More theology from the boys

So if you know me you know that I love theology and believe a deep biblical theology is essential to living out the mission Jesus has called us to in the current pluralistic culture we are in. So last night was awesome in a funny sort of way. Our boys, Riley and Ridge are 6 and 4 and full-bore high energy and are sometimes difficult to corral when it’s time to get things done, like put on pajamas and get into bed. Last night I was getting Reese ready for bed downstairs and told the boys to brush their teeth and get pajamas on (which they are both capable of doing by themselves). The noise coming from upstairs made it quite obvious they were not doing what I had asked. Needless to say it did not turn pretty when I came upstairs and they were playing with toys and generally finding ways to not do what I asked. Finally with pajamas on and things settled I was sitting on their bed talking with them as I try and do when I’m home in the evenings. I asked them “Why didn’t ya’ll obey me instead of me having to ask 5 times for you to brush your teeth and put on pajamas.” Without a beat Riley said, “because we’re sinners.” I couldn’t help but laugh. What kind of comeback do I have for that one?! Then it got even better, Riley proceeded to tell me that, “Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and that’s when sin came into the world, and now we’re all sinners, but that wasn’t the way God wanted it to be.” My 6 year old explained Original Sin just like that! So of course wanting to get Jesus’ redemption on the cross into the conversation I asked “But what did God do after that?” Ridge, my 4 year old chimed in, “He made them leave the Garden and put an angel with a sword there!” He really likes the idea of an angel with a sword, and although I don’t like the circumstances, an angel with a sword is pretty cool. I laughed and we talked about Jesus dying for our sin as we have many times before, and then I asked them where they learned this? “In City Kids this morning” was the answer. City Kids is our children’s ministry at Ephesus. Yeah! Jonah and the whale is cool and all, but our kids are getting to the good stuff, and they understand it, and they know too that God loves them enough that even though they’re sinners, Jesus died for them and rose again so they can be forgiven. That’s awesome. And thanks to Seth Ervin who was teaching at City Kids yesterday and taught my boys some theology, even if they did use it as a comeback when they wouldn’t get their pajamas on…

Get to Reading

I’m a voracious reader beyond the bible: fiction, non-fiction, Christian, non-Christian all kinds of stuff. To continually be growing, I believe reading is essential. A few years ago I discovered a great way to read books, listening. Audiobooks aren’t new, but I remember 8 or 10 cassette tapes (yeah I’m old enough for those) for one book, a pain. But now many books are available in audio download. I can’t stand listening to the radio in the car and I feel like listening to music in the car all of the time is a waste because I’m not learning anything new. Audiobooks are a great way to pass the time when driving or excercising or whatever else you might be doing that can be somewhat mindless. I’ve been using Audible.com for my audiobooks. They have a great selection of all kinds of books, but very little when it comes to quality Christian stuff, and I’m not talking about Janette Oke…the good stuff that digs into issues and theology and cultural changes. Today I discovered Christianaudio.com. Great selection, the books I couldn’t find on Audible are there. Even better, each month they offer an audiobook for free, and not the cruddy stuff you’ll never bother with, good stuff. This month “Forgotten God” by Francis Chan. That’s a winner! I used this for some of my research material when we went through the “Supernatural” series on the Holy Spirit. It is solid and engaging. So follow the link, download a free book and get to reading!

Spiritual Gifts Rundown

Spiritual Gifts

This past Sunday at Ephesus in part 7 of our series “Supernatural” we looked at 6 of the gifts given by the Holy Spirit that Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 12. While Paul does not elaborate on each gift specifically, except for prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues, we can see how they function in the life of Jesus and other early Christians in the bible. I briefly described each one this past Sunday, but wanted to specifically add Scripture references so you could dig into each gift yourself. Always, at Ephesus, we encourage you to study the bible for yourself. Preaching is good for instruction, but it is the starting point of your own time in Scripture wrestling with theology and doctrine for yourself. That way we are all better prepared and gain an even deeper love for Jesus as we see Him revealed in His Word. So here we go, some spiritual gift action:

1. Word of Wisdom-1 Corinthians 12:8

• The ability to apply biblical truth to situations and people’s lives so Godly choices are made and foolish mistakes are avoided
• Luke 2:40-52: Jesus was filled with wisdom and grew in wisdom so that the scholars of the day were amazed “at his understanding
• Mark 6:2-his wisdom is very evident as he teaches and the people were “astonished.” It’s also interesting to note that Mark equates this wisdom to the “mighty works” Jesus was doing. Wisdom and the supernatural works of God go hand-in-hand
• Deuteronomy 34:9-Joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom. Here we see the Holy Spirit at work in the Old Testament in the life of one of the greatest, most courageous leaders of the Jewish people.

