Don’t Hold Back – David Platt

Don’t Hold Back: Leaving Behind the American Gospel to Follow Jesus Fully, by David Platt (this is a must-read book, please support the author by purchasing his book). The following are the highlights from my reading of the book.

THE GOSPEL The gospel is the good news that the one and only true God, the loving Creator, sovereign King, and holy Judge of all, has looked on men and women wonderfully, equally, and uniquely made in his image who have rebelled against him, are separated from him, and deserve death before him, and he has sent his Son, Jesus, God in the flesh, to live a perfect and powerful life, to die a sacrificial and substitutionary death, and to rise from the grave in victory over sin, Satan, and death. The gospel is a gracious invitation from God for sinners from every nation, tribe, people, and language to repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, turning from all idols to declare allegiance to Jesus alone as King and trust in Jesus alone as Lord. The gospel is a guarantee that Jesus will come again in glory to consummate his kingdom for the redeemed from every nation, tribe, people, and language in a new heaven and a new earth where all things will be made new in the light of his holy presence and where his perfect rule and reign will have no end. According to the gospel, all people who do not trust in Jesus will experience everlasting judgment from God, and all people who trust in Jesus will experience everlasting joy with God.

Denominations being hijacked by one heated faction or another. Longtime church members walking away in disgust. Many Christians distancing themselves from the church, and scores of young adults, college students, and teenagers disengaging from the church altogether. And so much of this, mind you, has so little to do with the message of Jesus or God’s saving grace for our world.

In it all, we’ve seen the viruses of pride, self-promotion, and lust for power infect not just our country but our church.

I’ve come to a clear conclusion: The problem is not just an American dream that has consumed our lives but an American gospel that has hijacked our hearts.

For far too long, we have traded in the biblical gospel that exalts Jesus above everything in this world for an American gospel that prostitutes Jesus for the sake of comfort, power, politics, and prosperity in our country. The evidence is all around us. Instead of being eager to unite around the glory of Jesus, Christians are quick to divide over the idolatry of personal and political convictions.

we’re so caught up in calls to promote the greatness of our nation that we’re essentially disregarding Jesus’s command to take the gospel to all nations.

In other words, so much of what we’re experiencing in the church today—the discouragement, disillusionment, damage, doubt, and division—is a direct outcome of accepting a false gospel in our hearts.

This book is simply about charting a way forward that holds loosely to the ideals of a country that, however blessed, is destined to one day fall, and holds tightly to the gospel of a King who will never ever fail.

This family is called the church, and if you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re part of it. You’re seated around the same table. And you’re not just part of this family in the here and now. You and I will be part of God’s family forever. But today, before we reach eternity, we need to have an important family conversation. It’s going to be difficult, but it needs to happen. Are you ready? Our church family is sick. Particularly the part of the family that makes its home in America. Instead of enjoying one another’s company at the table, encouraging one another, and loving one another in word and deed, we’re caught up in a cultural climate that makes us quick to accuse, belittle, cancel, and distrust one another. Even more than being divided, so many sisters and brothers (i.e., so many of us) are hurting and feeling hurt by one another. So hurt, in fact, that many are leaving the table, while multitudes of outsiders see our table and want to get as far away as possible from it.

In the end, ethnic Jews, wealthy Romans, and impoverished Gentiles from all kinds of pagan backgrounds were joined together in the family of God. Jesus had prayed that they would stick together, and they did. As a result, the message of the gospel spread throughout the world. That’s why you and I are here today.

We divide politically. Research shows that a majority of churchgoers prefer attending church with people who share their political views, and few attend services alongside people with different political opinions.[1] We divide theologically over differing views on spiritual gifts, the end times, modes of baptism, and leadership in the church. We divide stylistically over different perspectives on music, service length, church décor, and a plethora of other preferences.

So is there a way to be in genuine, caring, deep fellowship with people who are very different from us, just like we see in the Bible? I believe there is.

And it starts with understanding who unites us, what’s worth dividing over, and what’s not.

Three Buckets Picture three buckets with me. In the first bucket are clear, biblical beliefs and practices that unite all followers of Jesus.

Christians divide from non-Christians over beliefs and practices that fall into this first bucket. For example, if someone says that Jesus isn’t God, that salvation isn’t by grace, or that Jesus didn’t die on a cross and rise from the grave, then we should love and care for that person, but we can’t worship with them, because they simply don’t worship the same God or believe the same gospel.

The second of our three buckets contains beliefs and practices that unite followers of Jesus who join together in a local church. This bucket includes things Christians might disagree about from one local church to another. For example, one church might believe that they should baptize babies, and another church might believe that they should baptize only believers in Christ. One church might believe that women and men should both be biblically affirmed as pastors, while another church might believe that only men should be biblically affirmed as pastors.

The third bucket contains beliefs and practices about which even Christians in the same local church disagree. Members of a local church might agree about baptism, spiritual gifts, and leadership in the church, but they might disagree about how the end times are going to unfold. They might disagree about political choices and a variety of other personal convictions.

Confusing the Buckets Problems for unity in the church begin when we confuse these buckets and forget how to love people whose beliefs in any bucket are different from ours.

This language catapulted a voting choice into the first bucket, inevitably leading Christians to question one another’s faith because of the way they chose to vote.

In other words, we decided to put the issue of how people vote in a presidential election in the third bucket—identifying it as an issue about which Christians in our church might disagree but over which we wouldn’t divide.

It’s time to learn how to hold firm to our personal convictions without compromising the unique and otherworldly unity Jesus has made possible for us in the gospel.

How could they preserve their unity? Paul didn’t tell them to create different churches, one for carnivores and one for vegetarians. That probably would have been easier, just as it might be easier for our church in metro D.C. to separate according to political perspectives or a number of other personal convictions. Instead, Paul called the church to build unity around Jesus.

How do we do that? We focus on Jesus, and we clarify which buckets we’re dealing with.

In other words, in matters where Christians are free to differ, individual believers are free to do whatever we believe best honors Jesus. Look a little closer, though. Do you know what’s really interesting in this passage? Paul wrote that it’s good to have strong convictions about what we believe best honors Jesus, even in situations where we disagree with other Christians. This sounds counterintuitive, right? Since the aim in the church at Rome was unity around Jesus, we might expect Paul to have commanded, “Don’t have strong convictions on issues of disagreement.” Instead, he wrote the exact opposite: “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” Fully convinced—a high standard.

In the words of James 1:19, we should be “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” This command is particularly appropriate for us in a culture that entices us to share our thoughts and opinions through a screen instead of looking into the eyes of our brother or sister and listening in a spirit of love.

Let’s be honest: There’s a lot of attacking and tearing down these days, and it’s coming from all sides. We demonize those who disagree with us, and we make reckless generalizations about and deliver sweeping condemnations of those people who all believe that craziness. Instead of having thoughtful discussions focused on listening first, we lob accusations like grenades. Instead of engaging in meaningful dialogue, we resort to personal ridicule. We have mastered the art of turning healthy disagreement into hateful disgust, and it leaves us damaged and divided. But this isn’t the way of Jesus, and it doesn’t honor our Father.

But those opinions and convictions aren’t what make us a family. Jesus makes us a family, which means that if we’re allowing those opinions and convictions to divide us, then we’re making them more important to us than Jesus himself. Second- and third-bucket issues can’t divide us if Jesus is the one who unites us.

As followers of Jesus, we share a supernatural bloodline that supersedes ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic situations, political parties and positions, and personal preferences and opinions.

Our family is not fundamentally African American, Asian American, European American, Hispanic American, Native American, or even American. Our family is not fundamentally rich or poor. Our family is not fundamentally Republican, Democrat, or Independent. None of these things are grounds for division among us, because our family is fundamentally Christian. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people possessed by God himself (1 Peter 2:9). In the biblical gospel, we have been acquitted of sin before God the Judge and adopted as daughters and sons by God the Father. And if we will realize and constantly remember this, we will experience so much needed healing not just in the church but in our lives.

It is well past time to leave behind an American gospel that has cultivated the ownership and torture of slaves by “Christian” masters, the killing of people alongside the burning of “Christian” crosses, the lack of support for civil rights or even acknowledgment of racial disparities among “Christian” leaders, and the ongoing racial division in “Christian” churches.

RACE IN THE BIBLE As a foundational matter, the Bible never defines different races according to skin tone, hair texture, or other physical traits like we do in contemporary culture. Instead, God creates all people wonderfully and equally in his image as one human race.

Certainly some will argue, “But I’m color blind. I choose not to see color in people, and that’s the way we all should see.” After all, Martin Luther King, Jr., envisioned a future where people “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”[7] Right? We might, then, conclude that it’s a good thing to be color blind. But others hear claims of color blindness and ask, “Why are you choosing to ignore part of who I am, where I’ve come from, and how my family’s ethnicity and history have affected me, particularly in light of the fact that I’ve been affected in significant ways because of these things?” Calls for color blindness can come across as attempts to minimize a significant part of someone’s heritage and makeup.

THE DISPARITY CONTINUES Yet even if our hearts are completely pure—which they won’t be this side of heaven—we live in a country where different people continue to experience different benefits or burdens based on their skin color. Thankfully, by God’s grace and the action of godly men and women, race-based chattel slavery was abolished and civil rights legislation was passed. Nevertheless, undeniable statistics demonstrate that clear racial disparities still exist.

Yet with all the above caveats considered, these statistics lead to a staggeringly straightforward conclusion. Even if none of us wants skin color to matter in the United States, apparently it does. And it doesn’t just matter in our country; it matters in the church.

By God’s good design, the early church was multiethnic. But these Christians were not without controversy in their efforts to forge multiethnic community. When the Gentiles wanted to be baptized, included in the same church, and seated at the same tables, many Jews pushed back. The Jews were, after all, God’s chosen people. Paul addressed this divide clearly in a letter to the Ephesians: Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility…. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (2:13–19)

The biblical picture is clear. The gospel transcends the powers of the world in order to break down dividing walls and bring people from across all kinds of lines—ethnic lines included—together in the church.

This train of thought is one reason that, for decades now, church-growth gurus have promoted what’s called “the homogeneous unit principle.” In essence, the thinking is that if pastors want to reach a lot of people in the church and if people like being around those who are most like them, then pastors should focus on trying to reach one type of person in their church.

Though it’s quite popular and most churches have bought into it, building Christ’s church by prioritizing homogeneity goes against what the Bible teaches.

It is past time to leave behind a picture of the church that accommodates (and reinforces) prejudices, caters to preferences, and clings to power. Let’s humbly and intentionally put aside various comforts and traditions, and let’s step boldly and fully into the beautiful picture God envisions for his church. Only then can we tear down the American gospel, which divides and damages, and lift up the biblical gospel, which brings equality and, ultimately, healing.

When I think about Bashir, Moska, and multitudes of other sisters and brothers in Christ in settings like this, I’m reminded that only the Bible contains the truth that is worth risking life and limb to read, know, and share. It’s the treasure that brings us together in the church. Not the ideals of a country or the positions of a political party. And certainly not the most popular waves of thought in an ever-changing culture. So why are so many Christians and churches uniting around (and dividing over) opinions and preferences that aren’t clearly and directly outlined in the Bible? Could it be that we have so conflated biblical ideals with American ideals that we can no longer tell the difference between the two? Or worse, are we subtly, maybe even unknowingly, twisting biblical passages to prop up what we think over and above what God has said in his Word? And in the midst of it all, are we even paying attention to the fact that emerging generations are completely disregarding his Word as they watch the way we wield it?

Meanwhile, here’s my attempt in a few short paragraphs to summarize the unparalleled wonder of God’s Word. Picture sixty-six books written by more than forty authors in three languages over the course of 1,500 years, all telling one consistent story: the gospel of Jesus Christ. No passage in the entire Bible contradicts this single narrative. Not one. Ask yourself, How is that even possible? If you asked forty people you know to write a book that told one overarching story about who God is, who we are, how this world was made, what’s wrong in the world, and how this world can be made right, there’s no chance those forty would agree. And those are all people living at the same time and likely speaking the same language. But the Bible—including books written by a farmer, shepherd, soldier, lawyer, priest, tax collector, and fisherman (just to name a few of the authors), in different languages over the course of centuries—tells one stunningly consistent story.

THE BEST KIND OF OFFENSE Yet even with the life-changing, history-transforming power of God’s Word, we are still prone to elevate our personal ideas and positions above it, as if our thoughts are better than his truth. We shouldn’t be surprised by our reckless arrogance, though. Haven’t we been like this from the beginning? Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as a serpent whispered four little words in Eve’s ear: “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1). For the first time, a cluster of deadly spiritual ideas began to take hold in the world: Our thoughts are more trustworthy than God’s truth. God’s Word is subject to our judgment. We have the right, authority, and wisdom to determine what is good or evil. We are free to disregard God’s Word when we disagree with it, or we can simply twist it to justify our disobedience to it. In the end, Adam and Eve sinned because they believed that they knew better than God. Instead of believing that God’s Word was good for them, they decided that it was offensive to them.

As we saw in the last chapter, the United States was built for centuries by professing Christians who twisted the Bible to say that Black people were of lesser human value—a hateful, unbiblical view that deceived generations of Christians and destroyed multitudes of lives, inflicting pain that still persists today. Such pain exists fundamentally because people ignored what God says about equality or twisted God’s Word to accommodate their long-held prejudices or self-serving business models. Similarly, as we will explore in a subsequent chapter, for centuries we have allowed pride in our nation to supplant what God says concerning all nations. Contemporary calls to make America great have resounded among Christians and illustrate how easily the church is distracted from our mandate to make Jesus great among all the peoples of the earth. As we will see, clear evidence shows that Christians and churches in our country are largely ignoring Jesus’s command to make disciples of all nations, to the eternal detriment of billions of people.

The reality we all need to face is clear: All of us are prone to defy God’s Word even as we convince ourselves that we’re following it.

If we’re going to elevate God’s truth above our thoughts and pass this treasure on to the next generation, then we need to get serious about hiding this truth in our hearts. At some point, we have to stop endlessly scrolling through our phones and watching our screens, filling our minds with messages from this world, and start spending our time saturating our minds with God’s Word.

God, help us to learn and remember what history teaches us: The Bible can be perversely misapplied by even the sincerest of believers. The Word of Life can be used to injure, oppress, and exploit. And that is not who our God is or what he wants for us or others.

