Selected Scriptures

March 5, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

Download the bulletin.

Download the Kids’ Korner.

The sermon starts at 15:50 in the audio file.

Or, Questions for Credo Baptism

For a couple reasons we’re going to have to wait another week to find out what the seven ugly cows symbolize in Genesis 41. This morning I’m going to teach about baptism, and that is because of timing and because of some fire in my bones. These are relevant things for our worship, and now is a good time to talk about them.

One reason for talking about baptism today is that I intended to talk about baptism two Sundays ago, on the Lord’s Day before the marriage seminar. I’d been brainstorming for a while about preaching about the relationship between liturgy and marriage for the morning service of the seminar, and I’d also observed that Genesis 41 is fiddy-seven verses long, justifying a two-part study. Rather than cover half the chapter and then wait two weeks I thought a one-part-something would fit. I was planning to preach on baptism.

It turns out that Jim preached that morning since I was gone, then we talked about spouses and worship, and so I could get back to Genesis 41 today without fear of splitting up the study, but I will next week.

Baptism is a subject that has come up in a couple ways recently. Since our liturgy leans toward the Reformed, even Presbyterian direction, we have some more covenantal types paying us attention. The question comes up, “Will you baptize our babies?” or, “Will you accept that I was baptized as a baby?” The elders have talked about it at a couple of our meetings and we think the answer is No. We won’t baptize babies nor do we think it’s right. Why? It’s a reasonable question.

At the same time we are baptizing younger kids, some younger than perhaps everyone is comfortable with. We have another baptism scheduled for Resurrection Sunday evening, six weeks from today. So what do we expect when it comes to a child’s profession of faith? Maybe if we work through those questions it will help parents disciple their children in regard to professing their faith in Christ in baptism.

So let’s work through why we’re credo not paedo baptizers and then talk about the initial, foundational credo that should be professed.

Credo NOT Paedo

Credo is a Latin verb translated “I believe” or even “I confess.” The creeds and confessions in church history, such as The Apostles’ Creed (which begins, Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae,), are called “creeds” because they are a statement of what someone believes.

Paedo is a Latin noun for “child,” but in this discussion it usually refers to an infant, a newborn baby.

Credo-baptizters (such as Baptists) baptize based on one’s belief in Christian doctrine and paedo-baptizers (such as Lutherans, Presbyterians, Christian Reformed, Methodists, and of course, Catholics) baptize based on one’s birth to Christian parents.

Both sides agree that when the gospel is preached to a man for the first time, and that man repents of his sin and turns from his false worship to put his faith in Jesus Christ, he should be baptized. First generation converts—who are necessarily old enough to know what is happening—must be baptized as part of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18).

The question comes when that Christian has kids. Those kids are born into a what is now a Christian home, and should those children be raised as unbelievers? Paul told the parents in the church in Ephesus to raise their kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). In other words, fathers should raise believers. Christian parents should raise worshippers. Christian parents should not let their child wander in spiritual indecision until sometime when he can make his informed decision. Fathers are to inform the minds and consciences of their sons and daughters by the Word and among the church. But not all credo-baptists have been so dutiful.

One very reasonable cri[...]

Selected Scriptures

February 26, 2017

Sean Higgins, Dave Light, Jonathan Sarr, Jim Martin

Marriage: A Mess Worth Making

Session Five

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The post Marriage Q&A appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

Selected Scriptures

February 26, 2017

Jonathan Sarr

Marriage: A Mess Worth Making

Session Three

The post Weaponizing Your Marriage appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

The post Weaponizing Your Marriage appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

Selected Scriptures

February 26, 2017

Jim Martin

Marriage: A Mess Worth Making

Session Four

The post Unsettle Your Marriage appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

The post Unsettle Your Marriage appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

Selected Scriptures

February 26, 2017

Sean Higgins

Marriage: A Mess Worth Making

Session One

Or, Why You Are Probably the Problem

As the first speaker I want to introduce a couple things before tackling my theme.

First, the title of the seminar: Marriage: A Mess Worth Making. Our church doctrinal statement defines marriage by the Bible: one man and one woman in a life-long covenant with each other. Marriage is heterosexual, monogamous, permanent, and God-ordained, all of which is revealed in Genesis 1-2. Marriage is God’s idea, His institution, and it has His blessing. So-called homosexual marriage is a mess that is not worth it, and no-fault divorce law has not actually made it painless to walk away from the mess.

Marriage is a mess because of Genesis 3. Sin separated Adam and Eve, and part of the punishment God gave them included difficulty in life together and between one another (see Genesis 3:16). Two sinners living in such close proximity will see sparks and stings and sorrows. It will happen even between couples who are actively being sanctified by God’s Spirit.

But it is worth choosing to make this commitment. It is profitable for each individual and for bringing more individuals into the world. It is profitable for showing the world what God is like as His image-bearers. It is profitable for revealing something about the relationship between Jesus and His Bride, the Church. It is profitable as a way to glorify God, honoring Him through thankfulness for such a divine gift. He blesses marriage, and husbands and wives taste it.

The institution of marriage is a mess in our culture and there are levels of mess in marriages among us. Every marriage has some mess, but, by grace, it can be cleaned up. That said, only those willing to do the work (and endure some pain) truly see the profit. Our goal with this seminar is to discuss some ways to clean up the mess and to give some worthy reasons for cleaning.