2. Word of Knowledge-1 Corinthians 12:8

• The ability to read, remember and make effective use of the information they gather to bring others to a deeper understanding of Jesus

• A combination of biblical knowledge and a deep understanding of the nature of God with common sense and cultural understanding to bring others to a practical understanding of Jesus

• The gift of the knowledge is sometimes confused with the gift of prophecy. Having a prophetic word for someone’s life (as seen in Acts 21:10-11) is sometimes mistakenly called a “word of knowledge.”

• These are obviously two distinct gifts as evident in their separate listing in this passage and also Paul’s specific focus on prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14
• 2 Timothy 2:15-“rightly dividing the word of truth.” Using the gift of knowledge to bring deep understanding of Scripture to the world
• Acts 4:13-The Sanhedrin recognized a deep understanding of Scripture as Peter and John used the Old Testament to show them Jesus was the Messiah. They acknowledged these were uneducated men, therefore we see the gift of knowledge at work

3. Gift of Faith-1 Corinthians 12:9

• Supernatural ability to see the enormous plans of God and believe God to accomplish them even when many others may not
• These folks dream big, pray big and believe big because they’re gifted to have faith that God really is God.
• Acts 6:5-8- Stephen was full of faith and did great signs and wonders
• Ultimately his deep faith led him to be the first Christian martyr after preaching an incredible sermon on the truth of Jesus in Acts 7.

• Many people of faith are listed in Hebrews 11
• Luke 1:26-38-After being told she would have a child (even though she was a virgin) who is the Son of God, Mary’s response is to worship because of her faith in the word of the angel. That’s some serious faith!

4. Gift of Healing- 1 Corinthians 12:9

• The ability to call on God to heal the sick through supernatural means so that God is revealed
• Matthew 4:23-24 speaks of the many healings Jesus performed
• Matthew 10:1-the Apostles had the gift of healing
• Acts 5:14-16-Peter heals many, sometimes when only his shadow falls on them!
• James 5:13-16-The elders of the church are directed to lay hands on and pray for the sick so that God might heal them

5. Gift of Miracles-1 Corinthians 12:10

• The ability to call on God to do supernatural acts that reveal His power
• John 20:30-31-Jesus did many miracles so that we would believe he is the Son of God
• Acts 6:8-Stephen did great works, or miracles
• Acts 19:11-God “worked unusual miracles” through Paul in Ephesus. And we all know what happened there!
• In the life of Moses, Elijah and Elisha many miracles occurred. My personal favorite is Elijah and the false prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 18!

6. Gift of Discernment-1 Corinthians 12:10

• The supernatural ability to perceive whether people, events or beliefs are from God or Satan
• As evident by my rant on Sunday, this one is so important to me.
• Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus discerns the presence of Satan
• Luke 22:31-Jesus discerns Satan’s influence on Peter and prays for it to be broken. Encouraging to note is that Peter would go on to be an incredible leader of the early church.
• 1 John 4-John’s exhortation to discern and test the spirits to know what is from God
• Acts 16:16-18-Paul discerns the demonic work in the divinations of a young girl and prays for the bondage to be broken. What’s really fun is he and Silas are then thrown into prison for destroying her “handlers” financial livelihood. Tarot card reading is nothing new…

What needs to be repeated is that these gifts are still fully available and active today. As Christians, we should pursue the continued infilling of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:15-19) and the gifts that he chooses to bestow on us. The purpose then of using these gifts is that through their supernatural work, others will be led to Jesus. Not us, but Jesus will be lifted up. Good times!

Afterword for May 3, 2009

I really like this method of doing a little follow-up to sermons from Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be able to do these on a semi-regular basis. This Afterword is for May 3, 2009. Enjoy…and check out the sweet face I’m making in the screenshot before you click “play.” Nice.

