The Bridge Blog

Keller on Idols...must watch

2009-10-07T10:59:00.001-04:00

Watch this about our amazing God!

2009-09-14T14:29:00.002-04:00

I Timothy 1: 1-11

2009-08-09T06:35:00.006-04:00

To understand I Timothy we must take a walk through the Book of Acts to see where and when Paul and Timothy first met and how they developed their relationship.

Acts 14 - Paul is an older man who was converted in Acts 9 and is now preaching the Gospel throughout the lands. Timothy is young was raised by his mother and grandmother in all likelihood. Paul hated Christ and the church and he got a gang of men to kill Christians and then he was converted on his way out to murder Christians.

Paul is a very passionate man - he was passionate about killing Christians and now he is passionate about Christ. His letters and his preaching are passionate and he writes his emotions throughout his letters. He is also imprisoned and writes many letters from prison known as the “prison epistles”: Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon.

Paul then, in Acts 14 travels to Lystra is where Paul meets Timothy… he heals a cripple. This helps authenticate Paul and his ministry. They start to worship Paul (They were Greeks) and he says NO! What would we do? Do we worship anyone? An athlete? Actor? Politian? TV preacher? Maybe we would do they same?

Paul offends the people in Lystra by calling their religion “vain” or useless. Do we call other religions worthless? Usually no b/c we’re scared. Acts 14:15 (“useless things” [NIV] or “vain things” [ESV])

Acts 14:19-23 Paul is stoned and put out of the city thinking he was dead.

He got beat thought to be dead and then goes back into the city to preach more! After this they then they go to Derbe and preach - then come back to Lystra and preach again. What would I do? What would you do? Go back and preach to those who just beat so badly they thought you were dead? Probably not. He teaches and reaches the lost (work of the church) and tells them they will go through tribulation (duh) and then appointed elders (leaders of the church) [this is why the elder candidates must come before the current elders…they must be interviewed by elders to be deemed ‘ready, on point with the vision of the church, lead the sheep, etc].

Acts 16 - Paul goes back to Lystra and meets Timothy who was converted probably in Acts 14 along with his mother and grandmother. Timothy’s dad is probably dead and mom is a Jew. Timothy was raised by 2 women and was in no doubt insecure and not too sure of himself.

Acts 16:2 - Timothy had a great reputation with the church. “Who’s the best here?” “Timothy!” Want to be a leader? Be in ministry? Start with your reputation! You don’t get called and then become active but you are active, get a reputation and then are called. When one says, “I don’t feel like I am needed here” or “I don’t have a ministry here” is someone looking to be asked rather than just jumping in…those who jump in are those who will build a reputation. Sitting idol is not a way to gain a reputation.
Acts 16:5 - Note the work and focus of the local church - “strengthened in the faith” - there were mentors and teaching and mutual building up of the believer (Acts 2) and there was evangelism “increased in number daily”. We are a church of both: Embracing the lost, Equipping the saints to Engage those around us.

Paul and Timothy are together for 15 years. He calls him “my son” 3 times. Great mentoring - who are you mentoring? Want to “do ministry”? Mentor someone so that they can “take your job”.

2 important things we see about Timothy:

1. He had a good reputation - “he was well spoken of by the brothers…”
2. Timothy is willing to be the #2 guy….we need many #2 guys. There are few “Pauls” of the church and every church needs those who will be willing to be #2 or #3 etc. We need many Timothy’s in the churches to lead and to do the ministries that the leadership calls us to do. We need to be willing to submit and then to train others … 2 Tim 2:2

Acts 20: 17-38: Paul is headed to Jerusalem and leaves the church after planting it and teaching for 3 years “through humility and tears”. The church needs leaders who lead through humility and tears. We don’t lead with arrogance and pride but with a humble heart and with emotion and passion. We see public teaching and small group teaching in homes (Acts 20:20). He does so while breaking the yoke of racism as he preaches to both Jew and Greek (Acts 20:21). He preaches the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). He warns them of false teachers (20:29-31). The biggest enemy is not outside but inside the church. Teaching false doctrine and destroying the church with petty arguments and personal wants. The things that kill a church are not on the ‘outside’ but those on the ‘inside’. That is why I will respond to sin issues, poor doctrine and not personal preference issues. There are too many churches and one will have your personal issues. Life is too short to argue that stuff so I won’t go there. He says the main thing to do is to “testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) not personal preferences and rule keeping. Paul leaves Ephesus and tells the elders to watch over the church….then writes to Timothy.

The list below is from Confessions of a Reformissional Rev. by Mark Driscoll pp79-80. Where are you in this list?

People who come into a church need to be assessed so that the church leaders can identify who they are and what they need.

• Horses are vibrant leaders who pull a lot of weight and run fast. Horses need to have character, sound doctrine, and agree with the vision of the church.
• Colts are emerging leaders who need training, testing, and opportunities to lead. If properly broken in, a colt can be developed into a horse.
• Fish are non-Christians who are spiritually lost and often not actively looking for God. Fish need a Christian friend to lovingly introduce them to Jesus and his church.
• Eagles are skilled leaders who are being developed within the church with the express kingdom purpose of leaving the proverbial nest and leading a ministry elsewhere, such as missions work and church planting.
• Mules are faithful workers who dependably and continually do whatever is asked of them in the church. Mules need to be thanked and protected from burnout.
• Cows are selfish people who wander from church to church, chewing up resources without ever giving back to the church until they kill it. A fence needs to be built around the church to keep the cows out.
• Squirrels are people who are generally liked because they are nice, but rarely do anything meaningful. Squirrels need to be put to work in the church.
• Stray Cats are socially peculiar loners who linger around the church. Stray Cats need a friend to help bring them into the church and an opportunity to serve other people so they can be meaningfully connected to the church.
• Rats are people who appear to have the potential to have a fruitful ministry, but they lack dependability, humility, or maturity. Rats need to be rebuked, and if they do not repent, they must be strategically ignored until they commit to no longer being a waste of time and effort.
• Sheep are people who have legitimate needs that require patient and loving support. Examples of sheep include widows, orphans, and those who are seriously ill or fighting drug addictions. Sheep need to be loved and served.
• Ducks are disgruntled people who continually quack about whatever they are unhappy about. Ducks need to stop quacking, or the pastor(s) must go duck hunting before the ducks drown out everyone and everything else in the church.
• Wolves are false teachers whom Satan sends into the church to devour sheep. Wolves need to be quickly identified, rebuked, and if they are unrepentant, they must be shot before their false teaching destroys people in the church.
• Snakes are evil people sent by the Serpent on a mission to destroy the church through anything from sexual sin to starting rumors. Leaders must stomp on the heads of snakes before they bite people and infect them with deadly venom.
This is very good list of you and me…many who want to “run the church” based on character traits that are both good and evil. The leadership’s job is to protect the church, the flock from the evil types.

I Tim 1-11

We’re going to look at this epistle from a vantage point of the leadership…how the pastor, elders and deacons are to oversee the flock. This doesn’t make us better or superior, it’s just an office that God called us to and quite frankly gives us more accountability later. Thus it’s a larger view of all that is going on in the church. Not all good…some bad. These are the responsibilities of the leadership of the church and for the church. Our responsibility is for the “soundness” and “health” of the church. This means we may have to make “hard” or “mean” decisions that without all the information some decisions may not make sense.

God is our Savior and Jesus is our hope. Interestingly Paul starts every book he wrote: “grace to you” and ends “grace from you”.

I Tim 1:1: We see here that Paul is an Apostle by command of Christ. How many times do we look at our ministry calls as “commands”? Most of the time we don’t take our calls (our place or ministry and service in the church) that seriously.

I Tim 1:2: we’re a church or a church family not a restaurant and so it’s not ‘have it your way’ and some come here, like what God is doing and then proceed to let folks know how you would ‘do church’ and try and fix us, rather than submitting to the leadership and vision God gave for this church. We’re a family and there are many passages that use family lingo (father, brother, sister etc and in families there are roles to play that are not optional (cut the lawn; take out the garbage) things have to be done.

“Grace”: Getting what we don’t deserve, God's unmerited favor . We deserve to be without hope and left to our own desires which leads to despair but God (Eph 2:1 and 2:4) when we were dead made us alive out of His love and grace toward us.

“Mercy”: Withholding from us what we deserve(punishment and judgment) or giving us, "drops as a gentle rain from heaven." [Kistemaker: NTC]

"Peace": What we know and understand to have with God as our Savior and our sovereign Lord...He is our peace. This peace comes from yhe grace and mercy we receive from Christ.

