First Presbyterian Church Of Baton Rouge

Being in Christ connects us to one another in eternal bonds. The Lord Jesus does not flatten us into some bland homogenous unity. His Spirit awakens the unique personalities, gifts and insights of each believer. He brings us alive. He also creates a unity deeper than tribalism. Skin color, biology, desire, cash—none of these singly or together are adequate to identify creatures uniquely made in the image of God. We have a better story. We joyfully embrace a shared status as created and beloved.

There is no such thing as an independent Christian. We are all inter-dependent members of Christ's body. We are bound to each other.

Imagine the divine embrace of Father and Son. Then claim how you are included. In that circle. The Spirit has relocated you into Christ. And Christ is in the Father’s arms. We’re gathered home in the everlasting embrace of the God who is love, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus said in John 15, "Abide in me, and I in you."

Jesus is the meeting place between the promises of God and the faithfulness required of humanity. The people waited for centuries for the LORD to fulfill his Word to them. The LORD waited patiently knowing his people could not ever, on their own, keep his law. The waiting ended in Jesus. He enacted our faithfulness and his Father’s promises. So God and humanity meet in Christ alone. Jesus becomes the embodied fulfillment of all God’s promises to his people. He resets the whole meaning of promises made and fulfilled by what he suffers, what he conquers and what he gives us. All the promises of God find their Yes in him.

Welcome to the Lent 2021 study, "In Christ Alone: Discovering Where You Truly Live."

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

We are a collection of liars, adulterers, cheats, fakers, gossips, drunks, idolaters, doubters--sinners every one of us. But we gather in the hope that we can, as a result of Jesus’ call, get off the highway and turn around. Jesus comes to us even when we are years down the wrong road. Jesus finds and warms the long-buried heart, even when we thought it was lost and turned to stone.

How does forgiveness free paralysis in life and mission? How does Jesus connecting to us at the point of our deepest need loosen up our whole lives to be lived more fully for Christ? How does faith--robust, risky, sold out faith--get us connected to the One who alone forgives and brings to life?

The question of the willingness of Jesus is urgent for all of us. Especially at the point of our greatest shame and deepest need. We might imagine that Jesus is willing to be with us when we are being good. When we are doing our Bible study or serving in a mission. When we are writing a check or being nice to someone. Sure, I imagine Jesus is willing to bless me when I am on the road of serving him. But is he willing to be with me in those back streets of the soul? YES!

The tugs and ambitions we feel pale in comparison to the call of Jesus to follow him and go fishing for people. We discover that life is about being transformed by Jesus’ love, and then going to offer that love to others. This new activity of fishing for people may or may not be externally different from our current daily work. The key change is in the perspective from which we view people and tasks. We live now with a new sense of purpose in life: We are to be channels of God’s love. We have a mission. It lights up everything.

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of his glory! Jesus said that when he was lifted up, he would draw all people to himself. He is a magnetic force in the world. The Gospel draws the human heart back to the God who made us and loves us. The Triune God of Grace is extending the length of his train (Isaiah 6: 1). His glorious robe moment by moment adds the golden stitches of hearts released to him. For, his bride, the church are his glory and his prize. He clothes us with the shimmering garment of his own righteousness.

Do you know why you were born?

This Christmas, hear the news: you are more important than you may ever know. Someone needs you to have Christmas courage. Someone needs you to have faith when theirs is failing. Someone needs you to offer prayers that are both broken-hearted for the suffering, but also defiantly hopeful in the face of despair, loss, illness, and anguish. God is not dead, nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail.

On a dark night in a tiny town God himself entered the world. Using apparently insignificant and powerless people, the world’s true King made his appearance. The humble carpenter and his young wife sheltered among the farm animals. The shepherds made their midnight way to see the child. No one in the world who mattered even knew it happened. But our God was working everything according to his plan. Things are actually not the way the world shouts at us. The dominators are merely bullies pretending they know. For God was up to something that first Christmas. He still is. Quiet. Under the nose of Caesar. Away from the listening devices of a surveillance society. Where none of the powerful are looking. God slips into the world with a life transforming agenda.

Now display thy saving power Ruined nature now restore. This is the astounding hope in the Christian view of the world. We have a story of what is old being made new, of what is broken getting fixed, of what is ruined being made more glorious than it had ever been even in the beginning.