Free to Serve

The Church & Missions

For a few more weeks Bryan Pillsbury and I are teaming up to teach Sending MVBC, a class on missions. We are packing into a few hours the basics that we'd like every member of the church to know about the global evangelization of the world.

In the next session, I want to make the point that missions without the church is like flour without bread. Bread is the point of flour just as the church is the point of missions. We plant the gospel so that God will plant churches.

One of the amazing facets of God's plan is the way he uses congregations to promote the gospel. Individuals can certainly share the gospel. But God seems to delight in using a whole community of brothers and sisters in Christ who locak arms to see the gospel go forth.

Don Whitney commented on the remarkable power of a corporate witness:

In a world where everyone has broken relationships, supernatural unity in a church family bears to the power of the gospel in a marvelously God-glorifying manner. And as necessary as individual witnessing is, it can never show unity as a congregational witness can. Or, to put it another way, Jesus said that unity was essential for effective evangelism, and it takes a group of Christians to demonstrate unity. Therefore churches need to consider ways to exhibit unity in the presence of unbelievers, for this both brings glory to God and brings people to Christ. (Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church)

What are some ways that we can "exhibit unity in the presence of unbelievers"? In other words, how practically might God use our unity as a church to help unbelievers see the power of the gospel at work? Let me know what you think.

"Do I really need to tithe to the church?"

A few years ago Suzanne Staline of the Wall Street Journal wrote an article called, “The Backlash Against Tithing.” She noted for the Journal’s readers what Christian pastors have presumed for quite some time: giving to the church is on the decline. As these pastors seek to reverse the trend and encourage tithing to the local church, many members object. Some oppose their dollars being spent on “coffee bars and widescreen TVs.” Some take issue with the implication (or outright teaching of some) that giving convinces God to bless them materially—the so-called prosperity gospel. Still others simply aren’t convinced that tithing is biblical.

A question I’m regularly asked about giving is slightly different: “Does all our tithe have to go to our church or can I give part of it to a Christian ministry?” I love the heart behind the question. Those who ask it want to be good stewards of their wealth, they care about the local church, and they have a serious desire to bless outside ministries. Those are all great things. 

Let me give my answer to this question and then share how I got there: There is a Christian responsibility to give generously to the local church and a Christian freedom to give generously outside the local church. To flesh out this answer, I need to say a word about the tithe and a word about the local church. 

Some songs we sing should be sad

In a recent article for the 9Marks Journal, Carl Trueman, pastor and professor, explains why some songs we sing at church should be sad. In other words, there are times to sing songs overflowing with joy--because perfect joy will be what we experience in heaven. But our songs should also help us meditate upon the pain and the sadness we know here on earth. Our songs, says Trueman, should be a reflection of the Psalms.

Trueman uses the analogy of marriage. The marriage of Christ begins with tragedy and ends with joy. Our corporate worship singing should reflect both themes. 

When I married a young couple in my congregation a few years ago, I commented in the sermon that all human marriages begin with joy but end in tragedy. Whether it is divorce or death, the human bond of love is eventually torn apart. The marriage of Christ and his church, however, begins with tragedy and ends with a joyful and loving union which will never be rent asunder. There is joy to which we point in our worship, the joy of the Lamb's wedding feast. But our people need to know that in this world there will be mourning. Not wordly mourning with no hope. But real mourning nonetheless, and we must make them ready for that.

As we sing at MVBC, I pray you are ready for lyrics that point us toward the glories of heaven and lyrics that help us face the reality of suffering on earth.

 

"Before they call I will answer"

"Before they call I will answer." So begins Isaiah 65:24, where the prophet expounds about life in the new heavens and new earth. What a promise!

In this life, the Christian approaches God boldly, faithfully, always confident that God hears. In the gospel is the guarantee that Jesus Christ is our mediator. He has granted access to the throne of God and given us the conviction that God's ears are open, and he is eager to give good gifts to his children.

And yet, in this life, there are times when we feel no response. There are times when we have to remember that generations of God's people languished in slavery in Egypt. Another generation wandered in the wilderness knowing that they would not reach the promised land. Hundreds of years passed between the prophets and the Messiah's birth. During those years true believers cried out to the Lord for help, but God was silent.

