Redemption Church of Northridge

Being “in Christ”

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Tim Pickard

One of the most important ways Scripture describes believers is that they are “in Christ.” The following is a great list to meditate on as we consider the riches we have by virtue of being in Christ.

Being “in Christ Jesus” is a stupendous reality. It is breathtaking what it means to be in Christ. United to Christ. Bound to Christ. If you are “in Christ” listen to what it means for you:

In Christ Jesus you were given grace before the world was created. 2 Timothy 1:9, “He gave us grace in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”

In Christ Jesus you were chosen by God before creation. Ephesians 1:4, “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.”

In Christ Jesus you are loved by God with an inseparable love. Romans 8:38–39, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In Christ Jesus you were redeemed and forgiven for all your sins. Ephesians 1:7, “In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”

In Christ Jesus you are justified before God and the righteousness of God in Christ is imputed to you. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

In Christ Jesus you have become a new creation and a son of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Galatians 3:26, “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

In Christ Jesus you have been seated in the heavenly places even while he lived on earth. Ephesians 2:6, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

In Christ Jesus all the promises of God are Yes for you. 2 Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God find their Yes in Christ.”

In Christ Jesus you are being sanctified and made holy. 1 Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.”

In Christ Jesus everything you really needed will be supplied. Philippians 4:19, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

In Christ Jesus the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. Philippians 4:7, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

In Christ Jesus you have eternal life. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And in Christ Jesus you will be raised from the dead at the coming of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” All those united to Adam in the first humanity die. All those united to Christ in the new humanity rise to live again

How do we get into Christ?

At the unconscious and decisive level it is God’s sovereign work: “From God are you in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

But at the conscious level of our own action, it is through faith. Christ dwells in our hearts “through faith” (Ephesians 3:17). The life we live in union with his death and life “we live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). We are united in his death and resurrection “through faith” (Colossians 2:12).

This is a wonderful truth. Union with Christ is the ground of everlasting joy, and it is free.

(HT: Desiring God)

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Sermon: 1 Samuel 30

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Tim Pickard

Audio from sermon (Tim Pickard) on 02/05/2012.

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Afterthoughts: 1 Samuel 30

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Tim Pickard

The following post reminded me of how David preached to himself and fought the fight of faith in the midst of his weakness in 1 Samuel 30.

There is one battle that we fight every day. Multiple times a day. Probably hundreds of times a day. The battle is this:

Will I let my circumstances shape my view of God, or will I let the Word of God shape my view of God?

Every single day we encounter circumstances that fight to shape us and mold us and twist us. My tight budget tries to squeeze me into the mold of fear. My disobedient child tries to twist me into a sculpture of unbelief. My constant sickness tries to wrestle me into doubting God’s goodness.

Circumstances are always trying to shape our faith.

When Jesus’ disciples came face to face with a massive crowd of hungry people, they let what they saw with their eyes shape their faith, rather than letting Jesus shape their faith. They trusted more in what they could see than in the Son of God standing next to them.

That’s our temptation too. To let our faith be shaped by what we see rather than God’s truth and God’s character.

Today, let’s seek to have our faith shaped by the word of God. Period.

(HT: The Blazing Center)

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Video Friday: How Do You Preach the Gospel to Yourself

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Tim Pickard

This video has some helpful thoughts on putting gospel truths into our minds and see God use them in our hearts. Nicole’s been reading the book referenced here and has found it a helpful tool in this.

(HT: Resurgence)

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Consider Turning Yourself into a Football Fan for a Day

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Tim Pickard

Here’s a thought worth considering as people who are on a mission to love the lost people around us:

Your passions might be for music, literature, cooking, art, technology, gaming, or any of a million pastimes. And that is fine and good.

But I make one request of you: For one day a year, and one day only, be a football fan.

Be a fan for one day for a single purpose: People. Football draws people like moths to a porch light, and through football you can connect with people. There isn’t another social or entertainment event during the year that draws people like the Super Bowl. So take advantage of it!

For one evening take off the earbuds, turn off the Xbox, close the book, and go to a Super Bowl party. Or host one. Or crash one. Just be a part of what people are doing! It doesn’t matter that you don’t like football, don’t care about football, or don’t know about football. Share the food, enjoy the commercials, cringe at the halftime show, and give a football fan the opportunity to show off his knowledge of the game.