I Tim 1:3: Timothy, “remain at Ephesus so that you may charge…”. This is not a politically correct thing to do. Many say, “Oh give him/her a chance to …CHARGE to remove not just “slap the hand” and let it go. These folks are trying to destroy the church through false doctrine and they must be dealt with now. Notice that it is from inside the church not from outside. It’s not the Gestapo running in here with machine guns blazing. That enemy is easy to spot. The insidious enemy is the one that pretends to be on your side and be your friend and then they pounce.

I Tim 1:4: Devote to myths…we don’t know the answer so we make it up or “help God along” by lying.

I Tim 1:4: endless genealogies…the Mormons. Our dead grandparents can't help us and we can't help them (Heb 9:27).

And all they do is create speculation and no hope; luck; what ‘ifs’; later in the letter we will see specific issues at Ephesus which are very similar to here in the upstate.

We will see that knowing a little of the Bible and making doctrine on that little knowledge can lead to heresy that the can lead people to hell not heaven. Some spend so much time on secondary issues that they lose sight of the mission of the church – seek and save the lost and make disciples – so we argue over music and carpet or teach “the wrong use of the law” (v8) and entrap people in legalism and not the freedom that Christ bought us on the cross. So our charge as leaders is to NOT allow this sin to take place so we can concentrate on the mission of the church. I won’t fight over music or carpet that has been decided by the leadership. Please don’t come and then tell us how to do it. It will KILL a church and won’t feed a sole. This may sound “mean” but it could save the church if we practice what Paul advocates here.

I Tim 1:5: All this is born out of love for the sheep. Love will care about the doctrine of the saints, the soul of the lost and character and practice of the body. Not to love is to care more about carpet, being right and self than others. Love will be tough at times but not out of meanness but real love.

I Tim 1:6: So why is Paul so upset? First his “prophecy” from Acts 20:29-31 are coming true. He needed the elders including Timothy to watch over the flock and he warned them but they were weak leaders and probably didn’t want to offend anyone and now we have a doctrinal mess.

They are now into “vain discussion” (ESV) or “meaningless talk” (NIV). They are now teaching/arguing about carpet color and even worse, they are teaching heresy regarding Christ. As leaders Paul is telling us to recognize this “vain talk” and to stomp it out. Nothing will kill a church faster than this. We need to talk about Jesus not secondary issues. We make secondary issues into primary issues and Paul tells us it’s “meaningless talk”.

I Tim 1:7: Note the difference here from 1:1 Paul is commanded to do something. It isn’t about what he likes to do but what God commands him to do. Here the bad guys “desire” to be teachers. Read James 3:1 to see about being a teacher…and they desired to be a teacher.

Teachers of what? THE LAW! Paul is gotta be going crazy! He was with them for 3 years and taught grace and grace alone and now they way to teach the law! This is not a new thing or an easy thing to overcome as so many want to teach law instead of grace. Paul wrote an entire book on this called Galatians. In reality the entire Bible is about God’s grace…we just don’t get it.

I Tim 1:7: They’re confident HERECTICS and they think they know Christ or His way and they don’t. They’re the ones who call me or email Monday AM telling me about the carpet color. They’re confident but wrong. It’s about being correct, not fighting for the lost but fighting for the carpet. They steal all the energy from the church and take us off mission as we fight about the carpet or they’re off topic in doctrine.

I Tim 1:8: The law is good when used properly. It is the improper use of the law that is the problem. How do we use it properly? Like any tool – use a screwdriver to tighten a screw good….to use as a chisel – bad. The law is used to drive non-believers to Christ (the goal, standard of perfection) and it is NOT a standard for the believer as Christ is our righteousness not the law, but for us it’s a reality check for our sin. Thus we need Christ which gives us love for others – back to verse 5. Sound doctrine without love is legalism: “do this and don’t do that” and this love is based on performance. Love without sound doctrine is liberalism and heresy. False teachers care about what you do and don’t do…keeping a list. Romans 4:13-15 and Romans 5:18-21. It tells us we stink…that we’re really bad. The law exposes our sin…this is a GOOD and a useful use.

I Tim 1:9-10: what were they teaching? Not the Gospel. The Gospel is for these folks (us) and no one can keep the law. Its not about what you do but who you love.

I Tim 1:11: The Gospel is what changes people and converts them. Only teach the Gospel, that is what is entrusted to you and me. This is what we must ensure as leaders. This is what Paul is telling Timothy and the elders to do…teach and only teach the Gospel. Not what you can do for Jesus but what He did for you.

2009-08-02T06:50:00.006-04:00

This is for our "Q & A" sermon where you had the chance to ask questions from our doctrine series. These questions are not all those that were asked.

THE STARTING POINT

God – our opinions and “what I heard” doesn’t count!

Start of the Doctrine Series…God

II Tim 3: 16 – 17

Accuracy of the translation of the Bible?

§ OT: Write it down!

Ø Ex 17:14; Deut 31:24-26; Is 30:8

§ NT: Quotes the OT over 300 times

§ Jesus quotes the OT as history and truth

§ Pharisees and Jesus/Apostles never argued over the authenticity of the OT quotes but just the application

§ NT: quotes pagan ‘gods’ and never states as “word of God” as they do with the OT quotes.

Translations: Original Manuscripts

§ Read Intro to NT Textual Criticism p5-6

How does this compare with the average classical author? The copies of the average ancient Greek or Latin author's writings number fewer than 20 manuscripts! Thus, the NT has well over 1,000 times as many manuscripts as the works of the average classical author.

When it comes to the temporal distance of the earliest copies of the NT from the original, NT textual critics again enjoy an abundance of materials. From 10 to 15 NT manuscripts were written within the first 100 years of the completion of the NT. To be sure, they are all fragmentary, but some of them are fairly sizable fragments, covering large portions of the Gospels or Paul's letters, for example. Within two centuries, the numbers increase to at least four dozen manuscripts. Of manuscripts produced before a.d. 400, an astounding 99 still exist—including the oldest complete NT, Codex Sinaiticus.

The gap, then, between the originals and the early manuscripts is relatively slim. By comparison, the average classical author has no copies for more than half a millennium.

§ The Galatian coin - “no real city” until they found the coin with Galatia on it - opps!

§ Finally - a purpose of the Bible: John 20:30ff

Is there really a heaven or is it just a permanent state of non-being?

§ Luke 23: 39-43

§ Acts 1:6-11

§ Rev 21: 1-5, 22-27

§ Why in the world would we do this and people go through martyrdom if it’s just “a state of non-being”?

Why did we create time if God isn’t bound by time? Basically, time does not really exist, it is something people created.

§ Gen 1:3 - A difference between creation and evolution: God created time vs. man or “luck” created time. It is a measurement for life - life of all things, plants; stars; man; dogs etc. When a dog dies, time ends for that dog. God is outside of time because He is without beginning or end. We as man, have a beginning but no end. We will be outside of time (no sun needed re: Rev) but the question is: Where will you spend eternity?

The parts of the Bible that leave things out, i.e. Adam/Eve – Cain/Abel and the next generation.

§ One of the tricks of Satan is to have us read just a part of the Bible or to not read it all and read internet blogs of folks who have never read the Bible and then say things that seem authoritative. Hence the, “I think or I heard” discussions are not very productive because the starting points are opinion and one can’t argue opinion.

§ Let’s read this section: Gen 4: 16 - 17 AND Gen 5: 1 - 6.

§ First, the Bible doesn’t tell us everything there is to know - just everything we need to know.

§ Secondly the Bible isn’t always chronological - context will tell us this (order/division of books in OT) or we can’t “time spacing” between events.

§ Adam and Eve lived to be 930… lots of kids to populate the earth!

§ Who said that one of their daughters wasn’t Cain’s wife?

Why does Christianity/the church seem to evolve based on modern times?

§ First the TRUTH of Christ NEVER changes.

§ People and culture do change so the church “changes” to meet the people where they are with the unchanging truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

§ One says, “the church is outdated” because it’s stuck in the 1950’s or 1850’s.

§ God placed us in a certain time and a certain place to bring the unchanging truth of Jesus Christ to people right here.

§ On my page of the website: “We must always “contend for the faith” (Jude 3) and always “teach what is in accord with sound doctrine” (Titus2:1) in manner that is understood by those in front of us (1 Corinthians 9: 19-23). Jesus spoke about fishing to the fishermen and seeds and harvesting to the farmers!”

If the Bible is correct 100%, which “interpretation” is the right one? How do we know? Or are we supposed to take it all in a literal sense?

§ If you mean by KJV vs NIV that is one question but if you mean by “The church sees “end times” differently…why? That is a great question.

§ First God gave us minds to think and I believe He likes us to think about Him and then talk and write about Him so He didn’t give us specific answers to some questions just to make us think.

