Case Studies in Conversation - What is the World? [34:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John 3:16 [+/-]John 3:16 [16]"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)

Pastor Al has been exploring the text from John 3:16 [+/-]John 3:16 [16]"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)
, looking at the words within, and context found in this verse and how it is applied elsewhere in scripture.

This lesson focuses on the word “World”. When reading John 3:16 [+/-]John 3:16 [16]"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)
, most may assume that salvation applies to everyone within the entire World. Is this the case? Listen in as Pastor Al explains the meanings of “World” throughout God’s Word!

 

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This summer is a camp that brings together the best of Crosspoint and Centri-Kid camps! The new COMBO Camp says hold the fries and super-size the fun!

You no longer have to choose between OMC and Crosspoint Gameday: campers from the same group can pre-register for either Crosspoint or Centri-Kid on the same campus! Prior to camp, you just need to let us know how to divide your group. Campers who choose Crosspoint for the week must have completed 4th-8th grade and Centri-Kid campers must have completed 3rd-6th grade. During the day, Centri-Kid will be doing their thing while Crosspoint plays sports. There will still be time to all get together each day and hear what happened during Church Group Devotions.

FBC will be attending camp June 16-20th

@ Converse College in lovely Spartanburg, SC

Schedule

CP CK

7:15am Breakfast Breakfast
8:00am Quiet Time Quiet Time
8:30am I Can’t Wait I Can’t Wait
9:00am Sport Time Track A
10:00am   Bible Study/Rec
11:00am Bible Study Rec/Bible Study
12:00pm Lunch Lunch
12:30pm Free Time
1:30pm   Missions
2:00pm   Track B
2:30pm Missions
3:00pm Sport Time Free Time
5:00pm Dinner Dinner
6:30pm Worship Worship
7:30pm Church Group Church Group
8:30pm Party Party
10:15pm In Room In Room
10:30pm Lights Out Lights Out

 

 Starved and Unknowing [32:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Amos 8:11-14 [+/-]Amos 8:11-14 [11]"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land-- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. [12]They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. [13]"In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst. [14]Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria, and say, 'As your god lives, O Dan,' and, 'As the Way of Beersheba lives,' they shall fall, and never rise again."

Youth Pastor Mike Godfrey shares a message from Amos this morning, on Graduate Recognition Sunday.

PLEASE see pictures from VBS here!

Aloha! Surf’s up at Outrigger Island where kids will learn to know, speak, and live God’s truth. Based on Psalm 86:11 [+/-]Psalm 86:11 [11]Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.
, this tropical adventure will help kids develop the stability they need to become unshakable in a world of shifting sands.

Scripture:

“Teach me Your way, Lord, and I will live by Your truth.” Psalm 86:11 [+/-]Psalm 86:11 [11]Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

Motto:

Know the Truth!
Speak the Truth!
Live the Truth!

The dates for our VBS are June 9-13 from 9:00-12:00.

Let me ask a ridiculous, silly, I already know the answer question.  Have you ever been stung?  Has something ever happened to you and it hurt deeply because of the source of the sting and the nature of the hurt?  We all have had this happen to us.  If you haven’t, your turn is coming.  I had that happen to me recently and became uniquely aware in the early moments that God wanted me to trace the steps of my soul so that I could see very clearly my sin and very clearly His wonderfully precious sanctifying grace.  So, walk alongside me.  Look and listen.  I tend to think that most of us respond the same kinds of ways when we are stung by some hurt.

The first thing that I saw in myself was from my perspective a rightful and righteous indignation at the injustice of it all.  It was so unfair. How could they?  All that I had done and all that I had given?  I had been there in difficult times and in dark days and now this . . . .  Are you tracking with me?  I wanted to lash out from within my hurt feelings and let everybody know how wronged I had been.  Then God showed me all the “I” in everything I was feeling and saying.  This wasn’t right and righteous indignation.  This was ugly, smelly, stinkin’ pride.  This was all about me.  And you would think that at this point that I would just bow before God and ask for the grace of forgiveness.  But I didn’t.  Recognition of sin does not necessarily lead to repentance of sin.  Knowledge may be power but it does not always lead us to repentance.  At least it doesn’t me.

