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Triune Praise

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I really enjoyed Shai Linne’s presentation of Triune Praise @ T4G. Here’s a video and the lyrics:

Verse 1

Praise God the Father, the Immortal Creator
For Your glory you made us, You’re the Sovereign Orchestrator
All that You decree will most surely come to happen
You’re awesome as can be and Your glory none can fathom
Nothing could ever stain You, the heavens can’t contain You
We thank You for sending Your Son to explain You
Otherwise we would have remained in the dark
but You sent Your Holy Spirit to spark a change in our hearts
According to Your eternal purpose and will
You determined to reveal Yourself to those who deserve to be killed
Those of us whom You foreknew adore You
We praise You that You predestined us to be conformed to
The image of Your Son who’s the radiance of Your glory
When I meditate on it, the weightiness of it floors me
So Father, we’ll praise you over and over again
Because You sent Your only Son to atone for our sins

(Chorus)

Glory to the Father, Glory to the Son,
Glory to The Spirit- Three and Yet One
One in Your essence, Three in Your Person
The same in Your nature, distinct in Your working
Oh my soul- behold the wonder of the Trinity
Blessed be the Trinity, Oh, what a mystery!
I’ll stand amazed for the rest of my days
Pouring out my heart in Triune praise

Verse 2

Praise God the Son, Second Person of the Trinity
You’re distinct from the Father, yet you share in His divinity
Fulfilling an eternal covenant- You came through
To planet earth to save who? All the Father gave You
You became a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief
For the glory of Your Father You extinguished the beef
That stood between us at the cross- the Father’s anger released
The Shepherd slain for the sheep, the situation is deep
I can’t find the right language to speak, in fact it’s making me weep-
Just the thought of You saving this creep
You’re risen from the dead, I still can’t get this in my head,
How the Judge could leave the bench and go to prison instead
Lord Jesus, you’re amazing, Your bleeding is what saved men
It’s the reason why we’re praising, can’t wait to see Your face
In the meantime, please help us to see You as colossal
And by the Spirit live lives worthy of the gospel

(Chorus)

Verse 3

Praise God the Holy Spirit, 3rd person of the Trinity
Distinct from Father and Son, yet share in Their divinity
Holy Spirit we praise You, You don’t like the spotlight
You’d rather point away from yourself and give props to Christ
But yet because You’re God, You deserve veneration
And You’re the One responsible for our regeneration
You apply the finished work of Christ to all the elect
Your call is effectual- You haven’t lost one yet
You comfort us when sin, Satan and the world got us bothered
And it’s only by You that we cry out “Abba Father”
You’re the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Truth,
You graciously provide Your people with the gifts and the fruit
You help us kill sin and dis-attach us from our idols
If it wasn’t for You, we’d never understand the Bible
Because You wrote it- For our life it will surely suffice
Amazingly, You do it all for the glory of Christ!

(Chorus)

On Brotherly Love

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Here’s the newsletter article I wrote for our church’s newsletter, the Edifier, coming out this weekend:

I love the book of Hebrews. Much like Colossians (which we are currently going through on Sunday mornings) the book of Hebrews is on a campaign to demonstrate how Jesus is better than anything. He’s better than angels, Moses, Melchizedek, the Old Covenant and anything else we could dream up. The truth that Jesus is better than everything is easy for us to mouth a confession to in the church. What becomes really difficult is living out the ramifications of what that means.

In Hebrews, for example, after a compelling picture of Jesus’ greatness for twelve chapters, chapter 13 begins by saying: “Let brotherly love continue.” In the bigger context, we read in Hebrews 12:24, of Jesus, who is the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. You remember that story don’t you? Abel and his brother Cain both were children of Adam and Eve. Abel kept sheep; Cain was a worker of the ground. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock as an offering to God. Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but not Cain’s. Cain was angry and his face fell. And God said to him, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:6-7). It is on the heels of this that Cain and Abel go the fields and Cain kills his brother.

Back to Hebrews, when the writer says “Let brotherly love continue” there must be something that would provoke this urging. In the immediate context of Hebrews 13:1, at the end of chapter 12, we read that we should “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). What is all of this getting at? Here are some things…

To continue in brotherly love, we must fight sin. Sin is in all of us. We all have sinful tendencies. Maybe some are more outrageous or easily seen than others, but we are all tempted with sin. It’s easy for us to hate our brother because they seem to be “blessed” with something more than we are. When we get in this trap, we are skidding down the slippery slope Cain experienced. Therefore, let’s fight sin. Sin is crouching at the door to pounce on us and master us. But we must rule over it. By God’s grace, let’s fight sin.