§ Secondly we can NOT take the Bible literally but its ALL TRUE. Huh? Lets look at some examples:

§ I Sam 5:51 (hand of God)

§ Job 19:21 (hand of God)

§ Ps 36:7; 57:1 (wings of God)

§ John 4:24 (God is Spirit)

§ Context tells us what is literal and what is metaphorical. We do this in life all the time, “Clemson is going to kill USC this weekend.” Do we mean “kill” or “beat”?

§ And this changes over time so we must go to the ORIGINAL meaning and context to understand the authors. “Michael Jordon is a “bad” basketball player.” 200 years from now we will look at that statement and then look in the dictionary to see “bad” means bad yet he set all those records! So is he bad or good? Context from the 1990’s tells us that “bad” can mean really good.

§ So to understand I Tim which we start next week we must understand why Paul wrote the letter so that we can put into context his words. Then we take it from there and place it into context for us in this time and in this place. For example, “don’t steal” is a truth for all times and all places. But “he opened the scrolls to read them” means we are to read the Word of God but not necessarily with scrolls.

How do we trust in something (the Bible) written by fallible humans who might have written it for self gain and power/control?

§ Humble: Read 2 Chron 12:6; Psalm 25:9; Pslam 147:6; Prov 11:2; Is 66:2; Matt 23:12; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14; I Peter 5:6; Phil 2:8

§ Chuck Colson story of jail and power.

§ How do I know that He will be there and what reassurance do I have of His personal involvement in my life?

§ Joshua 1: 5-9

§ I Cor 11: 23-26 - The Lord’s Supper is our continual reminder that “it is finished” - ALL of it!

2009-07-25T15:51:00.004-04:00

Ever have a close friend betray you? How about a family member thinks you’re crazy for your faith? How about someone with whom you were working really close to in a ministry and then “bam” they leave or forsake you? The reality is life and ministry is hard and if you are NOT being attacked…maybe you’re not involved in ministry. The reality is its safe to sit on the sidelines and watch the “game” but that is NOT where God called us to be. Family members get sick and we lose jobs. We get hungry or even homeless. We are persecuted for our faith as family and friends disown us for being “Jesus freaks.” We lose a best friend even though we thought they were “with us” for life. At times, in the middle of a ministry battle when you are doing exactly what God called you to do and when you need someone to come along side you, you are abandoned by those whom you thought would be there for you.

Growing up I had a dad whom it seemed I could never please. He would have us rake the leaves in the yard, we’d come in with big smiles bragging on our work and he would say, “kids, it is not done good enough, go do it again.” Or we’d clean our room then we’d have to re-clean it over and over again. It was like this over and over again until one day….he left and devastated my life. He was my coach, my dad and I was lost. Then my mom started to drink and drink and drink with men and they would come over to the house. Then Jim came over after a night at the bars and never left. They lived together in our home and they would fight and argue at 3 in the morning until he would threaten her with physical harm. I would then get up and stand between them and he would threaten me. One day he didn’t threaten, he hit. I would come home from practice, walking as all walk to school in my community, through “the woods” and I could see our house. If his car was there I would become sad and mad. If his car wasn’t there, same thing because they would be out drinking and there would be no food to eat.

I was abandoned. I learned that I couldn’t trust anyone because I assumed they would leave me or hurt me…why not, dad and mom did.

I assumed it was the same with God, that one day He would forsake me or I couldn’t perform good enough to keep His love and favor. Eventually He was going to leave me because I was unlovable or because I didn’t measure up to His standards.

The reality is a Christian life is not an easy one but a very difficult one that promises attacks, disappointments and rejection.

2 Cor 4: 7-11: 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

This is NOT for those on the front lines of ministry (missionaries etc) but its for US here in Simpsonville. If we have not been afflicted etc, then maybe we’re sitting on the sidelines. The vision of this church is not to have “game watchers” but to have active participants in ministry. But I won’t lie to you…that means suffering for Christ’s sake. That means we will get shot at and yet we must realize we’re not superman and we are not invincible…so where do we go? Are we alone?

When we have our leadership meetings, our elder meetings, we should NOT be quickly reviewing the agenda but we should be hearing from our ministry teams and this should drive us to our knees as either are praying for the attacks of the enemy and/or praising God for His amazing work in our lives and ministries. It so easy to do nothing out of fear out of rejection and so, so many churches play “prevent” defense so as not to lose or make a mistake. Not this church. We are going to “run up the score” so high that only Jesus can get the credit for what we attempt in His name. If you want to play prevent defense, this may not be your church. That is why at times folks leave, they’re uncomfortable with active ministry or sitting around hoping a visitor doesn’t show up and take their seat. They want to just graze and not jump into the battle…they want safe. We’re in a war and it’s not safe! We may bleed but we’re afraid…what if we fail? What if you don’t like what I do? Are we here to please man or God? Ministry is messy and we will take a walk to see how messy this is.

Heb 2: 14-18: 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

How did He partake in “the same things” in the flesh and blood? How is death at work in us so that others may have life?

-Jesus’ birth (poor, homeless, no where to sleep and attacked)

-Matt 4: 1-11 - Jesus temptations…tired, hungry and you just want God and here comes the enemy…

- John 4: 6-8 - Jesus gets tired and asks the others to get him food. Sometimes we need to sit and let others get the food.

-Matt 21 - rejection after being crowned as King of kings! We will be called a hero at one point and then by the same people asked to quit or leave because we didn’t “do it their way” or do what they wanted. e.g.: “we care too much about the lost and not about them.”

-Luke 22:37 - Jesus is betrayed but His own…His own inner circle…not those “out there” but His buddy.

-Luke 19:41 - Jesus weeps over those He came to save…are you rejected by those whom you poured your life into?

- Mark 3: 21 - Jesus’ family (calling Him crazy), has family ever rejected you? John 7: 5 - Have you ever had your closest sibling reject you?

- Matt 26:40 - Jesus’ assuming “ministry partners” would be there for you. He wants to take a walk and pray to His Father and asked the 3 to pray for Him as He faces the cross…and they sleep…

When we are mission to do God’s plan for this church we WILL be attacked, mocked, rejected and maybe even scorned by our own….get used to it. It will be hard, lonely, etc. But….

Who is with you when attempting something new or when others think you’re crazy?

Deut 31: 6-8: 6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. 8 It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Who is with you when you’re facing your enemies and they seem overwhelming and powerful?

Joshua 1: 4-5, 9: 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Who is with you went you’re asked to lead a ministry that is audacious and “crazy” in scope?

I Chron 28:20: 20 Then David said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the LORD God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the LORD is finished.”

Who will be with you when you seem to have no more to give and you love has run dry?

Heb 13: 4-6: 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Finally, when He is fighting for us and we know He is not against us - we can proceed with courage and take risks…why?

John 10: 28-30: 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 28 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

He is the King - now and forever

2009-07-16T14:31:00.006-04:00

Remember the sermon on worship and the reality is we all worship something or someone? It was about idols and who we really follow. We follow money and then we loose it, it led us no where. We follow our idol of incorrect love/sex it leads us to STD’s or pregnancy…it takes us no where. We follow our idol of popularity and then there is someone more popular than us and so we are nowhere and then we actually “kill” that threat to our idol but gossiping or lying about them. Following our idols will NEVER lead us to our goals. They will ALWAYS let us down not they CAN’T deliver on their promises. There is only one that we can follow that will never let us down…

Is He our King? Why does it matter how we see the reality of His Kingship? Does this give us confidence to move forward in ministry and life? Let’s find out!

The idea of a king and a kingdom found in the Bible - (NOTE: many of these ideas are from “A Theology of the New Testament” by George Ladd; reprinted in1966)

In 1 Sam 8: 1-7 we see that God declared that they had a king (Himself) and yet they wanted another (just like the idols in our hearts).
The people of God had a King who reigned over them. The King led them, fought for them and guided them in life (see the Exodus; the many battles that God won and the 10 commandments as examples of these realities).
The kingdom as was told by the prophets was looking forward to the “Day of the Lord” and a divine visitation to purge the world of evil and sin and establish God’s perfect rule and reign in the earth.

The age to come and the Kingdom of God are interchangeable terms in the NT. Yet we see them “now and not yet”. The resurrection of Christ marked the transition from “this age” to “the age to come”.
The age which extends from creation to the “Day of the Lord”, which in the Gospels is designated in terms of the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead and judgment is marked by sin and rebellion. The age to come will see the reality of the reign of God. But it also means the reality of His reign now and the Kingdom here but perfected and in full measure in the “Age to Come”.
It is not the church but the rule of God. The church is a society of men and women.
The Kingdom creates the church
The church witnesses to the Kingdom (hence we share the gospel)
The church is the instrument of the Kingdom (hence last weeks sermon)
The church keeps the Kingdom “pure” visa vie church discipline, etc.

