Christianity and Science
Here’s a link to audio and resources from my talk last night on Christianity, science, what happens when science gets married illegitimately with atheism—and how we as believers need to remember God is in charge of the world, not the other way around.
January 2012
January 29, 2012 – Sermon: Michael Howard
January 25, 2012 – Sermon: Chris Konicki
January 22, 2012 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
January 15, 2012 (PM) – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
January 15, 2012 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
January 11, 2012 – Sermon: Aaron West / TJ Woodfin
January 8, 2012 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
January 4, 2012 – Sermon: Tim Marshall
January 1, 2012 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
The Way Forward in Worship Ministry
When you read this, my time of pastoral ministry at Seaford will have ended. I can barely remember the time before I served at Seaford. I was 27 years old when I began. I will turn 50 in a few days. Over that time much has changed in the worship ministry at Seaford. When I was hired, Pastor David Smith asked me to transition our worship into a more contemporary style. We did that very slowly. When I came back in 1996 after three years of serving at Bay Rivers Community Church in Denbigh, we sped up the pace considerably. That December we used a live band for the first time and never looked back. Over the years, the worship ministry has grown significantly beyond my wildest dreams at the beginning of my ministry here.
Seaford now faces its biggest transition in the worship ministry in 16 years. As you might imagine, Dennis and I have spoken often about this circumstance. Over the last two years his message to me has been consistent, “Gene, I really want you to stay, but if you are leaving, you have to help us make the transition.”
For many years, I’ve been meeting weekly with a volunteer worship planning team. Essentially every week, these folks come and eat lunch with me at their expense for the purpose of planning worship, encouragement and functioning as the worship ministry staff. Any church would be thrilled to have a group of leaders like this: Ed Bell, Scott Beasley, Terry Roberts, Kerry Gough, Laurie Elder, Mark Robinson, and Lei Collins. Others participate occasionally either in person or by email. It’s tempting to think that they could just pick up the ministry and go. However, in spite of their high functioning, each would tell you that the group needs a leader. Each has a clear role within the group, but no one person can step up and do the various parts of my job relative to worship ministry. I’ve been doing this work for so long, there are too many details that I cover that come second nature to me. I have long believed thatSeafordneeds a person largely devoted to the worship ministry. Over the years, I’ve taken on and developed many other responsibilities. I would estimate that only 25% of my actual work time gets devoted to worship ministry tasks. I believe that a person who could give something more like 75% to the worship ministry could realize much untapped potential within this ministry.
In terms of worship staff leadership, there are three time based needs. The furthest out would be a permanent worship pastor. That’s obviously months away and requires Personnel Committee action and a church vote. The intermediate need would be for an interim worship ministry leader. Hiring an interim requires only Personnel Committee action. However, there is an immediate need in these first Sundays in January. That need does not require either committee action or church vote. Dennis has asked me specifically to help with this need and I have prayerfully developed a plan.
Israel Kim is a 4th year worship ministry student at Liberty University. He is available to assist beginning on Sunday Jan. 8.Israel and his wife Chloe have a sweet spirit and Israel is a gifted worship leader, singer, guitarist, and pianist. However, he cannot help on Wednesday evenings due to a direct conflict at school. The band has capable leadership in Scott Beasley and has long rehearsed without my direct involvement. However, the worship choir needs a leader. Linda Reviea and Kerry Gough have led from time to time, they are great substitutes, but don’t have the time required to lead weekly. Katie Howard (Michael Howard’s wife) will lead choir through January only. Katie has a degree in music from Belmont University and is more than qualified to play this role in spiritual maturity, personality, and giftedness.
What happens beyond January will involve the Personnel Committee, the worship planning team, and the pastoral staff in decision making to provide for leadership of Seaford’s worship. I have tremendous hopes for the worship ministry of this church. It is not easy to step away from such a group of people who love God, love to glorify God through the work, and who love the work itself. I ask you to pray for them through this transition time. Furthermore, I ask that you would put feet to your prayers. Each of these ministries needs passionate committed servants. Though we have strong people in every area, we have always needed more. Right now, this is especially true in computer operator for projection and the worship choir. And, even though they sounded amazing in our recent Christmas production, we’ve always, always needed more singers in the worship choir. If you would like to be contacted about getting more involved or have a question about the worship ministry, please send an email to worship@sbc-va.org or call the church office.
