As a pre-requiste for the meeting on Thursday 18th March, 8pm at the Vassall Centre, we would ask you to please download and the following document and also listen to the message below (outline available below).

Grace Church Worship Team Requirements & Responsibilities

The Call of the Christian Musician (Bob Kauflin) —  Audio |  Notes

It was great to be together yesterday morning to join our voices to celebrate the good news of the gospel.

Yesterday’s sermon from Ephesians 2:11-22, entitled: “The Walls Come Tumbling Down” is available to listen to or download from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

The “Take-It-Home” Sheet for this sermon is available here.

And don’t forget, because we’re back into our Ephesians series, there’s a weekly memory verse song you can download to help you memorise portions of God’ Word. This week’s Ephesians Memory Verse Song – “Brought Near By the Blood of Christ” is available now!

(To download this song to your computer… For Mac Users, ctrl + Click and download linked file. For PC users, right click the link and “Save As” the file.)

For those of you with children in the Generations Sunday School, here’s the “Weekly Info” that we hope will serve you in following up with your children on what they sang and learned this week, and the verse to memorise for next week’s Sunday school.

And finally… For all those who like to have the quotes from yesterday’s sermon, here they are:

John Stott: [Referring to Galatians 3:28)
“When we say that Christ has abolished these distinctions, we mean not that they do not exist, but that they do not matter.  They are still there, but they no longer create any barriers to fellowship.  We recognise each other as equals, brothers and sisters in Christ.”

John Stott:
“It is marvelous to look back and trace the sequence of the apostle’s teaching.  He paints on a large canvas with bold brush strokes.  Once, he reminds his Gentile readers, you were alienated from God and from his people.  But Christ died to reconcile you to both.  So now you are no longer the aliens you were, but the kingdom over which God rules, the family which he loves and the temple in which he dwells.  More simply still: you were alienated, you have been reconciled, and Christ has brought you home.”

We may think that these two goals are at odds with each other. We are made to share in his ultimate aim, that is to glorify himself. Therefore which is it? Are we created for His glory or for our joy?

This is what 18th Century New England pastor, Jonathan Edwards wrote:

“God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might be received both by the mind and heart.

He that testifies his idea of God’s glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also his delight in it.”

God created us so that we might spend all of eternity glorifying Him by enjoying Him forever.

So it’s not an ‘either/or’ choice, as Edward’s says “God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in.”

Let’s not just live for His glory but also rejoice in Him and make His glory our passion and joy.

I doubt it will be a new concept to a lot of you but it is a vital practice for everyday life and something which we must remind ourselves to do regularly.

“Preach to yourself” by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Yourself is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.’…

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.’”

– D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965/2002), pages 20-21.

It was great to be together yesterday morning to join our voices to praise and magnify our great God and rejoice in the glorious, transforming truth of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s sermon from Ephesians 1:1-2:10, entitled: “Let’s Recap Ephesians!” is available to listen to or download from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

The “Take-It-Home” Sheet for this sermon is available here.

And don’t forget, because we’re back into our Ephesians series, there’s a weekly memory verse song you can download to help you memorise portions of God’ Word.  This week’s Ephesians Memory Verse Song – “The Exceeding Greatness of His Power” is available now!

(To download this song to your computer… For Mac Users, ctrl + Click and download linked file. For PC users, right click the link and “Save As” the file.)

For those of you with children in the Generations Sunday School, here’s the “Weekly Info” that we hope will serve you in following up with your children on what they sang and learned this week, and the verse to memorise for next week’s Sunday school.

And finally… For all those who like to have the quotes from yesterday’s sermon, here they are:

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:
“Paul’s great concern here is to give the Ephesians, and others to whom the letter is addressed, a panoramic view of this wondrous and glorious work of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Puritan Thomas Brooks (Heaven on Earth):
“I am His by purchase and I am His by conquest; I am His by donation and I am His by election; I am His by covenant and I am His by marriage; I am wholly His; I am peculiarly His; I am universally His; I am eternally His. Once I was a slave but now I am a son; once I was dead but now I am alive; once I was darkness but now I am light in the Lord; once I was a child of wrath, an heir of hell, but now I am an heir of heaven; once I was Satan’s bond-servant but now I am God’s freeman; once I was under the spirit of bondage but now I am under the Spirit of adoption that seals up to me the remission of my sins, the justification of my person and the salvation of my soul.”

John Calvin:
“In Christ every part of our salvation is complete. As all mankind are, in the sight of God, lost sinners, we hold that Christ is their only righteousness, since, by His obedience he has wiped off our transgressions, by his sacrifice appeased the divine anger, by his blood washed away our sins, by his cross borne our curse, and by his death made satisfaction for us. We maintain that in this way man is reconciled in Christ to God the Father, by no merit of his own, by no value of works, but by gratuitous mercy.”

O the riches in the Gospel! (By Kevin Hartnett)

O the riches in the Gospel!
Purposes no man conceived!
Grace unfailing; love astounding,
Given those who have believed!

Pardon full for helpless sinners.
Justified- though guilty be!
Jesus cursed for our transgressions;
We made righteous by decree!

Peace with God, oh timeless marvel!
Christ’s blood our security!
Holiness at one with Favor;
Heaven opened wondrously!

Purpose in the Master’s kingdom;
We, His worksmanship by grace,
Cleansed to serve; alive in conscience;
Spirit-filled to run the race.