So, I took the next step and told a few close friends including my best friend Anne about what had happened.  I was hurt, wounded, stung.  I was using the right words to say the right things and was getting much desired encouragement and support except from my best friend who was listening carefully but loving enough to remind me that it is in times like these that we show who we really are, otherwise; we are just talking.  Stung again!  But this time from the right person in the right way.  Conviction was deepening because God wasn’t going to let me go far down this road of “wrighteousness.”  I tossed and turned during the night, alternating between praising God for His grace and throwing pity parties.  Then the morning came.

I am studying 1 Peter in preparation for preaching on how believing spouses are to relate to unbelieving spouses and the text in chapter 3 cannot be properly understood apart from what precedes it and what precedes it is a passage about the inevitability of suffering.  Wow!  I was really stung now because the suffering of this text is about being persecuted, put in jail, and put to death for the Gospel.  God got all over me in reminding me of what a whimp I am:  upset about nothing of any eternal value, what would you do if a lynch mob came committed to killing you lest you stop preaching the gospel!!  And then the kicker was a sermon by Erwin Lutzer on forgiving others when hurt by them so as to show the grace of God in the Gospel which is the reason we were put in that place of pain in the first place!!  I was talking to Lutzer while shaving, “that is easy for you to say in your comfortable pulpit in Chicaco; you don’t know what I am facing.”  Then I laughed and cried through my half-shaven face.  God is so good.  He sent me into this place to teach me yet again how easy it is to say that we love Jesus and how absolutely demanding it is to surrender all to Him so that He really does live in and through us.  Have you traveled a similar road on the way to finding that the path that leads us toward being His people is often more painful for us than the pain that necessarily comes to keep us on this path?

A book is not known by its cover; it is known by how long it hangs around as influential.  I guess that would make the Bible a pretty influential book, right?  Well, although I would like to chase that last sentence a bit, I want you to reflect with me on some themes in a book that has been around a while and remained highly influential.  The book is Christ and Culture written by Richard Niebuhr and recently revisited in a new book by D.A. Carson, Christ and Culture Revisited. Now in the original of this book, Niebuhr set forth five possibilities of how believers and the church can relate to culture.  Let’s define culture as those means and mechanisms that are the evidences of our having created a context for our living in this world.  We all live in a certain environment that has values and mores that come out of that environment.  That is our culture.  Culture is a human creation and we all live in one, but the question is about how we as believers are to live in relationship to our culture.  Niebuhr suggested five possible paradigms.  Which is most viable biblically?  Let me list them and desribe them briefly.  Have fun thinking through these.

The first he calls CHRIST AGAINST CULTURE.  This paradigm pushes the believer away from the world to establish a uniquely and distinctly Christian culture.  It assumes the perversion of the popular world and calls believers to be removed from it.  The second is CHRIST OF CULTURE.  This one assumes that there are some cultures that are more Christian than others.  It assumes that the culture connects with Christianity in such a way that a culture can be Christian.  If you do not think that there are those who would think this way then you have not run across some of the people I meet who blend being an American with being a Bible believing Christian; this is the Christ of culture model.  The third is CHRIST AND CULTURE.  This one is a more difficult one to deliver with a few words but it basically means that the Christian is to blend the best of her faith with the best of the culture and the result is what is truly and distinctly Christian.  What is done for the glory of God in and through the church would then be blended with what are the good works done in the culture and both are of equal importance.  This view assumes that Christ who is head over the church is as manifest in the culture as He is in the church.  The fourth model is CHRIST ALONGSIDE CULTURE.  This model sees the culture as basically corrupt but the Christian and the church are called to live in it anyway.  We work and walk among the pagans while not participating in the practices of the pagans.  We exist alongside each other in a peculiarly paradoxical pattern of relationships. And the final model is CHRIST TRANSFORMING CULTURE.  This model makes Christians the agents of cultural change.  We are in the world to change the world.  It is tempting right now for many who read this to say, "that’s it."  But think carefully.  Is this possible?  When Jesus comes, will all the world be changed?  Will there still be sin and sinners upon the earth at His return?  Is it possible to be caught up in the change of the structures of culture and fail to be agents in the change of the hearts and souls of people?  Not so simple, is it.

So, here is your assignment:  look at these and see where you line up.  And please remember that believers through the ages have fallen along all of these lines.  So, when you have concluded where you are and think it is right; hold it lightly and loosely with others who could well be at a different place.  Can’t wait till Sunday.

