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"I found it a beautifully powerful thing to be assured of grace BEFORE confession."

Historic Christian liturgy tends to begin with a song of praise, then move to the confession of sin, an assurance of pardon, a song of thanksgiving, the sermon, communion, songs of response and a benediction. Today at East Lanier Community Church, the order was changed in a way that struck me as significant. The assurance of pardon came BEFORE the confession of sin. This is not insignificant. I've often thought that more "liturgical" worship lost its power early on when confession followed praise, and the context for the gospel had not been set up for genuine repentance that was a response to the cross. To me, pre-assurance, out of context confession took the wind out of the sails so to speak. Now, I realize the purpose for the historic ordering. However, I found it a beautifully powerful thing to be assured of grace BEFORE confession. It felt more like gospel-centered confession than law-drvien confession. And this seems to be theologically correct, too, since the Scriputres say (Rom. 2) that it is the kindness (grace) of God that leads us to genuine repentance/confession. Law confession is motivated by guilt and fear, not love and grace. That is why I am so thankful that this morning, as I stood before God in the presence of his people, I found myself gladly confessing sin to the one who had just promised to forgive it, and cleanse me of ALL my unrighteousness.

Here are a few nuggets of gold from one of my living heros, C.J. Mahaney (from an interview from a previous post- see below on the main page of mckaycaston.com).  Enjoy.

• When dealing with folks on the ministry team, especially in the context of worship leadership, encourage with evidences of grace before a critique or suggestion for improvement. Dr. Bryan Chapell did this with us in our preaching classes at Covenant Seminary. He always began a student's post-sermon evaluation with encouragement before suggesting areas of improvement.

• CJ quoted someone who once said, "What we win people with is what we win people to." Since Covenant Life Church is known for its emotive, celebratory worship style, he was warning people not to win people with music and modern creativity, but with the content of the gospel, focusing on Jesus and the cross. He wants people leaving the service saying, "What a great Savior!" rather than "Wasn't that great music." Or sermon for that matter. This leads into the next nugget.

• Music/singing, the sermon, and all the elements of worship are not the end, but a means to understanding, embracing and experiencing the power of the gospel. This does not mean that we downplay the significance of any element—I love to sing and I love to preach! This simply means that we should make sure that everything about worship (music, sermon, prayers, etc.) is a crowbar moving us to sense the wonder of the gospel in a deeper and more personal way.

• C.J. quoted Martyn Lloyd-Jones' statement in his book Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cures, saying, "Most unhappiness is because I listen to myself rather than speak to myself." He means that when I listen to my "flesh" and the lies of the enemy more than I preach the gospel and the fullness of God's truth to myself, I am bound for disappointment and unhappiness. But when I speak truth and grace to my heart, I discover a joy that is often unexpected and full of hope and worship.

• And of course, C.J.'s genuine humility and gospel affectedness is sheer beauty. He always takes the lowest place and lifts us those around him. Kind of reminds me of Phil. 2. Such a rare quality among us pastor types, and is only cultivated by long gazes at the cross of Jesus.

So, I'll make a deal with you. I'll preach the gospel to myself today if you will preach the gospel to yourself today, too. Deal? Great! Yes, we are more sinful than we could ever imagine (law), but in Jesus, we are more forgiven, loved and accepted than we could ever dare to dream (gospel)!

The Paul of the New Testament is a strong apologetic to me for the credibility of the gospel. A leading Jewish scholar who was a leading member of the Pharisees, he had hated Christians. For example, in Acts 7, a man named Stephen preaches and the crowd of unbelieving Jews stones him to death. In Acts 8:1 we read that Paul was there and "approved of his execution." In chapter 9 he is on his way to Damascus to arrest and imprison other Christians when something remarkable happens. The risen Jesus appears to him and the trajectory of his life does a 180. He was the most unlikely candidate to become a Christian. But as history records, the most strident persecutor of the church becomes a prominent preacher of the gospel. Paul was in no mood to be converted that day. It might be like Rush Limbaugh becoming the lead spokesperson for the democratic party or the ACLU.

Now we fast forward to Paul's preaching days, where he is no longer the persecutor, but the persecuted. In Acts 16 he, along with his comrade, Silas, is severely beaten by Roman guards and put into the deepest, darkest place in a Philippian jail, with his feet fastened in stocks. Rather than protesting the imprisonment and scheming a way to escape, he and Silas were heard "praying and singing hymns to God." What?!  Paul's response to this circumstance was prayer and praise?!

What a lesson. Of course, the point is not to apply the prayer and singing rule when I'm in the pit, but to know the Jesus whose feet were not merely put in stocks, but nailed to a cross. The Jesus who was not merely put in prison, but suffered the agony of hell in my place. Prayer for God to intervene is appropriate (and God did). And the worship of such a Savior strenghtens the heart not only to endure hardship, but to prevail through it. As I heard someone say recently, "The antidote for anxiety in the context of stress is not so much scheming for control and planning how to fix it as much as it is giving up control through prayer and worship."

Anyway, the text in Acts 16 says that "the prisoners were listening to them." It was midnight, and they were not yelling for Paul and Silas to "Shut up!" They were listening in quiet amazement to these bound men cry out to God for help (expression of need) as they celebrated this God (an expression of confidence, thanksgiving and hope) in worship—not in a posh sanctuary with soft cusions and central air conditioning and heat, but in a cold, dark cell in which people were left to die. And if those prisoners were astonished by Paul and Silas' response to mistreatment and suffering, how much more would they be in awe of the one who also had been beaten and was able to say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing."

You know, I wonder if the hymn Paul and Silas sang that night is the same song that is recorded in Paul's letter back to the Philippian church in chapter 2 of that letter:

Jesus made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.