The Blog

CHBC Connect for November 15, 2024

Practical Action in Fulfilling the Mission of CHBC:

Capitol Hill Baptist Church exists to glorify God by equipping believers, exalting Christ, and extending the gospel to our neighbors and the nations. That might be just a phrase you hear. But I want it to be a reality you embrace. This is not the mission statement of the staff of CHBC. It is not a slogan to put on letterhead, social media, or church merch.

It is intended to be a rally cry around which the church, the people of CHBC, find focus and purpose. It is intended to put meaning in your daily routine. This calling is meant to give your work a larger purpose. These words are a call for students to see beyond homework and sports to their own spiritual life and to the need of their friends to hear the gospel. Moms who are caring for children are to see past the diapers and dirty house to the evangelism and discipleship of their precious children.

Phrases and mottos need practical action if they are to take on life. How can you practically embrace the mission of the church?

• Being a believer who is being equipped includes personally committing to daily Bible reading; attending faithfully a Sunday School class; engaging mentally in the sermon each Sunday; reading theologically sound books; and developing a relationship of accountable discipleship with others who actively desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Being a believer who exalts Christ means pursuing your own personal, practical holiness, and engaging mentally and emotionally in gathered public worship with your church family. In a personal way you are not just studying the Bible and theological truths, but you are applying the truths you learn to your daily life. You are bearing fruit in keeping with repentance (Matt. 3:8); you are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-24); and you bear the marks of one who is gradually becoming more like Christ (Heb. 10:14). Publicly, exaltation means you are present physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually with the church on a weekly basis. You are present not just to consume a product the church is offering, but to serve the Lord and His people by your presence, by your gifts, and by your willing sacrifice of life to God (Rom. 12:1-2).
• Being a believer who extends the gospel to our neighbors and the nations involves giving personal witness to the good news of Jesus Christ, and actively engaging in prayer and giving for the cause of the gospel to be spread across the city, the state, the nation, and the world. You are sharing Christ in your home, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, and with anyone who God places in your path. You actively pray for missionaries and mission efforts around the world, knowing that Christ will return once the gospel has been proclaimed to the nations (Mark 16:15).

I am encouraging you today to consider where you are in personally applying the mission to equip, exalt, and extend. Do not look at these thoughts and feel defeated or limited. If you are not engaged in any of these ways yet, pick a starting point and begin. Christ is at work in you through the Holy Spirit. There is no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). So, by His gospel grace, begin. But do not feel limited by these ideas either. You may be engaged in all these ways already. You have not arrived. God is urging you to pursue Him more deeply, worship Him more profoundly, and share the gospel more broadly. The goal is to embrace the mission of CHBC. This is our church; therefore, this is our mission to fulfill together. I cannot wait to meet with you on Sunday to hear how this is happening for you, and to encourage those who are fainthearted on the journey.

By His Grace, and For His Glory,

Pastor Mark

CHBC Connect for November 8, 2024

Salvation by Electoral College?

If you regularly read the newsletter, you know that I am typically emphasizing some portion of our purpose, mission, or vision. I think that it is necessary for me to do that, so we keep our focus on the right things. My only regret is that not every member reads those articles every week. Not because they are so well written, but because of the lostness of our world, and the mission drift of the church are both realities we should keep before us.

But as the title of today’s article suggests, I have a different focus on my mind. We have just finished what seems like one of the longest and most contentious political seasons in my own lifetime. The first election I remember was when Jimmy Carter won the presidency in 1976 and started his term in 1977. So, my personal political history is not as lengthy as some of yours might be, but it is substantial in that it covers more than forty years.

As we come to the close of this current political cycle it is a good time to reflect on what we need to know and how to prepare for the next one, if Jesus has not returned by then. Universities and private high schools were giving allowance to students on the day following the election to have mental health days. They were so concerned about election anxiety that they thought the students might need a break. Anxiety and depression are on meteoric rise in our culture. The numbers are staggering across the board. And the experts saw the election as one more source of adding to anxiety to such an extent that institutions thought people might not be able to function.

Can I add just a smidge of Biblical perspective about the election? Without a doubt there were people who went to bed on Tuesday night feeling distress, a loss of hope, and with great anxiety about the future of their country. There were others that went to bed on Tuesday night with a great deal of optimism, a sense of hope, and a feeling of security they have not known for the last four years. 

If either of those describe you, can I suggest that you might want to ask yourself whether you are putting your trust in God, who is both good and sovereign, or if you have been putting your trust in elections, candidates, parties, or political identity. Now, caring about political outcomes is not sinful. We should care enough to be prayerful and engaged appropriately and responsibly in civic duties. We should be informed and knowledgeable about matters of our society morally, economically, socially, and politically. We should act in responsible ways to see laws passed and representatives elected which will further the flourishing of the country we live in. Knowing what is best for a whole country is complicated and people from all kinds of backgrounds can have good ideas and good motives. Determining which politician to vote for and which measures or laws will be best for us ought to be complicated, because the issues are complicated.

Let me be clear. I think we should care about what is happening and we should advocate for people and law which will support the best possible results for people who live in that nation. And I think ideally, those people and laws will reflect well Biblical standards. But pastorally, I must caution us.

The caution comes regarding where our hope lies. If we are so stressed by the outcome of an election that we lose hope, live in fear, or despair over the future; If we suddenly find hope, meaning, happiness, or significance because of the outcome of an election; we must pause and ask if we have made an idol out of politics, candidates, or government. Caring about the outcomes are not idolizing. But anything that provides for us hope, happiness, security, or significance other than God has become an idol.

Remember that God is the source of all good gifts. James 1:17-18 says, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.” Be grateful for all that He provides that is for our good.

And remember that God is sovereign. Bear in mind what Isaiah has said in Isaiah 45:6-7,

“That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun
That there is no one besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
7 The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating calamity;
I am the Lord who does all these.”

I want you to care deeply about this world and our existence in it. And I want you to trust God profoundly above all things. Sleep well after every election and its outcome. Not because the results may fit with what you think to be good for our nation, but because you rest in the care of a sovereign, perfect, powerful, loving, and good God.

By His Grace, and For His Glory,

Pastor Mark