Hebrews 9:13-14 states:  For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Had the humbling experience of preaching on this text this past Sunday.  What struck me most was the incomparable blood of Christ and what the Bible says about it.  Here are no less than 13 Blessings which come to God’s elect by way of our Savior’s blood:

1. We have the new covenant in His blood (Lk. 22:20): And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

2. We have been purchased by His blood (Acts 20:28): Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

3. He is our propitiation by His blood (Rom. 3:25): Whom God put forward as propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith…

4. We have been justified by His blood (Rom. 5:9): Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

5. We have redemption through his blood (Eph. 1:7): In him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.

6. We have been brought near by His blood (Eph. 2:13): But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

7. We have peace through His blood (Col. 1:20): For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross.

8. We have our consciences purified by His blood (Heb. 9:14): how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

9. We have been sanctified through His blood (Heb. 13:12): So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

10. We are elect according to His blood (1Pet. 1:2): …elect…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for the obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.

11. We are ransomed by His blood (1Pet. 1:19): …knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, no with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…

12. We have been cleansed from all our sins by His blood (1Jn. 1:7): But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

13. We are free from sin by His blood (Rev. 1:5): …from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.

No wonder it is call “precious”!

For those of us who love the gospel, here is a sobering and thoughtful admonition from Charles Spurgeon:  “It is frequently my fear I should fall into the habit of preaching about the Gospel rather than directly preaching the Gospel.”

What have I learned over this past year as I have witnessed God’s grace and mercy to us as a church plant?  Namely, I have learned (or learned afresh) two important truths.  The first one is that I am a great sinner.  I am.  My heart is prone to pride and self-satisfaction in the approval of people.  Humility comes hard at every turn, and yet over and over again it proves itself good, excellent, and best.

The second thing I’ve learn is in light of the first.  Namely, that God’s mercy is wider than my pride and his grace is greater than all my sin.  How good is our God in that He keeps us in need of Him even as He humbles us to do it.  Today, I have prayer for me first and then for East Point Church as well:

Lord, I pray that our humility would increase.  Our hearts are inclined toward pride and being puffed up at our selves.  We look at what we are achieving and how well many things are going and we begin to think much of ourselves and to boast in our vision.  But may we boast in nothing save the Cross of Christ.  And may your ultimate act of humility on Calvary drive us the place of humility as well.  So, please continue to develop humility in us.  And might we rejoice to be humbled even as you are exalted.  Amen.

The most memorable event in the Atlanta area on Friday, March 14, 2008 was the tornado that touched down in downtown Atlanta and brought shock and awe to our unsuspecting, fair city.  While I was amazed at this event, for me there was something happening even more remarkable, and that by God’s grace will be even more impacting, namely East Point Church met for the first time in East Point, GA.  While God was demonstrating his awesome power in destroying buildings and massive man-made structures in downtown Atlanta, He was also establishing once again His church in East Point, and building what no man can destroy. 

Over this past year we have experienced many marvelous and challenging things.  God’s goodness and mercy has been upon us, as we have at every step found Him faithful.  We have found success in our labors and have been encouraged on every hand to continue in the labors God has so graciously set before us.  We know that none of this is possible except God is pleased to work through us.  We believe God has much to do with the gospel to us and through us.  Yet, we praise Him because He has done much already.  The grace of God has been mighty in our midst.  Today I want to share several of the observations of Grace I have been encouraged to witness at EPC over this past year.

1.  The Growth of the Gospel.  Most amazing is how the teaching and preaching of the gospel grows a church.  From day one we committed to making the gospel the main thing.  We prayed that the gospel would make a difference in our lives and community.  By God’s love and grace it has. 

2.  The Power of Prayer.  It is amazing (though it should not amaze us) that when we got serious about prayer, we began to see God’s hand in tangible, loving ways.  God has given us a wonderfully gracious taste of what He will do through and to men and women who will stay on their knees before Him.  Let us keep praying! 

