The preaching ministry of Trinity Baptist Church, located at the corner of 41st and Union, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Visit us on the web at tbctulsa.org
This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Wednesday evening, November 28, 2007, and was taken from Isaiah 6:1-8.
An excellent companion to this message is a weekly pastoral address written this week by Pastor Rod. The facts will amaze you, and give you food for thought during this season of the year.
This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, November 25, 2007, and was taken from Mark 11:27-12:12.
Don’t you wish that in the midst of the chaos in this fast-paced, information-overloaded age there was one clear, authoritative voice? Well, there is and his name is Jesus, and he speaks to matters pertaining to life and death; eternal matters.
What kind of authority did Jesus have?
1. The authority of Jesus is reflected in the fact that he cannot and will not ever be intimidated (Mark 11:27-33.
2. The authority is able to silence the rebuke of his critics and deliver a powerful rebuke of his own (Mark 12:1-9, 12).
3. The authority of Jesus rests solidly in who he is and what he has done (Mark 12:10,11, quoting Psalm 118:22,23).
God made flesh, and author of recreation through the cross, Jesus is the one ultimate authority. Jesus alone is the means to life eternal and abundant - to all who will believe and repent. One day we all will have to answer this question: “Who is Jesus, and what is his relationship to you?”
This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church during our annual community Thanksgiving service, on Tuesday evening, November 20, 2007, and was taken from Philippians 4:10-19
This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, November 18, 2007, and was taken from Jeremiah 9:25-10:16.
To have genuine faith is to turn from the pursuit of worthless idols and turn to the one true God. Idolatry is a problem in every age.
This is the God we worship. And this is the God who is worthy of our worship, our praise, and our devotion. Genuine faith turns from the pursuit of worthless idols to joyfully embrace the true and living God.
This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist on Sunday morning, November 18, 2007, and was taken from Mark 11:12-22.
This morning Pastor Rod shares the bad side of the good news. These events serve to remind us that all that glitters is not gold, and our Sovereign comes in righteous judgment of a lively yet empty religion.
The Gospel is good news. If you haven’t yet, flee to Christ and live. But be warned if that is not your heart, and you are playing a game, your church attendance will not save you. Your giving to the offering will not deliver you. It will only enrage the holy wrath of a holy God against your perversion of his truth.
This devotional message was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Wednesday evening, November 14, 2007, and was taken from Matthew 6:25-34.
I wanted to follow up on the issue over anti-Calvinism in the Arbuckle Baptist Association. After digging a bit, I discovered that Terry Mott was not, as far as I can tell, the author of this motion. Being the DOM in the association, Terry was just doing his job. I realize that says nothing positive or negative concerning his position on the matter. I appears that Pastor Joe Elam of FBC, Pauls Valley brought the motion to the floor of the associations annual meeting last month. I know nothing about this brother. I found this out at 2 Worlds Collide, which went on to say that there were no questions from the floor, and the motion passed. I can’t help think that there is more to this than appears at first glance. Wes Kenney has also shed recent light on the subject. Some of my initial frustrations at where this “story” was headed have subsided, for now. If you will look at the comments on Founder’s Blog, you will see that Tom Ascol is doing an adequate job of keeping rampant assumptions at bay. This was one of the blogs that gave me that here-we-go-again feeling and first caused me to write on this issue. I should have had more faith in Pastor Ascol, remembering his adept way of keeping the Calvinistas under control in the comments section during the Caner-debate posts some time back.
I may have left the impression in my previous post on this subject that I am against conferences seeking unity. I am not. I believe that they can bring about great good, if they are seen as a place to begin, a tool to get the ball rolling. I was delighted to see that Nathan Finn was going to be there to deliver an address. Posessing a calm, sweet Christian spirit, among the new SBC historians, there is no brighter rising star than he. I have never met him nor heard him speak, but if he speaks like he writes, Finn is singularly worth the price of admission.
What often disturbs me about these conferences, however, is that they turn out to be one more reflection of a program-driven mentality that is so unalterably woven into the fabric of SBC life. First you start with a Ridgecrest, Glorieta, or Falls Creek setting. After one, three, or five days of creating a glowing mountain-top experience, everybody gathers around in a circle, holding hands to sing “Cum Ba Ya.” You look around and everybody is just like you, with a few four-pointers sprinkled in to lend the feeling of diversity. There are no one-pointers to be found, because they would not come if you put a gun to their head. Honestly, can you blame them. Everybody goes home and everything remains pretty much the same.
My question to all of you - those of you who go, and those who stay at home - is this: What are you going to do? Shrug your shoulders like a Frenchman and say something like “Oh, that’s really sad.”? Or maybe you might cross your arms resolutely and say something like “We just need to realize that they’re different and move on.”? What are you going to do? I am reminded of the simple chorus to an old bluegrass song:
I didn’t hear nobody pray dear brother.
I didn’t hear nobody pray.
I heard the crash on the highway,
But I didn’t hear nobody pray.
Where are the tears? How many of you grieve and pray over these situations? Sometimes I think, like James and John, we do not know what spirit we are of. Do any of us sincerely pray for peace when these situations arise? So many are ready and willing to die for a cause, to climb into the ring at the next ding of the bell, but who’s praying earnestly for peace?
