This was forwarded to me by my father. I thought it was rather good:
The Ottawa Citizen - Perspective on Bush and Katrina (pdf) by David Warren.
CNN has an article about how the Chinese government is trying to tighten regulations on what people are allowed to blog about on the Internet. It seems that the spread of blogs and other Internet information channels is making headway in information disbursement that traditional media--which is easy to control--can't do.
While the authorities are trying to restrict the posting content of individuals, according to Xiao Qiang--the director of the China Internet Project at the University of California at Berkeley--such regulations, "can intimidate and control some sites, but it's just fundamentally against the way information flows on the Internet.... In the long run, they are still fighting a losing battle."
So blogging is actually contributing to extend the spread of real news and appreciation for democratic process in Communist China; Awesome!
Okay, I want to finish these things out, get my "free gifts" and clean the links off my blog!
I'm offering $10 each to the first two people to have their referral status turn green on my iPod 20 Gig account, and $10 each to the first two people to have their referral status turn green on my iPod Shuffle account.
Just click on the link for the iPod you're interested in in this post--or on on the picture at the top right of this page--create an account, complete an offer, and send me an email with your mailing address (click here or on the link below left to email me). Once you show up on my account as "offer completed" I'll get a cheque in the mail to you. You may not end up with an iPod, but at least you'll get ten bucks out of it. I should mention that if you've already got an account with either offer they won't credit you for signing up with me and they might freeze your first account for it.
I've read through the Terms & Conditions on the site and can't find anywhere that it prohibits my offering an incentive to complete an offer - if you know different please let me know.
One of Abby's teachers in the WCU MA Special Ed. program gave out samples of some AWESOME software that helps visual learners organize data. You can download a free 30-day trial from their site:
I know this sounds like a promo, but I promise we don't get any kickbacks--we just thought that it was really cool. You can brainstorm in a graphical organizer that converts to outline form at the click of a button, export to Word documents, brainstorm web pages (and then export them as html documents to finish up on an html editor), etc. I haven't experimented yet, but I think I can even enter sermon outlines in the outline format and then convert to graphical organizer to have a ready-made children's' bulletin!
I preached for Cornerstone again last Sunday night. Joel came to play the piano for us, and I selected our hymns to span from O Splendor of God’s Glory Bright--attributed to the church father Ambrose of Milan in the late 300s--to In Christ Alone--a hymn written in 2001 by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty--in order to illustrate how Christ has preserved His Church throughout the ages because of His now-and-eternal rule.
It was great to be able to lead worship with Joel in a service like this, as he has helped me a great deal in forming my hymnology to this point.
As usual, I'd appreciate any insight anyone is willing to offer.
Here's my outline:
I. Christ will eventually rule. (1, 5-7)
1. Who the psalm is about:
2. X has been given authority.
3. God guarantees X’s triumph over all His enemies.
II. Christ will rule in the meantime. (2)
1. The fact of Christ’s rule in the midst of His enemies.
2. The call of Christ’s rule in the midst of His enemies.
III. Christ is sending us to exercise* His rule.
1. The duty of Christ’s army:
2. The actions of Christ’s army:
a. The first is participation in secular life.
b. The next weapon is persuasion: persuasion to the reality of the truth.
c. Finally, and most importantly, we must look to prayer.
IV. King and Priest forever: eternal victory guaranteed!
For a PDF click here:
Christ Will Reign Eternal - Psalm 110.pdf
I also experimented with a children's bulletin this time to make things easier to follow for kids because I believe that the sermon should attempt to minister to all present. Here's that file (PDF):
Christ Will Reign Eternal - Psalm 110 - Childrens Outline.pdf
If you'd rather just read the sermon online click here:
“Christ Will Reign Eternal”
- We have looked at how, throughout the ages the Church has been sustained by God to offer Him praises to His glory.
- The reason we have done that is that we are looking at a psalm that spells out for us the certainty of Christ’s rule.
Read: Psalm 110
- This is the most quoted psalm in the NT: it is directly referenced or alluded to at least 27 times!
