Join us for the “Already/ Not Yet” of the Christian Life, with Jim Hamilton, June 15-16th

We are excited to invite you to a FREE conference, on Saturday & Sunday, June 15-16th, under the theme of the “Already / Not Yet” of the Christian Life. Dr. Jim Hamilton will be joining us the weekend following the Southern Baptist Convention as we focus on the doctrine of sanctification together. Please take a moment to view our welcome video, overviewing our prayer and vision for this weekend.

 

All sessions will be held in the main sanctuary at Baptist Church of the Redeemer, [2106 Fifth Street, Missouri City TX 77489]. The schedule for our time together will be as follows:

Saturday (6/15)

Session I (4:30pm)

Dinner Break—Jason’s Deli Box Lunches $10 (Register below)

Session II (7:00pm)

Break 8:15-8:30 (coffee and water provided)

Q&A with Dr. Hamilton (8:30pm)

Sunday (6/16)

Session III: 9:30am

Session IV: Redeemer Worship Service —10:40am

If you’d like to sign up for a Jason’s Deli Box lunch for Saturday evening, you can SIGN UP HERE. A nursery will be provided for children from 0—4yrs of age.

We look forward to seeing you in June!

Family Camp ’11 messages from Craig Cabaniss [The Gospel According to Ruth} are now online. . .

This past weekend our church family had the opportunity to retreat together for our annual church Family Camp. This year our speaker was author, pastor and speaker Craig Cabaniss. Craig is the senior pastor of Grace Church in Frisco, TX. He is also a member of the leadership team of Sovereign Grace Ministries and a contributing author to the book Worldliness, recently published by Crossway. He and his wife Ginger have four children.

Over three sessions together, Craig walked through the book of Ruth considering “The Gospel According to Ruth.” The sessions can all be accessed at our sermon page at bcredeemer.org. Here’s an outline of Craig’s messages from Ruth:

Session 1: Grace and the Prodigal Daughter, Ruth 1:1-6

Session 2: God’s Grace to the Bitter and Rejected, Ruth 1:7–2:23

Session 3: God’s Redeeming Grace, Ruth 3-4

I can’t recommend these messages, or the ministry of Craig Cabaniss more highly. Take some time and listen to God’s story of grace in Ruth and be reminded of that story in your own life.

My favorite quote from the weekend summed up the book well: “Grace is always God’s last word to His people.” ENJOY!

Visiting Redeemer this Sunday? Here Are Some Major Schedule Changes that You Need to Know (Due to Family Camp)

This Sunday morning the majority of our church will not be at our normal location for worship. We will be at Trinity Pines Retreat Center, at our second annual Family Camp, returning Sunday afternoon.

However, there will be a worship service at Baptist Church of the Redeemer on Sunday. So, if you’re unable to join us for Family Camp, or you’re planning to visit Redeemer, let me encourage you to attend on Sunday. Here are the significant changes that you’ll need to be aware of:

1) Location: The location of our service will be in the same building (Main Building as you come into the campus). We have moved the service from the main sanctuary to a smaller assembly room nearby. You can enter through the same door that you would as if you were heading to the sanctuary and follow the signs and greeters to the proper location.

From the main double doors: Walk down the hall (sanctuary on your left) and take your first right down the hall. Then turn right just before you enter “David’s Hall.” The assembly room will be the first room on your left.

2) Time: The time of our service will be the same as usual: 10:40am.

3) Sunday School & Lunch: There will be no Sunday School or Fellowship lunch this week. We will resume both SS and lunch next week, Lord willing.

4) Childcare: There will be no nursery or children’s church this week. However areas outside of the assembly room will be open to parents if needed.

If you have other questions about this Sunday’s service, please call 832-655-2515.

Blessings!

Travis

Good Friday Service at Redeemer

Dear Friends of Redeemer,

We would like to invite you and your friends and family, to join us for our first Good Friday service at Baptist Church of the Redeemer, on Friday, April 22nd at 6:30pm. We hope to gather and reflect on the Cross of Jesus Christ through Scripture reading, song and teaching. It is such a paradox to reflect on the Cross of Christ. We come with sorrow, at the greatest tragedy in the history of the world. But the exact same event purchased eternal life for all those who would repent and believe.

