At the consummation of all things, the Lord Jesus Christ will ultimately and deservedly be worshipped by all humanity regardless of their eternal destiny (Phil 2:10-11). The consistent testimony of the Bible is that those who understood the truth that Jesus was God in the flesh only had one response, worship (Matt 2:2, 11, 14:33, 28:9, John 18:6). The mark of a Christian is a whole-hearted, daily devotion to Jesus Christ (Luke 9:23). The worship of Jesus Christ is a daily decision to obediently be pleasing to the Lord striving in the great grace that He provides. In every way we desire to be like the apostle Paul when he boldly states, “according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 2:20-21). We desire to reflect here on earth who we are in Christ and will who be in heaven.
Jesus stood before Pontus Pilate and said, “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice” (John 18:37). Each time we gather together to worship Jesus Christ, our desire is that His voice is heard. God’s chosen mechanism for His people to hear His voice is through preaching. Faithful verse-by-verse exposition of God’s word safeguards God’s people from the opinions of men. It exposes the voice of Christ i.e. truth, in the clearest way for God’s people to grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The steady diet of preaching on the Lord’s Day will be verse-by-verse through a particular book of the Bible. Other teaching venues will have specific topics to think though biblically. Our desire when we open the word of God in any teaching opportunity is faithfulness to the word of God, so that we need “not be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15)
Salvation is a glorious reality of eternal hope despite the circumstances a Christian faces on a daily basis. However, this does not mean that Christians escape the reality of pain and difficulty while living in a sin cursed world. The organism of the church was created by God to allow His children, the body of His Son, to love one another in the truth through life’s difficult circumstances together (Heb 10:23-25). God does not excuse His children from conforming to Christ in hard situations. He does desire to see Christ exemplified with joy through the situation (Rom 5:1-5, Jam 1:2-4). This is hard. We need the church to encourage one another. Biblical counseling, personal discipleship, leadership training, seeking to fulfill the “one another’s” and regular opportunities for informal fellowship are all ways this will be manifested in the life of the church. Growing in the grace will mean continually growing in how we minister to one another and their needs to conform to the image of Jesus Christ.
Jesus stood before Pontus Pilate and said, “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice” (John 18:37). Each time we gather together to worship Jesus Christ, our desire is that His voice is heard. God’s chosen mechanism for His people to hear His voice is through preaching. Faithful verse-by-verse exposition of God’s word safeguards God’s people from the opinions of men. It exposes the voice of Christ i.e. truth, in the clearest way for God’s people to grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The steady diet of preaching on the Lord’s Day will be verse-by-verse through a particular book of the Bible. Other teaching venues will have specific topics to think though biblically. Our desire when we open the word of God in any teaching opportunity is faithfulness to the word of God, so that we need “not be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15)
The mandate for the church is clear: make disciples of all the nations (Matt 28:18-20). The greatest need for all of humanity is the atonement of sin. Humanity cannot solve this eternal problem by works, wisdom or seeking pleasure this world. The message of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only eternal hope for humanity. The church is to be a lighthouse for the lost giving this message to any and every soul. Faithfulness to a clear accurate message is our highest priority because the power is in the message of the gospel alone (Rom 1:16-17). Our desire is to strive in humility to proclaim this message to all of the spheres of influence that the Lord gives in our local context and to the four corners of the earth.