Redeemer Community Church occasionally hosts mid-week worship services focused on worship through song. Matt Francisco speaks about how worship ties us to the church: past, present, and future.
Redeemer Community Church occasionally hosts mid-week worship services focused on worship through song. Matt Francisco speaks about how worship ties us to the church: past, present, and future.
Redeemer Community Church occasionally hosts mid-week worship services focused on worship through song. Matt Francisco speaks about how worship ties us to the church: past, present, and future.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Hey, everybody. Oh, thank you. The very warm reception. My name is Matt Francisco. I'm one of the pastors here at Redeemer.
Speaker 1:My wife, Erin, and I, we've been here for only about 10 months, which is hard for us to believe. But it's been a great joy and privilege to get to know so many of you, reconnect with some old friends. But to see your hearts for the lord, your heart to see this city changed for the sake of Christ, and your real deep desire to try and do life together. So thank you for welcoming us in and letting us be a part. As Lauren said, a few months ago, Joel Busby kinda kicked off our nights of worship through song.
Speaker 1:I thought he did a great job reminding us that we gather together to worship, in part, to remember, to rehearse, and to be retrained. So every Sunday, we gather to hear God's word preached, to celebrate the goodness of our God together, and to remind one another of what is ultimately true. We gather to remember because we are so incredibly prone to forget. Because as soon as our time together is done, we step out into the world, and we're being sold alternative narratives about who God is, about who you are, about what love and sex are for. What's worth living for, from every billboard, from every song, from every show.
Speaker 1:In these narratives, they're so relentless, it should be no wonder to us why it's so easy for us to forget. This is why, in part, it's so important for us to not neglect meeting together, but to gather together to remind one another that there's a God who made us in his own image. That he rescued us at infinite cost to himself. He has invited us in as permanent members of his own family. He has a perfect plan, and that he's coming again.
Speaker 1:Amen? So we gather together to remember, and tonight we're gonna talk about another reason that we gather together. We gather to participate in the worship of our wondrous saving God, and if I can borrow a phrase from a guy named Greg Thompson, in protest against all these other narratives. So we're gonna walk through 4 quick things, and I promise they will be quick. So first, we participate in the church historical, in an age of immediacy.
Speaker 1:And if that sounds like a big phrase, I promise I'll break it down. We participate in the church historical, in an age of immediacy. When we gather together, we are in part looking at the past. There ought to be some sense that as we sing these songs, and as we hear God's word preached, that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. We don't live on some sort of historical island, but we stand upon the shoulders of the saints who have gone before us.
Speaker 1:Of men and women who for 1000 of years, have gathered together to look at God's word, to pray, to sing, to celebrate the Lord's supper together, and to reaffirm their trust in Jesus' finished work. And this is part of the reason why we at Redeemer place such a high emphasis on singing hymns, because it connects us to the ancient church. I mean, isn't it amazing that this song, the Gloria Patri, it was written in the 4th century and we've been singing it ever since. Isn't it amazing that 1200 years ago in Ireland, some person or people sat down and wrote, be thou my vision? Isn't it amazing that in the 300, a group of people crafted the Apostle's Creed, and we say it every single time somebody gets baptized.
Speaker 1:I love to picture saint Francis singing in the 12 100, be thou my vision, as he went out and served Italy's poor. I love this image of John Wycliffe huddled around his bible and his pen, translating the bible into English in the 13 100 in secret. I love to picture Luther and Calvin singing, be thou my vision, singing, not be all else to me, save what thou art. As they worked out the implications of what it meant to be saved by grace through faith. So we sing and participate in the church historical to remember that we are not alone.
Speaker 1:Christianity isn't some sort of strange new invention. It doesn't simply ring true for us because we're 21st century Americans. For millennia, people have gathered together to affirm that the man Jesus Christ is the resurrected son of God, from every culture and society. And not only that, we look to the past. And as we worship, we fix our eyes on Christ upon the cross, and remember that it was our sin, right, that held him there until it was accomplished.
Speaker 1:What the bible tells us is that we were so bad, we were so broken, we were so sinful, we had no hope, that the only hope that we could have is that Jesus had to die. But as we look back at the past and study the scriptures, we are reminded once again that we are so completely and thoroughly loved that he was glad to die. We remember and we remind one another of God's unfathomable grace until our hearts are melted. Because our only hope, church, is in history, that our debt was paid. And so we gather to participate alongside the ancients, and in protest against this idea that newer is always better.
Speaker 1:2nd, we participate in the church particular in an age marked by individualism. We participate in the church particular in an age marked by individualism. This means we are looking out at the present. We remember that Christ didn't simply die for each of us, though that's true. Right?
Speaker 1:He gave his body to make a body. We affirm that yes, there is only one message of salvation. There's only one name under heaven, whereby we can be saved. But as we've seen through our study of first Corinthians here, and as we're starting to see, as we look at these letters to the 7 churches in revelation, God places an incredibly high value and priority on particular local churches. And there are particular things that he wants to say to particular groups of people at particular times, for their good and for his glory.
Speaker 1:And if God's sovereign, which he is. Right? There we go. And if part of his perfect plan in his sovereignty was to bring you here to be a part of this family, which it is I mean, just think about for a second how crazy it is that you were here, in this room, and not literally anywhere else on God's green earth. Then you have been sovereignly placed here for your good and for the good of your neighbor.
Speaker 1:You need the local body and the local body needs you. Because within this body, we are made to remember that we are not primarily consumers looking for the church that meets what we want, but we are made into a family. So no one, right, gets the church that we want, but hopefully, we get the church that we need. Also, in protest to our age of individualism, we gather to remember that none of us can walk the Christian life alone, because we weren't made to. But only within the framework of a committed local body.