In Christ, the silence is over. The Word has come. God has spoken to his people. And yet, the thorns of this world remain. We speak to God, we pray--often only to receive God's discipline. His discipline is love, yes, and demanding.

But a day is coming, says Isaiah, when God will hear us even before we call. God's people will interact with their Maker in a world without sin. Our communion with the Lord will be uninterrupted. Every Christian will experience God's perfect presence. As Alec Motyer put it, in the new heavens and the new earth, God is more than just attentive to the people of God, "there is such a oneness with the Lord that he anticipates their needs with his constant provident watchfulness for their good."

Take heart, Christian. God hears you now and chooses, in his wisdom, to let you persist in the trials you face because he knows that the path you are on is the right one. But a day will come when the trials you face and the distance you sometimes feel between you and God is no more. On that day, before you call, He will answer.

 

Helpful words from Colin Smith on moms and worry

Mothers, would you please read this post by Colin Smith? He lists what he considers the top five worries a mom faces. Then he goes on to show from Scripture how Jesus answers those worries. Here's a taste:

The length of a person's life is determined by God. It isn't something you can control. And no amount of worry will make a scrap of difference to it. But the root of all worry is that part of us feels that maybe we can control these things.

Be encouraged, Jesus really is in control. Our lives truly are in his hands. He can be trusted. 

Good Book for Church Kids

I'm in the process of raising four kids right now (12, 11, 8, 3). They are each quite different from the other, but they all have one thing in common. They are church kids. With few exceptions, when MVBC is open, they are there. They listen to sermons, take notes, sing hymns, and hang out with other church kids. And that's just with the church gathered. At home we pray together, read the Bible, talk about the gospel, etc.

My three-year-old received a chocolate cross in her Easter basket. (Really? A chocolate cross?) Yes, we bought her a chocolate cross. My wife carefully explained to her that we wanted to celebrate all that Jesus did by dying on the cross for sinners before being raised from the dead. To which she replied, "Can I eat 'Jesus died on a cross'?" 

Yes, my kids are church kids.

Which is why I was eager to read Karl Graustein's book, Growing Up Christian. Graustein is the headmaster of Saint Simons Christian School on Saint Simons Island in Georgia. I'd like to visit there! He clearly knows kids, and his book is an excellent resource both for parents who want to know how to provide spiritual formation for their children and for teenagers wrestling with how to make the faith they've heard their own. 

In the first part of the book, he covers many of the dangers of growing up in a Christian home: the danger of false assurance, the danger of failing to appreciate the privilege of a Christian home, and the danger of loving the world. 

In part two, he carefully walks the reader through a biblical response to growing up Christian. This includes how to encourage humility, how to develop your own convictions, how to grow in gratitude to God, how to love Bible study, and how to trust God.

Finally, in the last three chapters, he addresses the battle against sin, the need for spiritual disciplines, and the importance of being a good steward of everythign you've received--including a childhood in a Christian home.

The content is extremely helpful, to the point, theologically solid, spot on. But what parents and their teenagers may find even more useful is how careful Graustein is to encourage the reader to think deeply about what he or she has read. He ends each chapter with exercises (often more than one) to drive the point of the chapter into the heart of the teenager. Ultimately, that's the Spirit's work, but a youth who really wants to be challenged is served well by reading this book slowly with pen in hand.

We have no guarantee that the Lord will save our children. That's God's business. Ours is to faithfully teach and model the Word of God. I've seen more than one parent paralyzed by fear that his child won't be saved or guilt that his child's refusal to repent and believe is somehow the parent's fault. It may be easier said than done, but as parents we have to learn to trust the Lord with those we love the most: our children.

In the meantime, we should be very thankful to God that he placed our children in a Christian home. Graustein grew up a church kid, and he's glad he did:

Growing up in a Christian home is a wonderful privilege. We have been given so much: godly parents, training in the Word of God, friends from Christian homes, support from a Christian church community, and most importantly an opportunity to know God at a young age. Throughout our lives, we are repeatedly taught about the love of God, his plan of salvation, ways to recognize and resist sin, and living for the glory of God.