To continue in brotherly love, we must worship God properly. We forget that we are always before the face of God (we live coram deo). If we understood who God is and thought more about Him than our selfish desires, we wouldn’t drift into hateful attitudes and actions towards others. When the vertical relationship is proper, horizontal relationships will be right. Remember who God is and let that inspire your love for others.

Finally, to continue in brotherly love, believe in Jesus. We are so quick to forget who we are in Christ. We forget the sin that characterized our life before Him and how we have been rescued. Remember in Hebrews 12:24 & Genesis 4 that God was pleased with Abel’s sacrifice, but Jesus’ blood speaks a better word than Abel’s. If God was pleased with Abel, using the logic of the writer of Hebrews, He is ecstatic with the sacrifice of Jesus. To continue loving people as God intended we must center who we are in Jesus and the Gospel.

Therefore, let’s glorify and enjoy God, forever, by continuing in brotherly love.

Tri Perspectival Leadership…

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I found this chart by Leon Chingcuangco helpful. It is called “Triperspectival Leadership – Fulfilling the Offices of Christ“. The basic premise is that as Christ exhibits the offices of prophet, priest and king, so leaders in the local church will manifest those qualities. Specifically in this tool, the offices of Prophet, Priest and King are contrasted to examine Characteristics, Positive Tendencies, Negative Tendencies, Eventual Outworking, Errors of Uni-Perspectival Leadership, Possible Idols and Reductionism.

What was so helpful was seeing the apparent weaknesses that exist in my leadership, so that, by God’s grace, I can repent and believe the Gospel and see victory in these areas. Excellent tool.

Conference Follow Up

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While our group was coming home from T4G, we took advantage of Don Whitney’s 10 Questions to Ask to Benefit from a Conference or Special Event. I had printed this off before we left for the conference, anticipating a need to intentionally apply what we had learned. And, I found it helpful for sparking discussion on the way home. We discussed these questions for probably an hour or two and it gave everyone an opportunity to get down to the precise nature of what they were taking away and, better yet, helped establish some accountability in our group as we took the “next step” after the conference. I would commend it to you, not only if you attended T4G, but anytime you have a special event at your church.

Weekend Recap – Promises, Truth & The Gospel

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After the flurry of activity last week, it was great to get back to the dear people of God at Crestview. Had a full day, with SS, AM Service, Cross-Cultural Missions Committee, PM Service and Men’s Theology, but a fruitful one nonetheless.

In the AM, I preached from Colossians 2:8 a sermon entitled Error. In this talk, I was really trying to give clear exposition about the nature of error and how centering in Christ and the Gospel trumps everything else. It was yet another clear reminder of how central Christ and the Gospel should be.

In the PM, my sermon dealt with how promises made to Abraham pointed to Jesus. We looked at Genesis 12:1-3 and Genesis 17:1-8 (as well as NT texts highlighting the connection). The sermon was entitled Promise. I thought the promise of a city that was to come was one full of applications for believers (read Hebrews 11:9-16). At any rate, it was a great day.

Weekend Preview – Error & Jesus in Abraham’s Promise

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As we look to corporate worship this coming Lord’s Day, we anticipate a full day.

I will be leading all adult SS classes together. We will be watching Paul Tripp’s talk from the Desiring God National Conference on Words. This is some of Tripp’s best material.

In the AM sermon, we will be focusing in on Colossians 2:8 and seeing some ways we “adjust the Gospel” and seek to divert our attention from THE truth of Christ.

We have a Cross-Cultural Missions Committee meeting at 5PM.

In the PM sermon, we will continue our march through the OT and seek to find Jesus in the story of Abraham.

In the late evening, Men’s Theology will be looking at the Bible again.

Please prepare your heart for this full day.

T4G Day 3

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We just finished up a very full day, which began with us checking out of the Galt House Hotel & Suites in Louisville and loading the cars.

We headed over for the morning sessions. Ligon Duncan kicked us off with a call to read the early church fathers, highlighting how helpful they were in so many different theological areas.

After this, Matt Chandler came and testified of God’s amazing grace in his (and his family’s) life. C.J. came after Chandler’s testimony and urged us to prepare our people for suffering. Finally, the speakers of T4G came and prayed over Matt (and others with serious illness) that God would grant healing for His glory and Matt’s good.

The final session was a deeply personal charge from C.J. from 2 Timothy 4:1-5, urging ordinary pastors to be faithful to their calling. Particularly relevant was the insight given in exposing our heart through our lack of patience. Pride was revealed (again sadly) in my life. But it was an encouraging exhortation to faithfulness.

After this session and some singing, we headed to St. Louis. We are spending the night here and in good tradition, ate a German meal at the St. Louis Gast House. After this, we slid over to Park Avenue Coffee for gooey butter cake and coffee. It was an amazing day of fellowship, teaching and encouragement.