Worship at Calvary West

I’m also convinced that we must keep our vision and core values before us and allow them to govern our ministry priorities.  During this 2 1/2 year period we’ve identified ’3 pillars’ of ministry we believe must be done with excellence.

Pillar #1 Corporate Worship: Our desire, above all, is to magnify Jesus Christ who brought us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.  I’m grateful for the team of people that God allows me to work with who are unbelievably talented, visionary, and passionate about creating an environment where people encounter the gospel in all we do.  I pray this will be a place where the gospel is faithfully proclaimed and that broken people find healing and rest in Jesus Christ.

Pillar#2 Bible Fellowship: We realize that community can’t and won’t be built exclusively through corporate worship.  There must be environments where people are able to open up their lives with one another and be encouraged in their walk with Christ.  We have been unbelievably blessed with leaders committed to faithfully teach the Scriptures and build community both on Sunday mornings and throughout the week in homes.  Click here to see a listing of classes.

Pillar #3 CORE: CORE classes are designed to ground and grow our people in the gospel and its implications for doctrine, devotion, duty, and delight. Our goal for CORE Ministry Training is to train and equip every person for fruitful personal ministry in the context of the church body and in the world.  These take place on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.  Click here for more details.

God is faithfully building this community and I’m thankful to be a part of what God is doing.  Let’s keep our eyes fixed upon Christ, faithfully make much of Him, and passionately seek to further His kingdom.

Al Gilbert

Dear Calvary Family:

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that I am accepting a position at the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and will soon be leaving Calvary. By mid-September, I will begin a new assignment in Atlanta as the Executive Director of Love Loud, the ministry evangelism arm of the North American Mission Board.

The Process

Calvary is a special place and it has been a great honor to serve God with you. You have loved and encouraged us and will always have a special place in our hearts. This has been a very difficult decision for us, but we have seen God’s hand opening a door for ministry.  Most of you are aware of the decline in KK’s parents’ health. Her mom, who has Alzheimer’s, fell and broke her hip right before Thanksgiving.  KK has needed to spend most of her time in Atlanta since then. Many things we have envisioned for our role in Calvary’s ministry are not possible with her needing to be in Atlanta. We have continuously cried out to God for wisdom and direction.

Dr. Kevin Ezell, President of NAMB, has repeatedly asked me to join his team. While praying over how to meet KK’s parents’ needs, I realized God is leading us to a place where KK can care for her parents and I can continue to influence the people of God to be on mission. The headquarters of the NAMB is in Atlanta, only minutes from KK’s parents’ home. Dr. Ezell challenged me with an assignment matching my heart…

The Assignment

The best way to explain the scope of my new assignment is to think about “Love:Winston-Salem” and our refugee ministry to the Karenni people group. I have been asked to help Southern Baptists learn how to multiply ministries like these to reach their cities in the South and find ways to reach our neglected neighbors in the North and West. We will challenge Southern Baptists to align Mercy Ministries with Missional Living throughout North America.

Timing and Next Steps

Before sending this letter I met with the staff and deacons, and am grateful for their encouragement and prayers as we begin a major transition. Our deacons have started a process to find God’s man to be the next pastor of Calvary.  Please pray for them and expect a progress report at our multi-campus celebration on August 31, at 6:30 pm in our central campus worship center.  We will have plenty of time to say our good-byes. I look forward to sharing these next few weeks with you before Calvary commissions me to be your missionary to North America.

In Christ,

Al

The past several days have been filled with a lot of emotions and I’m sure there are more emotions to come for all who know and love Al and KK, and our church.  I hope that in the coming days we will all be diligent to pray for Al and KK as they transition as well as for the church and its staff.

http://vimeo.com/26518173

O God of Grace, Thou has imputed my sin to my substitute Jesus, and has imputed his righteousness to my soul, clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe, decking me with jewels of holiness.

 But in my Christian walk I am still in rags; my best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin; my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.

 I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of clothing, for you always justify the ungodly;

 I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, Father, forgive me, and you are always bringing forth the best robe.  Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun.

 Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin,

The exceeding righteousness of salvation,

The exceeding glory of Christ,

The exceeding beauty of holiness,

The exceeding wonder of grace.

Matthew 16:24-25 reads,

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?  Or what shall a man give in return for his life?  For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.  Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

What a powerful statement by our Lord: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This is the call upon the lives of every follower of Christ!

What does it mean and how is it accomplished? I hope this post will help provide an answer those questions.

The command to follow Christ is found throughout the NT:

• Matthew 4:19, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
• Matthew 8:22, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
• Matthew 10:38, “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
• John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
• John 12:26, “If anyone served me, he must follow me; and where I am there will my servant be also.  If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

Therefore when we consider the strong words of Jesus here in Matthew 16 we recognize this is consistent with the teaching of Christ throughout the NT. As we unpack vs. 24 and 25, I want us to fully consider what it means to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow Him.

Deny Yourself

To deny ourselves is to affirm the utter rejection of self-sufficiency. This is the problem at the root of man’s heart. You see, behind every sin is a lie.  It is a lie seeking to convince us that whatever it is we have set our affections on will somehow satisfy us or meet a need that only God can meet. The Scriptures are littered with examples of this (and we have the evidence in our own lives as well). Let me give you both an OT and NT example:

OT: David and Bathsheba

In II Samuel 11:2-5, “It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.”

Here is the lie David begins thinking to himself and listening to: “Being with this woman is going to somehow bring a measure of satisfaction that delighting in God cannot bring me.” What does he do?  Vs. 4, “So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.”

Look with me for a moment at Matthew 19.

