Highly Exalted

As the weather warms and autumn’s bulbs project from the once frozen tundra, we find ourselves opening our windows to a refreshingly warm breeze.  An open window that sheds light on the winter darkness of home can be just the impetus for a change in mood and assertion.  The spring time brings light (and thanks to daylight savings time – more light in the evening) and a certain renewal or freshness to the home.  For this particular ministry, it is a time of renewal as we come together to break open God’s Word in an especially unique sense.

Cash Creek Baptist Church is pleased to host the Spring Renewal Conference on Discipleship March 29-April 1, 2012.  God’s Word can transform and renew our hearts in such a way as to draw us nearer to the light that does not extinguish.  Rev. Michael Wilhite and his family will be joining Cash Creek for this pre-Easter Sunday time of renewal.  What better way to be renewed than to draw sustenance from the very Word of God!  Rev. Wilhite will present a series of four expositional messages/teachings on what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  Each night at 6PM and Sunday at 11AM, Rev. Wilhite will lead Cash Creek into the well of Scripture for a thirst-quenching gulp of what Jesus intended for His disciples.  Come be prepared for active application when at the end of each teaching, we will gather in a panel discussion to elaborate on major points and answer questions.  To help prepare our hearts for God’s Word, Chuck Davis and schedule of others will lead us in song as we give praise to the King of Kings.  Come for a refreshing and come prepared for instruction as we open God’s Word and find in us that which needs not just a spring cleaning but a completely renewed life.

This week we continue in our sermon series, Finding God’s Purposes in the Metanarrative of Scripture.  This week we encounter both books of Kings and both books of the Chronicler.  To be sure there is plenty to be said of each of these, however, I want to trace a common theme through these books that eventually leads to a progressively clearer understanding of God’s redemptive purpose.  We begin at the height of the Davidic kingdom in the early reign of Solomon.  Something happens in Solomon’s life that seems to set a precedent for all the descendants thereafter.  Solomon’s lust for life overtook his desire for Yahweh, and he passed the kingdom to Rehoboam in a shaky way.  After the mere 22 verses of Rehoboam’s reign, the united monarchy became divided into Israel (10 northern tribes) and Judah (2 southern tribes).  This sparked a line of kings and prophets who would call them back to Yahweh amidst rebellion and idol worship.  Both Kings and Chronicles give a history of the events during these several hundred years that serve as a reminder of God’s relentless dedication to those whom He has chosen.

The barage of kings and the accounts of their lusts for power and sex remind us of something very important.  Apostasy happens when someone who is within the accepted orthodox understanding goes away or is enticed in other areas to such an extent that he has gone away from the one, true, living God.  Mnay of the kings fell victim to this.  God’s covenant with Abraham and David is marked not only by man’s waywardness, but thankfully, it is also marked by God’s faithfulness.  Even though David and his descendants rebel and are justly punished during the time of the exile, He is still faithful to His promise.  When we find ourselves in the wilderness of apostasy and rebellion against God, and we will feel there is no way back, He makes a way back by leading us to a cross where the penalty of our sins is unjustly paid for by the perfectly, righteous Christ. 

Following the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix, AZ, in June of this year, I took a summer hiatus from blogging at HighlyExalted to refresh, refocus and recharge.  The summer was filled with many new things for me and my family.  I spent some time on vacation with my wife where we got to relax for a while.  I devoted some extra time to my current church ministry at Cash Creek.  The Lord taught me some valuable and hard lessons this summer.  One of which is His faithfulness.  As I look back on the summer and really the past year or so, I have seen God work in ways that astound me.  He reaffirmed to me through His Word that, indeed, He is sovereign over all things.  Even when my spiritual eyesight fools my feeble mind, His providence is evident.  Believe it or not, Jesus has a vested interest in His church.  After all, why shouldn’t He?  He died for it.  As I leave summer behind, I am renewed by the Holy Spirit and look forward to the rest of God’s unfolding plan for ministry.  I am so thankful for our Lord’s compassion and abounding grace in my life.