John Stott captures our purpose for this evening well in the opening sentences of his book, The Cross of Christ:

“Our sins put Him there. So far from offering us flattery, the cross undermines our self-righteousness. We can stand before it only with a bowed head and a broken spirit. And there we remain until the Lord Jesus speaks to our hearts his word of pardon and acceptance, and we, gripped by his love and brimful of thanksgiving, go out into the world to live our lives in his service.”

It is our prayer that this will be the case for each of us as we gather on Good Friday. We will come together at 6:30pm for our service which will be followed by a short time of fellowship in the gym. Please do plan to join us and to invite your friends and neighbors to hear the most important story ever told!

We sing the praise of him who died,

Of Him who died upon the cross;

The sinner’s hope let men deride,

For this we count the world but loss.

Good Friday Details:

Location: Baptist Church of the Redeemer, 2106 Fifth Street, Missouri City, TX 77489 (MAP)
We meet on the campus of First Baptist Church, Missouri City, in the Family Life Center.

When: 6:30–7:30pm, fellowship and snacks to follow.

Childcare: We plan to provide a nursery for children 2 years and under.

RSVP: Please RSVP here.

Family Camp Theme: Union with Christ

Our theme for Family Camp this summer will be our unity with Christ: “Union with Christ”—How Are We United with the Savior? The big ideas to be covered will be “We are in Christ,” “Christ is in us,” “We are like Christ,” and “We are with Christ.”

Please pray that this would be a life-giving weekend spent in the Word and with the family of God! More details to come. . .

Think Conference Trailer

(HT: JT)

It’s Been A While…

It has been a little while since I have consistently posted at Mercy Swimming. So let me update you on what’s been rattling around in my heart and mind over the past few weeks:

Things I’m Excited About…I’m excited about a lot, so I’d better list…

New Preaching Series–It’s been three weeks since I finished a (year and a half long) series through the book of Acts, called “The Church Unstoppable.” You can listen to those sermons here. Two weeks ago we began a journey through the book of Hosea entitled, “Love Defined.” So far it’s been a joy for me to see this amazing picture of redemption, forgiveness, judgement and love. Join us on Sundays or listen here. May God prosper His word among us!

Upcoming Conferences/Events–Yes, I am excited about Together for the Gospel 2010, April 13-15th. If you have not already visited their website you should…and you ought to take the time to watch the video tours of several of the main speaker’s personal libraries. It will make you want more books, so guard yourself from temptation.

I’m also very excited about the annual gathering of Southern Baptists in Orlando this summer. Why? That brings me to my next point…

The Great Commission Resurgence–There’s something happening in the SBC. Last summer, the gathered assembly commissioned the President to appoint a committee (Great Commission Task Force) to evaluate and present ways in which the SBC can more effectively fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus. Their initial report is now available here. Pray for the SBC, and the decisions to by made and affirmed this June.

By the way, the SBC Pastor’s Conference has an amazing line up! Can’t wait to sit under these great brothers as they minister the Word to us this summer.

Danny Akin; Francis Chan; Matt Chandler;
Tony Evans; Steve Gaines; David Landrith;
CJ Mahaney; Al Mohler; Russell Moore;
David Platt; Andy Stanley; David Uth;
Ken Whitten; Ravi Zacharias;

A New, Much Anticipated Biblical Theology–Dr. Jim Hamilton’s Biblical Theology is due out this October! You can visit this blog to see a preview including the beautiful cover! Can’t wait to get my hands on this baby (probably both hands at 480 pages!).

A New President at Wheaton–I am so excited to hear the Dr. Phillip Ryken will be the next President at Wheaton College. I feel deeply for his church, however. You can see the deep emotion and sadness when a pastor has to leave his flock in his address here. All the info about this exciting news can be found here.

Pick the Next Redeemer Institutes–Finally, I’m excited about the upcoming Redeemer Institutes, that YOU CAN PICK!! That’s right, you can give three to five suggestions for our upcoming Institutes this Spring and Fall. All the information is here. If you’re not a facebook user, you can leave your suggestions on my blog and I’ll consider them for sure.

I apologize if you feel like you’ve just taken a gulp form the fire hydrant. Hopefully I’ll be a more consistent blogger in the future so I can do this in smaller chunks. Thanks for reading and swimming in mercy with me!

Tim Keller on Discerning, Exposing and Destroying Idols…

The first message at the 2009 Gospel Coalition National Conference was delivered by Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan NY.