In verses 16-22 Jesus has an encounter with a rich man who had come to him wanting to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. After laying out all the positive things the rich man had done, Jesus peals away all the layers of pride in his heart and says in verse 21, “If you would be perfect, go, sell, what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”  When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” The lie the rich man believed was thinking that material wealth was the key to enjoying the fullness of this life.

When we look at the whole of redemptive history we see the lie of “self-sufficiency” can be traced all the way to the garden. Genesis 3:6:

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise…”

There it is…self-sufficiency! For Adam and Eve the lie they believed was that there was more to life than what God could offer.  Their lie was to believe that they could, in some respect, become like God…His equal. And it is this sin that has been passed down to us through Adam and Eve. You might say, “Well, Will these seem like some extreme examples!”  But it doesn’t matter what the sin is, however big or little we deem it to be, there is always a lie behind our sin. Tim Chester in his book, You Can Change, wrote:

“We sin because we believe the lie that we are better off without God, that his rule is oppressive, that we will be free without him, that sin offers more than God.”[1] Therefore, as Jesus says, to truly follow Him you must deny yourself.

KEY: You must remember that you are not self-sufficient, and it is in your total dependence upon Him whereby you seek His glory that you find it is ultimately for your good.

KEY: In other words, to deny yourself is to find yourself!  To build your hope on the eternal rather than the temporal will not bring despair or oppression!  It brings life! Ask yourself this question: “What lie are you believing and listening to?”

Now, how we fight against these lies is so critical!  Recognize that as long as we draw breath in this life, we will endure this struggle. Our flesh is constantly at battle with our spirit, and will be as long as remain in this body.  We have indwelling sin and we must wage war against it! The apostle Paul deeply understood this struggle.  Romans 7:18:

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

If you don’t acknowledge that a battle is going on then the enemy has you exactly where he wants you.  A fierce battle is being waged.  Ignorance is not bliss! Proclaim the gospel and its implications to yourself! It was the well known pastor and theologian Martyn Lloyd Jones that said:

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself.”

Tell yourself: “I am a wrecked sinner who has been forgiven and saved by a merciful and gracious Savior.”

Tell yourself: “I don’t have to prove myself to anyone because Christ has proven Himself to God on my behalf!”

Tell yourself: “I am a child of God with blessings at my disposal far greater than anything this world can offer!”

I won’t ask how many of you watched the Royal Wedding on Friday.  Candidly I was captivated by the tradition and history.  Here are two people, Prince William and Princess Catherine, who have literally anything this world can offer at their fingertips. Yet the wealth they possess is nothing compared to what I possess as a child of the King of Kings!  And I have been invited to a greater marriage supper!

Tell yourself: “God, you are working all things together for your glory!”

Tell yourself: “God you are in control and seated on the throne!

C. S. Lewis once wrote: “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.  And the first job of each morning consists in shoving them all back; listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger quieter life come flowing in.”[2]

Talk to yourself in order that you might deny yourself!

“Denying yourself” captures the essence of the first part of Jesus’ command to “follow Me!”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Take Up Your Cross

The idea of “taking up your cross” was not lost on those who heard these words directly from Jesus’ lips. The cross was used by the Romans to crucify the vilest of criminals.  Some scholars have estimated that there were 30,000 crucifixions carried out by the Romans during the life of Christ.[3] Thus it would not have been uncommon for the disciples to see someone carrying the very beam upon which they would suffer and die.

Therefore when they heard the words of Jesus the picture was clear; “suffering lies ahead.” To “take up your cross” simply means a willingness to lay down this life in order to receive a greater life to come! Jesus said here in this passage:

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

KEY: We know from the Scriptures that even in our suffering there is the fullness of joy, for we have the very presence of Christ with us in our tribulation! Jesus’ promise to us in Matthew 28:20 is profound:

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  His presence is not conditional!  He is with us!

John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

We also know that not only does our suffering result in an abiding joy, it also results in the glory of God. When we rest assured in Christ in the midst of suffering we communicate with our lives to all around us that there is nothing of greater value in our lives than Christ.  John Piper said it this way:

“…if you suffer with Jesus in the pathway of love because he is your supreme treasure, then it will be apparent to the world that your heart is set on a different fortune than theirs.”[4]

One author said it well, when he wrote 200 years ago and said:

“Our lives will always be doing either good or harm to those who see them.  They are a silent sermon which all can read.”[5]

And within that “silent sermon” our suffering proves to be a very powerful illustration of just how “all satisfying” Jesus really is. This is a hard saying and rest assured the way is narrow!  To be a disciple of Christ is costly.  Make no bones about it.  As JC Ryle said in his book entitled Holiness:

“That which costs nothing is worth nothing.”

The journey is long and the race we are called to is hard, but Christ is our reward.  Therefore take up your cross for the one who took up His cross to make our joy complete.

Finally, Jesus says: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Follow Me

The words “follow me” carry with it the idea of being steadfast in our obedience.

The apostle John eloquently said:

“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.  Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.  By this we know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

We are called to live the way Christ lived (which we have seen in denying ourselves and taking up our cross) but we are also called to be about what Christ was about. Let me remind you of a few verses:

Mark 10:45 – “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.”

Luke 19:10 – “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Luke 5:32 – “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Christ came to save a people for His own possession! And we are His ambassadors in this world!  We are ministers of reconciliation.  We are to proclaim the gospel in word and deed desiring others to find their identity in Christ by setting their affections upon Him. We “follow Christ” for a purpose.  To proclaim the gospel and reflect the kingdom that is to come.  We do that by:

• Denying ourselves
• Taking up our cross
• Follow Him in steadfast obedience and commitment to the mission.

None of which is possible unless we have set our affections solely upon the one who perfectly denied Himself, took up His cross, and followed the will of His Father.

