Who is Media Gratiae?

Hi, I'm John Snyder. I'm a pastor at Christ Church in New Albany, Mississippi and the director of Media Gratia Just in case this is the first time that you've come across us

Let me give you an introduction We are a not -for -profit organization and through film and print and podcasts

We try to draw attention to those aspects of the Christian life, which we could describe as the experiential

Parts of the Christian life How do we take the great concepts of Scripture and bring them down into the everyday stuff of life?

We borrow help from previous generations like the Reformers and the Puritans the 18th century and others

Media Gratia is a strange name. It's a Latin phrase. That means the means of grace

While this has been used throughout the centuries in Christianity some sometimes in different ways.

It has become popular again What we mean by the means of grace, it's pretty simple

It's that these are the tools that God has given his people for the spread of his kingdom and the growth of the

Christian Now there are so many options available to us and especially I think of us in America With our pragmatism

There are an endless array of very attractive options for growing a church for guarding our families

You know for growing up Christians but really God has given us tools to do this these means these instruments or tools of grace and it may seem overly simplistic

But we trust God that what he's given us is best and so we we kind of pull back from what might be the most popular thing today and And return again to the tools that God has designed.

These are these are simple things the Word of God prayer Fasting worship

Christian fellowship or communion with believers in a body Now that includes a lot of things.

Of course that includes everything from discipleship to Accountability even to confessing our sins one to another

While we want to return to these biblical means for working in the kingdom

There is a danger and you might be surprised to think that there would be a danger Attached to the tools that God himself has given us but the danger lies within us that is that we tend to over respond or To kind of swing so far that we exaggerate things in a way the

Bible doesn't So when we're leaving behind some of the more modern approaches and we're going back to the biblical means

It is easy to exaggerate the importance of those means. These are the tools that God has given us

So these are the tools that we limit ourselves to But these tools in themselves do not accomplish the work that must be accomplished if one person is to be converted if one church is

To is to grow in in Christ likeness The means of grace are tools that God has put in our hands and we're to use them with all our energy

But while we use them we are Constantly dependent upon God to cause the means themselves to be effective

And this is summed up in a song a hymn written by a preacher in the 18th century named

John Berridge one of my favorite revivalists in England Listen to what he writes the means of grace are in my hand

The blessing is at God's command who must the work fulfill and though I read and watch and pray

Yet here the Lord directs my way and worketh all things still now he goes on I Cannot speak a proper word nor think a right but from the

Lord Preparing heart and tongue. So while we preach the scriptures while we study the scriptures

Even in that we need God He continues. I see it now and do confess my utter need of Jesus grace and of his spirits light

I beg his kind in daily care O Lord my heart and tongue prepare to think and speak a right well, there's the dynamic that we want to maintain the balance an aggressive use of the tools that God gave us and a constant humility

Expressed in the way that we depend upon God to make those tools effective Now we we produce a number of things here at Media Grotte to try to aid in that and one of them is podcasts

We have some podcasts that are weekly and some that are daily They range from in -depth theological discussions to daily devotions

And you can find those at Media Grotte org and there'll be a tab there for the podcast we also have produced two documentaries one on the life and ministry of Martin Lloyd -Jones and one in conjunction with Reformation Heritage books on the

Puritans There are a couple of studies we've produced with other authors

Jeff Johnson Has worked with us to produce a study on the church her nature authority

Purpose and worship and that's a multimedia study and also Ryan Bush Who has helped us to produce a practical guide to family worship and both of those are in the process now

Of being translated into Spanish through some believers in Ecuador We have two larger scale studies called

Behold your God Rethinking God biblically and behold your God the weight of majesty

And in these these 12 -week multimedia studies you have video where we travel around the world to talk about Ministries that emphasize these truths.

We also have interviews with ministers who are still alive today And then there is a sermon on One particular aspect of God's character or one particular aspect of applying

God's character in the life of the Christian and the church And finally I want to mention our website

Mediagrottier .org And nearly all of our materials are available online there digitally and you can access those through monthly subscriptions

It is easy in a day like our own To be unsure about certain things that once we took for granted

And maybe this, you know This lack of security in our world has affected you spiritually

It is easy at times To become a complaining believer and that really reflects poorly on our lord

I want to read you a passage that Moses Spoke to the people on behalf of God in Deuteronomy chapter 28 in verse 47 and 48

So the passage comes with Moses's final sermon to Israel as they're about to pass into the promised land without Moses and he says this

Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart

For the abundance of all things Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the

Lord will send against you in hunger in thirst in nakedness and in the lack of all things

And he that is God will put an iron yoke on your neck Until he has destroyed you.

It's quite a shocking statement from Moses. You're about to go into the land But let me say I already know by watching you

I already know that when you get in there You will forget the Lord you will forget the kindness of the Lord and the abundance of his his generosity

And your hearts will go toward idols and God will hand you over to your enemies And if you persist unrepentant

God himself will become your enemy Why does Moses link these together?

Not being glad Presently in what God is giving to you and being under the judgment of God and handed over to your enemies

And I think that the answer is obvious when we fail to remember how lavish and generous

God is being with us Each moment in the present moment It's easy for our hearts to drift toward idols and think that God plus something else will make us secure

God plus something else will grow our church God plus something else will make me happy We want to be careful even in days like this when we're tempted to complain

Or to constantly be caught up in the media and to think about what's wrong with planet earth and there's plenty there

You could drown in it We want to be careful to constantly remind ourselves that our

God is accomplishing his great kingdom work Redemption's plan is unfolding under that all authoritative eye of Jesus Christ Seated at the right hand of the father

And the evidence that we believe that is not that we say it but that in the present moment

We can be glad because of his generosity We ask that you would pray for us that as we labor in these days and with the questions that we face and you face

That there would be a simple childlike gladness of heart here at media gratia