In Christ,
Gene
December 2011
December 25, 2011 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
December 24, 2011 – Sermon: Aaron West
December 18, 2011 – Sermon: Gene Cornett
December 11, 2011 – Sermon: Michael Howard
December 4, 2011 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
If Christianity Were My Religion, I Wouldn’t Thank God for the Cross
If Christianity were my religion, I wouldn’t thank God for the Cross. But it’s not my religion, and on Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, I will be giving God all the thanks I can give him for the Cross of Jesus Christ.
I know I need to explain that, and I will. I wasn’t just trying to get your attention with that provocative opening; there’s a crucial truth in it, too. I think you’ll see what I mean after I clarify the idea of “my religion.”
Choosing Our Religions
We live in a world of religious pluralism. A recent Gallup poll says that 70% of North Americans believe that many religious could lead you to God. The Pew Forum surveyed Americans who belong to various religions in 2008. They found that 57% of Americans who attend Bible-believing churches (evangelical or black churches, in their study) believe that many religions can lead to God.
If Seaford Baptist Church is typical, then more than half of us believe there are plenty of good ways to get to God. Although that group has decided that “Christian” or “Baptist” is their religion, they believe they could have chosen something else instead.
Those 57% of evangelical Americans generally believe their choice of Christianity is an expression of their personal preference. Maybe it has to do with their culture, upbringing, friends in church, or what they’re comfortable with. As far as spiritual life goes, though, they think they have a choice, and the choice they’ve made is evangelical Christianity. They picked it out, and it’s their religion.
For my part, I follow Jesus Christ and his teachings, to the best of my capacity in Christ. I am a Christian. I do not, however, consider Christianity my chosen religion. I didn’t choose it off some religious clothes rack; I didn’t say, “I don’t really feel like a Buddhist or a Muslim for this life; I’m a traditional American, so the Christian thing just seems to fit me better.”
No, I didn’t buy it and I’m not trying to make it my own. Christianity is too big, too grand, too filled with God for that. I am a Christian because the one God has called me to relate to him in that unique way.
So as you see, my opening statement hinges on what i mean by “my religion.” If Christianity were my choice from a list of options, if it were my religion in that sense, I wouldn’t thank God for the cross.
History’s Most Despicable Act of Injustice?
How could I? Remember how at Gethsemane Jesus prayed that this cup could pass from him? He was asking the Father (though he knew the answer already), “Couldn’t there be some other way?!” He was arrested in humiliation and betrayal. Couldn’t that have been avoided? He was humiliated in trials before the Jewish court, Pilate, and Herod. Did he really have to go through that? He was mocked, beaten, tortured. Was that really necessary? He was hung on the Cross until he screamed the agony of forsakenness; and he died. Why, God? WHY?
Why? Because he loved us and wanted to bring us to God, and because there was no other way.
What if there had been another way? What if these 57% believe correctly that Christianity is one of many true ways to God? Then it should never have happened. The cup should have passed from the hand of the Son of God. There would have been no need for his brutal passion experience. Far from being something to thank God for, the Cross would have to been the worst of all needless atrocities in history.
Do not, I repeat, do not say, “All religions lead to God, but since I’ve grown up a Christian, I’ll follow that path for myself.” Do not make Christianity your religion that way. If you do, it is as if you are glorifying history’s most despicable act of cosmic cruelty. If you think there are multiple paths to God, then for Christ’s sake (I mean that reverently and literally), don’t choose Christianity! Don’t choose the religion that includes his torture and execution!
Or History’s Most Astonishing Declaration of Love and Justice
The question hinges on whether Jesus really did die on the cross for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. If he did, then we can be sure he did it because it was the only way to God. He said so himself in John 14:6. I am convinced that he did; that the God who created us entered human history in the form of a child who grew to be a man; who taught, healed, and demonstrated a life given wholly to God; and who died on the Cross, was raised from the dead, and was glorified into heaven.
I am convinced he did it because it was the only way we could come to God. He did it for love; for the joy set before him, knowing the life it bring to us whom he loves. He was willing to endure it because it was necessary in order to reconcile humans to God. The Cross was good, but it was only good because it was the only good way to bring us to God.
I do not follow Christ because Christianity is my religion of choice. I have chosen to follow Christ, yes; but that doesn’t make Christianity my religion. It’s God’s. It’s his initiative, it’s his action, it’s his grace, it’s his revelation, it’s his plan; and I’m thankful he has given me grace to enter into the relationship he has called me to.
