Author: Jarrett Ray Fletcher

Jarrett is the discipleship and missions pastor at Glen Haven Baptist Church. His passion is helping people follow Jesus, be transformed by Jesus, and join the mission of Jesus. He is a graduate of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and has been a part of evangelism, church planting, and discipleship in various local churches, college campuses, and Southeast Asia.

The Preeminent King Who Reconciles All Things

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Our focus as a church this week was on the preeminence of Christ. Preeminence refers to the exclusive right of being first, supreme, or surpassing all others. The Son of God in the person of Christ is preeminent (Colossians 1:18). He is before all things (1:16) because He created all things (1:15-16) and holds all things together (1:17b).

Christ is also preeminent over the church (1:18). The church is made up of those whom Christ created; they are part of the “all things” He created in 1:16, who rebelled against Him (1:21) but have been reconciled back to Him (1:22). But how did this reconciliation occur? By the preeminent One “making peace through the blood of His cross” (1:20).

The beauty of the gospel captured my heart this Sunday. Colossians 1 presents the Son as the One who created all things and currently holds all things together. But it also presents Him as the One who reconciles all things by His own death. Only the One who created all things can reconcile all things back to Himself- and there was only one way for Him to do that- “by the blood of His cross” (1:20).

Here is the prominent reminder for us: everything that we need, from the greatest need of salvation to the smallest need of our next breath: Christ provides. He created all things. He sustains all things. He reconciles all things. By the blood of His cross.

How to Build Your Life on Christ

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous3 Comments

Too often I walk away from corporate worship without giving thought to what God has taught me and how I should apply it. Yes, even pastors can be guilty of going through the motions. I am not disengaged; I will note an interesting point in a sermon, re-listen to a worship song, or pray for someone that I had a conversation with, but rarely do I give sustained thought and prayer to what God has taught me and what He wants me to do with it.

Therefore, I am starting a new blog series on Monday mornings where I will think and write about what God taught me on Sunday. Lessons may come from messages, songs, conversations, or Scripture readings. Not only will this give me an avenue to think, pray, and write, I hope it will also encourage you to think and pray through what God taught you as well!

This Sunday, we considered Matthew 7:24-27 and Jesus’ instruction to build our house on the rock. “House” is a metaphor for our lives and the “rock” is a metaphor for Christ. We can build our lives on Christ, the rock, or on the shifting sands of the world. Storms will come and beat against our houses, but only those whose house is built on the rock will stand.

But what does it mean to build our life on the rock that is Jesus? Two things. First, to build our life on Jesus means to have Him as the foundation of our life with God. We must recognize that there is no foundation other than Him that can reconcile us to God and keep us in intimate relationship with Him. Nothing and no one other than Christ can deal with our sin debt or provide us with the perfect righteousness that we need to stand before God.

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Grace for the Humble- 1 Peter 5:5-11

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Once again, I have been tasked with teaching on a passage and topic that I have neither mastered nor have begun to gain proficiency in: humility. Some of you may have just breathed a sigh of relief. You’re already pretty humble- so you think- and so you’re poised for a nice pat on the back! But once you think you have humility, you’ve lost it. So I am here to help you regain it. For others, you may have groaned, because you struggle with pride, and now find yourself blessed to sit through a sermon on humility.

Most are somewhere in between, wondering what in the world I am about to say, but here’s what I can promise you: we all have something to learn today. Not because of what I say but because of what God says. We all have the opportunity to sit before God’s Word and to hear Him speak to us about a virtue that is absolutely necessary for His people.

So what is humility? It is an attitude of mind that realizes that we have no reason to be distinct, special, or important in God’s eyes. It is the recognition that without God, we are nothing. Even in comparison to others, in the grand scheme of things, we are all the same- creatures that are completely dependent upon God for life, breath, andevery good thing.

1 Peter 5:5 commands us to put on humility, “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’.” After exhorting the elders in verses 1-4, Peter encourages the entire church, “all of you,” to clothe themselves with humility. Why? Because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Thus we see the necessity of our subject this morning. God opposes those without it. The word oppose conveys the imagery of being set in battle array. God opposes the proud as if He is a battling army. Thus we are commanded to clothe ourselves with humility, a rare verb that refers to a slave putting on an apron before serving, as Jesus did before washing the disciples’ feet.

So, what do you want this morning? Do you want God to oppose you? To set His face and His power against you? Or do you want God to be gracious towards you? What determines whether we receive God’s opposition or His grace in our lives? Humility.

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Old Testament Wisdom for New Testament Believers (Proverbs 4:23-27)

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“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom ” (Proverbs 4:7a). If you want to be wise, get wisdom. Pretty simple, isn’t it? The entire book of Proverbs is filled with wisdom. So get the book, there you go- wisdom! But if you’ve ever read the book of Proverbs, you know it doesn’t come that easily.

Proverbs is a part of the rich wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Such literature is not conducive to interpreting at face value and immediately applying it to our lives. We have to slow down and understand the individual proverbs in their original context. We have to read them through the lens of biblical theology, and then apply them to the current context of our lives as New Testament believers.

