Free to Serve

How to prepare for the Lord's Supper

As Christians, we think too little about the Lord’s Supper. As a pastor, I teach too little about the Lord’s Supper! God has gifted us with this simple meal in order to remind us of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Though there is something very sobering about the Lord’s Supper—we are, after all, remembering Jesus’ death—it is also an occasion for immense joy. The tomb is empty, Christ has atoned for our sins, and he is coming back. All this is to be made clear as we celebrate.

And yet I wonder how many of us actually prepare to celebrate. My guess is not many.

Andrew Fuller on Joy

How are you doing when it comes to experiencing joy?

If you are struggling here, let me take you back to 1795. That year, the 41 year old english pastor, Andrew Fuller, wrote a letter to a network of churches that comprised what was called the Northamptonshire Association. Fuller laid out five ways to pursue joy. He saw this lacking in the churches of his day.

1) We get joy when we pursue godliness. Fuller put it this way, "Joy is a grace which cannot thrive by itself; it is a kind of appendage to the lively exercise of other graces." So, go hard after holiness and peace and love, and then watch as joy follows.

2) We get joy when we deeply know the truth. "If we do not so understand the truth as clearly to distinguish it from error, it cannot be supposed that we should be greatly affected by it." This is true in lots of fields. We get excited about things we understand really well. God made us like that. The more the Christian understands truth, the more she will delight in it.

3) We get joy when we care about the souls of the lost. Fuller pointed out that if our chief goal of personal bible study is our own satisfaction, we will not be happy. But if we read and learn so that others may hear the gospel, God will work joy in our hearts. "If we pursue the public good, not for the sake of applause, but from a disinterested regard to the well-being of our species, reputation will follow us; and if the glory of God and the prosperity of his cause occupy the first place in our affection, we shall not in ordinary cases be wanting in peace and heavenly consolation." In other words, if you care first about God's glory and the his kingdom work, don't be surprised if you find yourself rejoicing all day long.

4) We get joy when we rest in God's sovereignty.Fuller explained, "The primitive Christians were in the habit of considering all things as working together for good, and so of deriving joy from every occurence. If the world smiled upon them, they rejoiced, and availed themselves of the opportunity for spreading the gospel; or if it frowned on them for their attachment to Christ, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name's sake." To trust that God is at work in the lives of believers is to be at peace and full of joy when things go well or when they go badly.

5) We get joy when we strive to be less like the world. Worldliness, Fuller argued, keeps Christians from boldy sharing their faith. The worldly Christian strives to be accepted. This way of life is not compatible with a life of true, Christian joy. He minced no words, "If our heads and hearts are occupied with appearance, dress, entertainments, and the like, there can be but little room for heaven and heavenly things; and consequently this joyful part of religion will be slighted and lost."

6) We get joy when preachers really preach the gospel. "The Holy Spirit ordinarily works by means of the word. It is the office of ministers to be 'helpers of your joy;' but if they partake of the spirit common to the age in which they live, their preaching will partake of it too. If the great an interesting truths of the gospel are not thoroughly understood, and felt, they cannot, in the ordinary course of things, be communicated in such a manner as greatly to interest the hearts of others." Pray for those who teach you, that would know and even feel the gospel.

DeYoung on Leaving and Joining a Church

Many of you will know Kevin DeYoung from his book on seeking guidance, Just Do Something. He is a prolific blogger and his incisive commentary makes most of what he writes well worth reading.

Recently, he's written a couple posts on the topic of leaving a church and joining a church (links below). This is something that we really need to give thought to. Changing churches is not like switching from Publix to Kroger or Safeway to Albertson's (though, I fear, for too many changing churches has about as much weight as changing grocery stores!).

The church is the body of Christ. We, Christians, are called to be members of that body. Every believer is a member of the church universal (all Christians, in all places, at all times). But in this present age we are called to be members of a church of folks we can know and love and serve and with whom we can strategize how to reach the nations.

When I left my church in DC, I was in tears. When I left my church in Louisville, I was in tears. It felt appropriate to be sad. Leaving was the right thing to do (I believe I had ministry elsewhere). But the leaving was hard. 

Just tonight, before writing this blog post, I was blessed to write a few emails encouraging members and staff of both of my former churches. God took me away from those cities but, in a way that is hard to describe without sounding really, really corny, a little bit of my heart remains in both congregations.

So, if you are leaving a church and if you are joining a church, do it as well as you can. Do it as pleasantly as you can. Do it as biblically as you can. Do it as joyfully as you can. Do it for the glory of God. 

And let Kevin DeYoung offer you some help.

How to leave your old church

How to start at your new church

Every Member a Missionary

A good portion of my life is devoted to evangelism, both personally and from the pulpit. I want unbelievers to hear the gospel. We should be in awe of a God who saves. But the sad reality is that many believers are so ill-equipped to share the gospel, so scared to be rebuffed, or just so busy with themselves that they never get around to evangelism.

Not only that, we manage to live without a sense of the plight of the unbeliever. I was recently talking to a case worker for Georgia's Family and Children's Services Division. I mentioned how difficult it must be doing what she did, and I thanked her for her service. She said that most people don't like to know the things she knows, and they certainly don't want to see it. They just sort of cover their eyes and close their ears and pretend children aren't being abandoned.

Isn't that how we can be about the lost? We know that eternal separation from God awaits, but maybe we don't know what to do, we don't know how to help, and so we cover our eyes and do nothing. 