One, they possess evident conviction about the value of God’s Word. I speak regularly at conferences for adults or students in my country, and I usually give a thirty- to sixty-minute talk once or twice, surrounded by all sorts of free time and other activities. But when I meet with Christians in persecuted countries, they come together at the risk of their lives to study God’s Word for twelve hours a day. Moreover, I see their passion to pass on their knowledge of God to the next generation. I think of gathering on multiple occasions with students from their churches for secret retreats—also at the risk of their lives—and training these teenagers from early morning to the middle of the night to spread God’s Word not just in their country but in surrounding countries. These sisters and brothers, including teenagers, love God’s Word like nothing else in the world. That leads to the second quality: They possess remarkable compassion for people who need God’s Word. Neither the adults nor the teenagers above are studying the Bible for themselves, only to stay silent about it in the world. To be sure, that would be a lot easier for them. Christians don’t get persecuted in these countries if they keep God’s Word to themselves. They get persecuted when they share God’s Word with others. But these adults and teenagers deeply love others who don’t know Jesus. During my times with them, I have seen them fall on their faces, weep, and pray for people who don’t know the gospel in their villages, in their cities, and in neighboring countries. Keep in mind that in many cases the people for whom these Christians are praying are the same people who are persecuting them. Yet these Christians know that the Bible teaches that these people will go to eternal condemnation if they don’t hear and believe the gospel, and these Christians want to do everything they can to love them and lead them to Jesus. That’s why they rise to their feet and leave these secret gatherings to spread God’s Word with literally death-defying compassion. Two qualities: conviction and compassion.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (6:8) That’s exactly what Naomi is doing: justice. Specifically, she’s obeying God’s command to “bring justice to the fatherless” (Isaiah 1:17). She’s doing justice in ways that reflect the kindness and humility of Jesus.

Sadly, however, we live in a time when followers of Jesus seem more interested in debating justice than doing it. Even as we are surrounded by countless people who are orphaned, widowed, impoverished, oppressed, enslaved, displaced, and abused, in our country and beyond our country, we expend so much energy on social media criticizing and shouting at one another about justice—feeling somehow that this is doing justice.

But if more of us made a calculated decision to follow in Naomi and Dr. Zee’s footsteps and engage in holistic, biblical, gospel-proclaiming, Jesus-exalting justice—if we started holding more orphans in our arms, helping more widows in our communities, providing for more of the poor in our cities, serving more refugees in our country, hosting more immigrants in our homes, rescuing more slaves from traffickers, visiting more people in prison, caring for more victims of abuse, or coming alongside more moms and dads facing unwanted pregnancies—we would discover that doing biblical justice goes far beyond posting on social media, making an argument in the political arena, or even voting in an election. We would understand at long last that loving kindness is a fundamental part of what it means to follow Jesus in our everyday lives. And in the end, we would realize that doing justice and loving kindness is how we actually experience the good life in Jesus.

But just because some have diluted or disregarded the gospel of Jesus in calls for justice doesn’t mean we should remain passive in a world full of poverty, oppression, abortion, orphans, widows, slaves, refugees, and racism. Jesus didn’t. He did justice and loved kindness, and if we call ourselves his followers, we must do the same. God requires this of us.

God hates it when his people say prayers, bring offerings, and attend worship services while ignoring injustice and oppression around them.

The Bible is clear. God isn’t honored by our voices when they are quick to sing songs of praise but slow to speak out against injustice. He isn’t honored by our hands when they are quick to rise during worship but slow to work against wrongdoing and inequity in our communities. People who truly worship the God above them will love doing good for people in need around them.

We wanted to know how God defined justice, and we observed that biblical justice is that which is right for people as exemplified in the character of God and expressed in the Word of God.

It’s significant to emphasize how justice is doing not only that which reflects God’s character but also that which is right according to God’s Word. We’ve all noticed how the word right gets applied in ways that are, well, not right. Courts in the United States say it’s right for you to marry someone of the same gender, but God’s Word says otherwise. Some states in our country say it’s right to take the life of an unborn child in the womb, but God’s Word does not. Many of us—even in the American church—act like it’s right to be wealthy, comfortable, and secure while we functionally ignore or even push down the poor and broken. But as we’ve seen in Isaiah and Amos, this isn’t right before God. In fact, the Bible calls it sin—rebellion against what God says is right.

INJUSTICE AND THE GOSPEL SOLUTION Injustice, then, is that which is not right for people as exemplified in God’s character and expressed in God’s Word. Examples of injustice abound among men and women made in God’s image. We lie, murder, oppress, abuse, cheat, bribe, steal, slander, and enslave. We take advantage of others to benefit ourselves. We hoard our resources. We assert ourselves as superior to others. We plunder and ignore the poor, the weak, the widow, the orphan, and the sojourner. This is the story of men and women in the Bible. And it’s our story too. We’re all prone to do injustice.

Americans have advantages that Somalis don’t have, and some Americans have advantages that other Americans don’t have, so justice and mercy ask, “What advantages do I have that I can use to help the disadvantaged?”

We follow Jesus by doing justice for and showing kindness to individuals and families with special needs.

We follow Jesus by doing justice for and showing kindness to sojourners.

We follow Jesus by doing justice for and showing kindness to widows.

When I share about helping people like Patricia and her children, some people shout their support, while others claim I’m promoting some version of Christian socialism. But don’t justice and kindness involve protecting and promoting rights and opportunities for all children and families, particularly those who have significant disadvantages?

Some may object to this line of reasoning, but again, consider the way that many Christians think about abortion. We know some unborn children are at a greater risk than others. Therefore, we work to ensure that all unborn children have an equal opportunity to live, without exception. But why would we work for children to be born, only to ignore them once their moms give birth? Certainly that’s unjust (and absurd). Indeed, we care about children’s lives not just in the womb but out of the womb. We care about their good in all of life, not just their first nine months. And we care about their parents, too, before and after they are pregnant.

We follow Jesus by doing justice for and showing kindness to single parents and children and families with significant disadvantages.

Do you remember the story I shared at the beginning of this chapter about standing with Naomi in a sea of street children? Naomi distinctly remembers seeing a young boy eating out of a trash can that day. That sight led her back to her hotel room that night, where she fell on her face and asked God what she could do to help that child and others like him. That prayer led her to start an after-school program that provides food for children in the name of Jesus, and it makes me wonder, What if we all responded to injustice in the world like this? What if instead of seeing injustice and moving on with our lives as we know them, we made it a practice to fall on our faces and ask God, “What are you calling us to do about this?” Surely we would discover that, whether in our own country or other countries, so many open doors are in front of us to do justice both individually and collectively.

Without question, Christians have often ignored these open doors and settled for (or even contributed to) injustice. This is part of why so many of us find ourselves in a state of disillusionment and doubt concerning the church. We have witnessed the destruction wrought by justice-ignoring, power-abusing, self-protecting, evil-tolerating churches, church leaders, and Christians in our country. An entire generation is turning to the world in search of justice and kindness because they don’t see these things in the church.

Again, various stories throughout history show the church doing harm in the name of Jesus, whether through colonialistic mission strategies or ignorant and insensitive mission efforts, and we mustn’t repeat the errors of the past. But we also mustn’t underestimate the impact of proclaiming the gospel and doing justice here and around the world.

Robert Woodberry, a sociologist who did a decade’s worth of research on the effect Christian missionaries had on the health of other nations, came to a stunning conclusion that he said landed on him like an atomic bomb. Specifically, he found that “the work of missionaries…turns out to be the single largest factor in ensuring the health of nations.” What a statement.

So let’s experience the good life. Let’s do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. Let’s hold orphans in our arms, help widows in our communities, provide for the poor in our cities, serve refugees in our country, host immigrants in our homes, rescue slaves from traffickers, visit people in prison, care for victims of abuse, come alongside moms and dads with unwanted pregnancies, and do multitudes of other things that are right for people as exemplified in God’s character and expressed in God’s Word. And let’s do it all as we proclaim the name of Jesus in a world where billions of people still haven’t even heard the good news about him.

That’s when Luan said words that I will never forget. “These stories about Jesus are so good,” he said with wonderment. “And they seem so important. I just don’t understand why we and our tribes and all our ancestors before us have never heard them until now.” I’d like to ask you to consider Luan’s question: Why do you think approximately 3.2 billion men, women, and children like these men and their families have never heard the good news of Jesus?

My contention in this chapter is simple. While many factors contribute to “gospel poverty” in jungles, villages, and megacities around the world, one of the primary reasons—if not the primary reason—that billions of people remain unreached by the gospel is that the global purpose of God has always faced resistance from the nationalistic people of God. From the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, to the early church in the New Testament, to the current church in the United States, people of God have continually desired the preservation of their nation more than the proclamation of the gospel in all nations. And just as generations of God’s people before us needed to do, God is calling us to place less priority on our beloved home country—a country that will one day fall—and more priority on a global kingdom that will last forever.

Let me explain. When I was in college, I began to see that the pages of the Bible point to a clear conclusion: The gospel is not just for me and people like me, but it is for all people in all nations. Just look at how the Bible ends—with a scene in the book of Revelation where people from every nation, tribe, and language gather around God’s throne and enjoy his presence for eternity (7:9–17). I recognized that this outcome is God’s ultimate purpose, and I realized that if I’m a part of the people of God, then this should be my ultimate purpose too. If the train of history is headed toward this destination and if I wanted to live for what matters most, then I needed to jump aboard this train. I needed to do whatever I could so that people from every nation would enjoy God’s salvation.

In time, and the more I processed that conversation, the more thankful I became. A new way of thinking was emerging, one that hadn’t existed in my mind until that breakfast. For on that morning, I learned that there is a type of person who is extremely passionate about the spread of the gospel to all nations but who doesn’t become a missionary. Do you know what I discovered that type of person is called? A Christian. After all, the Spirit of God is passionate about all nations knowing the love of God. This means that if God’s Spirit dwells in you, then you will be passionate about all nations knowing the love of God. To be a follower of Jesus is to live with zeal for all the nations to know Jesus. The spread of the gospel among all the nations is not a program for a chosen few. It’s actually the purpose for which we all have breath and the end toward which all of history is headed (see Revelation 7:9–10).

First, when the Bible talks about nations, it’s referring to specific ethnic groups or people groups, thousands of which exist in the world today. It isn’t referring to the geopolitical entities we call nations today (after all, most nations today, including the United States, didn’t exist when the Bible was written).

I love being in a church where many veterans and military members attend and serve as leaders alongside others who help make our nation’s government function. I have the highest respect for one of our pastors who served for decades as a Navy SEAL, participated in countless missions around the world, and saw far too many of his comrades not come home. As I was writing this chapter, Pastor Todd (as he’s known by so many in the church) spoke at a lunch to honor former and current military members in our church and community. He and others like him are heroes in our house. Obedience to Jesus’s command to make disciples of all nations doesn’t mean we don’t love our own nation. But we need to ask ourselves: Is it possible that pride in our own nation can keep us from living for God’s purpose in all nations? Absolutely, it is. And it’s been that way from ancient times.

THE GREAT IMBALANCE Surely I’m not like Jonah, we say to ourselves. But let’s not draw this conclusion too quickly. Let’s at least examine our hearts with a few simple questions. Pause and answer these honestly: Have you ever wanted your way more than you have wanted God’s will? Are you inclined to settle for the comforts of people and places that are familiar to you instead of paying a cost to go to people and places that are foreign to you? Especially if those people are also threatening to you or perceived as your enemies? How often do you pray for and desire the good of other countries that might be considered enemies of the United States? Is it possible for you to know about the character of God yet not show the compassion of God to others? Are you prone to disconnect the mercy of God in your life from the mission of God in the world? Do you sometimes care more about your earthly desires than others’ eternal destinies? What do you truly want more: a comfortable life in your nation or the spread of the gospel in all nations? If we’re going to accurately answer these questions, we need to look at the evidence in our lives, as well as our churches.

Yet, of our giving toward “missions work,” most Christians have no idea what percentage actually goes to spreading the gospel among the billions of people in other nations who have never heard it. The answer? Approximately 1 percent. (It’s true—we’ve done the research.[2]) In addition to the hundreds of billions of dollars we in the church spend on ourselves, approximately 99 percent of our giving to “missions work” goes to places like Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa where the gospel has already gone. In other words, even when we think we’re giving to missions, we’re actually ignoring the billions of people who most need the gospel.

What’s worse, the number of people who haven’t heard the gospel is increasing every day through population growth. This means that unless we rectify this great imbalance in what we’re giving to and living for, more people than ever will continue to die and go to hell without hearing about the saving love of Jesus. We’re talking about billions of people going to hell for all of eternity while we spend our resources on our American churches and our American way of life.[3] Surely true followers of Jesus are not content with this.

CHANGING OUR DAILY LIVES Look closely at what Jesus told his followers, and think about the implications for your life if you claim to be a Christian. Jesus’s first command to his disciples was “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). He said repeatedly, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). His final command was specific and clear: “Go…and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Not “Come, be baptized, and ride things out in one location.” Not “Say a prayer, go to church, read your Bible when you have time, be the best person you can be, and throw your leftover change to the nations in need of the gospel.” Not “Syncretize your American lifestyle with what it means to be a #blessed Christian.” No, it’s clear from the Bible: Being a disciple of Jesus means letting his global purpose drive everything you think, desire, and do in your family, work, and church, for the rest of your life. Which means however and wherever Jesus wants to lead your life.

Are you willing to pack your bags and move to the Middle East to make disciples there? If not, according to Luke 9:23, you’re either not a Christian or you don’t understand Christianity. Because Christians have surrendered the right to determine the direction of their lives.

We are wasting the privilege of prayer if we’re not using it for God’s purpose: the spread of his glory among all the nations.

Wealth for the Gospel Recognizing God’s ultimate purpose also changes the way we—as the people in whom the Spirit of Jesus dwells—use our money. After all, God has put us in one of the wealthiest countries in the history of the world. Has God really done this just so that we can acquire more and newer and better possessions that won’t last? Or has God given us relative wealth for the spread of his worldwide worship?

I love this! It doesn’t matter whether you’re a student living off ramen in a college dorm room or you’re an executive raking in the dough—by God’s grace, we all have a unique and meaningful part to play in God’s purpose among the nations! And being a Christian means stewarding our possessions for this purpose.

When God Brings the Nations to Us It’s not just about praying and giving, of course. Christians personally go and make disciples among all nations. And you and I can start right outside our front doors. Millions of people have immigrated from other nations to the United States, some permanently and others temporarily, including a million international students on college campuses.

Sadly, as I mentioned earlier, research shows that evangelical Christians are some of the Americans who are most upset about these newcomers. I’m not at all presuming there aren’t significant concerns with our country’s immigration legislation (or the lack thereof). But out of all people in our country, shouldn’t followers of Jesus be first to rejoice that, in a very real sense, God is bringing multitudes who have been far from him near to us in order that we might share the good news about Jesus with them?

