Jesus said, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). Jesus is the head of the body, the church, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent (Colossians 1:18). We have nothing good apart from Him, and nothing we say today or celebrate about our church matters apart from Him. “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

The apostle Paul put it this way: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

Yet that doesn’t mean we don’t have work to do; we are responsible to depend on God, and in that dependence we’re responsible to sow and water and weed. We can’t cause growth, but we are to be “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1), and stewards want to be faithful and fruitful. “If the work that anyone has built on the foundation (of Jesus Christ) survives, he will receive a reward” (1 Corinthians 3:14). We want to be found ready and diligent and patient and fruitful.

I’m excited to get to talk first. There is a lot to introduce, and it’s fitting for me to be first and for my main idea to set the foundation for the rest of the talks today, as it is the foundation for all of what we do.

The seminar is titled TEC 101 , referring to the basics, the starters. Some of the L2L leaders suggested it as a topic, especially since we’ve gained more than a hundred souls over the last couple years. We talk about some things differently than many of us used to. It’s not because we are trying to be innovative. In particular, when it comes to what we believe, our doctrine, we are only trying to read and rightly handle the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Yet as disciples of Christ, as we read God’s Word and learn from our Christian history and repent from our sins, we have some expressions and some emphases that may sound odd. In this sense we are like an ecclesiastical mutt (though being a mutt doesn’t necessarily make us a mess). We’re not thoroughbred Baptists, though credobaptist. We share a lot of Presbyterian worldview and lifestyle though we get at it differently than they might appreciate. We’re not Charismatic but a lot of people cry during communion. We’re Reformed and still reforming, even if not all the “truly Reformed” of the Lord would say so.

We care about the truth, and we care about what truth does. Truth sets men free. Truth lets us build and feast and play.

“We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliff’s edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the centre of the island; and their song had ceased.” (G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

For many of us, truth was the end not the means to the end. If we lived in Chesterton’s illustration, ministry and church life was all about watching the walls, vililantly suspicious of the next mis-spoken sentence (or sloppy tweet) that might scratch the paint. Doctrine made life narrow, and if there was a game, it was who could collect the most. “Truth-lovers” (as David Wells labeled them in The Courage to Be Protestant) easily become truth-tubes. But we are not to be isolated, clinical receptacles of truth, the truth makes alive and connects us to one another.

”Christians are like the several flowers in a garden, that have upon each of them the dew of heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall their dew at each other’s roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of each other.” (John Bunyan, Christian Behavior, quoted in Brown, 173)

Truth is for better fences, for sake of better fellowship and feasting, not for sake of making us better fussers.

So we sow truth. So we sow obedience to the truth.

A Pastor among Pastors

I’m speaking first, and I often am speaking, but we really are seeking to shepherd as a plurality of pastors/elders. I’m an “a” pastor, not the pastor. I am not the senior pastor or lead paster, or pastor for judgment and mercy (ha!). Yet part of my responsibility is to have my mouth open in front of the flock a lot. As my wife once illustrated, I am not the captain of the ship, I am like the mermaid on the front of it. I go first. I get wet. I hit the iceberg. But I am not the boss, nor am I trying to be a brand. I’ve actually spoken with a number of people recently who are still reeling/recovering from power seized by one man and wielded destructively. TEC exists in part because of a failure to faithfully practice the plurality of elders.

For what it’s worth, we don’t have women pastors at all, nor are the wives of elders by default some unwritten office holders either. Our wives are generally involved, and certainly helpful to their husbands, but none of them preach and only one plays piano sometimes.

Giving Thanks

As the current mermaid I have endeavored to point toward and go first in thankfulness. I have tried to point away from the F.O.G., the Fellowship of Grievance(s). There are reefs in the fog. There are corruptions in fog waters that eat away at joy and unity and will sink a boat.

Thankfulness is the wind that blows away bitterness. Thankfulness is not just an end, it is the energy. Thankfulness is not the goal, it is the goad. Thankfulness is not the target, it is the strategy. It’s the stance for fixing things, the angle on our needs, the way we address problems, whether those problems are stubborn and unfinished saints or the spiritual battle at large against the evil one. Of all things, the ancient serpent doesn’t want us to be thankful for what we’ve been given.

