Horizon Baptist Church

This Sunday – Amazing Grace part 1

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:40:18 +0000

This Lord’s Day, we will begin a new series dealing with God’s amazing grace.

Each of us have experienced God’s grace in big ways and small ways. All of us have a story to tell. This Sunday, we will begin examining the greatest example of God’s amazing grace in the history of the world…the cross of Jesus.

Make sure you spend some time in the text and prepare your heart for this weekend.

Sermon Title: My New Husband

Scripture: Romans 7:1-6, Romans 3:20, Galatians 3:1-3

Outline:

1. Are we under the law?

2. Why is the law a bad husband?

See you Sunday

Darin

Putting God First – 4/29

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:47:16 +0000

Last week, we talked about the importance of faith as a foundation of giving. God is always honored when we have faith…especially when it comes to our finances.

Tomorrow, we are going to talk about the importance of putting God first. We will talk about the biblical idea of the “first fruits” and why God wants our first fruits.

Read the text for tomorrow with your family and come prepared to worship the Lord.

Text: Exodus 13:1-2, 11-15, I Corinthians 16:1-2

This Sunday – Divine Marriage and Foundations

admin — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 01:11:00 +0000

Tomorrow we start a new series on marriage called, Divine Marriage. In our day, the traditional view of marriage as building character and community are fading away and a new ideal of personal fulfillment is taking it’s place. The good news is that in the midst of all the voices God is still speaking. God is still concerned about marriage…even yours! Because He created marriage, it is important that we consider what He has to say about marriage.

Tomorrow we will begin digging into marriage…God’s way. I hope to see you there. Oh, and tomorrow is our first day for Foundations. It starts at 9:30 sharp…so don’t be late.

Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33

Sermon Points:

1) The Secret of Marriage

2) The Power for Marriage

See you tomorrow!

Darin

Family Worship – part 2

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:02:05 +0000

Here is the second installment of the family worship series.

Darin

Children in Worship–Mom Tested Tips by Jason Helopoulos

This is a follow-up on yesterday’s post…

Focus on this moment throughout the week: Talk about Sunday morning worship all week long. Help your children to see that each week begins with this privilege (Acts 20:7; Hebrews 10:24-25).
Model excitement about the Lord’s Day: Children learn a great deal by watching their parents. If Mom and Dad reluctantly go to church, then the children will reluctantly go to church. If Mom and Dad are critical of the preacher, sermon, etc. then the children will most likely be critical. Wake up early on Sunday morning and prepare for worship. Let the children see your joy and excitement.
Implement family worship at home: A family that worships together at home will find it much easier to worship together in corporate worship. A child will find it natural to hear the Word of God, to read the Word of God, to sing the hymns, etc. This will also help our children to learn to sit still, to understand the importance of worship, to focus during prayer, etc.
Read the passage during the week: Most sermon series are an exposition of one book of the Bible. This means that you know what you are going to hear read and preached in the week’s service—the next passage. Read it throughout the week and converse about it around the dinner table or during family worship. The children will then be familiar with the text that the pastor is preaching on. With this knowledge, give them some things to listen for in the sermon.
Start early: Many believe that it is harder to introduce a five year old to corporate worship then a twelve year old, but this is not true. A five year old is in the formative years of training. They are not yet “set in their ways.” A few months of struggling with a four or five year old teaching them how to sit in corporate worship yields benefits for the rest of their lives.
Use Moments in the Service: Use transitional moments in the service to whisper in your child’s ear how much you loved a certain verse in a hymn, how you need to remember to pray for the sick person mentioned, or how you were convicted by that application. It keeps them engaged and allows them to see you participating intently in the service.
Use the Obvious Helps: We often forget to use the helps that are already available to us. For example: have an older child find the Bible passage or guide your finger over the text as it is read for a younger child. Use the bulletin and show your children where the service is at. Have them read the confession as you point along with each word.
Sit near the Front: Children are easily distracted, so sit near the front where there are less distractions.
Create an atmosphere in your row: Encourage your children to pay attention, to stand when everyone stands, to sing when they are to sing, to bow their heads in prayer when the congregation is to pray, etc.
Enlist the Support of Other Members: Ask another member to lend a helping hand by sitting with your family. Surround yourself with other families that you have enlisted to provide you encouragement and not to fuss if your child is a little restless.
Stop Worrying: Many parents are concerned about what other parents or members of the congregation think of their parenting skills or how annoyed someone else is with their child’s fidgeting during the service. DON’T! Commit as a congregation to welcome children into your services. This means that not only do our children have to adjust, but so do the adults. In reality, it is adults who have to adjust the most! Let’s just learn to have a little more tolerance on this front. If a baby is a little fussy, papers are rustling, or a few things are dropping on the floor it is o.k. As congregations, we need to willingly and joyfully join in this great privilege of welcoming our covenant children into corporate worship. And that takes some minor adjusting on our part.
Affirm Your Children: When you leave the service and are on the way home, affirm your children. Ask them questions about the service and relay how the Lord blessed you. Encourage your children if they were well-behaved and let them know how wonderful it was to worship alongside of them.
Be Consistent: It will take time for your children to learn how to sit still, sing the hymns, etc. Be consistent in your expectations and desires for them during the service.
Do Not be Overzealous: Be patient with your children and shower them with grace. It takes children time to adjust and different children adjust or accept on different time tables. Your child may come into the service and sit attentively and quietly within a few weeks or you may have to help your child with this for months or even years (as has been our case!). Be patient! Love them and do not compare them to other children. God has blessed you with this little bundle of joy!