Indeed, Acts 17:26–27 is true: God is sovereignly orchestrating the movement of people from different nations—immigrants and refugees alike—so that they might find Jesus.

But take my word, if you share this truth from God’s Word, no matter how many times you explain that you’re not advocating for particular political positions on immigration or refugees, you will be labeled a leftist whose ideology is harmful to the future of our country. It’s astonishing how zeal for our nation—and even specific political policies in it—overpowers passion to share the gospel with people God is bringing to us from other nations.

Leverage Your Life: Throughout my years as a pastor, I have seen so many good people resist any call to spread the gospel in other countries. We have enough needs and problems here, some say, so we should just focus on our country. And to be clear, the Bible never teaches that all Christians should pack their bags and move to another country. But in a world where billions don’t even have access to the gospel, surely God is calling a lot more of us to go to them. And even if we don’t go, biblically he’s calling all of us to be a part of helping spread the gospel to them.

There is an adversary in this world who doesn’t want the gospel to go to all the nations. He wants as many souls as possible in hell, and he is diabolically committed to keeping the nations from hearing about the kingdom of heaven. I use this language with great intentionality and solemnity. Again, we’re talking about more than 3,200,000,000 people (and increasing every day) who are separated from God by their sin, who are on a road that leads to an eternal hell, and who can’t be saved from this fate unless they hear and believe the gospel. God, help us feel the weight of this reality. Why are we not talking about unreached people all the time in our lives, families, and churches today?

Why are we not praying, giving, going, sending, and sacrificing in every way we can to spread the gospel among all the nations? We certainly wouldn’t say this out loud, but could it be that we’ve grown accustomed to a church culture in our country that seems pretty content with turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to billions of people on their way to hell who have never even heard the truth about how to go to heaven? In other words, Could it be that we have actually become comfortable with missing the heart of Christ?

And of course we’re divided. Wouldn’t our discussions—and our perspectives on disagreements—change in the church if we collectively took the time to look into the faces of suffering refugees in Syria and starving families in Sudan who are on a road that leads to eternal suffering and have never heard how Jesus wants them to have eternal life? Wouldn’t we be less inclined to fight one another and more inclined to fight for them?

Why is a teenage member of a cult—a cult with a counterfeit and condemning gospel—more excited about and committed to going to the nations than Christians are, even though we have the true gospel of Jesus Christ? And why are we as the church—the true bride of Christ—not raising up the next generation with the expectation that they will take the gospel to the nations as we passionately cheer them on?

I think about all the students I spend time with in our church and on college campuses. Many tell me that the greatest hindrance to taking the gospel to the nations is actually their Christian parents. Parents are telling children to study, practice sports, and learn instruments, and we’re overseeing hours upon hours of their days in front of screens. We prioritize taking them all over the place for all kinds of activities, telling them they need a good education so they can get a good degree, find a good job, make good money, and have a good family with a good retirement. These aren’t unworthy concerns. But in the middle of it all, we need to ask a more significant question: How are we training the next generation to accomplish the Great Commission?

Or consider potentially more significant questions than that: Are parents and other adults, young and old alike, showing the next generation what commitment to the Great Commission looks like in action? Do today’s students see in their dads and moms, and men and women around them in church, a zeal for God’s glory and love for all people, including those who might be perceived as enemies? Do they see modeled before them an all-consuming passion and vision for the proclamation of the gospel in all nations? Because this is the vision of Christianity we see in the Bible, and it’s totally different from the vision being cast in our country.

This scene of desperation didn’t stop. They kept praying and praying and praying. My friend explained some of what he was hearing: “Some are praising God. Some are thanking God for his grace in their lives and families and the church. Others are confessing sin. Others are interceding for people in need.” “How long will this last?” I asked. “Until they’re finished,” he answered. “On Friday nights and into Saturday mornings, they pray all night long instead of sleeping. Others gather at four every morning to pray for an hour or two or three.” I looked around the room and realized that the crowd hadn’t assembled that night because they were excited about hearing the latest, greatest Korean Christian band. They weren’t gathering because they were eager to hear me preach either. A crowd of people had crammed into that building because they were zealous to meet with God.

Listening to that roar of prayers—these urgent, passionate voices lifted to God—I had a realization. I am a part of and a leader in an American church culture that loves doing so many things: engaging in programs and activities, meeting to discuss ideas and plans, and creating events and entertainment, concerts and conferences, or entire churches that revolve around charismatic speakers and musicians. But we rarely come together with zeal just to meet with God.

As I near the conclusion of this book, I believe this is one of the primary reasons—if not the primary reason—the American church is in its current state. For far too long, an American gospel has fueled desires for all sorts of things other than the one thing—or, more appropriately put, the One—we most need. And I believe this means our greatest need moving forward—over and above everything else—is simply to cry out in individual and collective desperation for God and God alone as the prize of our lives.

Apparently, what makes heaven so great isn’t the gold streets or beautiful mansions we have so often imagined in our American gospel, as if God is trying to compete with (or outdo) our economic prosperity. What makes heaven so great is the reality that followers of Jesus are finally and perfectly with God, the One who is better than all the best things of this world put together.

The psalmist expressed it well: One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. (27:4) “One thing,” he said. More than anything else, he wanted to be with God. He just wanted to look at him. He just wanted to speak to him. All of God is all he wanted. Let’s pause to ask, Is that all we want?

SEEKING, THIRSTING, FAINTING I see this picture of God as the prize of our lives so clearly in Psalm 63. Listen to David’s language there: O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (verse 1) Doesn’t that sound like God was the one thing David wanted and earnestly sought?

This brings us to the heart of what it means to be a Christian. Christianity is extreme obsession with God made possible by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We love family, friends, health, work, money, success, sex, sports, exercise, food, and a host of other things in this world. Of course, we believe in God, and we say we worship him. But do we want God more than we want family or friends? Do we want God more than we want comfort or success? Do we want God more than we want money or possessions or any number of pleasures in this world? Do we want God more than we want to be liked? Do we want time with God more than we want sleep or exercise or a host of other things that fill our busy schedules? Do we want the Word of God more than we want food every day?

But here we arrive at a potential problem. If we’re not careful, we can receive and enjoy these good gifts in such a way that we begin to love them more than we love the God who gives them to us. In fact, I would take this one step further. It’s dangerously possible for every one of us to love family, health, hobbies, possessions, or pleasures in this world—and to even sincerely thank God for these things—but not to actually love God.

What do I mean? Picture yourself alone at sea in a storm. Your tiny boat is rapidly taking on water, and you know you’re about to drown. Then over the waves you see a large ship steaming toward you. It settles next to your tiny boat, and the crew hoists you out of the water. Wouldn’t you be relieved? Yet stop and ask, Does feeling grateful for your rescue by ship mean you now love the captain of that ship? Maybe. But maybe not. You see, it’s possible to love rescue without actually loving the rescuer. I believe this scenario describes what so many people in my country call Christianity today. A host of people don’t want to go to hell and will gladly take a supposed lifeboat to heaven. But when you look at our lives, it’s questionable whether we actually want the One who saves us. We don’t spend a lot of time with him. We don’t meditate on his Word. We rarely talk about him with others. Apparently, it’s possible for us to gratefully enjoy all kinds of good things and even thank God for them, but when it comes down to it, our hearts aren’t really for the Giver. Our hearts are for the gifts. And loving and desiring gifts more than the Giver isn’t Christianity. It’s idolatry.

Let’s go back to our questions, then. First, why do our hearts long for gifts over and above the Giver? Could it be that we aren’t seeing how truly satisfying God is? This seems to be at the root of the first sin in the world. Adam and Eve chose a gift—a piece of fruit and all the good things they thought it would bring—over God.

In the end, the reason we want gifts more than the Giver is that we have too high a view of gifts and too low a view of God.

So if we’re going to experience love for God that is greater than any other love, we don’t need to try harder; we need new hearts. We need a fundamental transformation at the core of who we are. We need God in his grace to open our eyes in a fresh way (or maybe for the first time) to see how indescribably wonderful and absolutely desirable he is.

In other words, we need to repent. And when I say “repent,” I don’t just mean saying “I’m sorry.” I mean we need the kind of repentance that only God’s Spirit can produce deep within our hearts. We need to fall on our knees—individually and together in our churches—and cry out to God, honestly confessing everything we value, desire, or love more than him, including family, friends, comfort, sex, success, money, possessions, pleasures, power, reputation, sleep, exercise, food, or, in the end, life itself.

But during this long season, my time alone with God was basically nonexistent. Sure, I would pray in a worship service I was leading, but I would hardly ever meet with God alone. I studied the Bible in order to preach it but almost never just to know God. That scares me. I could be successful in the eyes of the church and the Christian culture around me without any real desire for Christ.

In this way, the gospel of Jesus is fundamentally different from an American gospel that says, “Come to God, and get [fill in the blank].” We fill in the blank with social position, political power, national pride, or personal comfort. Or maybe we fill in the blank with forgiveness, a free pass out of hell, and guaranteed entrance into heaven. But those who hear the biblical gospel hear a different invitation: “Come to God, and get God.” And this true gospel invitation to seek God as our sole purpose and greatest prize is the antidote we most need for the ideology that’s poisoned the church in recent days. Amid all the rifts in the church, we desperately need to seek the One who alone can reconcile us.

Thomas À Kempis, medieval author of The Imitation of Christ, wrote, Do not those who always seek consolation [i.e., good gifts from God] deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? [1]

If we want this in our life—if we want Jesus as our life—we must leave behind mercenary religion. Let’s trade in all its false promises of ultimate satisfaction in gifts, and let’s step into the wealth, power, and freedom that are found in repenting of all lesser loves and running to the God whose love is better than life.

He then quoted another person’s account: Man after man would rise, confess his sins, break down and weep, and then throw himself to the floor and beat the floor with his fists in perfect agony of conviction. [One man] tried to make a confession, broke down in the midst of it, and cried to me across the room: “Pastor, tell me, is there any hope for me, can I be forgiven?” and then he threw himself to the floor and wept and wept, and almost screamed in agony. Sometimes after a confession, the whole audience would break out in audible prayer, and the effect of that audience of hundreds of men praying together in audible prayer was something indescribable. Again, after another confession, they would break out in uncontrollable weeping, and we would all weep, we could not help it. And so the meeting went on until two o’clock a.m., with confession and weeping and praying.[4] What had begun as a simple gathering turned into a full-on revival. It continued the next day and the next and the next.

Today South Korea sends more missionaries around the world than any other country besides the United States, which is pretty remarkable when you realize South Korea is roughly the size of Indiana. Stop and feel the weight of that.

In the Bible, however, we find that the path to true power and prosperity is actually paved with self-hatred. Jesus made that clear in John 12:25: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” These words obviously don’t mean that Jesus is calling us to minimize the beauty of what it means to be made in the image of God, but in light of how that image has been marred in each of us, Jesus’s initial call is an invitation to deny ourselves and take up not a dream but a cross. The biblical gospel is a clear call for all of us to crucify ourselves.

I hope that it’s abundantly clear that the American gospel and the gospel of Jesus are two fundamentally different invitations. We can’t choose both, and the church today is filled with the wreckage from those who’ve tried. And that brings us to the options before us: Either we unite as the bride of Christ around the gospel of Christ and the authority of his Word, or we unite as a social club around our country’s ideals and our personal positions. Either we bridge the ethnic divide that Christ has abolished, or we deepen this divide that our country has perpetuated. Either we elevate God’s truth or our thoughts as supreme, and either we share God’s truth with compassion, or we repel the next generation. Either we spend our lives doing justice and loving mercy, or we spend endless hours debating justice and ignoring mercy. Either we reach the unreached with passion to make disciples of all nations, or we ignore the unreached with passion to make our lives in our nation great. Either we pursue God as the prize of our lives now and forever, or we prostitute God for prizes that will all fade. An American gospel accompanied by a casual, comfortable Christian spin on the American dream leads to Christ-defaming division in the church and damnation for the nations, as well as the next generation.

I invite you to embrace the biblical gospel in your life and in your church. But where should we begin? Consider six steps that I believe can be a starting point for shaking free from the vestiges of an American gospel and stepping into the fullness of the biblical gospel. I don’t presume that these six steps are exhaustive, but I believe that they are

1. CULTIVATE COMMUNITY ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN When we get to heaven by God’s grace, we’re going to be with a lot of people of different ethnicities who had different convictions while they were on earth and who were from different generations. So why are we waiting until heaven to experience divinely designed community, especially when Jesus made it possible for us (and called us to enjoy it) here on earth?

There are fifty-eight other “one another” commands for Christian community in Scripture, so go out of your way to obey them all, including commands to listen to one another, encourage one another, believe the best about one another, please one another, lay aside preferences for one another, and forgive one another.

2. SEEK GOD EARLY, LATE, AND LONG If the one thing we most need moving forward is to cry out in desperation for God alone as the prize of our lives and of our churches, then we need to seek him early, late, and long. If you don’t already have daily time set aside just to be with God alone in prayer and his Word, start there. If possible, make this a concentrated, extended amount of time to commune with him—sing to him, pray to him, listen to him, and sometimes just sit in silence before him. Rise early, set aside time during the day, and/or stay up late. Regardless of when, this one practice of unhurried, uninterrupted time with God will not just revolutionize your spiritual life; it will revolutionize your entire life.

Years ago, I heard someone say, “God does not reveal the intimate things of his heart to those who casually come and go.” These words have stuck with me ever since, and I’ve found them to be true, especially since I’ve been a part of longer prayer times alone and with others.

3. MEMORIZE A CHAPTER OR BOOK FROM GOD’S WORD Seeking God involves saturating your mind with God’s Word and nurturing compassionate conviction in your heart around it—much like we saw in Bashir, Moska, and other persecuted sisters and brothers. Like them, we need to trust and treasure God’s Word over and above everything, including our thoughts, our country’s ideals, our political positions, and popular trends. And I know of no better way to let God’s Word transform the way we think than to hide large portions of it in our minds and hearts through memorization.

In light of my hypothetical thousand-dollar challenge, consider Psalm 119:72: “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” The real question isn’t whether you can memorize. The real question is whether money or God’s Word itself is more valuable to you. Or maybe another way to put that question is this: Are you willing to seek God’s Word only if it’s a means to some end, like money? Or is God’s Word worthy enough in your estimation to be the end? The Bible is a treasure that is worthy of our lives, so let’s dedicate our lives to knowing it.

