I must follow, if I can: August 2007 Archives

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August 25, 2007

Invitation

Sovereign Joy Christian Fellowship meets at the Dorothy Johnson Center in Chapmantown, 775 E 16th Street, at 10 AM beginning tomorrow, August 26. Patrick Mathers will be beginning a series of messages on the gospel of Matthew.

If you are not already plugged in to a Bible-believing church, or if you are but are still free to come support us with your presence on our first Sunday, we would love to have you.

So, what's Sovereign Joy all about? Our mission statement is, "to worship God in all of his glory, enjoy him in all of his fullness, spread a passion for his truth to all peoples, that Jesus might be praised forever." And we commonly follow the mission statement with this comment: "To this end, we are committed to proclaiming the whole counsel of God contained in the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible."

We don't seek to "compete" with other churches, or to promote the special "thing" about us that sets us apart or makes us different from them. We desire to preach the gospel of God's grace overcoming sin in the death of Christ on the cross. And all churches should do this.

Okay, now where does the name come from?

Augustine's Confessions, Book IX, Chapter 1:

"Who am I, and what is my nature? What evil is there not in me and my deeds; or if not in my deeds, my words; or if not in my words, my will? But thou, O Lord, art good and merciful, and they right hand didst reach into the depth of my death and didst empty out the abyss of corruption from the bottom of my heart. And this was the result: now I did not will to do what I willed, and began to will to do what thou didst will.

"But where was my free will during all those years and from what deep and secret retreat was it called forth in a single moment, whereby I gave my neck to thy 'easy yoke' and my shoulders to thy 'light burden,' O Christ Jesus, 'my Strength and my Redeemer'? How sweet did it suddenly become to me to be without the sweetness of trifles! And it was now a joy to put away what I formerly feared to lose. For thou didst cast them away from me, O true and highest Sweetness. Thou didst cast them away, and in their place thou didst enter in thyself--sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, but more veiled than all mystery; more exalted than all honor, though not to them that are exalted in their own eyes. Now was my soul free from the gnawing cares of seeking and getting, of wallowing in the mire and scratching the itch of lust. And I prattled like a child to thee, O Lord my God--my light, my riches, and my salvation." (emphasis mine)

"True and highest Sweetness" is rendered "Sovereign Joy" in another translation. That's where our church gets its name. Augustine's theology reached its fruition in the Protestant Reformation, with Luther's war-cry of salvation by grace alone. We can't help but do what we desire. And we can't help but seek to do and cherish the things which bring us the most joy. But the Bible teaches that apart from God, our desires are decidedly against him. But God has the sovereign power to overcome our desires for evil and replace them with desires for himself. The Westminster Catechism says, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." He is our ultimate joy, and nothing else will ever satisfy our souls. When he becomes our joy, our desire, we can't help but live our lives in a way that glorifies him. But it cannot be done on our own. It requires a change of heart.

"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from fall your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." Ezekiel 37:25-27 (ESV)

Aaron
www.sovereignjoycf.org

Posted by aaronlord at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2007

My first viral video (if you can call 280 views viral...)

Just a while back, I posted a video talking about Mark Driscoll's banned church planting video, and how after I watched it, the Lord convicted me to stop wasting my time playing World of Warcraft, and I started focusing my attention on reading some good theology books, encouraging Pat to take up the mantle of Pastor, spending lots of time with the home group I've been a part of since I moved back to Chico (which I was also a part of before I left!), and learning some old hymns on the guitar; all of this working towards planting our new church, Sovereign Joy Christian Fellowship.

Last Friday I started noting a rapid increase in the number of views my video was getting. Now, I know it's only like one-tenth of a percent of the kind of exposure that people like Nalts or Perez Hilton get, but still—it's a lot for me!

A handful of people from the Mars Hill community in Seattle e-mailed me to thank me for the video, saying it was a great encouragement to them. Scott Thomas, director of the Acts 29 Network, was the one who actually journeyed to Florida to bring the ill-fated DVDs to the conference, and he dropped me a short note to tell me my testimony made the whole fiasco worthwhile!

Then I got another comment from someone on the video team, who was also very encouraged to hear that the video was actually making an impact somehow. From this, I figured someone up in Seattle must have been passing my video around, and that must by why I got so many views... Turns out, Mark Driscoll himself apparently watched it and got a kick out of it, and then he posted a link on their church's private member-only forum!

Awesome! Although I am a little embarrassed now that I know he's seen it, because of all those times I leaned into the camera and said, "This guy's hardcore!" But it's super encouraging to learn that I'm being an encouragement to them, you know? It's like a special kind of encouragement that goes both ways, because when they express how encouraged they are, it reciprocates and I am encouraged right back! This is like a super-cool trick that Jesus designed into the body of Christ that somehow is much too rare these days!

You can watch it here if you haven't already, and make sure you rate it 5 stars!!!

It sure would be nice if the Resurgence would approve it on YouTube page as a video response to the original Driscoll video. That's probably how they found out about it in the first place, because I submitted the video as a comment. But it's not showing up on their page... Oh well. God is sovereign! And it's not about us anyway!

Posted by aaronlord at 10:14 PM | Comments (1)

August 15, 2007

New church website online

We have a temporary website set up for Sovereign Joy Christian Fellowship, located at www.sovereignjoycf.org (I hope it's obvious what cf stands for). The website is pretty simple at the moment, with our mission statement, a note about where and when we're meeting, a link to our Sunday night Bible study podcast, and a contact form if you need more information. But we plan to add a multi-author blog, our statement of faith, a links page that points to a lot of helpful resources and partners in the faith, etc.

Please come and visit us on our first Sunday, August 26! Pastor Pat is going to being teaching through the book of Matthew, Lord willing, and will be beginning with an overview about the numerous ways God glorifies Himself throughout the book.

Posted by aaronlord at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

August 6, 2007

New Sovereign Joy podcast

Here is the link for the new podcast feed for the Sunday night Bible study in 1 Peter. Sorry, we're already half-way through chapter 3! Also, the computer somehow stopped recording about 10 seconds before "in Jesus name, amen," so Pat's closing prayer is cut short.

Subscribe with iTunes

For those who don't have iTunes, here's a direct link to the xml file.

Posted by aaronlord at 9:49 PM | Comments (0)