Devotion

14 May: Tuesday Refocus

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“Your natural gifts draw attention to yourself while brokenness draws attention to your Lord. With this in mind, power is dangerous in the hands of an unbroken vessel.” - Frank Viola

This is an upside down kingdom. Here the first will be last, the last will be first, to find your life you must lose your life, the humble will be exalted and the high will be brought low (Matthew 20:16, Matthew 10:39, Matthew 23:12). In this kingdom, our weakness is met by the strength of God (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). He breaks us not to crush us, but to bring forth praise (Psalm 51:8), He tears us that he may heal us (Hosea 6:1).

And when we inhabit this kingdom (rather than attempting to construct our own kingdom) we see that all things entrusted to us - gifts, pain, blessings, and loss - are not just for us, but are for the glory of God, and the good of His Church.

“Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. [The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.]’ - Psalm 145:13

Amen,

AB

Private Devotion | Public Worship

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If you serve a church, particularly in a visible capacity like preaching or leading worship, people often wonder if the ‘end result’ they witness is the entire effort. They do not realize that the most visible aspect of our job is - or should be - the smallest portion of our job. Certainly there are innumerable practical, musical, and pastoral details we navigate each week in preparation for a Sunday service, but that is not what I hope to address today.

What I want to encourage you - what I want to preach to myself - is that our private devotion should outpace, outstretch, and outlast our public worship on the platform. We can be so easily tempted to believe that what is visible is what truly matters. Leading corporate worship is not unimportant! It is precisely because it is so important that is must be fueled by private devotion.

If all of my time, energy, effort, and presence with the Lord is ultimately being spent for the purpose of executing a Sunday gathering, then my worship quickly becomes thin, brittle, and performative. If I have not been present with and to the Lord from the secret place, then I can become tempted to selfishly hoard my worship, rather than seek to serve when I am on the platform.

This does not mean that I need to light a candle, and block out two hours every day to sing to the Lord. Although, if you have the space and capacity to do that, why not?! But because every moment is poised with an invitation to once again turn my attention and affection to Christ, I can be privately devoted to the Lord in every area of my life.

“One thing have I asked of the Lord,

    that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

    all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

    and to inquire in his temple.” - Psalm 27:4

7 May: Tuesday Refocus

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“To escape the error of salvation by works we have fallen into the opposite error of salvation without obedience. In our eagerness to get rid of the legalistic doctrine of works we have thrown out the baby with the bath and gotten rid of obedience as well.” - A.W. Tozer

We live in a day when restriction, restraint, and self-denial are seen as oppressive - that true freedom can only be found in giving full vent to my own desires. And so long as they ‘don’t hurt anyone else,’ we should be free to live however we deem most authentic to our true selves. But Christians follow a God who said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24).” Christians live lives of obedience and self-denial not so that we will be saved, but because we have been saved.

Obedience gives evidence to what we believe about God and what we believe about ourselves. Because we follow a Savior who ‘…being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).” We know that “…to obey is better than sacrifice… (1 Samuel 15:22).” And that obedience follows love: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15).” 

“In binding love you set me free.” - Wendell Berry

Father, may our obedience follow our love. Amen.

Amen,

AB

25 February: Liturgy & Set List

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  • GLORIOUS DAY

    Call to Worship:

    Welcome to worship on this Lord’s Day, and this second Sunday in the season of Lent. During Lent we reflect upon and repent of our sin, we reflect on te cross, and look with joy to the hope of the resurrection. So if you are here as a follower of Jesus you can sing words like ‘I ran out of the grave…’ not because of something you have done, but because of Christ’s completed work on your behalf. Let’s celebrate who Jesus is and what he’s done as we sing:

  • O PRAISE THE NAME (ANASTASIS)

  • TRISAGION

    Take a few moments now to name and confess your sin to the Lord, turning from your sin, and turning toward Christ…

    Let’s confess our sin to God and to one another:

  • Book of Common Prayer Corporate Confession

  • Sermon: Mark 15:40-16:8

    Would you stand if you’re able? Buried with Christ in baptism into death, raised to newness of life - this is what we witness in baptism. And if you’re here as a follower of Christ, we are going to confess what we believe about our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed.

    The Apostles’ Creed

    Baptism Affirmations

    Baptisms

  • NO BODY

    Benediction

Lent Preparations

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Have you ever decided on a whim to begin something new, only to realize you’re in over your head? That is what it felt like when my wife and I decided over a weekend that we would begin the Daniel Fast at the beginning of the week. Fruit and vegetables, how hard could it be? No meat, no sugar, no caffeine. For 21 days. How hard could it be? What were we thinking?

Often this is how we approach the seasons of Advent and Lent: we think about it once we’re there. Part of the gift to us in the seasons is the space for reflection, repentance, prayer, and focused attention - but those things do not occur without effort before they begin. We must carve out time to consider things like:

  • God, what do you want to speak to me in this season?

  • How might I prepare my heart this season?

  • How can I help my team and congregation engage this season in a meaningful way?

  • What practical things will help me engage this season?

If you are looking for some additional resources on how to consider and prepare for the season of Lent for yourself, your team, or your church, here are a few things I’ve written over the past few years:

What Is Lent?