4. SHOW COUNTERCULTURAL COMPASSION IN THE WORLD At the end of chapter 3, I asked a series of questions about our posture toward those who may not be Christians or may hold opinions very different from ours. Many of the people I listed are likely to have had negative interactions with Christians, or at least to have a negative impression of the church. They might include more liberal members of school boards, abortion rights activists, Muslims or others from different religions, members of the LGBTQ community, or members of the opposing political party who differ from you on just about every possible position. And I could list many others.

It’s time we show countercultural compassion to those who don’t agree with us. It’s time we show them that the Word of God is not a weapon we wield against them but rather words that move us to show love and kindness to them. Toward this end, I want to encourage you to do three specific things in relationship with at least one person who might expect Christians to be hostile toward them: Share life. Get to know them on a personal level, genuinely becoming a good friend to them. Listen to their struggles. Learn about their perspective. Seek to understand their story. Assume the best about them. Along the way, to the extent to which they are open, share your life with them in similar ways. Show compassion. Go out of your way to care well for them. Not with any other motive than to be a reflection of God’s love in their life. Just as Jesus taught us, love them as yourself. Speak the gospel to them out of genuine love for them.

5. DO JUSTICE In chapter 4, I listed different ways of doing justice (though that list isn’t comprehensive) and challenged all of us to hold orphans in our arms, help widows in our communities, provide for the poor in our cities, serve refugees in our country, host immigrants in our homes, rescue slaves from traffickers, visit people in prison, care for victims of abuse, come alongside moms and dads with unwanted pregnancies, and do multitudes of other things that are right for people as exemplified in God’s character and expressed in God’s Word. With this as a starting place, spend time praising God for how he is currently enabling you to do justice in the world around you by the power of his Spirit. Then pray and consider one, two, or three specific additional ways that God might be leading you to do justice as an individual, as a family, or as a church.

6. REACH THE UNREACHED God has given you a unique and significant part to play in the spread of the gospel among all the nations, so this final step involves making a plan to ensure you don’t miss out on his purpose for your life. I encourage you to intentionally live out biblical passion for unreached nations by answering three questions (and the last one has two parts, so I guess it’s technically four):

How will you pray for unreached nations? Come up with a plan for making time to pray for people who have never heard the gospel. Consider how to make time to pray as a family and with others in your church.

How will you give to unreached nations? In chapter 5, we explored the need to rectify the great imbalance by giving to the spread of the gospel among the least reached people in the world.

How will you go to unreached nations? This question has two parts because I want to encourage you to think about where you live as well as wherever God leads.

First answer, How will you go to unreached nations where you live? As we saw in chapter 5, God has brought people from unreached nations to our communities and cities.

Then answer, How will you go to unreached nations wherever God leads? More than 3.2 billion people won’t be reached with the gospel if we all stay where we live. At some point, somebody needs to go to them, and that somebody could be you. Or me.

So here we sit, and the choice is before us. The American gospel or the biblical gospel. Worldly division or otherworldly unity. Homogeneous community or multiethnic beauty. Twisting God’s Word or trusting it. Repelling coming generations or reaching them. Talking about justice and missing the good life or doing justice and experiencing the good life. Zeal for our nation alone or zeal for all nations on earth, particularly those who still haven’t even heard the gospel. God as a means or God as the end. Worldly power and fading prosperity as we promote ourselves or heavenly power and everlasting prosperity as we crucify ourselves. Let’s embrace the biblical gospel.

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Leaders Who Are PROVEN

Leaders Who Are PROVEN

There is talk all the time about leadership. Leadership in the government (having just come out of an election year), leadership on the football team (listening to commentators talking about various players each Saturday), leadership in the home (that whole marriage roles conversation), even leadership in the church (like the role and function of a pastor, the staff, deacons, and teachers). Leadership is not necessarily all about control and authority, because leadership expert Dr. John Maxwell says that leadership is influence. When you have influence over a person, group, a company, or a church, you are a leader.

It’s about influence that moves people to do things that they likely could not have done without leadership. I suppose a glaring biblical example of the lack of leadership may be found in the Book of Judges. There are two verses that tells us that everyone did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6, 21:25, it’s even found in Deuteronomy 12:8). By the way, Proverbs offers a little commentary when it comes to people doing what is right in their own eyes… “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes” (Proverbs 12:15) and “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2).

In the Titus 1:5-11 passage we read earlier, Paul is coaching Titus on leadership. We can learn much from what we read in Scripture, if we only we take the time to read it, understand it, and seek ways to apply it. Here is how Paul describes church leaders:

Blameless (above reproach) – Their work for the church, as well as their interactions with others outside the church, are to be of such moral quality that they do not bring shame or in any way disgrace the body of Christ or the name of Jesus.

Above reproach, however, does not mean without sin. No Christian lives an entirely sinless life, nor will we until we get to heaven. Above reproach means that the leader’s life is free from sinful habits or behaviors that would hinder his setting the highest Christian standard and model for the church to imitate (Hebrews 13:7; 1 Peter 5:3). Remember that leadership is influence.

In the same way, the leader must not give reasons for those outside the church to challenge its reputation or integrity. Being above reproach means that no one can honestly bring a charge or accusation against the Christian leader (Acts 25:7; 1 Peter 3:16).

Husband of one wife – this does not mean that a church leader must be married, or even male, but probably means the person is faithful to the vows he’s made to his wife, and not a polygamist.

Has children who believe – this does not mean that a church leader must be a father or have children walking with the Lord. How many of us have raised our kids in the church yet they today have nothing to do with the church, maybe even nothing to do with God? At some point all human being must make their own decisions about who they will serve. What I mean is that since children have soul competency before God, their rebellion and wild nature cannot disqualify a church leader from effective service to God and this church.

Paul throws in some negative qualities:

Not accused of dissipation (which is indulgence, immorality, depravity, corruption) or rebellion – basically the leader is not overbearing, quick-tempered, given to drunkenness, violence, dishonest gain.

Then on the plus side:

The leader is hospitable, he or she loves good, is self-controlled, holy, and disciplined, holding firmly to sound teaching and doctrine.

So, as we look at leadership today, leaders are to be PROVEN. I am going to share with your six qualities of PROVEN leaders…

PASSION = Passion of Jesus, his mission, the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission:

Passion is not a word often used in our culture, unless it is in the romantic sense of being passionate with or about your spouse, but the word is very accurate when it comes to our connection with Jesus.

This word passion fits right in with God’s greatest commandment, which is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, to love our God with all of our being (heart, mind, soul, and strength). Let me share some guidance from Scripture about how to awaken that in your life:

1) Get to know God. It goes without saying that we cannot love someone we do not know, so the place to start is to get to know God and understand what He has done for you. Before the command to love God is given in Deuteronomy 6:5, the statement is made, “Hear O Israel, The LORD our God is one LORD.”

One aspect of this statement is that the God of the Bible is unique, and the better we get to know what He is like, the easier it will be for us to love Him with our whole being. This also involves getting to know what He has done for us. Again, before the first command is given in Exodus 20:3, God states what He had done for Israel in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. Likewise, in Romans 12:1-2, the command to offer our lives as living sacrifices is prefaced with the word therefore–a word meant to remind us of all of the mercies of God toward us recorded in the previous chapters.

To grow in love with God, a person needs to get to know Him. God has revealed Himself in nature (read about that in Romans 1), but so much more through His written Word. We need to make daily Bible study a personal habit—as much a part of our lives as eating food every day. It is important to remember that the Bible is more than a book; it is actually God’s love letter to us, revealing himself through the centuries, especially through the ministry of Jesus Christ, His one and only unique Son. We must read the Bible, asking His Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts about what He wants us to learn from it that day.

2) Pray like Jesus did. When we examine the life of Jesus (as well as that of Daniel and others who had a passion for God) we find that prayer was a vital ingredient in their relationships with God. You cannot imagine a man and woman growing in love without communicating, so prayer cannot be neglected without expecting your love for God to grow cold. Prayer is part of the armor we use against our greatest enemies (Ephesians 6:18). We may have a desire to love God, but we will fail in our walk with Christ without prayer (Matthew 26:41).

3) Walk closely with God NOW. Daniel and his three friends chose to obey God and refused to compromise in even the food they ate (Daniel 1). The others who were brought from Judah to Babylon as prisoners with them caved in, and are never mentioned again. When the Jewish prisoners of war had their convictions challenged in a far greater way, it was only these few who stood alone for God (Daniel 3 and 6). In order to ensure that we will be passionate for God LATER, we need to walk with Him NOW and begin to obey Him in the smallest details of life!

Peter learned this the hard way by following God “at a distance,” rather than identifying himself more closely with Christ before his temptation to deny Him (Luke 22:54). God says that where a man’s treasure is, there his heart will be also. As we invest our lives in God through serving Him and being on the receiving end of persecution for Him, our treasure will increasingly be with Him, and so will our hearts (1 Timothy 3:12; Matthew 6:21).

4) Eliminate the competition. Jesus said it is impossible to have two masters (Matthew 6:24). We are always tempted to love the world (those things which please our eyes, make us feel good about ourselves, and gratify our earthly desires – 1 John 2:15-17). James tells us that embracing the world and its friendship is enmity (hatred) toward God and amounts to spiritual adultery (James 4:4). We need to get rid of some things in our lives that compete for our alligience (friends who would lead us the wrong way, things that waste our time and energy and keep us from serving God more faithfully, pursuits of popularity, possessions, and physical and emotional gratifications). God promises that if we pursue Him, He will not only provide for our needs (Matthew 6:33) but will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4-5).

So, leaders are to be people who are passionate about Jesus and his mission and spiritual disciples.

RELATIONSHIPS = Relationships resulting in accountability and application in small groups:

A small group at church consists of a handful of believers who are connected by our common faith in Jesus. They meet together for Bible study, service projects, encouragement, prayer, and fellowship. As churches grow larger, these small groups keep people connected with one another. The goal of a biblically faithful church is to create authentic community through our small groups ministry, which fosters discipleship, prayer, connection, and accountability. The number of participants in each small group is generally limited so that deep and long-lasting relationships are cultivated and maintained.

The model for small groups is found in the book of Acts when believers met together in homes to eat, fellowship, and take communion (Acts 2:41–42, 46). They would read the apostles’ letters, discuss them, pray, and challenge each other to keep the faith (Acts 20:7–8). A small group that functions correctly is a little church within a larger congregation.

It is within these small groups that the “one anothers” of Scripture take place. When the Bible tells Christians to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), pray for one another (James 5:16), accept one another (Romans 15:7), and forgive one another (Colossians 3:13), it implies that we are in close relationship with other believers. On a practical level, in a church of several hundred, the pastor cannot visit every sick person or take a meal to every new mother. Regardless of how friendly or outgoing a member may be, he or she cannot personally know an entire crowd seen only for an hour on Sunday morning. Community doesn’t happen when we are looking at the back of someone’s head. Community happens in circles, not in rows. So, the pastor and staff rely on small group leaders to take care of the members of their groups. They are the shepherds of the small flock of members who are in their charge.

In many ways, the first-century church was a series of small groups. They all studied the same Scriptures (Acts 17:11), read the same letters from the apostles (Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27), and obeyed to the same standards for community lifestyle (1 Corinthians 11–14). They met in homes throughout the week (Acts 2:46) and established close, personal relationships with each other (Romans 12:10; 1 Peter 2:17). When modern church groups strive for the same unity (Ephesians 4:3; Psalm 133:1), they are fulfilling the expectations Jesus has for His church (Matthew 16:18).

OBEDIENCE = Obedience to the Commands of Christ and the Teachings of the Bible;

The Bible has a lot to say about obedience. In fact, obedience is an essential part of the Christian faith. Jesus Himself was “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). For Christians, the act of taking up our cross and following Christ (Matthew 16:24) means obedience. The Bible says that we show our love for Jesus by obeying Him in all things: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). A Christian who is not obeying Christ’s commands can rightly be asked, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).

Obedience is defined as “dutiful or submissive compliance to the commands of one in authority.” Using this definition, we see the elements of biblical obedience. “Dutiful” means it is our obligation to obey God, just as Jesus fulfilled His duty to the Father by dying on the cross for our sin. “Submissive” indicates that we yield our will to God’s will. “Commands” speak of the Scriptures in which God has clearly presented His instructions, these “commands of Jesus, which I have studied over past decade. These are grammatical imperatives that must be obeyed, because they are not suggestions. The “one in authority” is God Himself, whose authority is total and unmistakable. For the Christian, obedience means complying with everything God has commanded. It is our duty and privilege to do so.

Having said that, it is important to remember that our obedience to God is not solely a matter of duty. We obey Him because we love Him (John 14:23). Also, we understand that the SPIRIT of obedience is as important as the ACT of obedience. We serve the Lord in humility, singleness of heart, and love.

If we love God, we WILL obey Him. We won’t be perfect in our obedience, but our desire is to submit to the Lord and demonstrate our love through good works. When we love God and obey Him, we naturally have love for one another. Obedience to God’s commands will make us light and salt in a dark and tasteless world (Matthew 5:13–16).

VICTORY = Victory over sin through ongoing sanctification and integrity:

The key to victory in our struggles with sin lies not in ourselves, but in God and His faithfulness to us: “The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18; see also Psalm 46:1).

There’s no getting around it: we all struggle with sin (Romans 3:23). Even the great apostle Paul grieved over his ongoing struggle with sin in his life (Romans 7:18-20). Paul’s struggle with sin was real; so much so that he cried out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (Romans 7:24).

Yet in the very next breath, he answers his own question, as well as ours: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a).

Our key to victory in our struggle with sin lies in the promise of God Himself: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). If God provides a way of escape, it seems to me, that victory over sin is a matter of making better choices with the help of the Holy Spirit, who dwells inside every believer.

The Proven disciple (and the Proven leader) will have this desire to please God in his or her life and victory will come over a lifetime of obedience to God’s Word. When we understand the battle and the enemy’s battle strategy, we can better live victoriously in this fallen world.

ETERNAL FOCUS = Eternal focus resulting in Evangelism and the Example of Jesus:

Personal evangelism appears to be a scary thing for a lot of believers. It is simply the act of a person sharing the gospel, the good news, with someone else. There are many different methods of personal evangelism, and it is a hot topic within Christianity. Books, classes, and seminars are dedicated to the subject of witnessing, soul-winning, and helping others find salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Not every method is effective or biblically supportable; according to Bible teacher Dr. John MacArthur, “Jesus would have failed personal evangelism class in almost every Bible college and seminary I know.”

According to a 2016 Barna survey, 73 percent of Americans claim to be Christians. However, after applying scriptural tests to those claims, only around 31 percent actually qualify as practicing Christians. The Bible knows no other kind of Christian (Matthew 7:19–21; 1 John 3:7–10). Clearly, what has passed for personal evangelism for the last several generations has not been effective. It’s time for something new. Not a new message, but a new method of reaching people for Jesus.