Family Worship – part 1

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:58:24 +0000

I am a big believer in “Family Worship.” In other words, I really believe that families should worship together and not be segregated from one another…ie – Kid’s church. While we still have a “Kid’s Church” at Horizon and my daughter attends, I believe that in the long run this practice probably does more harm than good.

Recently, I came across two different blog posts about the importance of worshipping together as a family. I want to share them with you as a way of encouragement. The first post is about why we want to encourage worshipping together as a family and the second is about how you can encourage your children to enjoy “Grown Up” Church.

Darin

Children in Worship–Let’s Bring it Back

by Jason Helopoulos

I remember sitting as a small child in church sucking on wintergreen mints and drawing battle scenes on the offering envelopes (my mother would always give me a tap of correction when the explosions were a little too loud with my scribbling pencil). And though I might have been preoccupied with my wintergreen mints and airplanes dropping bombs on tanks, I was picking things up. Was it easy for my single mother to corral a feisty little boy and his sister in the pew? No, it is a testimony to her patience and grace! But it was good for my soul.

As the church, let’s be open to the idea of inviting our children into worship again. Let’s be patient, deliberate, and wise, but let’s encourage families to have their children in worship as soon as they are able. Not all families or children will be ready to do this as each family functions under different circumstances. So having said this, let’s not go overboard. I think every church should have a well-equipped nursery at least for children under the age of five years old and even beyond if they deem it appropriate. In addition, we must be sensitive to visiting families and those that just aren’t convinced that children belong in corporate worship. So we must be patient and understanding, but it is something we should be aimed at before our children are driving cars! Even if our children cannot understand all that is happening, struggle to sit still, and even are bored at times during the service they are still benefiting from being in the midst of this divine meeting between God and His people (Mark 10:13-16). And at the very least they will come to appreciate the power of wintergreen mints.

Today, I want to offer a few reasons on why we should encourage the children of the church to attend our corporate worship services. Tomorrow, I will pass along some helpful hints for parenting in the pew.

Why should children attend the worship service?