Speaker 1:And this is why, in part, we here at Redeemer place such a high value on singing songs written from within our within our own community. There are things that we, this family of Redeemer Community Church, need to be reminded of in particular and to sing together. This is why we also do the incredibly uncomfortable thing of making our home groups cross generational. Why we do the even more uncomfortable thing that everyone in this room, I'm sure, hates of making you sometimes pray next to the person that you barely know. Right?
Speaker 1:And why we do the uncomfortable thing of opening up the floor to let anyone speak and declare of who God has been to them, and remind each other of his promises. Because when we gather, we remember Jesus' present work in our midst, that even now, Jesus is seated at God's right hand, interceding for us to unite us, to empower us as a body to carry out our mission as this family here in Avondale, in Birmingham, in Alabama, and to the ends of the earth. 3rd, we participate in the church global in an age marked by tribalism. I didn't wanna use that word, but it sounded so smart when I wrote it down. I was like, I've gotta put this in here.
Speaker 1:We participate in the church global in an age of tribalism. When we gather, we ought to remember that there are people all over the world doing the exact same thing. Right? Sometimes, out in the open just like we are, and sometimes they have to do it in secret. Rejoicing in the beautiful, powerful, saving, wonderful name of Jesus.
Speaker 1:We're reminded that God is not just doing something here in our midst, though He is. But He is doing far more than we could ask or imagine all over the world. And I wanna share just a handful of quick things with you, because this totally fires me up. Alright? I hope it does the same for you.
Speaker 1:Fires her up. I know that. Right? So in the last 40 years, get this, in the last 40 years, there have been more Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus who have come to Christ than in all the previous centuries put together. In 1900 in Africa, there were 10,000,000 Christians, representing 10% of the population.
Speaker 1:Today, there are more than half a 1000000000. Over the last 30 years, the number of missions agencies has more than doubled, while the number of missionaries, representing over 200 countries, has almost quadrupled. Praise the Lord. In this age marked by tribalism, when we gather, we do well to remember that we worship the son of God, who as we know, was not a blue eyed, sandy haired American man, right? But he was the son of a Palestinian carpenter.
Speaker 1:That our religion began as a Middle Eastern sect, and then it moved into Europe, and then it came to North America, until now, most of the world's Christians live in the southern hemisphere, in Africa and South America, while the gospel is rapidly taking hold in Asia. This gospel that we are here to celebrate and sing together, it transcends all cultures, all races, all classes, all educations, all ideologies, generations because it's the central truth of the entire universe. Therefore, when we gather together and we remember Christ's present work all over the world, are in protest against all the things that would naturally divide us outside of this place. We say to the Syrian refugee, we say to the former Hindu, priestess, the Somali businessman, the Haitian builder, the Guatemalan farmer, you are my brother. You are my sister.
Speaker 1:What is common between us is infinitely more important than those things that would divide us. Because we, in truth, have more in common with a believing Syrian refugee than we do with our non believing neighbors. And I remember sitting in a church in Kankan, Thailand, As Thai believers, all of whom had grown up Buddhist, started singing, and then I recognized the song. And while they were singing in Thai, I started joining in in English. Amazing grace.
Speaker 1:How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. The truth that saved them is the truth that saved me. And I felt like I was getting this glimpse of Revelation 7, where we see this great multitude that no one can number. Remember every tribe, tongue, language, and nation, standing before the throne and before the lamb. And heaven is going to be a global celebration of God's goodness.
Speaker 1:Therefore, we now participate in the church global, in part by singing songs that are outside of our comfort zone, outside of our cultural context, with eyes in the church that's to come. Because in heaven, we're going to sing songs from every tribe, so we might as well start singing them now. And last, we look to the church of the future in an age marked by anxiety. I don't think I have to convince you that we live in a time of great fear, of great mistrust, and anxiety. So when we gather together, we remember and remind one another of our sure and certain hope, that he who is promised is faithful and he will surely do it.
Speaker 1:Surely, he is coming soon. Though our family may desert us, though our plans may fail us, though disease may cripple us, though we may face desperate loneliness, or poverty, or persecution, Though we may lose wealth or property or status or, God forbid, even children. We are storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where wrath and mud where rot, rust and moth will not destroy. Jesus is coming again, and he's gonna wipe away every tear from every eye. And there's not gonna be any more sorrow, there's not gonna be any more sin, there's not gonna be any more shame, there's not gonna be anything that could separate us anymore.
Speaker 1:And there will be joy unspeakable. And so we sing songs often that remind us that this world is not our home, that this place is not all that there is. That we are but poor wayfaring strangers. That we are journeying across Jordan to our heavenly home. We sing in protest of a world that's seeking its best life now, placing our hope in the world that is surely certain to come.
Speaker 1:I wanna close with these words from Dostoevsky. In the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed, that it will make it not only possible to forgive, but to justify all that has happened. Let me pray for us. God, I pray that you would teach us to remember. I pray that you would teach us to remember right now, who you are, what you've done, what you've promised, and what all that means.
Speaker 1:But, god, I pray that you would teach us to do it as soon as we leave this place. That we would remember that we are sojourners in this world, that we are aliens and strangers, that what we hold to and cling to, the world simply does not understand. But, God, I pray that we would go out with grace and truth as your ambassadors in this world, proclaiming that there is a God unspeakably good, because you are. And it's your name that we worship, and it's in Christ's name that we pray.