• How will Japan possibly recover?
• How will those communities be rebuilt?
• What will be the effect on the generations to come?
• What can I do from 10,000 miles away because I feel pretty helpless?

Most of us have these pragmatic questions rumbling through our minds, but perhaps there have been even deeper theological questions that you’ve considered as you’ve watched the devastation.  Maybe questions like:

• If God is good, then how can He allow these types of natural disasters to happen?
• If I believe that God uses every circumstance to bring about His will, then where do these types of events fit?
• Can God receive glory from something like this?  If so, how?

These are fair and honest questions; Questions that, when asked by faith, can deepen our intimacy with Christ.  As we examine these questions, I pray that although imminent and concrete answers surely elude us as we consider a tragedy of this magnitude, we will none the less see God clearly for who He is.

There are places throughout the Scripture where we see the human soul laid bare asking hard questions while thoroughly perplexed over the harshest of circumstances.   We see places where men and women are crying out to God for answers to the curveballs in their lives. One of the clearest examples of this is found in the book of Job.  Turn to chapter 1 and let’s look together at several passages of Scripture. In the first chapter of Job we are reminded of Job’s plight.  He was a wealthy man who, along with his wife, had been blessed with 10 children and vast resources.  The Scripture records that Satan comes before the Lord and the Lord says in verse 8:

“Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”  Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?  Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side?  You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.  But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”  And the Lord said, to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand.  Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”

Satan ultimately destroys all that Job has – stripping him of his home, children, and possessions.  Yet notice carefully how Job replies in 1:21:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.  The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

The trials don’t stop there for Job, however.  Satan, upon stripping Job of home, children, and possessions, seeks permission from God to strip Job of his health.  In 2:7-8 we read,

“So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.  And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in ashes.”

Then in verses 9-10 we read his response,

“Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?  Curse God and die.”  But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.  Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?  In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

Throughout chapter 3, we begin to see Job’s heart in the midst of the insufferable suffering.  Now look with me at verses 20-26 as we hear Job cry out to God with the all important question:

Why?

“Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?  Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?  For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groaning are poured out like water.  For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.  I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

Job is no different than any of us.  Faced with the most trying of circumstances; circumstances that were similar to those in Japan, he cried out “Why?”  “Why was I even born?”  “Why can’t I just die for I am in despair?” The Lord hears the cries of Job and in chapters 38 through 41 we see God’s response.  Let me read you a few verses from these chapters:

Job 38:4-7, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell me, if you have understanding.  Who determined its measurements—surely you know!  Or who stretched the line upon it?  On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”

Job 38:19-27, “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home?  You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?  What is the way to the place where light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?”

For four chapters, God responds to Job with words like these.  Words that were intended to teach Job an all important lesson.  The lesson being that God is the all powerful creator and sustainer of the universe, and is therefore sovereign over all of His creation.

As we come to the end of the book, we see Job’s response in chapter 42.  Look with me there:

Job 42:1-6

“Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’  Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.  ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and make it known to me.’  I heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

What can we learn from Job’s response?

Job was content in recognizing that God doesn’t always reveal the meaning to life’s circumstances. Therefore, we cannot explain all our personal tragedies nor the tragedies that take place on a global scale. There are plenty of passages that remind us of God’s infinite wisdom and the fact that He simply has not chosen to reveal the meaning behind all our circumstances and His actions.  Let me share 3 passages with you that you can file away for future reference and study:

Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Romans 11:33-36, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!  “For who has known the mind of God, or who has been his counselor?”  “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever.  Amen.”

One scholar very aptly said:

“No one has known the mind of the Lord or has been his counselor.  As Creator, he acts alone and uniquely.  Therefore, his judgments and ways are inscrutable.  The human attempt to reduce the ways of God to knowledge that we can manage and comprehend is a violation of God’s right as Creator.”[1]

Now we must be careful here or we will come to the conclusion that everything negative we see is pointless just because we can’t discern its meaning.  Just because circumstances and suffering seem pointless it doesn’t mean that they are.

Scriptural examples:

Joseph – (Genesis 50:20, “…you meant evil against me, but God mean it for good…”)

Suffering of the saints – (Hebrews 11:35-38, “Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.  Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword.  They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wondering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”)

Job found comfort by submitting to God’s sovereignty. We recognize in chapters 38-41 God rebukes Job for Job’s own good.  God, although forthright in His response, shows His mercy by showing Job His sovereignty. Upon being reminded of this we see clearly Job’s response in verse 2, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” When we recognize that God is God and we are not…when we settle in our minds that God does not owe us anything…when we recognize that God holds the earth together and that nothing happens outside of his purview…there is comfort.

As a parent there is a season where I exercise dominion over my children.  They look to Julie and I to have their all of their needs met.  During that season it’s interesting to see how they respond in times of fear or uncertainty.  Maybe it’s a bad storm.  It’s comforting to be in the presence of the one you are leaning on, even if you don’t know the outcome of the circumstances. Job was comforted like a little child who calls out to his father in the midst of a storm.

We too can find comfort in God’s sovereignty and here’s why:

Because God used the most corrupt and despicable act of wickedness in all of history to be the means by which He might be glorified and that we might experience the greatest joy.

Turn with me to Acts chapter 4 and let’s look at verses 27-28 for just a moment.  [The verses come in the context of a prayer offered up by believers upon release of Peter and John who had been beaten and flogged for preaching Christ.  And it is in the midst of their prayer we hear these words.]

Acts 4:27-28, “…for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

God in His sovereignty planned and predestined that Christ would:

• Experience physical pain beyond our imagination
• Experience emotional heartache  by being rejected by men
• Experience wrath and judgment as he bore the spiritual pain we deserved

Therefore we can find comfort and rest in God’s sovereignty, for God used the most heinous act ever committed to be the means by which we could experience the greatest joy.

