War Charge
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship1 from God that is by faith...This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
1 Timothy 1:3-4, 18-20
I mentioned this past Sunday night that church, especially church planting, is war; that there is a reality of wrestling that we must live with and that it is not against our fellow humans, flesh and blood. Rather, we have a spiritual enemy. And they're furious.
They do not like the fact that a church plant is invading the territory of Mobile. It's their domain. They've held our city hostage for years under the safe guise of religion and general conservatism. But no more. We are here to fight. We are here to win because our King Jesus already has dealt the decisive blow to this enemy as he put them "to open shame by triumphing over them in [his body]" on the cross (Col. 2.15).
Nevertheless, we are at war, taking the final strongholds since the dragon has already been cast down and bound (Rev. 12.9; 20:2). And here we find Paul writing to a young pastor, Timothy, charging him to not stray from good, sound doctrine, for in it is the secret to "[waging] the good warfare."
What then can we learn from this? Here are a few things:
- There is a war going on. This much could be assumed, but it's worth running the risk of stating the obvious to make sure we know what we're talking about here. We are in a war and as such we must fight or die.
- There is a "good" warfare that can be waged. This fact is true and good, but the implication it gives is just as crucial in our understanding of this war, namely that there is then such a thing as "bad" warfare. Bad warfare can be bad for all sorts of reasons. It can be a dishonor to the King we're fighting for by how we wage in it, it can cause unnecessary casualties of fellow soldiers or civilian bystanders, or it could end in our own demise. As such, we must make sure we are fighting well, the "good warfare" for the benefit and safety of all those around us and for the honor of the name of our King, at which point the two greatest commands fit quite well within our wartime schema.
- Doctrine matters. In this war, the thing that Paul tells Timothy is the deal breaker between fighting well and fighting poorly (or not fighting at all) is doctrine. Thus, doctrine matters.It matters because it determines which type of warfare we are fighting, good or bad. No doctrine means we've surrendered or have gone to battle ill-clad and without weapons with which to fight. Bad doctrine (which Paul explains further as being speculative ideas and essentially mysticism) is, at best, a means to suicide missions. It is fighting with faulty armor, no strategy, no understanding of the enemy or the tools and victory that we posses as soldiers for Christ. In fact, the rejection of good doctrine can result in a shipwrecked faith and a handing over to the enemy (v. 20). This isn't mean-spirited hatred from Paul; rather, this is him being realistic, handing these people over to Satan because they are actually fighting for his side by the rejection of sound doctrine.
So, again, doctrine matters. It helps others determine which side of this war you really are, despite whatever claims you may present to the contrary.
- One of a pastor's main tasks is to make certain that doctrine is protected and proclaimed. I am to make certain that our body is not swept away with "every wind of doctrine...so that we may no longer be children" (Eph. 4.14). It is a charge tasked to the leaders of the church, particularly pastors, to make certain that false, flimsy, and flaky doctrine doesn't creep into the church to keep its members from reaching maturity in Christ. And herein was the climax of last week's text: "...that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me."
This is the job, the hard task and grueling struggle, of pastoral ministry: to protect from false doctrine without while proclaiming pure doctrine within. Without this dual fidelity the church is left in immaturity, and no war is won by sending children into the battlefield.
So for these reasons, at least, I fight for the doctrinal purity of our church and its members. It is not spiritual one-up-manship or some egotistical venture of any sort. It is the Spirit inspired wartime strategy and battle plan. Our lives and the eternal lives of countless others in our city and throughout the nations depend on it.
May we fight well for our Christ and our King.
Good Friday
I've been reflecting on the cross throughout the week as today, Good Friday, as well as Resurrection Sunday/Easter approached. I must say, it was a bit shocking to see the amount of trivial, self-centered, and (frankly) stupid posts people kept putting up all day long on Twitter and Facebook.
Seriously? Your birthday? You're going to make a big deal out of your birthday? The test you took today? That was the most tantalizing thing that you experienced today? Even on the most holy of days we simply do not care. We are spiritually numbed to the significance, the beauty and the wonder of the cross.
We are equally numb to its horrifying nature, to its repulsiveness, to its complete odiousness. The term Good Friday was not applicable on the day that the holiday is founded upon. It was Horrific Friday. It was Failure Friday. It was Terrible Friday. And it was far worse than any of these terms can grasp at meaning.
