Sola Deo Gloria

November 5, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

God wants to be glorified in your church service! That’s probably a “Duh!” statement, right? After all, who would disagree with that one?

But did you know God also wants to be glorified when you’re eating your dinner? And when you’re out with your friends? And when you’re on your job? And in your marriage? And in your private thought life?

Sola Deo gloria means that everything we do is only for the glory of God.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Sola Deo gloria means that there are no sacred/secular compartments in your life. You don’t have some activities that are for God and other activities that are not for God. All of life is for Him and for His glory.

“The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples when men and women do all to the glory of God! Then divine service is not a thing of a few hours and a few places, but all life becomes holiness unto the Lord, and every place and thing, as consecrated as the tabernacle and its golden candlestick.” —Charles Spurgeon

It borders on arrogance for me to say, “God, this is what I’m going to do and I want You to bless it.”

A better way to say it is like this: “God, what will bring You the most glory as I go to work? Or have a conversation with a friend? Or enjoy an evening out with my spouse? Or spend some time watching TV?”

What will bring You the most glory? If you ask this question, the Holy Spirit will answer it. Instead of you asking God to bless what you are going to do, He will show you what He’s already blessing—the ways in which He will be most glorified—and then you can go do that.

Try it this week: Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you can bring glory to God in all that you do. Sola Deo gloria!

If you have missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here.

UPDATE: After posting this, I ran across a video from John Piper about God’s glory and I wanted to share it with you…

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Sunday Recap

November 4, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

I know we covered a lot of ground today in part 5 of the Sola series. Several folks have asked me to make available the resources I shared this morning, so here they are. Enjoy!

The “Sola pyramid” shows how each of the sola statements build on each other, pointing to the apex of God’s glory.

  • Sola scriptura is the foundation because it gives us the authority of God’s Word on which we build all the other statements.
  • Faith comes by hearing the Word (sola scriptura) and so it leads to the understanding of sola fide.
  • God’s mercy is extended to us in justification, but then his grace is the amazing, above-and-beyond gift to us in sola gratia.
  • We remember grace with this acrostic: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. So grace is possible sola Christo—only through the work of Jesus Christ.
  • Jesus Himself said that all He did was to bring glory to the Father, so sola Deo gloria becomes the penultimate focal point of everything else.

Here are the quotes I shared:

“We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things; but when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered. The sun of God’s glory was made to shine at the center of the solar system of our soul. When it does, all the planets of our life are held in their proper orbit. But when the sun is displaced, everything flies apart. The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at the center.” —John Piper

“The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples when men and women do all to the glory of God! Then divine service is not a thing of a few hours and a few places, but all life becomes holiness unto the Lord, and every place and thing, as consecrated as the tabernacle and its golden candlestick.” —Charles Spurgeon

“If God’s glory is the only all-satisfying reality in the universe, then to try to do good for people, without aiming to show them the glory of God and ignite in them a delight in God, would be like treating fever with cold packs when you have penicillin.” —John Piper

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16, Amplified Bible)

And, finally, here is the picture of George Friederic Handel’s signature on all his music. “S.D.G.” is Sola Deo gloria, which appears before the initials “G.F.H.” of his own name.

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Bright Lights

November 1, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

One of the things Jesus said about Christians was that we are to be the light of the world. That means we need to be involved in our communities, visible to our neighbors, so the light of Jesus can shine out from us.

That’s just what we did last night for our third annual Light The Night event.

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I am so grateful to all of the folks at Calvary Assembly of God who donated candy and prizes, those who filled hundreds of bags with all that candy, and those who came out to greet our neighbors and run the games. Because of the rainy weather, we moved our event indoors, and so I am extremely thankful to Pastor Mary Ivanov who opened the United Methodist Church’s gym for us to use!

Whether it’s a public event like this or not, I pray you will always let your light shine for Jesus!

(Thank you Delbridge Langdon Jr. for supplying some of our pictures from last night.)

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Nicest Of Compliments

October 30, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

On Sunday my amazing church took some time to express their appreciation to me. It was very humbling and gratifying to hear how God has allowed me to invest in the lives of such wonderful people.

