Core Value #1-A Caring Community
SMALL GROUP TESTIMONY:
I want to begin by telling you how “A Caring Community” my dad was part of literally saved my life…. My dad was part of a small group, “A Caring Community,” when I was 19 years old and out of control…The reader’s digest version of my story goes like this…In my senior year of High School, I traded my dreams of becoming a professional BMX Bike Rider for a life of drug addiction…I did not just graduate High School with a Diploma, but also a heroin addiction…I did a lot of bad things to a lot of people….At the same time, my dad was part of a small group that met weekly a couple miles from my house… I finally got into trouble I could not get out of…It was pretty serious…the state of NJ offered me three years…so I agreed, but at the same time I got into trouble, my dad learned about Teen Challenge which is a Christian Drug and Alcohol rehab at his small group meeting from one of the group members….I had no clue of this, so the person who told him about TC also helped him get an application for me…The day I went to court to sign the papers that secured me a spot in a NJ state prison for 3 years…My dad came to court on my behalf…approached the judge and lawyer with a plan for an alterative sentence…He brought the application he got from his SMALL GROUP member with him, which is what I think sealed the deal and they accepted this alterative sentence before I even got into the court room that day…it just so happened that the Teen Challenge this application was for was the only TC this judge would accept that was out of state….remember this was that application my dad got because of someone in his SMALL GROUP cared enough about me, someone they did not even know…When I went to TC, I got saved, God called me into the ministry…Immediately following TC, I attended VFCC, and just gradated last May, and now I am here at GCTS with my wife…
(TRANSITION)—A SMALL GROUP, “A Caring Community,” was instrumental in my salvation…and because of this I take SMALL GROUP ministry extremely serious and personal….but before we jump into the nuts and bolts of “Holistic Small Groups”… I want to share with you two ways to keep CORE values CORE!!!
HOW TO KEEP CORE VALUE’S CORE:
(1). Our Core Value’s Are Non-Negotiable: Our core values are not just something we will post on our website or on the weekly bulletin…They are CENTRAL to who we are as people and as a Church.
This is how I look at core values…if I were to die today, like right now, do the people closest to me know my core values?...Do they know how important a caring community, strong marriages and healthy families are to me?...Do they know how important education is to me?... Do they know how important Biblical Studies are to me?...Do they know how important community is to me?
People tend to talk about those things that matter most to them…The question I ask myself and want to encourage you to ask yourself is: What do people learn from you when they are in your presence?... Do they know what you stand for?...What you would die for?...Do you have core values of your own, both personally and as a family?
As a family, one of my wife and I’s core values are “Strong Marriage.” “WE believe that if you want our marriage to work, we have to work on your marriage.” So we are intentional about working on our marriage, we have a plan of attack, we attend a marriage conference every year together, read a book together on marriage and do devotions together at the minimum….What are your core values and how are they evidence in your life?
(2). Our Core Value’s Apply To Everyone: They are not just for the pastoral and leadership staff, but every follower of Christ who is part of our church…They are to be embodied by each person in our church as if they were there own core values…When people see you, they should see these core values in action…You are a living, walking, talking billboard of Garden City Church…What you do and say is going to impact the spiritual and moral climate of the church…We as a group are going to be responsible for the shaping of Garden City Church…we are the leaders, we are going to set the tone, we are going to set the bar in a lot of different ways, probably a lot more than Rich and I have thought about… that is why these core values are so important….We must together, embody these core values in such a way that people’s lives are impacted by your presence in their life whether its at work, church, small group or at the grocery store….wherever you and I go, these values must shine through…We are all Core Value Evangelists…Hurting families need to see strong families…dysfunctional communities need to see caring communities…and on…!!!
GARDEN CITY CHURCH IS A CHURCH OF SMALL GROUPS: Garden City Church is a church of small groups… That is a loaded statement…We do not take small groups lightly around here…We are not a church that has some small groups over here and some over there…We are a church of small groups…. Small groups are not simply a program for the church. They are a way of being the church.
Small groups are not an add-on program…they are not one ministry among many…They are part of the fabric of our overall church life….Small Group Ministry is part of the DNA of Garden City Church.
Most of what we do will be in the context of small groups…Especially since we are portable we have to be extra intentional about the application of this core value….we will be renting a space every Sunday for a good while…which means we do not have any church building during the week to gather, (JOKE) unless you want to call Rich and my office at Starbucks part of Garden City Church!!! We will do almost all of our ministry in the context of small groups settings.
For instance, our small group leaders training will be at somebody’s home, our membership classes ( or as we are going to call them, our partnership classes, will most likely be in a home…I say all that to say, if you are not part of a small group at Garden City, you are not going to feel connected to the church…I am going to be totally honest with you, if you are not part of a small group in some way, your spiritual growth most likely will go down before it goes up….Small groups are a great way to grow spiritually…when you have people rubbing up against other people sparks create sharp edges, and as the BIBLE says loud and clear, “Just as Iron sharpens Iron, one man/woman sharpens another”…And Small Groups will be one of those environments where a lot of sparks fly, and sharpening takes place….
THE BENEFITS OF A CARING COMMUNITY:
(1) Research has proved that it is healthier to have a couple genuine relationships and eat junk food regularly then to eat healthy food and have no friends. So it is better to eat Twinkies with Good friends then to eat broccoli alone.
(2) Harvard did a study, where 276 volunteers were infected with the virus that causes the common cold. Those who had Meaningful Relationships were 4 times less susceptible to colds, they had less of the virus and they produced less mucus! Did you catch that, they produced less mucus! It’s literally true then that Unfriendly people are snootier then Friendly people.
(3) And last, I don’t know if you are aware of this, but research also tells us that being active in a small group is like receiving regular pastoral counseling (JOKE) Now we are not saying you all need counseling!!!
But we do think you need people in your life at all times…not just when you suffer a loss…because loses happen all the time…most of life can be lost in a moments notice…to lose a job is a loss, when somebody dies…that is a loss…if your son or daughter become addicted to drugs that is a loss…Loses are part of life…There is something about having somebody to share your low points as well as to celebrate your high points that makes all the difference in the world…
Larry Crabb says in his book Connecting: “People experience the life changing force of healing relationships when something powerful comes out of one and touches something good in another” (p. 56).
(STORY) About a month ago…one of my friends from VA, who also graduated TC a few years before me and who also graduated from VFCC, got a hold of me…He had recently gotten married in the beginning of January and within three weeks…his new bride left and wants a divorce…There is a whole bunch of back story…but he suffered a huge loss…he was hurt…confused…frustrated…and just in a lot of pain…so we started to talk…I tried my best to be emphatic…and prayed that God would show me what to say…we talked everyday for a week, shared some scripture, prayed together…and each day as we met together to talk on the phone…
(TRANSITION)—he was a little more encouraged…his spirit was lifted up a little more…his was more hopeful (JOKE) now I am sure it was not my eloquent speech or my brilliant exposition of scripture, off the cuff I might add…but what I am sure of is that “the life changing force of healing relationships, Larry Crabb says, people experience, when something powerful comes out of one and touches something good in another,” could be the reason…This life changing healing force is innate…because we were created from a community for community…
WE WERE CREATED FOR COMMUNITY:
I believe that community is God’s Best Idea…Let me ask you, what was the first Christian community in history? Trinity…And out of the overflow of love the Trinitarian Community had brought forth all of Creation
Before the creation of the universe and humanity, the Bible does not say this, but I bet the Godhead met for their weekly SMALL GROUP, collaborated, took a look at the Divine Blue prints one more time before they went to work for those 6 days… There is, some truth to what I just said…they were in complete unity…they were the first cohesive team in history…
The LOVE of GOD that spilled out of this community, created the universe….and since we were created in “the image and likeness” of God….community is part of our DNA…We were created to be in community… we are intrinsically social beings, we are made for community.
John Ortberg says, “The need for community is woven into the very fabric of our being. Nothing else can substitute for the life-giving benefits of connecting with others—not even God.”
(TRANSITION)—There are needs that are met through community interaction with human beings that God designed for us to meet in community…These needs can not even be met by God…But there is one problem with having these needs met in community…Are you ready for this?...The biggest problem with community is spelled, P-E-O-P-L-E…People are potentially the biggest problem with community.
THE PROBLEM WITH COMMUNITY:
The reason for this is because people are so very DIFFERENT…Just the fact that we are MALE and FEMALE is enough to show the vast differences but it is a lot more complicated than that…we are introverted and extroverted…thinkers and feelers…perceivers and judgers…intuitive’s and senser’s…we are Sanguine’s and choleric’s…melancholy’s and Phlegmatic’s...we are doers and be-er’s…we vote democrat or republican and even some independent…we are conservative and liberal…and on I can go…
But the reality is that potentially, the greatest obstacle from having meaningful community is the people in the community…If we dwell on the differences…than we will not celebrate the common bond we all share, Jesus Christ… He is the glue that holds the community together despite our great differences…He is the reason why we celebrate life together…He is the reason why we serve one another….He is the reason for community….
“PERSONAL CONFESSION”: I have to make a confession…”Hi..My name is Jess, (Your suppose to say, Hi Jess—What, you’ve never been to an AA Meeting”…I was a community junkie…I cared more about my dreams of community than God’s…When I first led a small group I thought it was more important to run a good meeting than caring for people…I thought that I had to get every detail off the list for us to have a good meeting…so if somebody took the whole group time talking about a problem and we didn’t get through the 4 W’s and some of the other details…It was a horrible group for me and I was upset…I was a community junkie… I discovered that I cared more about the agenda then people…
I repented of my sin, after I heard this quote from a man who was arrested in March of 1943. He was imprisoned by the Germans, and eventually hung, just before the end of World War II in Europe, which was just three weeks before the liberation of Berlin and one month before the capitulation of Nazi Germany.
Deitrich Bonhoffer said in his book, “Life Together:” “He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian Community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.”……What he was saying was, if you love the idea of community more than the people in your community, you will destroy the community.
(TRANSISTION)—The turning point for me was when I submitted to God’s plan for community, his model, not my egotistical hopes and dreams…In God’s vision for community…people are most important despite their differences and flaws.
“AS-IS-PEOPLE:” At the grocery store, there is an aisle where they have items that have been marked down from their original prices…I love this aisle, it is my favorite aisle in any grocery store…I love buying dented cans…I don’t think we own a can in our house that is not dented…We have like 20 cans of corn and they are all dented and I am proud of that!!!!
The items in this aisle are dented, broken and maybe a little stale, but still in a condition that they can be sold to the public. These items are marked “AS IS.” They are just like people. The reality is because of sin we are all damaged goods. We all have flaws, and we all fail at times. Even though, we are flawed God can still use us, just as a grocery store can still sell those items marked “AS IS.” At best we are “AS IS” people and guess what these are the people in your community.
John Ortberg in his book, “Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them,” says,”We’re all weird. Folks around us may seem normal enough, but just wait till we get to know them—and they get to know us.”
(TRANS)—One of my favorite small group stories in the Bible is the story of the 4 friends, the Paralytic and the fellowship of the mat…
FELLOWSHIP OF THE MAT:
Imagine what life was like for the paralytic…He spent his whole life on a mat that was three feet wide and 6 feet long…Someone had to feed him, carry him, clothe him and move him to keep him from being covered with bedsores…He was dependent on people…Now one day, Jesus comes to their town…These four men find out that a famous Rabbi is in town so as it was custom you would go hear him speak…
(JOKE) One of them probably said, “We should bring “Mat” with us?” Get it, “Mat”…the paralytic lived on a mat!!!... They probably even heard about Jesus’ miracles and said…maybe that Jesus is for real.. …So Jesus did what he normally did and packed the house out...I bet there was probably standing room only…The BIBLE actually says, “There was no room left not even outside the door.”…These four guys saw a great opportunity for the paralytic, but they faced a great challenge…that challenge was those who were closest to Jesus, the religious people were in the way….(Sometimes people closest to Jesus are the biggest obstacle for others to get to Jesus)…So they improvised on the spot…and came up with Plan B…they must have had some carpenters in that small group because who in their right mind would come up with making a sky light as a plan B, unless you were a carpenter or at least a roofer… So they climbed on top of the house…lifted their friend up…and went to work…that sounds like a lot of work…
I thought to myself when was the last time I went to that extent to make sure someone got to experience Jesus like the paralytic…This guy was a nobody…and these friends knew that Jesus can make him into a somebody, but they also knew there friend was not able to do this in his own strength…from the looks of it, he might not even had the strength to have faith in Jesus because the Bible says it was “THEIR” faith that healed the man…these 4 friends were not just concerned with Mat’s physical needs, but also his spiritual needs…this little plural personal pronoun, “THEIR,” most people miss it…is the Greek word “αυτων” from αυτος, which means “HE”…
These 4 men were desperate to get their friend to Jesus…I want you to ask yourself…When was the last time you dug through a roof for a friend? Are you desperate to get people to Jesus or are you so close to Jesus that you are blocking others from him?
(TRANS)—John Ortberg says, ”Friends are people who have made a major roof crashing commitment to other human beings….When ever human beings love and accept and serve each other in the face of weakness and need, there is the fellowship of the Mat.”
DEFINITION OF COMMUNTY:
The Greek word for community is Koinonia…. Koinonia is an old, old word…the FIRST time it shows up is in the 4th century BC by Socrates who used Koinonia to describe the intimate connection the bond of marriage forms between two people who share one life.
