BLOG OF DAN

Field Notes of an Ordinary Pastor

Social

FIELD NOTES (26/5/T)

by

26/5/T

Catch up with all the FIEC Leadership in Lockdown webinars.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Support Gracemount Community Church by getting some gear from eat the crumbs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Collin Hansen: “We are so often disappointed by God not giving us what he never promised us.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matt Smethurst: “Jesus never tires of forgiving those who are tired of sinning.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Andrew Wilson: “Matthew: “But having crucified him” Mark: “And they crucify him” Luke: “There they crucified him” John: “Where they crucified him” “In all comparable literature, has so crucial a moment ever been phrased so briefly and uninformatively?”—Raymond Brown”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is not too late to support this Kickstarter campaign to produce a new Psalter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dustin Benge: “5 things I would tell my 14-year-old self when I first entered ministry: 1. Ministry will be hard, persevere. 2. People will be difficult, endure. 3. Sin will haunt you, kill. 4. Joy will elude you, fight. 5. Christ will always love you, rejoice.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve Lawson: “There are only two kinds of preachers. Those who preach the Bible. And those who need to resign.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matt Merker: “I’m grateful for streamed sermons… but I really miss the *gathered* sermon. There’s nothing like the moment when a church listens to the God of the universe speak when the Word is preached. Together, we hear the Spirit address *us* as a congregation. Can’t wait.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robert Barry King: “Tonight many pastors are thinking about how their recorded services for tomorrow lack the professional quality they desire. May I remind you of Shamgar of old?  He started where he was. He used what he had. He did what he could. That was enough for him. That is enough for you. Let no man despise your YouTube.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roger Carswell on how to share the gospel everyday, even during lockdown.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isaac Adams: “Our job is to proclaim salvation, not produce it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dick Lucas: “People cannot know Christ better without knowing the Scriptures better.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Word One to One can be done online.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tim Keller: “God will either answer your prayer by giving you what you ask for, or what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dustin Benge: “Astronomers estimate that there are 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the known universe. God determines “the number of the stars,” and “calls them all by their names” (Psalm 147:4). The wonder is not that He names these stars but that He knows your name!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Matt McCullough: “A love you cannot earn is a love you cannot lose.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All the sessions from the recent Together for the Gospel conference are available to watch or listen to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam Allberry: “Jesus didn’t come to scold us. He didn’t come to excuse us. He came to forgive and redeem us. He is not a wagging finger, or shrugging shoulders, but outstretched arms.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gerald White: “Sin never takes a day off so, 1. Remain alert. 2. Remain armed. 3. Remain aggressive.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pray for your pastor:

THE KING’S STORY (3)

by

The King’s Story – The King Curses

Download my teaching handout as a pdf

More teaching handouts can be found HERE

(Photo: MILKOVI)

SERMON: PSALM 24

by

Sermon I preached on Psalm 24 at Banstead Community Church on 24th May 2020.

Download MP3

1. The One we follow can enter heaven

2. The One we follow has entered heaven

More sermons can be found HERE

(Photo: Georgy Roy)

LATEST LINKS

by

10 links to check out over the weekend…

(Photo: Ryan McGuire)

A PRAYER BASED ON PSALM 16:2

by

A prayer based on Psalm 16:2.

Heavenly Father,
We worship You.
We praise You.
We give our thanks to You.
We adore You.
For You are the fountain of life and of joy.
Apart from You we have no good thing.
Without You as our Lord through faith in Jesus we have no happiness or delight that will satisfy.
How foolish we are then, to have chased, even in this last week, after joy in created things, good gifts, rather than You our Creator and Giver.

We thank You that You have made known to us the path of life.
The way to be saved through the gospel.
We thank You for granting us repentance and faith, for drawing us to Christ by Your Spirit.
And for making us Your children and placing us in a local church.
It really is a great joy to be part of Your people.
We thank You for this church and all its members.
For the encouragement they are;
the friendship they offer;
for the care and love and support they give;
and the concern they have for us and our perseverance in the faith.
We thank You for the way they serve us;
model Christ to us;
and the example they set for us.
Lord, help us to love each other deeply, remembering the depth of Christ’s love for them.