The Kingdom of God

Most scholars agree that the most distinctive thing about Jesus’ teaching was the presence of the Kingdom. In other words the Kingdom is in some real sense both present and future - “now and not yet.”
The enemies of the Kingdom are not princes and kings but “spiritual powers of evil (Eph 6).
Jesus came to “seek and save the lost” [our mission too!!] but not just for a future benefit but for a current earthly blessings, hence the miracles and the reality of feeding the poor and helping the widows.
It is quite clear that we are already experiencing a temporal reign of Christ in the church age. Chris is Lord: (Phil 2:9) and reigns at the right hand of God the Father (Acts 2:33-36; Heb 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12-13; 12:2). He is already enthroned as King (Rev 3:21) He is already enthroned as King (Rev 3:21; I Cor 15:24-26) He has given us the blessings of His Kingdom (Rom 14:17) and humans are brought into His Kingdom (Col 1:13)

The God of the Kingdom

OT - God’s activity: God’s Kingdom was God’s overall sovereign rule. He never ceased to be the God whole kingly providence untimely superintended all existence.
NT -
a seeking God - “Seek and save the lost”
an inviting God - “To invite sinners to the Great Banquet of the Kingdom was precisely the Lord’s mission” - Rawlinson
The fatherly God - to submit to the reign of God is to let Him be our heavenly Father.
The judging God - Those who reject the call or offer of salvation will be judged.

The Future Kingdom

The Book of Revelation - Not a chronological book but a descriptive book of 2 scenes: Heaven and earth - the destruction of evil and the blessings of eternal life.
On earth there will be judgement and punishment.
In Heaven there will be everlasting joy and life with Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
We see in Revelation the “recapitulation” of these scenes (the re-writing of them so as to really understand them like a mom repeats to her child, “don’t touch the hot stove”).
Heaven - worship
We will worship (all creation will worship) Him as seen in Rev 4: 4-11; 5:6-10; 7:9-12; 11:15-18; 19: 1-8
Earthly judgment
He will judge (as the King) Rev 11:11-16; 21:7-8

So what? - We have seen in our sermon series:

Who is God
He died for us
He rose for us
He is personal and communicates with us
He is our promise keeper
He alone is to be worshiped
He sends
He gives
He reigns
(next) He never leaves me

So we can then remember all this with confidence because of our KING!

We can know this wonderful King personally
We can worship Him in awe and with confidence
We can participate with Him in building His Kingdom
We can take risks b/c we know the King and He won’t reject us
We can rest in the sovereignty of His reign - He knows all
We can share this King with others
We can go/send because He will lead us/them
He is a King who owns everything - we can’t out give Him
He is a King who will never leave us (next week)

Give because He gave us so much!

2009-07-09T14:15:00.008-04:00

Keller says: “A mark of a real Christian is generosity like [the radical generosity of] God.” We are to imitate Him and become more like Him as we grow in His grace so…

How generous is God to us:

He gave us life
He gave us creation
He gave us redemption
He gave us His Son
He gave us His Holy Spirit
He gives us grace
He gives us His righteousness
He gives us His Word
He gives us hope
He gives us a future
He gives us eternity
He gives us a relationship
He gives us His ear
He gives us His love
He gives us His protection
He gives us His healing
He gives us ALL we have
He gives us our food
He gives us the next breath
He gives us gifts
He gives us a model
He gives us joy
He gives us endurance
He gives us ALL we need

Read 2 Corinthians 9: 6-15

II Corinthians: A famine was occurring in Israel and Paul asked the church in Corinth to take up a collection to help feed the people there. This is quite an event for the year 55AD because of the racial and other prejudices. This was the church in action defeating racism and “becoming one in Christ”. So Paul tells us the:

Reality of Generosity - What radical generosity can do!
Reason of Generosity - Why should we give?
Requirements of Generosity - How much should I give?

1. Reality of Generosity: Vertical and Horizontal

Read below a letter (Epistle) written about the early church and how she was so different than the “world”. The italic and bold sections are my notes.

WHAT THE EARLY WRITERS SAID ABOUT THE CHURCH ~ Circa 160 AD

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180. More likely is 'the most excellent Diognetus', Claudius Diogenes, who was procurator of Alexandria at the turn of the second/third centuries.

The Epistle to Diognetus

CHAPTER V -- THE MANNERS OF THE CHRISTIANS

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity [They Embraced, Equipped & Engaged the people and culture]. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct [engaging the people], they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers [They were Missional]. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring [They were pro-life]. They have a common table, but not a common bed [They fed and ate with “the world” but did not think like the world]. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich [They gave their money and selves away]; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

The world can see we’re different by how we treat others; inside and outside the church.

v12a: “For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints,” [horizontal within the church]. How?

food
shelter
clothing
missions
new churches
VBS
conferences
ministry funding

v13b: “…and the generosity of your contributions for them and for all others.” Who? - For those outside the church so we fund: See list above!!! Same list!

The second reality of generosity is God glorified and worshiped [vertical].

v12b: “…but is also overflowing in thanksgivings to God” and v13a: “By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ…”

2. Reason for Generosity: The Gospel and Grace

God gives all, supplies all and we bring nothing to the table as “He has distributed freely, He has give to the poor [us]; His righteousness endures forever.”

He has given us all and asks for just a small part in return. Imagine giving your child a whole 2 liter of Pepsi and asking for a sip and he tells you “no”.

v13…”they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ…”

v7 “Each must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Paul isn’t commanding us to give he is saying that if we get the gospel we will give in abundance.

Keller puts it this way:

“A [grace driven] Christian says, ‘everything I have I owe God because of your grace’. A moralist [works driven] says, ‘God owes me because I’ve worked hard.”

3. Requirements of Generosity - How much?

Driscoll puts it this way: “Therefore, the total “mandatory” OT tithe resulted in over 25% of a family’s gross income going to God and ministry. In the New Testament financial giving among God’s people focuses on grace, generosity, and the heart. The word “tithe” is rarely used in the New Testament, and when it is it is usual mentioned negatively in conjunction with the Pharisees who had sinful hearts when they gave. Perhaps the most thorough teaching in all the New Testament on giving is found in 2 Corinthians 8-9 where we discover the following principles regarding giving:

Giving is a joy and an honor.
Giving is a heart issue, there is no standard.
Giving should come from your first fruits.
Giving should be done regularly, cheerfully and sacrificially.
Giving is tied to your proportion of faith
The amount is between you and God.
Giving is a spiritual gift - (Romans 12) some have a greater measure of this gift, coupled with faith.

Therefore, God’s people are today not required to tithe. But, as like everything else in the New Covenant our grace giving is to exceed Old Testament requirements of the law. Therefore, 10% should be for God’s people a floor and not a ceiling and a place to begin but not a place to end. Lastly, since God is ultimately the owner of all of our wealth the question is never how much should I give to God, but rather how much of God’s money should I keep?”

Paul puts it this way: “and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

At the end of the day, when we “survey the wondrous cross” the question is: “How can we not give until it hurts…”

2009-07-02T15:04:00.010-04:00

What is worship? In the Bible there are two main groups of Hebrew and Greek words that mean worship: “labor” and “service”. Worship is a verb - something we DO. We are to be a participant - we’re not to sit and be entertained or passive although we be can “ministered to” with a song or sermon. This also doesn’t mean worship can’t be good and of high quality - in fact it better be because He is worthy (there’s that word again) of the best from our hearts. And because He is worthy and He is God He sets the “rules” for corporate worship and He tells us in His word how He is to be worshiped. We call this the “elements” of worship which include: Preaching; greetings; singing; giving; prayers; oaths; benedictions and sacraments. These should be done both vertically (towards Him) and horizontally (remembering the needs of others in prayer and in finances [the poor; missionaries; etc]). Some may say worship is both “transcendent and imminent”. Worship should also be Trinitarian - all three persons of the Godhead are worthy of praise and honor. But how we do these elements should be according to those around us. We should worship Him in the context of the culture and people around us so our worship is intelligible.

The Westminster Confession says it this way: 1.6: The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word: and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.

Tim Keller says worship should be: Biblically faithful; culturally relevant; counter-culture and counter-intuitive

Counter Cultural: Do we look different and act the same (bad) or do we look the same and act different (good).

Counter intuitive: (Do you visit dying aides patience?) Somewhere where “Christians” would never go!