Some 400 hundred years later…the word Koinonia was used to describe the relationship followers of Christ shared with each other…it was used a total of 17 times in the NT, what I discovered is that it was never used in the Gospels…It was used primarily by Paul…The gospel writer, Luke used it one time in Acts 2:42…this means the word is a post-Pentecost word…the word was applied to the Christian community following the spirit falling upon believers on the day of Pentecost…
Koinonia described the bond Christ followers have with each other…the foundation of that bond is spiritual…there is a (1) spiritual connectedness that binds Christ followers together…Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:13, “We were all given the one Spirit to drink.”…Since we all drink from the same spirit we are able to be unified despite are differences…
I want to show you something that blew me away about the power of koinonia…and its spiritual dynamic…that intimately connected believers in the early church…Acts 2: 42 reads, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship (KOINONIA), to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
NOW CHECK THIS OUT—43 “Everyone was filled with AWE, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.” 44 “All the believers were together and had everything in common (KOINOS).”
Notice they did not have extravagant church buildings, comfortable pews, power point programs, electric instruments, or even video screens…Could you believe it?...They had church without all that…But what does the text say?.. “Everyone was filled with AWE…”
One of the selling points for the early church was KOINONIA…there is a little word that is extremely important in front of koinonia…it is a definite article…”the”…Luke made it clear that is was not just any old group of people…this group was distinct…there was something different about these early Christians when they gathered together in the name of Jesus…
This fellowship...this koinonia involved close association…they shared life with each other…not just on a shallow level…like how’s the weather…but because of their (2) Relational Connectedness, the community shared a spiritual synergy….they shared common ground, and what and how they shared, was attractive to those both inside and outside the community….
Real Christian KOINONIA has nothing to do with technology, but everything to do with relational connectedness and spiritual connectedness to other Christ followers…Christians rubbing shoulders with Christians…there is no substitute for KOINONIA…
(TRANSITION) I can sit here all day long and expound so elegantly on koinonia…but if it does not become part of your thoughts and convictions then it will not work…because for the most part you will forget my word study and examples…but if it is part of who you are, your convictions as a follower of Christ, than it does not matter because it will be an automatic response in whatever group you are a part of and relationship you find yourself in….KOINONIA is not a thing to do, but a thing to be…I want to share with you two convictions that are non-negotiable for building community…
THE CONVICTION OF COMMUNITY:
(1) AUTHENTICITY:
Do people know who you really are? Do people know what you are struggling with? Do people know your secrets?....The reality is we become what we hide…we become our secrets…what we tend to do is hide our bad things…and announce our good things…but if we reverse that, we will become better people…we will become authentic.
Authenticity is a journey not a destination…You will always be more authentic tomorrow than you are today because it takes time to be authentic…and it also takes trust to be authentic…so in time as you trust, you will grow in authenticity…
Authenticity means to reveal the real you…to balance out your perfections with your imperfections…to disclose information about yourself that gives people the big picture of who you really are not just who you want people to know…
The heart cry of our culture today is authenticity…We live in a day where SHE can be a HE, and HE can be a SHE…a man can have a baby…but be a woman at the same time…black people can be white…plastic surgery can do just about anything…divorce is acceptable…family is not as important as success in the business place…and I can go on…We are living in a time where Americans prefer “A good fake to a bad real. But also, A bad fake could not be as good as the good fake.” …
Did you ever hear of the Alamo?…It is a historical monument in Texas…When Hollywood went to make a movie about its history…they found out it was too small so they bought some land in the Texas desert and built a replica Alamo…Do you know that just as many people visit the fake Alamo each year than the real Alamo?…
Americas prefer a good fake to a bad real…But on the other side of the coin, Americans will not tolerate a bad fake that is not as good as a good fake…
True story…A girl wanted to be a playboy model, so she went out and got all the plastic surgery that was necessary for her to look just like Pamela Anderson…and when she got to the picture shoot with the Playboy photographers…they said she looked too fake and fired her on the spot…
Americans will not tolerate a bad fake…Do you see the problem? Where are the real people in our culture…Where are the authentic people who are really real…Who embrace who they are and not try to be who they are not? ….I don’t think there is a better evangelistic tool than authenticity in today’s culture that is so confused and in the dark…
When God says, “He is light”...what HE means is that HE has made a full disclosure of who HE is…He has shed light on all areas necessary for us to know him on an intimate level…
The Bible says, in Colossians 1: 26 “The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
(TRANSITION)—God has made himself fully known to us in Jesus Christ…so that we can fully know him…Have you opened up your life for others to see who you really are so that they can fully know you…Are you an open book like God?… OR...Do you only allow people to see a couple chapters of your life?
(2) MUTAULAITY (SECOND CONVICTION):
A small group is a place where everybody present is a potential participant…This is the thing…if Jesus is in you…then you have something to bring to the table…there is something in your that I need to be me and there is something in me that you need to be you….we need each other to be who God created us to be…
God didn’t create any “Lone Ranger Christians”…He created us to be in community which means to share our giftings, talents and abilities with those who are in our community with us…
This is Biblical...Paul says to the Corinthians who struggled with mutuality, “What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church” (1 Cor. 14:26).
Do you know what the Greek for “each person” mean? “Each Person.” Every person has something to bring to the table…not just the select few on Sunday mornings who are being used in their gifts, talents, and abilities… In order for the whole body of Christ to be fully functional…you and I must exercise our gifts, talents, and abilities…in some capacity..
(ILLUSTRATION)--I have led small group Bible discussions where I studied hours for a lesson…parsed all the Greek words, read all the commentaries and someone in group who does not even go to Bible school will say something that made all my studies useless and my response to that is…I love it…
Each person has something to bring to the table so that we can strengthen each other…What we do bring to the table has the power to build somebody up or on the other hand…tear somebody down…The law of love always drives mutuality because without love we are “only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1)
(TRANSIITION)—Remember, No one dominates, but each person mutually gives to others and mutually receives from others so that you and your group will be built up.
HOW TO BUILD COMMUNITY (KOINONIA)!
Larry Crabb also says, “Something powerful has been placed within us that we are to release toward others in a way that promotes godly community” (pg.57—Connecting).
People experience the power of Christian community when we “Practice the ONE ANOTHERS.”
A powerful example of what koinonia should look like can be found in a study of the phrase “one another” in the Bible. There are 53 “One Another’s” in the Bible: SCRIPTURE COMMANDS us to be (1) Devoted to one another (Romans 12:10), (2) Honor one another (Romans 12:10), (3) Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16; 1 Peter 3:8), (4) Accept one another (Romans 15:7), (5) Serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13), (6) Be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32), (7) Admonish one another (Colossians 3:16), (8) Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13), (9) Spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), (10) Offer hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9), and (11) Love one another (1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11; 3:23; 4:7; 4:11-12).
That is what true biblical koinonia looks like. In those very moments, when you are practicing the one-another’s, you are restoring to that person what was lost in the fall and what has taken place in their life because of sin…
(TRANSITION) In closing, I want to share with you a true story...that took place in a small group I was part of…when we got serious about koinonia…and stopped serving ourselves…
OPERATION JASON
I want to share a story I call “Operation Jason.” Last year, in the men’s small group I was facilitating, our group’s target audience was for both men on campus and men in Phoenixville. Jason was from off campus. He was in his late twenties and was married to a woman who had mental issues. When Jason joined our group his wife was actually in the hospital. Upon her release, they moved into a new apartment. He had very little money when moving into this apartment. After personally going to visit this apartment I learned that they did not have any furniture whatsoever. Plus the place they were moving into was disgusting. It was filthy. It probably was not pained in years and was not cleaned in longer…..One night after visiting Jason with another guy from the group, he dropped me off around 1:30 AM. No sooner did I jump in the shower. Isn’t funny how some of our best ideas come in the bathroom? For some reason, I remembered that earlier in the day I helped someone throw a bed into an empty dumpster. All of a sudden it dawned on me that they did not have a bed. So I got out of the shower and called my friend. Mind you it was about 2:00AM at this point. I told him about my idea and asked him what he thought? So we decided to go get the mattress and surprise them. He comes to pick me up with his little Saturn. So we tie the bed to the roof of his car with a telephone wire and drive through Phoenixville to his apartment and wake him up. He was so happy. On our way home that night (actually early morning) I thought about that show extreme makeover. We began to talk about it and thought it would be a great outreach to do with the group. The next small group meeting, without Jason there, we discussed it and decided to surprise him with an extreme makeover. We got some money together and God blessed us with a long couch, two chairs, and a kitchen table with chairs, a ton of cleaning supplies and 4 gallons of paint (The Miracle Paint). With the whole group present, plus a few extra people we met up and went to his apartment instead of having our normal group time and completely remodeled the apartment in two hours. They were blown away. We completely painted both rooms and cleaned every inch of that apartment plus refurnished it in less than two hours. (The Miracle Carpet)!!!
Small Groups are to be Colonies of Heaven…if people want to know what Heaven is going to be like, they should see it in your small group…in the way you care for the communities that matter most…
Friday, April 18, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
McChurched
The Mega-Church Movement has become a well oiled piece of machinery. The ecclesiological method’s this flavor of Church operates by are geared towards pleasing the consumer. The consumer has become the locus of authority, not Biblical Orthodoxy. Churches that have been impacted by such methodology have been McChurched. They have adopted an operating system that serves the stranger rather than the resident family members. Dr. John Seel, a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary asked, “What if your household primarily met the needs of your neighbors not the people living there?” How would each member of the family grow holistically, if the home was primarily designed to meet the emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social needs of strangers? The brand of church that has neglected the family of God to appease the consumer is the seeker sensitive brand of church. Al Speegle, Jr., a contributor to the Trinity Forum described the mission of the McChruched Churches, “A user-friendly church designed to meet the needs of today's people, and their lifestyles. Self-sacrifice, self-denying discipleship has been scientifically reduced down to a formula that has placed man at the center. If consumeristic ecclesiology is going to be combated, then the Mega-Church Movement Factor must be understood, sermon branding, church shopping and Drive-Thru Discipleship must be exposed and Biblical Orthodoxy must guide the ecclesiology of a church.
The Consumer-Driven McChurch
Argue With Success
The Mega-Church Movement infects all size churches by the trickle factor. The marketing genius of the mega church movement is undeniable. They pack the house just like sporting events. It is said, “You can’t argue with success!,” but Jack Miller, a column writer for business forum says, “You can argue with success!” The methodology the mega church movement uses to pack the house each Sunday has become the methodology of the local church. The trickle factor works like this. The mega-church pastor’s write books, host and speak at conferences, post blogs and pod casts, talk on TV and/or upload videos on Youtube with their so called ecclesiological method’s that are really marketing ploys to reach the masses. Local pastors, church leaders, professors and Bible College and seminary students then flock to their conferences, buy their books, subscribe to their blogs, receive their weekly email letters, and listen to their pod casts. Then methods, strategies and convictions of the Mega-Church Pastor become the methods, strategies and convictions of the local pastor, church leader, professor, and student.
Has the trickle factor affected you or your church?
Sermon Un-Branding
The pastor of a consumer driven, seeker sensitive church cannot preach sermon’s that people need to hear, but sermons that people want to hear. John Piper, the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota said sermon relevance means one of two things, “It might mean that a sermon is relevant if it feels to the listeners that it will make a significant difference in their lives. Or it might mean that a sermon is relevant if it will make a significant difference in their lives whether they feel it or not.” The latter kind of sermon relevance is anti-consumeristic, anti-seeker sensitive, but Biblically correct. The marketing analyst tendency of the pastor in today’s post-modern culture brands sermons so that the message strikes a cord with the consumer’s feelings, not a conviction that will challenge the consumer’s lifestyle.
Mark Batterson, the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C. states, “The greatest truths ought to be communicated in the most unforgettable ways,” in a church conference workshop he taught on, “Sermon Branding.” You cannot argue with that statement, but then he gives 7 steps on how to brand a sermon. Steps #1 and #2 are “come up with a series title” and “create a series logo.” He wants pastors to “reduce an entire series to a single word, phrase or symbol that captures the essence of the series.” He also says, “Book titles, magazine ads, TV shows, board games, and movies are a great source of creative inspiration.” When you treat the Word of God like a TV series or movie, what are you really saying? The truth is the way we do things affects the way we view things. If a TV series is the package the Word of God is presented in, then why should people treat its content different then the way they treat the content in TV series? The consumer has a category for TV series’ in their mind that has been expanded by seeker sensitive churches to fit sermons. The rules of watching TV have been juxtaposed with tuning into sermons, especially since you can go to church today without stepping into a Building or hearing from an incarnate human being. The mindlessness that TV promotes has hijacked the reflective nature of sermon listening. Instead of participating in an active process of sermon intake, the consumer takes the passive seat, only hearing what tickles their ears.
Church Shopping
Sermon branding has laid the foundation for church shopping and hopping. Churches are not only in competition with cults, laziness and busy parents bussing their kids around on Sunday morning to sporting events but other churches. A consumer mentality says look for what a church can do for me, which results in the “Church Hop.” In his book, Making Sense of Church, Spencer Burke suggests that we “Ask not what your church can do for you, but what you can do for your church?” The church with the most bells and whistles is designed to attract the most consumers, instead of the church with a deep level of commitment to Biblical Discipleship. Keeping up with the Church Jones’ is part of the problem that fuels competitive rivalry between neighboring churches.
Church leadership is burdened by the need to please the consuming unbeliever as well as the believer. The sacredness of the timeless Church tradition has been replaced with the ever changing advancements and technological revoltuons that only have a temporal impact in the market place. Introducing the church to such advancements on a regular basis has caused dependency on technology so that a sermon without bells and whistles is deemed not relevant to the culture. Working professionals are not missing a beat from their environment that they spend Monday through Saturday in and Church on Sunday. The Mega-Church has McChruched the sacred space of Church so that instead of meeting in a house of worship that is distinguished from the workplace, they meet in the workplace. The church hop has left the consumer in charge and the church at the consumer’s mercy.