Tim Keller on the Missional Church

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, has much to say on the missional church. In a short article that he wrote he sums it up very well…

[W]hat makes a small group missional? A ‘missional’ small group is not necessarily one which is doing some kind of specific ‘evangelism’ program (though that is to be recommended). Rather, 1) if its members love and talk positively about the city/neighborhood, 2) if they speak in language that is not filled with pious tribal or technical terms and phrases, nor disdainful and embattled language, 3) if in their bible study they apply the gospel to the core concerns and stories of the people of the culture, 4)if they are obviously interested in and engaged with the literature and art and thought of the surrounding culture and can discuss it both appreciatively and yet critically, 5) if they exhibit deep concern for the poor and generosity with their money and purity and respect with regard to [the] opposite sex, and show humility toward people of other races and cultures, 6) they do not bash other Christians and churches-then seekers and non-believing people from the city A) will be invited and B) will come and will stay as they explore spiritual issues. If these marks are not there it will only be able to include believers or traditional, “Christianized” people.

Certainly a challenge to me as I process how I preach sermons and how I interact with those around me. You’ll notice not once does he say compromise or water-down the Gospel. But stand firm in the Gospel while loving those who are still doubters. I’m challenged, I hope you are too.

Leadership Writing #2, Integrity & Character

Leadership writing #2 Integrity & Character

We first looked at the importance of courage in stepping out into leadership. Without courage, we never act, and therefore never lead anyone anywhere. This next topic is just as important, but on the backend of our leadership. We often talk about ethics and values in our society, but we don’t really attach that to underlying integrity and strength of character. The reality is “values” cannot be detached from an underlying foundation of integrity built on a strong character. This means we are unable to hang some values on the wall and proclaim to adhere to them if they do not flow out of our personal integrity and character. They are mutually inclusive (I’ll not dive into the issue of whether “values” are a modern attempt to define morality dissociative of a biblical principles. You can talk about that amongst yourselves! Besides we all know the answer is 42 (send me an email if you got that joke!)). To succeed in the long-term as a leader you must be a person of integrity and character. Below are some specific points on integrity and character.

1. It starts with a God’s-eye perspective

In 1 Samuel 16 God specifically tells Samuel he sees the heart and not the outward appearance. We like to quote this verse often, but don’t live it out often enough in our own lives. We’re drawn to charisma and larger-than-life leaders. That is not inherently bad, but we must also examine the heart just as God does. To bring that even closer to home, what is your motivating drive? Is it about accolades and success? Are you motivated in your leadership based on Godly desires or human achievements? Being motivated to succeed is not wrong or in itself unhealthy. I firmly believe God desires us to be driven to do our best, but He desires our success to glorify Him and be motivated by Him.

On another level, when our hearts are truly following after God there is an inherent honesty and authenticity to what we do. Others see this very quickly. The leaders that I respect the most exhibit this authenticity explicitly. I’m convinced they do not sit around in the morning thinking of how they can appear authentic to those around them each. It flows naturally out of who they are, a foundation built on God’s perspective not man’s perspective.

King David first began to attract followers long before he became king of Israel. In fact he had hundreds of followers willing to live in caves and constantly flee the army of King Saul who was looking to kill David and his followers for 10 years. He did not have prestige or position. He had won some battles, but these were quickly overshadowed by Saul’s attempts on his life. He was a leader in these early years, because he was a man after God’s heart, a man of integrity inside and out. He understood his source was from God, and that is where David built his foundation as a leader.

2. Integrity is not always required for success

There are times we see folks around us achieve success and move up corporate leadership ladders, but their integrity and character is very suspect. We often wonder “why them?” This may be true, but success can still happen. We are all born with certain gifts and abilities. For some, those include the ability to make things happen and move projects and organizations forward on willpower and ability. Unfortunately, without an underlying foundation built on Godly integrity, these individuals are nearly always doomed to eventual failure. This is usually very painful for the individual and devastating to the organization and people. I have seen this happen over and over with church leaders. Their abilities drive explosive growth, which leads many to see them as strong leaders. But the success cannot be maintained without a strong foundation. It’s like an army that has the strongest tanks and the most ammunition storming across the countryside blasting everything in its path, only to find itself far from its supply bases and out of gas. At that point the enemy rallies a few troops together and destroys the attacking army that no longer has any ammunition to fight with. Our integrity and character are our supply. The smart military commander thinks logistics before tactics. They have the right equipment, they have the right mission, and they ensure they have the foundation to carry the fight all the way to the conclusion. Too many times we can have the right equipment and the right mission, but we don’t ensure the foundation: our character and integrity.