What we do here on Sunday AM is an outpouring from our daily worship. God calls us together to CELEBRATE as one body the realities of His goodness from the week’s activities. What we do, the elements, He demands….how we do them He gives freedom.
____________________________________________________________

Worship is NOT a “style of music” or a “style of preaching” although it is a part of corporate worship. Worship is ALL OF LIFE. How we live our lives is an indication of our personal daily worship of either God or an idol. When we are looking on the internet at something that is bad…we are worshiping an idol. When we argue without ceasing, we are worshipping the need to be right. When we fail to give, we are worshiping our money, when we constantly worry we are worshiping and feeding our insecurities rather than Him who has all things in His hands.

We give ourselves away to something or someone…our money; our time; our talents; our thoughts; our love ourselves; our hobbies; our history in our web browser. We all worship SOMEONE OR SOMETHING…. what you do with the things above will tell you what or who YOU really worship.

We read in the WCF 21.6: Neither prayer, nor any other part of religious worship, is now, under the gospel, either tied unto, or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed, or towards which it is directed: but God is to be worshiped everywhere, in spirit and truth; as, in private families daily, and in secret, each one by himself; so, more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected, or forsaken, when God, by his Word or providence, calls thereunto.

In his book Unceasing Worship Harold Best states his thesis saying: “The burden of this book develops the concept of continuous outpouring as the rubric for our worship. As God eternally outpours within His triune self, and as we are created in his image, it follows that we too are continuous outpourers, incurably so.” (Page 10)

“We begin with one fundamental fact about worship: at this very moment, and for as long as this world endures, everybody inhabiting it is bowing down and serving something or someone—an artifact, a person, an institution, an idea, a spirit, or God through Christ. Everyone is being shaped thereby and is growing up toward some measure of fullness, whether of righteousness or of evil. No one is exempt and no one can wish to be. We are, every one of us, unceasing worshipers and will remain so forever, for eternity is an infinite extrapolation of one of two conditions: a surrender to the sinfulness of sin unto infinite loss or the commitment of personal righteousness unto infinite gain. This is the central fact of our existence, and it drives every other fact. Within it lies the story of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation or final loss.” (Page 17-18)

As we studied in the doctrine of the Trinity, we saw that God is a community within Himself of ceaseless outpouring. Although there is one God, the three persons of the Trinity eternally exist with a ceaseless outpouring of love, communication, and joy. And, as we studied in the God Loves sermon we saw that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. As such, we too are ceaseless worshippers pouring ourselves out for someone or something.

The biblical word for worship is also sometimes translated “sacrifice.” This insight is helpful because where we make the greatest sacrifices reveals what we truly love and what we glorify and worship. For example, if we eat and drink in excess, we are worshiping our stomach and sacrificing our health. If we sacrifice relationships with God and people for a hobby (e.g., sport, music, craft), then we are worshipping that hobby. If we are giving our bodies to sexual sin, we are worshipping sex and/or another person, whose acceptance is our highest aim, sacrificing holiness and intimacy with God in the process. In short, we give our time, energy, body, money, focus, devotion, and passion to that which we glorify most and make sacrifices to worship. Because we were made for the express purpose of worshiping God, everyone is a worshipper. The only difference is who/what we worship.

Idolatry is one of the most frequent and most misunderstood themes in all of Scripture. When thinking of idolatry, images of a primitive person bowing down to a statue or something akin to it come to mind. But, when the Bible speaks of idolatry it does so in a broad manner so as to reveal it as corrupted worship in contrast with true worship. Perhaps the most succinct definition of idolatry is found in Romans 1:25 which says, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” God is our Creator and our worship is to be directed to him alone. But, as sinners we are prone to worship created things rather than our creator God and that is by definition idolatry. In the context of Romans 1, this idolatry can be things God has made such as the human body and its pleasures (especially sexual), or things we have made such as human ideas about God and life that dominate philosophy and spirituality.

Keller and Driscoll: And, God begins the 10 Commandments by declaring that he alone is God and that nothing and no one is to be worshiped in place of or alongside him. The rest of the 10 Commandments go on to then illustrate how if these first two commandments are obeyed it will transform the rest of our life into opportunities to worship God with our desires, relationships, possessions, etc. Simply, if we worship God alone we will not worship sex and commit adultery, worship possessions and commit thievery or coveting, worship people’s perceptions of us and lie, worship unrighteous anger and murder, worship our job and never Sabbath etc.

Our spiritual worship will be towards God or towards an idol (First 2 commandments are to WHOM we give our worship and the other 8 are HOW we can show that worship).

Rom 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Sacrifice - we sacrifice something to get what we WANT. Do we want God or do we want…food (health and extra money); a better golf game (I sacrifice money and time); alcohol (I worship the booze to celebrate or cover pain and I sacrifice my health, job, family etc)

So we make choices as to what or who we will worship - what is at the center of our hearts. Girls…on a date? He wants to go somewhere where he shouldn’t….do you obey him or Jesus? She is not a believer but you dater her anyway. Do you worship the date’s approval or Christ’s approval? Money…need a new car or want to worship it as it’s your status? etc.

This is why when I do counseling I tell people to “quite trying so hard” to stop whatever. Just look to Jesus and as you worship Him - ask yourself - Do I worship Jesus by this action or someone/thing else? This is how we approach our personal budgets….can’t make ends meet? What is there that is being worshiped and costs $$$$? Kill that idol and your budget will be healthy. What is the first check you write each pay period? That is probably your idol….who you worship.

Rom 1:25 - idol worshipers. The earth, pets (dogs shows or Jesus?); furniture (don’t jump on the furniture kids (its more important than the kids); the church building becomes more important than people.

So you see it goes back to the two words for worship in the Bible - Labor and sacrifice. What we do doing the week will affect and control what we do on Sunday. It’s not about a Sunday AM “fill” - it’s about an outpouring of thanksgiving from a week of praise.

1 John 5:21 - what are your idols? Who do you worship?

The Bible says:
Love your wife - the job says no
Give sacrificially - the new car; golf; hobbies; etc. say no
Worship Jesus corporately - the party last night says no
Don’t lust - your internet search history says lust
Serve one other - your calendar says no and you serve self
Use your gifts in the church - your late arrival and quick exit says "no"
Don’t fornicate - your boy friend says have sex and you give in

Jesus said in John chapter 4: “23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him [all the time]. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

Next week the topic is about giving…we are made to give as He has given us it all. Our budget problem is not a spending issue…it’s a giving issue because we worship something else with our wallets. More to come.

Our God Who Sends

2009-06-26T12:18:00.011-04:00

I. God

God has always sent - He sent Noah to build an Ark, live in it and go until the flooding stopped (Gen 7:1); Abraham to make a nation Gen 12:1); a nation of people to their own land (Ex 12:31 [via Pharaoh]); David to be a king (I Sam 16); the Holy Spirit (Ps 104:30; John 14:26; Acts 1); His Son (39 times in John alone); His disciples (Matt 28) and us (John 17:15 20:21).

In the OT God’s people were set apart and told not to part of the surrounding world and thus be a light to her neighbors (I Kings 8:41-43). In the NT it’s the opposite where we are told to go into the world and be the light. We are not ever told to “set up shop on Sunday AM and hope some lost people show up.” We are told to go and invite them into an experience with Jesus, to share the Good News of Jesus and not to ask them to obey a bunch of rules. In fact the very Greek word in Matt 28 is pareuo which means “while going”. The verb assumes that a Christian is going and while going…making disciples (EMBRACE; EQUIP & ENGAGE).

Jesus came into the created universe, our world and He adapted Himself to us! He became man, spoke our language, ate our food, laughed at our jokes and told HIS story so that we could say, “God speaks my language”.

In the book The Supremacy of Christ in the Postmodern World by John Piper says of Jesus Spirit lead earthly mission saying:

Jesus… came into a culture and participated in it fully by using a language, participating in various holidays, eating certain foods, enjoying various drinks, attending parties, befriending people, while never crossing a line into sin. Jesus’ life is the perfect and model missionary life lived for God in culture that we are to emulate, without falling into the pitfall of liberal syncretism or fundamental sectarianism. It deserves to be noted, however, that for those who were fundamental and separatistic in their thinking, Jesus simply went too far. In their eyes, though not the eyes of God the Father, his actions were sinful and they falsely accused him of being a glutton, a binge drinker, and a good tipper at Hooters. (Matthew 11:19) In his magnificent High Priestly prayer Jesus in fact prayed against us becoming either liberals who sin by going too far into culture and act worldly, or fundamentalists who do not go far enough into culture and act pharisaically: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:15–18)

Note that Jesus never changed the truth of who He is (Titus 2:1) but He did it in a way that His audience could understand. He spoke to fishermen about “fishing for men” and to farmers about “reaping, sowing and harvesting”. As we are sent, as we invite people to church, as we share Christ with people, we do so in a cultural context that they understand. As we worship we do so that is honoring to God (next weeks message) and yet that is understandable to both believer and non-believer. The Reformation was fought over this very issue…to make God’s Word accessible to all. Pastor Darrin Patrick says: “Just as Jesus came into a specific context at a specific time (Gal 4:4), we also realize that our fellowship exists in a specific context at a specific time. Therefore, we will seek to proclaim Truth in the context of the cultures in which we are situated.”