That's not good.

Missions and evangelism are central to the mission of the church. Here are four things that should be clear in the mind of every believer when it comes to missions. These four things are not all we need to know, but it serves as a place to start the conversation. I pray that as you read it, you will be made aware of ways that you can grow both in your love for the lost, and how you can begin to speak the gospel to family, friends, and even people on the other side of the earth.

Every Family Does Family Worship

Wednesday night, I sat in on an Equipping Matters class that Doug Young is teaching at MVBC on the topic of Family Worship. This session was called, "Implementing Family Worship." It was practical, insightful, and challenging.

I walked away reminded that in order to have intentional, deliberate, and productive times of family worship, I need to prepare. It's amazing how much thought we give to so many details in our lives--where we are going to go on vacation, how we are going to budget our time at work, what the next project at our house is going to be--and how comparatively little attention we give preparing to lead our families (or even ourselves) in the basic disciplines of Bible study and prayer.

Family worship is more than a few minutes gathered in the living room for a Bible study. It's way of saying that Jesus Christ is the most important person in our lives, and we are going to be spending time in his Word, understanding it and applying it.

And here is the thing: every family does family worship. Every dad is leading their family to worship something. It may be sports, it may be work, it may be technology--but the kids in the home know what is most important to mommy and daddy--even if they can't articulate it.

So the question really isn't, "Are you doing family worship," the question is, "What are you leading your family to worship today?"

What is an accountability partner?

One of the first, strange Christian terms I remembering hearing is "accountability partner"? What, exactly, is this? Frankly, the term can seem a little creepy.

But if you know your heart, you know there is absolutely nothing creepy about having a fellow Christian in your life to help you battle sin. Paul Tripp in his book, Instruments In the Redeemer's Hands has a great chapter on accountability and a great section that explains what it provides:

1) Accountability provides structure. Because life can be so busy, it is helpful to have a person or a group of people with whom you regularly discuss life's most important matters.

2) Accountability provides guidance. Practical, personal input is needed if we are to grow in Christ-like living. 

3) Accountability provides assistance. Sometimes we need more than "input." We need help. We need someone to literally  take us by the hand and walk us through a situation. Accountability can make that happen.

4) Accountability provides encouragement. It's not all about being rebuked. Sometimes it's about being reminded of ways the gospel is actively at work in your life.

5) Accountability provides warning. When someone is rebelling against necessary change, accountability is like a stop sign. To ignore that stop sign is to enter the danger zone.

Whether you like the term or not, do you have an accountability partner? If not, why not? Is it for lack of time, lack of interest, lack of conviction of sin? Look for someone that God may have already have put into your life who can encourage you to follow Jesus more closely.

Mohler on Homosexuality

Writing for CNN a few days ago, Mohler offers an explanation of the Bible's stance on homosexuality. You can read it here. 

Here is how he concludes the piece:

Christian love requires that we believe and teach what the Bible teaches and that we do so with both strong conviction and humble hearts. The Church must repent of our failures in both of these tasks, but we must not be silent where the Bible speaks. Are Christians hypocrites in insisting that homosexual behavior is sin? We, too, are sinners, and hypocrisy and inconsistency are perpetual dangers. The church failed miserably in the face of the challenge of divorce. This requires an honest admission and strong corrective. At the same time, this painful failure must remind us that we must not fail to answer rightly when asked what the Bible teaches about homosexuality. Love requires us to tell the truth.

 

Homosexuality and Same-Sex Marriage

A couple weeks ago, I preached from the Book of Judges, chapters 17-21. It's the end of book, where the reader is exposed to the sin of Israel at its peak. The main point is obvious--Israel needs a good and godly king. More than anything, Israel needs God to come and change their hearts.

One of the most distrubing scenes in these dark chapters is that of the men of Gibeah who demand to have sex with a man. Their demands are pretended in the chapter as sinful. This raises all sorts of questions about our culture's view of homosexuality today. 

What follows are my comments to the congregation I serve, in light of this text, on the topic of homosexuality and same-sex marriage:

"It's like a small group meeting, with the whole church"

A few years ago, we started a Sunday evening service at MVBC. I got a lot of strange looks when I told people we'd being doing this. In an evangelical world where some churches have literally created a drive-through service, and another church is dubbed the drive-in church, what we were doing actually adding a service where people would come, sit, listen, learn, pray, and sing? I had more than one conversation with a local church pastor who said, "Ya, we got rid of that service years ago."

Our Sunday evening service is not an pm version of the am service. It is shorter (we meet for an hour),we open in song (about ten minutes), we devote most of the time to prayer (we pray for about 35 minutes of sharing and actual prayer), and we hear from God's Word (a 15 minute devotional). 

It's kind of like a small group meeting for the whole church!

Last night we heard about a couple guys heading to Central Asia on a missions trip. We heard from a new member who is in college and is looking forward to getting involved at MVBC this Summer. We heard from a young woman who just graduated from high school, and we prayed for her next steps. We reflected on a wedding that was held the previous day. We prayed for an Elder who is battling leukemia. We prayed for a member going through marital difficulties. We got a report from a brother who is stationed in Hong Kong for a few months--and prayed for a new believer he is starting to meet up with regularly. Then, we humbled ourselves and ended the Lord's Day in just the right place--by having the Word of God applied to our lives.

It's kind of like a small group meeting, just with the whole church.