There’s
this tension in our walk as Christ-followers between the “poor in spirit”,
mourning over sin thing and the abundant life, “there is therefore now no
condemnation” thing. On the one
hand we must remember our lowly estate and on the other, God is the lifter of
our head.
For
a preacher the tension between those two somewhat competing truths means that
when I emphasize what Pastor James MacDonald calls the “Self in the Dirt”
message, I have people telling me that all the self-deprecation isn’t healthy
and not where Christ has us. We’re the blood-bought children of the King! We’re
forgiven. Grace is ours. And we’re to be filled with joy because we are
completely justified in his sight.
I
nod my head and agree.
And
when I emphasize all that great stuff that God has done for us, I have people
telling me that we cannot forget that we’re still sinners…still dealing with
the refuse of our lives every day…and that we should continually be broken and
humble in his sight because he is holy and we are not. While completely justified, we’re far
from being completely sanctified. Let’s not forget it!
I
nod my head and agree.
So
maybe we could agree that it is both, and in our lives, of necessity, we’ll
swing back and forth between the two. There will be times when the need is to
be lifted up and encouraged and expressing our joy at being co-heirs with
Christ! And there will be times when we are struck by the holiness of God and
our own sin that we will be broken and contrite in his presence.
The
next two Sundays are going to be about that latter expression of our walk with
Christ. There’s no other way to say it really…Ezra 9 and 10 are about the
hindrances to true worship of our God and the necessary confrontation and call
to repentance that would overcome those hindrances.
I’m
appealing to you to come prepared. Maybe we could agree that these next two Sundays
will be about the first two Beatitudes that Jesus spoke in Matthew 5:3-4, “Blessed
are the poor in spirit…Blessed are those who mourn.” Poverty of spirit speaks
to being broken and coming to the end of myself, and thus declaring full
dependence on God. To mourn refers
not to grief in general, but to mourning over sin. Does my sin grieve me?
The
outcome, in Jesus' words, was that such people would have the “kingdom of heaven”
and would “be comforted”. For the Jews
in Ezra’s day, it would be unhindered worship…really the same thing. It all
speaks to an amazing and intimate relationship with our God.
Come
ready to hear these messages. Come ready to have God speak to you about the
hindrances to worship in your own life. Come ready to respond to him in
brokenness.
I’m
praying for you.
See
you Sunday,
Todd
NOTES:
Our
pre-service prayer group is
now meeting in the worship centre at 8 a.m. for personal prayer and then
at 8:30 a.m. at the front on the carpet to pray together for all that
God will do in the services. You can come for all or part of that time,
as you're able. Let's show our firm belief in the power of prayer to
accomplish these good things in our lives!
And don't forget that this Sunday's
worship song set list is available here. Come ready to worship!