After the service, I was munching on some cake and talking with some folks. I approached one lady in our church to ask about a situation in her life. It turns out that the situation I was asking about was one of those “tip of the iceberg” things. She then proceeded to unload all of the frustrations she’s been carrying around over the past couple of weeks.

It was nice hearing the kind words of my congregations, but this lady’s rant (that was her word for it) was one of the nicest compliments!

Why do I say this? Because she felt comfortable enough to lose the mask, drop the pose, and be real!

Read the Psalms and you will see how many times the psalmists let loose in God’s presence. They tell God how difficult things have been, how many bad guys are out to get them, and how rotten they feel. They unload all of these raw emotions in His presence, and that is the first step toward receiving God’s healing.

In the New Testament, Christians are encouraged to bear one another’s burdens, but that’s awfully hard to do if we keep our burdens to ourselves.

Church should be the safest place for us to unload the burdens we are carrying! That’s why I felt like I received such an amazing compliment when this precious lady felt secure enough to share what was really going on.

I pray that you have a church or Christian friends with whom you can unload your over-taxing burdens. And I pray that you can be the church where others feel safe enough to trust you with their burdens.

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Sola Christo

October 29, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Sola Christo means that it is by Christ’s work alone are we saved. We must get this firmly in our minds, and be aware of anything which reduces Christ, augments Christ, or replaces Christ. 

I don’t believe in studying cults (the counterfeit). Instead, I study the Real, the Authentic, the One and Only. I want to know Jesus so well, that I can easily spot a counterfeit.

God is Spirit (John 4:24)

Jesus is God made flesh (John 1:14)

God is invisible; Jesus is the visible representation of the Godhead (1 Timothy 1:17; Colossians 1:15; Isaiah 9:6)

There’s no way to the Father but through Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

Jesus wasn’t created; He is Creator (John 1:1-3)

Jesus isn’t a greater angel; He is God (Philippians 2:6)

Jesus isn’t a superior human being; He became a human to save us (Philippians 2:7-8)

Jesus did have a physical body (Luke 24:39)

Jesus did feel pain, experience emotion, wrestle with temptation; get tired and hungry (Matthew 4:2; Matthew 26:38; Hebrews 4:15)

Jesus actually physically died on the Cross and was actually physically resurrected (1 Peter 3:18; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 12-28)

Jesus is fully Man and fully God without diluting either of them (Matthew 3:16-17)

Jesus is…

Creator

Sustainer

Savior 

Redeemer

King

Judge

Lord

That’s my King!

If you have missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here.

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Sola Gratia

October 22, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Another great thought that the Reformation brought us is sola gratia—salvation is by grace alone.

If you are a Christian you have probably said something like, “I thank God that I’m saved!” This is a wonderful thing, but it’s also an incomplete statement. In order to fully appreciate God’s grace, and in order to have a full testimony for others, we need to work on completing this statement.

We’re saved FROM the punishment of justice.

We’re saved TO eternal life.

We’re saved FOR God’s glory.

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)

—Saved From Death— …it is by grace you have been saved…

—Saved To Eternal Life—…God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…

—Saved For God’s Glory— …in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace…

You can fully appreciate the incomparable riches of God’s grace when you understand all that your salvation includes: from, to, and for. Look at the incredible testimony of grace that the Apostle Paul had in the from, to, and for thoughts in his statement in 1 Timothy 1:12-17.

That’s the same type of testimony we can all have! Don’t just tell people, “I’m saved!” Tell them how God’s grace saved you from the penalty of your sins, to eternal life in Christ, and for the glory of God.

If you have missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here.

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Sola Fide

October 15, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Out of the Reformation came five sola statements—five statements that tried to bring people back to the purity of the gospel message. This week as I studied to prepare my message on sola fide (justification with God by faith alone), I was struck by how in need of another reformation we are today!

That shouldn’t be surprising, because satan is always trying to so sneakily get us off track. So he gets people believing that they don’t need faith in God, that God is a myth, or if He does exist, He’s really not that involved in our individual lives. For these people, satan tries to get them to buy into this lie:

Works > Faith

In other words, what you can do for yourself is more important than the faith you can place in anyone (or in The One).