Gracious God,
There is really so much we can give You thanks for.
The countless blessings You flood our lives with.
We have been given so much.
We are not in want with You as our Shepherd.
We can say that boundary lines have fallen for us in pleasant places.
But we are conscious that we don’t want seeds of discontent to rise up within us.
That the danger of not being satisfied with what we have is real.
That the world exerts pressure on us to want more and more and more.
Help us then to learn the secret of being content in any and every situation;
whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
That if we have Christ, we have all we need.

And yet You desire to shower us with more grace by giving us the hope of great blessing to come.
A delightful inheritance.
Entry into the new heavens and new earth.
Eternity in the place the One who loves us and who gave Himself for us is preparing for us right now.
That because of Jesus’ resurrection,
because You did not abandon Him to the grave nor let His body see decay,
our future resurrection is guaranteed, and one day we will experience a deeper joy than we have ever known.

Help us, by Your Spirit, to keep our eyes always upon You.
That when hard times come, we don’t lose our joy;
that neither difficulty nor disappointment would snatch it away;
and that knowing You are with us would be a constant source of delight.

Amen.

(Photo: Freely)

A PRAYER BASED ON ACTS 2:37-41

by

A prayer based on Acts 2:37-41.

Our Lord and Christ,
Rescuer and Ruler,
Judge of all.
who died and rose again;
who is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty,
who is making His enemies His footstool,
and who will return to save and destroy.
We are in awe of who You are.
You are worthy of our worship, of our love, of our trust, and of our obedience.
We are filled with gratitude for what You have done for us.
Opening our eyes to see You as You truly are.
Convicting us by Your Spirit of our sin;
of the hurt and offense this has caused to God;
of the desperate and dangerous position we are in.
But also amazing us with Your grace.
Transforming our hearts so that we could respond to Your initiation to “Come!”
To come and receive forgiveness.
To come and be reconciled to God.
To come and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
To come and receive the wisdom and guidance and love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control that we need to live as the people You made us to be.
To come and receive eternal life.
We praise You for this wonderful work You have done in our lives.

But this certainty, this hope that we have, causes us to grieve and be concerned for those who don’t have this assurance.
For those, Lord Jesus, who are still Your enemies.
who are still against You;
rebels to You will and way.
Cut them to the heart we pray.
Holy Spirit, You, who convicts the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment, do this powerful and penetrating work, so that they see how vulnerable they are.
How helpless they are.
How desperately they need a Saviour.
Give them a terrifying awareness of what will happen to them at their deaths when they will face Jesus as judge and give an account to Him.
And in Your mercy, change them into new creations, who turn from sin to trust in the only Saviour.

God, You take no pleasure in the death of anyone;
You command everyone everywhere to repent and live.
Save friends, family, neighbours, strangers in this community and beyond, people of every nation from this corrupt generation.
Thank You that the promise of forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit to all who repent, is for us, for our children, and all who are far off.
Today, we plead with You to add to Your church.

Amen

(Photo: Freely)

A PRAYER CONFESSING OUR SINFUL NATURE

by

A prayer confessing our sinful nature.

Our God,
We are ashamed.
We want to hide from You.
For we have sinned against You.
Our iniquities have risen higher than our heads.
Our guilt has reached up to the heavens.
In the light of Your goodness and greatness and glory, we have every reason to cry out, “Woe is us, for we are ruined.”
And “Unclean, unclean” like the leper under the law,
How can we stand before You, our Lord, our King?
You are a consuming fire.
We humble ourselves before You, painfully aware that we have sinned Father, against heaven and against You.
That we are not worthy to be called Your children.