- And according to the Puritan author Edward Reynolds, it is one of the most comprehensive prophecies of the person & offices of Christ in the OT!
- He saw in it teachings on the Trinity; the incarnation; the sufferings, resurrection, ascension, and intersession of X; communion of saints; last judgment; remission of sins; and life everlasting!
- Now, we’re not going to go quite that deep in our limited time, but I want us to focus on is that: Christ will rule forever. (1-3 & 5-7)
- There are several components to this rule. The first is that:
I. “Christ will eventually rule.” (1, 5-7)
- We see this in v. 1 & 5-7.
- But first we have to establish:
1. “Who the psalm is about:”
- To do that, we need to know who is talking, because who the psalm is talking about rests on that.
- You see under the title that this is a, “Psalm of David” – David is the author. But if that weren’t enough, we have Christ’s word on it as well.
- In Matt. 22 we see the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus. But Jesus deals with their questions and then ask them a question:
Mat 22:41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
Mat 22:42 saying, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David."
Mat 22:43 He said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
Mat 22:44 "'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet'?
Mat 22:45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?"
Mat 22:46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
- So it seems that Jesus thought that David was the author of this psalm as well.
- Now, what we’ve just done is called, “using Scripture to interpret Scripture” – the NT reinforces the OT here.
- But Christ goes on to establishing not only that David is the author, and that this psalm is talking about the messiah, but also that the messiah must be both human—as David’s son; and divine—as David’s Lord.
- This means that, according to this psalm:
2. “X has been given authority.”
- The first “LORD” is the Hebrew YHWH, God’s covenant name. This is referring to the Father. The Second “Lord” is the Hebrew word “Adonai” referring to a person greater than the speaker. Christ has identified for us that it here refers to Himself, the Messiah.
- God is telling Jesus to sit at His right hand now. In the Great Commission in Matt. 28 Christ tells the disciples that, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
- That’s what this is referring to. In the ancient Middle East sitting at the kings right hand was to share His rule.
- An example of this is in Esther: when Esther entered her husband, the king’s court uninvited she could have lost her life.
- And that was just for entering—what if she had sat down?
- You didn’t sit in the presence of kings; unless you shared their power.
- X is being told to sit—at God’s right hand (a further declaration of His equality with God)—wait until God makes His enemies His footstool.
- This means that:
3. “God guarantees X’s triumph over all His enemies.”
- To be “made a footstool” could be a reference to a conquering king’s putting his foot on the neck of the defeated king, or it could just be an obvious allusion to having power over a conquered enemy.
- This is a prophecy of absolute, eternal victory.
- That’s what’s being explained in Phil. 2:9-11:
Phi 2:9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
Phi 2:10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
Phi 2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- Also notice who wins this victory: God does.
- We see this in v. 5-7 of the psalm as well: [read 5-7] (don’t be confused by the swap in positions; Christ on the father’s right hand, and now the Father on X’s right hand—remember that the right hand is a symbol of power. Here the Father’s being on the right hand seems to indicate that He is going forth in power to accomplish the Son’s victory for Him.)
- Because this victory is accomplished by God it is certain—it doesn’t depend on our abilities. But we’ll see in v. 3 that God chooses to use us in accomplishing His victory.
- First though, in v. 2, we see that, not only will Christ rule in eternity:
II. “Christ will rule in the meantime.” (2)
- [Read v. 2] It is important that we understand:
1. “What Christ’s rule in the midst of His enemies means:”
- While we’re talking about X’s eternal victory, we don’t want to start to assume that Jesus is waiting for this to happen to begin His rule.
- We sometimes make a mistake in our thinking: We’ve seen Christ use this psalm to explain that the Messiah is divine and human. Sometimes when we think of the incarnation we think of the baby in the manger.
- Or when this psalm talks of X’s victory over His enemies—and one of the biggest enemies is sin—we think of Him hanging on the cross.
- Or when this psalm speaks of Him on the throne we think of His eventual victory.
