Hopes for Sovereign Grace Churches in 2024
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Anyone who's following along in the podcast, Mark, knows that last week you spent some time thinking about 2023 and how God was so good to us all throughout that year in Sovereign Grace Churches. Now we are in 2024 as we record this, and you have hopes for 2024, you're looking ahead and praying and hoping for God to do even more in 2024. Talk to us about that.
Mark Prater:
Yeah, first of all, Happy New Year, Ben, and Happy New Year to all those that either listen to or watch or read this podcast. We're grateful for you.
Yeah, I've been praying just about what the Lord would have for our small family of churches in 2024 and written down hopes that I have for Sovereign Grace Churches. I actually have five of them. I just want to touch on very, very quickly.
The first one is that we would be a people, we would be a family of churches that have a pronounced zeal for Christ. You remember Jeff's message from Romans chapter 12 verse 11. "Do not be slothful in zeal but fervent in spirit." And what that means is that we are zealous for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the work that he's done in the gospel and that we get to participate in advancing that gospel together. May our churches be filled with zealous people. May it be heard in our singing. May it be heard in our preaching. May it be heard in our fellowship. May it be heard in our evangelism; that we love nothing more and are zealous for nothing more than Jesus Christ.
And just a couple of resources to mention there: Jeff's message on zeal is still up on our website, not from the recent Pastors Conference, but from the 2022 Pastors Conference. If you haven't listened to that and you watch or listen to read this podcast, listen to that message. Also, Jared Mellinger took that sermon and published it in a book called Sacred Zeal, and that's available on Amazon for you to read. It's also going to be available on our website in A PDF format that you can read for free. This is something we're going to be doing with our resources. So that's my first one, just that we would be a people who have a pronounced zeal for Christ.
And when we're those kinds of people, it leads to the second hope, that we would have joy in Christ, that Sovereign Grace churches would be happy churches, that we would be full of joy because we are stunned and amazed in an ongoing way for what Christ has done for us in the gospel, the finished work of Christ in the Gospel. And so we just want to be people who are joyful. When newcomers walk into Sovereign Grace churches, may they experience our zeal and may they experience this joy. It's actually one of the consistent feedback pieces of information I get from our Pastors Conference every year. Pastors who come, or leaders, for the first time, they'll contact me and they'll say, I've never been around such a joyful group of pastors and wives and leaders. And so may that continue by the grace of God in our churches.
The third one is growth in Christ-likeness. That our churches would work out our salvation with fear and trembling as God works in each and every one of us. That's Philippians 2:12-13, that ongoing Christ-like transformation by the grace of God. And may we be intentional to pursue it. And I think that's really important at any time I think in history, but certainly this is the time we're living in. And I want to remind all of our pastors and members of our churches that the ordinary obedience of pastors and the ordinary obedience of members, it has real effects in a culture that is heading away from God's word. It will stand out. I mentioned this in my State of the Union message. There was an article entitled A Return to Counter-Cultural Sexuality written by Jonathan Swan in the Spring 2023 Eikon Journal.
And he talks about this anonymous letter written by an apologist to a person named Diognetus. And he just talks about how the ordinary obedience of Christians had a transforming effect. And this is what he wrote in that letter. "They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh." And he just goes on to talk about how ordinary obedience by Christians really help the gospel to spread. And he makes this comment whether the issue is abortion, divorce cohabitation, marital infidelity, homosexuality. So-called same-sex marriage, or the legion of issues associated with gender ideology. The church today has the opportunity to present itself once again as a true countercultural culture. And Christians should seize the opportunity to communicate and demonstrate the fullness of the gospel as a better, richer, fuller, more satisfying life. And I'm praying that by the grace of God and through the transforming work of the grace of God that happens in each of our churches. So growth in Christ-likeness.
A fourth hope is to continue to have theological clarity and strength. And I think that's real important right now because of the culture that we live in, which is not only moving away from God's word, it's very confused. And the church of Jesus Christ has answers for that confusion. And we will offer the best answers by being very clear about what we believe and what we live and why we love it. We love living that way. And so I think there needs to be theological clarity and strength. It's also going to be, if we remain just with the fidelity to sound doctrine, our churches will be a respite from the world that is very, very confused. And that not only is going to be restful for some, it's going to be transforming for others.
And so just a commitment that we would share our truth clearly and with strength, but also with love as well. And let me mention just a couple of resources, a couple of messages by Kevin DeYoung I just recently listened to. He gave these at a preaching conference at Westminster Theological Seminary, and they're two messages, one entitled The Necessary Ministry of Building Bridges. And then the second message is The Necessary Ministry of Building Walls. And both those messages, he talks about essentially standing for truth, but communicating truth in a way that is receivable. It's communicating truth in love. It's kind of the Ephesians 4:15, speak the truth in love and at the same time, don't be so loving that you don't guard your churches from false teachers. So I would commend both those sermons. Those can be found on the Clearly Reformed website, Kevin's website.
And then lastly, kind of transitioning from that point to the next one, that we would be churches that are marked by the love of Christ. That's what you see in 1 Corinthians 13. The distinguishing mark of the Christian and of the Christian Church is that of love and not love the way the world defines it, which is more selfish in orientation, but love as biblically defined that is other centered; love is patient and it's kind. It keeps no records of wrongs, it does not boast. It believes all things, hopes all things and love's at all times.
So those are the things that are on my heart that I'm praying for our family of churches. Nothing new there, nothing striking there. But if we live out those five things by the grace of God, I think we will be a light in darkness and we will continue to have opportunities to tell people about the good news of Jesus Christ that changed us and our desire that it would change them as well.
Benjamin Kreps:
That's wonderful, Mark, and I am struck by how your prayers in these regards for Sovereign Grace, they really do reflect, I think, and highlight things that God wants us to pray for as reflected in His word in the prayers you read there. I'm working on a sermon for Sunday from Colossians 1, and just as you were sharing these, I just thought Paul prays "And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him; bearing fruit in every good work and increasing the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light." I think it would be wise for each one of us to consider joining you in praying the way you are praying, as your priorities certainly reflect God's priorities for his people. So thank you for your prayers, Mark. Anything else you want to share before we go?
Mark Prater:
Just lastly, I just thank God again for the pastors of Sovereign Grace Churches and for their wives. And I thank God for the members, the faithful members, of Sovereign Grace Churches. We are just ordinary pastors and ordinary church members that are trying to live out the good of the gospel in our lives. But we get to do that together and I'm so glad I get to do it with this group of family of churches. So I thank God for the pastors and their wives and the members of our churches.
Benjamin Kreps:
Amen. Well, thank you, Mark, for your heart for us and for Sovereign Grace Churches. And thank you all for watching or reading or listening. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.