Yet You invite us to seek You and to call on You.
To forsake our wicked ways and evil thoughts.
And to turn to You with the promise that You will have mercy and freely pardon,
because with You, Lord, there is forgiveness;
there is steadfast love;
there is plentiful redemption.
You will be faithful and just and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So, Father, we confess that we are sinners by nature and by choice.
Because of Adam’s disobedience we are sinful since the time we were conceived.
We are rightly called rebels from the womb;
children of wrath, and along with everyone else, we are sons of disobedience.
We have all turned aside from Your original purposes for us.
We have fallen short of Your glory – the glory You intended for us to display as those made in Your image.
Filthy, vile, and helpless are we.
And before You the righteous judge to whom we are accountable, we deserve nothing but condemnation.

God be merciful to us, we pray.
Our hope is in You.
Salvation is from You alone.
Deliver us from all our transgressions.
Cleanse us from all our unrighteousness.
Wash away our sins.
Remove our guilt.
Declare us innocent in Your sight.
Graciously forgive the great debt we owe to You as we trust in Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ;
the One who came to save His people from their sins;
who was has redeemed us from the curse of law by becoming a curse for us;
in order that Your blessing might come to us.

We thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your sinless life.
That You never fell short of Your Father’s glory.
That You kept the law and did so on our behalf.
We thank You, that You died in our place, for our sins, experiencing the wrath of God, so that we never will.
We are truly amazed that You would do this for us.
What grace and love which is undeserving!

We magnify You and praise You, our mighty Saviour’s name.

Amen.

(Photo: Freely)

22 TAKEAWAYS FROM WORD AND SACRAMENT IN LOCKDOWN WEBINAR

by

Notes from an excellent FIEC Leadership in Lockdown webinar on Word and Sacrament in Lockdown with John Stevens, Julian Hardyman and Matt Lillycrap.

1. We are a pilgrim people making a journey through the wilderness from our redemption to our entrance to eternal life in the new creation. It is an arduous journey in a hostile environment. Do we have the resources to make it through the wilderness? Yes, our God has provided for us.

2. God meets our needs in the person of the Lord Jesus Himself, the bread of life. He is all we need to get to our destination. We need to feast on His propitiatory sacrifice. To share in and benefit from His sacrifice on behalf of His people. True saving faith will always be continuously exercised.

3. Word and Sacrament, Preaching and Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the means through which God’s people feed on Christ and His sacrifice. Hearing the spoken gospel word and seeing the visible gospel word help our congregation feed on Christ.

4. Our responsibility is to distribute to the people what God has provided for them. Our work of preaching and administering the sacraments or ordinances is the way we feed God’s people with what He has provided so they can make it to the Promised Land.

5. We are experiencing a kind of out of season preaching (2 Timothy 4:2) where it is hard for preacher and hearer. The task remains the same. Our people continue to need correcting, rebuking, strengthening, comforting, encouraging by the Word. Be prepared to preach the word out of season.

6. Online preaching is not the same as preaching in real life. Online preaching is clearly going to be important in the interim and it is for us.

7. People are experiencing our preaching mediated in a different way. “Embrace the medium.”

8. When preaching online, think about where you look. Look at the lens (not the screen). Let the lens look at you (between eye and mouth level is a must). Look away from the lens (otherwise you will come across as too intense).

9. Sound is important.

10. Speak to people. We are talking to people, not just a machine. Remember they are in a different situation to normal as well. They are in their front room not as part of a crowd.

11. Watch the comparison game. We preach for an audience of one. We preach for God’s glory above all else.

12. Consider preaching shorter sermons. Consider preaching shorter texts. Make sure you apply.

13. Preaching isn’t the same, but the people are. They know you. They love you. They know that you love them. The pastoral relationship is still their even if you struggle with the tech. You will be feeding them. You will be preaching the word to them out of season.

14. When it comes to administering the sacraments in a lengthy lockdown, there will be a diversity of views within FIEC, and maybe within our church leadership and our congregations.

15. It is worth considering our current practice. What do you do? Why do you do it? Who has authority to administer them? How important is it that they are done as a church together as a whole?

