Sunday we began our series in the book of Daniel. The book emphasizes the sovereignty of God over the lives of his people and over the kingdoms of this world. The book opens with this statement, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God” (Daniel 1:1,2). Notice, that while Nebuchadnezzar acted against God’s temple and people, the Lord takes responsibility for the outcome of the siege.

Neither this moment nor this pagan king was outside of the sovereign power of God. God wasn’t guessing what Nebuchadnezzar would do or trying to negotiate with him to avoid conflict. In fact, God was using Nebuchadnezzar to correct his people for their paganism. As a major theme of this book, we’ll take a moment to consider the promise of providence. What does God’s sovereignty communicate to us in our daily experience?

The book of Daniel is a favorite for many of us, but what’s the message for us? Does it teach us to eat our vegetables? After all, Daniel refused to eat the king’s meat, opting for vegetables. Does it teach us how to tame lions? I hope not. The overarching message is of God’s sovereignty over the kingdoms of mankind, culminating in His establishment of his own Kingdom through his chosen servant, the Son of Man (Daniel 2:44, 7:13). This video will help you understand the structure and message of the book:

As we consider the message of the book, we must start with the setting. Israel had split into two nations: Israel to the north and Judah to the south. The northern nation had rebelled against the Lord, and he gave them over to the Assyrian empire. The southern nation was in a cycle of faithfulness and unfaithfulness, until their sin was such an offense to God that he sent Babylon to conquer them. Nebuchadnezzar took a large part of the population back to Babylon, especially the national leaders. This is where we find Daniel, a young man from the king’s court, possibly a royal, living in exile in Nebuchadnezzar’s court.

So the book brings up the question of how to live faithfully to God while in exile in a foreign land. This is an important question for us, as we live as foreigners, subjects of Christ in the kingdoms of men. This is where Jeremiah 29 (Please read this chapter in preparation for Sunday.) becomes an important text, where the prophet directs God’s people, exiles in Babylon, to pursue the welfare of the nation they are in. Daniel models a humble servant of the Lord living in exile. We’ll explore these two ideas in the book: humble servants of a faithful God.

Sunday, Rev. Chuck Emerson will present Romans 16:25-27, where Paul celebrates God’s gospel mission. It’s important for us to remember that God is on a mission to rescue sinners from his judgment and bring them into his family through Jesus Christ. This mission originates and is carried out by our loving heavenly Father. We are called to participate in this mission as his ambassadors with the church as his embassy. God promises to “strengthen” or establish us in his work through His powerful Spirit.

This is the frame of Paul’s letter, establishing us in the gospel for our own lives so that we can engage in the mission. Paul starts the letter saying, “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you…”(1:11). He ends the letter saying, “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ…”(16:25). The word “strengthen” means to establish. Rooted in the gospel, we engage in effort to communicate the grace of the God to all the nations. Christ for all cultures; all cultures for Christ!

Join us as we celebrate God’s grace in Jesus Christ and join the effort to share the good news with those in East Cobb, Cobb county, Atlanta, and beyond.

The Apostle Paul, one of the most prolific missionaries in church history, traveled all over the Roman world spreading the gospel. The Holy Spirit led him into deeply divided communities. In Jerusalem, the dominant Jewish community resented the occupying Romans. In Roman territories, the Jewish minority was nearly closed off to Gentiles. But in each town, Paul engaged both Jew and Gentile with the gospel, creating a new community known as the church.

Paul had such an understanding of the gospel, that he was able to enter the highly religious Jewish community without distorting grace. At the same time, he could engage the Gentile community without succumbing to temptation or changing the gospel message into accommodation. He says, “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.” (1 Corinthians 9:19-21)

Paul’s ability to navigate both communities was aided by the fact that he was a Roman and yet a trained Pharisee in the Jewish community. But that ability was the result of the present Holy Spirit rooting him in gospel truth. We need this ability! We need to learn cultural wisdom so that we can minister to the different cultures represented in our community. We need the Holy Spirit’s wisdom to help us develop wise interactions that can lead to gospel opportunities. Join us Sunday as we consider the development of cultural wisdom.

Sunday we’re going to continue our Missions Emphasis Month, hearing from Rev. Tony Thomas, a minister at Perimeter Church. Tony will take us to Joshua 1:12-15, where two-and-a-half of the tribes of Israel are granted their inheritance as they enter the promised land. The other tribes still must cross the Jordan River and claim their inheritance. So Joshua communicates to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half of Manasseh, “The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land…but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them, until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as he has to you.” (italics added)

Joshua sees the rest that God has granted these tribes but reminds them of their responsibility to help others find rest. This is true of all the gifts that we receive from the Lord. They are given to us to enjoy and use to bless others. The inheritance that we have in Christ (Ephesians 1:11-14) comes with a responsibility to help others find rest in Christ. This is the gospel call! Join us Sunday as we consider our gospel call.

Sunday we begin Mission Emphasis Month. For the next four weeks we’ll continue to hear from our missionaries, and we’ll hear from guest preachers who will challenge us with our engagement in gospel mission. Church is an interesting organism! Typically, believers join a church that is close in proximity to their home and that shares their beliefs in scripture. Over time, the church takes on the culture of its members. The longer it exists the more that culture is cemented. Before long, the local church has taken on the culture of its members and created institutional and cultural barriers to those God is drawing to himself.