Drive-Thru Discipleship
The jingle Burger King made popular, “Have It Your, Right Away” has been juxtaposed with the challenge Jesus left with His Disciples, “Carry Your Own Cross." The call to Christian discipleship in the 1st century was borderline suicidal. The 1st century mantra, “Carry Your Own Cross,” meant that there is a good possibility that death might accompany being a disciple of Christ. Today in the 21st century, the deep level of commitment to Biblical discipleship has been lost. Life transforming discipleship has been traded for evangelistic efforts to meet the needs of the seeker. In the Reveal Report, Greg Hawkins of Willow Creek states, “The church (Willow Creek) was making a big impact on people early in their spiritual journey, but the closer they grew to Christ, the less impact the church was having.” The problem is not that the church did not have systems in place to disciple, but the mentality that was created by the consumeristic outreach does not have a category for Biblical Discipleship.
Bill Hybels, the lead pastor of the 2nd largest church in America, Willow Creek, has done a noble thing by taking responsibility for his actions, but the brand of Christianity he has marketed is Drive-Thru Discipleship. This brand of discipleship is primarily done through a “talk time” on Sunday mornings where each consumer is served a personal, made to order spiritual meal. The message is watered down, filled with videos, jokes, alliterations, rock bands, and a couple out of context Bible verses. Today, the pastor acts like a therapist in the pulpit and a CEO in his office, someone noted. These “Drive-Thru Discipleship” encounters in seeker sensitive churches have undermined the heart and soul of Biblical discipleship. Any sermon that lacks deep theological truth and life changing challenges but contains fluffy physiological principles does not contribute to Biblical Discipleship.
The Call to Biblical Discipleship
Biblical discipleship targets the convictions and beliefs of an individual, not their thoughts and feelings. If the Church is going to return to Biblical Orthodoxy rather than consumerism, then convictions and beliefs must be influenced by the terms and conditions of Biblical discipleship. In his book, Discipleship Essentials, Greg Ogden says, “Disciplemaking ensures that the Gospel is embedded deeply in the lives of mature believers who serve as links to the future.” The future of the church depends on Biblical discipleship, not marketing strategies and technological advancements. The brand of church that can turn the tide must be rooted in the reality of Jesus’ disciplemaking process where the few were more important than the many. If the selling point of the church is billboards, websites, blogs, sermons on steroids or any other addition that is done in the name of creativity, then the discipleship will continue to be neglected. On the other hand, if the selling point of the church is based on transformed lives that are the result of Biblical Discipleship, grounded in Biblical Orthodoxy, then the Drive-Thru Mentality will be replaced with the Long-Haul Mentality.
The Art of the Long Haul
NO! The Gospel is not something that can be sold! The quick sell that consumeristic churches use to draw seekers has widened the discipleship deficit. The missing art of the long haul must be revived if the church is going to return to Biblical orthodox ecclesiology. There is nothing quick about Jesus’ discipleship formula. He invested in a few to reach the multitudes, not vice versa. Robert Coleman captures the heart of Jesus’ methodological when he writes, “Jesus’ concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes but with men the multitudes follow.” Biblical orthodoxy must drive the bus and tell consumeristic church methodology to sit down. The terms and conditions of Biblical Discipleship are never up for negotiation. The work of God must be done God’s way. God’s way is not the quick sell, but the long haul. Remember, “What you win them with will determine what you keep them with.”
The Consumer-Driven McChurch
Argue With Success
The Mega-Church Movement infects all size churches by the trickle factor. The marketing genius of the mega church movement is undeniable. They pack the house just like sporting events. It is said, “You can’t argue with success!,” but Jack Miller, a column writer for business forum says, “You can argue with success!” The methodology the mega church movement uses to pack the house each Sunday has become the methodology of the local church. The trickle factor works like this. The mega-church pastor’s write books, host and speak at conferences, post blogs and pod casts, talk on TV and/or upload videos on Youtube with their so called ecclesiological method’s that are really marketing ploys to reach the masses. Local pastors, church leaders, professors and Bible College and seminary students then flock to their conferences, buy their books, subscribe to their blogs, receive their weekly email letters, and listen to their pod casts. Then methods, strategies and convictions of the Mega-Church Pastor become the methods, strategies and convictions of the local pastor, church leader, professor, and student.
Has the trickle factor affected you or your church?
Sermon Un-Branding
The pastor of a consumer driven, seeker sensitive church cannot preach sermon’s that people need to hear, but sermons that people want to hear. John Piper, the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota said sermon relevance means one of two things, “It might mean that a sermon is relevant if it feels to the listeners that it will make a significant difference in their lives. Or it might mean that a sermon is relevant if it will make a significant difference in their lives whether they feel it or not.” The latter kind of sermon relevance is anti-consumeristic, anti-seeker sensitive, but Biblically correct. The marketing analyst tendency of the pastor in today’s post-modern culture brands sermons so that the message strikes a cord with the consumer’s feelings, not a conviction that will challenge the consumer’s lifestyle.
Mark Batterson, the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C. states, “The greatest truths ought to be communicated in the most unforgettable ways,” in a church conference workshop he taught on, “Sermon Branding.” You cannot argue with that statement, but then he gives 7 steps on how to brand a sermon. Steps #1 and #2 are “come up with a series title” and “create a series logo.” He wants pastors to “reduce an entire series to a single word, phrase or symbol that captures the essence of the series.” He also says, “Book titles, magazine ads, TV shows, board games, and movies are a great source of creative inspiration.” When you treat the Word of God like a TV series or movie, what are you really saying? The truth is the way we do things affects the way we view things. If a TV series is the package the Word of God is presented in, then why should people treat its content different then the way they treat the content in TV series? The consumer has a category for TV series’ in their mind that has been expanded by seeker sensitive churches to fit sermons. The rules of watching TV have been juxtaposed with tuning into sermons, especially since you can go to church today without stepping into a Building or hearing from an incarnate human being. The mindlessness that TV promotes has hijacked the reflective nature of sermon listening. Instead of participating in an active process of sermon intake, the consumer takes the passive seat, only hearing what tickles their ears.
Church Shopping
Sermon branding has laid the foundation for church shopping and hopping. Churches are not only in competition with cults, laziness and busy parents bussing their kids around on Sunday morning to sporting events but other churches. A consumer mentality says look for what a church can do for me, which results in the “Church Hop.” In his book, Making Sense of Church, Spencer Burke suggests that we “Ask not what your church can do for you, but what you can do for your church?” The church with the most bells and whistles is designed to attract the most consumers, instead of the church with a deep level of commitment to Biblical Discipleship. Keeping up with the Church Jones’ is part of the problem that fuels competitive rivalry between neighboring churches.
Church leadership is burdened by the need to please the consuming unbeliever as well as the believer. The sacredness of the timeless Church tradition has been replaced with the ever changing advancements and technological revoltuons that only have a temporal impact in the market place. Introducing the church to such advancements on a regular basis has caused dependency on technology so that a sermon without bells and whistles is deemed not relevant to the culture. Working professionals are not missing a beat from their environment that they spend Monday through Saturday in and Church on Sunday. The Mega-Church has McChruched the sacred space of Church so that instead of meeting in a house of worship that is distinguished from the workplace, they meet in the workplace. The church hop has left the consumer in charge and the church at the consumer’s mercy.
Drive-Thru Discipleship
The jingle Burger King made popular, “Have It Your, Right Away” has been juxtaposed with the challenge Jesus left with His Disciples, “Carry Your Own Cross." The call to Christian discipleship in the 1st century was borderline suicidal. The 1st century mantra, “Carry Your Own Cross,” meant that there is a good possibility that death might accompany being a disciple of Christ. Today in the 21st century, the deep level of commitment to Biblical discipleship has been lost. Life transforming discipleship has been traded for evangelistic efforts to meet the needs of the seeker. In the Reveal Report, Greg Hawkins of Willow Creek states, “The church (Willow Creek) was making a big impact on people early in their spiritual journey, but the closer they grew to Christ, the less impact the church was having.” The problem is not that the church did not have systems in place to disciple, but the mentality that was created by the consumeristic outreach does not have a category for Biblical Discipleship.
Bill Hybels, the lead pastor of the 2nd largest church in America, Willow Creek, has done a noble thing by taking responsibility for his actions, but the brand of Christianity he has marketed is Drive-Thru Discipleship. This brand of discipleship is primarily done through a “talk time” on Sunday mornings where each consumer is served a personal, made to order spiritual meal. The message is watered down, filled with videos, jokes, alliterations, rock bands, and a couple out of context Bible verses. Today, the pastor acts like a therapist in the pulpit and a CEO in his office, someone noted. These “Drive-Thru Discipleship” encounters in seeker sensitive churches have undermined the heart and soul of Biblical discipleship. Any sermon that lacks deep theological truth and life changing challenges but contains fluffy physiological principles does not contribute to Biblical Discipleship.
The Call to Biblical Discipleship
Biblical discipleship targets the convictions and beliefs of an individual, not their thoughts and feelings. If the Church is going to return to Biblical Orthodoxy rather than consumerism, then convictions and beliefs must be influenced by the terms and conditions of Biblical discipleship. In his book, Discipleship Essentials, Greg Ogden says, “Disciplemaking ensures that the Gospel is embedded deeply in the lives of mature believers who serve as links to the future.” The future of the church depends on Biblical discipleship, not marketing strategies and technological advancements. The brand of church that can turn the tide must be rooted in the reality of Jesus’ disciplemaking process where the few were more important than the many. If the selling point of the church is billboards, websites, blogs, sermons on steroids or any other addition that is done in the name of creativity, then the discipleship will continue to be neglected. On the other hand, if the selling point of the church is based on transformed lives that are the result of Biblical Discipleship, grounded in Biblical Orthodoxy, then the Drive-Thru Mentality will be replaced with the Long-Haul Mentality.
The Art of the Long Haul
NO! The Gospel is not something that can be sold! The quick sell that consumeristic churches use to draw seekers has widened the discipleship deficit. The missing art of the long haul must be revived if the church is going to return to Biblical orthodox ecclesiology. There is nothing quick about Jesus’ discipleship formula. He invested in a few to reach the multitudes, not vice versa. Robert Coleman captures the heart of Jesus’ methodological when he writes, “Jesus’ concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes but with men the multitudes follow.” Biblical orthodoxy must drive the bus and tell consumeristic church methodology to sit down. The terms and conditions of Biblical Discipleship are never up for negotiation. The work of God must be done God’s way. God’s way is not the quick sell, but the long haul. Remember, “What you win them with will determine what you keep them with.”
Thursday, March 27, 2008
It's never too late to do the right thing!
"It's never too late to do the right thing!"
INTRODUCTION:
Welcome everyone one, introduce myself and Liz, if you have any questions, at the end, if we have time, we will try our best to answer them and PRAY.
The title of our talk is, “It’s never too late to do the right thing.” Let me premise this by saying, “It’s always better to do the right thing first!” It’s always better to learn from other people’s mistakes and failures, not to make your own…Maturity is learning what not to do, from those who have done, what not to do!
We were asked in a nice way as you can see from the title of our talk to share with you the good, the bad and the ugly from our past dating relationships, which means we are the couple with the best relationship horror stories to tell. (And yes, I did go to the prom with the girl I asked from jail, don’t ask me why she said yes, but she did.)
And it is true; we do have a couple stories to tell, because before I met Christ and then finally my wife, I was a dating catastrophe. As you will hear in a few moments, I messed up big time in a lot of ways, but God through his grace, His undeserved favor, gave me a second chance to do the right thing, so our war stories might be gory, well maybe not gory, but at least funny, but have a supernatural ending.
Since hindsight is always 20/20 (meaning when you look back on the past it is perfectly clear) you will see the power of God that was at work in and through our stories in such a way that when it came time for Liz and I to become life long partners in Kingdom service, our past pain and failures are being used to advance the Kingdom of God.
EARLY YEARS
I am a native to the state known as the arm pit of America. Does anybody know what state that is? New Jersey. I grew up in a multi-ethical city called Bloomfield, which bordered Newark, New Jersey. I grew up in your typical divorced family. My brother and I lived with my father at my grandparents house, but my grandparents were primarily the ones who took care of us…We attended the Catholic church pretty regularly…so when your grandparents take care of you…that means there are no rules, regulations, boundaries, curfews, schedules, and little money, but there was a lot of love from them…
ELEMENTARY YEARS
So my brother and I were off to the races at an early age…we began dating in elementary school, which is when we began to get sexually involved with girls…I was never told not to do what we were doing…But I knew one thing, sexual purity was uncool when I was growing up….I thought the goal of life was to be as sexually impure as possible…no one ever told me what was wrong or what was right….All I knew was that I had to have sex as soon as possible….or I was uncool…
HIGH SCHOOL YEARS
I didn’t have sex until was a junior in high school, but I was trying pretty hard…it just so happen that I lost my virginity to the girlfriend of someone real close to me…I would be lying if I told you it was not my brother, but it was, I stole his girl friend, not once but twice...You can see how warped I was, I didn’t even have a sense of commitment to my own brother let alone the girls I was with, but remember I was trying to lose my virginity, that was my goal, so with that as a goal in life, you will do just about anything, some of my friends even compromised in the looks department to do it…so this girl I stole from my brother ended up liking me, but I was interested in other things….
