New Life Burbank

A few Sundays ago, during the worship service, during one of the songs that my 4-year old son Caleb was familiar with (it was a previous “song of the month”), I saw something that made me smile. I saw him sing… with his eyes closed. His head even swayed a little from side to side. I smiled, because I knew what he was doing. He was imitating his daddy; that’s how I sing my songs of praise to God (when I know the lyrics by heart).

I didn’t tell him to do that; he just did it on his own. He learned by observing his daddy. That’s how I sing at home during our family worship, and that’s how I sing at church in corporate worship. Like it or not, my son imitates me… as he should. And that is a very weighty responsibility.

Dear parents, how do you worship God? What’s your attitude in and during worship? What’s your posture? By how you worship, do your children sense that you value and cherish worship, or do they sense that it is something you do out of mere duty? If you’re mentally “checked out” during worship and preoccupied with other things, if you can’t wait to be done with worship to get to more important things, if you show up for worship in a hurry and with no preparation, if worship is something you “endure” rather than “enjoy”… well, like it or not, you will see that attitude reflected in your children and in their worship of God.

It’s not enough to just take them to church, or even to have them sit quietly with you in worship. They need to see you worship; they need to see that you value and treasure Christ in your worship. That’s how they are going to learn to worship. When it comes to worshipping God, your personal example will go much further and have more impact than your instruction and exhortation ever will.

Be very careful about what you model before your kids. They will imitate you; they will love what you love, and they will care about what you care about. They are watching you- not only at home, but also at church.

May God, by His powerful Spirit, make us the kind of worshippers that we earnestly and prayerfully want our children to be.

I want to commend to you all an article that the men in the Officers’ training are reading. it is by B.B. Warfield, and it is entitled “A Brief and Untechnical Statement of the Reformed Faith.” I have uploaded it under the “articles” section of our website.

The article does something so very important. It teaches us to not only confess what we believe, but to confess what we believe in such a way that it leads us to find comfort for our souls in the gospel and to praise, thank, and worship God,

Theology, rightly done, should never lead to mere knowledge that puffs up in arrogance, which tragically happens too often. Theology, rightly done, should lead to doxology. This article will take you from confessing to worshipping, and it will edify your soul.

Take up and read!

Pastor Owen

I am struck by something I read this morning, from Luke 5:1-11. It was the day that Jesus told Peter, James and John to let down their nets, even though they caught nothing all night. But they did what Jesus said, and they had their biggest catch ever as fisherman. They caught so many fish that their nets were breaking. They filled their boats with so many fish that their boats were sinking. This was the biggest catch of fish that they had ever even heard of. It was their big pay-day. When they brought all the fish to shore, they should have been seeing dollar signs (or shekel signs) in their heads, thinking about how rich they just got!

But what do they do? Verse 11 says, “And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.” They left everything. Not only the great catch of fish (which would have netted a whole lot of money), but even the tools for their livelihood (their boats and their nets). Were they crazy? Maybe. Maybe not. In Jesus they found someone more valuable than all the fish in the world, even more valuable than everything they possessed or owned in this world. In order to own and follow Jesus, they gladly left everything. In their eyes, it would have been crazy to stay with the fish and not follow Jesus. They chose the better portion. They chose Jesus over dead fish and smelly boats. At the end of the day, the very best that this world has to offer us for our treasure is “dead fish and smelly boats.”

Is Jesus that precious and valuable to you? Is He to me? Is Jesus so valuable that everything else is like rubbish compared to Him? Yes, He is. It is my prayer that Jesus will be that precious to my own soul, that I would seek my true joy, my true satisfaction, and my true delight in Him- and in no one and nothing else. I pray that- not to sound pious, but to be truly happy and satisfied. I agree with John Piper, that Jesus is most glorified when we are the most satisfied with Him, when we gladly leave everything in order to gain and follow Him.

Tonight, to my shame, I confess that I sinned against my kids. Margaret was out for a school meeting, and it fell upon me- and ME ALONE- to wash up all the kids, to lead them in family worship, and to put them all to bed. I had a long day, and I was exhausted. I wanted to put them to bed as soon as I could; I really wanted to get to the Lakers/Suns game. So, when the kids didn’t cooperate about going to bed promptly, when they did whatever they could to stay up later than I wanted them to (asking for water, making additional trips to the bathroom, sneaking books and toys into their beds, etc.), in my exhaustion and in my desire to get to the game, in my selfish irritation, I yelled. I straight up yelled at my kids with a voice so cruel that it would have stunned you if you heard it. I said something like, “Just leave me alone! Daddy is so tired! Just go to bed before I spank all of you!” The volume and the intensity of the anger were very evident in my voice, and all the faces of my kids fell. They slunk into their beds, whimpering to themselves. I stormed downstairs, plopped down on the couch, and turned on the TV. Finally… some peace and quiet… just me and my Lakers game.

