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Sermons

Letters to the Churches Part 2

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Do you really love Jesus and his church?

As we look at the first of the seven letters that Jesus wrote to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, we will start with the letter to the church in Ephesus.

The Successful Church (v. 2, 3 and 6)

This first century church in modern day Turkey was one of the favorites of the apostles. Paul pastored this church along with Timothy and John. This congregation had a legacy of being one of the most fruitful and well-known Gentile churches.

We see that they were a church that served well, doing the work of the Lord. They probably had a calendar full of events and church activities. They were a church that sacrificed and labored even under intense persecution. In spite of the hardship, the Lord commended them on several things that they were doing well.

The Ephesian church rightly tested false apostles and refused to let them teach. This struggle is relevant for us; daily there are ample false teachers who post videos online and gain millions of followers. The only way we will be able to identify and warn against false teaching is by knowing the truth found in God’s Word.

Jesus continues to commend them in verse 6 saying, “Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate”.

The Nicolaitans were a sect of the early church who persuaded people to abuse the grace of God and promoted sexual immorality. In addition, the Greek word Nicolaitan means “to conquer people”. And it is suggested that their leaders used their authority to abuse and control the people. This, too, is relevant for us, as we have seen countless examples of leaders who abuse their authority. The root of this is pride; God opposes prideful leaders.

The church in Ephesus appeared to be doing well: their doctrine was sound; their ministry was seemingly fruitful. But something was off. Despite these commendations, Jesus had a problem with this church.

The Failing Church (v. 4)

This model church seems to have lost their “why”. They had lost their first love, the reason why they were doing all they were doing. They were busy with activity and bearing good fruit, but their passion for Jesus had gotten lost in their good works. Jesus points out the ailment and then gives a prescription.

The Prescription for the Church (v 5)

Jesus offers a three-step prescription to remedy their sickness of forgotten first love.

1. Remember: When a married couple forgets the love that drew them together at first and takes each other for granted, the marriage is in danger. Nostalgia can be effective medicine for failing love in romantic relationships, and the same is true in our relationship with Jesus. Jesus tells the church to remember – and keep on remembering! A daily reminder of the grace and love of Christ that drew us to himself is an antidote for fading passion for Jesus.

2. Repent: Jesus instructed the church to repent because they were taking the grace of God for granted. They were neglecting the love of a relationship with their Savior. Even though their external works looked good, Jesus still wanted them to repent for their internal apathy.

3.   Do: Jesus called them back to the disciplines they did when they first were saved—worship, prayer, meditating on the word of God, and sharing the Gospel; all the spiritual disciplines that came so naturally when they first believed.

The Warning for Our Church

What happens when we lose our first love for Christ? We see tasks and duty in place of adoration and worship. We get burnt out, and serving the Lord becomes a drudgery.

When this happens, many people stop attending worship servicesbecause they are exhausted from doing things for God, but this is counterproductive. It is a lie from the enemy, when we think that separating ourselves from the Body of Christ is the solution for our lack of passion for the Lord.

What we need often requires discipline—pressing into the very things we are tempted to neglect. We are called to encourage one another and spur one another on (see Hebrews 10:24). 1 Corinthians 12 encourages us that we are each valuable and needed parts of the Body; we are all hampered when one piece is missing.

The Comfortable Church

There is a significant distinction between us and the church in Ephesus. The church in Ephesus was undergoing intense persecution as the Roman Empire tried to eradicate the church.

The twenty-first century Western church has it easy in comparison. We have a different problem. I believe that we are losing our first love because of a lack of persecution. It is simply too easy and convenient to be a Christian. Without sacrifice, there is no commitment (see James 1:2-4).

“It is a very remarkable thing that the church of Christ persecuted has been the church of Christ pure. The church of Christ patronized has always been the church of Christ impure.”G. Campbell Morgan

The Application of the Prescription

How are we to “do the works you did at first” (Revelation 2:5)?

These are those personal and corporate spiritual disciplines that fuel our growth in love for Jesus and his church. Out of that love will flow acts of service and ministry.

This is works based on an outflow of our love relationship with Jesus. If your first love has grown cold, you will quickly get exhausted, and you will be tempted to quit.

What we do and accomplish is secondary to us knowing Jesus and being conformed into his image.

Oswald Chambers once wrote, “The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain, and the atmosphere produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to look after, and it is the one thing that is continually being assailed.”

How do we maintain a healthy heart posture?

When God created the world, he put in place a model for work and rest. One of the most overlooked of the Ten Commandments is the fourth, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”, Exodus 20:8.

Do you set aside a day in the week to worship, rest, pray, and be thankful? It is one thing to have daily rhythms for spending time with the Lord; it is another to cease working and producing for a full twenty-four hours to be filled up in the Lord.

The Reward for the Church(V7)

The prize for getting back to our first love, putting Jesus first in our lives, is the restoration of the access to the tree of life. The paradise that was lost in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned, will be restored. Eternal life starts the moment you become a follower of Jesus, and the abundant life is available to us now (see John 10:10).

