as a marriage.

It is interesting to me that another creation ordinance that God established from the beginning was the Sabbath ordinance:  one day in seven that is set aside for rest from normal labor and deliberate and devoted worship of God.  The Sabbath ordinance is tied to a given day in the context of the two covenants in which through which it is expressed so that under the Old Covenant in which the law is central, Saturday was the Sabbath; but under the New Covenant in which the resurrection of Jesus from the deac is central, Sunday is the Sabbath.  The principle is the same for either day:  it is a specifically designated time of twenty-four hours that is given over to remove ourselves from our normal routines so as to devote ourselves with the chruch and through our families to the worship of God.  Anything other than that is a serious and sober violation of the Sabbath principle.  The only way that humans who profess to belong to God could ever violate this principle is either out of works of necessity or a way of life that makes human understanding superior to the Holy Word of God, so that we decide what the Sabbath is regardless of what God says.  Or worse.  We just reinterpret what God says.

Now it should not surprise us that those who violate such a sacred principle as the Sabbath find little difficulty in redefining marriage.  It is not just that the redefinition includes homosexual understandings of marriage; it is that couples who cohabit prior to marriage find little problem with having a wedding in the presence of the people of God, even seeking the blessing of God.  And that without their public repentance before God and His people.  Marriage is a creation ordinance established by God for His people in which we live for the purpose of bringing Him praise by seeking to fulfill His purpose for our lives.  Marriage in God’s sight is so much more, but it is at least this.

 

 the Game Plan: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1 Thessalonians 2:9-12 [+/-]1 Thessalonians 2:9-12 [9]For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. [10]You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. [11]For you know how, like a father with his children, [12]we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. (ESV)

I love coaches.  We probably have as many coaches in this congregation per capita as any place I have ever served.  We have Fales and Fulcher and Wheeler.  We have Flowers and Dye.  We have Wiggins who left the sideline for the big time in broadcasting.  We have Adkins who went soft and entered into administration.  We have Scott who has invested so much in the lives of so many.  And I understand that Coach Sorrow has been among our guests in worship.  What bothers me even now is that I have left somebody out not to mention all of us who want to be and really think we are coaches.  So many of these men that I have named are not seen a lot during the Fall.  Most of them gather on Sundays right after lunch to review the film of the previous week, to watch the film of the upcoming opponent and to put together before practice begins on Monday a game plan.  Now it would seem to me though I have never been privy to any of these meetings that there are at least three components in every game plan.  First, and most importantly is the goal of the game plan which, of course, overall is to win the game.  But in that context there must be something that the coaches are after in this particular game with this particular game plan.  Second, I think that a game plan would include the strategies for accomplishing that goal and third some tools of assessing whether or not the goal was accomplished.

Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!

 

 The Motivation for Witnessing: Part III [37:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 [+/-]1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 [2:1]For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. [2]But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. [3]For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, [4]but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. [5]For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed--God is witness. [6]Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. [7]But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. [8]So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. (ESV)

The Bible says that if we know what to do and do not do it that we have sinned.  And it adds that whatever is not of faith is sin, i.e.; whatever it is that does not emerge out of an expression of faithfulness to Jesus.  I would conclude from those two Scripture sentences that we have all sinned.  We are all sinners.  We have fallen short of what God says is to be the substance of our lives.  We find ourselves doing what we do not want to do and not doing what we ought to do, and not everything in our lives is done as a demonstration of our devotion to Jesus.  Yet, I believe that for every believer there is pulsating through our lives a real and genuine desire to be pleasing to God.  We want to be what He desires us to be.  We want to do what He desires us to do.  We want to be faithful to Him.  And the heart and soul of bringing pleasure to God is our worship of His Name with the people of God gathered on the Lord’s Day and the witness to His Name in the world on every other day.  Those who are genuine believers truly desire to give God the worship that He deserves and to declare in the world the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  A recent study proved the point.

Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!

 

 What does it mean to really believe in Jesus? [1:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John 6:2 [+/-]John 6:2 [2]And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. (ESV)

What does it mean to really believe in Jesus, and what are the struggles with believing in Jesus? As Pastor Al explores more about the meaning of the word “believing” as he continues studying John 3:16 [+/-]John 3:16 [16]"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)

This contains the miracle of the feeding of 5000 people. We are told that a multitude followed Jesus. These people had seen or experienced physical healing. They wanted to see more of the miracles involving healing. As long as He did for them as they desired, they continued following.They didn’t even see Jesus as the Messiah; but the prophet who would precede the Messiah.

He looks at what their true commitment was, and how that is directly tied to their belief.