God cares much more about who we are than about what we have accomplished. In Matthew 10, Jesus tells of those who will come to the Judgment Seat and list all of their accomplishments yet Jesus will still say “I don’t know you.” His larger concern is not what they accomplished it’s about their heart. We must overcome the “success” mentality. God will bring the success, He controls the outcome. His plans will come to pass with or without us; His deeper desire is to see us love Him with all our heart, soul and mind. That is the foundation of integrity, regardless of success. At Ephesus Church, success without integrity holds no value whatsoever.

3. Those that follow leaders value integrity in that leader above all else.

I touched on this a little above. If you look at examples in your own life of whom you have followed I believe you will find this to be true. Those that cut corners, manipulate or more blatantly violate biblical principles do not hold our loyalty long. I have worked under both leaders of integrity and leaders of very suspect motives. Those leaders that have held integrity and character in high regard continue to influence me today. What’s important to note is that you will not necessarily agree with all the decisions of leaders placed over you, but if you trust the integrity of that leader you will wholeheartedly follow nonetheless. That is true of your own leadership. Buy-in flows out of integrity. If you have a direction you are looking to take your team be sure your heart and actions are based on integrity above all else. From there your team will follow you. When you have to make tough decisions or have audacious goals, begin with integrity and character in your life first and your team will be motivated to follow you.

4. Having strong character is hard!

Andy Stanley says, “character is the will to do what’s right, even when it’s hard.” When you have a goal you are working towards, there will often come opportunities to compromise and take shortcuts. In the short-run compromise may bring some success, but ultimately lack of character will cause the bottom to fall out. When mountaineers are climbing high mountains like Mt. Everest, they typically will determine a turnaround time. This is the time the climbers will give up their summit bid and return to high camp with an appropriate amount of safety margin. To be left exposed on a high peak overnight, because you were unable to return to camp, almost always leads to death or severe injury. But when you’re climbing and the sky is clear and the summit is in sight it becomes very easy to compromise on the turnaround time. Summit fever leads to poor decision-making by even the most experienced climbers. In 1996 several climbers on Mt. Everest ignored their turnaround time, they compromised and instead of heading back to the safety of their camp they pushed on. This caused them to still be on the mountain when night fell and an unexpected storm swept across the peak. Over the course of the next few days, 12 climbers lost their lives, because they compromised. Often when the goal is in sight, we’re the most tempted to take short cuts or compromise on our principles, often at the expense of our character. This was the case for those climbers on Everest in May 1996. It would have been much more difficult in the short run to turn around with the summit in sight. For many, this was an once-in-a-lifetime shot at standing on the highest peak in the world, they did not want to turn around! But the result was disastrous.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced a situation where they had to choose to take the easy path and compromise or maintain their Godly character in the face of extremely trying circumstances. Either they could denounce God and worship the Babylonian king, or they could stand with integrity and be thrown in a fire so hot it killed the guards tasked to throw them in. Living with integrity is hard!

5. Integrity and character are lifelong pursuits

Never can we say we’ve arrived and have all the character we’ll ever need. Building our foundation in integrity and character is not like building a retirement fund. We can’t just set a goal, achieve it, and then live off the interest the rest of our lives. No matter how much we strive for righteousness and become more like Jesus, we will always be tempted to shortcut our integrity and therefore must always be pursuing character in life and leadership. Proverbs 11:3 says, “The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.” Always pursue integrity in all you do as a leader and in life. God promises to guide, direct and care for us when we do.

A little preview of “righteousness” for this Sunday at Ephesus

This Sunday we’re continuing in Matthew at Ephesus Church with Matthew 5.6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for the they shall be filled.” It’s a great promise from Jesus of the result of a life lived striving to be more like Him. I’m not going to give you all the details for Sunday here, but there is a great description of righteousness throughout the OT and NT in Baker’s biblical theology dictionary that I wanted to link you to. Read it, it’s good stuff!

http://tinyurl.com/dmw24j

(BTW Safari 4 Beta is not letting me insert hyperlinks, so you’ll have to copy and paste, sorry.)

