One notable distinctive of our worship is our joyful singing of the psalms. This is often one of the first things mentioned by visitors to our churches, for it is both attractive but also simply really peculiar. Now of course this is not a practice that we have made up, but is rather part of our inheritance in the Reformed tradition and as God’s people. And so this morning I want to offer two simple reasons behind why we sing psalms in our worship services. 

First, the Psalter is a divinely-inspired book of 150 songs given by God to His church. It would be foolish to neglect in our worship songs that we know God is absolutely pleased to hear. As John Calvin wrote, “when we sing psalms we can be sure that God Himself has put the words in our mouths, as though He Himself were singing in us to the praise of His glory.” The Spirit wrote these words, and so we have the privilege of offering them back to our Lord in song. 

The second reason is this: the psalms are fitting for biblical worship. The writer of Hebrews calls us to worship “with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28b–29). When put to appropriate music, the psalms are up for this task, as they most accurately reflect the character of God and His will. Following the Apostle Paul’s admonition to be “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Rom. 12:11), the psalms offer God’s people the opportunity to sing songs that are both formal and lively, and that express a zealous and militant joy. 

If the church is to conquer the nations with the gospel, the Psalter then is an excellent battle hymnal for the frontlines—whether in corporate worship, our homes, or in the town square. 

So let us hear and heed the words of Psalm 95,
“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
and let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.” 

Shawn Paterson – April 28, 2024

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Feminine virtues are under serpentine assault. Our culture is spraying the fields of femininity with herbicides of laziness, immodesty, and impudence. This salting of the fields is deceptively heralded as liberation. But wherever the Gospel takes root it becomes a vineyard in which both male and female virtues grow and flourish. A woman who trusts in Christ and obeys His Word is called a virtuous woman, and such a woman becomes praiseworthy. Our culture insists that women need to be praised simply for being women; Scripture teaches that praise is reserved for a woman who can be described as virtuous.

What does that little word contain? A whole lot, it turns out. A virtuous woman, among other things, is marked by hard-work, attentiveness to her own sphere while keeping her nose out of others’, and a contentment which gives no place to guilt, shame, and insecurity.

Many of you moms are hard-working women. But perhaps you’ve grown frazzled with the grind of diapers, school runs, disciplining the toddler, art assignments, prepping meals that are half-eaten, disciplining the toddler, mopping up a spill, laundry, gardening, helping a teen with homework, meal planning, and disciplining the toddler again.

Leaning against the feminine vices of our age––like laziness and self-centered self-care––isn’t a summons to having a frazzled soul. Some days the dishes don’t get done, but this doesn’t mean that you’ve failed to honor the Lord. It isn’t self-centered to take a quick inventory with your husband of both your chores and the standards for them. Make sure your standards are attainable and realistic; make adjustments during various life-seasons. What does it profit a woman to clean all her baseboards but lose her soul? By God’s grace you will find strength for all the duties, wisdom in managing the margins, and contentment in fulfilling your duties. This is how virtuous women become praiseworthy, and in due time, get the baseboards cleaned.

Ben Zornes – April 28, 2024

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The Corinthian church In the first century, had some thorny issues: sexual immorality, people getting drunk during the Lord’s supper, and weaker brothers were being browbeaten for their lack of knowledge. While we might not be able to relate to having a drunk guy interrupt communion, we can relate to the issue Paul addresses in chapter 12. He says this, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” The members there in Corinth were clamoring for spiritual gifts as a way to distinguish themselves. Paul had to show them a more excellent way, because one-upping each other as a mere show of spiritual giftedness, is contrary to the way the gifts are supposed to work. 

For Kirkers, this temptation manifests in two ways. Either you compare yourself to a high octane Christian, find yourself lacking, and start in with the self-flagellation. Or, you hold up your spiritual gift for everyone to see. So first, a word about comparing yourself to others. If you struggle with this, our community will not make it easier. Amongst us are doctors and lawyers, authors, conference speakers, scientists, business owners, movie makers, entrepreneurs, illustrators, professors. And you say, “I’m not any of those things. I’m just a lowly…” fill in the blank. Maybe you’re lazy. Maybe you lack faith. Or it could be neither of those and God wants to use you and your gifts in ways that are, to use Paul’s phrase, “less presentable but more honorable.” Many of the Corinthians were not wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. Reject the falsehood, that you have nothing to contribute to the body. Even the person who is given only one talent, is expected to turn a profit. You must examine yourself and use what God gave you.

If you want to hold up your gift for all to see, you don’t actually want to help anyone; you just want to be worshiped. Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” The gift of generosity, or any other gift for that matter, is meant to be used, but if you are trying to sideload self-glorification, you have distorted its true intention. Your gift is not a pedestal for personal acclaim but a vessel through which you can serve others and honor the divine source from which it flows.

Daniel Namahoe – April 28, 2024

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Back in the 1970s a man named Laurence Peter developed a theory called “The Peter Principle.” It claimed that, within hierarchical organizations, individuals are regularly promoted past the point of their compentency. A man functions well enough at a certain level. But then he gets promoted to a positoin in which he is relatively incompetent. This is obviosuly to be avoided. And one way to avoid it is to abide by the teaching of James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom let him him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

Now you can lack wisdom because you are simply unwise. Or you can lack wisdom because you have matured and advanced to new levels of responsibility. You are a wise man who has never faced this kind of battle before, and it is time to level-up. James has this latter example in mind because he adds that God gives liberally and upraids not. He means that God is a generous giver of wisdom, who will not find fault with you when you keep coming back to ask Him for more. When you do so, God supplies that wisdom and individuals, families, organizations, and communities rise to new levels of virtue, dominion, sanctification, and glory.

Now, anyone who has spent a good bit of time considering organizations or hierarchies will likely say, “Steady now. There is a lot of truth to that Peter principle. It is rare that people actually enlarge thier capacity and competency.” Granted, it is rare. But it is only rare becuase it is equally rare that men ask God in faith to give them wisdom. God stands ready to give you that wisdom and liberally so. But will you ask?

Jared Longshore – April 28, 2024

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As a ship on stormy seas, the Church has often swayed back and forth between two emphases: the head and the heart. Regrettably, she has also taken into her mind the notion that these two are polar opposites. But our intellect and our affections are not enemies, anymore than your two eyes are enemies. Our faith is not the analytical evaluation by our intellect of brute facts. Nor is our faith the throbbing emotions of reaction to pleasant stimuli.

Our faith is the result of God making us new, giving us a new heart by the mighty and gracious working of His Spirit. Because He called unto us, opened our ears, and made us alive we respond to Him by faith. This new life causes us to think God’s thoughts after Him. This new life gives us holy affections, where our delight is in the Lord as He satisfies our sanctified desires.

So then, if by grace you have trusted in Christ, both your mind and emotions should be enflamed with holy thoughts and feelings. You ought to sing songs of praise jubilantly, enthusiastically, and heartily; but you can sing all the more jubilantly if what you are singing is the truth in poetry with razor sharp wit and wisdom. If you wrestle by faith with the dark sayings of God’s word, you won’t come away weaker, but with the perspiring glow of a triumphant athlete.

Grace doesn’t dull our intellect it illumines it. Grace doesn’t numb our emotions it warms them. The words of that Narnian lion ring true, we are not quite as happy as he intends us to be. Intellectual rigor and emotional vibrancy are the fruits of God’s Spirit at work within us. So set your mind and affections upon Christ, and think and feel rightly.

Ben Zornes – April 21, 2024

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