For that reason, tomorrow on Thanksgiving, as an every other day, I will humbly and heartily thank God for the Cross of Christ, where I was rescued from death. I thank God, too, that the story did not end in death, but in resurrection, glory, and a mission for us to pursue until Christ returns.
Finally: If like me you are thanking God for the Cross, but at the same time you’re trying to hold on to the impossible belief that other religions can lead to God, it’s time to make your choice.
Also at Thinking Christian
Fusion Sermon for November 16th
Last night at Fusion, we continued to look at 1 Corinthians 1:18-21 for the second straight week. While we focus on verse 18 last week, we focused on verses 19-21 last night. The theme of last week was that the Cross divides. On one side you have those who see the Gospel as folly and on the other side you have people who see the Gospel as the power of God to save the lost. This week we talked about how the Cross conquers and saves.
Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14 in 1 Corinthians 1:19. Throughout all of Scripture, we see God destroying the wisdom of the world with His wisdom. In 2 Kings 5, God takes a powerful Syrian named Naaman and makes him bob up and down in a river seven times in order to be healed from his skin disease. In Acts 9, He takes the very Paul that is writing to Corinth and blinds him with a vision. In the midst of all of Naaman’s rank and all of Paul’s religiosity, they were left in a position where they needed good, biblical child-like faith. In quoting this verse from Isaiah, Paul is simply highlighting a theme of the Bible. God shames the wise with what is base, God shames the strong with what is weak.
This leads into Paul calling out three figures from his own society that still exist in ours today.
Where is the wise man?
The wise men of Paul’s society were the Sophists, Platonists, Stoics, and Hedonists. Our students many not encounter a Stoic when they are walking their halls at school each day, but I know who they do encounter. They encounter the friend or teacher that says science has won the day and faith is no longer needed. They know the evolutionist who has evolved right out of their relationship with the Church. They know the person who is educated to the point of being a bit offended by a God of holiness who judges with righteousness.
Many in our society today believe that they don’t have to worry about the grave because their education has taught them that the grave is just a hole in the ground. However, they have a sin problem that books, degrees, and knowledge cannot fix. Knowledge is good when it is rooted in Jesus and His Word, but knowledge in itself will not save a faithless man.
Where is the scribe?
Scribes were the teachers of the law. They were the religious elite of Paul’s day. Where is the religious man? Paul is obviously writing with a Jewish scribe in mind, but we have plenty of religion men today as well. Whether it is Buddhism, Mormonism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Atheism, Agnosticism, or Jehovah’s Witnesses–there are a lot of people trying to work their way to some sort of spiritual freedom. You can work and work and work, but in the end, when the grave calls, how has your work dealt with the debt you have in righteousness court with a holy God? It won’t.
For example, let’s say there is a man who is caught speeding. He was going 90 in a school zone. He is facing heavy fines and maybe even a little jail time because this isn’t his first rodeo. He can stand in front of the judge and list off all of the good things he does outside of speeding, but any judge who has been sworn to uphold the law will punish the transgression. God is no different. If you break the eternal law of an eternal God, there must be eternal punishment.
Where is the debater of this age?
In the ancient world, debaters were movie stars. Everyone wanted to hear these guys talk and see them debate. They lived their lives based on these celebrities and their words. Little has changed. There are more students in our schools living in light of the messages of Eminem, Kim Kardashian, Brad Pitt, the Jersey Shore crew, and MTV as a whole than the message of the Bible. If that wasn’t true, our schools would look a whole lot different. Here is a line that hurts: If that wasn’t the case in our own student ministry, our student ministry would look a whole lot different. Ouch.
But these celebrities can’t even save themselves from their own sin. When I stand in the check-out line at the grocery store I am surrounded by stories in tabloids about how these people’s lives are absolutely falling apart. How can we expect them to save anyone else from their sin? Even Oprah. Especially Oprah.
In all of these questions Paul is saying, where is your power? All of these things that people rely on for hope and salvation are empty. The Cross, the thing that the world calls folly, conquers that which the world calls wisdom. My prayer is that last night our students heard that and stopped putting faith in some of the things that they had knowingly or unknowingly been relying upon for hope and salvation.