This picture is from the movie Gods and Generals. Blue and Gray meet in mid stream to exchange a tin cup of hot coffee for a pipe full of tobacco; two men stepping out into the stream to regain their humanity, to reclaim their imago Dei. How many of you are willing to risk ambush by laying down your weapons and going across town to that brother who doesn’t see it your way? How many of you are willing to say “Brother, I have been a pompous fool. Will you forgive me? Can we get together and talk about what we both agree on in order to advance the kingdom of God in this town?”
So, which do you think takes more courage; climbing into the ring, or stepping out into the stream? Meanwhile, millions are dying and going to hell. Do you think it matters very much to them whether you are a Calvinist or an Arminian? We bemoan what harm to the gospel the tele-evangelists are causing, but do we ever stop and consider what kind of harm we cause, and that without the aid of radio or tv?
“When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Chistianity
“Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
2 Timothy 2:23-26 (ESV)
This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, November 11, 2007, and was taken from Jeremiah 9:12-24.
To boast means to brag. It is something we all do. We learn it at an early age, and we never really outgrow it. The problem is not with boasting, but rather in what it is about which we boast. There are things worthy of boasting.
Things to look at in this passage:
The problem is not that we boast, but about what it is about which we boast. We boast in the fact that God is God.
This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, November 11, 2007, and was taken from Mark 11:1-11.
History’s greatest moment has arrived, and the king of all of creation mounts a donkey and enters Jerusalem. In the text before us we have Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Mark reveals to us dramatically the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ incarnation. Who was he, and what did he come to accomplish?
Oh, that we all might be able to say this day “Behold our King!”
It was after church last night at Arby’s when my pastor tossed the papers across the table at me. “You’ll find this interesting reading.” he said. With a wry grin he continued: “The first page is a letter sent to me last week, and behind that is the response I fired back the very next day.” The front sheet was a photocopy of a form letter sent to Dear Board of Directors Member, and was from the Arbuckle Baptist Association. What took my breath away was the signature at the bottom: Terry Mott, DOM. Thirty-two years ago he was best man at my wedding. The whole thing suddenly became strangely surreal by the fact that my pastor was not aware of our relationship, and that the letter had been sent to him by mistake, as he had rotated off the board just last year. “No mistake.” He said, “Providence.” What else could a Calvinist say?
The Arbuckle Baptist Association is a sleepy little band of thirty-one SBC churches located in two rural counties in south-central Oklahoma. The counties of Garvin and Murray contain about 40,000 souls between them, and the largest towns in them have populations of about 6,500 and 5,000 respectively. This last month, in their associational meeting, those present and voting at the ABA decided to draft a motion, and send it on to the upcoming (this week) BGCO state convention. The intention of that motion was to “take a public stand against reformed theology.”
As I was gleaning information, Brother Google made it plain to me that there was the beginnings of a feeding frenzy in Bloggsylvania. To be sure, it looks like a juicy story, on the surface. The quick facts I dug up, as you can see, however, clearly show that this isn’t some metro-mega association. And I can assure you Brother Mott does not have horns, one eye in the middle of his head, or even pointed ears. It saddens me to see people imply that someone is not a Christian because he does not hold to the doctrines of Grace, and yet nothing more is known about him, save what is contained in a brief bit of associational business.
I know the man, however. We came to Christ in the same church, in the same way: by means of an altar call. God saves those who are his. It doesn’t really matter whether or not they realize the correct order that regeneration took place in their lives. Although I have not seen or spoken Terry in over two decades, I can confidently say that today he is trusting in the same Blood and Righteousness as I. Never forget that God can draw a straight line in the dirt with a mighty crooked stick.
Shortly after my marriage, Terry and I took very different paths. Terry finished his bachelor’s at Oklahoma Baptist University, and became a cog in the SBC machine. My wife and I, frustrated with the shallow SBC-church life in a state-college town, joined a small, rural, independent, reformed-baptist church, some fifty miles away. For the next quarter-century we quietly raised a family, and grew in grace. The children are all grown and married now, and we have found ourselves, strangely for the last seven years, back in a SBC church. Don’t ask. It’s a long story.
The previous paragraph was so that I could say that I have been to both sides now. My pendulum has done busted out both sides of the clock, so to speak. Right now I am somewhere in the middle. I don’t care how many points you hold to. I just want to know if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you yearn to live like it makes a difference. Yes, the SBC drives me nuts; makes me want to bite nails and spit. Grandchildren and their parents struggling to find God-honoring, Christ-centered churches will make you that way. But I have found enough “Calvinists” who are more interested in expositing the petals of a TULIP than leading men to Christ, that I can partially understand why some men might want to draft an anti-Calvinism motion and send it on up the line.
Let me ask you brothers of the Reformation, when do you cross over and become so much a Calvinist that you cease to be Christian? Though you be a strident five pointer, and have not love, what have ye? Brother Mott is certainly mistaken in his intent, but he is still a brother in Christ. Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to blog about these things. Maybe we should be much quicker to pray to God seeking grace and charity, and strive to find real ways to build bridges, instead of going to another of our party’s confabs with snappy titles like “Building Bridges.” Someone took the time to build a real one to me.
So what about the letter stapled to this mis-sent letter? What did Pastor say? I didn’t get permission to tell. I can tell you that after my pastor made his position plain, he concluded with, not a clenched fist, but an open hand extended out.
ht: Tom Ascoll, Tony Kummer
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