Women of Waynesboro
Winter Retreat at Epworth
by the Sea
…a beautiful, historic riverfront
setting
St. Simons Island, Georgia

In our experience, we have found that getting away from the routine of every-
day life enables us to hear God’s voice and find a clearer focus.  We must seek
God’s will and surround ourselves with like-minded friends for support.  This
event will offer ample opportunity to seek His heart and to fellowship with
friends, maybe even stand shoulder to shoulder with a few new friends.  More
than that, it will be a time to refresh your mind, body and spirit.  Through a
combination of powerful worship and prayerful meditations, your soul will be
uplifted. Read more here! »

October 31st 2008 here at FBC Waynesboro
People are needed to help with activities, and Candy is needed as well!
Please call the church office if you have questions- 706-554-5156

What is the goal of a professor at a secular university in relationship to a student?  Let me tell you what it is not:  is not to dispense information in an objective manner so as to enable the student to choose between equally viable options.  The goal of the professor is to establish his or her position vis-a-vis other positions.  The goal is the capturing of the mind of the student.  This may surprise you:  that is what a good teacher is always after.  No teacher is worthy of the title who does not believe that what he or she is teaching is the truth whether that word is spelled with a small or a capital “t.”  If I am teaching math (the very thought of it makes me laugh) I want to accomplish three things in my teaching.  First, I want the student to love math.  Second, I want the student to think that math is the most important subject in the entire course of study and third, I want to convince them that my way of teaching them how to add, substract, multiply, and divide is the very best way to approach the subject of math.  I want to “convince” in the positive sense of the term to believe in me and to believe in my subject.  The stakes are not so high in the teaching of math; they are incredibly high in the teaching of science, in the teaching of theology and philosophy, in the teaching of history, in the teaching of worldview related subjects and in the teaching of the Bible.  Why am I wrting about this subject?

Because one of the most important issues that a Christian parent will ever raise at any educational level is not just how your student is being taught, but what your student is being taught.  Whether it is primary or secondary education or post-secondary education; pay attention to what those who teach really believe.  Their job is to convince your child that they are right about themselves and their subject.  Don’t be critical of a teacher for being passionate about his or her subject; I would not want a teacher who was not that way.  Be alert to what your student is being taught.  The teacher is after the mind of the student and the success of the teacher is found in their ability to capture the mind.

I remember when I was in seminary and sat one day with one of the most liberal of the professors.  I loved this man.  I did not see him then as a liberal just as a funny guy who would hang out with the students.  But while we were munching on all-you-could-eat pizza at lunch one day he would say, “I am after your  minds.  I want to see them changed.  I want to take all that you learned in Sunday School (which was zero for me since I only attended Sunday School one year before I started teaching Sunday School), strip it away and fill you up with the right kind of information.  I get a kick out of watching some good ole’ boy when the light finally comes on and he gets what I am really after.”  That is good teaching.  That is a good teacher.  And that is why every parent needs to pay really close attention to what is being taught in whatever context your students are in.  Because really good teachers are after the minds of their students.

 

 The Motivation for Witnessing: Part II [37:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1 Thessalonians 2:1-9 [+/-]1 Thessalonians 2:1-9 [2:1]For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. [2]But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. [3]For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, [4]but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. [5]For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed--God is witness. [6]Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. [7]But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. [8]So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. [9]For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. (ESV)

Jesus gave His church a mission and a mandate. The mission is to gather in His Name and by His Spirit under the authority of His Word for the glory of God to worship and to go in His Name and by His Spirit under the authority of His word into the world with the Gospel. We are to go with the Gospel to every ethnic group and among them we are to declare the glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus. That is our mission. The mandate is that we are to make disciples. That means that we are to declare the Gospel to all and for all who believe we are to baptize them and to teach them the truth of God as revealed in His Word of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Here is the mission and the mandate of every church and any church over which Jesus is Lord the absence of which makes us something other than a church. Developing disciples begins with declaring the Gospel so that the church that belongs to Jesus consists of persons who gather devotedly to worship God in those times designated by the Word of God and the church and from worship we go devotedly and daily to deliver the Gospel to the world. This is the sole purpose for which we were saved by the grace of God and left here for however long so that we might useful to God in the manifestation of the Gospel to the world and in His work of making disciples.

Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!

 

 Wednesday Evening Message - October 8, 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John 3:15 [+/-]John 3:15 [15]that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. (ESV)

Pastor Al has been teaching from the Gospel of John, and continues teaching in this lesson looking more at the word believing, and what it really means to “believe” in Jesus.