- But all of these images are not accurate pictures of where Christ is right now—what this psalm is telling us is that Christ is sitting on the throne of Heaven now; that Christ is ruling in the midst of His enemies now.
- When Stephen became the first martyr in Acts 7 he looked into heaven and saw Jesus, not in a manger or on a cross, but standing at the right hand of God—ruling!
- This is hard for us to understand because earthly kings don’t rule in the midst of their enemies; they make boundaries, and then try to push those boundaries farther and farther out.
- But X’s kingdom doesn’t have boundaries—He rules everywhere, even when it seems that His enemies are in control, He is ruling there!
- And because He is ruling here and now, we have a call to respond to. And it’s important that we understand:
2. What Christ’s rule in the midst of His enemies calls us to:
- It’s difficult for us to believe sometimes that Christ is ruling here and now when we look at the world around us: we’re tempted to say that things just keep getting worse.
- We look at the hopelessness of the secular, postmodern mindset. We see disenchanted people—a culture betrayed by the empty promises of more than a century of scientific modernism—and say, “Where is God?”
- But this is the wrong response. Why?
- Because of what the Father is telling the Son right here! “Rule in the midst of your enemies!” “I’m giving you the victory in eternity, and I’m making you king over the present!”
- This doesn’t give us any license to complain about the condition of the world God has placed us in,
- What it gives us is a call to carry out X’s rule over His kingdom! And to do so joyfully! Because:
III. “Christ is sending us to exercise His rule.”
- What does it mean to “exercise His rule?”
1. The duty of Christ’s army:
- In V. 3 we see that X’s people come willingly, joyfully, as numerous and refreshing as morning dew!
- Luther—in his 120 pg. commentary on these 7 verses—said of the role this calls us to, “we must live in the midst of X’s enemies…. However, it is not the meaning of this verse [that is, v. 2] that we physically resist our enemies, which is part of the thinking of the Anabaptists and other rebels. In His Kingdom Christ has nothing to do with secular power and government. Nor are we Christians able to defeat and subdue the devil and the world by means of physical power and weapons.”
- Luther’s answer was that we are to fight for Christ by suffering, by faith, and by the preaching of q’s Word.
- James Boice says, “The church has always gotten into deep trouble when it has tried to Christianize society, as if the secular world could be made Xian. From time to time believers suppose they can impose their idea of a just society on other people by enacting laws and proscribing civil penalties for those who break them. This is not our calling. Paul pointed out the right way when he wrote to the Corinthians, ‘For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. (2 Cor. 10:3-4)’”
- Psalm 110 is about a victory, but also about a war. It’s a war that is completed on the Day of Judgment, but that is being fought now, all around us. We are the soldiers in that war.
- The outcome is already guaranteed, but we are still ordered to fight: to fight by winning people who are naturally enemies of Christ over to the Army of Christ.
- So, how do we apply this to our lives?
2. The actions of Christ’s army:
- Dr. Boice suggests several weapons for the fight:
a. “The first is participation in secular life.”
- We are not to shoot from the sidelines. We are to connect with the world, become involved in it, relate to it. If we want to effect something, we have to get to know it. And not just from a distance.
- Get to know your neighbors, join a hobby club, become a mentor at a local school or help coach in their sports program, volunteer at the hospital or with the reconciliation program.
- Look for opportunities to become involved in the lives of people outside the community of the faithful.
- It is only in participating in the lives of people that we can come to know them well enough to really show them the truth of Christ’s kingship in our lives.
b. “The next weapon Dr. Boice suggests in our battle to win enemies to the side of the victory is persuasion: persuasion to the reality of the truth”
- But not just any persuasion: not just checking off the, “I told them, I’m no longer responsible” box. Persuasion that focuses on reaching the person—not just relieving our guilt.
- If we really believe the gospel—if we really believe that the carnage described in vs. 5-7 when Holy God finishes the war against His enemies will one day happen and we want those around us to be on the winning side, we can’t settle for just saying, “I told them. My job is finished.”