Pleasure in His highest priv’ledge:
Sons of God by name are we!
Heirs with Christ through God’s adoption;
Called in love eternally!

O the riches in the Gospel!
Purposes no man conceived!
Grace unfailing; love astounding,
Ever theirs who have believed!

OUTPOST: Bath is a monthly Sunday evening gathering open to anybody who wants to come and experience God-centred, Christ-exalting worship, and solid, relevant, gospel-centred preaching.

We’re starting at 6pm.  The service will only be an hour.  We’ll be meeting at the Percy Community Centre, New King Street, Bath, BA1 2BN.

There’s no formal provision for kids, but there is a room where younger children can play, if a parent wants to supervise them.

More details can be found here.

Through His word God has given us many great and wonderful promises that we can trust in and depend upon, because He is a faithful God. Here are just a few of his promises towards us his children.

1. He will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)
2. He makes all things work together for our good. (Romans 8:28)
3. He provides all that we need. (Matthew 6:31-33, 2 Corinthians 9:8)
4. He will bring us safely to heaven. (John 14:2-3)

Four promises. The first and the last promises we can do nothing about, but with promises two and three we can sin like Jacob in trying to get what we need through devious means and not trusting in the faithfulness of God.

The question we should all ask ourselves is: Do I rest consistently in those promises and Am I trusting God to fulfil His promises in His time?

So often we can act like Jacob by trying to bring about the fulfilment of God’s promises in our own power and strength, and thereby sin by not trusting in the faithfulness of God to bring about and fulfil His word to us.

God is faithful and we can trust and wholly lean on His faithfulness.

It was great to be together yesterday morning and join our voices together in joyful praise to our great God, who has saved us and transformed our lives through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s sermon, the fourth and final part of our “Worship His Majesty” series, entitled: “The Spirit, the Body & The Worship of God” is available to listen to or download from here, via our iTunes podcast feed.

For those of you with children in the Generations Sunday School, here’s the “Weekly Info” that we hope will serve you in following up with your children on what they sang and learned this week, and the verse to memorise for next week’s Sunday school.

Here’s the quotes from the sermon:

Donald Whitney:
“God will manifest his presence to you in congregational worship in ways you can never know, even in the most glorious secret worship.  That’s because you are not only a temple of God as an individual, but the Bible says – and far more often – that Christians collectively are God’s temple.  God manifests his presence in different ways to the living stones of the temple when they are gathered than he does to them when they are apart.”

Donald Whitney:
“How is your service quotient?  Is your church stronger because of you?   Nutritionists speak of “empty calories”; in order for these calories to be processed the body must use some of its nutritional resources, yet empty calories do little or nothing to nourish the body in return.  Calories from other types of food however, not only take from the body’s strength as they metabolise, they replenish it.  Do you receive more ministry from the church than you minister to it?  God intends for every member of the church body to be served by it, and there are times when even the most spiritually mature members will receive more ministry than they give.  Nevertheless, the goal for each of us should be to serve in the church in such a way that it is stronger because we are there.”

Sam Storms:
“Prophecy is not based on a hunch, a supposition, an inference, an educated guess, or even on sanctified wisdom.  Prophecy is not based on personal insight, intuition, or illumination.  Prophecy is the human report of a divine revelation.”

It is not for us to second guess God by asking “why?”, but instead for us to evaluate our reaction and learn more about our trust and confidence in a Sovereign God who works for the good of those he has called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Regarding why God appoints suffering for His servants, John Piper says :

Hebrews 12 tells us that God disciplines his children through suffering. His aim is deeper faith and deeper holiness. He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

The writer to the Hebrews, referring to earthly fathers, says in chapter 12 verse 10:
For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

So when the trial comes, as it surely will, thank God for the opportunity to glorify him by our trusting in his sovereign will for our lives and using the situation to grow in our faith and in our holiness all for His ultimate glory.

There was 40+ of us gathered at Hill House Christian Conference Centre, near Bridgwater, Somerset.  The topic for the weekend was “Passionate Orthodoxy” — the idea that we should passionately, enthusiastically pursue knowing the truth of who God is and what he has done for us, build our lives upon those unchanging, proven and established truths, and worship him and enjoy him all our days.

We had three teaching sessions, each with a time of worship, and then a final fourth session of extended worship.  God was gracious and faithful to each of us in attendance.  I believe God freshly challenged all of us with his Word, brought conviction by his Spirit, deepened our understanding and appreciation of his mercy and grace, and imparted fresh faith for our walk with him.

During the weekend we recommended Joshua Harris‘ new book “Dug Down Deep“, a book written and designed to help us ensure we are building our lives on the eternal truths revealed to us in God’s Word.  I’d recommend everyone grab a copy and read it ASAP.

You can read a review by Stephen Altrogge here.

The audio from the three teaching sessions can be found below, and if you click the link below you can see pictures of the weekend, taken by our resident photographer, Christian Lerke.  There’s also a short video Christian made of his view of the weekend (click on the very last image of the gallery).

(Click the following links to listen online or to download and listen off-line: PC users right click and save the file. Mac users ctrl+click and “save as”.)

Session 1: What Is Your Life Built On? (Nathan Smith)

Session 2: What Are You Living For? (Nathan Smith)

Session 3: Don’t Waste your Life: Wise Words for a Younger Generation from An Older Man (Peter Bowley)

CLICK HERE: Life Weekend Away Photos