Jeremiah Griffin

Titus 2:11-14
God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.

Are we living by example for our children and our families around us?

I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor.  –—C. H. Spurgeon

God of angels and sheep, God of the poor and meek, in these days before Christmas, quiet us so we may hear where new life is struggling to be born, slow our rush so we may hear the faint sound of angel wings and the words whispered in hope. Open our hearts to the wonder of Immanuel God with us. Amen.

Isaiah 7:10-14
God spoke again to Ahaz. This time he said, “Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!”

But Ahaz said, “I’d never do that. I’d never make demands like that on God!”

So Isaiah told him, “Then listen to this, government of David! It’s bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you’re making God tired. So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She’ll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us). By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions, the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture. But also be warned: God will bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!”

John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The message calls this Glory a “one-of-a-kind glory” what an awesome thought that the Glory of Jesus is recognizably different from the “glory” all around us. What kind of Glory do you reflect? Is it your glory shining through or is it the Glory of Christ being reflected by your life?

1 Timothy 3:16
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.

He came in Glory, Lived in Glory, Died in Glory, Rose with Glory, Ascended in Glory. He left His Glory and instructed us to show His Glory. He will one day return again, in Glory, for all mankind to see.

The new song by Casting Crowns has some great lyrics and ties in a “blended” worship of old and new.

“The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that Imust preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox’s gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again.”—C. H. Spurgeon

The only non Calvinists I know are those who have not studied the Bible enough to have realized the error of THEIR ways…

Isaiah 2:1-5
The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem:
There’s a day coming when the mountain of God’s House
Will be The Mountain—
solid, towering over all mountains.
All nations will river toward it,
people from all over set out for it.
They’ll say, “Come,
let’s climb God’s Mountain,
go to the House of the God of Jacob.
He’ll show us the way he works
so we can live the way we’re made.”
Zion’s the source of the revelation.
God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.
He’ll settle things fairly between nations.
He’ll make things right between many peoples.
They’ll turn their swords into shovels,
their spears into hoes.
No more will nation fight nation;
they won’t play war anymore.
Come, family of Jacob,
let’s live in the light of God.

We are creatures of light, beings created in God’s image.  It is time we live in the light of God’s energy and God’s love and fulfill the course that our savior has prepared.

John 9:30
“This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

The miracles of Jesus opening eyes, making the lame walk, was not enough for the skeptics. It was not enough to see the transformation of the lives. It was not enough to see and hear Jesus with their own eyes.

And still there were some who begged “Master, we want our eyes opened. We want to see!” (Matthew 20:33)

The miracles are all around us… are we begging to see God at work or are we skeptically staring at the truth with a blinded eye?

Introversion - The tendency to focus energy inward resulting in decreased social interaction.

Before you say it, I acknowledge that introversion can happen to churches of any size.  However, looking at the small churches that are around us it is a real danger to the church today.  What is wrong with being introverted?

An introverted church has lost all or some of the Gospel message.  The instructions in the “red letter” section of the Bible that tend to be emphasized in sermons but not reflect in actions of the members.  ”Go.”

Mark 16:15
And he said unto them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

1.  Missions : The Introverted Church has lost the missions mindset.
The smaller church can find themselves so busy tending to the flock internally that they do not heed to call to misissions and even withdraw from giving and supporting missions of others.  The danger that we ignore one of the last and most direct commands of Christ is very real as we focus inwardly.

At Maranatha we take joy in the fact that we give more to missions than expected by others in our association (notice I didn’t say pride).  We make it a point to emphasize the giving for International Missions and to North American missions.  But there is still some danger in other areas that we must not overlook.

Are we willing to “Go?”

2.  Community: The Introverted Church focuses on their own needs rather than the needs of the community.
Again we find the early church was meeting out in homes in the community but also the members were out daily witnessing to the community.  In his book Advancing the Smaller Church, W. Curry Mavis notes “They (Churches)  are in effect little islands of holiness in a great sea of worldliness and they have very little impact  on this sea of worldliness.”  Are we reaching out enough to our community?  Are we reaching inward as a congregation at the expense of souls around us?

At this point again I am sure to be pointed out the we are to be in the world but not of the world…

John 17:13-15
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

We have a different mindset, we have instruction to not love the things in the world.  Still we are told to “Go!”

1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever

We must be careful not dilute the instructions of Christ with our interpretation of scripture.  We are in the world and we are told to preach.

Why do we reach out?
Do we reach out to add membership? Do we reach out for a “High attendance” Sunday?   Do we reach out in frustration?  No.

We reach out because we are commanded to.  We reach out with the Gospel because people are going to hell.  We reach out because our burden to tell the Gospel can not be silenced even if our natural reaction is to focus inward.

Acts 4:18-20
They called them back and warned them that they were on no account ever again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John spoke right back, “Whether it’s right in God’s eyes to listen to you rather than to God, you decide. As for us, there’s no question—we can’t keep quiet about what we’ve seen and heard.”

Oh that we would have the heart of Peter and John.  That our hearts would be so impacted by the Gospel message that we would have “no question” and that we could not “keep quiet about what we’ve seen and heard.”

You decide.

Have we missed the point of worship?  Have we gone the way of the “Mc Church” rapidly serving millions with a trademark presentation of church?  Have we gotten so far away from worship that we can no longer “see God” in the worship?

Eph 5:18-20
…Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Col 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God

1. True Worship is Spirit Filled.
2. True Worship is singing
   • Singing Psalms (Scripture)
   • Music in the Heart
3. True Worship is Expressive
   • Gives Thanks
   • Reading the Word
4. True Worship is God Centered
   • Instructions
   • Wisdom
   • Thankfulness

How far off are we in our “worship” when we over-focus on one element and do not follow the instructions and examples of the church.  Have we run so far from the rituals of “the church” that we have forgotten the true sense of worship? We sing songs, we pray we read scripture, we give, we do the things that are good… but do we worship?

As we prepare for tomorrow’s worship, let us not bog down in the trappings that man has put on it, let us return the focus of Worship to our Holy God.