What’s coming up…

• Regular sermon previews will continue this week.  This will be an effort to get everyone’s mind engaged and prepared for worship each Sunday morning. 
• I started a new sermon series back in July (see an older post for details), and I will periodically publish a few notes and outlines for any of you who are interested in “Finding God’s Purposes in the Meta-Narrative of Scripture.”
• Look for a monthly or biweekly focus on worship in the near future.  In these posts, I will showcase a particular hymn or spiritual song and tell how this encourages our understanding of important biblical doctrines.  My prayer is that this segment will help spur our worship to deeper fathoms of biblical understanding.
• I now serve on the Board of Directors at Marsha’s Place in Henderson, KY.  Marsha’s Place is a pregnancy resource center that ministers to women who are pregnant in the community.  Be looking for more articles on this issue including related items such as adoption. 

On Sunday nights starting this Sunday, we are beginning an extensive look at Paul’s first of two letters to the Corinthian church.  As a guide we are looking to Mark Dever’s, Twelve Challenges Churches Face.  In his book he brings to the ecclesiastical discussion twelve issues that plagued the early church that are still evident in the modern, evangelical church.  Dever guides the reader into a solid scriptural analysis of the problems that seem to arise in the church at Corinth.

 The twelve problems Dever identifies in 1 Corinthians include:  forgetfulness, division, imposters, sin, asceticism, disobedience, legalism, autonomy, thoughtfulness, selfishness, death and decline.  Each week throughout the summer, we will examine a problem from 1 Corinthians and search our hearts for where we need to repent.  Come and join us as we travel this road together and pray the Holy Spirit will be enlighten our minds and attention to the authority of Scripture.

We live in a day where we do not have to look far to see what is happening around the world.  We no longer have to search out news or information – somehow, it finds us.  Because of the reality of this shrinking world we are bombarded in our culture by images, headlines and sound-bytes that bring us some wonderful things that happen but mostly a picture of depravity across the world.  We hear of every erupting volcano, every earth tremble, every military deployment, every suspicion that comes from the nations’ governments and everything that characterizes our world as a place that we increasingly do not recognize. 

 But what about the preacher in Ecclesiastes?  He said, “That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done.  So there is nothing new under the sun.  Is there anything of which one might say, ‘See this, it is new?’  Already it has existed for ages which were before us.”  Could he be right?  That indeed, there is nothing new under the sun.  But what do we make of world events?  What is God’s plan through these events?  Is the world really getting that much more depressing?  I’m not so sure.  Paul wrote in Romans 8 that all creation groans.  Are the groans that much louder today than they were one hundred years ago?  Maybe, but we live in a world of mass communication and instant news information so within mere moments what happens on the Indian subcontinent can appear on my personal computer screen. 

 Some like to feed their conspiracy theorist minds with the predictions of end times gathered from nothing more than a headline.  Minds turn toward the details of tribulation and suffering and the meaning of it instead of turning to the one sure source of answers – the Bible.  This Sunday night we are going to begin a five week study on understanding the big picture of the end times according to God’s Word.  We are going to put to rest the temptation to dwell on the inappropriate matters of the end times and turn our focus on the point of the end times – Jesus Christ.  In this study we will be concentrating on four views of Jesus’ millennial reign.  This will be not only informative but also surprising as we look to four popular views throughout Christendom on matters pertaining to Revelation.

 Come join us beginning this Sunday night at 6PM as we journey through this series on the millennium.  You will not want to miss this opportunity!

After nine months of prayerful planning, engaging discussions and searching the Scriptures, the vision that Christ has for His church is finally being realized.  During this time, God has shown Himself in marvelous ways through His Word and time spent fasting and praying that we would be moved to a closer fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Southern Baptists have been leaders in church planting and missionary activity for decades.  Missions is a significant part of Baptist life; our unique funding mechanisms allow us to give cooperatively and generously for the sake of seeing the name of Christ highly exalted.  Through the counsel of the Scriptures, it is clear that the Great Commission should be central to the church’s focus.  Although, we are engaged at some level in cooperative mission work, it is time to stretch our willingness to be obedient to encompass everything that Jesus commands of us.  It is time for a Great Commission Reformation.