Have you abandoned your first love? What adjustments do you need to make to realign your life today?

Sermons

A Healthy Church Grows

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I’ve had two trees in our backyard since we moved into our house eleven years ago, both of which grew  rapidly and quickly exceeded my ability to manage their growth.

As I was thinking about this problem, I realized that this is a common problem in churches that are experiencing growth. When the growth exceeds the capacity to manage the growth, the result is a poorly maintained organization that leaves people frustrated on the outside and burnt out on the inside.

Growth can be challenging, so how does a healthy church grow?

The early church is a model of church health and, as we have seen in Acts 2:42, there were 4 distinctive indicators of a healthy church: they were devoted to the Apostles’ teaching, to a healthy community, to breaking bread together and to prayer. These are four devotions of a healthy church that lead to dramatic results as we read in Acts 2:43:47.

An awe-filled church  (vs. 43)

The apostles had walked with Jesus; they had seen his many powerful miracles, and they began to do the same things. Signs and wonders are for the express purpose of bringing glory to God. Today, all over the world, amazing miracles are happening, and their primary purpose is to declare the glory of God and the Gospel message. We see this throughout the book of Acts; signs and wonders lead to people being saved. Awe came upon everyone as they recognized a greater power at work; they couldn’t ignore that God was working in power and it caused a reverent fear (see Hebrews 2:3-4).

A unified church (vs. 44)

The church was in its infancy. There were no arguments over doctrine or opinions about buildings and programs. They were unified in their devotion to the gospel. A church that is devoted to the things of God will be a unified church.When we lack unity, we have likely lost our purpose and our focus. The early church had an intense feeling of responsibility towards one another which was an answer to Jesus’s prayer (see John 17:21-22). Many were drawn to the Savior as a result.

A generous church (vs. 45)

This verse is not promoting a form of socialism, rather this was voluntarily caring for each other as they shared their wealth to help those in need.

The rapid growth of the early church resulted in many physical needs. During Pentecost, there were Jews from every nation of the world.  Many of them stayed in Jerusalem after being converted. They would have quickly run out of money and food, and they needed places to stay. There was an outpouring of generosity as the unity of the church led to caring for these needs.

Generosity must be an essential mark of the church (see 1 John 3:16-18).

William Barclay wrote, “a real Christian cannot bear to have too much while others have too little.”

A rejoicing church (vs. 46)

Daily the believers were celebrating their salvation; they were celebrating that Jesus was alive and that their lives had purpose. They weren’t simply following a religion of going through the weekly and yearly festivals; this new devotion to Christ affected every aspect of their lives.

There was no separation between secular and sacred. They didn’t only gather once a week to dress up in their Sunday best and try to impress others with their holiness. Their lives were transformed by being totally committed to the Lordship of Jesus, and it affected every aspect of their lives.

This is such a challenge for us in the western culture. We have bought into the idea that we can be Christians so long as we attend church regularly and give to the church. This is not what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Being a Christian affects every minute of every day of our lives, whether it is at home, work, school or in fellowship with other believers.

We don’t add Jesus to our lives; we give our lives to Jesus. That is Lordship and real Christianity.

An attractive church (vs. 47)

There have been many books written and seminars held regarding the subject of church growth, encouraging churches to change the decor, the music, the lighting, the website, and much more. Some even encourage pastors to reduce the amount of teaching using the Bible, and by all means, please don’t tell people that they are sinners! These books and seminars have made a lot of people rich, but they’ve also fostered a consumer church culture. This culture is so focused on the desires of the attendees that the church forgets its reason for gathering.

This consumer mindset is extremely damaging to the health of the church.  If we cater to what people want in order to gather a crowd, we will necessarily deviate from the gospel message.

The church is good at religion, creating a list of things to do that a good Christian should do. But the early church focused not on what they should do but what has already been done by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  

The early church praised God for all that He had done. They were not seeking any fame or notoriety; they gave all the glory to God. As a result, they grew in number. People were attracted to the miracles that were being done and to the genuine, authentic worship that the church enjoyed.

True church growth must be a work of God as it is an authentic display of individuals living as followers of Christ which will draw others to want the same.

We can do our part to welcome people and invite people and witness to people, but ultimately Jesus is the one who builds the church (see Matthew 16:18).

Are you contributing your part to a healthy church?

Sermons

Community that Glorifies God

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We live in an era when we are more connected than any other time in the history of man.

But psychologists tell us that loneliness is the number one health issue of our time. How can it be that we are so connected but at the same time so lonely?

In Acts 2:42, we read that the early church devoted themselves to fellowship. The Greek word “Koinonia” means partnership, participation, communion, and companionship.

In Romans 15:1-7, the Apostle Paul instructs the Roman church how to live and relate to one another in light of the Gospel.

The Gospel Leads to Unity

In the first verse Paul gets straight to the point, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” He uses the word obligation, which could also mean duty, or legal requirement.

