A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES (Introduction of Worship Pastor Jason Lanier by Pastor Bobby Conway) Good morning, Life Fellowship. It is good to see you. This is an exciting day for us as a church because we have a special treat in store. I have been in ministry almost 25 years and have met many pastors, many worship leaders and many Christian leaders and have had the privilege of interacting with lots of different individuals. And I have to say that Jason Lanier is one of the finest, kindest and most humble men of God that I have ever met in my life. I mean that. (Applause.) For a long time now I have watched Jason lead us in worship, and he is this person who truly has a million dollar gift. He could have been singing on stages to hundreds of thousands of people. In fact in college it was said that he was foolish because he wanted to serve Christ and that he would be throwing his gifts away at the church. I am so thankful that he has used his gifts to help build the local church. This is a guy who has been a worship pastor at churches much larger than this and he would leave a role whereby it would require a massive pay cut for him to come to Life Fellowship when we hired him. But he would come here because he believed in the vision. He would come into a setting where we met in a basketball gym with set up and tear down each week. Since he has come on this team he has built a beautiful production team for us, but most importantly it is who he is and how he leads out of a humble heart. Having watched him speak in between his songs I have often wondered if Jason has the gift of teaching tucked away and he has never used it. And I began to pester him about teaching and he got scared to death at the thought of it. ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ But he finally acquiesced in the midst of this series as I asked him to teach on Simeon’s Song by Rembrandt. Jason has never preached in his entire life until this morning. But I have to tell you that you are in for a blessing. Would you welcome not only my teammate but my dear friend, your worship pastor, Jason Lanier. (Applause.) Yes, I have notes. This reminds me very much of twenty-five years ago when I led worship for the first time in a small church in Boone, North Carolina. I was dry heaving in the bathroom then, and I was dry heaving again this morning. I stood out on the stage my very first time as a worship leader and doubled the tempo to celebrate Jesus with anything we could sing fast, fast, fast so I could get off the stage. Page 1 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES Pastor Bobby is very kind to have given me this opportunity, and you are kind with your encouragement as well. Regarding the series ‘Rembrandt’s Brush,’ it is the primary reason that Pastor Bobby felt like I should teach today, because it is the series that I am so thankful we are willing to go through as a church where we explore the relationship between truth and beauty, theology and doxology. Theology being the study of God, and doxology being the formulas through which we approach Him in worship. I am thankful for a pastor and a church that engages in such study and learning, because I believe with all of my heart, through the twenty five years that I have served Christ in His church, that we owe a debt of love and thanks to the faithful men and women that we refer to as artists and craftsmen. They made themselves available to the Spirit of God, and they create things from and for His story, from Christ’s story, that encourages the church, informs the church, and provides the church with a timeless living narrative about our living God. As we look back from antiquity to today we see Christian artists producing inspired works to share the testimony of Christ in their lives. We enjoy when we look back to writings, we sing their songs, we enjoy their architecture, and we enjoy the moments that artists help to create for us, because through those moments and through their works, we feel connected to the global body and to our global God. They effectively bring the perpetuating story of Christ to all of our five senses, which in and of itself is a beautiful gift, to be able to see, to taste, to smell, to touch and to hear. And often by their leaving behind tangible declarations of Christian testimony through their works, we and those after us can experience beautiful evidence of God’s truth, and His ongoing, never ceasing living gospel. It is with the utmost conviction that I believe the gift of creativity and design comes from the creator, God, and I think we would all agree with that. His majesty is beyond our comprehension, and His eternal glory is beyond the grasp of our mind’s effort to describe or to illustrate. But I pray that the church always finds within itself a group of artists who will continue to strive to bring expression, abstractions, concreteness for our hearts, our spirits and our minds as they work through His story. I want to take you for a moment to Exodus Chapter 35 and verses 30 through 35, but before I do that I would be remiss if I didn’t ask for you to encourage Life Fellowship’s worship and production team for their tireless and faithful efforts to serve you in using their talents and their skills to tell the story of Jesus, to share with you the story of Jesus. They have been here all morning, they are here every Sunday morning Page 2 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES singing, playing and creating for us from their own testimony. Would you show them some appreciation. (Applause.) I know they work hard. And in the twenty five years that I have served the church, it is this church that has the largest number of those who just serve sacrificially. Yes, we pay a few, and I am one of those that is guilty of accepting compensation. But most of them are serving free, serving as volunteers, and I am thankful for them. Now let’s look at Exodus Chapter 35 and verses 30 through 35. This is where I kind of get my philosophy for creativity and artistic design. We find that Moses is talking to the people about the design of the tabernacle. They are about to build the tabernacle. And we find in this one passage of Scripture that God pulls out one particular individual and surrounds him with several other individuals. He is putting together a team of artists, a team of highly skilled creative artisans and craftsmen. And as we read through that passage God says that He pulled them out and then He poured into them all knowledge, intelligence, skill and craftsmanship, so that they could create artistic designs. “Then Moses said to the people of Israel, ‘See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And He has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver - by any sort of workman or skilled designer” I can’t imagine what that would be like to be the recipient of all knowledge, all skill, the Spirit of God, and all craftsmanship. God took very seriously the design of the tabernacle as He tells us in Exodus that it is a form of what we will find in Heaven. So the use of colors, wood, gold, fabrics, pomegranates, bells, etc. were to be used by these artisans to create a set design, a stage that He would use throughout the development of His people to teach them about who He was, to reveal His nature to them, to reveal His gospel. And we see that continue throughout the Scriptures. The great hymnist, Fanny Crosby, wrote “Tell me the story of Jesus; write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, the sweetest that ever was heard. Tell Page 3 of 21 pages 5/13/2018 A PICTURE OF FAITH - REMBRANDT’S BRUSH SERIES how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed His birth, and glory to God in the highest, Peace and good tidings to earth.” Today as Pastor Bobby said we are going to be looking at Rembrandt’s painting, ‘Simeon’s Song of Praise.’ And we find this moment in time that Rembrandt has extracted for us in the gospel of Luke Chapter 2 and beginning with verse 25.