Our children are members of the covenant community (the church): Corporate Worship on Sunday morning is the primary activity the covenant community engages in together (Acts 2:42; Ephesians 10:24-25). Therefore, our children as members of this community should be included in this crucial aspect of covenantal life.
Our children will be present in the midst of the means of grace: Our children benefit by being where the Word is preached (Romans 10:14), the sacraments are administered (Matthew 28:19-20), and corporate prayer is practiced (Acts 2:42-47). These are the chief means by which God pours out grace upon His people. Why knowingly rob our children of this blessing?!
Our children will be present in the midst of the entire congregation: Our children benefit greatly by being in the presence of Christians of various ages. They are able to see that the faith of their parents is not a faith that they own alone, but is a faith that is important to all of these people who are gathered around them on Sunday morning. This only reinforces what Mom and Dad are modeling and teaching when they see this incredible gathering of people reading the Word together, praying together, confessing together, and singing together (Deuteronomy 31:9-13). They need to see the body in action.
Our children will be present with their parents: Worshipping together as a family helps to counter the current trend in our society of fragmenting our families. If our children join us in worship from four years of age until they are eighteen they will worship with their parents in 780 Sunday morning worship services! Think about the cumulative effect of a family worshipping together, in the midst of the means of grace, meeting with God for 780 Sundays in a row.
Our children will witness their parents worshipping: It is the Biblical role of parents to disciple their children in the faith (Deut. 6; Psalm 78; Eph. 6). What a benefit there is when children witnesses their mother or father singing with conviction, praying in reverence, listening intently to the sermon, or receiving the Lord’s Supper in joy. In these moments a child witnesses the importance of faith and worship. There are few greater encouragements to a child’s faith then seeing their parents worship God with reverence and joy. (Exodus 12:1-28; Deut. 4:9-11; Deut. 6; Psalm 78; Ezra 10:1; Nehemiah 12:43; Joel 2:12-17; Acts 16:33).
Our children will learn the rhythms of church life: Teenagers in our culture often balk at attending corporate worship. But how many of our teenagers have we setup for this reaction, because we did not consistently include them in worship until they were a teenager? If attending church for years has always meant coloring Bible pictures, singing songs to a cd, playing games, and doing crafts—then we should not be surprised that our young people find worship to be odd, uncomfortable, and even boring. I love good children’s songs—they ring through my house. I love good children’s Christian crafts—they decorate my study. But if this alone is the rhythm of church life we have set up for our children week in and week out, we have done them a great disservice. They must see, know, and learn that the singing of the great hymns of the faith, the preaching of the Word, reading of confessions, corporate prayers, etc. is anything but boring. It is the gathered life of the community of faith. It is our weekly rhythm—appointed by God, designed by Him, established for the ages—this is what we want them to know, because we want them to know and worship Him.

This Sunday – Suffering Well

admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:16:40 +0000

This Sunday morning, we will continue to examine how the gospel impacts our lives through the study of James. It is interesting that our text comes to us during the season of Lent. I know that we don’t celebrate Lent as a church but it is something important to think through.

For a history of Lent, here is a good blog article to help you understand what this observance is all about.

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2012/02/a-short-history-of-lent/

Lent is all about suffering and self denial. It is ultimately a reminder to us of the self denial of Jesus as He suffered for 40 days in the wilderness. Jesus, being God, had every divine resource available to Him to be able to avoid that suffering. In fact, the three temptations in the wilderness were just reminder by Satan of all of the resources that Jesus had available to escape the pain that He was enduring. The good news is He refused to access those resources and instead endured suffering just like you and me. He trusted in the goodness of His Father in heaven and because of that He is a faithful High Priest.

James 5:7-11 is a reminder to us of how to suffer well…like Jesus. Take some time before Sunday morning to read through the text together with your family and ask God to prepare your heart for worship.

Also, it might be helpful to go back and read the temptation accounts in Matthew 4 and Luke 4.

Title: Suffering Well

Scripture: James 5:7-11

Outline:

1) The Reality of Suffering

2) The Reality of the Resurrection

See you Sunday

Darin

This Sunday – The Gospel and Our Wealth

admin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:47:28 +0000

This Sunday morning, we will continue to examine how the gospel impacts our life through our study of the book of James. Remember, there are two ways to read the book of James:

1) These are things that you do to please God. (moralism)

2) These are things that happen in your life as a result of being pleasing to God. (gospel transformation)

In other words, when the gospel collides with your soul and grips your heart, you will live a different life. In fact, James will tell us that there is no part of our lives that is off limits…everything must change!