We don’t like this kind of language in our culture today; we are free individuals, so why should we be obligated to do anything for someone else? This issue existed in the first-century church as well. Paul answers the question very clearly in verse 3 of Romans 15, “For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.””

Christ gave himself for us. This is the foundation for the Gospel message: Jesus, being obedient to the Father, preferred us over his own life and his position in heaven. True unity in the church is an outworking of the Gospel; it is a miracle as the Holy Spirit draws us to prefer each other in light of what Jesus has done for us.

Endurance and Encouragement Leads to Unity

Though unity among believers is an outflow of the gospel, it still takes work. Paul repeats the phrase “endurance and encouragement” in verse 4. Being devoted to the fellowship of believers, as the early church was, takes endurance, hard work, and commitment.

Endurance is the ability to  persevere in doing something even when it is difficult or when the finish line never seems to get any closer. Walking in unity requires endurance; there are days when it seems easier than others, but we keep on going because we are committed to each other just as Christ is committed to us.

Along with endurance, we need encouragement. We are encouraged by the faithfulness of those who have gone before us (see Hebrews 12:1). We are encouraged by the Word of God, and by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the church.

All of these encourage us and keep us moving forward towards greater unity, towards a healthier community.

The Purpose of Unity

Community literally means living with unity. But what is the purpose of unity in the church?

Is it so that we can just get along or portray the image of a nice happy family? Is it so that we attract more people to our happy community and grow? Actually, unity is significantly more important than all those outcomes; unity in the church is to bring glory to God (see Romans 15:6).

How do we display the glory of God as the church? In Ephesians 3:10 we read, “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

God is using the followers of Jesus to display His wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. The word for “manifold” is the same word that one would use to describe the many facets of a diamond. God holds the church up like a diamond and points to the church, teaching the angels and principalities of the spirit world about Himself.

Even as we are weak, broken, and struggling towards unity, we are used by God more than we will ever know because of the Gospel and the righteousness of Jesus. When we walk in unity and prefer others over ourselves, we display the glory of God. In John 17:22 and 23, Jesus prayed that we would display the glory given to him by the Father in order to draw others to a saving knowledge of himself.

The Miracle of Unity

Unity is not simply getting along for the sake of peace; unity is a miracle of God displaying the glory of God to a lost and dying world. Jesus went to the cross so that we could be a community of believers united in fellowship and love.

There is much at stake, including the eternal destiny of our neighbors. It is vital that we are a healthy community.. Our culture is starving for authentic community, and we have the solution to show it to them—the power of the gospel, the encouragement of the Word and of those who have gone before us, and the example of our Savior.

The Path to Unity in Community

Many people are thirsting for community but are afraid to step into it. Building authentic community can be scary as it requires vulnerability, self-sacrifice, and laying aside our fears of rejection. But something powerful happens when we reach out and proactively strive to build community,  not for what we can get out of it but for the Glory of God to be displayed. When the focus is off of ourselves,  we will get more out of a community than we ever imagined, and we will be healthy.

When we grasp that Jesus went to the cross for us, we will easily give ourselves and our self-interests away in order to step into a community where Jesus is glorified. If we struggle to stay in fellowship with each other, it is because we are not allowing the Gospel message to permeate our relationships; we are self-centered rather than grace centered.

We live in a culture of individualism and consumerism, and the church can easily fall into the trap of feeding the desires of the consumers instead of focusing on the glory of God. A healthy church is where people willingly step into community to display the glory of Jesus.

Stepping into Community Begins with the Gospel

Firstly, we need to understand that supernatural unity can only be found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as the head of the church. A church community that is not centered around a common relationship with Jesus will always leave us wanting (see John 4:13-14a).

Stepping into Community Requires Vulnerability

Stepping into community requires vulnerability and involves risk. We are all busy, but we prioritize what we value. What might happen if you volunteered to serve, hosted a meal, or invited others into your life and home?

What if we prioritized and valued authentic community—what better way to spend our time than to display the glory of God?

Are you ready to take a step into community today?

Sermons, Uncategorized

Healthy Church Part 1

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What is a healthy church? 1 Corinthians 12 describes the church as a body, with each part functioning well so that the whole body is healthy. But we all bring our brokenness and pain with us, how can we function together as a healthy body?

In Acts 2, we have a model of a healthy church. One hundred and twenty followers of Jesus, praying in the upper room, were filled with the Holy Spirit and they went into the streets proclaiming the Gospel message. Three Thousand people were added to the church that day and this same church has influenced the world for the past two thousand years. But what was their secret?

A Focused Church

The few weeks have been filled with mission trips, outreaches and praying for those going out to share the message of the Gospel, focusing on the lost in our city and across the nations. This is all good, but a church that only looks at missions without caring about the discipleship of the members is not healthy. Just like a church that focuses only inward is not healthy.

There needs to be a balance of equipping (discipleship) and mission (going out).

Athletic trainers will tell you that a strong core is vital for the body to function well and spend hours strengthening the core. If the core is weak, the whole body is weak and cannot operate at its best. The same applies to the analogy of the church as a body. If the core of the church is weak, the whole body does not function well.