 

 Worldview Issues and Theological Assumptions [58:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1 Corinthians 13:8-12 [+/-]1 Corinthians 13:8-12 [8]Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. [9]For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10]but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. [11]When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. [12]For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (ESV)
and Jude 1:3 [+/-]Jude 1:3 [3]Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (ESV)

In tonight’s Sunday Evening lesson, Pastor Al begins to talk about worldviews, and the realities that these worldviews are based on. He also tackled some of the common Theological Assumptions present in our culture.

I woke up the other morning with a thought going through my head that would not leave me, “what is it that Jesus loved?”  And the accompanying thought that I surely wanted to be sure that I loved what Jesus loved.  I could not get the thought out of my head:  What does Jesus love?  It is clear from the Bible that God loves the world and loves it so much that He sent Jesus as the Savior.  It is equally clear from teh Bible that the people of God are called and commanded by God to love one another.  And I am sure that when I have time to reearch the way the word for “love” is used in relationship to Jesus, I will discover the particulary ways in which the love of Jesus is expressed.  But that day my mind went to one text that became the focus for my day, Ephesians 5 [+/-]Ephesians 5 [5:1]Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. [2]And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. [3]But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [4]Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. [5]For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. [6]Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. [7]Therefore do not become partners with them; [8]for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light [9](for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), [10]and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. [11]Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. [12]For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. [13]But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, [14]for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." [15]Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, [16]making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. [17]Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. [18]And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, [19]addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, [20]giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21]submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. [22]Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23]For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24]Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. [25]Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26]that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27]so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [28]In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29]For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30]because we are members of his body. [31]"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." [32]This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. [33]However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (ESV)
where we are told that Jesus loved the church and gave Himself up for her.

Jesus loved the church.  Jesus died for the church as the demonstration of His love for the church.  Now the whole idea of Jesus dying for the church raises theological concerns that are not the concern of this particular blog.  What struck me that day was the simple, straightforward, right-there-in-front-of-me communication that Jesus loves the church.  And if Jesus loves the church, then every peson who belongs to Jesus must also love the church.  If Jesus loved the church enough to give Himself for her then as a follower of Jesus, I must also love the church in that kind of way.

When the Bible says that Jesus loved the church, it is speaking of a person.  Jesus is the church inasmuch as He is the head and the church is the body so that to love the church is to love Jesus.  But it is speaking of more than a person, it is also speaking of a purpose.  It is in the church and through the church, and only in and through the church, that Jesus manifests Himself to the world and accomplishes His mission to the world.  So that when I love the church I not only love the person of Jesus; I also love the purpose of Jesus.  But there is more.  The church is people.  Flawed people.  Forgiven people.  Faithful and sometimes faithless people.  But there is no church where there are not people, those whom Jesus loved and those who love Jesus bound together in worship and witness.

Do you love what Jesus loved?  Do you love the church?  Do you know what really hit me that day?  There are people who think that the question, “do you love  Jesus?” and “do you love the church?” are separable questions.  How do you separate a head from a body and still have life?  You don’t.  Neither can you separate love for Jesus from love for the church so that if you do not love the church for which He died, you do not love that which He loves enough to die for and thus have no ground upon which to stand when you say, “I love Jesus.”

 

 The Motivation for Witnessing [37:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 [+/-]1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 [2:1]For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. [2]But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. [3]For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, [4]but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. [5]For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed--God is witness. [6]Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. [7]But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. [8]So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. (ESV)

One phrase found three times forms a focus for this second chapter of 1 Thessalonians. The phrase is found in verses 2, 8 and 9: The gospel of God. Although the Bible uses other phrases to describe and define the Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the eternal and everlasting Gospel, the Gospel of our salvation and others; this phrase embodies for us the essence of the Gospel. It is the Gospel of God. The phrase is written in such a way that it is clear that God is the source of the Gospel and that He is the sovereign over the Gospel. It is His Gospel and it comes from Him from eternity past. It was not created along the way in response to the choices and circumstances of human beings in the world; this is the Gospel of God that was in place before a word was ever spoken to bring the world into being. The phrase is written in such a way that it is clear that God is the substance of the Gospel and the sole goal of the Gospel. This Gospel that is from God is also about God and it is the core, the heart and soul of who this God is and how this God relates to His world, and one day all the world will bow in absolute obeisance to this God. Those who have responded to the Gospel and have received it as evidenced by the revolution in their lives that has brought them into the church in which and through which we live to fulfill His purpose will be welcomed into the glory of this God; and all those who have rejected the Gospel choosing to live some other way than the way designed by and declared by God will for the glory of God be cast into eternal punishment in the full vindication of His pure and perfect justice.

Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!