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