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God has designed our world to be shaped by seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Our lives are also shaped by seasons - made up of times of abundance, joy, and celebration, as well as times of suffering, pain, and loss.

This is why our calendars are filled with holidays, literally meaning holy days. These are days set apart from all the rest. We mark the days that have marked us. These holidays remind us every season of who we are, where we have been, and who we desire to be. So too with the Church calendar. Followers of Jesus have designed and followed the Church calendar to mark their lives and days by the arrival, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return of Christ.

Beginning on Ash Wednesday, for forty days during Lent, we strip away some of our usual comforts (often through fasting) to create more space for reflection, repentance, and refining. These days ready our hearts to gaze upon the gore of Good Friday, and the glory of Resurrection Sunday.

Although there is no biblical mandate to celebrate the season of Lent, there are countless calls to remember. During Lent we remember our sin, we remember the suffering of our Savior, we remember his triumph of Christ over satan, sin, and death - and that is why Lent is not sullen, but sobering.

Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Lent is the period of forty days (excluding Sundays) leading up to Resurrection Sunday. These forty days represent the forty days Jesus spent facing temptation in the wilderness preparing for His earthly ministry and the ultimate purpose of his Advent: his death, and resurrection (John 6:38, Matthew 20:28). We trace the shadow of our sin through the shadow of Christ’s cross and empty tomb. This season invites us to acknowledge, expose, grieve, lament, and repent of our sin, and to our Savior once again.

30 January: Tuesday Refocus

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‘God with us:’ this is hell’s terror, the sufferers comfort, eternity’s sonnet, heaven’s hallelujah, the shout of the glorified.’ - Spurgeon

During the Advent season, we sing of Emmanuel, God with us. God with us in the straw and swaddling clothes is the beginning of God with us in the tomb and grave clothes. Because the aim of Christmas is ultimately the cross and resurrection. In Christ, “…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:6-8

This is the mystery into which angels long to look (1 Peter 1:12), this is the new and eternal song of heaven (Revelation 5:9-14): that God is with man so that that man might be with God again.

Jesus, you are God with us so that we might be with God - thank you, thank you, thank you. Amen.

Amen and amen,

AB

16 January: Tuesday Refocus

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“Calm me, O Lord, as You still the storm. Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm. Let all the tumult within me cease. Enfold me, Lord, in Your peace.” - Celtic prayer

The rest and rescue we most desire cannot be found in created things. Both within and without the ground of our being and beneath our feet is sand. Shifting, sinking. No amount of interior exploration, or exterior distraction can level out the most unsettled places of our souls.

But there is good news, there is hope - Christ our Savior is a firm and fixed hope, an anchor for our souls (Psalm 18:1-2, Hebrews 6:19). Upon the throne of grace is seated a Savior who lives to make intercession - daily bearing us up at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 4:16, Hebrews 7:25, Psalm 68:19, Romans 8:34). Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne, and steadfast love and faithfulness go before Him (Psalm 89:14). Even in the chaos of the world and our hearts, no one can be snatched from the hand of the Savior (John 10:28).

Father, in the middle of storms within and without, may our gaze be fixed, my our lives be anchored, my our souls rest in the life, death, resurrection, and intercession of Your Son, Jesus. In His name, amen.

Wrestling and resting,

AB

26 November: Liturgy + Set List

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  • HOW GREAT THOU ART

    Welcome to worship with us on this Thanksgiving weekend, and this Family Worship Weekend. To all of the boys and girls joining us from the Clubhouse, we are so glad you’re here! This part of our time is called the ‘Call to Worship.’ It’s not called the call to worship because worship starts and stops when we sing, because God has made us to worship and made us worshiping. But because of sin, we celebrate, and love and give our attention - we worship - all of the wrong things. And the call to worship reminds us that it is only God who is worthy of all of our celebration, love, and attention. Let’s hear God call us to worship from His Word:

    Psalm 145:1-9

    If you are an adult in the room, we have a chance to inhabit and model one of our values here are Life Church - ‘We will leave a gospel legacy.’ We can do that by commending the works of the Lord to the next generation - by singing about and from the goodness, grace, mercy, and love you have experienced through Christ. Let’s do that together.

  • GOD, YOU’RE SO GOOD

  • NO BODY

    Sermon: Mark 12:35-44

    The Apostles’ Creed

    The Lord’s Supper

  • O PRAISE THE NAME (ANASTASIS)

    Benediction

19 November: Liturgy + Set List

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  • HOLY HOLY HOLY

    Call to Worship: Psalm 63:1-8

    God’s love is stronger than death, and better than life. That is reason to sing….

  • ALL I HAVE IS CHRIST

  • HOLY (JESUS YOU ARE)

    Sermon: Mark 12:28-34

    Scripture says ‘we love because He first loved us.’ You can only love to the degree you understand how deeply, truly, and completely you’ve been loved by God. You can only forgive to the degree you understand how deeply, truly, and completely you’ve been forgiven in Christ. You can only give of yourself to the degree to which you realize you have been given all things in Christ. Let’s sing about those truths together. Would you stand if you’re able…

  • FORGIVEN FOREVER

  • HOW DEEP THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR US

    Benediction