3.  The Fellowship of the Beloved.  The gospel has been faithful in forming us into a community and it has enriched our fellowship.  I have seen genuine community begin to take shape. 

4.  The Grace of Giving.  The Bible is clear, “where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”  Giving to EPC continues to be a gracious reminder of the triumph of God and his grace in our lives. 

5.  The Grace of Serving.  The gospel creates servants – servants of Christ who delight to serve each other.  EPC has been faithful in sacrificing thime and energy for the glory of God and good of others. 

6.  WOW.  The potential for gospel impact is no greater than it is with the encouraging ministry that is the women’s ministry of EPC.  Women Of the Word is growing and reaching out.  East Point Church is the better for it. 

7.  Christ-loving Leadership.  Over the past year God has loved us by leading men to assume leadership with a love for Him, the church, and each other.  We don’t take this for granted and do give praise to God for faithful, loving men. 

East Point Church is just beginning.  Lord willing, we have a long ways to go.  But as I look over this past year, God has done a wonderful work in my life in allowing me to be a part of this wonderful work.  If God so chooses not to allow me another day in the leadership of EPC, I would be pleased to give him thanks for what EPC has meant to me and my family and for the growth I have experienced because of it.  Still, I pray to have many, many more years of service along side my brothers and sisters of EPC.  I rejoice to even consider this thought. 

One year ago we were reminded that tornadoes come and tornadoes go, but the church of Jesus Christ is established and the winds of change or the gates of hell can not prevail against it.  Let us praise God for His faithfulness and for the Gospel of our Lord that is establishing East Point Church for the glory of God and the good of His people.

What we need most, we too often do the least.  This is the lesson we learned this morning in our Men of God in the Morning meeting.  Church planting is a lot of work.  I know you have heard that before, but I can not overstate this truth.  I am reminded of what Paul said about his church planting ministry, “And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2Cor. 11:28).  And while I would never compare my load to that of the Apostle (God forbid), I do resonate with the fact that apart from all of life’s other concerns, there is the daily pressure on me from my concern for the churches I serve.

And so, how do I handle the pressure?  Well, I do like most of you, I work harder.  I try to squeeze more time out of my day and more energy out of my body.  As the government throws more money at its problems, I throw more energy at mine.  Yet, just as more money is not the solution for greed, more energy and work is not the solution for pride.  What I need is more prayer.  Yet, I tell myself that prayer takes time and that is just the thing that I don’t have.  I don’t have time to pray.  Yet, the convicting word this morning was from D.A. Carson, who in the book A Call to Spiritual Reformation wrote:

It matters little whether you are the mother of active children who drain away your energy, an important executive in a major multinational corporation, a graduate student cramming for impending comprehensives, a plumber working overtime to put your children through college, or a pastor of a large church putting in ninety-hour weeks, (or a church planter working as if everything and everyone depends on you):  at the end of the day, if you are too busy to pray, you are too busy.  Cut something out.

(italics is my addition, in case you were wondering .

Recently, Time magazine admitted to realizing what some of us have known for a long time, namely that the gospel changes the world. Time observed this in listing what they believe to be the 1o Ideas Changing the World Right Now. Number 3 on the list (though we know it should be number 1) is what they refer to as the New Calvinism. Much has been said on the internet concerning this list. In particular, Mark Driscoll has related what he believes are 4 Ways ‘New Calvinism’ is so Powerful (and it differs from old calvinism). In looking at Driscoll’s assessment (whether you agree or disagree), I would like to add one more element or characteristic that marks out this New Calvinism and distinguishes it from Old Calvinism. In fact, I would argue that this is the most important and God-glorifying distinction and demonstrates the God-honoring growth of the movement.