The early church was more than a gathering of like-minded believers who came together once a week for a time of fellowship and worship. It was a body of fully committed people, committed to the lordship of Jesus Christ personally, and committed to each other in fellowship and unity. The first church was the healthiest and most effective the Church has ever been.

A Devoted Church

Acts 2:42 begins with the phrase, “And they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching…”

Devotion means a regular observance. Individual committed devotion is a sign of genuine salvation. Saying that you do not desire to read God’s Word regularly is like saying that you are alive, but don’t need to drink water. The foundational mark of a true believer is someone who abides in Christ, who feeds on God’s word (see John 8:31).

So, what were they teaching? The Apostles had sat under the greatest teacher of all time for three years. In the upper room at Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth and now they were teaching the new believers who in turn taught others. This is the pattern of the early church and sadly something that we have lost in the modern church. We all need to carefully study doctrine, know what we believe, why we believe it and then be able to teach it to others. This message is intended to come to us and then flow through us (2 Timothy 2:2).

In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus commands all of us to make disciples, to win converts and disciple them. This is not only a command to go to the ends of the earth, but also to the person sitting next to you, or the young person who is desperate for a mentor to help them walk the Christian life in the twenty-first century.

A Dead Church

The Dead Sea is the lowest body of water on the planet and lies between Israel and Jordan. The river Jordan flows into it from the sea of Galilee but does not flow out of it. As a result, the Dead Sea has ten times the concentration of salt than the oceans and is unable to sustain any life. This is a picture of many individuals and even churches who pride themselves on their theological knowledge, amassing more teaching, but never applying the word.

Such people and churches are deep, salty and dead!

A healthy body of water allows the life-giving resource to flow in and then out again, feeding another pond or stream. Are you stagnating on the word? Or are you allowing the word to flow through you to others?

A Gospel Church

The early church focused on the resurrection of Jesus and the Gospel message, they preached John 14:6. The Gospel is the good news that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who spoke all of creation into being. He came to earth in the form of a baby, his mother Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus lived a perfect life, he was crucified and buried, but he rose again on the third day, overcoming death and paying the price of the judgment of God for our sins. This Jesus ascended into heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of the Father and where he is preparing praying for us and preparing a place for us to be with him. This same Jesus is coming again to restore all things and judge the earth.

This Gospel message is the message that saves us, but it is also the message that sustains us and keeps us growing in our own personal walk with the Lord.

We have the blessing of the eternal Word of God; a healthy church devotes themselves to the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17 and Hebrews 4:12).

The church and individual that studies and meditates on the Word of God will be healthy.

Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century theologian defined 5 metrics for determining a genuine move of the Holy Spirit in a church.

  1. A growing esteem for Jesus Christ.
  2. A discernible spirit of repentance.
  3. A dogged devotion to the Word of God.
  4. An interest in theology and doctrine.
  5. An evident love for God and neighbor.

Are you healthy? Is our church healthy?

Sermons

True Freedom

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This week as we celebrate our nation’s independence, I want to ask the question: are you truly free?

Most people would point to the legal freedoms that we have, such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and many other freedoms that are guaranteed by the law. However, there is a freedom that only a small percentage of people experience, a true freedom that no one can take away.

This kind of freedom has been experienced by people in countries where there is no freedom of speech. This kind of freedom is experienced by people who are bound to a wheelchair. This kind of freedom is even experienced by people in a prison cell. This is the freedom that Jesus gives; it is true freedom.

Freedom in Abiding

In John 8:31 Jesus addresses those who believed that he was the Messiah, saying, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”

Abiding in the Word is still a mark of a follower of Jesus today. The Bible is the revelation of Jesus, the Word of God (see John 1:1). 

The word “abide” means to remain, to stay grounded, to remain in place for an extended period. To be a disciple of Jesus, we must be grounded in the Word of God. Jesus taught in John 15 that he is the vine, and we are the branches, and only by abiding in him will we be able to produce fruit. 

If you are a follower of Jesus, you will spend time regularly and intentionally reading and meditating on the Word. The result will be that your daily decision making, and lifestyle will be guided by the truths and principles of the Word of God.

If someone was to look at your daily life and disciplines, would they know if you were a disciple of Jesus? Would they see that you abide in the Word?

Jesus continues in verse 32, “…and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  This verse is frequently quoted on its own without the context of the preceding verses. When people quote it, they usually leave out the conjunction, “and”. From politicians to talk show hosts, this verse has crept into pop culture.

Quoting this verse on its own could lead one to believe that freedom or salvation is obtainable by some special knowledge that can be obtained. But that is a form of an ancient heresy known as Gnosticism, which is still prevalent today.

But the whole sentence reveals that it is not about human knowledge leading to freedom; it is about abiding in Jesus, growing in the knowledge and truth of the Gospel that leads to freedom.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “When we obey His Word, we grow in spiritual knowledge; and as we grow in spiritual knowledge, we grow in freedom from sin. Life leads to learning, and learning leads to liberty.”