This Sunday, we will be covering James 5:1-6. In this passage, James teaches us that the gospel reaches even into our pocketbook. When this happens, how we see and use our money will change forever.

Take some time before tomorrow to prayerfully read the passage with your family. Pray for our services and me. Get to bed early tonight and come prepared to hear from the Lord! Here is the sermon for tomorrow:

Title: The Gospel and our Wealth

Scripture: James 5:1-6

Outline:

1) The Violence of Greed

2) The Solution to Greed

See you tomorrow!

Darin

Always Mardi Gras and Never Easter

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:32:07 +0000

I am always challenged by this writer. Read and be challenged!

Darin

Always Mardi Gras and Never Easter

by Russell D. Moore

There’s nothing quite as bleak as a city street the morning after Mardi Gras. The steam of the humidity rises silently over asphalt riddled with forgotten doubloons, broken bottles, littered cigarettes, used condoms, clotted blood, and mangled vomit. This sight was, for some of the convictional Evangelicals in my hometown, a parable of what was wrong with Roman Catholicism. I wasn’t so sure.

I am a product of “Evangelicals and Catholics Together.” By that I don’t mean the 1994 statement of cultural co-belligerency led by Chuck Colson and Richard John Neuhaus. I mean that since my father was the son of a Southern Baptist preacher and my mother was a Roman Catholic, I am, quite literally, the product of an Evangelical and a Catholic, together. Half my family was Southern Baptist and the other half Roman Catholic, and my family divide perfectly summed up the larger community around us.

Biloxi, my quirky little strip of home on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, was discovered by the French, and supplemented in that heritage with an influx of immigrants drawn to work in the seafood industry. “Vuyovich,” “Stanovich,” and “Nguyen” were as common of names on my class roles as “Smith” and “Jones.” This meant that my hometown was an outpost of a Catholic majority situated right at the bottom of the Bible Belt of the old Confederacy.

Being situated just over the state line from the Big Easy, we were more New Orleans than Tupelo, and I lived in the worlds of both southern Evangelicalism and southern European Catholicism. I could see the best side of either and the dark sides of both. I saw Catholic casino-night fundraisers and contentious Baptist business meetings, and neither seemed to look much like the Book of Acts.

When it came to the ecclesial divide between the Catholics and Evangelicals all around me, I was sure there must be some big differences that resulted in something as historic as the Protestant Reformation. But I never heard the names of any of the Reformers in my Baptist Sunday school, let alone the so-called solas at the heart of the sixteenth-century controversies. We were told that Catholics didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus and that they paid too much attention to Mary, but neither of those things seemed to describe my devout Catholic relatives.

Day to day, the differences between the Catholics and the Evangelicals were less theological than cultural. To my friends and me, they seemed to amount to little more than who had a black spot on his forehead once a year, and whose parents drank beer right out in the open. For the grown-ups—or at least for the grown-ups outside my mixed-together family—these differences seemed to matter a lot. And they could be summed up in Mardi Gras.

Those who grew up outside the orbit of New Orleans probably think of the holiday simply in terms of the debauchery they’ve seen on television, but the broadcast carnality (although certainly part of it) doesn’t tell the whole story. I loved (and love) Mardi Gras, although I used to feel guilty about that. What I saw of Mardi Gras were the traditions and rituals—king cakes and parades and candy and days off school—rather than the full Bourbon Street experience.

Drunkenness and immorality are, of course, indefensible in a Christian ordering of the world, but at its most innocent level, Mardi Gras is a dramatic presentation of some important biblical themes. It is rooted in, among other things, God’s provision for the prophet Elijah who, like Jesus, went out into the wilderness to fast for forty days. Before the prophet went out, the angels gave him “a cake baked on hot stones,” and he survived his fasting on the strength of that sustenance (1 Kings 19:6–8). Mardi Gras, “Fat Tuesday,” is the day before Ash Wednesday, the onset of Lent, the forty days of fasting rooted in Jesus’ time without food in the wilderness.