16. What are your biblical convictions? There is a difference between convictions that are absolute (sinful to do or not do); ideal (in changed circumstances is something else permissible); pragmatic (what could we change if circumstances change); and tradition (things we’ve got used to).

17. Baptism is essentially individual, but we treat it as corporate. Lord’s Supper is essentially corporate, but we treat it as individual.

18. On this issue of whether to administer the sacraments online, we may feel more personally constrained than the freedom the gospel allows.

19. It is vital we consider our congregation. Will what we do edify and unify? What will be lost by not celebrating the sacraments or by celebrating them online? What will be gained by doing this in a different way?

20. Do not condemn those who take a different view to you in good conscience. Do not look down on those who don’t think they are free in the gospel to act in this way. Do not destroy others for the sake of your freedoms. Do not make a decision on the basis of human approval or disapproval.

21. Here is an opportunity to reconsider and reaffirm your ecclesiology. Especially the place and importance of the physical gathering.

22. If you decide to administer the Lord’s Supper virtually, use a platform that maximises opportunity to be present and by which you get a sense of the corporate body. In this, Zoom is more communal than YouTube.

26 TAKEAWAYS FROM LEADERSHIP AND LEGACY

by

Here are 26 things I noted down from the FIEC Online Local Conference on Leadership and Legacy with talks from Johnny Prime on ‘A Leadership Legacy to Imitate’ from Hebrews 13:7, and from John Stevens on ‘A Leadership Legacy to Avoid’ from 1 Peter 5:1-4.

1. Hebrews contains words of exhortation designed to keep us going as disciples of the Lord Jesus.

2. Deliberately thinking about the legacy of former Christian leaders will encourage us to persevere.

3. Leadership in the church is uniquely leadership by speaking the Word of God.

4. The Word of God which leaders spoke to us is the message of salvation in the Lord Jesus that we are to put our faith in, persevere in, must not drift from, and be encouraged by. Remembering involves thinking about the significance and implications of what the leaders did – their faithfulness in speaking the Word of God in spite of the pressure around them not to.

5. Make a list of those leaders who spoke the Word of God to you. Those who pleaded with you passionately to trust in the Lord Jesus and follow Him wholeheartedly.

6. Consider means looking at what they taught and how they lived. Consider those who were completers – running with perseverance the race marked out for them, throwing off sins that so easily entangle, fixing their eyes on Jesus.

7. We are to persevere by faith not by sight. But we benefit from and are inspired by real life examples of those who persevered by faith.

8. You are impoverished if you don’t read biographies, especially of those like Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

9. Imitating leaders does not mean idolising them or putting them on a pedestal or doing everything they did like they did. All Christians leaders have flaws. It is their faith in Jesus and hope in Him that we are to imitate.

10. Human leaders are always replaced; Jesus is never replaced. Pastors are only temporary; Jesus is always Head of the church.

11. We are legacy receivers and also legacy givers.

12. Leaders who didn’t persevere are examples to avoid and not follow. Yet we can remember what they taught us about Jesus and remember that it is faith in Him not the leaders that keeps us going.

13. The Bible warns against the danger of abuse in ministry. It is vital that this warning is heeded because leaders 1) are given authority over the church; 2) minister to vulnerable people in the congregation; and 3) have experience and theological understanding that can impress or intimidate younger Christians.

14. Abuse happens because of the reality of sin.

15. In Christian ministry there are false pastors who deliberately set out to abuse and there are fallen pastors who don’t fight sin and give into the temptation to abuse.

16. Culture is challenging us to recognise abuse in pastoral ministry. Culture wants to expose, punish, and prevent abuse. It is essential that every church has a safeguarding policy in place.

17. Covering abuse up prioritises the reputation of the church over care for victims.

18. Spiritual abuse describes something the Bible condemns – the misuse of power in pastoral office or in the language of 1 Peter 5, lording it over others. Examples of this include exercising coercive control over others; bullying; offering friendship and closeness and threatening to withdraw it if don’t comply; strong control over congregation’s lives – where live, who marry, whether they should go into ministry; adopting absolute insistence on issues not laid down in Scripture e.g. home-schooling, dress code for church, dating rules; believing they are above contradiction; not allowing people to disagree or reject counsel. In the past this would have been called heavy shepherding.