So where was God when the earthquake rocked Japan and the tsunami reaped havoc on both people and land alike?  He is in the same place he was when they took His Son and crucified Him on the cross, the same place he has been every day since the beginning of time – Seated firmly, immovably, victoriously upon His throne!!!

I am sure that some of you are experiencing suffering, pain, and chaos in your lives today:

• For some of you it is a physical crisis…your health is fading.
• For some of you it is a family crisis…your family is falling apart.
• For some of you it is a relational crisis…a meaningful relationship is broken.
• For some of you it is a financial crisis…and you’ve fallen on really hard times.
• For some of you it is an identity crisis…you are at war with yourself.

I pray that we will run into the arms of our Father, acknowledging that we may not find answers,  but where we will find comfort in the chaos for He did not spare His Son in order that we might experience the deepest of joys – even in the midst of pain.

William Cowper penned these words in the midst of his own personal anguish:

LIGHT SHINING OUT OF DARKNESS

God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never failing skill

He treasures up His bright designs

And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err

And scan His work in vain;

God is His own interpreter,

And He will make it plain.

Romans 8:31-32, “What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?…Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Let us come to Him and say – It is Well with My Soul!

Core Value #7: Missional Living

“We seek to appropriately engage cultures (both here and abroad) by permeating them as equipped worshippers whose lives are defined by the mission – in all that we do.”

In order for us to understand this idea of “Missional Living” more clearly, I want to ask you to turn with me in your Bibles to Jeremiah 29 and let’s look together at verses 4-7.

If I could, before we read the text, I’d like to take a moment to set the context of these verses. Jeremiah was a prophet established during the reign of King Josiah, who was the last faithful king in Judah’s history.  Following Josiah’s death we begin to see serious decline in the nation of Judah in most every way (spiritually, morally, politically, etc.). It wouldn’t take long before the Babylonians would eventually lead the nation of Judah into captivity, which is the environment in which this letter is written. Here in chapter 29 we find an incredible exhortation to the Israelites regarding their captivity and how they were to live amongst the Babylonians. Now, the Babylonians had a specific strategy they sought to employ in order to oppress the nation of Judah.  Their goal wasn’t to drive them out of their land or to enslave them.  The goal of the Babylonians was to “assimilate” them into their culture. The Babylonians would bring them into Babylon and say, “live with us, experience all the good our land and culture has to offer, the only stipulation is you have to become like us.”  Their goal over time was to have the Israelites become indistinguishable from them. The net result would be their extinction. Now it’s in the context of their captivity that we find these profound words to the exiles in Babylon.

Jeremiah 29:4-7

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

As we hear these revolutionary words (words I’m sure that blew their minds) regarding how they were to live in Babylon, I pray that we will see how truly revolutionary they are for us we consider what it means for us to live missionally.

As we consider Jeremiah’s words to the exiles in Babylon and our core value of Missional Living, I want to clearly lay out for us the challenge that lay ahead for our church.

The Challenge before us:

We need an awareness that we live in a post-Christian culture (appropriately engage cultures). When the captives from the nation of Judah entered Babylon they found a city that was filled with exiles from other nations.  It was a city where many gods were worshipped and where different codes of ethics were adhered to.  So think about this for the Israelites and the perspective they must have had being in this foreign land and pagan culture. Yet, what we see transpiring here in Babylon is not all together different from the ever changing cultural landscape in which we live today. Think of the different cultures represented right here in our community along with the various religious traditions that accompany them. Let me share with you what might be some surprising information:

According to recent census information, there are actual decreases in Anglo, African American, Asian Indian, Japanese and Korean populations.

There are significant increases in Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese and Hispanic populations.

The largest increase was Hispanics, then Vietnamese, Filipino, and lastly Chinese.

Within the same report was a profile of selected social characteristics that revealed the number of immigrants that entered the Triad before 1990 was 23,547.  The number of immigrants that entered from 1990 or later were 61,373.  Winston-Salem and Davie County are becoming increasingly more diverse.  Along with the increased diversity we see our culture experiencing, we also realize our culture is becoming increasingly less Christian. Al Mohler, President of Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY wrote:

“The moral teachings of Christianity have exerted an incalculable influence on Western civilization.  As those moral teachings fade into cultural memory, a secularized morality takes its place.  Once Christianity is abandoned by a significant portion of the population, the moral landscape necessarily changes.  [For the better part of the twentieth century, the nations of Western Europe led the way in the abandonment of Christian commitments.  Christian moral reflexes and moral principles gave way to the loosening grip of Christian memory.  Now, even that Christian memory is absent from the lives of millions.”

He would go on to write:

“In candor, we must admit that the Church has been displaced.  Once an authoritative voice in the culture, the Church is often dismissed, and even more often ignored.  At one time, the influence of the Church was sufficient to restrain cultural rebellion against God’s moral commandments, but no longer.  The dynamic of the culture-shift marches onward…the worldview of most Americans is now thoroughly secularized, revolving around the self and its concerns, and based on relativism as an axiom.  We Americans have become our own best friend, our own therapist, our own priest, and our own lawgiver.  The old order is shattered, the new order is upon us.”[1]

If we are going to live missionally then we must acknowledge the changes in our culture.  We have to see the changing culture as it is without compromising the gospel, and look to permeate the culture in ways in which the barriers to the gospel can be broken. Furthermore, as we see the changes in culture, we need to be confident and assured!