Some people might accept that the approach to God is through faith, but then they feel they have to add something to their faith in order to stay in God’s good graces. These people have bought into the lie:

Faith + Works 

And then there are some that go to the far extreme of thought that faith means utter inactivity on their part. They have received forgiveness from God, so now they can just sit back and enjoy the ride to Heaven. They’ve bought into satan’s lie:

Works ⊈ Faith

In other words, now that I have faith, I don’t have to work anymore. Or even, the more faith I have the less work I have to do. (The mathematical symbol ⊈means faith is not a part of work, nor is work a part of faith.)

The Scripture is clear that you cannot buy your justification by working for it, nor can you keep it by adding works to your faith; however, faith does indeed require work for it to grow and mature. 

The Westminster Confession says it this way:

Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.

The bottom line:

Sola Fide = Faith Works

Faith works in justification. Faith works in the atonement. Faith works in sanctification. Faith works in love.

If you have missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here.

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“Whatever It Takes”

October 11, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

As a pastor, I have no greater joy than receiving notes like this! This is from a teenager in our church—

Dear Church,

Since I have been here I have thought about how my life was before Christ came into my life for good. He has made some of my prayers come true. Like when my friend let God into her life, so she will no longer feel the way that she felt before that day that she came to church with me.

I love what God has done for me and my friend, and for everybody in the world. For the people that don’t know, I will do whatever it takes to let them know what God has done for the world.

Amen!

May we all do whatever it takes to tell the world about the love of our Savior Jesus Christ!

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Light The Night

October 9, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

There are so many encouragements that Scripture gives us to make a difference in our world:

  • Jesus tells us to be salt that seasons and light that brightens (Matthew 5:13-14).
  • Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven (Matthew 5:16).
  • Shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life (Philippians 2:15-16).
  • So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

We should look for opportunities to do shine every day. But sometimes there are even more appropriate times to do so. One such time is Halloween … Hallow’s Eve … Reformation Day. October 31 used to be a day that glorified God. Now, sadly, it has become a day to glorify anything but God.

So Calvary Assembly of God will be lighting the night again this Halloween. We will put on the best, brightest, friendliest carnival of the evening right on Main Street in Cedar Springs! We have a prayer team going out 24 hours before this event to pray for protection and favor, and to pray for open doors through which the light of Jesus will shine on October 31.

Here’s how you can help:

  • Pray. Start now and pray through October 31.
  • Bring some candy to the church through October 28.
  • Come pray with us at 5pm on October 30.
  • Signup as a volunteer to shine with us from 4-8pm on October 31.

We’re believing the light of Jesus will be seen as we Light The Night!

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Sola Scriptura

October 8, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Of all the other sola statements that came out of the Reformation, sola scriptura has to be one of the most foundational. Without a firm understanding of the truthfulness of God’s Word, all other doctrinal statements are without authority. Sola scriptura means that we use the Bible as our authoritative guide for everything in our lives.

Jesus confronted the religious leaders for their misuse and abuse of Scripture. The Sadducees had a tendency to ignore the parts of Scripture which didn’t fit their “theology.” The Pharisees, on the other hand, would over-exaggerate some Scriptures which would leave other passages dwarfed or forgotten.

In Matthew 23, Jesus took on both of these incorrect approaches. What I love is that Jesus didn’t share His opinion, He didn’t argue with them, He didn’t try to convince them to accept His viewpoint. Jesus just took them back to Scripture.

  • You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God (23:29).
  • Have you not read what God said to you (23:31).
  • David, speaking by the Spirt…says… (22:43).

When Jesus said, “You are in error,” the verb tense is the passive voice. This means it was something done to them, not something they did. These religious leaders were not purposely straying from Scripture, but by listening to men instead of God they allowed themselves to be lead astray.

That’s why this insight from Luke is so powerful:

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)

This is great counsel for all of us. We should all listen to pastors and teachers, or read authors, through the filter of Scripture. We need to make sure we aren’t passively straying, and we do this by examining the Scripture.

If you have missed any of the messages in this series, you can find them all here.

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