19. Ordinary Biblical counselling is not spiritual abuse.

20. We need to guard against abuse. This will involve guarding our hearts (fighting sin fiercely, scrutinising our motives, following Jesus’ example), guarding our teaching (abusive teaching makes wisdom and opinion the word of God, making our opinions law for their lives), guarding our practices (in personal discipleship of others meet in public places at sensible times for limited duration; share pastoral care with others). If we recognise the tendency in our lives, we must get help.

21. Take abuse of all kinds seriously. It damages churches, dishonours Christ, and harms victims.

22. Pastors need other leaders to whom they will submit to. The danger is that we read Hebrews 13:17 and think that it does not apply to us. It is an instruction to all believers. I need to submit to my fellow leaders in the church.

23. “Omissions make way for commissions.” I am most in danger of doing what God calls me not to do, when I fail to positively obey what God calls me to do.

24. If we don’t actively obey 2 Timothy 2:2 we are in danger of saying it is all about me.

25. None of us are sufficient for the task but we have a God who equips (Hebrews 13:20-21). Our God is an expert in making us fit to do all He calls us to do.

26. How can we leave a right legacy to pass onto the next generation? Only as He equips us to.

KIDS TALK: BIG QUESTION #15

by

This is part of a series of kids talks I’m doing in the morning service at Banstead Community Church based on the New City Catechism.

Big Question #15 – Who is the Redeemer? [NCC Q20]

Powerpoint Pictures: Book Covers – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Matilda; A Bear called Paddington; The Hobbit

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I want you to see if you can guess the name of the hero I’m describing from some well-known children’s stories.

Here’s the first hero.  He is a talking lion.  He is the true King of Narnia.  He is killed by the White Witch on the stone table but rises from the dead.  It is ASLAN from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Here’s the second hero.  She is a 6 and half year old girl.  She likes reading books.  She is able to move objects with her eyes and make them float in the air.  It is MATILDA from the book Matilda.

Here’s the third hero.  He is from Peru.  He loves marmalade sandwiches.  He was discovered in a train station in London.  It is PADDINTON BEAR from the book A bear called Paddington.

One final hero.  He is sometimes referred to as a halfling.  His home is in the Shire.  He goes on adventure which involves a dragon.  It is BILBO BAGGINS from the book The Hobbit.

In the Bible there is also a hero.  The Redeemer.  And this is brilliant news for us.

Because having learned that God will not allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished, that He is righteously angry with our sin and will punish us both in this life and in the life to come, there is a way to escape punishment.

God reconciles us to Himself by a Redeemer.

We can be saved from God’s judgment in hell because there is a Redeemer who has taken what we deserve so that we can be friends with God again.

Who is this redeemer?  That’s the question our Big Question today asks.  Let’s look at it now…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Q: Who is the Redeemer?

Who is the only one who can reconcile us to God?

Who is the only one who fits the description of what this redeemer will be like found in the Old Testament?

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)

The only person who can take the punishment of God we deserve and make it possible for us to be in right relationship with God is Jesus Christ.

He is the hero of the Bible.

He is the mediator.

The one who can bring us and God together.

So, the answer to the question, ‘Who is the Redeemer?’ is this.

A: The only redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s say the question and answer out loud together.

Who is the Redeemer?  The only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Children when you go out to Sunday School you’re going to learn a song that will help you to remember this.

SERMON: PSALM 23

by

Sermon I preached on Psalm 23 at Banstead Community Church on 17th May 2020.

Download MP3

1. The LORD was Jesus’ shepherd

2. The LORD can be our shepherd

More sermons can be found HERE

(Photo: Georgy Roy)

THE KING’S STORY (2)

by

The King’s Story – The King Creates

Download my teaching handout as a pdf

More teaching handouts can be found HERE

(Photo: MILKOVI)