Family Worship Weekends

There's a beautiful story in the gospels of parents bringing their children to Jesus so that he would bless them. The disciples shooed the children away, thinking that God's work through Jesus was too important to be wasted on these little ones. But Jesus rebuked them, and even used the faith of the little children as an example for his disciples.

Too often, we in the church have an attitude toward the children that resembles that of the first disciples. We want someone else to watch our kids so that we can go into the sanctuary, where God is really at work. We think of children's ministry as free babysitting. But that's not Jesus' heart for kids, and it shouldn't be the heart of the bride of Christ, either.

At Ember, the people who serve in Children's Ministry aren't volunteers. They're pastors. That's what we call them, because we believe that it is their God-ordained responsibility to shepherd the children for the hour+ that they're in their care. It's far more than just volunteering your time, it's loving kids in the name of Jesus. It's how we embody Jesus' call, "Let the children come to me", 70 generations later.

We also think it's crucial that kids see how their parents receive the word of God and respond to him, so on a regular basis we have Family Worship Weekends. (I say this like we've been doing church for a long time.) Family Worship Weekends are where we close down all Children's Ministry and bring all of our kids into the sanctuary to worship with the adults. The goal is for families to learn how to worship together.

It may take us some time to figure out how to do this well, but we believe this is an investment in the long-term health of the kingdom of God, as well as in the spiritual development of the youngest generation of Christians. This Sunday I'll be preaching a Children's Sermon, in addition to our regularly scheduled sermon from the book of Jeremiah. Come join us...and bring your kids! Sundays @ 5pm, 401 E. Schrock Rd.

Sermon Recap: Return! Return! Return!

This past Sunday night at Ember I preached a sermon called Return! Return! Return! It was the third message in our series on Jeremiah, called Run with Horses. The text was Jeremiah 3:6-4:4. I originally preached the sermon in three parts, broken up by a song of reflection and communion, but you can listen to it all the way through in the sermon player on this blog.

The point of the message was that God is calling us to return to him, but we can't come back to him on our own terms. We must come back his way, and his way involves three commands to return.

RETURN IN REPENTANCE

First of all, we must return in repentance. We can't pretend like nothing has happened. We don't get to ignore the fact that our sin and idolatry has severed our relationship with God. We have to admit that we are wrong, that we have sinned, and we must be truly sorry for it. We can't get back to God unless we first repent of our sin.

RETURN THROUGH GRACE

Secondly, we must return through grace. We come back to God by walking through his grace. We don't make it back to God by our own moral goodness. We can't restore our relationship with him through our own guilt, promises to reform our ways, or our good deeds. A restored relationship with God only happens because of God's grace, manifested by faith in his Son Jesus Christ.

RETURN TO GOD

Finally, we must return to God. The goal of our return is God himself, and a renewed and restored relationship with him. He's not taking us back to some over-idealized version of the past. It's not that we're going back to a time before we had all the baggage we do now, it's that we're finally moving forward with all of our baggage in tow, but now God himself is with us to carry it, redeem it, and use it for good.

This is how we return to God. And he is always ready and excited for us to return. As he says at the end of this passage, "If you will return, then return to me."

Ember Monday

Our third service is in the books! It was a really sweet time of worship and communion. The band played one of my personal favorites: But For You Who Fear My Name by The Welcome Wagon. It's probably one of those songs that you have to get used to before it can become a worshipful encounter, but it's worth it! Garth was rocking it out on four different instruments: the banjo, acoustic guitar, piano, and pump organ! All at the same time! ...Okay, maybe not at the same time, but he's still awesome!

The sermon was on Jeremiah 3, and I broke it up into three parts. Each part went with one of three "Return" statements from the passage. We celebrated communion during the sermon, which was the first time we had done that as a church.

All in all it was another great time of worship. This coming weekend is our first Family Worship Weekend, where we have all the kids with us in the sanctuary for the service. I get to write my first ever children's sermon! I'm so excited...and I have no idea what I'm going to do for it!

God has been so good to us. We're praying for his continued faithfulness on this faith venture. If you want to hop on board with us, come out and worship with us this Sunday. God is on the move, and we're doing our best to keep up with him!

Why Justin Verlander Should Win the AL MVP

I know the baseball season isn't over yet, but that hasn't stopped anyone from arguing about who should win the American League MVP award. Clearly, at this point in the season, Justin Verlander is the best pitcher in baseball. This is where JV ranks in the crucial pitching categories (via ESPN.com):

• 1st in AL in W (19)
• 1st in AL in IP (209.2)
• 1st in AL in SO (212)
• 2nd in AL in ERA (2.28)
• 1st in AL in WHIP (0.88)
• 1st in AL in W% (.792)
• 2nd in AL in CG (4)

That's Cy Young material, no doubt about it. But what about MVP material? That's the hot debate at the moment. Should a pitcher win the MVP award? Starters only pitch in about 35 out of 162 games, so why should they be taken seriously as MVP candidates?

I think, at this point, Justin Verlander should be given strong consideration for AL MVP. Not only is he more valuable to the Tigers than any other player is to their team, but he has also dominated the other MVP candidates this year. Take a look at how he's performed against the leading AL MVP candidates in 2011:

Adrian Gonzales (BOS) 0-6, BB, GIDP, 2 KO
Michael Young (TEX) 2-4, 2B
Jose Bautista (TOR) Hasn't Faced
Jacoby Ellsbury (BOS) 1-7, BB, KO
Curtis Granderson (NYY) 0-4, BB, 2 KO
Dustin Pedroia (BOS) 0-7, KO

Total 3-28, 2B, 3 BB, 6 KO

The leading MVP candidates in the American League are hitting a combined .107 against Justin Verlander with six strikeouts. Their on-base percantage is a combined .194, and their combined slugging percentage is .142. Add those two last numbers up and you get a combined OPS of .336.

Justin Verlander has dominated--and that's an understatement--the best hitters in the league. In 28 head-to-head matchups with the leading MVP candidates in the AL, Justin Verlander has blown them away. If you're looking for a reason to vote Justin Verlander the American League MVP of 2011, look no further than his stats against the other candidates for the same award. Give that man the trophy!

Sermon Recap: Broken Cisterns

This past Sunday at Ember we continued our sermon series through Jeremiah with a sermon called Broken Cisterns. The text we looked at was Jeremiah 2:1-3:5. The sermon audio has been posted to the sermon player on this blog, which is where you'll be able to find all of our sermons until we get our podcast up and running.

The point of the message was this: Where you go when you're in trouble (or distress, or depressed, etc.) is the clearest indication of who you're trusting for salvation. The god of your heart is to whom you cry out in distress, "Save me!" The trials of our lives reveal the idols of our hearts.

TROUBLE REVEALS TRUST

Our idols are the things that we cherish and desire more than God. Tim Keller absolutely nailed it when he said:

[An idol] is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.…An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, ‘If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.’…If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol.

When trouble comes, we react to our circumstances based on what is in our hearts. If our hearts love money, sex, power, or any other false god, more than God himself, then that's where we'll look for rescue when we are in distress. Trouble reveals trust.

The only hope we have is that Jesus Christ would transform the desires of our hearts through the power of the gospel. All of our idols are broken cisterns--there is no life in them. But we have access to God, the spring of living water, through faith in his son Jesus Christ. And it is through faith in Jesus that we learn to desire the ever-present spring more than the empty and broken cisterns.