Not All are Free

Not everyone in the crowd agrees with Jesus (see John 8:33). They claim that as a nation they had never been enslaved. However, a brief look at the history of the nation of Israel quickly dispels that statement. The Jews were under the heavy hand of the Roman empire during the time that Jesus walked the earth.

Jesus pointedly addresses their true slavery in verse 34, “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”

Today many people believe that freedom is the ability to do whatever we want to do, but that is anarchy and leads to bondage.

Peter Marshall, the chaplain to the US Senate in 1947, said, “may we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.”

Freedom is Available

By abiding in Jesus and in his Word, we will be set free from the slavery to sin. You cannot keep on willfully sinning if you know Jesus as savior (See 1 John 3:6-9).

If you are tolerating sin in your life, whether it is dishonesty in business, pornography, bad language, alcohol or drug abuse, gossip, slander, or any sin that you are not willing to renounce, you are a slave to that sin. You are not free.

How do we obtain freedom? It is only found in Jesus, as he says in verse 36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  Freedom and life are found in no other name.

Freedom Rejected

In verse 38, Jesus addresses the people who do not believe in him, those who are enslaved to sin and don’t want to come to him for freedom, saying, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

Initially, it seems that Jesus is telling them that they are listening to Abraham, but that is not what Jesus is saying. Reading further, Jesus clarifies in verse 44a, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires…”

Jesus was not mincing words or being politically correct. Jesus knew the price that he would have to pay for our freedom and salvation; he knew that he was about to go to the cross to take on the full weight of the wrath of his Father.

Please don’t miss this, if you are willfully living in sin, and you are not bothered by it or compelled by the Holy Spirit to repent of your sin, you are not a follower of Jesus.

Knowing True Freedom

However, if you believe in Jesus and the work that he did for you on the cross, you can know true freedom.

Freedom from the fear of God’s wrath, freedom from the expectations of others, freedom from worry, freedom amid pain and suffering, freedom despite your situation in this life.

This is the true freedom that Jesus offers. Do you know this freedom today?

Sermons

Summer of Community part 2

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While I was studying Missiology in 2013, the Lord called me to be a pastor. Initially I had no desire or vision for the pastorate, but as the Lord began to impress on me the desire to see a missional church in Grace Point, I submitted to His leading.

Every church is called my God to be missional. Today, billions of people are heading for an eternity separated from God in hell. I believe there is no greater need today than to preach the Gospel to those that do not know the name of Jesus (see Matthew 28:19-20).

Healthy missional churches are growing churches. However, we are not responsible for the growth of the church, that role belongs to Jesus. We are called to be obedient to his instructions and leading and the Holy Spirit will bring about the multiplication (see Matthew 16:18). Jesus promised to build his church.

For 2000 years, the church has always known the mission and the vision of the church. The preacher would proclaim the Word of God and the church went out and did the work of the ministry (see Ephesians 4:11-12), transforming communities by the power of the Gospel message.

The Vision Movement

In 1974 Peter Drucker published his book on Management theory and since the 1980’s almost every business in the world began using mission and vision statements. This became universally accepted and was embraced by the church. Church leaders felt the pressure to come up with unique, catchy vision statements.

We have ours at Grace Point:

Our Purpose Statement

The purpose of this church shall be to exalt God through Jesus Christ through worship, witnessing, ministry, missions and fellowship.

Our Vision

Love God – Love Others – Change the World

To be a loving church family, worshipping God and transforming our community with the message of the Gospel.

They are both good statements, but what is our priority, the Great commission or the church vision? I would argue that many churches love their mission and vision statements, because they are easier and more marketable than the Great commission.

The Vision Verse

For the last few decades church leaders have used a verse to promote the need for a vision statement in the church, Proverbs 29:18. This verse has become so well known because many Christian leaders have used it to inspire, to motivate the church.

Rick Warren writes: “MY IMAGINATION INFLUENCES MY ASPIRATION. In other words, your dreams determine your destiny. To accomplish anything, you must first have a mission, a goal, a hope, a vision. “Without a vision the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18.1                           

The phrase, “the people perish” is interpreted to mean that a church without a 21st century vision statement, will eventually close its doors.

But is that what God’s word says?

Interestingly, Warren and many others use the King James version of this verse which reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he”, Proverbs 29:18 KJV.

I find it interesting that leaders who use this verse would never use the King James Version from the pulpit. And they would probably discourage using it as a devotional Bible. So, why would these motivational leaders use an older translation?

Looking at some of the newer translations, we see a different understanding of the verse:

NIV – “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint…”
NLT – “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild…”
CEV – “Without guidance from God, law and order disappear…”
HCSB – “Without revelation people run wild…”
ESV – “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint…”

Looking at the word translated as “vision” in the Hebrew, we see that it means, “revelation, a communication from God to be communicated to others, with a focus on the visual aspects of the communication.”

