An Artist, the Book of Job, and the Glory of God

What do these have in common? All three will converge this Sunday morning at SGC. At least, that's our hope.

We have been talking to Jermaine Powell about the possibility of creating some pieces of art that could embellish our auditorium but also capture some of the essence of what we are preaching.

This Sunday we begin our series on Wisdom for Suffering, five sermons on suffering from Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Jermaine took to heart what we are after with this series and created a set of paintings to complement it.

As we talked through the paintings, he explained the abstract work in red and black (in the center of the picture). The idea with the work is that it attempts to portray the way our angst can feel so chaotic, uncontrolled, and so black, but it is all a part of the order and plan of God. And beneath it all is the gospel. Even our disordered blackness is captured by the blood of Jesus. The other two pieces are more obvious as they give the title to the series and the name of Sunday's sermon.

There will be some evolution with this idea as we work toward a way to bring creativity to our auditorium without being distracting. Yet, we hope you appreciate that an artist like Jermaine has gifting that is given by God, and his hope is to fulfill what all God's gifts are meant to do:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies--in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:10-11)

May these pieces of art serve to reinforce the August sermons and also to remind you of "God's varied grace" in the people of Sovereign Grace Church--all given to glorify God through Jesus Christ.

Daniel