I’ve shared this before, but I like the BLESS strategy; I call it “How to BLESS your neighbors.”

  • BEGIN with Prayer. Helping someone come to faith in Jesus is a God thing, don’t leave home without prayer.
  • LISTEN to the people around you. Discover their needs, hopes, dreams, cares, problems, frustrations, joys, and desires by simply having a conversation and listening to them.
  • EAT with them, sharing a meal. Find a time to share a meal. People will open up when they are across the table of fellowship.
  • SERVE them in some way, meeting a need. After all this listening to them, how can you make a practical difference in their lives? Serve them.
  • STORY means earning the right to share YOUR story or HIS story. After you have earned the right, find a way to share one of two possible stories: YOUR story, which is your testimony, or HIS story, the plan of salvation in the Bible.

In our personal evangelism, it is good to remember that we are only responsible to God for our obedience, not the results of that obedience. We may present the gospel thoroughly and lovingly, and the person to whom we witness may hear and understand, but still choose to walk away. We are not responsible for that reaction, but only for the level of obedience involved in our presentation. Acts 1:8 tells us that we will be his witnesses, the only choice we have is will we be a good witness or a poor witness?

NURTURING = Nurture others in the faith through example, teaching, and leadership:

As I think about nurturing others, I think about family and parenting. While the Bible has much to say about physical parenting, we are also called to spiritual parenting.

When God led the Israelites out of bondage, He commanded them to teach their children all He had done for them (Deuteronomy 6:6–7; 11:19). He desired that the generations to come would continue to uphold all His commands. When one generation fails to teach God’s laws in the next, a society quickly declines. Parents have not only a responsibility to their children, but an assignment from God to impart His values and truth into their lives.

While the home is primary place for raising children (Sunday School and VBS is not enough) the church is also a place to nurture those around us. And it is not just for kids. Women get together on Tuesdays. Men of Steel gather at Denny’s on Wednesdays and the Noble Men meet in the fellowship on various Saturdays. Leaders are nurtured and actively nurture others. The growth never ends, not until Jesus calls us home.

So, these six characteristics will help us to be a PROVEN leader, and a PROVEN disciple of Jesus. A lost world is watching us, ad waiting for us to prove that we are who we say we are. We expect more out of our leaders. Remember that being above reproach does not mean we are perfect, but that we live in such a way that no one can honestly say that our behavior would bring shame on the name of Jesus or his church.

Maybe you heard something today, and you need to make some changes in your life. We’re here to help, no one does this Christian life thing on their own. At King’s Grant, we are first of all, a community of faith. You can grow into the disciple and leader God desires for you to be, and the church can help, you’re not alone.

Let’s talk to God about it…

PRAY: Lord Jesus, this time is yours. You know our hearts, motivation, and attitudes. You know where we fall short better than we know ourselves. May we rekindle our passion for you, your Word, and the mission you have in our lives. Help us to live a life of significance and influence. Help us to know your will and your ways and give us the courage to stand up for the cause of Christ. Lord Jesus, may you be glorified through your PROVEN people. AMEN.

Thank you for being a part of this worship and study time. If we can help you in any way, please reach out to us through the church website (kgbc.us/more). If you live in the Virginia Beach area, we invite you to stop by for a visit on Sundays at 9:30am or 11am or join us for midweek activities on Wednesday evenings (kgbc.us/midweek). Until next time, thanks for joining us. We hope to see you soon.

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It Comes Down to Mission

This is a repost from my Facebook feed. This is a great statement regarding mission and the church. The church may be the only organization that exists for those whp are not yet members rather than existing for the membership. That truth is difficult to swallow; when we believe church is all about us, wanting our own needs to be met, we lose sight of our purpose on this planet.

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Biblical Vocabulary for Evangelism

What is Evangelism?

Evangelism is the first step toward fulfilling the Great Commission.

  1. Matthew 28:19-20 is the all-inclusive Great Commission – “make disciples” (Matthew 28:19).
  2. The main verb is to “make disciples” supported by three participles (go, baptize, teach).
  3. Mark, Luke, John, and Acts stress the evangelistic facet of the Great Commission.
  4. Mark 16:15 tells us what to do when we go – go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
  5. Every believer is to go but all are not sent into a cross-cultural situation. We may go across the ocean or across the back fence to share our faith (try the grocery store, gas station, gym, ball field).

Evangelism involves telling the gospel to lost people who haven’t transferred their trust in Christ alone as their Lord and Savior.

  1. The word preaching (euangelizo) literally means “to bring or to announce good news, to gospelize.” (Acts 8:4, 12, 25, 35, 40, 10:36, 11:20, 13:32, 14:7, 15, 21, 15:35, 16:10, 17:18).
  2. Evangelism involves information and an invitation. It more than sharing historical facts about the death and resurrection of Christ. It involves inviting them to repent of their sin and transfer their trust in Christ alone as their Lord and Savior.
  3. J. I. Packer tells us that evangelism is not just preaching the gospel, it is not simply a matter of teaching, and instructing, and imparting information to the mind. Evangelism must include the endeavor to elicit a response to the truth taught. It is communication with a view to conversion. It is a matter, not merely of informing, but also of inviting.
  4. We cannot evangelize without God’s Word (Romans 10:13-15, Ephesians 1:13-14, 6:19-20).
  5. Saint Francis of Assisi said to “preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.” While it may sound good, it may be similar to, “feed starving children, and if necessary, use food.”
  6. We can model the Christian life, be filled with Joy, have a sincere faith, serve like nobody’s business, but until the gospel is shared, no one will get saved.
  7. The verbs of evangelism require words to be spoken: preach, proclaim, herald (Matthew 24:14, Mark 13:10, 14:9, 16:15, Luke 8:1, 9:2, 24:27, Acts 8:5, 19:13, 28:31, Romans 10:14-15, 1 Corinthians 1:23, 15:11-12, 2 Corinthians 1:19, 4:5, 11:4, Galatians 2:2, Philippians 1:15, Colossians 1:23, 1 Thessalonians 2:9, 1 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 4:2).

Evangelism is a process.

  1. Salvation happens when a repentant sinner transfers trust on Christ alone as Lord and Savior, but evangelism is a process that starts with planting the seed, watering it, and patiently waiting for the harvest.
  2. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word (Romans 10:17).
  3. One plants, one waters, and God causes growth (1 Corinthians 3:5-8).
  4. The fields are ripe for the harvest, some sow, others reap (John 4:35-38).
  5. If we reap during an evangelistic encounter, we can be sure that someone else did the sowing before we showed up. We might plant many and someone else will reap the harvest down the road.

What’s the difference between evangelism and outreach?

  1. Some people use the words anonymously, but most don’t. Some confuse gospelizing people with acts of compassion like food pantry, operation inasmuch, disaster relief, winter shelter, adopt-a-block, Thanksgiving baskets).
  2. Jesus said his mission and purpose was to seek and save the lost (Matthew 20:28, Mark 1:38, 10:45, Luke 4:43, 9:55, 19:10). Meeting physical needs is fine but our mission is to address spiritual needs.
  3. When we s to build common ground with lost friends, serving them in some practical way, we are doing pre-evangelism. They are evangelized until we share the gospel with them. Providing temporal relief is a good thing but our purpose is to provide eternal relief.
  4. Don’t confuse doing good works with evangelism; good works point to Jesus (Matthew 5:13, Ephesians 2:10, 1 Peter 2:11-12, Titus 3:1).
  5. Good works allow us to live out what we believe, to be a living gospel, but remember that the gospel has not been shared if we don’t speak it.
  6. Don’t confuse the gospel with causes that we embrace (humans, right, world, hunger, pro-life, social justice). These are not the gospel. The evidence of the gospel lies in the vertical relationship more than the horizontal relationship. The gospel deal with how mankind can be made right with God.
  7. The church must fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15) in a Great Commandment way (Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:30-31). Don’t confuse the eternal mission with temporal relief. We desire for mankind to escape the coming wrath of God (Romans 5:9). People come to Christ on his terms, not our own terms. The church must address our neediness and our fallenness.
  8. Building a house for the homeless or feeding at a soup kitchen is rewarding because it is concrete and tangible. You can measure the progress. Measuring progress in a spiritual realm is more difficult; it’s three steps forward and two steps back. The one who is saved will willingly go public, submit to believer’s baptism, repent of sin, desire to live differently — which is all easier to see in the physical realm.
  9. Christians don’t settle for temporal relief when we can offer eternal relief (Luke 9:59-60). Jesus told this guy to let spiritually dead people bury physically dead people, and you go proclaim the gospel. Spiritually dead people make good morticians. They can make a dead person look alive, but only Christians can share the Words of Life and the transforming power of the gospel. Why settle for a make-up artist when you can do heart surgery?

What’s the difference between evangelism and witnessing?

  1. The word witness is actually the same as martyr, one who bear witness, one who can testify what he has seen, heard, or know.
  2. The apostles were commanded to be witnesses (Luke 24:48, John 15:27, Acts 1:8).
  3. There were many eyewitnesses of the resurrection (these ten post-resurrection appearances).
    1. Mary Magdalen (Mark 16:9-11, John 20:11-18).
    2. The women (Matthew 28:9-10).
    3. The two on the Emmaus Road (Mark 16:12-13, Luke 24:13-32).
    4. Peter (Luke 24:33-35, 1 Corinthians 15:5a).
    5. The ten disciples (Mark 16:14, Luke 24, 36-43, John 20:19-25).
    6. The eleven disciples (John 20:26-31, 1 Corinthians 15:5).
    7. The seven disciples fishing (John 21:1-23).
    8. More than 500 gathered in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:15-18, 1 Corinthians 15:6).
    9. James, the brother of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:7).
    10. The disciples in Jerusalem (Luke 24:44-49, Acts 1:6-8).
  4. Luke records the historical importance of eyewitness testimony in apostolic preaching (Acts 1:3, 2:32, 3:15, 4:33, 5:30, 32, 10:38-42, 13:28-30, 1 Corinthians 15:6, 14-17).
  5. Josh McDowell tells us that the followers of Jesus could not have faced torture and death unless they were convinced of the resurrection. The unity of their message and the course of the conduct was amazing. if they were deceivers, it’s hard to explain why one of them didn’t break under pressure.
  6. We can witness to what has happened in our lives but we cannot be eye-witnesses like the apostles.
  7. Here is the difference: when we witness, we share OUR story (our testimony). When we evangelize, we share HIS Story (the gospel).

Who did evangelism in the early church?

  1. At the beginning, the apostles were in Jerusalem, but they were scattered under the persecution of the day. When the church scattered, as they went, they evangelized (Acts 8:1, 4).
  2. We cannot keep the task of evangelism in the hands of trained professionals, it is the task for followers of Jesus. You cannot cop out just because you have never been to seminary. This attitude is the greatest tragedy of the church. The results are devastating to the mission of the church. Just reflect on the damage done by this shift in responsibility from believers to the elders/pastors.
  3. No one has to be called or gifted to do evangelism since we are commanded to do it as followers of Jesus (Mark 16:15).

Isn’t evangelism the job of the evangelists?

  1. We tend to stereotype evangelists (three-piece suit, sweating as he preaches about hell, fire, and brimstone during an evangelistic crusade. But the New Testament teaches that an evangelist equips church members to do evangelism (Ephesians 4:11-12). Shepherd don’t have sheep; sheep have sheep.
  2. The word equip means to outfit or prepare God’s people for the work of service. We gather as the church to be equipped. We scatter to evangelize.
  3. Paul tells us to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5).
  4. The word preaching (euangelizo) literally means “to bring or to announce good news, to gospelize.” (Acts 8:4, 12, 25, 35, 40, 10:36, 11:20, 13:32, 14:7, 15, 21, 15:35, 16:10, 17:18).

What is the message of evangelism? – the Gospel

  1. The gospel is NOT…
    1. A different or distorted gospel (Galatians 1:6-9, 2:16, 2 Corinthians 11:4)
    2. Vines says that Galatians 1:8-9 literally means, let him be accursed or condemned, like saying to hell with him. Paul uses the strongest language possible to denote the seriousness of distorting the gospel.
  2. False gospels that are distorted:
    1. Baptismal regeneration: that water baptism bring salvation. Infant baptism saves the child and they are reborn. Paul tells us that Christ did not send him to baptize but to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17). If water baptism had redemptive significance, Paul would never be happy that he did not baptize more Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:14-16).
    2. Prosperity gospel: the good news is that if you accept Jesus you will be healthy and wealthy.
    3. Sacramental gospel: the Lord affirms that baptism is necessary for salvation (Catholic Catechism, VI, the necessity of baptism, 1257).
    4. Works gospel: any gospel that says you can earn, deserve, or merit heaven through your own good deeds is a heresy (2 Peter 2:1, Ephesians 2:8-9, 2 Timothy 1:9, Titus 3:5).
  3. The gospel IS…
    1. Biblical (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). Of first importance.
    2. Christological – about Christ and all the statements about HIM or HE.
    3. Scriptural – according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
      1. Died (Isaiah 53:5, Acts 8:30-35, Matthew 16:21, 17:22, 20:18-19, 26:2, 27:31, 35, Mark 15:20, 24-25, 16:6, Luke 9:22, 23:33, 24:46, John 19:16, 18, 20, 23, Acts 2:23,-24, 29, 3:15, 4:10, 5:30, 13:28-29, Romans 5:6, 8, 10, 6:6-7, 10, 1 Corinthians 2:2, 8, 15:3, Galatians 2:21, Philippians 2:8, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, 5:10, Hebrews 2:9-10, 12, 1 Peter 3:18, Revelation 5:9).
      2. Raised (Psalm 16:10, Acts 2:27, 13:35, Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19, 26:32, Luke 9:22, 24:46, John 2:19-22, 21:14, Acts 2:24-28, 3:15, 4:10, 5:30, 10:40, 13:30, 33-37, 17:18, Romans 4:24-25, 8:11, 34, 10:9, 1 Corinthians 14:4, 12-17, 2 Corinthians 4:14, 5:15, Galatians 1:1, Ephesians 1:20, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:14, 1 Peter 1:21).
    4. Theological – he died for our sins, which are an affront to God’s holiness and cuts us off from him.
    5. Historical – he appeared to many people after he rose from the dead.
    6. Personal – the gospel was preached to YOU, YOU received, YOU stand, YOU are saved, YOU believed, delivered to YOU, Christ died for OUR SINS (1 Corinthians 15:1-2, John 1:12, Romans 5:17).
      1. Preached = to tell the good news to you (euangelisanmen humin)
      2. Received = receive + believe = become a child of God (ho kai parelabon). Hand-me-down faith is no good until you make it your own (Matthew 3:7-10). Beware of universalism that teaches the well-being of all people, and the universality of the redemption of Christ. Jesus taught that those who reject him will die in their sin (John 8:21), be the object of God wrath (John 3:36, Romans 5:9), and will be cast into eternal punishment (Matthew 25:41, 46, Luke 12:4-5, 2 Thessalonians 1:7=8, Revelation 21:8). Paul taught that while sin and death is imputed to every person, the free gift of salvation must be personally received (Romans 5:15-17).
      3. Stand = means to be established and continuing firm in faith, like a tree well rooted (en ho kai estekate).
      4. Save = (sozo) from the consequences of sins (Matthew 1:21) and his wrath (Romans 5:9). See also Acts 2:21, 40, 47, 11:14, 15:1, 11, 16:30-31, Romans 1:16, 5:9-10, 10:9-10, 13, 1 Corinthians 1:18, 15:2, Ephesians 1:13, 2:5, 8, 1 Thessalonians 2:16, 2 Thessalonians 2:10, 1 Timothy 1:15, 2 Timothy 1:9, 2:10, Titus 3:5).
      5. Hold fast = examine yourself to see whether you are of the faith; a possessor and not merely a professor.
      6. Believed = we must have to acknowledge the balance between assurance and presumption. True believers give evidence they are saved by continuing in the faith (John 15:1-11). True faith produces fruit. Fake faith has not commitment (John 6:66). Some have shallow faith (Matthew 7:13-14). Some have faith similar to the demons (James 2:19).
      7. In vain = there is an assumption that true faith will elicit a faith response (Mark 1:15, 16:16, John 1:12, 3:15-16, 18, 36, 5:24, 6:29, 35, 40, 7:38, 11:25-26, 12:36, 46, 20:30-31, Acts 8:37, 10:43, 13:39, 15:7, 9, 11, 16:30-31, 20:21, Romans 1:16, 3:22, 28, 4:4-5, 5:1, 9:33, 10:9-11, 14, 1 Corinthians 1:21, 15:2, Galatians 2:16, 3:2, 6-13, 22, 24, 26, Ephesians 1:13, 2:8, Philippians 1:27, 3:9, 1 Timothy 1:16, Hebrews 6:1, 1 Peter 2:6-7, 1 John 5:1, 5, 10, 13).
      8. Repentance = the flip side of faith, they go together (Mark 1:15, Luke 15:7, 10, 24:47, Acts 2:38, 3:19, 5:31, 11:18, 17:30, 20:21, 26:20, 1 Thessalonians 1:9, 2 Timothy 2:25, 2 Peter 3:9).
  4. On judgment day, everyone will be held accountable for what they did with the gospel. It will determine their eternal destiny. Romans 2:16 says, “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”