We need confidence in God’s sovereignty over culture/circumstances. It might be our tendency to despair as we look at the spiritual landscape of our community.  We must remember, however, that God is sovereign over all our circumstances, including what we may feel is the demise of our culture.  Therefore as we permeate our culture, we do so with great confidence, for no part of our {circumstances/cultural condition} is a surprise to God. In verse 4 we’re reminded of God’s sovereignty over Israel’s circumstances.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon…”

This letter, which was being written to the Babylonian captives, reminded them that their captivity was fully in the hands of the Lord.  Their captivity was God ordained and the result of their spiritual adultery. It was important for the Israelites to see, and for us also, that Nebuchadnezzar’s dominion did not reside outside of the providence of God. Make no mistake, the culture we live in today is different from the culture our parents and grandparents lived in.  Yet even with the change in culture along with its decline in Christian values and influence, I am no less hopeful than I have ever been.  Christ is still on His throne!  He still reigns supreme! He will accomplish His will for our nation and our world, bringing every knee in heaven and on earth to worship Him.  So, as we live on mission, we do so in the supreme confidence that God is sovereign and in the process of fulfilling His redemptive plan. But may we not miss what we are called to do.  Look with me again at verses 5-6:

“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.”

The exiles should plan for a long stay and, while there, they should increase!

Now as we consider the implications of verses 5-6, look also with me at verse 8:

“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.”

There was a false prophet named Hananiah who had prophesied in chapter 28 that the exiles in Babylon would only be there for a short period of time before God delivered them from their oppression.  The Lord says, “Not so!”  If they were there for only a short time, their tendency would have been to look out only for themselves, to seek their own well being, to withdraw from the culture they found themselves in and create their own subculture.

The Lord reminded them they would not be there for a short period, and while in Babylon they were to seek the flourishing of their community. We need to seek the flourishing of our community. Look at verse 7:

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

welfare = shalom = peace

Peace = total flourishing in every dimension (socially, economically, physically, spiritually)

We can seek the welfare of our city because of what Christ has done in us and the example He is to us.  For as we think of what it means to seek the flourishing of our community we recognize how Christ serves as our ultimate example of what it means to seek the flourishing of others.

He pursues us! Christianity differs from all other religions in that it’s the story of God coming to man verses man coming to God. I read a beautiful quote by J.R.R. Tolkien this week.

“As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and steady pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by his divine grace.  And though in sin or in human love, away from God it seeks to hide itself, divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to turn to him alone in that never ending pursuit.”[2]

He identifies with us our humanity. Christ had a real body, felt real pain, had real emotions. He put on flesh and dwelt among us. He gives life to us (resulting in our flourishing). Christ came to glorify the Father by giving us spiritual life. Remember Jesus’ words in John 10:10:

“The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.  I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

The “life” He gives to us comes through His “suffering.” With our identity firmly found in Christ’s righteousness…with our hope fully dependent on His finished work on the cross, we can now look to the flourishing of others, in particular those within our community. We no longer need the community to validate us.  We no longer have to make a name for ourselves.  We can genuinely care for others. We mustn’t forget that God’s promise is that all of creation will be restored and will ultimately flourish.  All things bad will come undone and He will create a new heaven and new earth.  So, it’s not just that Christ’s life leads to spiritual flourishing!  It leads us to see that flourishing will take place in every arena of life. Now, as the Scripture has challenged us to do, we can pray for the flourishing of all within our community recognizing that the flourishing of all will result in flourishing us.

We need to see there is no sacred/secular divide (permeating culture as worshippers in all we do). Matthew 5:14-16:

“You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

James Davison Hunter in his book To Change the World wrote:

“People fulfill their individual and collective destiny in the art, music, literature, commerce, law, and scholarship they cultivate, the relationships they build, and in the institutions they develop—the families, churches, associations, and communities they live in and sustain—as they reflect the good of God and his designs for flourishing…To be Christian is to be obliged to engage the world, pursuing God’s restorative purposes over all of life, individual and corporate, public and private.  This is the mandate of creation.”[3]

Reflections:

1. Allow gospel talk to become normative, always assuming non-believers are present.
2. Use wisdom to evaluate the culture
   1. What can be embraced / what needs to be rejected / what needs to be adapted?
3. Speak and model Christ centered love with those whom we deeply disagree
4. Model compassion and pursue justice without compromising the gospel
5. Commit to sharing life in community with others and thus modeling the kingdom

• How do you feel when you encounter someone on the street who is peddling for money?
• What do you think our response should be to the drug addict, the woman who sells herself to feed her family, or the person who walks up to you and asks you for money?
• Many of us are facing challenging times in our lives right now.  Some of us have lost jobs, others of us are dealing with health crisis, and still others are dealing with serious financial challenges.  How does it make you feel to receive help from others?

This is our community, these are our neighbors.

Let me share with you some interesting facts about our community:

• In Winston-Salem there are 57,000 kids enrolled in Kindergarten through 12^th grade.
  • In 2008 only 53.6% of 8^th grade student tested at or above Grade 8 reading proficiency
  • The 4 year high school graduation rate for Forsyth County is currently 72.7%.  This means that 1/4^th of the students entering into high school will not graduate.
  • Perhaps the above statistic doesn’t seem like a big deal, but we must see that high school dropouts are five times more likely to live below the poverty line.
    • They earn 32% less on average than graduates
    • They live 9 years less on average
    • More likely to spend time in prison
• In Forsyth County 11.2% of families, 14.4% of individuals, and 21.7% of children live below the poverty level.
  • Current unemployment rate hovers at around 10%?
  • Habitat for Humanity estimates there is currently a need for 8000 affordable housing units.
  • It is estimated there are 1,800 different people who experience homelessness each year.
• Almost 12 percent of all pregnancies in Forsyth County were teenage pregnancies.
  • As you can imagine teenage births are associated with an increased health, social, and economic risk.