 

 HERS [43:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Proverbs 31:10-31 [+/-]Proverbs 31:10-31 [10] An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. [11]The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. [12]She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. [13]She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. [14]She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. [15]She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. [16]She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. [17]She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. [18]She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. [19]She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. [20]She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. [21]She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. [22]She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple. [23]Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. [24]She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant. [25]Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. [26]She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. [27]She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. [28]Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: [29]"Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all." [30]Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. [31]Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

There is a strangeness to this passage. It is found first in its placement. You may know that the Book of Proverbs is a basic instruction manual for raising children. More specifically is a book for fathers in the rearing of sons. It understands from the outset that the burden of responsibility for faithfulness to God in families falls upon fathers and that these godly men in order to see the fruit of faith in future generations must teach their sons the Word of God and the Way of God. I wonder just how many fathers here today are as focused on your sons beings faithful to Jesus as you are their being the finest of football players or how many of us men spend as much time teaching our boys how to be witnesses for Jesus as we do teaching them how to throw or hit a baseball. This whole book focuses on fathers being faithful by passing on to their boys the basics and the blessings of being faithful, but it ends with this powerful and penetrating portrait of the godly woman. It is strange. There is a strangeness to this passage in terms of its pattern. This whole book is a panoply of pithy proverbs, disconnected discourse and amazing aphorisms. Listen to some of these simple sentences, “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it,” (15:16-17). “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord, be assured, he will not go unpunished,” (16:5-6). “Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense?” (17:16). All these amazing aphorisms and at the end this beautiful narrative that bears witness to the most beautiful of women. It is strange. And then there is the strangeness of the proclamation of this book which begins by begging us to get wisdom and with it all that we need for the living of a life of fullness because a life of wisdom is a life of faithfulness to God and at the end we are met with this question not about wisdom but about a woman: An excellent wife, who can find? It is strange at first sight. But it is yet another indication of why it is that we do not judge anything or anybody on first sight. We must go beyond the appearance and when we do we meet the meat of this way of ending this most important book.

Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!

Ok.  I am going to wrap-up in this time the final five keys to success.  Remember, I am certain that you do; that the first five are these:  know what your priorities are and fight to keep them fixed and focused; perspective on the various contexts in which you live and work; genuinely care for people without having to have your identity defined by taking care of people; pay the rent or do what is necessary to do in whatever it is that you do so that you can gain the trust of people to do what you are supposed to do and persevere with patience in the work that you are doing.

Now the final five.  Some would list this first and it certainly should not be last. I have chosen to list it near the center as the central link in the ten:  maintain an ongoing relationship with God that is rooted in your prayer life.  We call it a quiet time or a devotional time.  Whatever you call it, carve out a time daily and guard that time with your life.  Do not ignore it.  Do not ever get so busy that it is laid aside.  It is during this time that you want to focus your life on God through at least two avenues:  the life of prayer the foundation of which is the praise of God and the life of study the center of which is the reading and reflecting on His Word.  When you pray, you are talking to God; when you read and reflect, you are listening to and for His voice.  This is critical.  Do not ever forget that God is more concerned about the ongoing relationship with Him than He is about the fulfillment of your responsibility to Him.  Focus on the latter more than you do the former and your orientation to God becomes works.  You begin to measure your relationship to God by what you do.  You can become a legalist.  Focus on the former to the exclusion of the latter and you can become a spiritual mystic or even a worldly Christian.  Many Christians who are caught up in and consumed by the world and its ways are spending time in prayer and study, but that is all they are doing.  So, balance relationship with responsibility with the first being foundational for the second.

Seventhly, pursue and practice purity or holiness.  No matter what you do, you will not be a success at it if being successful causes you to compromise your integrity.  Once we compromise our integrity in the pursuit of whatever goal we are pursuing, we have lost our soul.  Purity or holiness requires accountability. I believe every believer has to have someone to hold our feet to the fire in staying focused and faithful.  It is too easy for us to lose our way in our day.  Too many believers are compromising commitment who would have never dreamed of being where they are today; they did not get where they are all at once but through a series of small compromises.  Keep yourself pure by making yourself accountable to someone who will hold you accountable.