Simply put, this is a divine word of God, to be communicated to others. I think this is far more significant and valuable than sitting around the table and coming up with a cool slogan for the church.

Additionally, the phrase, “my people perish” in the King James Version, does not mean to die, it is better translated as, “casting off restraint”, or “casting off the law of God”. God’s word restrains us from walking in sin. It is a guide to our path, for our good.

Based on the Hebrew dictionary I prefer the English Standard Version translation, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint…”

Furthermore, the rest of the verse backs up this interpretation, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.” Proverbs 29:18 ESV.

The incorrect translation of this one verse has birthed the sale of millions of books, conferences around the world.

The Vision of Jesus

Having a vision statement is not a bad thing, but sadly some have used catch phrases and motivational conferences to build the church without Jesus as the head of the church.

When Jesus was asked for a vision statement, what did he say?

In Matthew 22; a lawyer tried to test him and asked him which was the greatest commandment? Towhich Jesus responded, “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

These are the restraints, the law for the church.

In our 21st century worldview, Jesus would have been a terrible visionary leader (see some of his vision statements, Luke 14:27, Luke 9:23, John 6:53, Matthew 20:26, John 16:33b).

I would suggest that sometimes we want a mission and vision statement because the ones Jesus gave don’t look great on a billboard.

A vision statement is not wrong, but vision must come out of prayer and meditation on God’s word, rather than from a church growth handbook or seminar.

Let’s ask the Lord for his vision statement for Grace Point.

1 https://www.walkingwithgiants.net/bible/prov-2918-where-there-is-no-vision-the-people-perish/

Sermons

Summer of Community part 1

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During the spring and summer of 2020, we all experienced the effects of the COVID pandemic. Life was severely disrupted and many people lost loved ones.

It was during that same period that our church family underwent a significant change. We added many new members from our local community. People came out of seclusion and were hungry for community, desperate for meaningful connections, face to face.

But it seems that as COVID has receded into the review mirror of our lives, we have slipped into relational complacency. The smart phone and the streaming devices seem to have replaced the desire for healthy community.

Eternal Family

But what is a church community? Is it just a gathering of people who share a common belief?

Jesus made a rather shocking statement in Matthew 12, when his family tried to come and speak to him; “While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothersstood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Matthew 12:47-50.

Jesus seems so focused on the task at hand that he dishonors his own mother. But that would be in contravention of the 5th commandment from Exodus 20:12,

Jesus isn’t dishonoring his family; he is rather making a statement of reality. Jesus states that his family is whoever does the will of his Father in heaven. The invitation into the family is open to all who trust in Jesus for salvation (see Romans 10:13).

Jesus had a perfect eternal perspective. Family is important, but family is temporary. Marriage, the foundation of family, is only for this life. Jesus is pointing out that our church family is our eternal family.

Eternal Promise

Matthew 12, ties closely together with an encounter that Peter has with Jesus in Luke 18; “And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” Luke 18:28-30.

Jesus is not encouraging husbands to leave their wives for ministry, rather he is talking about sacrificing being with family for a short time for the sake of the kingdom. An example of this would be a short-term mission trip.

However, sometimes God calls families to leave their place of birth and go to another state or country, leaving behind family. But the promise is that there will be family wherever you go. There are believers who will become your family in this life as a blessing from the Lord. Debbie and I have certainly experienced this reality in our lives.

Broken Family

Despite the clear biblical call to community, many individuals today feel that merely watching an online service is sufficient for their spiritual needs.

I believe that there are two primary reasons for this way of thinking:

1. Without the Holy Spirit drawing us together in community, it will always require more effort than we have. If you are not saved, you don’t have the Holy Spirit’s presence living inside of you. As a result, you will have only limited affinity with believers.

2.  In our Christian community, there is a general apathy and feeling of exhaustion which is a significant trait of our modern culture.

Sometimes exhaustion is legitimate because of travel, babies, sickness, working long hours or two or more jobs.  

Saturated Minds

But more often our minds are exhausted. We are living in an age unlike any previous age, the information age. We have been inundated and numbed by entertainment, sport and social media to the point of practical physical paralysis.

Studies have shown that we are living in an exhausted and stressed age. People have no capacity for community, because they are emotionally drained.

When we spend time watching endless news feeds, social media and the like, we experience rapid emotional changes, and it has a residual and physical effect on our bodies.

The 24-hour cycle of conflicting information and the garbage of social media that you are subjected to daily will pollute your mind and slowly erode your love for the Lord and your love for His church. The Apostle Paul warned us about this in Romans 8:5–6.

The common buzzword today is “burnout”. People feeling exhausted, needing a break, and yes some people do. We do live in exhausting times. But I would propose that not everyone is exhausted because we are doing too much, rather it is a physical manifestation of overstimulated minds.

Healthy Habits

What are you feeding on?

Begin every day by asking the Spirit to take control of your mind and life. Read the Bible and let the Holy Spirit speak to you through the pages of God’s word.

