Sermon series: Advent - Peace

Today, we continued our Advent series. Advent is a Christian tradition that helps us look forward to the coming of Christ. Many liturgical churches celebrate Advent by lighting a candle every Sunday until Christmas. The emergent church has recently strayed away from this tradition. The celebration of Advent does not make us more spiritual. And a church is not more relevant when it chooses not to celebrate Advent. This year, we are celebrating this tradition by looking at what the Bible can teach us about each of the virtues remembered through Advent. This week we looked at peace.

Our sin has caused us to be at war with God-- it separates us from the Holy God. But, God offered a peace treaty through His Son, Jesus Christ. When we admit we are a sinner and give our life to God we begin a relationship with God. God then gives us peace in our hearts.

The angels sang about this peace when they announced the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds in Luke 2:8-14. They sang a chorus of glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and goodwill to men.

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.

You can listen to this sermon on the church website - http://www.ocbaptist.org/#/ocbc-tv

Being a Pastor

I remember when I was in seminary I heard a professor or chapel speaker once say that if you could do anything else but be a pastor do it, but if you are called and you have to be a pastor than do it. The job of a pastor is not an easy one at all. Now to be fair I have never been a senior pastor (although in January I will be a senior pastor). But I do have a pretty good idea as to what a pastor goes through. You see I grew up in a pastor's home. Many people think that the pastor only works on Sunday. But a pastor works 7 days a week and is on call 24 hours a day. The pastor should take a day of rest and a vacation, but with the expectations placed on him they just rarely get that opportunity. Now with the emmergent church movement everybody thinks that the church should be huge and the put enormous pressure on the pastor to build the church. If the church is growing well then the pastor is great, if the church is not growing well he is a bad pastor. It has nothing to do with his Biblical teaching. But the problem with this logic is that it is God who builds the church not a pastor. The pastor is a teacher, counselor, psychiatrist, business man, doctor, janitor, carpenter and anything else that his congregation needs him to be. I grew up in a pastor's home and never realized how tough my dad's job truly was. I do remember coming home early from family vacation because there was a death and the church. I never had the nicest stuff because we just couldn't afford all those luxiories, and I had to share my dad's time with several hundred people. The reason I want to write this blog is to give people a perspective of what a pastor goes through. There will be many times when I will share thoughts from my devotion with God. But there will be other times when I will share my thoughts about what the church needs to be towards their pastor. I hope it helps and that we grow together through it.