The New Calvinism is More Diverse. Unlike the Old Calvinism, the New Calvinism finds wonderful expressions in a diversity of cultures and voices. The New Calvinism is on the lips and hearts of African-American, Asian-Americans, and Hispanic-Americans alike. The churches are more diverse. The preachers and teachers are more diverse. Even the music and literature is more diverse. If Calvinism truly represents the gospel, it also must represent the diversity. If it is truly changing the world, it must do so in a variety of languages, expressions, and voices. Gloriously the New Calvinism is doing just that.

Hudson Taylor, the 19th century English missionary to China, was a remarkable man of faith.  Once when the funds and the support of the mission were low, he wrote to a friend, “We have twenty-seven cents and all the promises of God.”

What a wonderfully encouraging, challenging, and convicting word.  As a church planter sometimes it seems that all we have is 27 cents.  And to focus on the seemingly lack of funds and support can cause great discouragement.  Yet, today I am reminded we have so much more.  Not only do we have the 27 cents but more importantly we have the promises of God.  And those promises can make that 27 cents look like 27 million.

Thank you, God, for the life and faith of men like Hudson Taylor.  You remind us through them that what you did before, you can and will do again.  Amen.

If you’ve seen one dog and pony show, you’ve seen them all.  Yet every one claims to be different and unique and thus demands that you come and see.  But is there really any difference?  Is there really something unique?  This is a very real and important question that needs to be asked in regards to church planting.  The temptation for church planting today is to be novel, cutting-edge, totally unique and thus distinct from the “run-of-the-mill” church.  The temptation is to make yourself appealing to people based upon the uniqueness of your ideas and techniques.

Admittedly, there is much that goes on in church that is based in unbiblical traditions that could be and should be done away with.  Too many churches have gotten bogged down in, traditionalism, the promotion of preacher personality, and have been over run by what is little more than American Idol auditions.  In seeking to disassociate itself from these unbiblical traditions, many (too many) modern church plants inevitably go to the other extreme and ultimately do away with the most important, essential tradition of the church, namely the gospel itself. 

In our attempts to be different and unique and to make ourselves appealing to the “unchurched” or “anti-church” crowd we supplant the offense of the gospel with the appeal of our own self-perceived novel ideas.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is downplayed while our cutting edge techniques are lauded.  People are attracted, not to the cross of Christ that calls for repentance and self-denial, but to our unique forms of entertainment, self-fulfilling and self-appeasing programs.  So prevalent is this today that the irony is that the church that is really unique and different is the church that actually preaches Christ and Him crucified. 

Think about, if everyone is trying to be different and unique, no one is really different and unique.  Your dog and pony show may have a different time slot and may have different color dogs and ponies but once you’ve seen one show, you’ve seen them all. 

Yet, Christ has not called us to be different as much as He is calling us to be faithful.  Not faithful to unbiblical traditions, God forbid.  But we are to be faithful to the biblical tradition of preaching Christ and Christ crucified.  God does not need shows to bring people to faith.  The preaching of the Gospel has worked fine in the past, and by His grace and mercy continues to be sufficient. 

While everyone is clamoring to be different, the true difference today is not found in our technique or in our format, but in our message.  While most churches are trying to win the praise of people through entertaining methodology, the faithful church (and church plant) is desiring the favor of God through the proclamation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  This is the real difference – even eternal difference – that gives praise to God, not our ingenuity and creativity with dogs and ponies.

Over My Dead Body, Son.

I just got one word to say, “Amen.  Amen.  And amen.”

As a church planter I spend much of my time being surprised and out-manuevered by God.  It seems that while God is faithful in hearing the pleas of my heart, he is also faithful in doing what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, where he wants.  I just can’t seem to figure this God guy out.  It seems when I desire him to move slow, he moves fast.  When I desire him to move fast, he moves slow.  Thus, I spend most of my time adjusting to his movements.  (Ever been there?)  Yet, even in the midst of my ever-changing church planting world, I thank my God for graciously always giving me time to adjust.  Amazing grace! 

My prayer today is that He never stops surprising me and that I will continue to rejoice in being out-manuevered by Him.