Some of the older Baptists at my church hated the whole idea of Mardi Gras, and saw this party as a kind of blasphemy that exposed everything they rejected about the culturally acclimated Catholicism all around them. “Those Catholics,” I remember hearing one neo-Puritan critic lament, “They just go out and get as drunk as they want to, they eat until they vomit. They’re just getting it all out of their system before they have to get all somber and holy for Lent.”

I could see his point. I never saw any of my devout Catholic friends or family behaving that way. But it made sense to me that gorging and getting drunk the day before Lent probably wasn’t what the Lord meant when he said to “repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

As the years have gone by, though, I’m realizing that perhaps the naysayers pegged something accurately about some of the Catholicism around me. But I’m convinced they missed the truth that we Baptists had a Mardi Gras, too. The Mardi Gras of Protestantism didn’t celebrate the day on just a yearly calendar, though, but, much more importantly, on the calendar of a lifespan.

The typical cycle went something like this. You were born, and reared up in Sunday school until you were old enough to raise your hand when the teacher asked who believed in Jesus and wanted to go to heaven. At that point, you were baptized—usually long before the first pimple of puberty—and shortly thereafter, you had your first spaghetti-dinner fundraiser to raise money to go to summer youth camp. And then, sometime between the ages of 15 and 20, you’d go completely wild.

Our view of the “College and Career” Sunday school class was somewhat like our view of Purgatory. It might be there, technically, but there was no one in it. After a few years of carnality, you’d settle down, start having kids, and then be back in church, just in time to get those kids into Sunday school, and start the cycle all over again. If you didn’t get divorced or indicted, you’d be chairman of deacons or head of the women’s missionary auxiliary by the time your own kids were going completely wild. It was just kind of expected. You were going to get things out of your system before you settled down. But you know, I never could find that in the Book of Acts, either.

I never really went through the wild stage. But years later, having externally lived a fairly upstanding life, I found myself envying a Christian leader as he gave his “testimony.” This man described his life of mind-blowing drugs, manic sex, and nonstop partying in such detail that, before I knew it, I was wistfully thinking: “Wouldn’t that be the best of both worlds? All that, and heaven too.” I’d embraced the dark side of Mardi Gras, in my own mind. As much as I thought I was superior to both the drunken partiers on the streets and the dour cranks condemning the revelry, I had internalized the hidden hedonism of it all. I was under the lordship of Christ, but, if only for that moment, wishing for the lordship of my own fallen appetite.

Flannery O’Connor believed her insight into the human condition came, at least partially, from being a Catholic in the Protestant South. Seeing humanity, in all its glory and grotesquery, in the “Christ-haunted” region equipped her to recognize freakishness when she saw it. In a somewhat similar way, I think my story as an Evangelical child in a Catholic place that was itself engulfed in a larger Evangelical region immunized me from what surely would have been a temptation to either lionize or demonize my own tradition, and to look at an alien Catholicism as either an ecclesial utopia or the Whore of Babylon.

My life in the Catholic Bible Belt, though, taught me to love both those who pass out tracts and those who say the rosary. I never had to give up the Virgin Mary for Lottie Moon (the missionary saint of the Southern Baptists). But I also recognize in both traditions a temptation, a temptation that is rooted not in the particularities of the communions but in the soul-sickness of fallen humanity.

Do many Catholics follow their appetites and “sin that grace may abound,” hoping that confession and the last rites will even it all out before God? Sure. And do many Evangelicals do the same, hoping that a repeated prayer or an altar-call response will deliver them in the Day of Judgment? Yes. Both paths lead to the same place: to hell.

The fact that both our traditions wrestle with this temptation ought to signal to us the power of the first stage of Satanism. In the beginning, the Tempter led our ancestors astray with the promise of food (Gen. 3). In the desert, he provoked grumbling in the fathers because of their longing for food. And in the Judean wilderness, he sought to entrap Jesus with the growling of his stomach. It is easy to substitute the satisfaction of our urges and drives for the way of Christ, and we can easily find religious rituals to build around our doing so. It is easy to become one of those for whom the belly is god (Phil. 3:19).

