After the 365 days of 2010, here are the seven things that make it a "good" year: #1 I love Jesus more #2 I love my beautiful bride more #3 I love my four kids more. #4 I love my friends, and especially my "brothers" more. #5 I love my church more. #6 I love my life more. #7 I love the world less. And I have one resolution for 2011, to glorify God and enjoy Him more as a Son, Husband, Father, Pastor, Brother, Neighbor, and Friend.
All of us are guilty of talking a lot about what we don’t like about the church, but we don’t often talk about what the church actually is. A common definition in the dictionary describes the church as “a building for Christian worship”. It's a wonder how anyone might come to this conclusion reading the New Testament description of churches who seem to be without buildings for the most part. It goes without saying that the church is more than a building, but what "more" means is rarely asked because we assume understanding when we shouldn't . And even if someone offers an answer, it’s often colored by traumatic Sunday school experiences, mean people, weird people, cliquey people, juvenile legalisms, cheesy music, deathly boring sermons, terrible leaders, and/or meaningless traditions. It ends up being more of a diatribe than a definition. These negative experiences have led to an increasing number [...]
We are all addicts. We are all addicted to various idols that captivate us, allure us, and lie to us. Instead of holding to the promises of God and/or heeding His warnings, we believe the promises of sin. Their lies patterned after the first lie, telling us we will be happier apart from God's Word. Idols never sleep. As a recovering-moralist, for years I wrongly believed that if I just avoided idols (and their sinful followers) I would be safe from their sinful influences. If the devil really was prowling about "like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour", then I'd just work hard to avoid his hunting grounds. For extra protection, I'd build big walls, not so I could fight better, but so that I could sit in my bomb shelter and not fight at all. It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that this is [...]
Our church is going through the Advent this year for the first time. Different traditions organize and preach this series differently, but they all celebrate the Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy that first arrived with Jesus first coming as we look forward to His Second. In Isaiah 9.6-7, a prophecy about the coming Redeemer, this young child (Jesus) is described as the "Prince of Peace." I don' t know about you, but when I hear “Prince of Peace”, I don't think of some manly-manimal ready to conquer the world with all His might. Perhaps that is because my concept of what a "Prince" is has been perverted by the almighty gods of this world named Disney and Mattel. As a Father of a girly-girl daughter, I have watched every Disney & Barbie Princess movie there is at least 10 times each. What my daughter views as a "Prince", sadly, [...]
I recently read that Holiday shoppers will spend an average of $1,044 on gifts this year, up nearly 92% from 2009. As a nation, that translates into several billion dollars. There is no denying that Americans spend a lot of money during the Christmas Season. So how am I supposed to respond to this as a Christian or a pastor? I appreciate what Doug Wilson recently wrote about a right orientation toward Christmas and gifts. Conversely, a normal knee-jerk response for many evangelicals is to rage against the idols of consumerism and demonize all things Santa. Sadly, the children are left confused and Christians are dismissed as uptight penny-pinchers competing for piety points by giving their Christmas money to more "worthy" causes. As a pastor, I don't know if I am concerned about my kids learning about materialism from the world as much as I am about them learning it [...]
Last week I preached a sermon on the second half of Joshua 8. Like all of my sermons, the point of it can be summed up by saying, confess your sin, go to church, read your Bible, and enjoy God. The text of Joshua 8 describes Israel renewing their commitment to God. Joshua leads what amounts to a worship service by copying the entire law on rocks and reading every word of God's Law aloud to entire congregation. As he publicly reads the promises and warnings of God and the people, young and old, respond with a resounding, "Amen"--affirming every word. Sadly, as I charged people to renew their own commitment to God's Word, I realized that the majority of people listening to me probably didn't even have their own Bibles with them. Inspired by the mountain top worship service in Joshua (not really), after church our family with some [...]
Lesson #28: Confronting Sin One of the most difficult things a leader has to do is confront sin. This past week I preached on Joshua 7 where the sin of one man, Achan, brings "trouble" upon the entire community. In most sermons like this, mine being no exception, the main focus often rests with Achan--the man who hides his sin and destroys his family. What many who read this passage often ignore, the one thing the church planter needs to pay special attention to, is Joshua--the leader who has to deal with it. If the biblical pattern for God's leader's is any sign, then the church planter should expect sin to rear its ugly head. It happened to Moses and Joshua in Israel and in happened in the early Church with Peter, James, and John (See Acts 4). The leader will have to decide whether or not they are going [...]
Last week I preached on Joshua 6, The Battle of Jericho. The more I study and preach God's Word, the more I learn how deep you can drill it for truth. With every sermon I preach, I am forced to emphasize one part of the text, one verse, or one them at the expense of another. Deciding what to emphasize is difficult as it means certain death (-cide) to whatever you choose not to emphasize. Joshua 6 is no exception. I could have preached six unique sermons out of this one chapter, all emphasizing a different and equally powerful truth. As I personally have heard a hundred sermons over my life asking, "What is your Jericho?", focusing on God's victory over impossible odds, I choose instead to focus on God's Holiness. Of course, if you are really going to hit God's Holiness than you are required to really hit man's [...]
I love Damascus Road. I look forward to being with them, enjoy laughing with them, serving them, caring for them, and being loved by them. Damascus Road Church turned four years old this week, on November 4th. We've seen this newborn baby church grow into a potty trained toddler. And now, this four-year old is about to do it all over again and launch a new plant in Mt. Vernon. Amazing. Humbling. Crazy. As such, I have spent a lot of time with Jesus this week, listening to him remind me about how wonderful and horrible this journey has been. In the last four years, I have learned more about God than the previous 32 years combined. I have also come face to face with my own depravity. The only way I can even recognize the many GRACES of God is to, at the same time, recognize my own weaknesses, [...]
LESSON #27: Failing the Great Commission (DON'T DO IT) Currently, we are taking about 20 guys through what we call a discipleship boot camp. It is a return to what are called “First Principles”, the basics, Christianity 101, the foundation of our faith. Some might consider our material too simplistic, focusing on “milk” rather than meat. In the short time that I have been a pastor, I have learned that the basics are where most Christians, and the churches they build, go wrong. Too often they want to run ahead on meat, only to try and choke down a theological rib-eye their stomachs are not prepared for. Though they may be able to get some nourishment, most of the meal they have to spit out and thus, end up malnourished. And though they talk about the glories of big theological steak meals, they don’t in fact grow, and neither do [...]