A Witness To Process

“We resign to the Holy Spirit, but He calls us to divine partnership.” – Rev. Richard Griffiths

I have been struggling with how to begin this week’s posts.

This past Sunday was unusual, and yet at the same time it has been in keeping with a pattern of the unusual way that our God has been working through Pastor Richard in recent months. For those who don’t worship at Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene, I’ll try to explain.

Over the past several years, Pastor Richard has been the pastor from whom we’ve expected certain things: witty anecdotes, brilliant insights, and the ability to preach short sermons (that is, “short” by Bronx Bethany standards) while maintaining the depth and profundity we experience from all our pastors. But, in the last few times Pastor Richard has come to the pulpit, we’ve seen God move our pastor to speak and act in ways that are very different from what we were used to experiencing. The sermons are longer. The anecdotes are fewer. The amazing insights that our pastor has gained from his studies are being made to take a back seat as the rhema word of the Lord takes precedence. And, as God has been moving, our pastor has responded in obedience—even though the obedience requires that he do things that are vastly different from his personality, personal preference, and pastoral training.

So, on Sunday, before the sermon, a number of different things happened. Our pastor called us to prayer for releasing people from the burdens they were carrying. Our pastor led us in worship and praise and adoration of God. Our pastor called people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And our pastor suspended his concern with time, because he realized that God was changing the ministry agenda to suit His divine purpose.

In light of what we see God doing in and through our pastor, will we follow his example? Will we embrace the act of complete obedience to God? Will we set aside our own agenda in favor of God’s agenda? Will we let go of our skill sets and comfort zones in order to make a clear path for God’s glory to move through our midst?

We’ll be focusing on Pastor Richard’s sermon in the remaining posts this week, but I want us to reflect on his sermon in light of what happened before the sermon could be preached. So, let’s re-read Philippians 3:1-14 with a recollection of the awe and reverence we experienced in our services: an awe and reverence that our God demands and deserves.

The God who can change the order of our worship service, and who can call us to prayer, and who can inhabit our praise, is the God whose resurrection power is available to us. As we learn of Him, let’s worship Him.

Philippians 3:1-14

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.