This is our community, these are our neighbors.  What shall we do?

The 6^th core value we hold to at Calvary Baptist Church is Mercy Ministry.  This core value states:

We seek to remember the poor, hopeless, and oppressed by aiding them through relief, rehabilitation, and development.

Let us pray for burden, conviction, and understanding as we come together through this post and study the Scriptures.

I’d like to begin this post by looking at the reality and severity of the brokenness that exists in and around us which will hopefully, through prayer, lead us to our hope and response.

Genesis 3:8-19 declares,

“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”  And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”  He said, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this , cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.  Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

I realize that I have alluded to what I am about to share with you in other sermons, but I believe our understanding of the effects of the fall of mankind greatly shape our understanding of the need of mercy ministry. In these verses we see the comprehensive and catastrophic effects of sin on every part of our lives.  I’d like to point out how these affect our relationships and show us the dire nature of the situation.

Effects of the Fall:

We are separated from God. Because of sin, the intimacy and oneness with God that Adam and Eve first experienced is now fractured. Vs. 8 reveals, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” We were created to center our lives on God; exercising dominion over all the creation under God’s rule and design. However, our sinfulness leads us to center our lives on ourselves. Therefore our lives are in constant conflict with God.  We don’t want God, we don’t love God, therefore our desires are diametrically opposed to God’s design, order, and glory.

There is conflict within ourselves. We are created to worship. To take this further, we are created to worship God.  As one author said, “This condition occurs because each of us was given a heart, built by nature for worship.  We were created to serve God with every dimension of our being.  We need to serve God in order to have meaning or purpose; we need to know God in order to have love (our “relational” dimension); we need to be right with God in order to have self-worth (our conscience).”[1] However, in spite of our sin and estrangement from God, our hearts never stop seeking to worship. Our hearts will always set their affection on something.  Unfortunately, nothing else can give our lives meaning, security, and worth. These only God can give. Take a look at vs. 10, “And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” We are destined, apart from God, to experience unhappiness, fear, anxiety, loneliness, pride, and on and on and on.

We are at odds with one another. Look with me at verse 7, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” I was reminded this week that upon sinning Adam and Eve had a sudden need for privacy. Although we typically celebrate privacy, their desire for privacy wasn’t a natural thing, and it certainly wasn’t God’s design. Their sin, and consequently their focus on self, led to blaming others and bringing enmity and strife in their relationship. This is always the result when we are at the focus.  All of the social problems we see are the result of sin whether it is racism, oppression, the breakdown of the family, or personal immorality.

We struggle against creation. Verse 17-19, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth from you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the seat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” We see the effect of natural disasters. We realize that we no longer exercise the same type of dominion that was originally given in the garden.  Although we still bring forth harvest from the ground, we must work and strain for it to bear fruit while ultimately, we will die and be returned back to the ground.

I remind us of this for a couple of reasons: This passage reminds us of the desperate condition our world that we find ourselves in apart from Christ.  This passage reminds us that we are poor in the most important area of our lives: our spirits. This spiritual poverty affects every other relationship and the very way we view life.  It is the direst of situations/conditions, but not utterly hopeless! Thankfully, this passage also points us forward to the beautiful grace of God in Christ Jesus that has saved our souls and granted to us the promises of restoration in each of these relationships. It challenges our motivations for serving the poor and reminds us of what the desired outcome should be: reconciliation of ALL relationships. When we understand our spiritual poverty, and the truth that “…our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that we by his poverty might become rich” our view of mercy ministry is both radically and permanently changed. After all, how can someone who has received the riches of grace while in the despair of their own poverty, not willingly look at the spiritually, emotionally, socially, and physically poor and offer the same grace and mercy they have received? This takes place with our words, for we know as Paul so eloquently said, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.”  If we just meet physical, social, and emotional needs and never address the spiritual need through the proclamation of the gospel, we are like doctors who diagnose the medical emergency and have the medicine, but who never administer the medicine.  It would be cruel and ruthless.

Yet we cannot ignore our responsibility to respond to the physical, emotional, and social needs of others by meeting their needs.  Let’s look together at two passages of Scripture.  The first found in Luke 22:24-27:

“A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.  And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors.  But not so with you.  Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leaders as one who serves.  For who is the greater, the one who reclines at table or one who serves?  Is it not the one who reclines at table?  But I am among you as the one who serves.”

This passage really takes on life as we understand the culture in which Jesus gives the illustration.  In the Greek culture it was incredibly demeaning to serve someone else.  Yet we see how Jesus turns the culture on its head: “But I am among you as the one who serves.”  God in the flesh coming to serve rather than be served, laying down his life as a ransom for the spiritually poor!

Look with me at a second passage in I John 3:16-18:

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?  Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

We know Christ’s comprehensive love towards us (vs. 16), a love that affects and ultimately restores every aspect of our lives (spiritually, emotionally, physically, socially).  However, if we ignore those around us who have need then John is saying the love of Christ does not abide in us.  In other words, he’s not saying that we just fail to love them fully, he says we fail to love them at all.

But how do we do that?

Remember, our core value states: “We seek to remember the poor, hopeless, and oppressed by aiding them through relief, rehabilitation, and development.”

Provide Relief: As two authors pen in a book addressing this very crucial concern, “The urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis.”[2] This acknowledges that for various reasons people find themselves in crisis and many times with significant loss. We need to be prepared to offer temporary assistance that provides the means necessary to assist with basic necessities. This often happens when we as individuals, church, or community walk beside people in dire crisis

• Natural disasters / medical crisis / death of family…people are unable to help themselves and we should be responding to these desperate pleas for help.