Let me give you here the other three.  I know you are dying to know!!  Then I will expand on them later.  The eighth key is to have a pattern of reading that causes you to be confronted by differing perspectives on differing issues.  I am a pastor who is strongly conservative evangelical but I not only need to read conservative evangelical material; I need to read some of what the liberals are writing.  I need to listen to news from the liberal CNN and the conservative Fox news.   I need to read Time and World. The ninth key that is closely connected to the eighth is that every person needs a plan for continuing education the center of which is a commitment to stop learning only when you stop living!!  Learning does not have a retirement age.  And the final key is personality.  Know your strengths and weaknesses and do not try to be something that you are not.  Do not believe your mother’s lie that you can be whatever you want to be.  You can’t.  You are limited in so many ways by so many factors not the least of which is the way God made you.  Be who you are for the glory of God and that will bring glory to Him.

 

 HIS [42:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Kinger Singers Special Mother's Day Music [2:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ephesians 5:22-33 [+/-]Ephesians 5:22-33 [22]Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23]For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24]Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. [25]Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26]that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27]so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [28]In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29]For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30]because we are members of his body. [31]"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." [32]This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. [33]However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (ESV)

(Sorry… there were issues with the sermon file… please read the sermon notes)

“Wives, be submitted to your husbands as to the Lord.” The combination of theological liberalism that began to penetrate our culture in the 1920’s and permeate it by the 1960’s along with radical feminism that emerged in the 1960’s and became the fixed lens through which we see women in our world by the 1970’s have combined to make it virtually impossible for us to hear these words. We have so turned and twisted this opening sentence of this powerful passage in Ephesians; we have so contorted and corrupted this very clear communication from God to His people about life in the family that it has so lost its meaning that it has no meaning at all. It is one of the most clear evidences of why it is that we even in the church have lost our way because the living out of the teaching of this text in our homes and families is on the front lines of most visible and vital evidence that we belong to God.

Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!

Check me out on this with some historians who are far more knowledgeable here than I, but if you follow the flow of our history you will find that we trend about a generation if not a little less behind England particularly and Europe generally. In other words, whatever is happening culturally in Europe now will be happening here in the next fifteen to thirty years. Given that a generation is the latter and that cultural trends are developing (and changing) much more rapidly, it would be arguable to conclude that what is going on in England today and projected for the next few years will be here in America in full force no later than 2020. What I am talking about and why should we be concerned?

I am talking about the reality that in England today, the conservative evangelical church is all but gone. It is estimated that in just a few years there will be around 350,000 conservative evangelicals in the country with the predominant religion being Islam. Take the 350,00 and spread it out among existing churches and it will mean that churches would average about 35 members each. And all of this in an environment much like our own where people are increasingly seeing themselves as “spiritual.” It is what is meant by this term that is scary because what is meant by this term in England is precisely what is most popular in America today that is the primary cause of great growth among conservative evangelical churches. What is meant by “spiritual” is a self-motivated interest to become the most fulfilled person I can become by whatever means possible. What motivates this kind of spirituality are the twin towers of feelings and experiences. In other words, modern spirituality is motivated by whatever it is that will bring me the experiences that will help me feel good about who I am and where I am in life. Even in this country we have an inordinately high number of people who profess to be spiritual (seventy-four percent in a recent Barna poll), but whose experience of spirituality is not tied at all to the Bible by their own admission. The Bible is just one resource among many that are read (not studied) as resources for shaping a meaningful life as we experience and measure the meaning of our experience by how we feel about what we are experiencing. Are you feeling me yet? This is scary, scary stuff because so much of our culture is already where England is; we just haven’t left the church yet!! But hold on. It is coming. “Christians” could well abandon churches that hold on tightly to an inerrant and infallible Bible that is the basis for our being what we are called to be. Such churches cannot, must not, and I pray will not compromise commitment to the Truth of Scripture in order to accommodate the “felt needs” of people whose “religion” does not rest in the Word of God but in a way of life that is directed and determined by the effect of the affects of the varied experiences of life. Put simply, when we are focused on our experience of God in terms of how it makes us feel and not on the effective expression of the Spirit of God as commanded in the Word of God, we are building a spirituality that begins with us and moves toward God rather than a spirituality that begins with God to which we simply submit. It is the former kind of spirituality that came to dominate in England and Europe and the outcome is now being seen. While this kind of bogus spirituality thrives, the church for the most part as died.

Will it happen here? I am no prognosticator but if we did not go this way, it would be one of the few times in our history that we beat the odds and did not trend behind the mother country. If you want to read more details on this dilemma go to albertmohler.com and check out what he has written just today about his entire situation.