The Son of God who was sinless, holy, and beautiful was murdered ruthlessly by the very humans he created. The Author of Life was given a death sentence. There is nothing more repulsive and offensive in the universe. Nothing. And there never will be. The shame of the cross was a one time event unlike any other. This is one reason why we see the saints in eternity future singing about the cross and the lamb that was slain (Rev 5.12).
This side of the resurrection, however, this horrible event becomes "good." But just as we can only grasp for words to describe the horrors of the cross, so too we cannot begin to fathom the beauty, splendor, goodness, greatness, or glory of the cross.
All that to say, if God could make the sun literally stay still—pause the day and course of time—for Joshua (a precursor to Jesus in name and action) so that the battle could be fought and won, can we not take moments today to pause and reflect on the battle that Jesus won on the cross?
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Colossians 2:15
Pause, reflect on the cross today and stand in awe.
Scripture and Prayer
For those of us who have been raised in any sort of church setting, we've heard the cute adage "read your Bible and pray everyday and you'll grow, grow, grow!" Though simple and, to be frank, quite elementary, the truth of the matter is that it is also quite insightful.
I say insightful in a sense very loosely, yet in another sense very strictly. It is, no doubt, obvious that such things are necessary for spiritual growth. But at the same time we all know how miserably we fail at such a simple and basic task, do we not? If it is so obvious and if it this standard is fallen short of so often by believers, could it be owing to the very thing Hebrews warns us about, namely our being "hardened by the deceitfulness of sin"? (Heb 3.13).
I think so, which is why I feel this simple reminder is needed for all of us. Read your Bible and pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow! If you're not experiencing growth—or perhaps substantial growth would be an even better and more challenging (and desirable!) way of putting it—then there is a great chance and a high probability that this is exactly why: either one or both of these things (Scripture and prayer) are falling through the cracks.
That being said, I want to offer more than the reminder to do it. I want to offer encouragement on how to do it and how to do it better better. Here's the secret: "read your bible AND pray."
I was reminded of this helpful distinction last night at our Gospel Community when, during that first graciously intrusive question ("how do you fail at [prayer]?"), many of us were struggling with getting both of these practices down. When I point out the "and", I don't mean to point to the obvious: do both, one and the other. The distinction I'm trying to get at is that you have to do both, together. Without each other, you're really not doing the other one, or at least not hardly so.
Here's what I mean: when you go to read your Bible, pray right then concerning your venture into Scriptures. For instance, here's a prayer that I am very fond of in approaching my Bible reading.
Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
Psalm 119.18
Do you see? Before even getting into one (Scripture), you use the other (prayer, which happens to come from Scripture to boot!) to aid you. And already you can see what the next step is/would be. When you pray, use Scripture in your prayers.
Don't reinvent the wheel! You have several hundred pages worth of prayers by godly men and women who you can then see God work on behalf of in response to their prayers. This doesn't mean you can't pray your own prayer, ask for blessings for your specific situation outside the specific scope of Scripture or anything of the sort. What this is getting at is using your resources, your God-given resources, as much as you can.
In the example of above, Scripture was used to pray a simple, quick prayer regarding how to approach Scripture. See how quickly you can start tackling both of these things simultaneously and in the process get even better, more God-honoring and God-granted (and empowered) results?
Pray over Scripture. Use Scripture in prayer. Then turn it back on itself and pray again over Scripture with that Scripture. Keep the cycle going and you'll "grow, grow, grow!"
House Keeping and Reminders
Remember, like I mentioned tonight: I am not "the minister" at Living Hope. I am A minister alongside all of you, fellow ministers of the gospel. My calling as pastor is to ad-minister whichever ministers the Lord would provide for the vision we have.
That being said, you have 4 weeks to find just one person/family to join us for a semi-launching service as we launch out our children's ministry on April 11th. We need a freshness and newness to our group, if the Lord would be pleased to give it to us, some momentum to pick up more momentum; wind in our sails so to speak. Like mentioned above, it's all of our job to share the hope that we have, not just one particular person/pastor/leader. Let's join together and make this happen!
Use facebook and twitter to pass the word along. Get creative! Make a t-shirt, write a blog, make one of those silly pictures where you tag 100 people but have each of the squares say "Come with me to Living Hope"! If it's worth showing up, it's worth sharing, right?
Also, don't forget to pray this prayer we looked at tonight in Colossians 1. Make a list of people in your GC and make sure to pray for one of those people each and every day the words that Paul prayed (and that the Spirit inspired to be recorded for our benefit!).
Living Hope can't stand on the power of all of us, much less the power of me or any other pastor or leader. But it can stand on God's people being the new creation that they are, the body of Christ that they are, by the power of the Spirit at work within them. Let's rely on Him and each other to accomplish the mission that we have to reach our city for Jesus.