And then it hit me… like the way Shaq’s elbow hit the back of Raja Bell’s head. What hit me? My guilt, my shame, and my remorse. My conscience yelled at me, telling me that I had sinned against my kids. I yelled in anger…. Not for their good, but because I was tired, and because I wanted to do my own thing. So, before I let the guilt pass away, I went back upstairs, and I apologized to all my kids. I went to each of them, sat in their beds, looked them in the eye, and told them that what I did was very wrong, and that it was a sin. I told them that I was very sorry, and I asked each of them for their forgiveness, which they all graciously granted me right away. And I told them that I loved them very much. My son Caleb said to me quietly, “God is not happy with you when you yell at us like that.” I told him that I know, and I told him that I would ask God for His forgiveness too. Father, forgive me for being so selfish and unkind, even to my own children that I love. Please change me by the power of the Holy Spirit.

For those of us with children, sooner or later, if they haven’t already, they are going to see us sin. They are going to see us sin against them. That’s unavoidable. But just as clearly as they see us sin, they must also just as clearly see us repent and seek forgiveness… both from them and from our heavenly Father. They must never see us try to justify or rationalize our sin; they must see us humbly confess our sin and seek forgiveness. We need to model and demonstrate sorrow, repentance, and faith in the gospel when we sin. That way, when our children sin (which they do and will), they will know what to do… because they watched us deal with our own sin in a gospel-way.

May each and every one of our covenant homes be homes where grace and forgiveness are central and foundational, where both parents and children have the humility to confess their sins and the boldness to delight in the gospel. May the gospel be something that is not only believed but also experienced- as we seek and grant forgiveness to one another.

A few years ago, I sat back one day and wondered why “sheep” and “lamb” were used in the Bible to refer to God’s elect and Christ, respectively. After all, a lamb is basically a baby sheep. This past Sunday as Pastor Owen gave his sermon about the relationship of Christ (the ultimate shepherd) and His flock of sheep, I was reminded of this question that had traversed my mind a while back. I thought I’d share a few thoughts on this.

A lamb is a sheep that is one year old or younger. Generally, the meat of lamb is much more tender than that of an adult sheep and when I look at pictures of lamb versus sheep—-it’s like looking at my children fast asleep, calm and seemingly innocent (the operative word is “seemingly” because they definitely are not innocent!) versus looking at a video of myself sleeping, sprawled across the bed, drool dripping out of the corner of my mouth and snoring up a storm. A lamb looks so cute and cuddly; a sheep looks….well…a little disgusting, especially right after having it’s wool shaved.

Not only do sheep look disgusting, but they’re not that smart. Pastor Owen gave the image of little Lizi wanting to pat a sheep and it would run away, scared of a harmless girl. Sheep have bad sense of direction and wander off easily and once lost, they’re prey to numerous predators. It’s no wonder we’re equated with sheep—-we’re often so lost and not so smart. What comfort it is to know that we have the great Shepherd, Christ, who truly watches over us.

Christ is also referred to as the lamb of God (John 1:29), the passover lamb (I Cor 5:7) and the sacrificial lamb (Isaiah, Exodus). Why a lamb? Maybe because the lamb is so similar to the sheep, since Christ (the lamb) had to become fully man (the sheep) to absolutely bear the wrath of God. Or is it because the lamb is so different from the sheep?

A couple years ago during the Philippines mission trip, I clearly remember a sermon given by Pastor Tim Lim. He spoke to a local church in Manilla and his message has stuck with me. Although I haven’t known him for too long, Pastor Lim strikes me as the ‘21st century John the Baptist.’ He’s down in the trenches doing whatever it takes to spread the gospel message. When he was younger, Pastor Tim would minister to the locals in American Indian reservations. Often he’d help slaughter sheep and lamb. There was a clear difference between the two. Before imminent death, the sheep would cry out with incredible noise, struggle and gnash around. The lamb however, was extremely quiet….silent. It would breath a little heavily, but it seemed as if the lamb knew that struggling or crying would do no good. It would accept its fate of death.

Christ accepted His death on the cross willingly on our behalf.

Isn’t the inerrant word of God marvelous? Praise be to the Risen Lamb!