In this message I want to help us “get wisdom” by studying a passage of Proverbs in the ways I just mentioned. Our text will be Proverbs 4:20-27,

Continue reading “Old Testament Wisdom for New Testament Believers (Proverbs 4:23-27)” →

Jethro, Moses, and Old Testament Disciple-Making

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Today I finished preparation for a panel discussion on disciple-making in the local church. I define disciple-making as the process of helping people follow Jesus through the context of relationships. The first section of the discussion includes setting the biblical foundation for making disciples. As I usually do when discussing discipleship, I planned to share the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20, highlight Jesus’ relationship with His own disciples, and point to Paul and Timothy as examples of Christian discipleship. It’s a pretty typical presentation of disciple-making, but I realized that I was missing a major component: the Old Testament.

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Ananias, Sapphira, and the Deadly Cancer of False Spirituality

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This morning I read the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11. I have always understood this story as an example of God’s desire for us to be full of integrity in our financial dealings, especially with regards to our giving to the church. But this morning I had a new thought on the passage: what if the egregiosity of Ananias and Sapphira’s sin was not simply their blatant dishonesty, but their attempt to look more spiritual and more sacrificial than they actually were?

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Is Obedience Required in the New Covenant? The Role of Obedience in the Old and New Covenants

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous3 Comments

Recently, our life group has been looking at God’s promise of a New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34. This promise comes as a bright ray of hope in the midst of one of the darkest seasons in Judah’s history. It is a promise that things won’t remain the way that they are, that God will establish a New Covenant with His people that will draw them into a deeper relationship with Himself. That relationship will include God’s laws being written on their hearts and the total forgiveness of their sins. In our class, we looked at how Jesus establishes the New Covenant in light of Luke 22:20 and Hebrews 8-10.

During this discussion, I made a comment about obedience not being a necessary component of the New Covenant. I quickly retracted my words because my theologian-conscience-sirens started going off. But I wasn’t sure what to say in place of them. So I told our group that I would research, pray, and think about the role obedience plays in the Old and New Covenants. This blog is the product of my inquiry.

Here’s my thesis: Obedience was required of God’s people under the Old Covenant, but it is produced in God’s people under the New Covenant. Let me flesh that out.

Continue reading “Is Obedience Required in the New Covenant? The Role of Obedience in the Old and New Covenants” →

The Fear of God and the Blessing of Family

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This will be a short post, but I want to give it a permanent place on my blog. One of the unexpected blessings I continue to receive as a pastor is the privilege of attending funerals of saints who have finished the race well. I have already been to one such funeral this week and will attend one more this weekend. These funerals remind me of what is important in life, namely faith and family (including both blood-relatives and church family).

At the funeral for Mr. Roy Ellis, a member of our church for over six decades who had five children, ten grandchildren, and seventeen great grandchildren, Psalm 128:1-4 was read:

“ Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,

who walks in his ways!

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;

    you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

    within your house;

your children will be like olive shoots

    around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed

    who fears the Lord.”

Here’s what struck me as this verse was read in honor of this faithful husband, father, grandparent, and church member: God’s blessing for fearing Him is described in the context of the family. In other words, God desires to bless the man who walks in His ways, and one of His greatest blessings in life is family and enjoying God’s blessings with them. This blessing entails enjoying the fruits of one’s labor (v.2), but not for one’s self, but with his family- a fruitful wife and many children (v. 3). “Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”

This, I believe, is the lesson, especially to men: don’t overlook the blessing of family. Don’t overlook the blessing of a wife. Don’t overlook the blessing of children. Rejoice in them, and praise God for them. THEY are His blessings to you. Be encouraged by this, and labor all the more to fear the Lord and walk with Him so that you may share the fruit of that labor with them!

Five Ways to Invest in Disciple-Making Relationships

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In my previous post, I contended that discipleship must take place in the context of relationships. But how do we create and invest in relationships with those whom we intend to disciple? Here are a few ideas:

1. Pray for them.

One of the most important things you can do in any disciple-making relationship is to pray for that person. It blesses the person as well as your relationship with them. As we take people before God in prayer, our hearts become invested in their spiritual well-being. We look for evidence of God’s work in their lives; we want to see it and be a part of it!

2. Pray with them.

Don’t just pray for the people you are discipling. Pray with them. As you do, you will be modeling what it looks like to pray. Remember, much more is caught than taught in disicipling relationships! Prayer will also unite your hearts as you spend time together in God’s presence.

3. Spend time together.

For any relationship to grow, you must spend time together. There will be times when you meet for “official” discipleship meetings, but don’t stop there. Invest in the relationship outside of set meeting times. Invite whoever you’re mentoring to join you in normal life activities: eating, running errands, playing with the kids, going to get ice cream, etc.

Recently, I needed to dig a hole for a new basketball goal, so I asked one of the guys in my discipleship group to come over one morning and help me dig the hole. After we finished, we sat in lawn chairs and admired our work as we talked about life. Another guy from my group came the next day and helped me mix concrete set the goal in place (it wasn’t easy, mind you, so we had to persevere together!). In each situation, I was able to spend quality time with these guys and strengthen our relationship.

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Discipleship Happens in Relationships

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Discipleship is an integral part of the believer’s life and a necessary component of any local church’s ministry. However, discipleship can be easily misunderstood and become a sort of grey, ambiguous term, something that we all know we should be a part of but we aren’t sure how. We know that Jesus invites us to be disciples and commands us to make disciples, but we don’t really know what that looks like. So what does it look like? Relationships. Relationships with the purpose of growing in Christ.

Let me start by defining terms. Discipleship is the process of following Jesus. Disciple-making is the process of helping people follow Jesus. This is primarily done through relationships. Disciples are not made via online sermons, curriculum, or printed books. They are made through participation in the body of Christ, especially through participation in relationships.

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