BMX STORY
The only reason I was not as interested as my other friends in being in a long term relationship was because I was into BMX Freestyle riding…my dream in life at the time was to become a professional, so I was willing to do whatever it took….so if it meant turning down all the girls who were chasing after me, I had to make the sacrifice…I was sponsored by the local bike shop, in semi-professional contests where I beat some professionals at the time, went to the best camp in the world, Woodward, road next to Dave Mira, shook Mat Hoffman’s hand, and the kids I road with are now some of the best in the world…But even with all of that going on in my life…I was not satisfied with life...
DRUG YEARS
This whole time I was riding I took it very serious, I was anti-drug, I was drug and alcohol free just like any other athlete who is serious, but remember I was not sex free, but drug free so with those feelings of un-satisfaction I opened the door for my first drink and first drug…I soon began doing more and more drugs and riding my bike less and less…until I stopped riding all together…the disasters of a life of drug addiction was disguised by fun…sin is always fun for a season…my season went too fast and before I knew it I was addicted to drugs…
ARRESTS
The beginning of my drug addiction began in my senior year of High school…that year I was an honor student: Yes your honor, no your honor, I will never do it again your honor!!...This is the time when I got arrested for being a street pharmacist (aka drug dealer)…and I asked my prom date from jail…I knew if I did not do it at that time she would have been taken, so I started to go to the best clubs in New York City…I quite my job and started selling drugs fulltime…I was making more money than some of my friends parents in High School…where there are drugs there are girls…my life became all about mastering the art of the hook up…I thought relationships were all about sex…if she did not put out, then it was time to move on…apparently I was not that good at it because I did not have close to the amount of girls under my belt then my friends…but that did not mean I stopped trying…the more money I made selling drugs the more problems I had…I became my best customer which means I got addicted to the drugs I was selling…the girl who I had lost my virginity to when I was 16 won some money in a law suit and my brother started going out with her again…and guess what I did? I stole her again from him…I did it for the money…so we ended up together, she started doing drugs and for the next 2 and half years, I was in and out of jail 15 times, I got over 30 traffic tickets, two of my best friends died, many of my friends went to jail, some for 10 years, 10 years, 5 years and on, I over dosed once, I think, and finally found myself in jail with a 15,000 cash bail, with no were to turn, the day before I had court my lawyer came to visit me and said, the best we can do is 3 years, all of a sudden my life flashed before my eyes and I said, whatever, went back to my cell and the next day when I went to court to sign the plea bargain, securing my spot in a NJ state prison for the next 3 years..
TEEN CHALLNEGE
My dad came to court on my behalf with an application for Teen Challenge. TC is a Christian drug and alcohol program and before I even got into the court room, my dad made a deal with the prosecutor...and I was off to TC…the TC I went to in Syracuse, NY happened to be the only TC in the country this judge would let people go to…so instead of going to prison for 3 years I went to TC for 1 year…When I went there, after being in jail for 4 months, on my first day I asked what do you do here anyways…The man said, we serve Jesus for breakfast, Jesus for lunch and Jesus for dinner…I told the guy, I am not hungry… for 6 months I resisted and fought against…when I think back….my biggest problem those 6 months with surrendering my life to God was not the drug and alcohol problem, or the stealing problem I had or the anger issues I struggled with, but the sexual ties I made before TC, that was my biggest struggle…I did not want to give up sex for God…I battled with that for months…and when I think back on my life it was my bad choices in that arena that almost caused me to leave the program and go back to jail…but after 6 months of torturing myself, fighting against God’s calling on my life, I surrendered to His plan, I gave up the internal battles I was having, and let him direct me, because the Lord knows, I could not do it myself…
VFCC
Soon after I began to follow Christ, I felt Him calling to follow him in fulltime ministry…He told me I was going to become a pastor who starts lots of churches…so ever since that day in the TC chapel I have been on a mission to do just that…He delivered me from drugs and alcohol, I have never even thought about doing them since that day, which was over 6 years ago, so I figured out I had to go to college and get some kind of training if I was going to become a pastor and church planter, so I applied to one school and got accepted to one school, and that school was VFCC…And do you remember how I said I was a honor student in High School: Yes your honor, no your honor, I will never do it again your honor, well in college I graduated on top of my class with a 4.0…
LIZ’S STORY (From VFCC to Today)
(JESS)—SEXUAL PUITY PROBLEMS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH
There is a church in the Bible that struggled with the same thing we are talking about today...If you think its too late to do the right thing in your life, I want you to hold that thought for a few moments, because if you think its too late for you to get on the right track, then it would have been impossible the Corinthian Church to turn it around and do the right thing. Did you know that the city of Corinth was famous for their sex?...Corinth was a lot like Las Vegas today, but what a bummer to be know for your sex, I guess its better than, being known for CHEESE, like Wisconsin, or maybe not!!!...This city was so sexually immoral that the term “To Corinthenize” means to be sexually immoral…These people were messed up….The apostle Paul came into town and saw a huge ministry opportunity so he started a church….So guess what the churches number one problem was? Can anybody guess? SEX…So Paul got a group, probably with a good majority who struggled with sexual immorality to come to this new church. The reason they struggled some much with sexual purity in this new church was because the other religions in Corinth allowed their congregants to be sexual immortal behavior...They actually thought they were worshipping their many gods by having sex in the temple…Sounds crazy to us today, but back then it was normal, farmers in those days, would pay a temple priests and this priest would bring you to a prostitute and the farmer would have sex with her. What these farmers were doing, was making symbolic statements to their false gods… They were saying, I am your man, I identify with you and so in doing this these farmers believed the god of the sky would send down rain or the god of the ground would make their crops grow… It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to diagnose this problem…They believed sexually immoral behaviors pleased the gods…They thought worshiping god involved sex with a pagan temple prostitutes…Let’s just say, if anyone has reason to think its too late to do the right thing, it would be them…
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20
(JOKE) Paul writes them and says, Hi, dudes and dudet’s wake up and smell the coffee! You probably didn’t know Paul talked like that--it’s in the GREEK, just joking!!!! But Paul did say in 1 Cor. 6:12--“Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything.”
1. (LIZ) The Difference Between the “Permissible Question” & the “Beneficial Question”:
I think part of the problem in the Corinthian Church was they were asking the wrong questions. If you ask the wrong questions you will always get the wrong answer. But if you ask the right question, your chances of getting the right answer are now in your favor.
They were asking the PERMISSIBLE QUESTION…The permissible question goes like this…How far is too far? How far can I mess around with my girlfriend/boyfriend and not sin? How close is to close? How close can I go and still be okay? It’s not a bad question, I asked it myself, but I want to suggest the permissible question is the wrong the question to ask.
The better question is what is beneficial for me? The beneficial question is the right question to ask. It goes like this: What is going to most honor God? Sounds easy…Not really…This is the problem we face, because instead of doing what honors God, we find ourselves on the edge of the fence tittering because we went too far. We hung out on the fence too long and fell on the wrong side.
Sometimes we even try to justify our sexual sin and try to rationalize it…I have heard people misquote Jesus to justify their sinful behavior…Most of you probably remember Jesus’ famous stance against mental adultery.
Jesus said, in Matthew 5:27, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
This is how they rationalize it…They say, if I am thinking it then Jesus says I have already sinned so I might as well go head and do it…That does not make much sense to me…Does that mean if you are angry with your brother or sister and you sin in your heart, should you go and kill them? NO, well at least don’t kill me!!
If you lust in your heart, that is your problem, but if you go and commit phycial adultery now two people are directly involved and most times lots more.
The bottom line is the extent to which you show integrity before marriage is the extent to which you can be trusted after you are married….It’s never too late to do the right thing!
2. (JESS) The Purpose for the “Beneficial Question”:
(THE MESSAGE)—1 Cor. 6:14-15—“God honored Jesus’ body by raising it from the grave. He'll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as Jesus’ body. You wouldn't take Jesus’ body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.”
You might be thinking, why should I ask the beneficial question? Well I’m glad you asked!! The main reason Paul encouraged the Corinthians to ask the beneficial question instead of the permissible question was because of the sin they were committing directly affected their bodies. You might be thinking, what do our bodies have to do with it? Well, again, I am glad you asked!!!! Our bodies have everything to do with sexual purity. I never had a clue before I started to follow Christ that my body was important…I didn’t think what I did in my body mattered to anyone let alone GOD…The thing is, if you don’t see the value God created you with, then it doesn’t matter what I say next because 7 nice little neat action steps that all begin with the same letter, will not make a difference in the world to you…Sexual purity is part of who God created us to be…Lets take a look at God’s plan for your B-O-D-Y.
INTRODUCTION TO THE B-O-D-Y:
(LIZ) (1) BEAR the Image of God!
Genesis 1:26-27 “God said, "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
We were created in the “image and likeness” of God…Image and likeness are synonyms that tell us the physical form of our human body bears the divine image of God…We know this is true because in the Ancient Near Eastern culture, archeologists have found an inscription on a statue of an Assyrian king from 1000 B.C with the same words, “image and likeness”…So when something is in the image and likeness of something else, it resembles that something else...A famous example of this is King Tut. His name literally meant “the living image of the god.” Kings reflected the god they represented, so if you wanted to know what a particular god was like, you looked at the king…The same is true for us, His image bearers, when people want to see what God is like they are to look at you and see God…We were created to represent God on earth…Our physical bodies are a reflection of God…Our bodies have a divine purpose on this earth…You reflect GOD-Likeness to the world around you, you carry his message in your body….Sexual purity is more of an issue of our bodies than it is sex….so its never too late to do the right thing!
(JESS) (2) OFFER your body to God!
Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”
The end result of the beneficial question is worship…ALL OF LIFE IS WORSHIP…and since life is experienced through our body…what we do in our body has the potential to worship God or the potential to disgrace God …Our relationships, friendships, and those people we date dating are all part of the “ALL.”
The way we treat our bodies and allow others to treat our bodies has an effect on our ability to worship God because what we do in our bodies will either please or displease God…God designed our bodies so that we can be a living, not dead sacrifice so that we can offer Him our bodies as our spiritual act of worship.
A key phrase in this verse is “in view of God’s mercy”….God’s mercy is what HE has done for us even though we did not deserve it…God’s greatest act of mercy is displayed for us on the cross through the death and resurrection of Jesus…God gave His all that day and so should we do the same in response to God’s mercy.
(STORY) “God wants our bodies, not our money or time…He wants our first, not our last…He wants our best, not our leftovers…I want to share a story I cam across about a Scottish woman who met Queen Mary. (READ) The Queen made it her practice to visit Scotland every year. She was so loved by the people there that she often mingled with them freely without a protective escort. One afternoon while walking with some children, she went out farther than she’d planned. Dark clouds came up unexpectedly, so she stopped at a nearby house to borrow an umbrella. “If you will lend me one,” she said to the lady who answered the door, “I will send it back to you tomorrow.” The woman didn’t recognize the Queen and was reluctant to give this stranger her best umbrella. So she handed her one that she intended to throw away. The fabric was torn in several places and one of the ribs was broken. The next day another knock was heard at the door. When the lady opened it, she was greeted by a royal guard, who was holding in her hand her old, tattered umbrella. “The Queen sent me,” he said. “She asked me to thank you for loaning her this.” For a moment the woman was stunned, then, she burst into tears. “Oh, what an opportunity I missed,” she cried. “I didn’t give the Queen my very best! I want you to ask yourself, are you presenting God "useless umbrellas" or your best? Is Your All on the Altar? Because if its not, it’s never too late to do the right thing!
(LIZ) (3) DEVOTE Your Life to Sexual Purity!
Ephesians 5:3 “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.”
God’s standards are higher than the watered downed standards of the world….He says, “There must not be even a hint of sexual immorality…” One thing I know, God will never set a standard that we could not meet with His help…It is possible to live a life without a hint of sexual immorality…The reason we emphasis, sexual purity here is because your dating relationships will never make it, if both you and your significant other are not pursing sexual purity above all else…Do whatever it takes to be sexually pure!...Don’t ever quit trying…Sometimes you have to be radical when it comes to maintaining sexual purity in an impure society like we live in today...
(JESS) THE CALL TO CUT OFF:
Jesus said some radical things when it came to sin…Listen to this: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30).
Don’t worry, you don’t have to literally gouge your eyes out or cut off your hands, unless you think it will help!!! Only joking!!! Jesus is speaking metaphorically here, not literally. He has called us to cut off whatever it is that causes us to struggle and/or fall into sin.
If it is Myspace or Facebook, CUT IT OFF, if you are a cyber flirt, CUT IT OFF, if it is the girls at the mall or the guys at school, CUT IT OFF, if it is the clothes you wear, cut it off (not cut them off, but you know what I mean), if it is movies and/or TV shows you watch, CUT IT OFF, if it is pornographic materials you own, CUT IT OFF, if it is the internet, CUT IT OFF.
If you don’t know exactly how to CUT IT OFF, we are going to set you up with a plan of attack….These action points, if applied, can help you CUT IT OFF, before you are cut off by sin.
(JESS) (1) Guard Your Eyes: The battle for sexual purity is won or lost in your mind…Job did something remarkable in the midst of his great suffering….He made a covenant with his eyes… Job 31:1 says, “I made a covenant with my eyes, not to look lustfully at a girl.” If you struggle in this area…don’t worry because most guys do, then I want to encourage you to do the same thing ….Make a covenant between you and God not to look lustfully at anyone…A great trick I learned is to bounce your eyes…Looking is not the problem, but staring is…Bounce your eyes to the ceiling or to the floor, make a habit to bounce your eyes when ever a girl or guy is headed for you…it is not rude to look away…it is better you look away from that person then undress then in your mind…
(LIZ) (2) Get Help: Just as it’s never too late to do the right thing, it’s never too late to get help…Asking for help is a sign of strength not weakness. .Since out enemy, Satan, wants us to be in secret with our sin, He will make us feel like it is a sign of weakness to get help, but the truth is most likely you will not be free until you get help and confess your sin to someone.