Love you all. Spread the word, spread hope. (and spread that little slogan!)
Pastor John
Bragging on God
For those of you that haven't journeyed with us since the beginning, we used to meet in a house every week. For months we prayed, begged, searched for a place to meet. We got a little spoiled (because we serve a good God) and asked for a lot. "The building must be:..."
- Inside of our target area. Central Mobile, close to the college. We asked for north of Cottage Hill Rd., east of Schillinger Rd., south of Old Shell Rd., and west of Azalea Rd.
- Affordable.
- Large enough to grow in to.
- Not a church.
What happened next is the stuff of legends.
(click to enlarge)
Not only the location, but every other requirement was met on an unbelievable level.
God taught us a lesson in sovereignty and also got a good laugh, I'm sure. We forgot to pray for a bathroom.
So long story short, God gave us exactly what we asked for and showed us how to pray in the future-- specifically.
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him." - 1 John 5:13-15
Being a Waiter
“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” -Ecclesiastes 7:8
It’s 7:58 A.M. and my only road to work is the busiest road in the city. Cars are backed as far as the eye can see and all the lights are green. No one is moving. I can feel my blood start to boil and in an instant I get a hard left from the Holy Spirit. I start to remember Scripture in a flood of convictions. “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves,” (Phil. 2:3). For me, the words of Jesus scream the loudest.
You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. -Matthew 5:21-22
“How many murders have I committed only in the last few minutes?” My impatience has caused the sin of a near genocide to fall on my soul.
Believe me, I know how frustrating it is to be cut off in traffic, or be stuck behind a slow driver, but Jesus taught us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Mt. 5:44).
I know that being stuck in traffic isn’t your persecution, per se, but the weightier matter of Jesus’ command should trickle down to every part of our life. I use the traffic example because I believe inside of our vehicles is one place where we can become the most selfish, hating, prejudiced version of ourselves.
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church the first attribute that he describes true love with is “patient,” (13:4). The impatient mindset is never one of love, but one of selfishness. While I am angrily waiting in line in traffic, what is motivating my anger? Is it my love for the people in front of me? Is it my love for Christ? Or is it my love of myself and to have things done my way? I believe the answer is quite obvious.
How does this affect me spiritually? Aside from the sins arising in anger, we are commanded to wait on the Lord. The book of Psalms is filled with commands, promises, and warnings concerning waiting on God.
“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” Psalms 27:14
“May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.” Psalms 25:21
“For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.” Psalms 37:9
I often wondered at a young age why we were commanded to “wait on the Lord.” It seemed a bit strange as the people that said it still went about their daily business as if they weren’t waiting for anything. There are some very important things to learn about waiting on God that often get lost in the repeating of simple phrases.
Why do we wait on God? I know he isn’t bound by time!
Remember the last time you went to a restaurant and sat down at your table. A young guy comes to your table and tells you he will be your waiter for the evening. He then waits for your request. This simple act of waiting puts the waiter in a humbling position and the customer in a position of power. This simple truth is what God desires us to understand. Peter tells us, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” (1 Pet. 5:6).
The waiting pose that we put ourselves in is also the position of the best spiritual “acoustics.” When we wait, we listen. When we listen, we hear. When we hear, we do. I pray that God keep us on the right track by giving us those patiently waiting ears to hear.
How do we wait on God? His time is 10 minutes to 10 millennia!
When you make that dreaded call to tech support or some customer service line, you know you will have to wait for what seems to be forever. I’m confident that we have all been on hold on these lines so long that we decide to hang up. We give up on waiting. So how do we wait on God? Never give up. Never say to God, “You have made me wait too long for this, now I’m going to find some other means.” If you recall 1 Peter 5:6 again, you will notice his wording—proper time. The proper time is ultimately determined by God, and for that I am very confident that the proper time is the best time for me and for God.
Labor Day Festivities
We will in fact be having our Labor Day celebration today. The weather hasn't been awesome but it hasn't been bad either, so we're going to go ahead and go ahead with it all.
It will be from 6-9 with hamburgers, drinks, and the likes. We'll be playing games, having a bonfire, and lots of other fun stuff.
Come, bring people, enjoy yourself! Here are directions.
Who took my stuff?
Job 1 gives us an interesting account of Satan approaching God and asking for permission to ruin Job's life in the hopes of God's defamation. Get this, God gives him the OK.