On a totally unrelated issue, I would encourage you to check out Mohler’s blog often. Cindy mentioned the beauty of the Sproul site.

Here are a few places that I find very helpful for me:

Reformation21.org, and the websites for the Alliance of Conservative Evangelicals as well as the website for the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

So far in this post, I have talked about the keys of priority, perspective and people. I want to turn in this entry to what some may quibble over as “playing politics” or “gaming,” but at the end of the day everybody who is successful in any endeavor, including ministry; finds this factor of great importance. I call it “paying the rent.” If I shifted the image to economics, I would call it “investment capital.” Put simply, it is our doing that which we have to do in order to be able to do that which we desire to do. Let me explain.

I was required to read a book my first year of seminary that was a part of a course that I did not want to take. I took the course because it was required some time during the first year and without its completion I could not go on to the second year. So, I took the course. One of the books we were required to read was a little volume called Putting it Together in the Parish. The theme of the book was simply what it takes to make it over the long haul as a pastor in a parish. I read the book. I have reread the book. I read it first in 1977 and still remember some of its contents because so much of what he wrote is so very true to real life in the real world of the church. And one of his primary themes is that the ability to do what we are called and committed to do in the church requires that we do those things that are not in the job description. He called these things, “paying the rent.” I don’t know what those things may be in your position but they are those dirty, grubby, less than pleasant tasks that have to be done that when done by those to whom they are not assigned gain for that person the trust and confidence of the people so that that person can do what he or she desires to do. I am a little hesitant here but let me give you a few examples. I serve in the serving line on Wednesday night. I like it. I would rather do that than anything else on Wednesday night, except for the teaching. I don’t have to do this job, but it is a part of paying the rent. I spent a weekend recently with our youth; I had blast. I did not have to do it; it is not in my job description, but it is a part of paying the rent. Closing up on a Wednesday or Sunday, or changing light bulbs etc. These are all a part of what is meant by paying the rent. It is doing those things that may or may not be drudgery for us, but they are things that we do not have to do but we do them in order to build relationships of trust that serve us well when we are doing those things that we desire to do.

Another important key to success is patience. The Greek word for patience is not passive. In fact, the Greek word for patience includes the idea of perseverance. I like that. There is a tenacity to patience that does not allow us to turn it into passivity in waiting for something to happen. True patience is simply persevering in the path of what we believe to be right no matter how long or hard we have to work to achieve the goal. Someone has rightly said that if we do not know where we are going, then it does not matter what path we take. Whether in our lives individually, our work, or our life together in the church; we had better know where we are going. And we better have the patience to persevere toward the goal no matter how long it takes us to get there. No archer just aims arrows in the air; he is shooting for the target and even more specifically for the bull’s eye. Where your life headed? What is your goal?

Too many Christians hide behind a false piety here: “I am headed to wherever God is taking me.” That could be a way of saying that you are going “nowhere” and you are “now here.” It could be a way of saying that your life is so confusing and chaotic that you don’t have a clue. Our God is a God of order and a part of the order is His plan for you as His person and for His people. It is necessary for us to have a plan for our lives individually and collectively. Let’s know where we are going and persevere in getting there. If I counted right, we now have five of ten and the other five are on their way. Stay tuned.

 

 Case Studies in Conversation - May 7, 2008 [29:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

May 7, 2008 Wednesday Evening Message by Pastor Al

In the first post on keys to success, I addressed the two issues of priorities and perspective.  Let me continue with the third issue:  People.  Whatever it is that you do, it is important that you care about people.  This issue is of particular importance in ministry.  One wag has written that the church would be a wonderful place to live and work if it were not for people!  Well, here is the church and there is the steeple; open the door and see all the people.  A pastor who is worth his salt has to have a genuine passion for people that is portrayed in sincere care and concern for them.  Two issues here beg attention.  The first is the ability to provide caregiving that is genuine and sincere in the context of a larger church and the second is the meaning of genuine care.  These two issues are related.

