One of the things I believe God would have us grow in as a church is to better recognize some of the ways He is at work in our midst. While I have many hopes for us as we seek to do this, three of them are primary. First, I pray that we would rejoice over His grace to us. One of our core values is “joyful worship”. Recognizing some of the ways God is working in our midst will help us to more joyfully worship Him with our lips and our lives through every season and circumstance. Secondly, I want us to be encouraged. I don’t know a person or a church body who is too encouraged. My prayer is that as we recognize some of God’s grace toward us as a church, we will be encouraged in Christ and in the worthy work He has sent us to. Third, I pray recognizing His handiwork would make us hungry for more and more of Him and His work in our midst. The truth is, God is always working in powerful and profound ways, both in the ordinary and extraordinary. Often, we don’t see it, recognize it, or acknowledge it. So, in an effort for us to recognize His gracious work more regularly, I’ll be sending out a monthly post highlighting a few ways He has been at work in our midst.
As you read these glimpses of grace every month, I would ask three things of you. First, let’s praise God and be encouraged together because of God’s work in our midst. Second, I want to encourage you to be on the lookout for God’s work in your life and share it with those around you. Third, I’d love to hear from you if you have a glimpse of God’s grace to share. Please email me at david@sentcharlotte.org.
Here are four glimpses of God’s grace from the month of January:
Andrew Rodgers opened 2021 in the pulpit. As Andrew faithfully proclaimed God’s word to us (which was only his second sermon ever and I can assure you was far better than the second sermon I ever preached), I was praising God for His gracious work on display through Andrew. It’s not my place to share his whole story, but just since Andrew has been a part of Sent Church over the last five years, God has grown him from a college student to a married man to a new daddy. He has served as a part of Sent Church faithfully over the years in so many ways, including currently serving as the deacon over Sent students, a ministry that Andrew led the way in starting last year. Andrew is a faithful man and his life is a glimpse of God’s grace to us at Sent. If you did not get a chance to hear Andrew preach, I encourage you to check it out here.
Lindsey Hayob officially started as our new worship leader in 2021. Even though Carl and his family are greatly missed for many reasons, Lindsey has stepped up and led us in gathered worship each Sunday faithfully, excellently, and effectively. Christ has already won the victory. He is why we sing and it is a joy to get to sing songs of worship to Him weekly with each other. God has been gracious to prepare and raise up Lindsey as one of our covenant members to lead us faithfully to worship God through singing in our weekly gatherings.
Another Sent Women’s Bible study started and is going strong. One of Sent’s core values is “biblical authority” and studying God’s authoritative word together is one of the ways we grow in our relationship with Him and our love for Him. This is the 5th official semester that we have had a women’s Bible study where the women of Sent church are being taught the word of God by women of Sent church. Over the last few years our women have studied verse by verse through James, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Peter, and Genesis 1-11. This semester they are studying Genesis 12-50 and Jordan Keen (my amazing wife, who leads our Sent Women’s Bible studies) and Ashley Blavatt are sharing the teaching load together and are doing a marvelous job at it. This Sent Women’s Bible study is certainly a wonderful gift of God’s grace to us as a church.
Two new babies were born. It can feel like there is a new baby being born about every month at Sent so we can forget how gracious and miraculous it is of God to give the good gift of children to us. So many churches in our country have gone years without someone in their congregation having a baby. With several more ladies in our congregation currently pregnant, we can praise God for continuing to grant life in the womb and look forward to more glimpses of grace through childbirth in 2021.
I pray these glimpses of God’s grace would bring us to more joyfully worship our great God and be encouraged in Him and the work He has sent us to. What a mighty, gracious, and active God we serve!
Recent Comments