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How to BLESS Other People

On November 7, Scott talked about how we can be a blessing to other people. The base passage was Genesis 12:1-3 but we found a lot of Scripture to support this blessing lifestyle.

1 Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. – Genesis 12:1-3

The B in BLESS means Begin with Prayer – make a list of those for whom you are praying on a regular basis – And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” – Luke 10:2

The L in BLESS is for Listen – discover who they are and where they are by asking questions and listening – This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; – James 1:19

The E in BLESS is for Eat – share a meal with someone each week in hopes of getting to know them better – And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. – Mark 2:15

The First S in BLESS is for Serve – seeks ways to serve them in some way, demonstrating your love for them – For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. – Mark 10:45

The Second S in BLESS is for Story – you have two stories to share: YOUR story (which is your testimony) and HIS story (which is the gospel, the plan of salvation) – but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. – Acts 1:8

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Raising the Next Generation

Conversations With Jesus – Luke 6:40

Welcome to part 5 of Ken’s teaching series called Conversations. Today I am going to talk about The Greatest Teacher – Jesus’ conversation about raising the next generation. – Luke 6:40 (this is also my tribute to moms on Mother’s Day)

Let’s take a look at what Jesus is teaching his disciples in Luke 6. Beginning in verse 20, Luke records his equivalence of the sermon on the mount, with his version of the beatitudes (Luke 6:20-26).

And THEN Jesus spoke a parable to them in Luke 6:39-40, when he tells us that the blind cannot guide the blind. Why? Because they will both fall into the pit. You know what this tells me? Since I am all about discipleship, I think that it is accurate to say that we CANNOT lead someone in discipleship to a place that we have not yet gone. That’s not an excuse to never attempt to disciple someone but it IS a strong challenge to lead by example. As followers of Christ, we are called to lead people to greater depths of devotion to Jesus and to spend our lives in the pursuit of conforming to the image of Christ. We must be willing and committed to do whatever it takes to look more like Jesus. It doesn’t happen by accident but on purpose with determined intentionality.

OK, let me get to my intended verse because Luke 6:40 is the starting point for my message today… “A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”

So, this message today is going to focus on what Jesus said about raising the next generation. In context, Jesus is talking about the rabbi-follower relationship, discipler-disciplee, mentor-mentee, but on this Mother’s Day, I think this verse can speak to us about what parents do for their children. If we don’t do anything else, our kids will generally turn out much like us. They follow our example, it’s NOT just what we SAY but what we DO.

I remember a commercial when I was a kid, a dad and his son were in the front yard washing the car. The little boy of 5 or 6 does exactly what the dad does… washing the fender, scrubbing the tires, wearing the baseball cap, all with the narrator repeating the phrase, “like father, like son.” Then they sit down at the base of a tree in the front yard and dad grabs a pack of cigarettes, and as the son reaches for the pack that daddy just laid down, the narrator asks the question, “Like father, like son?”

Our kids are watching us. Moms and dad not only have the awesome responsibility of raising the next generation of citizen in America, but they are raising the next generation of Christians in America. As we look around our country today, what sort of followers of Jesus are we producing? Are we making disciples or do we settle for making good little church attenders? Are the kids in the church today just learning moral lessons from the Bible or are they encountering and learning about the God of the Bible? Do they know the reason they were created and the responsibility they have for reaching those who are far from God and even those who have little or no access to the gospel?

Remember what I said a moment ago, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to take someone to a place we have not yet gone ourselves. We cannot pass on that which we don’t embrace. Our kids will never learn how to have a quiet time if they don’t see us having regular times for devotional reading and praying. They won’t learn how to share the gospel if we don’t share the gospel. They won’t learn how to disciple someone else if no one ever discipled them.

Maybe this sounds familiar… when asked in a social situation, “what do you do?” I’ve heard some moms say something like, “I’m just an at-home mom.” Well, let me remind you what mom’s do at home…

  • First, let’s give mom a creative title. Domestic engineer? Household CEO? Director of child development? And how about the activities an at-home mom does?
  • Teacher: Mothers teach children their first words, colors and shapes. They continue to enrich their learning by helping them with their homework and school projects.
  • Chef: The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the role of a chef as one who develops recipes, plans menus, orders food inventory, and ensures sanitary kitchen conditions. That certainly sounds like a mom.
  • Event Planner: Even the busiest mom squeezes in time for fun. Whether it’s planning a themed birthday celebration, coordinating schedules with extended family for the holidays, or signing kids up for recreational activities, moms constantly have something to do and somewhere to be.
  • Housekeeper: Maintaining an orderly house can be quite the daunting task for a mother. There is no shortage of things to clean or organize, whether the children are toddlers or teenagers.
  • Accountant: In most households, moms perform many accounting functions such as creating and balancing a budget, paying bills and identifying cost-saving opportunities.
  • Chauffeur: Moms also serve as chauffeurs by providing hours of transportation for kids to and from doctor appointments, school, shopping, and play dates.
  • I read a statistic that if moms received an annual salary for all of their responsibilities, they would earn an estimated $78,000 a year.

But, let’s refocus on Christian moms and dads. Luke 6:40 reminds us that a pupil (or child), after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher. How do we as parents invest in our kids for the kingdom’s sake. Aside from any teaching and training that will turn our kids into socially acceptable citizens and productive members of our community, let me suggest these 6 things to be a part of ANY parental curriculum. Here is my acrostic for the day. M.O.T.H.E.R.

Mission – Acts 1:8but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Think about your goal as a Christian parent. It’s not about raising a socially acceptable and productive member of the community. Your goal is not for your kids to have a great education. It’s not to be a great athlete. It’s not to have them participate in wholesome dating. It’s not to have a great career. It’s not about getting them out of the house on their own, making lots of money.

The goal of Christian parenting is for your kids to embrace the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and live out the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40). We teach our kids to love God with their whole being and to love others as themselves. The Great Commandment leads to the Great Commission and the fact that God uses ordinary people like US to spread the love of Jesus to those with little or no access to the gospel.

I love Acts 1:8 because we don’t do any of this alone, we have received the power of the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses. This verse reminds us that our mission field is in our own city, state, country, and the world. It’s not about one place over another but doing all four at the same time. Notice Jesus used the word, “both” in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We tend to see the command as a buffet line… Jerusalem or Judea or Samaria, or the ends of the earth. Pick one.

Jesus told the disciples, and tells us, that they WILL be his witnesses,” meaning if you carry the name of Jesus, you are his witness. We don’t go out and DO witnessing, but we ARE witnesses. If you’re a believer, you’re a witness and can tell others what Jesus has done for you. The only choice we have is between these two options… will we be a GOOD witness or a BAD witness?

As parents, our first priority is to instill in our children that we are on mission with God, no matter what our vocation, marital status, or personal hobbies or interests. Once we understand our mission, it leads us to the next part of raising the next generation…

Obedience – John 14:21He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.

We teach our kids about obeying us (as parents) and obeying teachers, and those in authority (like police) but we often find ourselves telling our kids that obedience to God is optional. Perhaps we justify it by thinking like this… the standard of Jesus is perfection, we can never be perfect, so why try? Or maybe we say, my salvation is not based on my performance (like my obedience) but on the work of Christ on the cross, so obedience must therefore be optional.

Read John 14:21 again… keeping his commandments is a sign of our love for God. If you love God, you WILL keep is commands. When we love God, we will be loved by the Father. Jesus said that if we keep his commands, HE will love us and he will disclose himself to us. If you don’t feel like Jesus is revealing himself to you, try obedience! When we obey his word, Jesus will disclose himself to us.

Walking through life in obedience is something that is caught more than it is taught. We have heard the phrase, “do as I say and not as I do” but our kids see how we are living. They know if we simply put on the mask of Christianity on Sundays or they see that we’re fully committed to Christ and his mission throughout the week.  

Teaching – Matthew 7:28-29 – When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

If parents don’t do anything else, teaching is the thing that they do the most. It seems that day after day, all we do is teach our kids about life, relationships, dating, work ethic, trade skills, vocational skills, study skills, sports skills, coaching, board games, fishing, household chores, homework, you name it. We teach all the time.

But how do we prepare our kids for life’s ultimate final exam? When you stop learning, you stop growing, and all living things grow. Parents must make it a priority to teach their children the WILL and WAYS of God. Nothing will draw a child closer to God than seeing mom and dad taking steps of faith, walking in obedience, especially when it is difficult or uncomfortable. Actions really do speak louder than words.

You’ve heard it said that we should never let a crisis go to waste. It is through the crises of life that we find the greatest teaching opportunities. Take advantage of difficult times to help your kids walk in faith and trust God. Lead by example. Set the pace for your family.

Humility – Mark 10:45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

The culture and the world will teach your children to look out for Number One. They justify this type of teaching to emphasize and develop a positive self-esteem in children. Now, if YOUR kids were anything like MY kids, I didn’t have to teach them how to be selfish, that seemed to come naturally. Kids think the world revolves around them. It’s part of the fall of mankind. We make ourselves to be most important and we desire to be the master of our own destiny, the center of the universe, and sit upon the throne of our own lives. But is that the example of Jesus?

Our Lord and Savior did not seek power, prestige, or position so he could manage or rule over others. Jesus taught that we are supposed to serve others rather than serve ourselves or have others serve us. This is the essence of humility.

We must teach our kids to look out for the interests of others more than themselves. Just how do kids learn this? By seeing the example of their parents. Again, set the pace for humility in your household. Give your life in service to others.

Evangelism – Mark 3:13-14And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. 14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach

Jesus spent the whole night in prayer before he called his 12 closest men to be his disciples. We often think of these guys as super-Christians and we can’t expect to live up to the standard they set, especially in the areas of ministry and mission. I love this Mark passage because of what Jesus called them to do.

We often focus on the last section, that he called them to send them out to preach, which is an important part of their mission, but notice the phrase just before that. He called them “to be with him” and THEN he sent them out to preach. This is the “with him” principle.

We need to walk through this life with Jesus, learn from him, and then pass on what we have learned to others, especially to our kids and those within our circle of influence. We learn from him, then we go out to make a difference in the world around us. Make a difference for the kingdom of God. All this leads up to our final point, which is…

Relationship – Luke 24:14-15And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them.

Christianity is nothing if not about relationships. First there is our relationship with the Father through the Son. This relationship is all about salvation. Our next relationship is with other believers. This relationship is all about fellowship. Our third relationship is with a lost and dying world. This relationship is all about evangelism and mission, which we have previously covered today.

We can teach our kids to be successful in the world but unless they understand these key relationships in life, they are no different than your average lost person. Notice what is included in the Luke 24 passage…

In context, this story is part of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. Look what takes place…

They were talking with each other about the things that had taken place. How often do you talk with your kids about spiritual matters? About how you came to faith in Christ? About how God has moved in your life this week? About how Jesus gave you opportunities to make a difference in someone else’s life? About ministry opportunities or a mission experience? Faith is caught more than it is taught, and it is caught by talking about life together.

Along with talking about and discussing spiritual matters, Jesus approached them and began traveling with them. He took the initiative. The Christian life is not so much about the destination (heaven when we die) as it is about the journey and the path we walk. We go through life as a family, whether in our physical family of blood relatives or our family of faith (or what I like to call them, my forever family).

In Christianity, there are no “lone ranger” disciples. We are in this thing together. The body is made up of many parts and we all work together for the body to function properly. Christianity is about community, and at its core, this means relationships. We need to be connected with one another.

I think this has been the hardest part of this year of COVID. Our relationships have suffered. We have drifted apart. I feel many people have come to the conclusion that gathering together as the church or a small group or a Sunday school class was not really as important as we had made it out to be all these years.

“I have made it just fine without getting together.” I can have my “worship on demand,” any time I want; when it’s convenient for me. I don’t need for my class to get together; e-mail is just fine for me to keep up.

So, what does Jesus teach about raising the next generation? Look over these 6 areas. Which one do you need to focus on first? What can you do this week that will help you get back on track? How will you pray differently this week?