II. The Church

Mark Driscoll writes: Jesus prayed that we would not leave the sick and dying world and huddle into a safe subcultural ghetto of Christian nicety, but that we would stay in the world. In the same way, Jesus himself did not remain in the comforts of heaven but rather entered into a sinful culture on the earth as a missionary. Jesus also prayed that we would not simply go with the flow of sin and death in the culture but rather swim upstream against the current of worldliness by living countercultural lives like him, guided by the timeless truths of Scripture intended to be lived out by missionaries in every culture. In John’s gospel, Jesus told us that He was a missionary from heaven who came to minister incarnationally in an earthly culture. Furthermore, Jesus also commands us to be missionaries in culture as he was: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:18) He also said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21)

Every church makes a decision as to which culture they want to address, which culture they want to communicate into, which culture they want to present, which culture they says is “ours”. Some decide on the 1800’s; others the 1950’s and others want to communicate in the culture they find themselves providentially placed into right at this time in redemptive history. Ed Stetzer writes in Breaking the Missional Code: “This will not be without its risks [becoming missional] (or failures), but the faith is about biblically informed risks. ‘Peter was not a failure because he looked down and began to sink. If anyone failed, it was the eleven who stayed in the boat, waiting to see if it could be done.’ Too many churches are afraid to take risks to reach their community…until its too late. Instead they need to become intentionally indigenous.”

Andy Stanley, pastor of a 12,000 member church in Atlanta writes in his book, Next Generation Leader, “The Church is a prime example [of fear]… [Meetings and weekly services]. All this is done under the banner of ‘making disciples’ or ‘transforming lives.’ But the truth is that there is very little to show for all the meetings, messages, and mothers’ morning out. The church is making far more dinners than disciples. And while there is a general awareness that things are not going well, the average church attendee is content to show up once a week, do his time, and pretend that all is fine. [Professor and author] Howard Hendricks says after attending [worship service at a church] and made this recommendation: ‘Put a fence around it and charge admission so that people can come in and see how church was done in the 1950’s.”

The church is a missionary body...being sent by Jesus to proclaim His love to the hurting and lost. To do so we must speak their language otherwise they won't understand a word we say.

In doing so we do it passive in power (His power not ours) and active in process (we walk it):

Pray for opportunities
Pray for those around us
Pray for the correct words to say
Pray for the power to do it
Go and invite people to church
Go to your neighbor and invite them to a meal
Go to the mission field outside the US as well (short-term trips)
Go and financially support missionaries, church planters and the church
Go and use words they understand

Notes From Doctrine Series: Did He Have to Die?

2009-06-15T14:09:00.009-04:00

What happened on the cross? What happened so that you and I could enter into our rest found in Christ? In 2 Cor. 5 we read: ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He took on our sin and we became (have) the righteousness of God! Sin taken away and righteousness given...what a story!

Penal Substitutionary Atonement is one of the most important doctrines in the Christian faith. Yet what does this mean?

Penal - A penalty is due: Penal Code: Penalty for sin

Substitutionary - Jesus died in our place: He suffered what I should have suffered (Gal 2:20) Herman Bavinck wrote: “Sin was of such a nature that it aroused God’s wrath. Needed above all to still that wrath, to satisfy God’s justice, was the satisfaction accomplished by the “God-man.” He achieved it by putting himself in our place as the guarantor of the covenant, taking upon himself the full guilt and punishment of sin, and submitting to the total demand of the law of God. Hence the work of Christ consists not so much in his humility, nor only in his death, but in his total—active as well as passive—obedience. He accomplished this work in his threefold office, not only as prophet by teaching us and giving us an example and exhorting us to love but also as priest and king.”

Atonement - OT Yom Kipper - day of atonement: confess sins (Lev 16) when the high priest lays hands on 2 goats or lambs and sacrifices one and sends the other away with the sins of the people on it's back. Spurgeon writes: “That day of atonement happened only once a year, to teach us that only once should Jesus Christ die; and that though he would come a second time, yet it would be without a sin offering unto salvation. The lambs were perpetually slaughtered; morning and evening they offered sacrifice to God, to remind the people that they always needed a sacrifice; but the day of atonement being the type of the one great propitiation, it was but once a year that the high priest entered within the vail with blood as the atonement for the sins of the people.”

Propitiation - is an atoning sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God on behalf of those for whom it is made...you and me!
Romans 3: 23-25: “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed."
I John 2:2: “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” An important part of Christ’s saving work includes deliverance from God’s wrath that the unbelieving sinner is under, because Jesus’ atonement on the cross is the only thing that can turn away God’s divine wrath"

Jesus is the reality of the OT atonement sacrifice...Jesus is the Lamb of God who was slain for us and who takes our sin away. He paid the price of our sin and gave us His righteousness.

He did this "for" us which means on our behalf as we see in these texts:
Is 53:5
Is 53:12
Rom 4:25
Rom 5:8
Gal 2:20
Gal 3:13
I Cor 15:3
I Peter 3:18
I John 2:2

It's not about me....it's about HIM!

Is this me?

2009-02-04T12:36:00.002-05:00

We've started a new series in our church (The Bridge)from the book of Hosea. What a radical book! The prophet Hosea is told to wed a prostitute named Gomer. He does just that. I can't imagine his heart as she leaves each evening saying, "I'll be back later" and where his mind must wonder as she practices her "profession." Yet she comes back and he not only permits her to return but has children with her. So we have a real life picture of infidelity and faithfulness, of giving oneself to another verses commitment and false, dirty and pleasure seeking love verses pure love.

What we have is a "living portrait" of God and Israel...His faithfulness to a nation (the Northern Kingdom) who turned her back on the One who gave her life. Israel was a prosperous nation who had it all and in spite of being blessed by God, they turned their affections, love and worship to another, Baal. They no longer loved their "husband" Yahweh, but they loved another who gave them nothing but simple pleasure. They stopped trusting God for their salvation, they stopped putting their faith in the One who delivered them from slavery and placed this faith in a false god.

We read in Exodus 20 that God will have no others beside Himself and we are not to worship anything or anyone else. And yet Israel chose to do so. They put their faith and trust in another committing spiritual prostitution.

And we do the same today. You see, we are to have no other before Him and even as believers, we do the same thing. How? Well through our works righteousness. We trusted Him for our salvation and then we look to our works to make us "right before God" or we do or don't do something so that we are more "holy". All this is, is making something else (dress, hairstyles, tithing amounts) our functional saviors so that we think we are more "acceptable" to God. As if Christ's life, death and resurrection weren't enough...we try and add to it. We have idols (being accepted; being right; being good; etc) that we must feed and we place them in front of Christ. We don't trust that He is our sufficiency, that He is our salvation, that He is our righteousness. So we become a prostitute looking for a lover named "works righteousness" and we go see her daily.

The answer? Preach the Gospel to yourself everyday, remembering that we are sinners saved by grace and we too live a daily life by grace. We then become a son or daughter of the living God, not an orphan who has no rights, but a child who is loved freely by our Lord and Savior. We become free! (Galatians 5)

2008-12-14T07:12:00.002-05:00

In I John 3:11-24 John tells us to love and not to hate. He tell us to not hate like Cain. Was it murder that condemned him or his heart? (Hint - It's always a heart issue that reveals itself in actions).

What is love? How does it express itself in daily life? With your spouse? Kids? Parents? Friends?

John (and the Bible) seems to use this term in a way that is deeper than the “world” understands it. He seems to tell us to have a passion for something. What stops us from having this passion for Him? For one another?

If we are passionate about something, doesn’t it show in our daily lives? For example, someone who is passionate about a sports team. You follow that team, you know the stats of the players and the schedule, and you debate why that team is better than the others. Or maybe you’re passionate about a TV show that you have to watch. You know when it’s on and how did what in the last episode. Do you know Christ like that?

The reality is, we can’t or won’t know Him or love others like that until we know that He loves us like that! Jesus brags on you (He is your priest), knows your schedule and knows what you did in “the last episode” and will do in the one coming up next week…yet He loves you anyway. He loves us unconditionally and knows every hair on our heads. He knows us and and loves us and when we get that, we are set free. Set free to love ourselves and others.

Once we truly understand this, we than can be free to love and be passionate about Him and others. Once this sinks into our lives, hearts and minds, action will pour out.

Your life and the lives of those around you will change… pray about that!