(JESS) (3) Share the 10%--It is easy to share with your parents, how your day went at school, or how much money you want so that you can buy a new video game or how many Christmas presents you can’t live without, those surface things make up the 90% of information we give our parents, it is easy to share the 90%, but when it comes to the big issues, the 10%, its hard, like dating, alcohol, drugs, or whatever it is you are struggling with…(ILLUSTRATION)—In High School, my best friend BRUCE, had a drug problem. He had this problem all through high school, and never shared it with his mom, he never shared the 10% and he died from an overdose….Share whatever your 10% is with someone you trust like your parents, your pastor, a teacher. Remembers, it’s never too late to do the right thing!
(LIZ) (4) Re-establish Sexual Boundaries: Some of you might feel like you are too far gone and there is no hope for you, it’s too late to make things right in your relationship… You might think to yourself, how in the world am I ever going to put this one in reverse? You might think just because you have been having sex for a while now with you girlfriend or boyfriend, it is hopeless….Just because it is hard and you failed 10,000 times doesn’t mean you don’t have to establish new boundaries or reestablish your old boundaries…If you have to go cold turkey, you have to do what you have to do, sometimes there is no other way to establish or reestablish boundaries. …We would encourage you to fast so that you can accumulate enough spiritual strength to stand up against this problem….fast whatever you are struggling with because what you feed grows and what you starve dies and if you starve whatever it is that causes that sexual desire, it will eventually die…then have measures in place to handle it after the fast…don’t let the enemy discourage you. . if you fail, confess, repent and keep moving in the right direction…sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is keep trying . . God loves you perfectly before you accepted Him as He does now that you have accepted Him in your life. . God is honored when His children move towards the standards he set because it’s never to late to do the right thing!
(JESS) (4) YOUR Body is a Temple!
1 Corinthians 6:19--“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
Paul used present tense language. He did not say, do you not know that your bodies “were” temples of the Holy Spirit. He never questioned their salvation despite all the sexual sin they were presently participating in. He said YOU ARE and still are temples of the Holy Spirit and continue to be temples of the Holy Spirit…What I found interesting here is that PAUL compared these sexually impure people to holy temples. This is very significant because a temple was a holy place, a place where gods lived, a place where heaven and earth intersected….The Greek word Paul used for temple here is extremely important. There are two words used for temple in the NT. One describes the outside of the temple, where common people dwell and the other, this word for temple, naos, describes the inside of the temple, where God dwells. They called this place the Holy of Holies. What this means is that our bodies are the HOLY of HOLIES, a place reserved only for God, a place of purity and holiness and each one of us is exactly that. We are the HOLY of HOLIES.
I bet the Corinthian Church had a hard time accepting this teaching for the first time. Remember they did not just sin once in awhile, but they practically turned their church into the PLAYBOY mansion and now they know, their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, the HOLY of HOLIES. I bet they must have felt a tremendous amount of guilt and shame, since they have been mistreating these gifts, their bodies that God had given them….They might have even felt they do not deserve a second chance too do the right thing.
(PICK UP THE BOX & BEGIN RIPPING)
You might be sitting here today, feeling the same way some of the people in the Corinthian church felt, ashamed, guilt, broken, hurt, immoral, you name it I felt it...I too had a hard time accepting this teaching…You might think you can never do it right, or that you can never be pure again because of your past relationships, (RIP), your past sexual experiences (RIP) or even the present relationships you are in (RIP). You might think you don’t even deserve to even do the right thing because you been doing the wrong thing for so long (RIP). You also might be thinking, I understand God gave me my body and yes, I do realize it is a gift from Him, but now, because of all the impure, immoral things you have done, your think your gift is damaged goods (RIP). You also might think, since the gift that GOD gave you, was not protected and because you crossed the line of sexual impurity (RIP) there is no way to put it in reverse and take, the gift, GOD gave you, your body, and live a pure life…I am here to tell you its never too late to do the right thing because….
(OPEN THE BOX)
There is good news for all of us, “With God, failure doesn’t have to be final.” You are a treasured possession in God’s sight. You are pure in His eyes; all of your sin does not change how HE sees you and how He loves you. He never took HIS eyes off you and never will. His hand has been upon you and that is why you are here today. You are PURE in His sight and are valuable in HIS hand. HE has a new gift for each of you. You are valuable and significant. He has cleaned your slate and given each of you a fresh start and anew opportunity awaits each of you to take YOUR gift of purity and from this day forward and use it to worship god and serve others…PURITY is a gift, and each one here is welcomed to a second chance. “With God, failure doesn’t have to be final.” It is never too late to do the right thing…God’s grace is sufficient for you and your situation…Remember our body is a gift from GOD, but what we do with that gift is our gift to God.
INTRODUCTION:
Welcome everyone one, introduce myself and Liz, if you have any questions, at the end, if we have time, we will try our best to answer them and PRAY.
The title of our talk is, “It’s never too late to do the right thing.” Let me premise this by saying, “It’s always better to do the right thing first!” It’s always better to learn from other people’s mistakes and failures, not to make your own…Maturity is learning what not to do, from those who have done, what not to do!
We were asked in a nice way as you can see from the title of our talk to share with you the good, the bad and the ugly from our past dating relationships, which means we are the couple with the best relationship horror stories to tell. (And yes, I did go to the prom with the girl I asked from jail, don’t ask me why she said yes, but she did.)
And it is true; we do have a couple stories to tell, because before I met Christ and then finally my wife, I was a dating catastrophe. As you will hear in a few moments, I messed up big time in a lot of ways, but God through his grace, His undeserved favor, gave me a second chance to do the right thing, so our war stories might be gory, well maybe not gory, but at least funny, but have a supernatural ending.
Since hindsight is always 20/20 (meaning when you look back on the past it is perfectly clear) you will see the power of God that was at work in and through our stories in such a way that when it came time for Liz and I to become life long partners in Kingdom service, our past pain and failures are being used to advance the Kingdom of God.
EARLY YEARS
I am a native to the state known as the arm pit of America. Does anybody know what state that is? New Jersey. I grew up in a multi-ethical city called Bloomfield, which bordered Newark, New Jersey. I grew up in your typical divorced family. My brother and I lived with my father at my grandparents house, but my grandparents were primarily the ones who took care of us…We attended the Catholic church pretty regularly…so when your grandparents take care of you…that means there are no rules, regulations, boundaries, curfews, schedules, and little money, but there was a lot of love from them…
ELEMENTARY YEARS
So my brother and I were off to the races at an early age…we began dating in elementary school, which is when we began to get sexually involved with girls…I was never told not to do what we were doing…But I knew one thing, sexual purity was uncool when I was growing up….I thought the goal of life was to be as sexually impure as possible…no one ever told me what was wrong or what was right….All I knew was that I had to have sex as soon as possible….or I was uncool…
HIGH SCHOOL YEARS
I didn’t have sex until was a junior in high school, but I was trying pretty hard…it just so happen that I lost my virginity to the girlfriend of someone real close to me…I would be lying if I told you it was not my brother, but it was, I stole his girl friend, not once but twice...You can see how warped I was, I didn’t even have a sense of commitment to my own brother let alone the girls I was with, but remember I was trying to lose my virginity, that was my goal, so with that as a goal in life, you will do just about anything, some of my friends even compromised in the looks department to do it…so this girl I stole from my brother ended up liking me, but I was interested in other things….
BMX STORY
The only reason I was not as interested as my other friends in being in a long term relationship was because I was into BMX Freestyle riding…my dream in life at the time was to become a professional, so I was willing to do whatever it took….so if it meant turning down all the girls who were chasing after me, I had to make the sacrifice…I was sponsored by the local bike shop, in semi-professional contests where I beat some professionals at the time, went to the best camp in the world, Woodward, road next to Dave Mira, shook Mat Hoffman’s hand, and the kids I road with are now some of the best in the world…But even with all of that going on in my life…I was not satisfied with life...
DRUG YEARS
This whole time I was riding I took it very serious, I was anti-drug, I was drug and alcohol free just like any other athlete who is serious, but remember I was not sex free, but drug free so with those feelings of un-satisfaction I opened the door for my first drink and first drug…I soon began doing more and more drugs and riding my bike less and less…until I stopped riding all together…the disasters of a life of drug addiction was disguised by fun…sin is always fun for a season…my season went too fast and before I knew it I was addicted to drugs…
ARRESTS
The beginning of my drug addiction began in my senior year of High school…that year I was an honor student: Yes your honor, no your honor, I will never do it again your honor!!...This is the time when I got arrested for being a street pharmacist (aka drug dealer)…and I asked my prom date from jail…I knew if I did not do it at that time she would have been taken, so I started to go to the best clubs in New York City…I quite my job and started selling drugs fulltime…I was making more money than some of my friends parents in High School…where there are drugs there are girls…my life became all about mastering the art of the hook up…I thought relationships were all about sex…if she did not put out, then it was time to move on…apparently I was not that good at it because I did not have close to the amount of girls under my belt then my friends…but that did not mean I stopped trying…the more money I made selling drugs the more problems I had…I became my best customer which means I got addicted to the drugs I was selling…the girl who I had lost my virginity to when I was 16 won some money in a law suit and my brother started going out with her again…and guess what I did? I stole her again from him…I did it for the money…so we ended up together, she started doing drugs and for the next 2 and half years, I was in and out of jail 15 times, I got over 30 traffic tickets, two of my best friends died, many of my friends went to jail, some for 10 years, 10 years, 5 years and on, I over dosed once, I think, and finally found myself in jail with a 15,000 cash bail, with no were to turn, the day before I had court my lawyer came to visit me and said, the best we can do is 3 years, all of a sudden my life flashed before my eyes and I said, whatever, went back to my cell and the next day when I went to court to sign the plea bargain, securing my spot in a NJ state prison for the next 3 years..
TEEN CHALLNEGE
My dad came to court on my behalf with an application for Teen Challenge. TC is a Christian drug and alcohol program and before I even got into the court room, my dad made a deal with the prosecutor...and I was off to TC…the TC I went to in Syracuse, NY happened to be the only TC in the country this judge would let people go to…so instead of going to prison for 3 years I went to TC for 1 year…When I went there, after being in jail for 4 months, on my first day I asked what do you do here anyways…The man said, we serve Jesus for breakfast, Jesus for lunch and Jesus for dinner…I told the guy, I am not hungry… for 6 months I resisted and fought against…when I think back….my biggest problem those 6 months with surrendering my life to God was not the drug and alcohol problem, or the stealing problem I had or the anger issues I struggled with, but the sexual ties I made before TC, that was my biggest struggle…I did not want to give up sex for God…I battled with that for months…and when I think back on my life it was my bad choices in that arena that almost caused me to leave the program and go back to jail…but after 6 months of torturing myself, fighting against God’s calling on my life, I surrendered to His plan, I gave up the internal battles I was having, and let him direct me, because the Lord knows, I could not do it myself…
VFCC
Soon after I began to follow Christ, I felt Him calling to follow him in fulltime ministry…He told me I was going to become a pastor who starts lots of churches…so ever since that day in the TC chapel I have been on a mission to do just that…He delivered me from drugs and alcohol, I have never even thought about doing them since that day, which was over 6 years ago, so I figured out I had to go to college and get some kind of training if I was going to become a pastor and church planter, so I applied to one school and got accepted to one school, and that school was VFCC…And do you remember how I said I was a honor student in High School: Yes your honor, no your honor, I will never do it again your honor, well in college I graduated on top of my class with a 4.0…
LIZ’S STORY (From VFCC to Today)
(JESS)—SEXUAL PUITY PROBLEMS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH
There is a church in the Bible that struggled with the same thing we are talking about today...If you think its too late to do the right thing in your life, I want you to hold that thought for a few moments, because if you think its too late for you to get on the right track, then it would have been impossible the Corinthian Church to turn it around and do the right thing. Did you know that the city of Corinth was famous for their sex?...Corinth was a lot like Las Vegas today, but what a bummer to be know for your sex, I guess its better than, being known for CHEESE, like Wisconsin, or maybe not!!!...This city was so sexually immoral that the term “To Corinthenize” means to be sexually immoral…These people were messed up….The apostle Paul came into town and saw a huge ministry opportunity so he started a church….So guess what the churches number one problem was? Can anybody guess? SEX…So Paul got a group, probably with a good majority who struggled with sexual immorality to come to this new church. The reason they struggled some much with sexual purity in this new church was because the other religions in Corinth allowed their congregants to be sexual immortal behavior...They actually thought they were worshipping their many gods by having sex in the temple…Sounds crazy to us today, but back then it was normal, farmers in those days, would pay a temple priests and this priest would bring you to a prostitute and the farmer would have sex with her. What these farmers were doing, was making symbolic statements to their false gods… They were saying, I am your man, I identify with you and so in doing this these farmers believed the god of the sky would send down rain or the god of the ground would make their crops grow… It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to diagnose this problem…They believed sexually immoral behaviors pleased the gods…They thought worshiping god involved sex with a pagan temple prostitutes…Let’s just say, if anyone has reason to think its too late to do the right thing, it would be them…
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20
(JOKE) Paul writes them and says, Hi, dudes and dudet’s wake up and smell the coffee! You probably didn’t know Paul talked like that--it’s in the GREEK, just joking!!!! But Paul did say in 1 Cor. 6:12--“Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything.”
