Bye Bye To Riseup

Well for the few of you that are still reading this I am saying so long to this blog. My blogs will now be posted at andybship.tumblr.com

This site will let me post audio on my blog. So after a few weeks I will be closing this account.

Glory To God

This past weekend I went to Knoxville TN to preach at a D-Now weekend for the folks at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The theme was the Atonement. Session one was about the bad news...the total depravity of man...the sin nature that we were born with that Ephesians 2 tells us makes us children of wrath. To bring this message to a close I spent some time teaching the students what a crucifixion was like. Just preaching that overwhelmed me and many in the audience. Then we sang a song called Glory to God Forever. It was some of the best worship.

This got me thinking about worship. Why do we sing and pray first then preach on sundays? Shouldn't worship be our response to God; His nature and will revealed to us by the Word?

Just a thought if anyone is still reading this thing.

Eating Bread Like Cooper

I have got bread on the brain because of the passage I am getting ready to exposit on Sunday. As I have been digging into the text I came to the realization that I want to dive into scripture like my daughter eats bread at a restaurant. Cooper will get me to butter up her bread then she will put the whole piece up to her face and literally gnaw away at the inner portion of the bread because that is the best part.

I am currently preaching through the miracles of Jesus from John's gospel account. This Sunday I am preaching from John 6:1-15...the feeding of the 5000. Something that God has shown me, through guys like Tim Keller, is that all of scripture is ultimately about Christ. Well my text this week couldn't be more true.

At face value the text we like to make this text more about Jesus doing a lot with a little or about the Short-sighted Disciples; like Philip and Andrew. However, a deeper look into the text shows us this is about Jesus; its about the Gospel. The bread of lowly beginnings is blessed by God, broken, then passed out to the masses for their filling, then there is enough left over to pick up 12 baskets (represents sustenance). This whole passage screams of what Jesus did. He came from lowly or humble beginnings; was broken then distributed to the masses; and there is enough of Him to sustain.

Tired of Religion

This if for the pastor that got in my face about not preaching from the King James and for the guy that told me Voddie Bauchaum is a heretic because his church doesn't do Sunday School and because he is a calvinist. I will let Mark Driscoll speak for me. Hope you enjoy.

I love Jesus!!

Jesus is amazing!! A Savior who didn't simply take our sin but became our sin; who suffered a vile and horrific death, the death of a criminal; A Jesus whose precious blood washes away sin; who suffered the wrath of God and provided atonement for sin. A Christ that gave me His righteousness and took my shame; and a Messiah that causes men to become a new creation.

Who cares that its not Christmas anymore. Everyday is a day to praise God and magnify the name of Jesus Christ!!!!!!!

Doxology IS Theology

As I have been preparing to preach my Christmas sermon series God has been revealing some truth to me that I feel compelled to share with the two of you that read this blog. My sermon series will come from the various songs that people sang in and around the time of Christ's birth; the song of Mary, Simeon, Angels, etc.

The conviction I have come to is this.....worship today is much too man centered! In our culture we like to start at the bottom and work upward. We start with self; our wants, our feelings, our emotions, our agendas, our opinions. Once that box has been constructed we then try to put God in it. The result of this doxology or worship is theology that is as far away from biblical precepts that its pathetic. Worship today teaches that man is the apex and that he is worthy of God's time and attention. This theology produces selfishness, greed and pride.

In scripture we see worship begins with God and everything else stems from Him. His holiness, goodness, judgement, omniscience, etc are the things that fuel the wonderful worship of scripture. This biblical method of worship produces sound theology where God is the top of the food chain. It is a theology where man is so unlike God, sinful, poor, blind and naked that the reality that God would even look upon us is overwhelming.

My challenge for you in this is simple. Worship out of the overflow of who God is and what God has done; not out of how you feel and what you think. Worship in a way that produces and teaches sound theology and not this modern-day garbage that is being produced!!

Our Joy

No poem today like yesterday. But I do have some thoughts. As it turns out I am not a popular guy in my community. Apparently I am a male chauvinist and archaic in my views. I must admit that my flesh is infuriated and vengeful by the rumor-mill that is circulating about me; a small town Baptist Preacher that is trying really hard to preach sound doctrine and win souls to Christ. But in my heart and the deepest crevasses of my being I am hurt no I am crushed. I am grieved that tempers are flaring and pride is springing up in some who think they are doing good but in reality they are hurting the body of Christ. It is nothing more than gossip and slander.

What does this have to do with joy? The truth of scripture is clear that we are blessed when we face trial and tribulation of many kinds. Weeks like the ones I've had are working out God's will for my life. These weeks are trying to teach me submission to God and they are developing character. So as weird as this sounds I find myself filled with joy in Christ in the middle of my circumstances. I am joyful in Christ and the Bible teaches that the joy of the Lord is my strength.

So today I make this declaration for Satan and his demons and for any who read this blog. My joy is Jesus Christ!!!! Not this world...not popularity....nor your opinion of me. My joy comes from the inescapable beauty and grace of God Almighty. My obsession will from this day forth be with what God thinks and what His opinion is of me. I wish to live this way in order to please God and make the world look the way it really is to the Christian; like a fleeting, trivial, worthless thing that has no power and produce zero joy.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!!