Scripture at Sunrise 3.13.2017

Sunday Morning Sermon Audio – Hell Can’t Stop the Church | Matthew 16:13-20 (Dr. Bishop E. Carter, III)
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” -Matthew 16:18

New Life, 20 years you’ve been rocking and rolling. You are a rockstar. Not on the stage of a concert, where there’s a crowd that’s hollering because of the sounds that you make. But you’re a rockstar because you beat the odds. A lot of folks said you wouldn’t make it. A lot of folks tried to keep you from making it because you stood on Jesus and not the world.

Why a rockstar, Reverend? Thank you for asking–I’m dying to tell you. Because the Rock is who kept you and because of the Star named Jesus, you can make a way out of no way. I come to tell you today that the greatest concert you’ll witness is the one yet to come.

Keep on, New Life. You may be small in number, but you’re big in heart. You do what a church of 200 can’t do because you stand on the foundation of the Rock. Hell can’t stop the church.

-excerpts from Dr. Bishop E. Carter’s Morning Sermon in celebration of our 20th Anniversary

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This Week’s Sermon Audio:
Wednesday Evening – The Unfaithful Bride | Ezekiel 16:1-63 (Steve Wainright)
Sunday Morning – Hell Can’t Stop the Church | Matthew 16:13-20 (Dr. Bishop E. Carter, III)
Sunday Evening – The Unity of the Father & the Son | John 5:17-23 (Anthony Vance)

Scripture at Sunrise 2.23.2015

Sunday Evening | Pastor Steve Wainright | He’s My Personal Savior | 2 Samuel 22:1-18
He said, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; You save me from violence. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” -2 Samuel 22:2-4

The more you walk with the Lord, the more you see His hand at work in your everyday life. When you think about how God has delivered you, you can’t help but praise.

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*Click here for Sunday Evening Sermon Audio: He’s My Personal Savior (2 Samuel 22:1-18)

Scripture at Sunrise 3.27.2013

“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” -Psalm 18:2

Your rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea. -Samuel Rutherford

Scripture at Sunrise 8.16.2012

“Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.” -Luke 6:47-48

“When explosians are going off all around you, run to the only Rock that hasn’t crumbled: Jesus.” -Lori L. Harding via Twitter

Scripture at Sunrise 9.2.2010

Image by Gary Hayes via Flickr

“For He will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock.”  -Psalm 27:5

“Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a Rock as this!”  Maybe wholeness is having all our broken pieces piled on Him.  -Beth Moore, via her Twitter

Scripture at Sunrise 3.4.2010

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?  Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.  But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”  -Luke 6:46-49

It’s not enough to have your life in close proximity to the Rock or others built on deep foundation.  The deep, firm foundation must be laid in your life when floods come.

Josh Harris in his sermon on “The Preeminence of Christ” at Next 2009 (paraphrase)

Scripture at Sunrise 9.4.09

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.  He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.  Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah”  -Psalm 62:5-8

Rock of Ages
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law’s commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.
[by Augustus Toplady, 1740-1778]

Story Behind the Song
It may seem strange that such a sedate hymn as “Rock of Ages” was written by a feisty, pugnacious man named Toplady.  Converted under a Methodist evangelist while attending the University of Dublin, Toplady decided to prepare for the ministry.  Though impressed with the spirit of Methodism, he strongly disagreed with the Wesleys’ Arminian theoloty and waged a running battle with them through tracts, sermons, and even hymns.  “Wesley,” said Toplady, “is guilty of Satan’s shamelessness.”  Wesley retorted, “I do not fight with chimney sweeps!” 

Toplady wrote “Rock of Ages” to conclude a magazine article in which he emphasized that, just as England could never repay its national debt, so humans through their own efforts could never satisfy the eternal justice of God.  He died of tuberculosis and overwork at the age of thirty-eight, two years after he published his own hymnal, in which “Rock of Ages” and Charles Wesley’s “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” were placed side by side.  (Read More)
[from The One Year Book of Hymns, July 19 entry]

Listen to Chris Rice’s version of this timeless hymn.