1. (LIZ) The Difference Between the “Permissible Question” & the “Beneficial Question”:
I think part of the problem in the Corinthian Church was they were asking the wrong questions. If you ask the wrong questions you will always get the wrong answer. But if you ask the right question, your chances of getting the right answer are now in your favor.
They were asking the PERMISSIBLE QUESTION…The permissible question goes like this…How far is too far? How far can I mess around with my girlfriend/boyfriend and not sin? How close is to close? How close can I go and still be okay? It’s not a bad question, I asked it myself, but I want to suggest the permissible question is the wrong the question to ask.
The better question is what is beneficial for me? The beneficial question is the right question to ask. It goes like this: What is going to most honor God? Sounds easy…Not really…This is the problem we face, because instead of doing what honors God, we find ourselves on the edge of the fence tittering because we went too far. We hung out on the fence too long and fell on the wrong side.
Sometimes we even try to justify our sexual sin and try to rationalize it…I have heard people misquote Jesus to justify their sinful behavior…Most of you probably remember Jesus’ famous stance against mental adultery.
Jesus said, in Matthew 5:27, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
This is how they rationalize it…They say, if I am thinking it then Jesus says I have already sinned so I might as well go head and do it…That does not make much sense to me…Does that mean if you are angry with your brother or sister and you sin in your heart, should you go and kill them? NO, well at least don’t kill me!!
If you lust in your heart, that is your problem, but if you go and commit phycial adultery now two people are directly involved and most times lots more.
The bottom line is the extent to which you show integrity before marriage is the extent to which you can be trusted after you are married….It’s never too late to do the right thing!
2. (JESS) The Purpose for the “Beneficial Question”:
(THE MESSAGE)—1 Cor. 6:14-15—“God honored Jesus’ body by raising it from the grave. He'll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as Jesus’ body. You wouldn't take Jesus’ body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.”
You might be thinking, why should I ask the beneficial question? Well I’m glad you asked!! The main reason Paul encouraged the Corinthians to ask the beneficial question instead of the permissible question was because of the sin they were committing directly affected their bodies. You might be thinking, what do our bodies have to do with it? Well, again, I am glad you asked!!!! Our bodies have everything to do with sexual purity. I never had a clue before I started to follow Christ that my body was important…I didn’t think what I did in my body mattered to anyone let alone GOD…The thing is, if you don’t see the value God created you with, then it doesn’t matter what I say next because 7 nice little neat action steps that all begin with the same letter, will not make a difference in the world to you…Sexual purity is part of who God created us to be…Lets take a look at God’s plan for your B-O-D-Y.
INTRODUCTION TO THE B-O-D-Y:
(LIZ) (1) BEAR the Image of God!
Genesis 1:26-27 “God said, "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
We were created in the “image and likeness” of God…Image and likeness are synonyms that tell us the physical form of our human body bears the divine image of God…We know this is true because in the Ancient Near Eastern culture, archeologists have found an inscription on a statue of an Assyrian king from 1000 B.C with the same words, “image and likeness”…So when something is in the image and likeness of something else, it resembles that something else...A famous example of this is King Tut. His name literally meant “the living image of the god.” Kings reflected the god they represented, so if you wanted to know what a particular god was like, you looked at the king…The same is true for us, His image bearers, when people want to see what God is like they are to look at you and see God…We were created to represent God on earth…Our physical bodies are a reflection of God…Our bodies have a divine purpose on this earth…You reflect GOD-Likeness to the world around you, you carry his message in your body….Sexual purity is more of an issue of our bodies than it is sex….so its never too late to do the right thing!
(JESS) (2) OFFER your body to God!
Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”
The end result of the beneficial question is worship…ALL OF LIFE IS WORSHIP…and since life is experienced through our body…what we do in our body has the potential to worship God or the potential to disgrace God …Our relationships, friendships, and those people we date dating are all part of the “ALL.”
The way we treat our bodies and allow others to treat our bodies has an effect on our ability to worship God because what we do in our bodies will either please or displease God…God designed our bodies so that we can be a living, not dead sacrifice so that we can offer Him our bodies as our spiritual act of worship.
A key phrase in this verse is “in view of God’s mercy”….God’s mercy is what HE has done for us even though we did not deserve it…God’s greatest act of mercy is displayed for us on the cross through the death and resurrection of Jesus…God gave His all that day and so should we do the same in response to God’s mercy.
(STORY) “God wants our bodies, not our money or time…He wants our first, not our last…He wants our best, not our leftovers…I want to share a story I cam across about a Scottish woman who met Queen Mary. (READ) The Queen made it her practice to visit Scotland every year. She was so loved by the people there that she often mingled with them freely without a protective escort. One afternoon while walking with some children, she went out farther than she’d planned. Dark clouds came up unexpectedly, so she stopped at a nearby house to borrow an umbrella. “If you will lend me one,” she said to the lady who answered the door, “I will send it back to you tomorrow.” The woman didn’t recognize the Queen and was reluctant to give this stranger her best umbrella. So she handed her one that she intended to throw away. The fabric was torn in several places and one of the ribs was broken. The next day another knock was heard at the door. When the lady opened it, she was greeted by a royal guard, who was holding in her hand her old, tattered umbrella. “The Queen sent me,” he said. “She asked me to thank you for loaning her this.” For a moment the woman was stunned, then, she burst into tears. “Oh, what an opportunity I missed,” she cried. “I didn’t give the Queen my very best! I want you to ask yourself, are you presenting God "useless umbrellas" or your best? Is Your All on the Altar? Because if its not, it’s never too late to do the right thing!
(LIZ) (3) DEVOTE Your Life to Sexual Purity!
Ephesians 5:3 “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.”
God’s standards are higher than the watered downed standards of the world….He says, “There must not be even a hint of sexual immorality…” One thing I know, God will never set a standard that we could not meet with His help…It is possible to live a life without a hint of sexual immorality…The reason we emphasis, sexual purity here is because your dating relationships will never make it, if both you and your significant other are not pursing sexual purity above all else…Do whatever it takes to be sexually pure!...Don’t ever quit trying…Sometimes you have to be radical when it comes to maintaining sexual purity in an impure society like we live in today...
(JESS) THE CALL TO CUT OFF:
Jesus said some radical things when it came to sin…Listen to this: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30).
Don’t worry, you don’t have to literally gouge your eyes out or cut off your hands, unless you think it will help!!! Only joking!!! Jesus is speaking metaphorically here, not literally. He has called us to cut off whatever it is that causes us to struggle and/or fall into sin.
If it is Myspace or Facebook, CUT IT OFF, if you are a cyber flirt, CUT IT OFF, if it is the girls at the mall or the guys at school, CUT IT OFF, if it is the clothes you wear, cut it off (not cut them off, but you know what I mean), if it is movies and/or TV shows you watch, CUT IT OFF, if it is pornographic materials you own, CUT IT OFF, if it is the internet, CUT IT OFF.
If you don’t know exactly how to CUT IT OFF, we are going to set you up with a plan of attack….These action points, if applied, can help you CUT IT OFF, before you are cut off by sin.
(JESS) (1) Guard Your Eyes: The battle for sexual purity is won or lost in your mind…Job did something remarkable in the midst of his great suffering….He made a covenant with his eyes… Job 31:1 says, “I made a covenant with my eyes, not to look lustfully at a girl.” If you struggle in this area…don’t worry because most guys do, then I want to encourage you to do the same thing ….Make a covenant between you and God not to look lustfully at anyone…A great trick I learned is to bounce your eyes…Looking is not the problem, but staring is…Bounce your eyes to the ceiling or to the floor, make a habit to bounce your eyes when ever a girl or guy is headed for you…it is not rude to look away…it is better you look away from that person then undress then in your mind…
(LIZ) (2) Get Help: Just as it’s never too late to do the right thing, it’s never too late to get help…Asking for help is a sign of strength not weakness. .Since out enemy, Satan, wants us to be in secret with our sin, He will make us feel like it is a sign of weakness to get help, but the truth is most likely you will not be free until you get help and confess your sin to someone.
(JESS) (3) Share the 10%--It is easy to share with your parents, how your day went at school, or how much money you want so that you can buy a new video game or how many Christmas presents you can’t live without, those surface things make up the 90% of information we give our parents, it is easy to share the 90%, but when it comes to the big issues, the 10%, its hard, like dating, alcohol, drugs, or whatever it is you are struggling with…(ILLUSTRATION)—In High School, my best friend BRUCE, had a drug problem. He had this problem all through high school, and never shared it with his mom, he never shared the 10% and he died from an overdose….Share whatever your 10% is with someone you trust like your parents, your pastor, a teacher. Remembers, it’s never too late to do the right thing!
(LIZ) (4) Re-establish Sexual Boundaries: Some of you might feel like you are too far gone and there is no hope for you, it’s too late to make things right in your relationship… You might think to yourself, how in the world am I ever going to put this one in reverse? You might think just because you have been having sex for a while now with you girlfriend or boyfriend, it is hopeless….Just because it is hard and you failed 10,000 times doesn’t mean you don’t have to establish new boundaries or reestablish your old boundaries…If you have to go cold turkey, you have to do what you have to do, sometimes there is no other way to establish or reestablish boundaries. …We would encourage you to fast so that you can accumulate enough spiritual strength to stand up against this problem….fast whatever you are struggling with because what you feed grows and what you starve dies and if you starve whatever it is that causes that sexual desire, it will eventually die…then have measures in place to handle it after the fast…don’t let the enemy discourage you. . if you fail, confess, repent and keep moving in the right direction…sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is keep trying . . God loves you perfectly before you accepted Him as He does now that you have accepted Him in your life. . God is honored when His children move towards the standards he set because it’s never to late to do the right thing!
(JESS) (4) YOUR Body is a Temple!
1 Corinthians 6:19--“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
Paul used present tense language. He did not say, do you not know that your bodies “were” temples of the Holy Spirit. He never questioned their salvation despite all the sexual sin they were presently participating in. He said YOU ARE and still are temples of the Holy Spirit and continue to be temples of the Holy Spirit…What I found interesting here is that PAUL compared these sexually impure people to holy temples. This is very significant because a temple was a holy place, a place where gods lived, a place where heaven and earth intersected….The Greek word Paul used for temple here is extremely important. There are two words used for temple in the NT. One describes the outside of the temple, where common people dwell and the other, this word for temple, naos, describes the inside of the temple, where God dwells. They called this place the Holy of Holies. What this means is that our bodies are the HOLY of HOLIES, a place reserved only for God, a place of purity and holiness and each one of us is exactly that. We are the HOLY of HOLIES.
I bet the Corinthian Church had a hard time accepting this teaching for the first time. Remember they did not just sin once in awhile, but they practically turned their church into the PLAYBOY mansion and now they know, their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, the HOLY of HOLIES. I bet they must have felt a tremendous amount of guilt and shame, since they have been mistreating these gifts, their bodies that God had given them….They might have even felt they do not deserve a second chance too do the right thing.
(PICK UP THE BOX & BEGIN RIPPING)
You might be sitting here today, feeling the same way some of the people in the Corinthian church felt, ashamed, guilt, broken, hurt, immoral, you name it I felt it...I too had a hard time accepting this teaching…You might think you can never do it right, or that you can never be pure again because of your past relationships, (RIP), your past sexual experiences (RIP) or even the present relationships you are in (RIP). You might think you don’t even deserve to even do the right thing because you been doing the wrong thing for so long (RIP). You also might be thinking, I understand God gave me my body and yes, I do realize it is a gift from Him, but now, because of all the impure, immoral things you have done, your think your gift is damaged goods (RIP). You also might think, since the gift that GOD gave you, was not protected and because you crossed the line of sexual impurity (RIP) there is no way to put it in reverse and take, the gift, GOD gave you, your body, and live a pure life…I am here to tell you its never too late to do the right thing because….
(OPEN THE BOX)
There is good news for all of us, “With God, failure doesn’t have to be final.” You are a treasured possession in God’s sight. You are pure in His eyes; all of your sin does not change how HE sees you and how He loves you. He never took HIS eyes off you and never will. His hand has been upon you and that is why you are here today. You are PURE in His sight and are valuable in HIS hand. HE has a new gift for each of you. You are valuable and significant. He has cleaned your slate and given each of you a fresh start and anew opportunity awaits each of you to take YOUR gift of purity and from this day forward and use it to worship god and serve others…PURITY is a gift, and each one here is welcomed to a second chance. “With God, failure doesn’t have to be final.” It is never too late to do the right thing…God’s grace is sufficient for you and your situation…Remember our body is a gift from GOD, but what we do with that gift is our gift to God.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Church and Culture-Essay 5
The Resurrected Matrix: The Kingdom of God
We live a world within a world. There is the cosmos, God’s creation, and there is culture, man’s creation. Today, culture, not cosmos, is what defines reality at any given moment in history. The cosmos itself does not define the world, but the images, ideas and institutions the people who inhabit the world discover, market, and institutionalize. What happens when our images, ideas and institutions undermine the world? What happens when the culture humans created is so far from the reality God created? How do you expose the destructive cultural patterns the culture has embraced as normative? Those who live and breathe the culture are the most blinded by its subtle chaotic messages. In order to expose the lies of today’s culture and resurrect the Kingdom matrix, the influencers must be influenced by counter-cultural influencers, the cultural lies must be attacked, but not those who embody the lies, and a new cultural force must partner with the existing cultural influencers or gatekeepers so that the lies of culture are pushed out to the margins and replaced by the new reality or matrix that has been marginalized.