The Stairway to Heaven

2008-07-31T15:23:00.004-04:00

WOW - reading Genesis 28 is amazing. This is where Jacob has a whacked out dream about angels, God and a stairway. He dream of a stairway from the earth reaching the heavens and angels riding up and down this 4,000 year old escalator. But the story doesn't end there. It tell us of God (The LORD) coming down and standing beside Jacob. (Some translations say "above it" or "over him" but "beside him" is better given the context and Hebrew).

So what? So God came down for a visit. Well this tells us several things:
1) God left HIS 'culture' to come to man. He came and communicated to Jacob in his language and on his turf so He (God) could be understood. Sounds missional to me!
2) He comes to us, we don't go to Him. That is the Gospel, God coming to us and doing for us what we can't do for ourselves.
3) He tells us His plans for us. Not always the details or the hows, but the BIG plans and the ones we are to focus upon...All the peoples of the world will be blessed (that missional thing again) and He uses you and me to accomplish that!
4) He will provide rest and comfort (wonder who that rock was? wonder who that bread alluded to in this text?)

Yet most importantly He will provide the means for this to be accomplished. You see God didn't come down on any stairway...He came down on THE Stairway - Jesus.

Let's turn over to John 1:51. Jesus is talking and says: "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.(Italics added). Imagine that! The very same words from Genesis 28 are Jesus' words. He is the 'stairway'. He is the One by which God comes to man (well He is God) and God the Father has a relationship with His people.

Jacob encountered God via Jesus and called Him a staircase.

So what is the Gospel? Listen to Driscoll

2008-07-03T11:45:00.004-04:00

What are the "Men of Genesis" teaching me?

2008-07-03T11:14:00.005-04:00

As I spend time studying and preparing for each sermon in the series "The Men of Genesis" I come to the same conclusion...what an amazing God that He would use sinful men to do amazing things. Each man, in spite of his sin, trusts God to fulfill His purposes through them. Each man also reveals the One on whom we should all trust...the only one who perfectly obeyed His Father, is our "ark", the only Son sacrificed for sin, the perfect One who leads His people from slavery to freedom, who defeats our giants when we didn't do anything to deserve it or we didn't help in any fashion, yet we get the freedom. He is the one who, in spite of our sin and our something else being first in our hearts and rightfully being called "spiritual prostitutes" loves and received unconditionally.

Remember what God teaches us:

- He told Noah to go and build a boat when rain did not fall – it rained and man was saved!
- He told Abraham to ‘go’ and He did not tell him where – The nation was built!
- He told Abraham he would have a child at the age of 100 and when his wife was barren - they had a son!
- He told Abraham to kill that one son he so desperately waited to have - God rescued him!
- He told Moses to speak to the Pharaoh to let His people go and to preach to the masses…all from a man who stuttered - He led his people to freedom in spite of their sin!
- He told Gideon to lead his shrunken army with men who drink like dogs - They won!
- He told the army surrounding Jericho to defeat the city by yelling - It fell!
- He told a young teen to go kill a giant whom all feared with a stick, rubber band and a pebble - He killed the giant and set his people free!
- He told Hosea to tell the people of Israel that they were prostitutes - They repented and God forgave!
- He told Malachi to tell the people of Israel that they were stealing from God - They gave and through us we can bless others!

The point? God calls men to do ridiculous things because HE is faithful. Otherwise man would take the credit because they were doable in man’s eyes.

He does all these things through Jesus Christ who is the One who killed the giant, the One who is our Ark, the One who calls us to repent, the One who defeats the enemy with His voice...it is all Jesus. He does this all through us.

2008-06-03T14:18:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile...men

2008-06-03T13:39:00.002-04:00

It has been awhile since I've posted here due to my sin and being so busy. But enough of my excuses.

I am preaching through the "Men of Genesis" as we look at the reality that God uses really sinful men to do really amazing things. We are looking at Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and others to see how He used these men in spite of their sin, rebellion and disbelief. But how? How did He use them and what was their power source? And why are we learning this now in our church?

First, God used each of these men by calling them to do amazing things that would only give glory to Himself. If they were tasks that man could do easily, well then man would tend to take the credit. But when He calls us to do things that are seemingly impossible, the He and He alone gets the credit. (See: build an ark; go and build a nation; etc). Secondly, He used these men even though they had sin and in many cases grave sin that would have stopped others in their tracks. Yet their fuel for building an Ark and leaving a country was their faith in the coming Messiah, the One who would be the better Ark and the better sacrifice and perfect Son to be slain, not just the mere foreshadowing of the One.

So why this fuss about men? As it has been said, "If you want to win the war, you must get the men." The reality is much of the church is missing her greatest warriors, the men. The men have been MIA for a long time. There are many reasons for this: The "femanization" of the church where Jesus has been portrayed as a weak man in a dress who asks us to sing "prom songs" to Him. Men are missing because in many cases the churches are decorated for and through the eyes of women. It's not that they are not attractive, they can tend to be prissy looking. So men are at home watching football or tuning up their cars.

Yet if the church reaches men, and trains them Biblically (meaning to love their wives, lead their kids and respect their bosses, etc) men will fight for the church, lead their families into worship, manage their businesses in a godly manner and then we win the war. Then we have healthier families, content kids, businesses giving money away to feed the poor.

So why men? Because God uses ALL people to build His church and all are important and equal in the eyes of God but He has called men to be on the front line of battle and if we have no men, we can't win the war.

Who Am I...really?

2008-04-04T12:57:00.002-04:00

I am preaching through the Book of James and this week I start the topic of “Faith and Works”. What a challenge as I do NOT want to guilt people into a “works righteousness” that is just another gospel…not the pure Gospel of Christ. So where do I start? With Christ and who I am in Him:

Who in the world am I? The marketing geniuses say I am “A Marlboro Man” or the sensitive man who runs 10 miles a day and buys flowers for my wife. I am also the one who works too hard yet needs the Jaguar or Mercedes car to be “complete”. The woman is the one who, “brings home bacon, fries it up in a pan and never forgets to tell me I am her man.” Life can be confusing as the world tells us “who we should be.”

Yet the reality is the church can be just as confusing. “You’re not a real Christian unless you listen to ‘xyz’ type of music.” “You’re not a Christian unless your hair is a certain length.” “You’re not really worshipping God unless you wear the clothes I approve.” To be a real Christian, “you must read the Bible daily, give 20% of your income and teach at all opportunities.” “You must obey the rules that God and I have put before you.”

These are the things we do to each other. Paul says we’re “preaching/teaching another Gospel.” Not the pure Gospel of Christ, but one that says, “Christ plus something.” Christ plus my works so that God accepts me and keeps me or so that you accept me. We believe that salvation is by grace and we live as if our Christian life is now up to my works and effort. We try to relate to God (be accepted by Him) through rules and not through Christ. Yet our righteousness is found in Christ alone. It is His righteousness we have, not our own (2 Cor. 5:21). We can stop trying and just be. Steve McVey says in his book, Grace Rules, “Until a person knows he has died to the law, he will attempt to relate to Jesus through the law system. That will never work. God’s primary concern is not our doing, but our being [italics mine].”

When we grasp the real idea that we are born-again, we know that our old self died! We are a new creation and we now live in Christ and Christ in us (2 Cor 5:17 & Col 2:13-15). It is He who works through us “the one who call you [Jesus] is faithful and He will do it.” (I Thess. 5:24). When we understand that it is all God and He is our righteousness McVey again says: “When a Christian know that he is free from the law [earning God’s approval and trying to be good], he will discover that God’s indwelling Spirit will motivate him to serve [works] based on his relationship to Jesus, not because of external demands to perform.”

So who am I? I am a child of the living God and made right, whole, perfect in Him. Nothing can take that away and I can’t add a thing to what and who He is. I can quit trying and so can you!

Being Missional

2008-03-04T14:12:00.003-05:00

This is a term that is gaining momentum in the church world. I have gone to pastor's conferences where this is discussed at length (see youtube and youtube), read books about this (Stetzer) and I have taken a Doctor of Ministry class on this subject. But what does this mean? How can we apply it to our lives?

First, being missional means to understand what Scripture says about our mission here on earth. We read about it in Matt 28, Acts 1:8 and see it in the lives of the Apostles. We are to reach the lost for Christ's sake and preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord (II Cor 4:5). Yet we are to do so in a way that they understand. Paul tells us in I Cor 9 that he loses his rights and becomes all things to all people so that some may be saved. He doesn't start with his cultural identity but that of his audience (see Acts 17).

We see that Jesus did this very thing for us. He came to earth, leaving the perfection of Heaven and communion with His Father and the Holy Spirit, to live among those who would reject Him, spit on Him, curse Him, stone Him, stab Him, mock Him and kill Him. He came and spoke their language, wore their cloths, ate their food and celebrated their holidays. He was with them.