Having a passion for people that translates into genuine caregiving does not depend upon the size of the church but upon the shape of caregiving as defined by Scripture.  Just as a faithful minister of the Gospel cannot allow people to shape his priorities, neither can he allow them to define for him what caregiving really is.  He cannot define it for himself no more than he can define any other area of his ministry.  Scripture does that for us.  To care for another is simply to communicate to them both in words and deeds what is needed to enable them to grow toward becoming all that God wants them to be.  Jesus told us the story of the compassionate Samaritan (Luke 10 [+/-]Luke 10 [10:1]After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. [2]And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. [3]Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. [4]Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. [5]Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house!' [6]And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. [7]And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. [8]Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. [9]Heal the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' [10]But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, [11]'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.' [12]I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. [13]"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. [14]But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. [15]And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. [16]"The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me." [17]The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" [18]And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. [19]Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. [20]Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." [21]In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. [22]All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." [23]Then turning to the disciples he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! [24]For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." [25]And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" [26]He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" [27]And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." [28]And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live." [29]But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" [30]Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. [31]Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. [32]So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. [33]But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. [34]He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. [35]And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' [36]Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" [37]He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise." [38]Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. [39]And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. [40]But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." [41]But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, [42]but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." (ESV)
) who showed what genuine caregivng was all about but in telling that story that was an irritant tot he Pharisees, Jesus was showing His care and concern for them.  He was calling them to a change of life that was necessary and necessarily demanding for them, but His call to this change of life was a serious act of showing care and concern for them.

We often confuse "caring for" someone with "taking care of" someone.  The former can include loving people enough to let them go even if it means they will fall flat on their faces in the pit of futility.  The latter never does that.  It is always there with and for the other person to deliver them from whatever dilemma the person faces.  The former allows the direction for caregiving to be directed by the Spirit of God through the Word of God in order to bring glory to God.  This may mean that there are times when a person for whom we really care will be angry at us enough to speak spitefully to and about us because we did not do for them what they wanted us to do BECAUSE doing that would impede and not enhance their growth as followers of Jesus.  This is hard for us.  Too many of us would rather be loved by people in the moment than to be rejected by them momentarily and temporarily in order to serve their greater good.  This is why many pastors have little to offer in the pulpit on Sunday because they spend too much time during the week in "taking care" of people rather than caring enough for them to seek by prayer to sort through what are genuine needs that need attention from what may in fact be done to make somebody happy with the result that the pastor has a happy but unholy people.  Codependency (taking care of) is the great enemy of genuine Christian caregiving.  Yet, there are far more of us who equate codependency with Christian caregiving than there are those of us who see it as the sickness that it is.

Let me address just one other issue at this point.  If we are confused about what caregiving is, then we can really get confused about what genuine Christian unity is.  Do we understand that there can be a church where everybody is getting along merrily, and there is no unity . . .and there can be a church where there is conflict but the church is in one accord?  Read the prayer of Jesus in John 17 [+/-]John 17 [17:1]When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, [2]since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. [3]And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. [4]I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. [5]And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. [6]"I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. [7]Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. [8]For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. [9]I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. [10]All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. [11]And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. [12]While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. [13]But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. [14]I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [15]I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. [16]They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [17]Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. [18]As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. [19]And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. [20]"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21]that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22]The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, [23]I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. [24]Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. [25]O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. [26]I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." (ESV)
and you will discover that the unity for which Jesus prayed is two-fold.  It is a unity of person (I pray Father that they may be one even as we are one) and a unity of purpose (I have completed the work that you sent me to do and I am sending them into the world).  What holds the church together is our common commitment to the Lordship of Jesus and all that is involved in saying, "Jesus is Lord," and our clear commitment to the primary work to which He has called us in declaring the Gospel to the world.  The church can have those in her body who disagree about important but non-essential items and still have genuine unity because in such a church we care enough about each other that we confront compassionately while understanding that on so many issues there is and will not be a settled statement that satisfies everybody.  For example, I do believe in the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation so that I want to be very careful about the use of means in evangelism that could be manipulative but a man who believes in the use of means in evangelism is not my enemy but by brother with whom I share the common and clear goal of getting the Gospel to lost people so that they can be saved.  More later.  At this rate it will take a number of posts to get through all ten.

Let me end this one with a challenge of all of us:  sometimes those who are always taking care of people give the appearance of genuinely caring but my question is, "for whom are they caring?"  Some who are good at taking care of others are good at it because they feel good about themselves from the "goody gooseys" they get from those for whom they are caring.  Sometimes those who are good at caring for people can give the appearance with some that they do not care.  I suppose it is not always what we see outwardly in appearance that determines the depth or the dimensions of our caregiving.