That's Graustein's testimony. For those of us still in the throes of parenting, we can pray that one day our kids will agree with his words. In the meantime, consider reading Growing Up Christian with your teenager. It will be time well spent.

Hope for Sinners

I have been very encouraged by Heath Lambert's new book, Finally Free. It is a hope-filled, grace-based, straight-talking approach to battling sexual sin. Sexual sin has its unique contours, but the fact of the matter is, sin is sin. The remedies for sexual sin find almost universal applications against any sin. The following paragraph is intended to be a word of hope to someone struggling with porn but willing to put his or her faith in Christ. But it's a good word for all sinners:

There is no porn user so enslaved that Jesus cannot set him or her free. There is no struggle for purity so intense that Jesus' grace cannot win the battle. There is no consequence so steep taht Jesus' power cannot carry you through. Jesus' grace to change you is stronger than pornography's power to destroy you. Jesus' grace is stronger than your own desires to watch sex. While there is no hope for you in looking at pornography, there is all the hope in the universe when you look to God and his grace.

Maybe you struggle with pornography, maybe you don't. You might struggle with anxiety, pride, laziness, covetousness, anger or something else. Re-read Lambert's paragraph, and simply replace the porn struggle with your struggle. That's good news, isn't it?

On Fearing God and Facing Death

People don't like to talk about fearing God today. It seems to some like an oppressive, even primitive idea. But for the Christian, nothing is sweeter than the fear of the Lord. In J. Gresham Machen's What is Faith? (which I just finished reading with a friend today), faith and fear in the face of death is presented in the most biblical and comforting of terms:

Even the Christian, it is true, must fear God. But it is a new kind of fear. It is fear, at the most, of chastisement and rebuke, not of final ruin; it is a fear, indeed, rather of what might have been than of what is; it is a fear of what would have come were we not in Christ. Without such fear there can be, for us sinners, no true love; for love of a saviour is proportioned to one's horror of that from which one has been saved. And how strong are the lives that are filled with such a love! They are lives brave not because the facts have been ignored, but because they have been faced; they are lives founded upon the solid foundation of the grace of God. If that is the foundation of our lives, we shall not fear when we come to the hour that otherwise we should dread. It is a beautiful thing when a Christian who has received Jesus as His Saviour comes to the moment of death; it is a beautiful thing to fall asleep in Jesus, and, as one enters that dark country of which none other can tell, to trust the dear Lord and Saviour and believe that we shall there see His face.

Christians In the Middle East -- At Least for Now

Take a look at Aryn Baker's recent Time article, "Unholy Choices." Baker argues that the recent revolutions in countries like Egypt, Libya and Syria have emboldened Muslims to persecute Christians.

Currently, Christians living in the Syrian town of Raqqa, Baker reports, must pay the equivalent of $650, twice a year. Failure to comply may result in execution. 

Facing this kind of persecution, Christians throughout the Middle East are fleeing for their lives. Counting Catholics, Baker notes the number of Christians is declining rapidly.

In the last census of the Ottoman era, conducted in 1914, Christians made up a quarter of the Middle East's population. Now they are less than 5%. Christians in the Middle East represent less than 1% of the world's Christians . . . 

If current demographic trends continue, the Middle East's population of 12 million Christians will be halved by 2020.

Baker summarized his point crisply: "Christians may simply not survive the Arab revolutions."

I had the privilege of visiting Cairo just a few months after the 2011 uprising. The Christians I met were excited about the future. But humanly speaking their future looks grim. The threat of kidnappings and church bombings is a daily reality for our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ.

Intense persecution overseas and the rumblings of increased persecution on the homefront are a good reminder that Jesus meant it when he prayed to the Father about us, "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. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one."

Let's continue to pray and plod for the spread of the Gospel in the Middle East.

 

 

Sermon Study Guide: John 13:31-38

Just before his betrayal and crucifixion, as they celebrated the passover together, Jesus gave his disciples the command of a lifetime.  His words to the disciples on that fateful night have never been more relevant to our relationship with the church and to God. My prayer is that as you study this text, you'll agree that to truly love God we must love his people—the church.

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