Pastor's Blog

• This was our 4th week at the Morrow Center, our new Sunday worship venue, and we’re loving every minute of it!
• This Sunday was also the first week that we adjusted the arrival times for various teams within our service ministries. Band & tech teams, children’s workers, and coffee bar crew still arrived at 8:15am, while ushers, greeters, and parking lot teams didn’t arrive until 9:00am. The set-up of all environments didn’t miss a beat and the folks who got to arrive a little later really seemed to appreciate it.
• Technical problem. The Morrow Center director took the day off and his assistant worked with us. She was unable to get the grand ballroom projector to power up so we were unable to use it to display words during worship or during the message. She was really upset that she wasn’t able to power it up for us (she was actually crying, and she called her boss and asked him to come and assist her) but we were just fine. In fact, Sunday turned out to be one of the most powerful worship gatherings we’ve ever experienced in the life of our new church.
• Sunday’s set list: Lord You Are Awesome, Better Than Life, Glorify Your Name, and In This Place.
• At the end of worship, we prayed for Joseph Calhoun, our 17 yr old acoustic guitar player, and his family. Joseph’s mom passed away last Friday night. His dad, brothers, and a few other family members came down front as the Holy Spirit ministered to them powerfully during that time of prayer.
• The message I preached was part 3 of our exegetical journey through the Book of Galatians. We walked through the first 25 verses of Galatians 3, Paul’s defense of Justification by Faith Alone (sola fide).
• We closed the service with Communion and altar prayer, while the band and worship team sang Everything.
• This upcoming Sunday we move into part 4 of our “Free at Last!” series, Galatians 3:26-4:7.
• …Hope to see you Sunday!

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Hope Churchers,

This video speaks to our core value that lost people matter to God, therefore, they matter to us. Let it inspire you, as it does me, to fill it this Sunday… Who will you invite?

I am a chair from buckheadchurch on Vimeo.

Sometimes, what is not said speaks more loudly than actual words. The silence, as we say, is deafening. In the opening verses of his letter to the churches of Galatia, the apostle Paul employs this communication technique to underscore the seriousness of the subject at hand. As he does in all of his letters, Paul begins by identifying himself as the author, naming the intended recipients, and pronouncing a blessing on them (Gal. 1:1–5).

It is what comes next that is so uncharacteristic for him. Immediately after his introductory comments, and before launching into the body of the letter, Paul writes…nothing. He offers no expression of gratitude to God for them or words of encouragement about their spiritual vitality.

When compared to his other warm greetings (for example, Rom. 1:8; 1 Cor. 1:1–5; Eph. 1:15–23; Phil. 1:3–11), what Paul does not say to the Galatians speaks volumes.

He leaves no doubt about the seriousness and urgency of the topic of his letter. His burden is to explain and defend the true gospel of God’s grace. He launches into the subject early and writes with a fiery tone, employing sarcasm, threats, warnings, and rebukes to get his points across.

Like a soldier rushing into battle with guns blazing, Paul immediately begins contending for the truth of the gospel. His purpose is not simply to win a theological argument. Rather, he is determined to fight for the spiritual lives of the Galatian believers.

Getting the gospel right is crucial. It is a matter of spiritual life and death. If you miss this, it does not matter what you get because you will miss God.

Paul understands this and therefore strongly refutes the false teaching of those who have begun to undermine the Galatians’ confidence in the simple gospel that he had preached to them.

That message is all about the finished work of Jesus Christ “who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal. 1:4).

The gospel that Paul preached to them proclaimed salvation by grace alone received through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

This message is great news for sinners because it reveals that salvation, from first to last, is God’s work and not dependent on anything in us. It eliminates any basis for pride as well as any cause to despair. Those whom God saves are made right with Him not because of anything they have done or not done, but because they have been “called…in the grace of Christ” (v. 6).

On the one hand, the worst of people are genuine candidates for salvation because the only way that God saves is by grace. On the other hand, if the most respectable people are to be saved, it will not be because of any goodness in them but, again, only by the grace of God.

No wonder Paul was “astonished” to learn that the Galatians were so quickly and easily being led away from the gospel of God’s grace (v. 6). The false teachers insisted that trusting Christ was not enough — to be right with God, a person must also keep certain Old Testament ceremonies. But adding to the gospel is just as disastrous as subtracting from it. Both “distort the gospel of Christ” (v. 7).

Any change in the message of Jesus Christ turns it into “a different gospel” (v. 6) that keeps people from knowing God. This is why Paul writes with such passion, warning the Galatians never to tolerate anyone — not even an apostle or an angel — who would dare to preach as the gospel any other message than salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, plus nothing. 

Twice Paul says that any creature who distorts the gospel should be “accursed.” He literally pronounces “anathema” on such a person (v. 9). Those who spread false gospels are worthy of God’s damnation.

Paul intends that his use of such strong language should have a sobering affect on us. Misrepresenting the gospel is serious business. Those who believe false gospels will wind up in hell. Those who teach false gospels deserve nothing less.

The churches of Galatia were very young when Paul sent them this letter. Yet, he expected that they — all of the members and not just the leaders — would be doctrinally alert enough to discern the true gospel from counterfeits.

This is the responsibility of every Christian. Like sheep who will follow only the voice of their shepherd, we must learn to recognize the simplicity and fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and refuse to tolerate any teaching that deviates from it.

Our very lives depend on it.

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On his blog, John Pethel wrote…

What comes to your mind when you think of the glory of God? His great works? His excellencies and perfections? His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ? Certainly, God’s glory is displayed in these ways. But that is not all that the Bible means when it speaks of the glory of God.

The Old Testament word for “glory” comes from the Hebrew word for weight, or heaviness. The idea behind it suggests substance and importance. For example, when Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers in Egypt, he instructed them, “So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.” In other words, he wanted his greatness, his privileged position and exalted status and power, to be reported to Jacob.

In the New Testament, the word “glory” conveys the same idea. A man’s glory is his good reputation. It is that about him which is praiseworthy. Jesus uses the word this way in Matthew 6:2, “Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” These people made a production of their giving so that the greatness of their generosity would be observed by many people.

So when the Bible speaks of the glory of God it is referring to His worth, his and honor and greatness. Or, when this word is used of God, we could say that His majesty or supremacy is in view.

All of creation has as its goal and purpose the glory of God. He created everything for His own glory. Everything that exists has its existence from God and for God. Romans 11:36 says, “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

John Calvin was correct when he said that creation is the theater of God’s glory. Because this is true, we exist for the glory of God. And just as the inanimate creation has been called to glorify God, so have we. The inanimate creation and the lower animate creatures, bring glory to God simply by being what God created them to be.

As Psalm 19:1 teaches, by virtue of their mere existence the heavens declare the glory of God.

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Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20.

This Sunday we baptize here at Hope Church. It’s special because this Sunday happens to be the most important date on the Christian calendar – the day that we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on the third day after His crucifixion. It’s special because this will be our first water baptism since Hope Church launched on January 31 of this year. It’s special because there are some very special people being baptized…believers in our faith community ranging from 15 yrs old - 62 years of age, each having a unique story and testimony of how Jesus saved them from a life of sin, confusion, and dead religion, who are all following Jesus’ command to be baptized.

It’s special because Jesus will be glorified.