Pastor's Corner - What now?
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your words of encouragement and for praying for me and my family while we were away on vacation. It was a wonderful time of rest and relaxation. I am now rested and energized to get back to ministry at Cornerstone. I'm looking forward to being back in the pulpit this week and continuing our series in the Sermon on the Mount. I'm so thankful for these words of instruction that Jesus gave His disciples so that we may live faithfully in His kingdom.
How appropriate is it that through this sermon series in the Sermon on the Mount, we have been called to contemplate Kingdom living in a fallen world? A friend jokingly remarked to me while I was away, "The world has gone completely nuts while you are away on vacation." It certainly seemed that way with the recent ruling by the United States Supreme Court on same-sex marriage. While as believers we grieve this decision, it should not have been a surprise to us. We now officially live in a post-Christian America. As Christians trying to live faithfully in this culture, we have lost the culture war. So this begs the question, "Where does the church go from here?"
While I hate that the Supreme Court has essentially legislated sin into our laws and thereby our lives, I equally hate the fact that thousands babies, if not millions of babies, are killed every year because of the Supreme Court decision in 1973. There are other cases by which the SCOTUS has legislated and struck down laws that have undone the moral fabric of our society but I will refrain from going any further. All that to say, we should not lose sight of the fact that sin has been celebrated in our culture for quite sometime. This brings us back to Jesus's words in the Sermon on the Mount. We must remember here that our Lord was teaching His disciples, those who would follow Him. What did He tell them in His sermon? "Be salt and light." "Judge but do not be judgmental." "Love your enemies and pray for them." On and on He gives practical application after practical application of how to live in a fallen world. Let's now, more than ever, not just be mere hearers of the Word but doers of the Word.
The Session released some time back our stance on marriage (click here). Just to be clear, we affirm the teaching of Scripture that marriage has only one meaning: it is the covenant bond between one man and on woman. It is a pre-political institution that is defined by God on His terms in His Holy Scriptures. Unfortunately, the SCOTUS has stepped in and attempted to redefine a pre-political institution and determined that they have the right to define and authorize its existence. Kevin DeYoung explains (before the recent SCOTUS ruling) that, "By recognizing same-sex unions as marriage, just like the husband-wife relationship we've always called marriage, the state is engaging in (or at least codifying) a massive reengineering of our social life. It assumes the indistinguishability of gender in parenting, the relative unimportance of procreation in marriage, and the near infinite flexibility as to what sorts of structures and habits lead to human flourishing."
So what do we do now? Where does the Church go from here? We do what many faithful and godly brothers and sisters in Christ have been calling us to do as of late. First and foremost, we worship! We glorify the Triune God of the Bible and enjoy Him forever! We do this because this is our chief end, our primary purpose in life. There is nothing more counter-cultural we can do right now than this. Secondly, we do not panic. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever! We will preach the Gospel of grace to a fallen world and to ourselves. We believe in a sovereign God who is absolutely in control of all things and works all things according to His good purposes (Romans 8:28). Thirdly, we must heed the call from Moses that he gave to God's people through inspiration of the Holy Spirit thousands of years ago: we must love God, love His Word and teach our children to love God and His Word (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Now, more than ever, we need to dig into our Bibles, the words of life, and teach our children a biblical view of sexuality and God's grand design for marriage to be between one man and one woman and, more importantly, to be a picture of the Gospel, Christ and His Church! (Ephesians 5:22-33)
There are some articles below that you will find instructional and hopefully encouraging in these matters. Additionally, there are two books that the Session has been reading to equip us on these matters that we want to commend to you: What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality by Kevin DeYoung and Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield.
Let these words from Holy Scripture instruct and comfort the church: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV)
Worship Notes: July 12, 2015
Please prepare your hearts for worship and partaking of the means of grace as we celebrate the Lord's Supper this Sunday.
A great hymn and prayer we will sing this Sunday: God Be Merciful to Me (Psalm 51)
False Teachers and False Teaching. This will be one of the focuses of our sermon this Sunday as we continue in our study in Kingdom Living. Matthew 7:15-20.
In preparation for the sermon, read these words of John Stott: "So, ‘Beware!’ Jesus warns. We must be on our guard, pray for discernment, use our critical faculties and never relax our vigilance. We must not be dazzled by a person’s outward clothing—his charm, learning, doctorates and ecclesiastical honours. We must not be so naive as to suppose that because he is a PhD or a DD or a professor or a bishop, he must be a true and orthodox ambassador of Christ. We must look beneath the appearance to the reality. What lives under the fleece: a sheep or a wolf?"
Click here for this week's bulletin.
Would you like to catch up on on our sermon series? Click here: http://www.buzzsprout.com/26762
Wilson's Weekly
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote an excellent and encouraging piece in the Washington Post on the Supreme Court's latest decision on same-sex marriage: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/06/26/why-the-church-should-neither-cave-nor-panic-about-the-decision-on-gay-marriage/
The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, whose mission is to set forth the teachings of the Bible about the complementary differences between men and women, created equally in the image of God, has an encouraging response on the recent SCOTUS ruling: http://cbmw.org/public-square/cbmws-official-response-to-the-scotus-ruling/
My friend David Strain, Senior Minister at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, MS also has a good word on these matters: http://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/blog-entries/in-light-of-scotus-decision
by His grace and to His praise, your pastor and friend,
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6:13 ESV)