Worship at First Presbyterian Church of Marion, Illinois

The Kids lead worship and hold us accountable to our mission and vision.

Sermon Notes – Soli Deo Gloria points to three things: first, that everything we do ought to be done for God’s glory; second, that glorifying God serves a missional purpose; and third, that we look forward to the time when we can see the fullness of God’s glory. It may be too much for one sermon, but as a conclusion to this series, the second may be most appropriate.

Sermon Notes – Scripture contains everything necessary for salvation and righteous living. Though it doesn’t give us the answers to all our questions, or a blueprint for our daily living, it gives us enough to know how God wants us to be in relationship with him and with others as well as how we are to think of ourselves. While the Reformers call the church back to Scripture, they didn’t reject sacred tradition entirely. Rather, they believed all human-created doctrines and statements need to be tested against the truth of Scripture. But we can’t do that if we don’t know Scripture. In our increasingly secular society, with many messages coming our way that contradict God’s will, not more than ever we need to immerse ourselves in God’s Word so we can become God’s aroma to the world around us.

Week Three of the Solas – Solus Christus

Week 1 on the Solas – “Sola Gratia” – From Reformed Worship, June 2017

We tell stories about how we get here, or how we got here. We tell the story of creation as one such beginning, and the story of Jesus as another beginning. Sometimes the beginning isn’t the beginning, as we find when we tell stories to children, who often have a question we’re not prepared for.

So when does the story of First Presbyterian Church or Marion begin? Does it begin when we’re chartered? When we got our first building, our first pastor? When we got to a certain size? When does God’s story with us begin? With Jesus, with Adam, with Moses, with the cross, with the resurrection, with us?

Tell us about the beginning…

One of the old tenets of government, very old, is that there is responsibility up and down. In feudal states, the people had responsibilities to the lord, and the lord had responsibilities to the people. The people worked the fields, and if there was a famine, the lord was supposed to feed them. The people could get levied for military service, and if there was a war, the lord was supposed to protect them from enemy combatants. The kingdom is supposed to provide shelter, and nurture, and fellowship.

Worship. It’s what we’re here for, right? Well, it’s what we’re here for on Sunday morning from 10:30 or so to 11:45 am. Our worship is like that of many churches, it follows a pattern, we use the same types of words, and the same types of music. Sometimes it moves us, sometimes we endure it, sometimes we complain about it.

It has been noted that there is a challenge in walking the walk that makes the talk we talk. The talk we talk is eminently well illustrated by the sermon on the mount, which itself has been criticized as being too political. So, given what we know these two great ends are, proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind and the promotion of social righteousness, how do we connect them together?

I would suggest that we take a page, a day, a year, from the life of Jesus. Jesus proclaims the good news, indeed, he is the good news, and all that Christ does he does for the salvation of humankind. In proclaiming the gospel, Jesus displays social righteousness, by doing what? Tell us the stories of Jesus. 

Tell us of the women, the lepers, the blind, the lame, the hurting, the untouchable, the outsiders, the sinners. Jesus proclaims and promotes out loud, in public, and among the people.

If we are indeed those who follow Christ, then what happens if we follow his way of living as well? Will we also proclaim the gospel for the salvation of humankind and promote righteousness, and do so out loud and in public, in the view of the world?

While kingdom language may have gone out of style for Americans who celebrate that Washington didn’t want to be the king, it pervades Scripture. We hear of kingdoms in the Lord’s prayer. We speak of the king of kings and the lord of lords. And perhaps most importantly, we speak of on earth as it is in heaven. As Samuel so eloquently and passionately points out, earthly kings aren’t like