Meaningless (click here to listen)

I had the privilege to preach at FBC Tullahoma this past weekend, March 14, 2010, as we honored my mom and dad who are retiring from full-time ministry.  If there is one thing I have learned from them, and for myself, if Christ is not at the forefront of your life, everything is meaningless!
 
I praise God for His grace and mercy that allows us fresh starts and new beginnings through His Son Jesus Christ.  And because of Christ, we can go from a life that is meaningless to a life full of meaning and purpose!

One of my favorite hymns was written by a man named Edward Mote. Mote was not brought up in a godly home and did not have the advantage of early exposure to Scripture. In fact, his parents managed a pub in London and often neglected young Edward, who spent most of his Sundays playing in the city streets. Of his theological upbringing, he said "So ignorant was I that I did not know that there was a God."

Eventually Mote became exposed to the Word of God, and was baptized at the age of 18. This event, however, did not send Mote immediately into the ministry. He was apprenticed to become a cabinetmaker, a career which he successfully conducted for another 37 years. Eventually, at the age of 55, he became pastor of a Baptist church in Horsham, Sussex, where he did not miss a Sunday in the pulpit for the next 21 years. He resigned from this pastorate in 1873 due to ill health, and died the following year at the age of 77.

It was with this background that Mote wrote the hymn we have today, "The Solid Rock." It was during his career as a cabinetmaker that the hymn came into being. One morning in 1834 as he was walking to work, it entered his mind to write a hymn. By the time he got to work, he had the chorus. He wrote four more verses over the course of that day and two additional verses before he was finished.

The Solid Rock - Edward Mote

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.

Now that is meaning!