Provide Rehabilitation: Continuing their work on mercy ministries, our brothers in Christ state that right mercy ministry “seeks to restore people and communities to the positive elements of their pre-crisis condition”[3] This means we engage in people’s lives in such a way that we begin working with them to bring them through the crisis they have been involved with. We provide relief because there is an immediate need that we can help with. We begin the process of rehabilitation by joining them in bringing about restoration to that which is broken. However, we can do damage when we continue to provide “relief” when “rehabilitation” is what’s needed. We do this when we fail to engage those involved to bring them into the restoration process with us. For example, what about the tornados in our very own Winston-Salem? To go and build/restore houses without engaging the community in the help would be providing relief when rehabilitation needs to take place

Pursue Development: Mercy ministries should be “a process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved—both the “helpers” and the “helped”—closer to being in right relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of creation.”[4] In this part of the process the poor become better equipped and able to fulfill their calling of glorifying God through work and supporting themselves and their families. This part is often extremely time consuming and is much more difficult to measure.  It takes life on life, both the poor and the stable listening and learning from one another. It means that we look to bring people into our lives and open up our lives to bear burdens together and suffer with one another. When we do this together, there is a unity and oneness that allows a measure of reconciliation that hasn’t existed. Let’s examine the believers who have moved into Astor Park in Kimberly Park. No longer is their time there viewed as “their problems…their issues” but has become “our problems and our issues” and how we can work together to solve them.

So what does this mean for us as Christians? I believe these questions help us determine what, exactly, mercy ministries should mean for us.

• How do I see my own spiritual poverty?
• In light of my spiritual poverty and God’s grace, how am I responding to my neighbor?
• How can I engage in relief, rehabilitation, or development?

Let me offer a few good books to read:

• When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
• Ministries of Mercy, also by Timothy Keller

So what does this mean for the non-Christian?

Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of our sins was death, but that God, in all his goodness and mercy and grace, gifts us with eternal life. A gift. THE gift. One we could never earn, no matter how many good things we do.  All you see here, all these mercy ministries that the church aspires to, are all done out of a response to this amazing gift of God. Put simply, at one point in every one of our lives, we were in dire need of a mercy ministry far exceeding that which could come at the hands of any storm, any economic downfall, any personal bad choice that left us homeless, hungry, or seemingly hopeless. As stated earlier, because of sin, we were all at one time in the darkest and deepest holes of despair with no way to pull ourselves out. Thankfully, our most precious heavenly father sent His son Jesus Christ to enter into our lives to redeem us once and for all, pulling us out of our despair and sitting us down beside him, co-heirs to all that he is, all that he has made.

You may be thinking, Yes but you’re all GOOD people. Look at all you’re trying to do to make this world a better place. I’ve never lifted a finger for my fellow man. Scripture addresses this notion yet again in Romans 5:6-10 as we are reminded that God did not come to die for the righteous or the good person, but the sick person. The destitute. The hurting. He came to die for all of us, for none of us are righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10). We come to him by faith alone and not by works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8-10). You and I must recognize that God’s son, Jesus Christ, is the GIFT that sets us free to fulfill his commands to go and love others as he has loved us. So we invite you to the same Cross that met us in our time of deepest need and delivered us from our darkest hour. It is only then that you can understand that these mercy ministries, that all we are seeking to do in this world to lift others up and consider them better than ourselves, is not out of the goodness of our own hearts, but out of the deep gratitude and goodness of a heart that’s been restored and repurposed by the Great Healer, The Redeemer, The Lion and The Lamb, The Forever Lord Jesus Christ. Whether you know it or not, for all the times you’ve been in the face of a storm, the victim of a destructing force in your life, He has been there, faithful as a brother, walking alongside you and lifting you up, to give you the gift of eternal life, if you will but confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead (Rom. 10:8-10). This is the greatest of all mercy ministries, and it has you as its recipient. Open your heart, receive this gift, and be redeemed from the eternal destruction of sin, revived for the eternal joy of worshipping Christ, and repurposed for the good work of the Lord Jesus Christ with your eternal family.

As we considered each of these, we saw they had a corporate component to them:

• Believer’s baptism: identifying with Christ and identifying with the family
• Regenerate church membership: meaningful church membership consisting of believers committed to Christ and to the congregation
• Priesthood of all believers: We are each priest, and through Christ we have been made into a royal priesthood
• Congregational governance: We are now able to discern the will of God, therefore in the context of the local church we look to the unity of the body to give and affirm leadership and direction.

This morning, I want to continue to build on the idea of community as we consider our 5^th core value:

Loving Community-

“We focus on being a family that shares life together as a kingdom community reflecting the power of the gospel that unifies different people in Christ.”

In order to teach this core value, I want to invite you back to the passage of Scripture we studied last week in I Peter 2:4-10.

I Peter 2:4-10

“As you come to him a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”  So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”  They stumble because they do not obey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

We each are living stones that are being built together to form a spiritual house.  We are not individual people. We are a chosen race – a holy nation.  We are priests who come together to form a royal priesthood. Christ saves us into a community for a reason!  The Scripture here teaches us that it is in the context of community that we “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Here is the implication from the text:  We can only truly and fully display the excellencies of Christ within the context of community.  To take that a step further, it is only in how we relate and respond to others that we can truly display how Christ has responded and related to us.  Therefore, with this post my aim is to show us how we proclaim the excellencies of Christ through exhibiting a loving community.