Those inside the culture are the influenced. Their opinions don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Their job is to consume the material and moral culture. Like worker bees, the consumer’s job is to go out and make a paycheck and then bring it to the queen bees (or the stores that are strategically placed all through out culture). The only say, the worker bees have is who they are going to be influenced by. What brands (materials) are they going to wear, what computers are they going to buzz about? What cell phone are they going to text from? The moral culture is also being consumed. The influence on the moral culture is more powerful because it gets more air time. Commercials that advertise products are strategically placed between TV shows, movies, news, etc. TV shows are unconscious commercials. They give unspoken permission to the consumer to participate in whatever activity they see on the screen. The shows, movies, news, etc send subliminal messages on how to live. They sell lifestyles. They sell morals, values or lack of morals and values. TV shows and movies are internalized privately, and then externalized publicly.
Those standing outside the culture, or as some call the cultural gate keepers are the influencers. They are the dictators of culture. What they say goes. They have the money to turn ideas into reality. They have the power to influence the masses. They are the ones who introduce paradigm shifting products like the Internet, the I-Phone, etc. They create culture and sub-cultures. Their subcultures create subcultures and the whole time they are sitting back outside of culture and influencing.
The more people consume the created culture the influencers are selling both in material and moral packages, the more the lies are accepted as normative. Problems come when the influencers are liars, only selling half truths or no truth at all. The biggest influencers of today’s culture happen to be liars. Their lies set in motion destructive patterns in the cosmos. Their lies are driven by money. The more money they generate the more cultural capital they have with their cultural based audiences. The more cultural capital, the more they influence they obtain. You would think money is the end result, but it is not. Money is a means to an end. If money was the end, then someone or some institution with more of it would easily be able to expose the lie. The end is influence or cultural capital. The more cultural capital the influencers, on the outside of culture have, the more their lies are affirmed as normative and reality.
We live a world within a world. There is the cosmos, God’s creation, and there is culture, man’s creation. Today, culture, not cosmos, is what defines reality at any given moment in history. The cosmos itself does not define the world, but the images, ideas and institutions the people who inhabit the world discover, market, and institutionalize. What happens when our images, ideas and institutions undermine the world? What happens when the culture humans created is so far from the reality God created? How do you expose the destructive cultural patterns the culture has embraced as normative? Those who live and breathe the culture are the most blinded by its subtle chaotic messages. In order to expose the lies of today’s culture and resurrect the Kingdom matrix, the influencers must be influenced by counter-cultural influencers, the cultural lies must be attacked, but not those who embody the lies, and a new cultural force must partner with the existing cultural influencers or gatekeepers so that the lies of culture are pushed out to the margins and replaced by the new reality or matrix that has been marginalized.
Those inside the culture are the influenced. Their opinions don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Their job is to consume the material and moral culture. Like worker bees, the consumer’s job is to go out and make a paycheck and then bring it to the queen bees (or the stores that are strategically placed all through out culture). The only say, the worker bees have is who they are going to be influenced by. What brands (materials) are they going to wear, what computers are they going to buzz about? What cell phone are they going to text from? The moral culture is also being consumed. The influence on the moral culture is more powerful because it gets more air time. Commercials that advertise products are strategically placed between TV shows, movies, news, etc. TV shows are unconscious commercials. They give unspoken permission to the consumer to participate in whatever activity they see on the screen. The shows, movies, news, etc send subliminal messages on how to live. They sell lifestyles. They sell morals, values or lack of morals and values. TV shows and movies are internalized privately, and then externalized publicly.
Those standing outside the culture, or as some call the cultural gate keepers are the influencers. They are the dictators of culture. What they say goes. They have the money to turn ideas into reality. They have the power to influence the masses. They are the ones who introduce paradigm shifting products like the Internet, the I-Phone, etc. They create culture and sub-cultures. Their subcultures create subcultures and the whole time they are sitting back outside of culture and influencing.
The more people consume the created culture the influencers are selling both in material and moral packages, the more the lies are accepted as normative. Problems come when the influencers are liars, only selling half truths or no truth at all. The biggest influencers of today’s culture happen to be liars. Their lies set in motion destructive patterns in the cosmos. Their lies are driven by money. The more money they generate the more cultural capital they have with their cultural based audiences. The more cultural capital, the more they influence they obtain. You would think money is the end result, but it is not. Money is a means to an end. If money was the end, then someone or some institution with more of it would easily be able to expose the lie. The end is influence or cultural capital. The more cultural capital the influencers, on the outside of culture have, the more their lies are affirmed as normative and reality.
Church and Culture-Essay 4
Re-Thinking Church Growth Strategies!
The evangelistic arm of the American Church has been cut off by a culture that has been disenfranchised by the very people who represent the Church, Christians. Traditional methods of evangelism like passing out tracks and door to door visiting must be retired and the Church must rethink their external witness. At a Washington D.C. pastor’s conference, Craig Groeschel, the lead pastor of LifeChurch.tv said, “If churches are going to reach the people no one is reaching, then they have to do the things no one is doing.” Jesus said it like this, “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins . . . new wine must be poured into new wineskins” (Luke 5:37, 38). Traditional churches keep pouring new wine into a culture made up of old wine skins. By doing this, the power of the Gospel message has been watered down and the punch line has been played out. A four-part Gospel has been reduced to two. Instead of sharing with the world: (1) Creation (2) Fall (3) Redemption and (4) Restoration. The majority of American churches have defrauded both the people inside and outside the walls of the church by only focusing on the Fall and Redemption. If the goal of following Christ is not restoration, then most Christ followers will not see how they contribute to the restoration of Creation.
Internalize Before Externalization
The kind of changes that will solve the Church’s problems will be of a different order to the kind that created them in the first place. Internal changes must be made for external productivity. Three major paradigm shifts must be internalized by church structures; if the Church is going to reach those people no one is reaching and who have burst from too much wine.
Missional vs. Traditional
Traditional Churches have basically one strategy for evangelism: invite people to the church building. This strategy has institutionalized the salvation experience and de-powered Christ-followers. The responsibility of salvation is not only the mission of the pastoral staff, but each individual Christ-Follower. Missional Churches primary concern is to be committed to God’s missionary calling in the culture it is sent. The new strategy to adopt is to equip and release each Christ-follower to creatively and innovatively use their gifts, talents and abilities to advance the Kingdom of God in their personal sphere of influence, not just in Church services and functions.
Case Study:
Mark Driscoll who pastors, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington has successfully implemented the Missional-Incarnational strategy. He has taken a hand full of people in the least churched city of America to over 5,000 in attendance by emphasizing a missional approach opposed to the traditional.
Incarnational vs. Attractional
The traditional strategy the Church has duplicated for the last 17 centuries is the Attractional Church. Alan Hirsch describes it by saying, “The church bids people to come and hear the Gospel in the holy confines of the church and community.” Attractional churches operate as if they have a monopoly on God. A core assumption, Alan Hirsch states, is “that the Attractional Church is based upon—the assumption that God cannot really be accessed outside the sanctioned church meetings.” On the other hand, the Incarnational Church adopts a Go-To-Them, rather than a Come-To-Us approach. The Incarnational Church is a sending church. The goal is not only to get people into the church, but to get the people of the church into the world. The Incarnational Church does not focus on church growth as much as personal growth. If Christ-followers grow personally, then the not-yet-Christians at their work places, in the grocery stores and cafes will encounter a real life embodiment of the person of Jesus. Just as God infiltrated the world in the form of a human, so should Christ-followers infiltrate the part of the world God has designed and called them to be incarnational.
Case Study:
The mission of the Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon is “to take the Whole Gospel to the Whole Person to the Whole World, equipping people to become mature in Christ.” This church has adopted the incarnational approach to ministry by equipping “followers of Christ to operate as his hands in the world by virtue of bringing the healing touch of Christ in the name of Christ.”
Culturally Relevant vs. Biblically Relevant
Most recently, churches have built a reputation for being seeker-sensitive in their weekend services. Their services have been watered down, the worship is over amplified and as Billy Hybel’s confessed, most attendees are just attendees, not fully devoted followers of Christ. Instead of attracting seekers to Church services with culturally relevant sermon series,’ churches should use their services to equip Christ-followers to be attractive to seekers. The Biblically relevant service trains, equips, and restores Christ-followers to be incarnational in the part of Kingdom, God has called them to. This service welcomes all, but is primarily geared to equip the saints for works of service. The lifestyle of each Christ-follower becomes a living animated church service that incarnates wherever they go.
Case Study:
Dr. Rob Rhoden is the lead pastor of Commonwealth Chapel in Richmond, Virginia. In his venture to revitalize a church, he shifted from a centralized service to a de-centralized. His primary purpose for weekend services is to train and equip his church to be evangelistic and incarnational. Since his church has embraced this approach to ministry, they have become a pillar in their community.
These three shifts will not just revitalize the evangelistic arm of the Church, but will empower Christ-followers to be part of the restoration of Creation. When the missional church partners with God’s mission to restore the whole of Creation, the emphasis on evangelism becomes secondary to the restoration of God’s image in each Christ-follower. The churches that becomes Incarnational, rather than Attractional, empowers Christ-followers to be responsible for the communities they live in, the places they work in and families they raise, not just the churches they attend. The shift from culturally relevant to biblically relevant services will equip Christ-followers with the tools and training to be a fully reflected image of God in the corner of the Kingdom of God, they have been called to. When the ultimate goal of following Christ is not how many times you lead somebody in the salvation prayer, but how close you can look like Jesus, then each Christ-follower will purposefully live out their faith in every arena of life, not just in their churches.
The evangelistic arm of the American Church has been cut off by a culture that has been disenfranchised by the very people who represent the Church, Christians. Traditional methods of evangelism like passing out tracks and door to door visiting must be retired and the Church must rethink their external witness. At a Washington D.C. pastor’s conference, Craig Groeschel, the lead pastor of LifeChurch.tv said, “If churches are going to reach the people no one is reaching, then they have to do the things no one is doing.” Jesus said it like this, “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins . . . new wine must be poured into new wineskins” (Luke 5:37, 38). Traditional churches keep pouring new wine into a culture made up of old wine skins. By doing this, the power of the Gospel message has been watered down and the punch line has been played out. A four-part Gospel has been reduced to two. Instead of sharing with the world: (1) Creation (2) Fall (3) Redemption and (4) Restoration. The majority of American churches have defrauded both the people inside and outside the walls of the church by only focusing on the Fall and Redemption. If the goal of following Christ is not restoration, then most Christ followers will not see how they contribute to the restoration of Creation.
Internalize Before Externalization
The kind of changes that will solve the Church’s problems will be of a different order to the kind that created them in the first place. Internal changes must be made for external productivity. Three major paradigm shifts must be internalized by church structures; if the Church is going to reach those people no one is reaching and who have burst from too much wine.
Missional vs. Traditional
Traditional Churches have basically one strategy for evangelism: invite people to the church building. This strategy has institutionalized the salvation experience and de-powered Christ-followers. The responsibility of salvation is not only the mission of the pastoral staff, but each individual Christ-Follower. Missional Churches primary concern is to be committed to God’s missionary calling in the culture it is sent. The new strategy to adopt is to equip and release each Christ-follower to creatively and innovatively use their gifts, talents and abilities to advance the Kingdom of God in their personal sphere of influence, not just in Church services and functions.
Case Study:
Mark Driscoll who pastors, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington has successfully implemented the Missional-Incarnational strategy. He has taken a hand full of people in the least churched city of America to over 5,000 in attendance by emphasizing a missional approach opposed to the traditional.
Incarnational vs. Attractional
The traditional strategy the Church has duplicated for the last 17 centuries is the Attractional Church. Alan Hirsch describes it by saying, “The church bids people to come and hear the Gospel in the holy confines of the church and community.” Attractional churches operate as if they have a monopoly on God. A core assumption, Alan Hirsch states, is “that the Attractional Church is based upon—the assumption that God cannot really be accessed outside the sanctioned church meetings.” On the other hand, the Incarnational Church adopts a Go-To-Them, rather than a Come-To-Us approach. The Incarnational Church is a sending church. The goal is not only to get people into the church, but to get the people of the church into the world. The Incarnational Church does not focus on church growth as much as personal growth. If Christ-followers grow personally, then the not-yet-Christians at their work places, in the grocery stores and cafes will encounter a real life embodiment of the person of Jesus. Just as God infiltrated the world in the form of a human, so should Christ-followers infiltrate the part of the world God has designed and called them to be incarnational.
Case Study:
The mission of the Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon is “to take the Whole Gospel to the Whole Person to the Whole World, equipping people to become mature in Christ.” This church has adopted the incarnational approach to ministry by equipping “followers of Christ to operate as his hands in the world by virtue of bringing the healing touch of Christ in the name of Christ.”
Culturally Relevant vs. Biblically Relevant
Most recently, churches have built a reputation for being seeker-sensitive in their weekend services. Their services have been watered down, the worship is over amplified and as Billy Hybel’s confessed, most attendees are just attendees, not fully devoted followers of Christ. Instead of attracting seekers to Church services with culturally relevant sermon series,’ churches should use their services to equip Christ-followers to be attractive to seekers. The Biblically relevant service trains, equips, and restores Christ-followers to be incarnational in the part of Kingdom, God has called them to. This service welcomes all, but is primarily geared to equip the saints for works of service. The lifestyle of each Christ-follower becomes a living animated church service that incarnates wherever they go.