             The chief end of the Great Commission is not to save people; rather, our obedience is an expression of adoration and worship of Christ.  Even though we have many resources focused on various missionary efforts, our principal purpose is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and strength.  Jesus referred to this as the Great Commandment.  If we are to see a Great Commission Reformation, we must first experience a Great Commandment Reformation.  This requires us to recapture our first love of Christ and the sovereign grace that He has afforded believers.  It is only when we fall more in love with Jesus, will we be compelled to be more obedient to that which He has commanded us. 

             We must embrace both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission as essential to our vision as a church.  When we fall in love with Him, we will engage the nations with the same love and fervor as when Christ first sought us.

(GC)²

Great Commandment  •  Great Commission

REFORMATION

In the face of an evolving popular culture, we see the broader society attempting to redefine institutions that are central to Christianity.  One such institution is that of the family.  Modern sociological trends point to a definition of family that does not include traditional marriage or any concept of family with the respect to a biblical worldview.  In light of this increasing onslaught of the family it becomes necessary for the church to help clarify or make a statement on the family.

 The Baptist Faith and Message (2000 ed.) includes an article on the family.  This confessional statement includes the following foundational statement:

 “God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society.  It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood or adoption.”

 During the past fifty years, the family has been subject to scrutiny and redefinition by the intellectual elite and liberal scholarship.  Unfortunately, the church has in large part, laid down its defenses and blindly accepted the politically correct shift in the understanding of the family, marriage and the beginning of life itself.  A generation of church leaders has yielded to the pressures of a post-modern society that leave the family in a state of chaos.  We see a church that looks more like the world and less like Jesus.  The church is filled with broken homes and in desperate need of the reconciliation that only Jesus can provide.  Our pulpits have timidly approached family, marriage and children issues over the last fifty years, and it shows.

 The Baptist Faith and Message (2000 ed.) concludes with this statement:

 “Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.  Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage.  Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth.  Children are to honor and obey their parents.”

 So what is the church to do?  How is she to respond to a society that says it is okay for marriage to include homosexual relationships?  How is she to respond to a society that says men and women have identical roles in the family and the church?  How is she to respond to a society that reflects evolving sociological trends instead of a biblical worldview?  For too long, the church has ignored these questions, and as a result, we have churches that reflect more of the popular culture instead of Christ.

 Cash Creek Baptist Church is hosting a revival/conference that addresses these very issues.  What is being billed as, “Building Great Commission Families,” will take place Friday, February 4-6, 2011.  Throughout this three day event, attendees will hear four biblical messages about the family and have the opportunity to choose two breakout sessions to attend on Saturday in order to better equip people to minister to their families and ones in their church family.  There is absolutely no cost associated with this pivotal weekend so as to make it available to as many people as possible.  We will enjoy worship, preaching, food and lots of learning in hopes that God will reveal to us how best to do family ministry.  Our plenary speaker is Daniel Conrades from First Baptist Church of Charlestown, Indiana.  A graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and father of four, Daniel comes to Cash Creek to proclaim the Word of God and lead us closer to Christ.  The four breakout session options include biblical manhood, biblical womanhood, evangelizing children and fostering an adoption culture within the church.  These sessions are being led by leaders across two states who bring with them a wealth of knowledge and who are spirit-filled. 

 This will be a different kind of revival.  Hopefully, this revival will not only bring people to Christ, but will reveal to the church how best to minister to families.  This cross between revival and family ministry equipping is unique and not often replicated.  So please clear your calendar for February 4-6 and come to Cash Creek.  Enjoy our hospitality, worship the Lord with us and be drawn nearer to the One who brings reconciliation and faith to a world that is more and more estranged from He who came to be sin for us and die in our place so that we might have eternal life.