I was asked recently to speak to a group of students who either we already in the early stages of ministry in the church or were headed in that direction.  My assignment was to talk to them about life in the real world of the church.  As I prayed and stewed over that subject, I decided not to talk about the kinds of things that would be faced in ministry but to speak instead of what I called "the ten commandments for success in the ministry."  The more I have reflected on these ten in the days since then, the more I am convinced that they are helpful in our being successful as followers of Jesus no matter our venue.  These ten can help you in your home as a spouse, parent or child.  They can help you on your job as an employer or employee.  They can help you in the right ordering of your life no matter where you are.  So let me offer them to you with some slight commentary.  Each of them deserve far more attention than I will give them. So read and reflect on your own life.

It all begins with priorities.  This is principle number one.  I am convinced that if you are not clear about your priorities and convinced at your core that they are right, then you will live life bounced between the poles of confusion and chaos.  Your life will be spent running from one fire to the next.  You will find yourself in crisis mode all the time.  No matter who you are or what you do, you must heed the words of Karl Jung who reminds us that if we do not set our own priorities, the world will gladly do that for us.  For example, as one who is called primarily to preach and to teach the Word of God to the people of God; I am clear that my first order of business every day and every week is the preparation for preaching.  I work hard at making sure that this priority is kept in focus.  It has cost me in the past and it still has to be clarified for others from time to time.  Unless there is a dire emergency, I do not compromise of my commitment to spend my mornings in prayer and study.  When I stand before people on Sundays and Wednesdays and open the Bible, I am going to place where I have invested spiritual sweat equity long before that Bible is opened on that occasion.  I was with a pastor recently who expressed the desire to be a good student of the Word of God but when I asked him about his study habits, he replied,  "oh, I want to study more than I do, but I just don’t have the time with all the hospital visits and other things."  He was telling me his priority. He was confessing without knowing his own lack of clarity about his calling to preach and to teach the Word of God.

No matter what we do, we must know what are our priorities.  For us as believers, the priority is the nurture of our relationship with God through prayer and study.  Worship of God is essential; the study of His Word is critical.  These two together constitute the core of life for the child of God.  Please understand that our priorities are not what we proclaim; they are not verbal.  Priorities are the lived out realities of our lives.  So, if I say that my first priority as a pastor is the preparation for preaching and teaching, then I must live that out.  What is your priority?  Are you living it out.

Let me introduce the second of the ten and deal with and some of the other in future blogs. It is PERSPECTIVE.  Let me tell you what I mean by that.  Success in any endeavor requires that we understand the context and circumstances in which we live and work.  As a pastor, I have to have the right perspective on the geographical, demographical, historical, social, economic, and spiritual context in which I live.  Waynesboro is not Atlanta; it is not even Augusta.  The dynamics here are different.  The context is not consistent with what would be the context somewhere else.  In fact, one of the more amusing things to me as a pastor is the socio-political and demographic distinctions that are found from Columbia County moving south to Jenkins County.  A real difference exists between the cultures of Columbia County and Richmond County, but a radical difference exists between the cultures of Columbia County and Jenkins, and the pastor who doesn’t know the differences is doomed.  Perspective is critical.  We will do the third and following of the ten next time.  Been a great Sunday.  Hope it is a great week for us.

 

 His Family and Our Family - Part 3 [39:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ephesians 5:1-21 [+/-]Ephesians 5:1-21 [5:1]Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. [2]And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. [3]But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. [4]Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. [5]For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. [6]Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. [7]Therefore do not become partners with them; [8]for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light [9](for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), [10]and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. [11]Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. [12]For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. [13]But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, [14]for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." [15]Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, [16]making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. [17]Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. [18]And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, [19]addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, [20]giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [21]submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (ESV)

The mantra of the masses in our day is that a well-ordered life is a well- balanced life. That may be true in your diet, but it had not best be true for you and me as believers in the direction or expression of our devotion. Some would suggest that we need the kind of life where we hold in balance the discipline of our bodies through exercise, the development of our minds through study and the declaration of our religion through worship. Some would suggest that each needs equal attention and time and none should be overly emphasized. I have even had it said to me very sincerely that loving Jesus is the right thing to do so long as we don’t go overboard with it. This modern myth that is a deception of the devil is at best disrupted if not destroyed by the declaration of the Truth of God. It is God who calls us “first,” a word that means in Hebrew and Greek that which is so far above everything else that there is really no second; to love Him with all of our heart or will, all of our mind or intellect, all of our soul or emotion/passion and all of our body or physically. Love for Him and His purpose supersedes all else.

