Churches of Christ - Beverly Hills

Our God designed these, we just arrange them!

I had the honour of speaking at the Beverly Hills congregation of the Churches of Christ last Sunday.  I had a wonderful time fellowshipping with this thriving Church, ably lead by Pastor Moses. 

I don't usually post every event that I speak at, but this one in particular I want to share, not because of what my message was about, but more about what I witnessed.

FLOWERS!

The first thing that struck me were the flowers!  Yes, it has been a while since I have seen a stage so well decorated.  Does this really matter?  In a sense, not really.  it does not make the place more spiritual or holy.  But reading between the lines, someone (or a group) of people, probably women in the congregation, spend a lot of time and money in making this happen. 

One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the gift of helps.  That gift is a mutliple of several gifts, such as giving and mercy or compassion.  When dedicated women do this, they do it as a form of praise to God.  And that is worship!  While we were singing, I was looking at the amazing tropical display and praising God for His creative power.  There were so many displays of variation and I began to ponder whether God individually fashioned each one personally.  I came to the quick conclusion is that - YES - he very well could have.  I marvelled at that creative, yet highly personal power.  Do you see the impact of the flowers?  It was not to make the stage look nice, but to draw people into marvelling about our God - at least for me it was!  So to the woman (or women) responsible - be encouraged, what you do is a service to God and is a special gift.  I am sure that God notices and accepts your worship as a pleaseing aroma.

MEN!

The second thing that strick me was the number of men.
I once wrote a book (never published) where I recalled the story of how a pond is a healthy one if it has a thriving frog population.  Now ignoring the symbolism of frogs as plagues and such like in scripture (Ex 8:2, Ps 78:45, Rev 16:13).  I like to think of a healthy church as having a significant male population. 

Too often in Vanuatu, there is a disproportion of females.  One reason is that many men drink kava and that makes one too sleepy for Sunday morning church.  Churches that have a shortage of men, in my opinion are weak churches.  An oversimplification is that, there is a shallow pool men to draw into leadership.

I like to think of men as frogs in a pond.  The more "frogs" the more healthy the pond.  This church as a lot of "frogs!"  The leadership team are mature believers (1Tim 3:6) who protect the faith.

THE GOSPEL!

Thirdly and most importantly THEY CONSTANTLY DECLARED THE GOSPEL. Although they may not have realised it at the time (because it came as naturally as breathing and did not need to be conrtrived.)

We sung three hymns at the beggining of what most church services say is the "worship" part, following some "praise" songs. 

(I have never liked the differentiation made between Praise and Worship, as praise is worship, just as flower arranging by the women was also worship.  I will add that in this church, the line between 'praise' and 'worship' was so blurred that it worked well .  Some churches make an obvious distinction, even to the point of announcing the shift from happy, happy, joy, joy, me, me, me, praise songs, to the more serious, "we now enter into the presence of God," reverential worship section.  This Church fortunately did not do this!) 

 It struck me that all of them focused on giving God the Glory and contained words like

"The love that Jesus has for me
To suffer on the cross for me"

"The peace I have in Him, my Lord
 Who pleads before the throne of God
The merit of his precious blood,
is more than tongue can tell!"

"God sent his Son , they call him Jesus,
He came to love, heal and forgive,
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my saviour lives."

The songs sung are straight solid gospel doctrine!  While we were singing, I could literally feel God's presence, it was like I was swimming in Him!  It was like I could taste his presence.  (Ps 34:8) All because these worphippers were constantly delcaring the Gospel! 

"His love is real, I feel it around me....He still lives on, my soul can feel it"

Also in the prayers that were given, there was mention of the "blood of Jesus" as well as other Gospel themes.

Finally the communion was heavily weighted in favour of what Jesus commanded, "do this in remembrance of me." (Lk 22:19)

Rom 1:6  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 

SCRIPTURE!

I told them, and it is true, that I heard more scripture being read out before I spoke in this service than what some preachers recite during long sermons.  The Moderator read many, the Elder quoted scripture, the deacon quoted scripture the pastor quoted scripture.  The songs quoted scripture.  The congregation was exposed to the Word of God constantly. 

1Pet 1:23-25 (NET)
(23)  You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. 
(24)  For ​​​​​​all flesh is like grass ​​​​​​and all its glory like the flower of the grass; ​​​​​​the grass withers and the flower falls off, 
(25)  ​​​​​​​but the word of the Lord endures forever. ​​​​​​And this is the word that was proclaimed to you. 

CONFIRMATION!

To cap it all off, and this happens more often than not, one of the songs hits right on the button with my message.  In this case, was sharing with them and alaying their concerns propagated by the SDA church regarding the Sabbath.  I was there to contend earnestly for the faith (Jude 1:3).  So to begin with this hymn

"Oh, what fellowship, oh what joy is mine
Resting in the everlasting arms!
Oh, what blessedness, oh, what peace divine
Resting in the everlasting arms!"

That's the point!  The Hebrew, Shabbat (Sabbath) means "Rest" (or cessation).  Under the new covenant, Christ Himself is our rest because he is Lord of the Sabbath.

To the church at Beverly Hills.  I pray that you hold strong to the Gospel.  That Jesus died for your sins, according to scripture, that he was buried, and that he rose again, according to scripture (1Cor 15:13-14).  Continue to confess that as long as you live, share that to others and your church will be blessed.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  Amen

[PS: Welcome little Graham, may the Holy Spirit guide and protect you as you grow and I pray that you mature into a great man of God that contends for the faith.]



[Someone at the end of the service thanked me for sharing the truth about the SDA false declarations.  She had been wondering when someone would speak up about it.  People like me are out there speaking, the Joy Bible Institute staff are some, but unfortuantely there are few of us.  If any pastor is interested, and wish for me to speak at your fellowship, youth group or bible study, firstly check me out then my Statement of Faith and prayerfully consider if I test out OK.  (You should not invite a preacher into your pulpit until you do check them out.  S Shepherd would never put a wld dog amongst the sheep even if the dog gave puppydog eyes!
After that please feel free to contact me using the contact form which should appear that the bottom of this post, or if not, then at the bottom of the home page.]