Title: The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry
Text: Acts 19:23-41
Video available here

Would Paul go to Hollywood, Harvard and the NY Times to argue for the truth of the gospel? Keller says yes!

Main Points:

1. Discerning Idols–What is an idol? Something you can’t have a meaningful life without. Every place Paul went, he would identify idols an deal with them with the gospel. When people were confronted with their idols and converted, their lives were changed. Is that the case in our church today? Keller argues that this reality is actually the scandal of our church today: namely that we profess Christ and yet are still enslaved to our idols…and we don’t impact the culture for the gospel.

Idols of our day: family, children, career, achievement, romantic relationship, physical beauty, money, political or social cause, moral record, your ministry success, religiosity, popularity…When you lose one of these things and it has become an ultimate thing…you want to throw yourself off a bridge. That’s how you know it’s an idol in your life.

2. Exposing Idols–(Paul said that these “gods” are no gods at all). 3 Kinds of Idols:

*Personal Idols–[Money]–Artemis was the “business idol” or financial prosperity. Child sacrifices would actually take place. Do we practice child sacrifice today when we make our careers our gods? We sacrifice our children on the altar of money. [Romance]–If you look to another person for worth or value (I’m nobody unless this person loves me), they are your idol. There will be no boundaries on your relationship…you are a under the authority of your slavemaster. [Children]–If my children are (fill in the blank),then I know that I’m worth something…living our lives our through our children, they are idols. Beware of bitterness toward God and to your children.

*Religious Idols–[Truth]–Is it possible to say that I’m saved because of the rightness of my belief instead of by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus? Are you the “scoffer” in Proverbs. They are always dogmatic and disdainful of opponents. Is this your default mode? [Gifts]–Do you mistake spiritual gifts for spiritual fruit? Do you seek justification by ministry? We can make an idol out of good preaching. [Morality]–I do “x,y,z” and therefore I’m right with God or super spiritual…

*Cultural Idols–Science, Technology, Education will solve everything. There have been devastating results…poverty, racism are still around.

3. Destroying Idols–How do you destroy idols? It is a dangerous business to expose and destroy idols. Paul risked his life everyday, and it absolutely cost Jesus his.

Colossians 2:15: He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

My Takeaways: The Lord revealed certain idols in my own life. I won’t share all of them here, but I will mention one. I think I have made an idol out of wanting to be “a great man,” or “a successful pastor.” I think in some ways I have confused my spiritual gifts for spiritual fruit in my life. The Lord is so good to remind me that He is the one who will build his church, not me! He is the one who ultimately will shepherd the flock. I’m so glad that it’s not up to me to do this! I praise God for his gift of repentance, even to us pastors! May the Lord just give me the grace to be faithful and watch God do this thing at Baptist Church of the Redeemer!

Also, I want to do a better job of discerning idols in my church and in my city. Things that came to mind for me especially were issues of morality. It seems like many in our city/state are focused on their record or “report card.” We are quick to look down our noses on those who have scars in their past. Obviously, money, career, relationships, are active idols as well. How do you de-mythologize things like beauty and money? Only with the gospel! I want to study our idols, expose them and seek to destroy them with the gospel. May the Lord bring it to pass!

What About You? Any thoughts on these things?

What’s Next? John Piper on 2 Timothy 1:1-12.

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things: Blogging and Books!

This last week, I had the joy and blessing of attending the Gospel Coalition’s National Conference. On Wednesday, a friend and I attended the Band of Bloggers Fellowship and had a great time! Probably the highlight for me was the robust bag of free books that met me at the door!! So, to thank the publishers that sponsored the event, I wanted to list those books and encourage you to get them if you have not already. Here’s a peek into my bag of books:

God is Doing Something…

Ray Ortlund Jr. on the Gospel Coalition:

Clearly, the Lord is at work. He is creating new conditions for the future. In the 90s, we had nothing of the magnitude of The Gospel Coalition, Together For The Gospel, Acts 29 and other obvious indicators of a new movement of God. We did have, say, Promise Keepers, which helped many. But PK was not explicitly gospel-centered, not aggressively theological. Its impact was unsustainable. But now the Lord is giving us something new, something better. Let’s be thankful to him. This doesn’t come along every day. Let’s steward the blessing well. If we bungle this, I doubt we will see it again in our time. But if we are wise, not intruding our own self-centered complications but humbly keeping Christ first, the blessing will grow. And maybe, in the mercy of God, we will see awakening in our time.