When we realize that the life we have been given is not about US, then we find freedom. We are called to be a good steward of the life we have, as one who will give an account for what we have done with that which we have been entrusted.

On this Mother’s Day, let us all remember why we are on this planet. If you are a follower of Christ, your life is NOT about YOU, but it’s all about being an ambassador for Christ and being his witnesses locally, and even around the world. Let’s reflect on what God may be saying to us right now.

PRAY: Lord Jesus, we recognize that life is hard, and without question, it is distracting from what you have called us to do for the kingdom’s sake. Father, open our eyes to the opportunities all around us as we go through this life. May we see you at work and seek to join you in in your mission to reach through who are far from you. Help us to seek the one who is lost. Help us to raise the next generation to love you extravagantly. May we set the pace for our families and our community. May we run the race set before us and not grow weary. May we fight the good fight and finish well. Father, we know we fall short but plead your mercy and grace, to encourage us to stand strong in our calling to salvation and our calling to be your hands and feet in this world. May we be salt and light. In Jesus name. Amen.

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Gear Up for the Game

[ The opening video illustration was purchased from BluefishTV ]

Gear Up for the Game

VBS is finally upon us! All the busyness, activity, setup and tear down… all for what? To provide children in our church and community 15 hours of concentrated emphasis on the Bible, which leads to new life in Jesus Christ. Many kids don’t have a church, and some that do, perhaps that church doesn’t emphasize personal faith in Jesus Christ as the only way to receive everlasting life.

Before I talk about everlasting life, let me first address THIS life.

We face so many pressures in life. Adults are juggling busy schedules, paying bills, making sure kids have what they need, and raising a family. Kids are facing pressure to perform their best in school and all their extracurricular activities. It all can be overwhelming.

Fortunately, God knows everything we face. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3. He wants to bless us, not just in THIS life, but for all of eternity! Jesus came and paid the price for our sins so that we can know him and have eternal life. Once we know him, he has also given us his Word so that we can grow, train in our spiritual gifts, encourage one another, and share God’s gift of eternal life with others. With Jesus, we have everything we need to grow and to thrive. He is also inviting us to join him in his work. When we serve on God’s team, he uses us to make a huge difference in the lives of other people.

Today I want you to be aware of what is happening at Vacation Bible School this week. These kids are going to be taught these lessons by faithful teachers …

GOD’S PLAN FOR VBS

Jesus Cares About Me (Luke 15:1-7) Romans 5:8

The first Bible story is out of Luke 15, the story about the shepherd who left the 99 and went to search for the lost sheep. Jesus cares for us and demonstrated that love by dying on the cross to save us from our sin, and then searches for his lost sheep.

God knows everything about us, and he desires for us to live with him forever. Even though sin caused us to be separated from God, he gave his son, Jesus, so that we can experience his forgiveness and enjoy an abundant life. John 10:10.

Jesus Gives Me Hope (John 11:1-44) John 11:25

On day two, the kids are going to study from John 11, the story about the raising of Lazarus. His sisters had hope in the resurrection on the last day, but Jesus taught Mary and Martha that hope begins NOW, not later.

People are trying to find hope in many worldly things, like money, politics, relationships with people, but those sources of hope are always going to let us down. The only source of true help is Jesus. He is God, and he is perfectly faithful and trustworthy. Psalm 86:15.

Jesus Helps Me to Believe (John 20:19-31) John 20:29

On Wednesday, we are focusing on John 20, the story of doubting Thomas who would not believe that Jesus had raised from the dead until he saw and touched the Lord.

When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, he made forgiveness available to all people. Acts 2:21.

God wants us to give our lives to him and to experience eternal life. Ephesians 1:7.

When we come to Jesus, he is the one who gives us faith. Like in the story of Thomas, Jesus loves us and he meets us where we are, to help us believe. John 20:19-31; Mark 9:23–24.

Jesus Loves Me (John 13:1-35, 19:25-27, 20:1-10, 21:1-14) 1 John 3:1a

On Thursday, we are looking at John’s stories that help us see his relationship with Jesus… where he talked about “greater love has no one than this, that one would lay down his life for his friends,” where Jesus had John to care for his mother, John’s experience at the empty tomb, and seeing the resurrected Lord serving breakfast in Galilee.

Also, when we come to Jesus, it is only the BEGINNING of all that God has planned for us. He wants us to enjoy a daily relationship with him. Romans 8:38-39.

John was one of the Jesus’ closest friends on earth, and God used him to write down many things God wanted to reveal to us. This means that God wants us to enjoy the same relationship and fellowship that Jesus and John experienced together. John 13:23; 20:2.

Jesus Gives Me Joy (Acts 16:23-34) Psalm 95:1

Finally, we wrap up the week looking at the prison experience of Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail.

We are going to learn that regardless of the circumstances that come in our lives we can have JOY in knowing that God is with us. He uses us to reach people with his love, and he has a lifetime and eternity of blessings prepared for us. Jeremiah 29:11.

God wants us to stay close to him so that we can bear fruit and be filled with his joy. John 15:5.

God created us to enjoy a relationship that last forever. Our lives are going to be meaningless and without true hope until we give our life to Jesus.

GOD’S PLAN FOR LIFE

I’m going to quickly share the gospel and invite you to give your life to him today. During VBS, kids and families will be introduced to what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

“Gospel” means good news. What is do good about it?

  1. God Rules: The Bible tells us that God created everything, including you and me, and he is in charge of everything (Genesis 1:1, Revelation 4:11, Colossians 1:16-17)
  2. We Sinned: Since the time of Adam and Eve, everyone has chosen to disobey God (Romans 3:23). The Bible calls this sin. Because God is holy and cannot tolerate sin, we have a problem. Sin is that which separates up from God, no matter how hard we try to reach him. We deserve punishment and death (Romans 6:23).
  3. God Provided: To deal with our sin problem, God provided a way to forgive sin. Sin could not just be forgiven and swept under the rug, it has to be paid for. Jesus took the punishment that we deserve and could never pay on our own. Jesus saves us (John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9).
  4. Jesus Gives: Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead. Since he gave up his life for us, we can be welcomed into God’s forever family. This is the best gift ever (Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 3:18).

What can I do now? Learn Your ABCs

  1. Admit to God that you are a sinner. Tell God you messed up and are sorry for doing your own thing. Repent, and turn away from your sin and turn to God. Stop doing bad things and start doing good things. Turn to Jesus, the only one who can save you.
  2. Believe that Jesus is God’s Son and receive his free gift of forgiveness from sin. Only Jesus can save us from our sin problem. Not even praying, going to church, or reading your Bible can save you. We trust in Jesus, his death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead to bring salvation.
  3. Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Tell God and then tell others what you believe about Jesus. When Jesus is your Savior, you are trusting in him only for your salvation. He is your Savior and he is your Lord, Boss, and Master. You follow him because of what we read in the Bible. We are born again into new life and will be with God forever (Romans 10:9-10, 13).

GOD’S GAME PLAN FOR YOU

  1. Noticed how many lives are Christian Life Begins with Faith (2 Peter 1:1–4)
    1. This faith is in a person (2 Peter 1:1–2) – our faith is never in a set of beliefs or doctrines, but in the person of Jesus Christ. Christianity is a personal religious system that means nothing if God is an impersonal force or if salvation is based on believing or reciting a set of propositional truths.
    2. This faith involves God’s power (2 Peter 1:3) – How do we get everything we need for life and godliness, it is by his divine power. And God does not want us to be ignorant of him, so our faith is strengthened through knowledge of God and recognizing his glory.
    3. This faith involves God’s promises (2 Peter 1:4) – This book is full of precious and very great promises given for a reason, so we will escape the corruption that is in this world, and become a part of the divine nature.
  2. Faith Results in Spiritual Growth (2 Peter 1:5–9)
    1. The Path of Diligence – Positive (2 Peter 1:5-8)
      1. We must not only believe, we must behave (2 Peter 1:5a)
      2. We must not only have integrity, we must be informed (2 Peter 1:5b)
      3. We must not only be taught, we must be temperate (2 Peter 1:6a)
      4. We must not only be in possession, we must be patient (2 Peter 1:6b)
      5. We must not only be good, we must be godly (2 Peter 1:6c)
      6. We must not only be holy, we must be helpful (2 Peter 1:7a)
      7. We must not only be liberal (in kindness), we must be lovable (2 Peter 1:7b)
    2. The Path of Delusion – Negative (2 Peter 1:9) – if you lack these qualities, you are blind and short-sighted…
      1. We can lose sight of our condition (2 Peter 1:9a) – that our eyes have been opened to the reality of Christ
      2. We can lose sight of our conversion (2 Peter 1:9b) – that we are cleansed from our sins, meaning, some people are not acting like they are God’s people.
  3. Spiritual Growth Brings Practical Results (2 Peter 1:10–11)
    1. Steadfastness (2 Peter 1:10a) – be all the MORE diligent
      1. His Calling (2 Peter 1:10b) – to what has he called you? Giftedness, Serving, calling to Membership? Calling to Ministry?
      2. His Choosing (2 Peter 1:10c) – To be picked to play on his team. What is your position? What are you good at? What bring you joy as you do his work? What types of things do you do where people tell you that you really ministered to them?
    2. Stability (2 Peter 1:10d) – You will never stumble.
    3. Salvation (2 Peter 1:11) – Entrance into the eternal kingdom of Jesus, will be fully supplied.

Don’t you want to meet Jesus fully prepared and matured, rather than limping along like you’re nursing an old sports injury? Don’t let the world and its distractions keep you from all that God has for you. He has promised everything from the very beginning.

  • Don’t just sit in the stadium – you are not a spectator. Church is not a spectator sport.
  • Don’t dress out and just sit on the sidelines – be ready to get in the only game that counts.

 

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The Significance of a Life of Faith

The Significance of a Life of Faith
John 4:43-54

Video Clip Introduction – A Leap of Faith – Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail.
[ Here is the video clip and message ]

THAT is not necessarily faith. People use that phrase a lot, like, just take a leap of faith. We may even use the words, stepping out in faith, but more often than not, we can substitute the word HOPE or WISH, that something will happen.

Sometimes we have to ask ourselves whether we are stepping out in faith or following some foolish impulse on our part.

First, I want to take a look at four things about true faith before we get into this passage:

Faith is COMMON – that means faith is universal. Everyone has faith. Atheists have faith, Buddhists have faith, Christians – everyone. You have never met anyone who was not a person of faith. However, what we have faith IN, well that’s the important difference.

Second, faith is CONVERSION. To have true faith in Jesus we have to switch our allegiances from old dependencies of this world and ourselves to Jesus. That is all about transformation. Those who have faith are transformed by the power of God. When you have faith, your Savior becomes Jesus rather than the false gods we embrace. Bud’s class on God’s at War is discussing all the false gods that we embrace and worship which prevents us from worshipping the true and living God.

Third, faith is CONTEMPLATIVE. This may seem to be a bit monk-ish, but here me out. Faith is a response to seeing and knowing Jesus. When we contemplate Christ, really dwell on him, mediate on him, we come to trust Him. Jesus said, “You may go, your son will live,” which is not what the man expected to hear. So, think about this for a moment. That which God speaks, happens. If you want greater faith, then contemplate Jesus.

Finally, faith is CONTINUAL. When we move out in faith, we find confirmation for our faith as we go through life. This is a continual and never-ending process of trusting Jesus, stepping out on the basis of that faith, finding confirmation, gaining more faith, and stepping out again. We begin to trust in the object of our faith, whom we know is totally trustworthy. This is the spiritual life and walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Faith is continual.

So, what is it about this story that involves faith?

Last week was all about the woman at the well, and the story ended with the Samaritan woman testifying that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and many believed in him. John adds a great statement, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42).

Now we come to this episode in the life of Jesus, healing the official’s son, which is the second major “sign” of seven miracles which John used to reinforce Jesus’ true identity, with the goal of producing belief or faith in his readers (John 4:54).

In this story, Jesus scolded the official’s unbelief in needing a miraculous sign to trust in Christ (John 4:48). While some believe that this story is the same as the healing of the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5–13; Luke 7:2–10), There are sufficient differences to determine that this story is different from the synoptic gospels’ account.

  1. There is no evidence that the official was a Gentile.
  2. It is the official’s son, not his servant, who was healed.
  3. Jesus was far more negative regarding the official’s faith (John 4:48 – Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe) than the centurion’s (Matthew 8:10 – Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel).

So, let’s walk through this story and discover some spiritual truth about the significance of a life of faith. This was the second miracle John records in his book, (there are seven signs in his gospel).