- We have to know them, we have to relate to them, we have to speak their language.
- Paul knew this. He said to the Corinthians in chapter 9 of his first letter, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”
- If you really care, don’t just sate your conscience; do something that matters!
- Why do we seek to sate our consciences by communicating in less-than-adequate ways? I think there are two reasons: (1) apathy, and (2) fear.
- (1) When we throw the gospel at someone and walk away in self-righteous satisfaction at their rejection, we aren’t seeking to win that person; we’re winning the right to say, “I did my job.” Either we don’t believe that the judgment we read about in this psalm is real, or we believe it’s real and we don’t care that the person we just pushed away is going to suffer it. If that is our attitude, I think we need to consider carefully which side of the war we are actually on.
- (2) The other reason we use the gospel like a club sometimes it that we are scared.
- Have you seen teenagers dressed all in black wearing trench coats and white paint on their faces? They are called “Goths” – the white paint is called “corpse” paint.
- We tend to say they do this because they want attention—even negative attention.
- But this isn’t quite right in most cases. Christian psychologists say that they are so afraid of being rejected for who they are, that they want to offer some other reason for being rejected.
- We’re often like that with our evangelism and approach to the world; we’re afraid of how people will respond to what we have to say, so we harden ourselves with the unpleasant-ness of our message from the beginning.
- We try to boast about how harsh the gospel is sometime. Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not saying we should be preaching people a false, “health and wealth” gospel—“Jesus loves you and will give you anything you want.”
- But often it seems we try to make the gospel unattractive so we’ll look better for not really trying to reach others with it!
- When we do that we’re missing the beauty of what we have to tell our world: it’s the whole point of this psalm—God is going to have the victory! We don’t need to fear rejection because our God is going to carry the day!
- When Paul became “all things to all people” it wasn’t out of a subservient need to please others, it was out of a God-inspired confidence that gave Paul no need to protect himself: he could be a servant to all because he first served the ruler of all.
c. “Finally, and most importantly, we must look to prayer.”
- The rule of Christ in the midst of His enemies and the future victory of Christ over all his enemies means that we can call on His power now, and for eternity.
- When we’re having trouble believing the fact of His rule we can call on Him for the faith to be faithful.
- When we’re confronting those who—as far as we can tell now—are going to eventually be part of His footstool, we can call on Him to change their hearts and bring them over to His side of the battle.
- We can pray because the God who came to earth as a baby and defeated sin in His death on the cross is alive and sitting on the throne of Heaven today, ruling today.
- And we know He can answer our prayers, not only for now, but for all time because he will rule forever!
IV. King and Priest forever: eternal victory guaranteed!
- I will only touch briefly on v. 4 tonight—there is way too much here to deal with in the little time we have left—but I want us to see that, in addition to being our King now and forever, Christ is our priest now and forever.
- What does a priest do? He goes to God for the people—X is doing this and will keep doing this forever!
- The truth that I want us to see tonight throughout our service, as we bring our worship to God by His grace—is that God can allow us to come before Him because we have a great High Priest who is defending our case before the Father now and forever.
- He will preserve us and use us to bring triumph to Himself through us now, and forever.
- As we come together to lift up our hearts in worship, we do so as a small unit, a little force, in a vast army that stretches backward through time and forward into eternity.
- When we fight this war we remember and celebrate the victories that Christ won through our ancestors in the past, but we also look forward to the victories He is winning through us today, and will win through our spiritual descendents in the future.
Prayer:
- Father: that You give Christ victory eternity and now.
- X: that You are our King and our priest.
- That you preserve Your Church – through the past, today, and into the future.
- HS: apply this to our lives, let us live in celebration of your rule.
We went to a wedding in a former Soviet block nation last month, I just had to tell you all it was in the States because we wanted to stay incognito. Here's a pic of the highway entering the city:
Okay, just kidding, it was actually Dallas Texas, and I'm assuming the symbol is supposed to make us think of the "Lone Star State" - it just looked a little spooky to me. I don't think the Texans are converting to Bolshevism any time soon though...