This is the reason why self-control is a fruit of the Spirit rather than an achievement of the flesh (Gal. 5:23). We want what we want. But the discipline of God teaches us, slowly, to put old appetites to death and to whet new ones. Through the Spirit, we learn to crucify “the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24). That’s hard. It usually means hunger or economic want or sexual frustration or familial longing.

But through it we learn to see that life is about more than acquisition—whether acquisition of possessions or sexual sensations or pleasant memories. A cross-shaped Christianity might leave behind those seeking a civil religious cover for their wild Bacchus worship or their rigid Stoic legalism. But it might prompt a world gorged on riotous living to seek the more permanent things instead.

On the morning after Carnival, it’s easy to feel the queasiness of stomach, the pounding of the hangover, or the throbbing of the conscience. It’s much harder to feel the futility of a whole life lived under the tyranny of the appetites. That’s especially true when, as with most of us, we see the sovereignty of our appetites as “normal.” We live among a people, let’s be honest, whose stomachs are full but who are vomiting it all up, with an Esau-like disgust. We live in a culture of craving that is never satisfied, in a world where it is always Mardi Gras and never Easter.

Hearing God’s Voice

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:21:21 +0000

First, watch the two videos and then keep reading…

Those videos really resonate with me. I know what it is like to be deaf and then hear. I know what it like to have so many “voices” drown out the voice of the Father.

Voices that say things like…

“You will never be good enough for God’s love.”

“You have blown it too many times to be used by God.”

“God loves you but He doesn’t really like you right now.”

For some of us, those voices are the soundtracks of our lives…constantly playing over and over keeping us in a constant state of bondage.

The question is, “Whose voice will you listen to?”

Will you listen to the voice of the Father Who loves to speak truth?

Or will you listen to the other voices?

Let me give you a challenge… Below are ten spaces and in those spaces I want you to write 10 scriptural truths that God says about you.

Then, spend the next few days contemplating your list and rooting out the lies that you have believed that contradict the truth of God…I will go first

1 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor. 5:17

Until next time…

Darin

The Church of Your Dreams

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:51:56 +0000

It has been my experience that everyone who comes to a church has an agenda. Given enough time, it will eventually emerge. I know that sounds like a bad thing but that isn’t always the case. Sometimes, agendas can be good. Jesus Himself, while on Earth, was consumed with a singular agenda…”to do the will of Him who sent Me.”

For the past few weeks, we have been talking a whole lot about the church we believe God wants us to be. In fact, 2012 is going to be the year we attempt to really flesh this out. This means we are going to have to change some things. This means that some old agendas have to die and some newer ones have to take center stage. This calls for both humility and courage. Faith and determination.

In the middle of all of this, may we not forget what the church really is. The church isn’t programs or meetings or buildings. The church is people… it is us…you and me. This reality is what makes church so exciting and messy at the same time. Each one of us, in our own unique way, contribute to the beautiful mosaic that God is creating called “Horizon.”

I want to end with a short blog post from Ray Ortlund that I read today. It was so refreshing to me that I wanted to share it with you. You may be wondering what the church of my dreams looks like…this is a snapshot. This is really what I hope for us!

Until next time…

Gospel + Safety + Time

by Ray Ortlund

It’s what everyone needs. Everyone. Gospel + safety + time. A lot of gospel + a lot of safety + a lot of time.

Gospel: good news for bad people through the finished work of Christ on the cross and the present power of the Holy Spirit. Multiple exposures. Constant immersion. Wave upon wave of grace and truth, according to the Bible.

Safety: a non-accusing environment. No finger-pointing. No embarrassing anyone. No manipulation. No oppression. No condescension. But respect and sympathy and understanding, where sinners can confess and unburden their souls.

Time: no pressure. Not even self-imposed pressure. No deadlines on growth. No rush. No hurry. But a lot of space for complicated people to rethink their lives at a deep level. If we relax, trusting in God’s patience, we actually get going.

This is what our churches must be: gentle environments of gospel + safety + time. It’s the only way anyone can ever change.

Who doesn’t need that?