Satan heads out to do his dirty work... The next thing we read is:
- People kill his donkey, oxen, and servants (v.15)
- Fire of God kills his sheep and servants (v.16)
- People steal his camels and kill the servants (v.17)
- Wind knocks over a house and kills his kids (v.18,19)
Satan isn't mentioned once.
Job's response is beautiful, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (v. 21)
So who took Job's possessions away from him?
It is apparent that all 3--God, Satan, and men--all took them away. The thing to notice is that everything involved is subject to God and his authority.
Satan had to request it, the Chaldeans were tempted by Satan, the Chaldeans sinned against Job, and Job rightly, says verse 22, attributes the loss to God's will.
God allowed this to happen to prove His name victorious over Satan's threats and to test and reward Job's continued faith in Him.
Satan tempted the Chaldeans in the attempt to prove God wrong and to make Job's life miserable.
The Chaldeans sinned by giving into their desires to acquire more earthly possessions by taking from another.
We can take much from this. The end of this story didn't produce a good ending for the Chaldeans or Satan, but for Job and God it was another victory.
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
In order that…
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4.10-11a
Joel did a great job teaching tonight from 1 Peter 4.7-11. Make sure to grab the podcast here if you weren't able to make it. The portion that struck me the hardest and has helped me to become unsettled to the point of restlessness and sleeplessness tonight is "whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ."
As we continue to push forward with Living Hope, more work, effort, sweat, blood, tears, and overall strength will be needed. Church planting is not easy. It's the Daniel Boone trailblazing of ecclesiology. It's nothing less than living as a missionary in your own cultural context which in itself can make the task harder than foreign missions due to the temptation to fall into the normative cultural (or the Church's cultural) expectations.
But that's neither here nor there, my point is this: is what I am doing undoubtedly being done in the strength provided by none other than God? Or, on the other hand, is the work I've done thus far work that people can see issuing out of my own (God-given) strengths? These questions themselves beg another question: how, when, and where do we draw the line? After all, if my giftings are "of God's varied grace", isn't my using them even in my own strength ultimately a proof that God has provided the said strength to begin with?
I don't claim to know the answer per se, especially when the complexities of gifts and graces, Divine Sovereignty and human responsibility all collide in this beautiful thing we call "Church." But what I do know is that it is easy to slip into a system, a plan, a layout, a template, a model, a work-mode, a schema, and a whole slew of like things instead of actually relying fully upon God. It is Jesus who said "I will build my church." Thankfully, he uses weak vessels such as myself to be a part of it; or, as Paul put it, to "plant" or to "water", all the while knowing that it is God alone who "gives growth" (1 Cor 3.5-7).
Thus, the ultimate point and question is regarding how much I continually rely on God. Do I only rely on him for the initial gifting and then try to take it from there? "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Gal. 3.3).
Peter doesn't say "in order that in the beginning" or "in the first portion of your Christian life" God may be glorified. No, "in everything..." Thus, it's not enough for me to begin by the Spirit, to receive the gift of life, become a child of God, receive gifts from him, and then carry the rest of the way home on my own. The Christian life cannot give God glory for initiation and then rob him of it the remainder of the lifetime. Rather, the Christian life is one of continual, perpetual faith in our Father's wise plan, the Son's redemptive work, and the Spirit's indwelling power.
We are saved by grace through faith once for all, no doubt, but we are not saved by grace through faith all at once. It's a process. A daily relying and trusting in our Savior to be our strength, to be our supply, to give the growth.
I've not done the job I should in making certain that God gets the glory "in everything" by being seen as the continual source of life, power, and strength in me. It's time for me to step it up. Will you join me?
Christ’s Sufferings, Noah’s Parable, Our Victory
This past week was quite a doozy as far as the passage goes. It has 180+ interpretational variances, entire books written on 2 of the verses, and plenty of heated debates surrounding it. I've got admit that it is by far the most strenuous prep work I've done for a passage in my short life as a preacher.
But oh how many riches there were to be found! The rich imagery that the story of Noah brings to mind in relating the opening idea—Christ's sufferings on the cross for our sin—and the closing exclamation—that Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father, owning everything and everyone—is absolutely breathtaking.
If you couldn't make it this past week (a good few of you were out), then I'd encourage you to check out the podcast. There is a lot that I go through in it, and being that it was so much content, I go through it pretty fast (and thus somewhat sloppily at various points). That being the case, here are my basic notes that I went from so you can study them, the podcast, or the two side by side.
I hope you benefit from Peter's difficult words as I have the past several weeks.