We believe that God is sovereign. How could He be more sovereign? He is just, and attentive, and faithful. We have all sorts of truths to encourage us, and yet “the joy of the Lord” is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). He employs His steadfast love in joy. This is why God’s people don’t just conclude in song, they commence with it (think Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20).

Word people are singing and thanking people.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:16–17 ESV)

Spirit-filled people are singing and thanking people.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Ephesians 5:18–20 ESV)

Thanks is a weapon in our sanctification. It’s the counteragent to adultery and idolatry and vulgarity.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. (Ephesians 5:3–4 ESV)

Tell God what you need with thanks.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:4–6 ESV)

I will never successfully overemphasize this. This passage assumes that circumstances are anti-rejoicing and anti-reasonable; rejoicing and reasonableness must be commanded. The reminder that the Lord is at hand fits because of all the things that tempt us to anxiety. We see problems, which is why we’re supplicating. We have needs, which is why we’re making requests. And in that condition (coming out of bickering ladies in the church, seeing Judaizers who would have been better off mutilating themselves, living amidst a crooked and twisted generation, and remembering Paul’s own imprisonment), give thanks.

Thankfulness is obedience.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

A lack of thankfulness is what leads to the wrath of God (Romans 1:21). It is a toxin in our cultural waters.

Being thankful to God is not a mental trick, not the power of positive thinking. It’s not a blind eye. It’s not a denial of problems. It’s the powerful blessing of obedience. I wholeheartedly believe that one of the greatest blessings God has given our church body is that, for all the problems that people have or that they point out, the elders consistently absorb the drama and criticisms and conflicts from a position of non-freaking out gratitude. Sometimes this is initially interpreted like, “You must not have heard me, there is a PROBLEM!” “You’re not taking this seriously enough.” And maybe, but let’s make sure we’re seriously thankful as well.

The majority of the NT epistles were written because something (or many things) was wrong, yet only one letter doesn’t begin with thanks. The Galatians toyed with salvation by works, and that was truly cursed. Even the Corinthians could be addressed from a position of thanks to the Lord.

When we think about how God responds to all that He knows is bad or even incomplete, His joy is undisturbed. His joy is our strength.

All Are Yours

This relates to the second part of this opening session, a recognition that “all are yours.” This little phrase is so important that we chose it to be the motto of Comeford College.

Maybe you remember where the phrase is from. Paul wrote to the Corinthians because he’d been given a report that they were divided (among other problems such as unaddressed immorality in chapter 5, selfish communion in chapter 11). But Paul comes out of the gate confronting their rivalry and posturing by favorite preacher.

The assertion comes at the end of 1 Corinthians 3.

For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. (1 Corinthians 3:21–23 ESV)

Paul himself expands from how many preachers we can listen to, out to all the world. God gives, and His giving can’t be turned off. The way we get over pettiness is by getting out of the zero sum game. There is a lot of pie, so stop posturing and/or panicking. You are Christ’s, and in Him and through Him and to Him are all things. He created, and cares for, and is interested, all the things He made. This is Kuyperian. This is image-bearing. This is feasting. Our difficulties in giving thanks are not for lack of content.

Jealousably Blessed

This is part of being #blessed, not just eschatologically, but ecclesiologically. Thankful people, who grow in gratitude for all that God has given, are the sorts of people who are full of faith. They are not constantly berated by their leaders but stimulated to grow up in glory and be jealousable. This is the kind of people with God-given gravity who make Marysville a destination.

Thankful people are not going to run out of the “all” in all are theirs. Don’t hold back your thanks.

Strength and Song

Those who look to the Lord look, and sound, a particular way.

The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation;this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.(Exodus 15:2)

The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.(Psalm 118:14)

“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid;for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2)

Conclusion

The most godly thing you can do is not necessarily lead a Bible study (especially in light of James 3:1 anyway), but lead in gratitude.

Be thankful for people who are hard for you, be thankful at how few people actually are really hard for you, be thankful for how many people bear with how hard you are to them. Be thankful for how much you realize that you don’t know, be thankful for the Lord who reigns in wisdom over all you don’t know.

Unthankful men rarely are in a position of moving forward. They may be looking back, or around, but it is for others to change, not for them to do better. There is a godly sort of discontent, but there is not a godly sort of ingratitude. As we see (and seek) the Lord’s blessing on our church body, let’s be thankful.