Matthew 5-7 contains 101 verses that we will be examining over the next few months.  As we take this portion of Scripture verse-by-verse we will become acquainted with Jesus’ early teaching to His disciples.  Within these 101 verses, we find two things:  1)  We find teaching that touches on aspects of life that we all struggle with (primarily the effect of sin on families, relationships and our spiritual life).  Jesus covers a multitude of things that could not have been easy for his disciples to hear.  Thus it goes without saying that within the realm of our post-modern culture, what Jesus has to say is completely out-of-sync with the mainstream.  The Sermon on the Mount gives us a glimpse of a holy God and His standard and that the only way we can achieve such a standard is through the life of Jesus Christ.  2)  We find Jesus’ teachings come with an authority that no one else was able to project in the temple.  The teachings of the scribes and pharisees all fell short to the One God only wise.  Jesus brought with Him the authority and command of Scripture that no one else had and that stands to reason since He is the author of Scripture. 

In this journey through these 101 verses that will take us close to Easter, we will gain much insight on Jesus’ discipleship process.  We will see how it is that Jesus came to fulfill the law and to provide the standard that we fail to achieve.  As we consider the idea of vision for Cash Creek Baptist Church, let us hold fast to how Jesus discipled the disciples.  Let us mimic our Savior – the true disciple-maker – in how we reach our community and the world for Jesus Christ.

Come join us at Cash Creek every Sunday morning in this four month study of Discipleship 101:  101 verses of disciple-making.

     Charlotte Digges Moon will be the object of our study Sunday night, December 19 at 6PM.  Anyone who has spent any time at a Southern Baptist church in December, would undoubtedly have at least a “name recognition familiarity” of this lady who died 98 years ago on Christmas Eve.  What is so significant about the wedding of Lottie Moon to Southern Baptist culture and more importantly the legacy of worldwide missions?  Who was this woman who was reared in the aristocratic South who left all she knew for an uncertain future?  This is a story (a biography) of a woman marked by conversion, war, love, disappointment, joy and suffering.  She championed the Gospel in a land that had little to no access to the Gospel, solidified missionary methods and advocated a stronger support system for missionaries within the Southern Baptist Convention.  Moon is the namesake of the Christmas missions offering that directly finances those who are called out for international missions.  Why is this important for us today?  Because as you read this, the International Mission Board is in a state of constriction and cannot adequately send the called.  The ironic thing is that we have the means to deliver; we just lack the fortitude.  Come this Sunday night to learn about Ms. Moon, sample her cookie recipe and pray for our missionaries serving across the globe.  Give a gift this year that will make an impact on the world for the Savior!  Come for the “rest of the story.”

I came home one afternoon after visiting with some church members and went to open my front door, and I found a pamphlet stuck between the storm door and the actual door entitled The Watchtower.  Ahhh!  “They’ve been here,” I thought to myself.  They probably prayer walked my yard while praying to their false god.  It is none other than the Jehovah’s Witnesses!  Oh, how I wish I would have been home during their visit.  If you know anything about where I live, you will know that I live way out in the country in what I think is one of the most beautiful parts of Kentucky where from my front door, I can see no neighbors.  Life is quiet, steady and good at the end of Lower Delaware Road.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses have made it to my neck of the woods, and it is important to give them a loving and truthful greeting.  No, I will not recite the pledge of allegiance or make an offer to become blood brothers; rather, I will welcome them with the truth of the Gospel as it is revealed to us fully in Jesus Christ.  My prayer is the Holy Spirit will work in their lives in such a way that it will bring them to repentance and God’s name would be glorified. 

So I thought to myself, “If they took a special effort to drive halfway between Henderson and Owensboro to give me a pamphlet about their cult, they probably have made it to other saints that I shepherd.”  Thus, when the wolves come, I bring out my staff and prepare for an attack, spiritually speaking.  So once a month at Cash Creek we will take a Sunday night to equip and train ourselves to counter the arguments of four popular cults:  Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Science and New Agers.  All four groups will call themselves Christians, however, no such designation is appropriate when these groups forsake the major tenants of the Gospel and question the authority of God’s revelation.  We will systematically go through the major Christian doctrines that we hold to, learn what these cult groups belive about these doctrines and how we can point to specific Bible passages that instruct us in the one, true way to God. 

9/26 @ 6pm:  Jehovah’s Witnesses

10/24 @ 6pm:  Mormonism

11/14 @ 6pm:  Christian Science

12/19 @ 6pm:  New Age

Come to Cash Creek on these dates to become better equipped to share the love of Jesus in specific ways to the lost people of these cults.