Read with me a quote from Tim Keller as he reveals the full nature of God’s relational existence within the Trinity:

“The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are each centering on the others, adoring and serving them.  And because the Father, Son, and Spirit are giving glorifying love to one another, God is infinitely, profoundly happy.  Think about this: If you find somebody you adore, someone for whom you would do anything, and you discover that this person feels the same way about you, does that feel good?  It’s sublime!  That’s what God has been enjoying for all eternity.  The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are pouring love and joy and adoration into the other, each one serving the other.  They are infinitely seeking one another’s glory, and so God is infinitely happy.”[1]

Isn’t that a beautiful picture? The triune God in perfect harmony…in perfect love…in perfect submission…each one seeking to glorify the other.  If this is true of what God is like, then how could we ever proclaim the excellencies of God apart from a loving relationship with Him and with others?  The more clearly we see our own sinfulness in light of God’s holiness; and the lengths to which Christ has gone to reconcile us to God, we see that our only true response is to make much of Him!  If we are to make much of Christ, then it necessitates that we take the characteristics we see in the triune God and manifest them in our relationships with one another.

Recognizing that we live in a fallen world, with imperfect people, let me share some of the qualities of a loving community that proclaims the excellencies of Christ.  Now what I am about to share with you is in no way intended to be exhaustive, rather it’s intended to just give us a taste of the of what a loving community should look like:

A loving community shows no partiality. Our nature is to be self-centered.  Thus we place value judgments on people based upon the perceived benefit they will bring into our lives.  Here are a few examples:  If, we value people based upon the financial needs they can meet in our lives, we will naturally look down upon those who have less.  If we value people based upon the wisdom they pour into our lives, we are going to devalue people we feel lack wisdom. If we value people for how they stimulate our thinking and challenge us academically, we are going to feel superior to those who are less educated.  If we value people for how they build us up, we are going to look down upon those who speak critically.

But is that how God relates to us?

God shows no favoritism!

Galatians 3:27-29, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

James 2:1-7, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.  For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “you sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “you stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”

A loving community will model humility. Take a look at the humility of Christ displayed in Philippians 2:5-6: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped…”

As we reflect on Christ’s humility, we can begin to exhibit the same type of humility towards one another.  Remember Ephesians 5:21?  Paul unpacks what a spirit filled life looks like.  It’s a life characterized by humility “…submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

A loving community tenderly forgives. We should never lose sight of the magnitude of our sinfulness and how Christ has and continues to forgive us. I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleans us from all unrighteousness.” Do you recall when Peter asked a question of Jesus regarding forgiveness in Matthew 18:21-23, “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  As many as seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”

To put this in other words, Christ taught that there is no end to the lengths to which we must and now CAN forgive others.  We forgive others as we have been forgiven.

A loving community suffers together. We realize in this life we can experience physical and emotional suffering, but the greatest suffering any person can experience is the spiritual suffering that comes when we are consumed with ourselves, which ultimately leads to a hopeless eternity separated from God. So Christ enters into our story and suffers on our behalf, in order that our greatest need can be met…our spiritual need.  He suffers for us and promises to continue to bear our burdens! Because Christ, in His magnificent love, has done this, we are now able to suffer with one another and comfort them.  In II Corinthians 1:3-4 we read: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Through Christ we can weep with those who weep, mourn with those who mourn, and truly bear one another’s burdens.

A loving community will spur one another on towards Christ likeness. Proverbs 27:17 reminds us that Iron sharpens iron. This means that, though we meet other believers in love and charity, we do not hesitate nor relish in helping a brother/sister see where he/she may have sin and latent idols in their lives. Just like a parent never relishes the disciplining of their child, but because of their deep love and desire for the child to grow up in wisdom and truth, we must still set ourselves to the task of refining one another, holding one another accountable, pointing one another to the Cross in our times of wickedness, sinfulness, and arrogance. This is discipline for the purpose of restoration, not satisfaction. This is discipline flowing forth from love, not anger or malice. Often times, right discipline of a brother is the most loving and selfless act we do as believers, never standing apart and throwing stones at their head, but standing alongside them and unloading them from deep in their pockets.

Now I recognize that these are just some of the characteristics of a loving community.  However, it’s not just enough to say that this is what we’d like to see without helping us see what it’s going to take to get there. In order for us to have a loving community, there needs to be a commitment to Bible Fellowship (simply can’t and won’t happen if your only commitment is to our corporate gatherings.  We can’t fulfill a loving community only through corporate gatherings…therefore we can’t fully proclaim the excellencies of Christ through corporate gatherings). There needs to be a commitment of time (Saying “NO” so you can say “YES”).  Finally, a Commitment to vulnerability (Honesty and openness with Christ will lead to honesty and openness with others).

It would have been weird for the Israelites in the Old Testament if someone in their tribe asked to be left alone during a time of mourning, rejoicing, etc. The community we see in the scriptures found joy in one another’s blessings, and even shared burden in one another’s transgressions. Though we may not think the same true for our own community, I believe we’d be shocked if we realized the far reaching nature of our sins and our joys within the lives of those we commune with every week. We mustn’t believe that we are not missed when we do not commit to being a part of the community. Often times we may believe that there’s nothing we can get out of church or out of bible fellowship, but this fails to ask the question: Would I have been able to be a blessing to someone else today if I’d have honored my community and my commitment to be there? As anyone can attest, often times, when God uses you in a mighty way in someone’s life, you almost always come away from the experience having learned and grown more than the one God placed in your life to be a blessing unto. This is God receiving all glory. When we are not honoring our commitments or placing a high value on being a part of a loving community, not only are we failing to see the Divine plan for our lives and our part in revealing the excellencies of Christ, but we are also missing out on the immense blessings and growth that should be taking place as we continually consider others better than ourselves, forgiving one another, suffering with one another, spurring one another on towards Christ, and modeling humility for an unbelieving world so desperately seeking what we so often take for granted – A life spent in real communion with one another through, with, and because of, our Lord Jesus Christ.