Take a fast from your screens. Try looking up and around when waiting in line or at the doctor’s office. See people and engage with people. Pray for divine appointments and look for ways to serve others.

I challenge you to take an extended media break and use that time to read God’s word, a good book or simply waiting on the Lord.

Research has shown that one of the best ways to restore a tired mind is to get into nature.  

Healthy Church

As the leadership team, we wanted to spend this summer encouraging growth and healthy community in our church family. In addition, we would love to see growth in our engagement with our local mission field in South Kansas City.

The challenge is for all of us, what is our calling as a church family and individually?

Step into community and join us this summer.

Sermons

A Mother that never gave up

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Have you ever needed a miracle of provision or healing that seemed impossible? Maybe you are in that position now, trusting God for what seems impossible. This is faith, faith to believe that God will provide, faith to believe that God will move on your behalf. The truth is that God is pleased with our faith; God rewards faith.

In Matthew 15 we read of a woman who set an example and a standard for what it takes to please God. Do you want to please God?

A Desperate Woman

This Canaanite woman came to Jesus with a problem; her daughter was demon possessed and suffering terribly. She had probably heard that Jesus was coming to town, and she trusted that Jesus could heal her daughter. She had probably tried every other avenue to have her daughter set free. This was her last hope; she was desperate. She cried out saying, “Lord, Son of David”, referring to Jesus as a Jew would even though she was a Gentile.

When you first read the story, it appears that Jesus and his disciples rejected her.  We read in verse 23 that Jesus said nothing to her. He completely ignored her and seemed almost callous to her cry for help. The disciples were probably annoyed by her persistent crying, and they urged Jesus to send her away.

A Tested Faith

The woman’s situation was desperate; why was Jesus not responding to her need? Did Jesus simply not care? Sometimes when we face desperate situations, and God is silent, we wonder, has He forgotten us? Does He not see our situation?

Jesus finally responded to her crying and pleading, saying “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v24). Did Jesus just reject her completely, proverbially shutting the door in her face? Jesus’ apparent rejection only seemed to grow her courage and faith. She knelt in worship before Jesus. This time she called him Lord, crying, “Lord, help me!”.  

Jesus was not rejecting her; he was testing her, giving her faith the opportunity to prove itself like yeast that it was living and active. 

A Mature Faith

We expect Jesus to relent; surely upon seeing her persistence he would grant her request, right? She passed the test; didn’t she?

Instead, Jesus took his rejection a step further. He insulted her, calling her Gentile people dogs! He said, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” (v26).

Has Jesus lost his mind? What more did he want from her?

We would be unsurprised if the woman walked away, dejected, frustrated, and confused. But she didn’t; she quickly responded, perceptively saying, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Her faith was maturing. As Jesus tested her, she grew bolder. She had nothing to lose, and she knew only Jesus could help her.

Her faith was small but maturing. Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move a mountain. It is not the size or quantity of the faith that Jesus was referring to; rather it is the maturity of that faith.

A Rewarded Faith

As Jesus heard her faith and humility, he responded immediately by commending her faith and healing her daughter. Her faith was rewarded, and her daughter was healed. 

It is interesting to note that Matthew records two occasions in his Gospel of people who Jesus referred to as having great faith: this Canaanite woman and the Roman centurion in Matthew 8. Both were Gentiles, and on both occasions, Jesus healed from a distance.

The reality was that the Gentiles were spiritually distanced from the Jews and the ministry of Jesus. But that is why Jesus came to die on the cross, to reconcile all nations and people groups to himself. It is simply a matter of faith. Jesus still rewards faith today.

A Persistent Faith

Sometimes it seems like Jesus is saying no. Sometimes it seems like he is blessing others while ignoring us. But this isn’t him ignoring us, rejecting us, or lacking care for us; this is him testing our faith and giving it a chance to mature. Today God is looking for people who walk by faith, not by sight. The rewards of a lifestyle of faith are great. God does not allow us to go through trials for no apparent reason; rather it is to develop our faith in Him.

Individually and corporately as a church we are tested in our faith. James 1:2-4 gives us a prescriptive progression relating to faith. Trials test our faith, which produces endurance, which completes us, and then we will lack nothing. We will lack no good thing (see Psalm 37:25).

What is the desperate need of your heart today? Don’t give up; be persistent. Come to the Lord daily, hourly. Keep believing that what His Word says is true and that He is able to give you what you need. Note, this isn’t all our wants; rather all our needs. God knows your needs, and He will provide for you in His perfect timing. You will be able to look back with stronger faith.

A Pleasing Faith

Not only will you have a stronger faith, but you will have a faith that is pleasing to God. Your life will be a testimony to others about the goodness of God.

Faith is pleasing to God. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6; “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

To have faith we must believe that God exists; this is the root of faith.

If we struggle with faith, it may be because we struggle to believe that God exists.

God is the all-powerful creator of the universe, and He is your Heavenly Father. If we truly understand the depths of God’s love for us, we will have no problem with faith.