So we too must be with the lost. Speak so we can be understood and our worship must be intelligible. This was the very fight of the reformation! To make the Gospel of Jesus Christ understandable to the masses. Hence to be missional.

As we see our neighbors, friends and family we must show them the love of Christ. We must tell them of the love of Christ and we must do it so they can understand it. This is being missional. Giving up our rights and likes and becoming servants to all so some might be saved.

This is my heart and the heart of our church. It is not easy and at times can be very challenging but as they say in Mexico, vale la pena or it's worth it as eyes are opened and folks see the church as a place that cares and is relevant to their lives. Coming into their lives, teaching truth and contending for the faith in way that make sense.

I Am Legend

2007-12-24T07:12:00.000-05:00

Have you seen the movie starring Will Smith? If not and you're planning on going you may want to stop reading now. I am going to discuss some amazing Biblical truths that are throughout the movie. GO SEE THIS. It has great talking points where we can engage our family, friends and neighbors as bring in the truths of Scripture as they relate to and are in this movie.

The setting is in the not too distant future and we have "creation" - the world as we know it. Then comes the "fall" where man (through a scientist) plays God (think original sin - "you will be just like God") by trying to cure illnesses (trying to cure illnesses is NOT bad in of itself) and in doing so, the world is infected with a disease and dies (Adam and his sin effecting us all). Yet there are some who don't get the fatal disease and so some remain alive (the remnant). Will Smith is one who is alive and a brilliant scientist as well, hunting for the immunization that will keep him safe, alive and cure anyone else who may be alive, although at this point he believes he is all alone.

He is alone (it is not good that man should be alone) and finally he connects with another person, a woman (and a young boy). They struggle (he hasn't talked to anyone in about 3 years so his communication skills are lacking). There are also "bad guys" trying to devour them at all cost (the devil?) and so they must constantly run, hide and protect themselves from them. They are smart and tricky laying out schemes and plots to entrap them (sounds familiar doesn't it?)

Finally at the end, they are cornered and about to be killed by the demons when the cure Smith has been working on seems to work. Smith takes blood from the patient and says: "I've got it, it's in the blood, the cure is in the blood" [my quote of the scene]. Read Leviticus 17:11 and reflect on Christ shedding His blood for us!

Finally as the demons are about to kill Smith, the woman and boy, Smith gives the blood to the other two, puts them in a safe place and kills the demons while taking his own life (think the cross).

The movie ends as the woman and child reach a safe place where there are 100's of uninfected people with the blood that will keep them safe forever (the promised land, heaven).

This movie is not for the faint of heart but the Biblical analogies are throughout the movie and a wonderful way to connect Christ and His death, blood and salvation to others who may never step foot into a church.

Are You Hungry?

2007-11-29T20:50:00.000-05:00

When we lived in Mexico we would have the opportunity to eat some very different foods. We traveled to some very remote and poor areas and at times the foods were, well interesting. One time we traveled to a beach area and on the buffet table was a bowl full of crickets. Fried crickets with lemon juice. They were eaten like popcorn and so we were encouraged to try them. We all chickened out but our daughter. She tried one, just stuck it in her mouth and spit it out. So we never ate one, just tasted it. We never ingested it, we just "tried it out".

And this is the point of Jesus in John 6 as He encounters "the hungry". They were just fed by an amazing miracle and then He walks on water as He crosses the sea. They still were asking "who is this guy" and didn't believe in Him at all. They enjoyed His banquet as He fed the multitude with a few fish and some bread. They tasted Him, they looked over the buffet table and nibbled but that was it. He was a deep-fried cricket who was to be tried but not really eaten.

Yet Jesus tells us in John 6 that we are to eat of Him. He doesn't mean we literately ingest Him. He means that spiritually we do more than just taste - we chew, swallow and digest Him. He becomes a part of our being, as the nutrients of food give us life, His blood (Leviticus 17:11) gives us life.

They ask Jesus, "what must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answers...do nothing. Just believe..."believe on the one He has sent." True belief is ingesting (believing) Christ. This is eternal life. Jesus says: "I am the living bread that came down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this bread will live forever." This will cure your hunger forever. Eat of Him this Christmas and He will never stop feeding you as He was faithful to the Israelites in the desert.

Encountering the Religious

2007-11-20T06:11:00.000-05:00

How to get to heaven - ever ask that question and hear an answer that sounds something like: "I do 'this' and don't do 'that' so I think I am good enough. God wouldn't reject me because I have never broken one of the 'big ten'."

Well this was the attitude of the legalists in Jesus' day. In fact those were the folks He had the most problems with and argued the most with Him. Today it's no different. Why? We all want to believe we're not as bad as we really are and so we justify ourselves. We justify our righteousness before a Holy and Perfect God because we know He demands it. So we make a list, create an account that makes one column longer than the other. The problem is we don't see ourselves as God does. We don't see our sin as great as God does and so it's a false appraisal of our depravity. It's false assurance and false hope.

This is the problem with all of us though. The non believer thinks they are ok because of what they do and hence, "God has to accept me....He owes me heaven based on my goodness and works." And the believer says the same. The believer says that God owes him a good life and "blessings" because he tithes and sings in the choir. He says God owes him because he reads his Bible and even underlines the good parts.

And this too is self-righteousness. This is making God a debtor to us...He owes us something because of something we have done. This make us religious too, just like the unbeliever. Yet in Galatians 3: 1-3 we see a different view according to Paul. Paul is yelling at the Galatians for their falling back into works righteousness and says: "you were saved by grace and now you want to obtain your goal [heaven] through works?" "Are you nuts?" He says in Romans 7, after listing his sins [and they were many and ugly] he asks, "who will rescue me from this horrible state I am in?" And the answer is Christ Jesus. Not do more or give more. Not read and pray more, just Jesus. Finally in Ephesians 2, right after he tells us that we are saved by grace alone, not by works, he tell us that we are to do good works...that God the Father prepared for us to do. Do you see this? We don't even get credit for our works because God prepared them for us.

Here is my point...Jesus came to save us from our depraved selves. The religious won't get it until they see the impossibility to meet the perfection of God. And the Christian must see the same thing daily. We must see that our only hope is Christ. That our daily walk is in Him, in His strength and in His power. Not in our own. This was the lesson of the Prodigal Son. This lesson was the lesson to the elder son. He thought he had done enough to earn the Father's favor.

I had lunch with a friend today and we were talking about this "grace stuff" and I said that Jesus came to restore what was broken, the relationship we once had with God the Father before the fall. Now imagine a relationship with someone, someone you love, and it like this: "I will only love you if you do this for me and don't do that." Is that a relationship? Is that a safe relationship? Is that true friendship? I would think not. This is the same with Jesus. We have a safe, intimate relationship with Him, not because we "do and don't do" but because He did and does for us.

So rest in Jesus believer. God can't love you anymore that He already does and won't love you any less. When we see that infinite gap He filled with His life, death and resurrection we will run to Him daily and ask, "How may I serve you today Jesus because of what You did for me?" We won't ask, "What can I do so you won't reject me today?"

An Encounter with Jesus

2007-11-14T11:40:00.001-05:00

Jesus came into the world to restore and redeem. He restored the broken relationship that occurred in the fall. When Adam sinned, he lost the personal relationship he had with the Father, we too, due to our sin have a broken relationship with the Father. He ran and hid due to his sin and shame. We do the same. We don't pray or read because we feel shame and yet as believers are restored and can come to the Father through the Son at anytime. As believers we are no longer condemned (Romans 8:1).

So this Christmas I am preaching through a series on "An Encounter With Jesus". I will be taking stories from the Gospel of John and preaching how Jesus encountered all kind of people and how they and Jesus reacted in each one. Here are the titles and dates:

November 18 -

An Encounter with the Religious

November 25 -

An Encounter with the Rebellious

December 2 -

An Encounter with the Hungry

December 9 -

An Encounter with the Killers

December 16 -

An Encounter with the Arrogant

December 23 -

An Encounter with the World

December 30 -

An Encounter with the Lost

Welcome to my blog

2007-11-11T16:13:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the blog of The Bridge. I am the pastor and I am passionate about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am sold out to Christ and the grace he has given us through His atoning death on the cross.

I have learned much through the ministry of Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, Richard Pratt and Matt Chandler. Their teachings and ministry have impacted my philosophy of ministry.

I believe that our salvation is found in the person of Jesus Christ and our sanctification is also found in the person of Jesus Christ. Our Father can't love us any more than He already does and so we can't work to gain more of Him. Our works are even from Him, prepared by Him, before the foundations of the world (Ephesians 2).