OUTSIDE THE GATES

Reading List

Emmanuel Chang — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:18:39 +0000

Here are some books that I have been looking forward to reading.

King’s Cross by Tim Keller

Real Marriage by Mark & Grace Driscoll

Gospel-Centered Discipleship by a good friend of mine, Jonathan Dodson

Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin

Jesus + Nothing = Everything by Tullian Tchividjian

Stripped-down Acoustic Set

Emmanuel Chang — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:46:18 +0000

I’m excited about the set list for Sunday. Stripping down everything once in a while can really get us back to the “heart of worship”. Two songs I’m especially excited about is The Heart of Worship and Unashamed. The inspiration for The Heart of Worship by Matt Redman came from when his home church was going through some spiritual dryness and was more concerned with the sound of the band and being “fed” worship by Redman and band than with offering honest and authentic worship. So the pastor of the church did a very bold thing: He decided to do away with the entire sound system and worship band for an entire season and just sing a cappella with the congregation. My prayer for Sunday is that each person in the congregation can take a step of faith and offer their hearts in worship.

We as westerners in a postmodern society have an habitual tendency to downplay the role of sin in our lives and that as long as we think we are okay, everything is “all good”, as the saying goes. ”Don’t sweat it.” ”The important thing is that YOU’RE okay with it.” However, the Bible says otherwise. Romans 3:10b-18 says,

“None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹no one understands;
   no one seeks for God.
¹²All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
   no one does good,
   not even one.”
¹³“Their throat is an open grave;
   they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
¹⁴“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
¹⁵“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶in their paths are ruin and misery,
¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Everything about our very nature is sinful and choosing to ignore it will not make everything all better. However, the gospel tells us that in our hopelessness, God brings hope through Jesus. Romans 3 goes on to say:

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

In the song, Unashamed, we sing that in our sins, we have not much to offer, but through the cross, we have inherited Jesus’ worth and righteousness. Because of the gospel, we can stand before Him…unashamed.

Temptation

Emmanuel Chang — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:35:56 +0000

According to Tim Keller, to have self-control in the midst of temptation is not a matter of simply resisting it. Temptations are not just superficial and shallow feelings to simply ignore. They’re a voice deep down at the bottom, always telling you you’ve got to have it or do it. We need to argue with it, using Christ’s truth and love. Of resisting temptation, Keller says “Jesus Christ turns to that voice every time…he doesn’t just say ‘No, no, no! I won’t! I’ll be strong!’…He argues with it, he destroys the argument.” As I’ve been preparing for Sunday’s worship service, I am reminded of two great examples in the Bible of how the argument of temptation was destroyed with truth: 1) in Luke 4:1-13 when Jesus used Scripture to resist Satan’s temptations, and 2) in Genesis 39:1-23 when Joseph reminded himself of God’s redeeming work in his life when tempted by Potiphar’s wife. Reminding ourselves that Christ resisted temptation in love for us here on Earth and that he sacrificed his perfect fellowship with God to go to the cross in our place gives us strength.

Weekly Sunday Worship Preparation: Sacrifice or Privilege?

Emmanuel Chang — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:39:05 +0000

Preparing for Sunday worship can easily become routine, mundane, and sometimes downright difficult. From sermon and music preparation early on in the week to stage and equipment setup, there is a lot going on right up until the start of service and it is easy to lose our focus on God. These struggles remind me of Abraham and the great lengths he went to for the preparation of sacrificing his only son Isaac at God’s command (Genesis 22:1-14). I have no doubt that the prospect of killing his own son was an extremely difficult thing for Abraham to comprehend. But going through the actual preparation for his sacrifice took a great deal of time (3 days) and a great deal of planning and effort (rising early in the morning, traveling to the land of Moriah, saddling his donkey and taking two servants, and preparing the wood and fire for the altar) as well. Yet Abraham remained faithful and obedient till the very last second.

I am also reminded that it was God who provided the sacrifice for worship. God provided the ram to be sacrificed in Isaac’s place. Similarly, but infinitely more important, God provided Jesus to be sacrificed in our place. There is no longer a requirement for a sacrifice because it has been met in Jesus Christ. So there really is no sacrifice on my part when preparing for worship. Rather, it is a privilege to be a part of the Abrahamic blessing: blessed to be a blessing to others (Genesis 22:18).