Second, the talks proceed by a loose order. I’m going to focus on the individual spouses who make a marriage. Dave will focus on spouses as a couple, and Jonathan will focus on how the couple affect a broader circle than just the couple. Jim will challenge all of us to want to be better; he’s batting clean-up with a call to action. I’m batting lead-off so I can steal all their thunder.

Third, a note on the recommended resources at the back of your booklet. You will notice it’s a short list and that on the short list the name Wilson is mentioned a few times. For my part I really do wish that I could recommend a variety of authors. But I went back and looked at the Man Pants session on being Christian Husbands Who Serve, and the elders actually printed on the handout:

Stay away from the psycho-babble of Christian radio, conferences, and most books on the subject of marriage.

Many of the marriage resources are sentimental sausage, chicken soup for spouses. Many of those resources are not necessarily any worse than just making you think about marriage in an entirely wrong way. The Wilsons, for better or for worse, wed marriage and family with theology and principles and incarnational joy that isn’t common. If this was a seminar on eschatology then the Wilson clan might only get a dishonorable mention. But this is in their wheelhouse. There perhaps are better exegetes, there are not many better marriage and family mechanics.

So then, to my topic: Hands Off Your Marriage. I was the last one to decide on a direction for my talk, and likewise my title was the last to be made to fit the others, so “Hands off” may be not quite right, but I think I can explain it.

One of the first and weightiest principles of marriage I ever considered was based on an observation about the household responsibilities in Ephesians 5 which are also visible in Colossians 3 and 1 Peter 3.

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himse[...]

Selected Scriptures

February 26, 2017

Dave Light

Marriage: A Mess Worth Making

Session Two

The post Putting the Shine on Your Marriage appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

The post Putting the Shine on Your Marriage appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

Ephesians 5:22-33

February 26, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

Download the bulletin.

Download the Kids’ Korner.

The sermon starts at 14:39 in the audio file.

Or, The Relationship of Liturgy to Marriage

At the beginning of every calendar year I preach on the subject of worship. We become like what we behold and in the life of a church her corporate meeting with God on the Lord’s Day inevitably shapes both the assembly and each member in it.

Since the day that the elders decided to focus on marriage for this year’s seminar I knew that I wanted to talk about the relationship between corporate liturgy and marriage. I preached on the subject of kids and worship at the beginning of January, and this morning, in keeping with the theme for the day, my message is about spouses and worship.

One quick qualifier: it often happens that when I identify a target group for a sermon, many who consider themselves to be outside that net wonder (even out loud to me) what this has to do with them. For this morning, if you’re a child, if you’re a single young adult, or if you are older and without a spouse, do you need to listen to or do anything with this? Well, no. Feel free to check out.

I’m being facetious in saying that, for sure. If you are older then you’re responsible to teach the younger. If you’re not yet married, regardless of how close you may be to wedding bells in your mind, you should know why the worship of the church is not optional for the sake of a happy and healthy relationship and family in the future. Some of the things I’m going to say in a bit I never heard from a pastor or parent or Bible college professor. Some of it may be obvious, some of it is likely to be a kick in the pants, and hopefully the man is wearing them.

Walking Down the Liturgy Aisle

Call to Worship

Only one relationship on earth overshadows that between a husband and wife, and that is the relationship between God and worshipper. Because human beings are made in a particular way we must worship someone or something just like a fountain must spurt; fountains spurt by definition and humans worship without fail. If the true God is not worshipped, then it is easy for the object of a man’s worship to become a woman (and visa versa), and this will frustrate, because lateral worship is always futile.

I’ve met with unbelieving couples who desired to be married, and I usually start by asking what attracted one to the other. The list of reasons usually overlaps with a list made by believers, and the list is typically tenable. But then I follow that by asking, What happens when the other person changes? People don’t stay the same in every way when time runs an ordinary course, let alone if there is an accident or other severe providences. I don’t know why people stay together without a fixed, actually glorious, external-to-the-couple standard.

When God made worshippers He made a husband and a wife before He made a priest or pastor or theologian. He made a garden rather than a church for them to meet in. Genesis 1 and 2 put spouses at the center of God’s creative work. In order for them to reflect Him accurately they both need to be able to see the original.

The call to worship steeps all of our horizontal responsibilities and relationships in context. Horizontal is never ultimate, whether it’s going great or going awful, whether it is a joy or a grief. Since God accepts no rivals it is a sin not to treat Him as the highest value. God does not call us to put off our earthy roles when we assemble but He does call us to assemble for the sake of maturing in our various roles.

Confession of Sin

Sin ruins fellowship, both vertical and horizontal. The gospel of salvation offers forgiveness and reconciliation to the humble and repentant. This begins in conversion but must be our conduct every time we sin.

I’ve mentioned this before, but our time of weekly, corporate c[...]

Selected Scriptures

February 19, 2017

Evening Service

Jonathan Sarr

The post The Exceptional Faithfulness of John Knox appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

The post The Exceptional Faithfulness of John Knox appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

Philippians 3:17-4:8

February 19, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Jim Martin

Download the bulletin.

Download the Kids’ Korner.

The sermon starts at 16:33 in the audio file.

Or, There is a Fountain Deeper Than All Our Trials

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The post Evidential Joy appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

Selected Scriptures

February 12, 2017

Evening Service

Dave Light

The post Solus Christus appeared first on Trinity Evangel Church.

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