Thank You Pastor Weaver

Dear CRBC Family,

 

We want to publically thank Pastor John Weaver, from Georgia, for his years of constant discipleship and contribution to us, and for continually pouring his heart and the Word of God into our lives so faithfully. We also wish to express to him our sincere gratitude for offering and sending us his sermons notes to use in our own sermon preparations, encouraging us to use all available resources to feed the sheep of God at liberty, and for reminding us that the Word of God is available at all times for instruction in righteousness and teaching in doctrine.

 

His years of dvd sermon presentations, his own sermon notes, and personal visits to us have deeply been used of God to grow and feed us in times of spiritual famine in this land. CRBC eagerly anticipates our next visit and time of preaching with Pastor Weaver, as his schedule allows.

 

Giving God thanks for our remembrance of you Brother Weaver, and for God's use of your life in ours.

Eric

Worship: Is It Acceptable To God? Part 3

Okay...earlier today, as I opened the blog to write an update, I received a text from my son that would strike fear into any father.  His text to me was, "dad please pray, I am in grave danger right now" and ended "I have to go now, I love you guys."  My first thoughts and words were, God have mercy on us today.

Soon after I gather my thoughts for a moment, I remembered about a devotion that was sent to me earlier in the day from one of our men in our fellowship.  It was a devotion from Richard Baxter entitled - "How To Spend The Day With God."  One of the lines that caught my attention the most was..."Think of how many souls were that night called from their bodies terrifyingly to appear before God and think how quickly days and nights are rolling on! How speedily your last night and day will come! Observe that which is lacking in the preparedness of your soul for such a time and seek it without delay."

It is during these times we must find ourselves leaning on every thing we can remember about God's Word. It is during these times we must find ourselves in complete submission to the Lord's will.  It is during these times we find ourselves having to walk by the very things we preach.

It is not just a cliche' saying, "our times are in His hands" it is the very word of God.  As Baxter says above, "How speedily your last night and day will come!"  So the question to us today in our study of worship, how will the Lord find us in our last day on earth?

May the Lord find us in acceptable worship to Him.  As I mentioned this last Sunday, God being Spirit, there is no beginning or ending.  God being Spirit, He is everywhere, all the time.  As my pastor once said, "God's center is everywhere, is circumference is nowhere."  These being all true, is there ever a time we should not be worshiping God?

Closing out this day, the Lord saw fit to allow us another day with our son.  By His kind providence, tragedy did not come to our home.  The one beauty that I was able to witness was to see my family come together and rest in whatever He would bring to us today.

I am grateful to the Lord for showing Himself by the encouragement of friends and family that went immediately to prayer.  I am grateful to be loved by our Father to have given us the strength in trusting in Him to encourage each other.  May we find ourselves singing...

  Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
   It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Worship: Is It Acceptable To God? Part 2

As you read and understand John 4, Christ uses the doctrine of worship to evangelize the lost.  Yes, that's what I said, evangelize the lost.  Now you may be saying, "well that's what our church does with it's music, PowerPoint, videos, dancers, worship team, etc."  "Our church has grown because we do so many things that draws people in; we do a great job of that."  I don't want to burst your bubble, but that isn't going to cut it.  John 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

God is not indifferent on how we are to worship Him. As a matter of fact, He is very specific regarding what is acceptable and what is not acceptable worship.  When Jesus began to evangelize the Samaritan woman, He did not have his disciples breakout into a "worship service."  No where in this text do we see Jesus leading this unregenerate woman in a song service.  What He did do to evangelize this woman was to preach to her the Word of God and singled out her sin.  The only way anyone will be evangelized, drawn to Christ, and converted, is by the foolishness of preaching, not singing.  Sorry worship leaders.

Let's take a little closer look at the passage in John 4. Verses 3& 4 "He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria."  Jesus leaves Judaea to head to Galilee takes a detour through Samaria.  Jesus had one purpose in going through Samaria, and that was to seek and save that which was lost.  This is further demonstrated later in John 4:23 in the passage which Jesus says, "...for the Father seeketh such to worship him."

So what is our "take-away"? What are we to learn from this?  First, it is God the Father that does the drawing.  We do not seek Him; He seeks us.  We do not find Him; He finds us.  It is the Good Shepherd that leaves the ninety-nine to find the one.  Listen to this beautiful passage: Christ in His high priestly prayer to the Father, says in John 17:12,  "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled."  Those that are sought by the Father, given to the Son will be kept and "none of them will be lost."

Secondly, Jesus used the doctrine of worship to do the evangelizing.  After Jesus told the woman that the man she was then with was not her husband, she quickly recognized that He was a prophet.  And, as most "religious" people react once they know they are in the presence of conviction, she used the "worship" card.  She turned to show a side of religiosity to prove she was not as bad as she has just been made out to be.  You can almost hear her say, "Well I go to church every Sunday. In fact, I have been going to this church my entire life."  "My parents go to that church and so did my grandparents."  Friends, do not hang your hat on church membership or even being on staff at a church.  The nail on which you hang your hat will be the death nail to seal your doom.


Let me remind you of this dreadful scripture in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."


May the Lord so grant you each ears to hear and eyes to see so that you may come to Christ.  You will enter into the presence of God by only one way and that is to see yourself undone.  It will not be what you have done or where you have attended church or how often you have attended church.  It will only matter if you have bowed to the one true and living God and worshiped Him aright.

By His Grace,
Eric

Worship: Is It Acceptable To God?

Over the last four weeks, we have been in an in-depth study concerning worship.  The question that we should always ask, "is my worship being accepted by God?"  Do you want to know?  Do you even care?  Does it really matter?  You may say, "If I attend church, sing, pray, give, and listen to a sermon, haven't I  worshiped?  Does God care how I worship Him?"

Every Christian should have a vital interest in worshiping God.  Worship is that which we render unto our great God and Savior.  Worship is the reverence, honor, or homage paid to superior beings.  You will find this same definition and the same word used in the bible and reference to God, in reference to men, and in reference to idols.  So, acceptable worship to God from His children is the true reverence, honor, and homage paid to Him as the one true and living God.

Our Lord said in John 4 that God is Spirit, and they that worship must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  An interesting thing here in John 4 is that "worship" or "worshiper" occurs 10 times in this passage.  So, we know that worship is a vital aspect of the true believer's relationship to God.

Ps 89:7, “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.”

Ps 95:6, “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.” There is submission, why?  Because He is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.  So we are the creature and He is the creator.  We are the subjects and He is the King.  We are servants and He is the Lord.  And so we are to bow down before him, acknowledging His greatness.

In closing, there is much to say about worship and worshiping the one true and living God.  Over the next few posts, I will go into a much deeper look into John 4 and the importance of the believer's duty in worship.

By His Grace,

Eric

Welcome to CRBC Blog

I personally want to welcome you to our blog of Cleburne Reformed Baptist Church.  If you have been searching for a local body of believers who are holding fast to the Doctrines of Grace, we would welcome you to join us.

Cleburne Reformed Baptist Church is a Christ-centered local church, seeking to honor the Lord Jesus Christ in all things. We believe that the inspired Word of God is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

Our doctrinal statement is expressed in the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689; we therefore practice the baptism of believers. We are family-integrated, enjoying the fruits of whole families participating together in our worship services and the life of the church. We whole-heartedly encourage evangelism, modesty, Biblical manhood and womanhood.

You will find the worship service to include prayer, the reading of the Scriptures, singing of doctrinal hymns, and the preaching of the whole counsel of God.

Please visit our website at www.CleburneRBC.org and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via email.