As Christians, we are called to love people, to know them well, to care about them. We’re also called to be in community. Our Sabbath day is devoted to worship and fellowship. Does a Super Bowl party fulfill those callings? Not entirely, but it can be fantastic, strategic, fun way to take a step toward obeying. Super Bowl Sunday is an event that transcends fandom and is culturally iconic, so I ask you to transcend your interests. For one day, for a few hours, be a football fan for the sake of knowing and loving people well.

(HT: Challies)

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Sermon: 1 Samuel 28

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Tim Pickard

Audio from sermon (Tim Pickard) on 01/29/2012

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Video Friday: What is Church Discipline?

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Tim Pickard

A helpful overview of church discipline here from Mark Dever-

(HT: Church Matters)

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The Value of Life and the Tragedy of Abortion

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Tim Pickard

Yesterday was the anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court Decision Roe v. Wade, a decision which legalized abortion in the United Sates. As those who bow before our Creator and hold to the message of the gospel everything in us should cry out against the murderous injustice of abortion.

To get us thinking and praying and acting on this issue I wanted to share with you a few of articles that I came across this last week.

15 Things to Consider About Abortion by John Piper (HT: Resurgence)

A Gospel Shaped Pro-Life Passion by Jared Wilson (HT: Gospel-Driven Church)

The Gospel in an Abortion Culture by Russel Moore (HT: Vitamin Z)

‘Abortion is as American as Apple Pie’- The Culture of Death Finds a Voice by Albert Mohler (HT: Vitamin Z)

And finally, here’s a post from Desiring God that lists five things we can do for unborn.

1. Submit yourselves to God

Submit yourselves to God. Draw near to him. Live by the power of his grace. Let him shape your desires rather than the world and the feisty, self-centered temperament of our culture. Let your life and your mouth bear witness to the real delights of knowing and trusting and obeying and being shaped and guided by the Creator of all things who loved us and gave himself for us. Be a Christian—and a visible and audible one. The world needs you so badly.

2. Pray earnestly and regularly

Pray earnestly and regularly for awakening in the churches that will spill over in city-wide and nation-wide and world-wide evangelization of the lost and reformation of life.

3. Use your imagination to see abortion for what it is

Use your imagination to see what abortion really is! Fight against the kind of social stupor that gripped Nazi Germany — the feeling that the problem is so huge and so horrendous and so out of our control that I just can’t be wrong to let it be. Use your imagination to see and feel what is really happening behind those sterile clinic doors.

If you could see each little handiwork of God and what it looks like when it is being crushed or poisoned or starved, you would say, this can’t be happening! Civilized people do not do this! The children will not be saved and God’s work will not be reverenced without an act of sustained sympathetic imagination. Otherwise it is out of sight, out of mind — just like Dachau, Buchenwald, Belsen, and Auschwitz. It just couldn’t be happening. And so we act as if it isn’t.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your souls know it, and will he not requite man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:10–12)

4. Support alternatives to abortion

Support alternatives to abortion like crisis pregnancy centers with your money and time and prayers.

5. Press for legal protection for the unborn

Use your democratic privileges of free speech and representation and demonstration to press for legal protection for the unborn.

One of the strongest arguments against legal enactments to protect the unborn is the claim that legal constraints without widespread social consensus is tyranny. And there is no widespread social consensus regarding the personhood of the unborn.

The argument loses much of its force when applied to the historical situation of slaves in this country. On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court, in Dred Scott v. Stanford, ruled that no act of Congress or territorial legislature could make laws banning slavery. The fundamental argument was that slaves are not free and equal persons but the property of their masters.
The ruling is analogous to Roe v. Wade because today no state may make a law banning abortion to protect the unborn. The argument is similar: basically because the unborn are at the sovereign disposal of their mothers and do not have personal standing in their own right [history repeats itself].

There was no consensus in this country on the personhood and rights of salves. We were split down the middle. But the issue was so fundamental that the states went to war, and in the end the Lincoln administration overturned the Dred Scott decision. And today, 130 years later, we look back with amazing consensus and marvel at the blindness of our forefathers.

May we not dare to believe that by the grace of God and the perseverance of his people in prayer and piety and political pressure there could emerge in the coming decades a consensus for life, and that the 21st century could look back on our generation with the same dismay that we have looking back on the slave laws of this land and on the concentration camps of World War II. Nationwide reformation has happened before — with Wilberforce in England and Lincoln in America. It can happen again. May God help us!