Thoughts on “feel good theology”

Lately I have had kind of a backlash against “feel good theology,” the kind of biblical teaching that talks about all the good and happy blessings that will pour from the sky when we live a good life as good Christians. I’m not sure why it’s been so on my mind lately. Just as I study the bible and preach on Sunday’s I realize that our promise from God is not riches and fame falling from the sky, it’s pain and suffering that we’ll continue to suffer as “exiles” here on Earth. It’s the truth that we have been, and will continue to be, jacked up sinners (albeit with grace and forgiveness when we accept into our lives what Jesus accomplished on the cross). This morning as I was driving to the office I was reflecting on this and thinking about the depth of truth in this reality and then I thought, “Why doesn’t this depress me?” Logically it seems we seek spirituality and religion to find peace and happiness in this life, but all I seem to think about lately is how screwed up we are and how life will be tough even as Christians. But I’m more excited about my faith than ever, I’m more focused on God than ever. What’s going on? Then it occurred to me, there is a whole lot of freedom in acknowledging, being honest and coming to terms with who we are. Have you ever experienced confessing something that you had been hiding and feeling like a weight was lifted? It didn’t change what you had done, but there was freedom in being honest. That’s where it starts with our faith. Just being honest with who we are, good and bad brings freedom. Then within that honesty is a God who loves us right there, right there in our jacked upedness (new word I invented, but it’s a good one). He knows exactly who we are, while we were still sinners He sent Jesus for us. That’s real joy, being loved for EXACTLY who we are. The pitfall of “feel good theology” is there is always this feeling of not adding up, if you’re not as blessed as the next person it’s because you’re not good enough yet, you haven’t done enough yet, and in that is condemnation, not freedom. Quickly, I’m not saying we don’t dig into growth and discipleship, I’m talking about a different thing. Also, I’m not saying we don’t strive to be more like Jesus, that we can continue to be flagrant sinners and bask in the “freedom in Christ.” That’s not biblical either, but being honest about who we are and then discovering the love and acceptance available to us even while we continue to struggle and perhaps face incredible hardship in this life brings freedom and unexplainable joy. Because we’re loved and accepted by the Creator of the Universe. That makes me feel good!

Questions on theology

You know over the last few months since Ephesus has started to get some traction, I’ve had more questions on theology and what we REALLY believe than in my previous 10 years of ministry combined. It’s funny, because personally I have studied more theology in the last year than I have in any other year of my time in ministry. I’ve been challenged to fully flesh out what I believe and wrestle with issues that for too long the US church has just kind of ignored. I’m certainly not alone in this. Across the US church, leaders and pastors and church goers are wrestling with theology. It unfortunately has led to some schisms, but overall I see it as a huge benefit to our personal relationships with Jesus. We live in a very pluralistic culture spiritually, and that makes it much more crucial that we are absolutely solid in what we know, what we believe, and why we believe it. Paul challenges us in Ephesians 4 to know what we believe and not be swayed. He was speaking to a very spiritually pluralistic culture when he gave this challenge so it very much speaks to us today. So I say, “Ask the questions!” It’s great that people have the questions and don’t just allow themselves to either take things at face value or be swayed by the cunning of man. As for me, I’m pretty conservative when it comes to my theology and interpretation of Scripture. I believe I have no choice, but I’m sure on the constant journey of learning and knowing Scripture and the underlying theology better. With that, I’m going to go work through my daily Life Journal now, cause that’s where it starts!

Marriage, submission and all that fun

Today at Ephesus I’ll be teaching on Ephesians 5.22-33. This verse seems to stimulate a lot of thought and discussion as it speaks to wives submitting to their husbands. Often the reading stops there, everyone gets ticked off and says the bible is old-fashioned and out of touch. There’s much more to the story including the huge responsibility of the husband and the depth of the marriage relationship. I’ll be touching on all of this today, but I wanted to point everyone to a great, in-depth dissertation on marriage on all of its levels. Baker’s Dictionary of Biblical Theology provides this dissertation with all the Scripture references you could ask for. I challenge you to read through it all.