Finally, in verse 21, Paul tells us about how God is pleased to save people through this s0-called foolish message. Why is that? Why does God want to save through a message the world sees as foolish. I think the answer is found in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29. It is how God works. He knows that no human can boast in His presence in anything but Jesus because when we look at the Gospel, who else would get credit for our salvation? We were dead in sin, no chance of salvation, no ability to respond to God and He called us our of darkness to have faith in the Son He sent when we were still His enemies. God has designed His plan of salvation for His glory. The Cross conquers and the Cross saves for the glory of God and the good of His people.
Fusion Sermon for November 9th
I will try and post all of our lessons for Wednesday nights, whether it be for Fusion or Crash, on this blog. Time escaped me last week, but hopefully I can keep up from here. For the next two weeks, our Fusion text will be 1 Corinthians 1:18-21. This week we will look at how “The Cross Divides.” Next week we will focus on how “The Cross Conquers” and “The Cross Saves.” This week we will target verse 18.
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (ESV)”
In Paul’s day, the message of the cross was non-sense. The God of the Universe chose to send Himself in the form of His Son to die a criminal’s death? Crucifixion was reserved for the worst of the worst and it wasn’t even something people talked about in polite company. It was the electric chair. It was a noose.
Though our modern culture associates the cross with Jesus and faith, the message is still folly to a perishing world. The instrument Christ died on may not be as abnormal, but the idea that we would need a Savior in the first place is still a joke to many ears. We live in a world where people believe, with every bit of their Oprah-listening hearts, that they are good enough for God. The cross-centered message of repentance and faith is offensive to their moral adequacy.
On the other hand, the cross is the power of God displayed to a believer. We see God flexing His muscles and showing Himself to be strong enough to rescue His children through His death and resurrection. It is not a joke, it is hope.
I believe that all things important in life can be explained through professional wrestling. I grew up loving the sport…that is right–sport…when it was more pure and undefiled. In recent years it has become much more Jerry Springer than Jerry Lawler (some of you just got that). With that said, I will never forget the first time I watched the main event from Wrestlemania III. Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant. Hogan challenged the big Frenchman to a test of strength in the middle of the ring at the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit, MI. Andre got the better of the Hulkster at first, but then Hogan hulked up and displayed his superhuman strength. He ended up overpowering the Giant and dropping him to his knees. Eventually he picked him up and threw him down for the “Body Slam Heard Round the World” and retained his WWF World Championship. The four year old Pastor Michael was estatic. I will never forget Hulk flexing his muscles after the match. He had defeated evil.
When I look at the cross, I see evil defeated. I see the devil body slammed. I see victory for Christ and all who are on His side through repentance and faith. Again, the cross is not a joke. It is our only hope.
Tomorrow night I will challenge our students to realize that though they may say the cross is the power of God displayed to them–their lives may say the cross is a joke to them. If the cross is power to you, that power should be working itself out in your life. Is God’s power seen in your relationships, your respect for your parents, the things you treasure, the way you use your tongue, the way you read the Bible, the way you give, and the way you pray.
Maybe we are getting closer to the spiritual stance of some of our students if we say they “respect the cross.” Unfortunately, Jesus didn’t die for your respect. A Lord doesn’t want respect, He wants everything. I am looking for the student who will drop everything in order to surrender at the cross where the power of God was displayed in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Michael
November 2011
November 27, 2011 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
November 20, 2011 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
November 16, 2011 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
November 13, 2011 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
November 9, 2011 – Wednesday Sermon: Gene Cornett
November 6, 2011 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth
Removing/Retiring 2009 & 2010 Sermons
Removing 1.52Gb of 2009 & 2010 audio files to make room for the ones we need to post for 2012. This will allow all to get the sermons they want and still not gobble up server space.
Note – these are not being deleted, just removed from the web server. Any links to these will be lost on the site and internet…so if you want them, come and get them! This will be complete by the end of this month.
October 2011
October 30, 2011 – Sermon: Gene Cornett
October 26, 2011 – Sermon: TJ Woodfin
October 19, 2011 – PM Sermon: Matt Wilkins
October 17, 2011 – PM Sermon: Matt Wilkins
October 16, 2011 – PM Sermon: Matt Wilkins
October 16, 2011 – Sermon: Matt Wilkins
October 12, 2011 – Sermon: Gene Cornett
October 9, 2011 – Sermon: Aaron West
October 2, 2011 – Sermon: Dennis Hollandsworth