  1. The PLACES (John 4:43-46a) – Jesus considers several things here at the beginning of the passage: The text tells us that after two eventful days in Samaria (the women at the well and the teaching about evangelism to the disciples), Jesus continues toward Galilee. First came this seemingly odd statement…
    1. That a prophet has no honor in his own hometown – It seems odd that Jesus quotes this old proverb here (John 4:44, also in Matthew 13:57). The scolding appears to be directed toward Judea, which was also his own country. Here was the reason…
    2. That the people were NOT excited about HIM but rather for what he had done for them (John 4:45)
      1. His reception is contrasted (between Samaria and Judea); Jerusalem gave him no honor, and his messianic claim was unwelcome, so much so that he did not entrust himself to the Jews (John 2:24-25).
      2. Basically, many had believed in HIM, but he did not believe in THEM. He did not entrust himself to them. Believe / entrust are the same Greek word.
      3. While many people eventually followed, they loved the miracles rather than the Messiah. This sets up the rest of the story…
  2. The PREDICAMENT (John 4:46b) This father came to Cana concerned about his sick son in Capernaum.
    1. Positive side – the man knew that he needed Jesus.
    2. Negative side – the man put Jesus in a box, limiting how God will work in the lives of people.
  3. The PLEA (John 4:47) – he begs Jesus to heal his son (a CRISIS of faith). This is the plea of every parent for a child. We can identify with his desperation (my Stephen story as an example).
    1. But the description of the situation reveals the man’s limited faith. The text says that the man implored him to “come down” and heal his son. The man had a weak faith and believed that he needed the actual presence of Jesus for the healing to happen.
    2. Contrast this situation with that town in Samaria where they believed in Jesus because of his words (John 4:42), while here they “believe” based on his deeds/miracles. So, this helps us to understand the seemingly harsh response in John 4:48.
  4. The PROBLEM (John 4:48) – Jesus fires back, as if he laments the fact that people demand that he perform miracles before they will believe in him.
    1. Is this not the same today? Unless God opens the sky to reveal himself, I will never believe.
    2. Signs indicated that the miracles were intended to convey a larger spiritual truth. Wonders would just draw attention to the miracle itself. Authentic faith does not need to be bolstered by miracles, and the Samaritans believed without their faith being propped up by something miraculous.
    3. But Jesus knew this man’s love for his son, as well as his weak faith, and this man needed something to strengthen his faith. God finds us where we are and gently leads us toward maturity and strength.
  5. The PERSISTENCE (John 4:49) – out of desperation, the father continues to seek help from Jesus, using the words as before, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
    1. Literally, “before my little boy dies.” Desperation leads to persistence.
    2. How often are we much more deeply involved and committed to prayer when we are desperate? When we are desperate, we don’t care how this looks to other people, or how foolish we might look, we need God to intervene and answer, and the whole thing will fail unless God shows up.
    3. When was the last time that you poured out your heart to God, recognizing there was nowhere else to turn? Let’s not wait until we are desperate; let our prayer be a part of an everyday life of faith.
  6. The PROMISE (John 4:50) – Jesus says that “the boy will live” (a CONFIDENT faith). With the promise and assurance of Jesus, now the man has to make a choice; essentially, to choose his next steps carefully.
  7. The PATH (John 4:50) – Jesus says to “go your way,” meaning return to your home and to your people. Jesus is forcing this father to believe without a miraculous sign.
    1. Notice that the man said COME and Jesus said GO. We cannot tell Jesus how to do his work; is he in charge or not? The man had to lay aside his expectations and let Jesus handle the situation.
    2. This desperate father had to choose between DOUBTING the man whom he placed his trust and hope, or BELIEVE Jesus, what he said, and go back home.
    3. The man’s confidence was so secure that he did not hurry back home but took his time. The 22-mile journey from Cana to Capernaum could have been done in one day, but all was well, he had confidence that everything was okay, and traveled back the following day (John 4:52). So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”
    4. When was the last time you had to make a tough decision? How do you know which path to choose? Maybe both choices are equally good and appropriate, but you still have to choose.
    5. I love Isaiah 30:20-21 – Although the Lord has given you bread of adversity and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. 21 Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
  8. The PAYOFF (John 4:51-54) the PROOF – I see two things happening here:
    1. The physical restoration of the heir (John 4:51-53a) (a CONFIRMED faith). When the father heard the report and saw his son totally healed, his weak faith had been confirmed. Sometimes just a small step of faith is all it takes for God to open our eyes and let us see the world from his perspective.
    2. The spiritual restoration of the household (John 4:53b-54) (a CONTAGIOUS faith).
      1. How often and how long have you prayed for a lost family member? Weeks? Months? Years? If you are a follower of Jesus, entrust the salvation of your family to him. You may see no way for that person’s heart to open up to the gospel of Christ; but aren’t you glad that their salvation does not depend upon you? God loves your friend or family member way more than you ever could. Trust, believe, have faith, and leave the results up to HIM.
      2. YOUR life of faith will speak loudly to those whom the gospel has yet to be revealed or embraced.
      3. Throughout the book of Acts, people come to faith, and then the entire household gets saved (Acts 11:14, 16:15, 31, 18:8). It may not be instantly, as in these stories, but pray that God will do wonders in your family through you. Live a gospel-empowered life in front of them every day. This is the significance of a life of faith.

The movement of this father’s faith…

  1. A man having faith in Jesus’ POWER.
  2. A man having faith in Jesus’ PROMISE.
  3. A man having faith in Jesus’ PERSON.

Faith is willful, dynamic, life-long, progressive, and at times not very easy. But following Jesus by faith is totally worth it.

Where are you today, in this story?

This story starts out with sickness, anxiety, desperation, and the shadow of death, but ends up with rejoicing, confidence, hope, and wholeness.

Maybe today is when you get on the right path, let Jesus into your life, follow him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Enter into the salvation of the Lord.

Or maybe you need to join this church, choose this path, after all, Jesus brought you here, and you have remained a part of this warm fellowship, but it is time to declare your commitment to Christ and this Church.

What are some elements of authentic faith?

2 Timothy 1:12 – For I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

  1. I KNOW = there is knowledge (head knowledge versus experiential knowledge) and there is assurance (one cannot be sold out to Jesus if you are not sure of several things, like, Jesus is the only way, that he can be trusted, that God’s Word is true and authoritative.
  2. WHOM = he did not believe in a set of principles or doctrines, but a person.
  3. I HAVE BELIEVED = there is confidence (perfect tense meaning action begun and completed in the past and the effects continue even now)
  4. I am CONVINCED = there is assent or approval (we can stake our whole life on the trustworthiness of Jesus and his word)
  5. I have COMMITTED or entrusted = there is volition (willfully putting my life into his care and protection). Paul was confident of God’s control and encouraged Timothy that while he was in prison, had lost everything, he had not lost his faith. Trust God when life is hard. Have unwavering confidence and boldness. Paul entrusted (put down a deposit) that God is able to keep us saved.

Hebrews. 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

How significant is faith? Without faith it is impossible to please God.

  1. We must BELIEVE.
    1. That he exists.
    2. That he is a rewarder.
  2. We must diligently SEEK him (see Jeremiah 29:13 – you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart).

So, faith is active, we exercise it, it is not something that we passively accept or simply believe.

It is willful, dynamic, life-long, progressive, and at times not very easy. But following Jesus by faith is totally worth it.

Where are you today, in this story?

This story starts out with sickness, anxiety, desperation, and the shadow of death, but ends up with rejoicing, confidence, hope, and wholeness.

Maybe today is when you get on the right path, let Jesus into your life, follow him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Enter into the salvation of the Lord.

Or maybe you need to join this church, choose this path, after all, Jesus brought you here, and you have remained a part of this warm fellowship, but it is time to declare your commitment to Christ and this Church.

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Embrace the Master’s Plan

Jesus is the greatest example of leadership ever known. He had a plan to reach the world with his message of freedom and forgiveness, but left the whole thing into the hands of 12 ordinary men. How did he do it? What was his plan? What was his plan B? How does one take a grand idea, develop a plan, and implement such a bold proposal?

My primary verse for today is Luke 6:40.

1. Selection – his men were his method (Luke 6:13 – he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles). He was not concerned with programs to reach the multitudes but with men whom the multitudes would follow. Jesus gathered these men long before he developed any evangelistic campaign, or even preached a single sermon. People were the method our Lord chose to win the world to himself. Jesus literally staked his whole ministry on these twelve men.

Jesus chose men willing to learn – those chosen were not impressive. None held positions of authority or power, in society or in the synagogue. They were for the most part common, laboring men. They were unlearned and ignorant men (Acts 4:13) but they were teachable.

Jesus concentrated on a few – no one can transform the world, unless they are individuals who are transformed. Individuals cannot be transformed unless they are moldable in the hands of the Master. Jesus had many followers, but when the teaching got hard, many no longer followed him (John 6:66). But his closest disciples could not miss the purpose of Jesus, they stuck with him.

Jesus did not neglect the masses – he preached to crowds, healed many, cast out demons, fed thousands, blessed their children, and ministered to their physical needs. Jesus loved them, wept over them, and finally died to save them. So, why not capitalize on the crowds rather than end up with a few ragged disciples to show for his effort? Because Jesus was not trying to impress the crowds, he was trying to usher in a mew kingdom. This means that he would need a few committed followers to lead the multitudes. How can he stir up the masses if he had no supervision and leadership in place? The point? Everything done with a few is for the salvation of the multitudes.

2. Association – he stayed with them (Matthew 28:20 – I am with you always, even to the end of the age).

Jesus made a practice of being with his disciples (Mark 3:14). This was the training program of Jesus. There was no college, seminary, online course, periodic membership class, or Sunday School. Amazingly, all Jesus did was to draw men to himself. HE was his own school and curriculum.

“To know” is “to be with” – knowledge was gained by association before long before it was understood by explanation. This makes sense when we remember the question from Thomas in John 14:5-6. He can we know the way? To which Jesus replies that the question has already been answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” just open your eyes to the spiritual and incarnation reality in front of them.

It takes time – this close and constant association meant that Jesus had virtually no time to call his own. Like little children under the feet of their father clamoring for attention, the disciples were always underfoot of the Master.

It is not easy – building men and women is not easy, it requires constant personal attention. Children are not raised by proxy, Jesus taught that discipleship can only be done by staying close to those we lead. We cannot relegate this ministry to some church program and expect it to be effective. It takes intentional mentorship, care, time, and attention. We never birth babies and leave them to themselves, so, every new convert needs a Christian friend to follow until such a time that he or she can lead another person in discipleship. It takes people, not programs.

3. Consecration – he required obedience (Matthew 11:29 – take my yoke upon you).

Jesus expected the men he was with to obey him. They were not required to be smart, knowledgeable, or talented, but they had to be loyal. This was their distinguishing mark, after all, disciple means “learner” or “pupil.” It was not until much later that they were called “Christians” (Acts 11:26).

The way of the cross – following Jesus seemed easy at first, but that was because they had not followed him very far. Being a follower was not about the joy of finding the Messiah, but it meant the surrender of one’s whole life to the Master and submitting to his authority. There would be no compromise, which was a very hard teaching, and not many were willing to pay the price (John 6:25-29).

Counting the cost – those who would not go all the way would fall by the wayside, and Jesus let them go. He did not have time, nor the desire to scatter himself on those who wanted to create their own terms of discipleship. People cannot come to God on their own terms.

Demonstrated by Jesus – absolute obedience to the will of God was the controlling factor in Jesus’ life, the passion week before the cross was no different. His human nature gave consent to the will of the Father, which made it possible for God to use his life fully according to its intended purpose. It is God’s will for us to accomplish his intended work for us (John 4:34, 5:30, 6:38, 15:10, 17:4).

The “parental” example – a father must teach his children to obey him if he expects his children to be like him. In the church, no one can be a leader until he or she has first learned to be a follower.

4. Impartation – he gave himself away (John 20:22 – he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit).

Jesus wanted his followers to obey him, but in recognizing this truth, his disciples would discover the deeper experience of the Holy Spirit. In receiving the Spirit they would know the love of God for a lost and dying world. They knew they were not just keeping the law, but were responding to the one who loved them, and was willing to die for them.

The compulsion of evangelism – that is why Jesus wasted no time to impress on his followers his own deep compulsion of the love of God for a lost world. Everything he did was motivated by this passion.

It is only the Holy Spirit who enables us to carry on the redemptive mission of evangelism – Jesus always worked in cooperation with the Spirit.

Evangelism is never a human undertaking, but a divine process from the beginning to the end. The Spirit is our comforter, paraclete, our advocate, he comes along side of us to minister through us.

Always remember that we cannot give something away that we do not first possess ourselves. When we have the Spirit of Christ, it is that Spirit that insists that Christ be made known.

5. Demonstration – he showed them how to live (John 13:15 – I have given you an example).

Jesus was determined that his followers would learn his way of living with God and others. He needed to get across to them the secrets of his spiritual influence… like…

His prayer life – they could see the strength that prayer gave to his life, they saw it and wanted it, too. It wasn’t a ritualistic practice but a way to communing with the Father. It was based on relationship rather than a wish list.

His use of Scripture – he often impressed on his followers the meaning of ancient texts and how it was relevant to everyday life.

His evangelism – he was concerned for the souls of people and took opportunities to talk with people about forgiveness and everlasting life.

His teaching – Jesus had many lessons for the disciples to learn, and class was always in session. His explanation of parables is a great example.

6. Delegation – he assigned them work (Matthew 4:19 – I will Make you fishers of men).

Jesus was always building toward the time when his disciples would take over the work and ministry in the world.

He would make them fishers of men – face it, no one likes to be told what to do, or be made to do anything.

His first invitation to the disciples (to follow him) said nothing about going out to evangelize the world, although that was Jesus’ plan from the beginning. His method was to get them into a vital experience with God, showing them how it worked, before telling them they had to do it.

Before letting them go out to minister, Jesus would give briefing instruction about their mission. He outlined what to expect, what to say, and what to do (Matthew 10, Mark 6, Luke 9).

They needed to expect hardship – and often warned them about how they would be treated, yet his encouragement was always, “fear not,” because God would never desert them.

On a practical level, we have the same commission to be all about the task of being his witness to the world.

7. Supervision – he checked on them (Mark 8:17 – Do you still not see or understand?).

Jesus met with them following their tours of service to hear their reports and to share what God did through them. He rotated between instruction and assignment.

There were questions, illustrations, and warnings to help them understand what they were experiencing. All these were designed to help them fulfill their work of building the kingdom in this world.

There was continuous review and application to bring out the significance of the events or teaching into their lives. This was on-the-job training at its best.

Supervision helped the disciples continue toward the goal he had set for them. He did not expect more from his disciples that they could do, but he did expect them to do their best. Supervision is longer than expected; but we need to develop maturity to the point that one day we will be able to carry on alone, and lead others to come with us.

8. Reproduction – he expected them to reproduce (John 15:16 – I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last).

Reproduction is God’s way for the church to duplicate itself. Through them and others like us, the plan would continue to expand God’s kingdom by reaching the multitudes, one by one.

Victory through witnessing – many of his followers would suffer persecution and martyrdom, but with the end in mind, ultimate victory was certain.

The Great Commission – this is given to disciples of Jesus, not an organization called “the church.” We are to make disciples, and we should strive to embrace the Master’s plan to get it done.

Pray for workers to go into the harvest – this phrase is almost stated in desperation, but in context, it really is a desperate situation to reach people with the gospel. Today, we make the same plea knowing how much needs to get done and how few will step up to do it.

How will people be won to Christ? Through prayer, and gathering fellow laborers. The gospel is the hope of the world, so will we remove every barrier? Repent of every excuse or from our apathy?

Ken has been teaching about vision over the past several weeks, but vision is not just in theory. We need to embrace the vision to help build the kingdom of God here in our community.

Community. Faith. Love. People always take priority over programs or preferences.

  • We must mend and restore relationships: relationships with God and with others, resulting in COMMUNITY (member)
  • We must establish and lay a foundation toward spiritual maturity and effective ministry (FAITH is what guides us toward the ministry he has for us). (minister)
  • We must embrace the task of being sent out with a lifestyle of being on mission. It is the LOVE of Christ that compels us to live this out every day. (mission)

Methods vary but our mission always remains the same – it has been said, “marry the mission, but date the methods.” Are we willing to do WHATEVER it takes to reach people we are currently not reaching? It could be that we need to “do things no one is doing” in order to reach people no one is reaching. It sounds scary. It sounds like change.

Will we embrace the Master’s plan and be the church that he has called us to be?

[ Outline from Robert Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism ]

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