Case Study:
Dr. Rob Rhoden is the lead pastor of Commonwealth Chapel in Richmond, Virginia. In his venture to revitalize a church, he shifted from a centralized service to a de-centralized. His primary purpose for weekend services is to train and equip his church to be evangelistic and incarnational. Since his church has embraced this approach to ministry, they have become a pillar in their community.
These three shifts will not just revitalize the evangelistic arm of the Church, but will empower Christ-followers to be part of the restoration of Creation. When the missional church partners with God’s mission to restore the whole of Creation, the emphasis on evangelism becomes secondary to the restoration of God’s image in each Christ-follower. The churches that becomes Incarnational, rather than Attractional, empowers Christ-followers to be responsible for the communities they live in, the places they work in and families they raise, not just the churches they attend. The shift from culturally relevant to biblically relevant services will equip Christ-followers with the tools and training to be a fully reflected image of God in the corner of the Kingdom of God, they have been called to. When the ultimate goal of following Christ is not how many times you lead somebody in the salvation prayer, but how close you can look like Jesus, then each Christ-follower will purposefully live out their faith in every arena of life, not just in their churches.
Church and Culture-Essay 3
Is Culture Dead?
A question was printed on the cover of Time Magazine on April 8, 1966 that read, “Is God dead?” Time Magazine did a cover story on “The ‘God is Dead’ Movement.” Their spokesperson said, “God has died in our time, in our history, in our existence.” Certainly, God did not die, but over the last forty years many have tried to remove any evidence of His existence. Evolution has replaced the Biblical position of creation, prayer has been removed from public schools, and “Jesus” has become a politically incorrect word in the American vocabulary. Instead of playing offense, evangelicals have taken a defensive position. We are better known for what we are against, then what we are for. We built our own schools, opened up seminaries and started our own publishing houses and magazines. Each institution established put a nail in God’s cultural coffin. Instead of serving our culture, we institutionalized God and built a structure around serving ourselves. Although God is alive and well in many evangelical churches across America today, He is dead to the main stream culture.
Playing Defense!
The main stream culture has been abandoned by a Church that has turned selfishly inward. In order for the church to move the dial to a culturally renewing station, before we reach out, we must look for renewal within. There might not be any culturally renewal companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange floor, but God is in the renewal business and in God’s economy no institution or person is ever beyond hope of renewal. Jonathon Edwards, one of the greatest theologians in American history discovered that institutional renewal has three ingredients: repentance, faithful study and obedience to the Bible, and believing prayer. If evangelicals dedicate themselves to these very things no matter how long it takes, the soil for a second resurrection of God will be fertile. If the evangelical church turns inward to find renewal, then they will be ready to reach out to a culture that God is dead too.
Taking the Offense!
In a time when the culture was centered on God, Jesus launched a ministry that was destined to change the course of history, so His confused disciples asked, “Who is the greatest among us?” His disciples were focused on external fame and neglected the cultural dynamics of this new up and coming Kingdom. Jesus’ plan to change the world did not include incorporating and insuring his original staff, the twelve disciples. He settled their anxieties that day by assuming the position of a slave. The CEO and founder of this new kingdom culture instituted a washing feet, company policy. His strategy was simple: ALWAYS LOOK TO SERVE, NOT TO BE SERVED. Jesus’ plan to integrate and transform the existing culture, began with a speech He gave on His knees. If on His knees Jesus could gain the support of His twelve unfaithful disciples who led an international movement that transformed history, it is a great place to start for evangelicals today. Instead of fighting for positions or blaming this person or that institution, each person in the evangelical church must get down on their knees and wash the feet of whomever, whenever, and however. It does not matter, if the person whose feet you wash happens to be a democrat, atheist and homosexual. Always look to serve, not to be served!
Church and Culutre-Essay 2
SEX: The American Top Idol
We live in a sex crazed culture, where sex can sell just about anything from beer to car insurance. Today sex is nothing more than one of the many desires Americans satisfy without much thought. Like our appetite for food, when we are hungry, we eat, if the urge to have sex arises, many look for the closest friend and benefit. The truth of the matter is that sex has escaped its residence in marriage and been placed on a pedestal for all to idolize. As brief as it might be, appeasing the sex idol seems to fill one of our greatest emotional needs security. The sex idol is both unconsciously and consciously worshiped by millions of Americans daily via Internet sites, movies, magazines and TV shows. Promiscuous living is promoted, at the expense of martial fidelity, as part of the American dream. In order to tear down the sex idol, the original purpose of sex must be resurrected and the Biblical precedence for marriage must be reinstituted.
Marriage is more than sex!
The resurrection of God’s plan for sex will raise the marital climate in America. Sex is just one cylinder in an eight cylinder marriage. God created sex for a purpose and designed marriage as the one and only relationship that purpose is to be experienced so that the marriage relationship can be a reflection of the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to the world. The uniting of married couples in the sanctity of the marriage bed mirrors the unity the Godhead. What if sex in marriage was more about God, than about an orgasm? The words sex and God are almost never used in the same sentence, but surprisingly to many they have multiple intersecting points. Most importantly sex creates oneness, which is the idea of multiple units operating in harmony regardless of their distinct differences. Sex is an intersecting point, married couples must experience oneness or sexual frustration and dysfunction will breed division.
Marriage will make couples holy before it will make them happy. When the goal of marriage is not sexual euphoria, like Soap Operas, romantic novels and movies promote; but maturity, marriages will go the distance. The goal of marriage is not to please yourself or your spouse, but to please God. A couple’s marital climate directly correlates with their spiritual climate. That is why, the apostle Peter says, “Husbands . . . be considerate as you live with your wives . . . so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” Sometimes the most spiritual thing to do is have a good marriage and in doing so both partners will feel secure.
Marriage is a kingdom partnership, not a combination of one night stands. Couples who have a kingdom purpose interwoven in their marriage understand that their marriage stands for something more than sexual intimacy. A married couple whose goal is to partner with Jesus’ Church and his apprentices on earth understand King Solomon who said, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Solomon knew that a team dynamic with God in the center can do more than a one man show. If God is reflected in marriages, then marriages will reflect God to the world. Marriage couples have an opportunity to be a conduit of the love of God to an unloved, insecure world.
Sex is more than marriage!
When marriage is more than sex, then sex is more than marriage, not vice versa. The reinstituting of God’s design for marriage will lower the promiscuity climate in America. Sex with a purpose is the best sex. Sex just to satisfy an urge misses the mark of the poetry of sex. Sex activates the marriage covenant, but does not determine marital longevity. A homerun does not have to be hit everyday to have sex. If couples are going to feel continually secure in themselves and their marriages, then sex must not be like a trend that fades away, but an ongoing game. Even though sex is just one component of sexual intimacy, it is probably one of the most important. Sex is the only thing you can do with your spouse; you cannot do with someone else. Once sex is taken off the pedestal, it becomes one of the many venues through which couples experience marital intimacy.
Sex renews the marriage covenant. Just as Christ’s followers participate in the sacrament, Holy Communion, as a time to reflect and renew the covenant Jesus’ death instituted, married couples renew their covenant when they participate in the act of marriage. Sex is sacred. It unites couples spiritually. Soul ties are either strengthened or weakened by a couples sex life or lack there of. Sexual intimacy in marriage is the highway all other areas of intimacy travel on. Although sex is not an end in marriage, it is a non-negotiable means to an end.
Sex leaves a legacy. The whole world is watching marriage couples. They are just waiting to hear about the latest affair. What effects does each affair and divorce have on the generation to follow? Each generation that grows up in today’s divorce culture has been given the unconscious permission to have an affair and divorce. One of the best ways not to have sex with someone else’s spouse is to have sex with your own spouse. Sex is the protecting shield that guards a man or women’s heart from being stolen by someone who wants to meet the needs of your spouse when you do not. I heard at a marriage conference, “If you don’t want to date your spouse, there are many who do.” It is going to take couples who are willing to look out for the best interest of the present and future generations, not themselves to turn the tide and leave a Godly marriage legacy.
In conclusion, if sex finds its way back in the master bedroom and off the TV screens, Americans will experience a revolution in their homes and churches. The American Top Idol can only be worshipped if broken marriages produce broken families that in turn release broken children with no purpose to marry broken spouses. Our problem is systemic. It begins with married couples. Dad’s and mom’s who tear down the sex idol at home will create an environment conducive for their children to later marry well. Premarital sex can destroy a future marriage, but children who marry, according to God’s plan and purposes will experience sex in the creative order, not before but after marriage. These children, who have married well, will have children who marry well and on and on it goes. If families take the initiative to meet, their children’s need of security, then the boy down the street or girl up the block will not have a chance and the advertising agencies, which thrive on the principle, sex sells, will not be able to sell the sex idol, because it has been torn down!
We live in a sex crazed culture, where sex can sell just about anything from beer to car insurance. Today sex is nothing more than one of the many desires Americans satisfy without much thought. Like our appetite for food, when we are hungry, we eat, if the urge to have sex arises, many look for the closest friend and benefit. The truth of the matter is that sex has escaped its residence in marriage and been placed on a pedestal for all to idolize. As brief as it might be, appeasing the sex idol seems to fill one of our greatest emotional needs security. The sex idol is both unconsciously and consciously worshiped by millions of Americans daily via Internet sites, movies, magazines and TV shows. Promiscuous living is promoted, at the expense of martial fidelity, as part of the American dream. In order to tear down the sex idol, the original purpose of sex must be resurrected and the Biblical precedence for marriage must be reinstituted.
Marriage is more than sex!
The resurrection of God’s plan for sex will raise the marital climate in America. Sex is just one cylinder in an eight cylinder marriage. God created sex for a purpose and designed marriage as the one and only relationship that purpose is to be experienced so that the marriage relationship can be a reflection of the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to the world. The uniting of married couples in the sanctity of the marriage bed mirrors the unity the Godhead. What if sex in marriage was more about God, than about an orgasm? The words sex and God are almost never used in the same sentence, but surprisingly to many they have multiple intersecting points. Most importantly sex creates oneness, which is the idea of multiple units operating in harmony regardless of their distinct differences. Sex is an intersecting point, married couples must experience oneness or sexual frustration and dysfunction will breed division.
Marriage will make couples holy before it will make them happy. When the goal of marriage is not sexual euphoria, like Soap Operas, romantic novels and movies promote; but maturity, marriages will go the distance. The goal of marriage is not to please yourself or your spouse, but to please God. A couple’s marital climate directly correlates with their spiritual climate. That is why, the apostle Peter says, “Husbands . . . be considerate as you live with your wives . . . so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” Sometimes the most spiritual thing to do is have a good marriage and in doing so both partners will feel secure.
Marriage is a kingdom partnership, not a combination of one night stands. Couples who have a kingdom purpose interwoven in their marriage understand that their marriage stands for something more than sexual intimacy. A married couple whose goal is to partner with Jesus’ Church and his apprentices on earth understand King Solomon who said, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Solomon knew that a team dynamic with God in the center can do more than a one man show. If God is reflected in marriages, then marriages will reflect God to the world. Marriage couples have an opportunity to be a conduit of the love of God to an unloved, insecure world.
Sex is more than marriage!
When marriage is more than sex, then sex is more than marriage, not vice versa. The reinstituting of God’s design for marriage will lower the promiscuity climate in America. Sex with a purpose is the best sex. Sex just to satisfy an urge misses the mark of the poetry of sex. Sex activates the marriage covenant, but does not determine marital longevity. A homerun does not have to be hit everyday to have sex. If couples are going to feel continually secure in themselves and their marriages, then sex must not be like a trend that fades away, but an ongoing game. Even though sex is just one component of sexual intimacy, it is probably one of the most important. Sex is the only thing you can do with your spouse; you cannot do with someone else. Once sex is taken off the pedestal, it becomes one of the many venues through which couples experience marital intimacy.
Sex renews the marriage covenant. Just as Christ’s followers participate in the sacrament, Holy Communion, as a time to reflect and renew the covenant Jesus’ death instituted, married couples renew their covenant when they participate in the act of marriage. Sex is sacred. It unites couples spiritually. Soul ties are either strengthened or weakened by a couples sex life or lack there of. Sexual intimacy in marriage is the highway all other areas of intimacy travel on. Although sex is not an end in marriage, it is a non-negotiable means to an end.
Sex leaves a legacy. The whole world is watching marriage couples. They are just waiting to hear about the latest affair. What effects does each affair and divorce have on the generation to follow? Each generation that grows up in today’s divorce culture has been given the unconscious permission to have an affair and divorce. One of the best ways not to have sex with someone else’s spouse is to have sex with your own spouse. Sex is the protecting shield that guards a man or women’s heart from being stolen by someone who wants to meet the needs of your spouse when you do not. I heard at a marriage conference, “If you don’t want to date your spouse, there are many who do.” It is going to take couples who are willing to look out for the best interest of the present and future generations, not themselves to turn the tide and leave a Godly marriage legacy.
In conclusion, if sex finds its way back in the master bedroom and off the TV screens, Americans will experience a revolution in their homes and churches. The American Top Idol can only be worshipped if broken marriages produce broken families that in turn release broken children with no purpose to marry broken spouses. Our problem is systemic. It begins with married couples. Dad’s and mom’s who tear down the sex idol at home will create an environment conducive for their children to later marry well. Premarital sex can destroy a future marriage, but children who marry, according to God’s plan and purposes will experience sex in the creative order, not before but after marriage. These children, who have married well, will have children who marry well and on and on it goes. If families take the initiative to meet, their children’s need of security, then the boy down the street or girl up the block will not have a chance and the advertising agencies, which thrive on the principle, sex sells, will not be able to sell the sex idol, because it has been torn down!
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