If we’re going to reach out community, especially during this period of migration, the local church needs to examine its culture and practice, considering if it has added to the gospel. Without knowing it, the Galatian church, with a large Jewish membership, had combined their Jewishness with their Christianity. Gentiles were expected to adopt Jewish customs and laws in order to “fit in” to the congregation. It got so bad, Gentiles were being told that they weren’t right with God if they didn’t convert. The Apostle Paul plays no games: this is another gospel, which is no gospel at all.

This week, Dr. Carl Ellis will challenge us to do some self-examination, considering the cultural and institutional barriers we might have created. Join us as we seek to be faithful to our gospel mission.

Sunday we began a short study on the exhortative nature of gospel community. When we join the church, we commit to being part of each other’s sanctification, or progress in Christlikeness. One of the instruments God uses to grow us is our interaction with each other as we urge each other on and “stir up” one another to love and service.

The challenge with exhortation (encouragement) and the more sin specific “admonition,” is that it can put our relationships at risk. This relational risk often keeps us from engaging in these critical conversations which can stunt everyone’s spiritual growth. When we withdraw from thoughtful exhortation, we quench the Spirit who wants to work in and through us. In addition, the person the Spirit wants to “stir up” through our exhortation remains the same.

So how do we engage each other with relational skill, so that we can see the greater fruit of the Spirit? Scripture actually speaks to this in passages like Philippians 2, James 3, and Hebrews 10. Join us Sunday as we consider God’s direction for engaging in thoughtful exhortation.

Sunday we’re going to take two weeks and discuss an important function of our gospel community: exhortation. The church has three primary reasons for her existence: maintaining faithful worship of the true God, expressing the grace of Christ to the world, and building up the people of God. Often churches focus exclusively on one aspect its calling. The evangelical church has become “missional” to the point of minimizing faithful worship and ministering to the body. The reformed church sometimes focuses so much on getting worship right, it can minimize community life and mission. Most common is to focus so heavily on church life that a church becomes ingrown and feels more like a social club.

We believe the Scripture presents a progression: faithful worship should create and stimulate a vibrant community characterized by loving edification (building one another up) which moves out, as love expands to our neighbors. Our text will be Hebrews 10:24-25, where the author says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

The apostle’s emphasis is on our consideration of each other so that we can wisely exhort one another, stirring one another up to greater expressions of love and service. The “consideration” requires knowing each other, which depends on our participation in gathering. Consideration also requires thoughtful interaction so that we stimulate love and service not anger or division. Because exhortation can create defensiveness, it proves to be a “Crucial Conversation.” (Crucial Conversations, Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, Switzler) Crucial conversations are marked by opinions, emotions, and values. Whenever we engage in spiritual conversations surrounding our growth in grace, we handle the fine china of people’s lives and need to be thoughtful.

Join us Sunday as we invest time considering the importance of our interactions in gospel community.

So far in our Advent series, we have examined some of what the Scripture teaches about our adoption into God’s family through sonship in the Son. While we have touched on some experiential elements, like being conformed to Christ’s likeness, it has largely been focused on the theology of God’s gracious work to make us His own. This Sunday we’re going to examine the Scripture’s teaching on the sonship experience. What does sonship mean for us experientially?

Our primary text hints at a change in our experience when Paul says, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” Notice the change in our relationship and particularly the emotion being communicated. First, we don’t cry out, “Maker,” as though he is a distant, unfeeling Creator. We don’t cry out, “Judge,” as though he is constantly evaluating our performance. We don’t cry out, “Santa,” as though he is a gift giver we hope to sway. His is our Creator, a righteous judge, and a benevolent giver, but none of those capture our relationship with him through Jesus. No, our relationship is now joined to the Son of God who gave us His Sonship. While on earth, Jesus related to him as “Father” and now, so do we. How we think about God is crucial to our experience of God.

Secondly, recognize the emotion being communicated. Paul says the Spirit within cries out! This word is a common Greek word that is used in moments of desperation. For example, in Matthew 9:37 two blind men “cry out” as Jesus passes by, asking to be healed, “Have mercy on us Son of David.” In James 5:4, the cries of the harvesters who are being cheated out of pay rise to the Lord and “cry out.” Finally, Jesus “cries out” while dying on a tree, Matthew 27:50. The word carries all the emotion we’re experiencing as we speak to our heavenly Father. The Spirit of the Son knows God as Father and enables us to “cry out” to him with filial emotion.

Through sonship in the Son, our relationship with God has changed. Join us Sunday as we explore some uniquenesses of the sonship experience.

What grace from the Father, that we would be given sonship in the Son. He legally transfers us into his family, spiritually regenerates us making us natural born children, and transforms us ethically so that we share in his holiness. You might be tempted to think, “That’s amazing grace. God has done so much for me.” It’s like getting an expensive Christmas gift that overwhelms you a bit. Well, there’s another gift under the tree. God isn’t done!

Sunday we’re going to look at another aspect of our sonship, “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” (Romans 8:17) Our sonship in the Son anticipates something in the future, an inheritance. Whatever this inheritance is, it is only ours because we are joined to Christ. His inheritance is ours to enjoy. But what is this inheritance? What are we to anticipate?

Being “heirs” has several components to it. One is the resurrection of our bodies and the final, permanent freedom from the corruption of sin. But what good is freedom without the ability to exercise and experience it? That’s like a prisoner being told he’s free to go but his cell is never unlocked. But what if God had something more in store? He does. Join us Sunday and we’ll consider what God has prepared for us in the Son.