Pastor Al mentioned a book by David Wells in the message, if interested, find it here!

Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!

A man told me many years ago that one of the keys to life in the church is that we learn how to disagree without being disagreeable. My understanding of that is simply that the first has to do with issues and concerns which are of importance to us while the second has to do with attitude. And it is the latter that is far more important than the former. It requires of us the position of humility and the posture of repentance. It necessitates that we understand that God is God and we are not; we do not see clearly or completely in our day. One day we will and I believe that one of the most surprising realities on that day will be how little and insignificant are those things that we have made so large. They pale into oblivion in the presence of the One who has shed His blood to save us before whom we will bow to sing the song of the angels.

It is true, of course, that there are issues that are of immense importance for which there must be no negotiation. We do not, for example, negotiate the issue of the inerrancy, infallibility and sufficiency of Scripture. We are Sola Scriptura people. Now we may discuss what that means and how it is put into practice but the larger issue for us as a people of God is settled. That means, for example, that if someone is in the body who does not hold this position; they are welcome to stay but they would be out of order to attempt to proclaim any other perspective on Scripture as representative of who we are at FBC except the position of inerrancy. We further do not negotiate the issue of Jesus as the sole substitute and singular sacrifice for our sins. He alone is the means and the goal of salvation. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone. Now we may discuss and should discuss how that works itself out biblically in terms of God’s sovereignty and our responsibility, both of which are basic to biblical truth; but we dare not develop a position on one of these two very biblically and beautifully balanced positions in the Bible and proclaim it as absolute truth since either side to the exclusion of the other has been the stuff of heresy from the second century to the present. The same is true for the issue of the full humanity and full deity of Jesus. And I could go on. The point is that even though there are some non-negotiables that we affirm together, there is room in these concerns for a rich and rewarding discussion. We can disagree. That is seldom the problem.

The concern is not that we disagree. We do. The problem is the spirit in which we express our disagreement. If I come across to you as "papal" or as "smarty pants" or as "theologically superior," rebuke me. Please. If I come across as the one who has the truth and the rest of you are in error, then call me out and down not on the issues but on the spirit with which I address them. Because if I begin my sentences about some issue with the word, "you," and not "I" then I am communicating that I am more concerned abyt condemning you than clarifying my own position. Wouldn’t it be nice if when we discuss issues of concern we would own our own positions by using "I" instead of "you," and what a wonderful exercise in humility it would be if we could say sincerely, "I could be wrong on this but . . . ." One of my real concerns in "blogging" is that I want it to be for our mutual encouragement and edification. I have been what I called "abc’d" and it has left me "d’d," and I have not wanted to continue blogging. I have felt accosted and belittled and castigated which has left me in the darkness of despair. That is never helpful; always harmful.

Let us be clear with one another that we are all on a journey. God reminded me this morning through a reading in my quiet time of how much He has changed me and thus my thoughts on various issues over the years. And He has not done with me yet. I am today much more "reformed" in my thinking than at any time in my whole life. But I did not get there by choice; I got there by taking seriously the study of Scripture. For example, I wished that I did not believe that the Bible teaches a regenerate church membership. It is not what modern Baptists believed although it is what Baptists did believe from their beginning in the eighteenth century until around 1920. That is when it changed to our current understanding of admitting whoever "came forward." The Bible nowhere that I can find supports admission into membership of whomever wants to be admitted. But there are days when I wished that I had never seen the issue of regenerate church membership in Scripture, but God began to show me that through His Word ten to twelve years ago. And there are so many other issues about which I have changed my mind over the years. Is that true with you? That is why I had best not hold too tenaciously to those things that may be more tentative than I know.

Well, let’s encourage and edify each other. Let’s challenge one another. Lets disagree agreeably. Beloved, let us love one another.

Let me encourage parents of teens to go to albertmohler.com to read his blog on the release of what is being called the ultimate video game, some of you will know the title. I read the blog this morning and it frightened me. Parents need to pay close attention to what Mohler, who has his finger on the pulse of our culture as much as anybody I know, has written. Hope to see you in church on Sunday. Have a great weekend.