The final part of Hebrews 11:6 is the promise of God; “that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Trust in God; He will never let you down. The rewards may not be what we expect or thought we needed, but they will come in time.

Sermons

Shrewd Stewardship

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Whenever a pastor preaches on stewardship, people tend to get nervous. But Jesus frequently taught about using our resources for the Kingdom of Heaven, and like with Jesus’s teachings on other topics, his instructions are not meant to be chains that induce nerves but invitations that bring joy.

As Jesus taught, he was surrounded by mostly poor people, people who probably thought that getting more money would solve their problems. Nothing has changed in the twenty-first century; we still tend to think more money is the answer to many of life’s problems.

But Jesus taught about sacrificial generosity and when we read Acts 2, we see that the early church got it.

A Confusing Story

In Luke 16, Jesus taught the confusing parable of the Shrewd Manager. It is a hard parable to understand, but it has eternal lessons for us.

In this parable, Jesus seems to be encouraging theft and deceptive business practices. But looking at the context can clarify our understanding of the parable.

In Luke 15, Jesus had been addressing tax collectors, the financiers of the day. Jesus tells them three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. All three are about possessions, losing them or squandering them.  

Then in chapter 16, Jesus takes his disciples aside and begins to teach them about money. But the parable is strange; the central character is a crook, a thief.

In this parable, a rich man has a manager over his estate who has been stealing from him. The rich man understandably decides to fire him.

However, the manager decides to get ahead of his fate by making crooked deals with his master’s debtors so that he will have a roof over his head when he is fired. He doesn’t even use his own money; he uses the money of his master to buy favors and temporary security. The debtors quickly agree to this dishonest scheme to benefit themselves.

But there is a twist in the tale; the rich man is so impressed with the shrewdness of his manager that he re-hires him.

Is Jesus teaching that it is commendable to be devious? The words of Jesus in verse 9 add to the confusion, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9).

A Kingdom Wealth Management Strategy

So, what are we to make of this parable?

Jesus is not commending criminal behavior; that would be contrary to the teaching of the rest of the Scriptures. Rather Jesus is pointing to the shrewdness and characteristics of a criminal and saying that as children of the light, we should be as driven to do the will of God our Father as the manager was to secure his future. Only instead of leveraging shrewdness for self-preservation, we should look for opportunities to gain eternal wealth.

Jesus encourages us to use the resources of this world to invest in eternity. We can take the unrighteous riches of this world and use them for eternal purposes.

We will leave 100% of our possessions behind when we die. But I don’t think we fully grasp the truth that how we steward our earthly resources affects our eternal rewards.  

Jesus continues to teach his disciples with cutting clarity in Luke 16:10-13, shedding light on this parable. Jesus makes it clear that true riches will be entrusted to those who faithfully serve the eternal kingdom of heaven and not the temporal kingdom of this world.

A Holistic View of Riches

God has entrusted each of us with a number of resources to steward. True riches are more than our bank account; there are other resources we are called to steward.

Finances

We tend to view stewardship as an optional extra in Christian disciplines.Some people assume it; others aren’t aware of it. Traditionally it has been taught that we are to give 10% of our income to the Lord’s work, beginning with the local church and then giving above and beyond that to local and international missional causes.

But I believe that these percentages are the training wheels of greater spiritual discipline. Jesus always raised the bar when it comes to the moral teachings of the Mosaic law.

I believe that the foundation for our stewardship is found in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Dead people have no possessions. When we commit our lives to Jesus, he becomes Lord over all our resources. When it comes to the question of tithing, 10% is a good starting point, but that doesn’t mean the other 90% remains for us to use selfishly. I believe God is looking at how we are stewarding that 90% for His glory.

Time 

Time is a constant; you cannot make time, but you can waste time. We are called to make the most of every minute that we have been given. We can be challenged in this respect when we have an unexpected interruption in our day, when someone comes to us in need. Are we willing to shuffle our priorities to be used by the Lord?

There are a multitude of ways we can steward our time for God’s glory. It is an eternal investment.

Spiritual Gifts

Spiritual gifts are given to us by the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. Gifts are not given for our benefit or enrichment; they are given for the work of the ministry and building up of the Body of Christ.

The Gospel

Believers who have believed in the Gospel are entrusted to steward that message and share it with others (see 1 Thessalonians 2:4).

An Invitation to Stewardship

Everything that we have been blessed with should be stewarded to further the Kingdom of God. We are God’s stewards, managing His resources. Just like the wicked and shrewd manager, we need to be discerning in how we use the Master’s resources, only Jesus invites us to use them for eternal purposes.

How are you doing as an investment manager for the King of Kings?

Sermons

He Is Jesus

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He is Risen!

In 2019 we were all struck by the spectacle of the fire that destroyed the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. The world seemed to be in anguish over the destruction of an 860-year-old building. Why were we so caught up in the destruction of a building most of us have never even seen in person? 

One reason is that we, as God’s created beings, desire transcendence; we have a desire for something that endures beyond our lives. We desperately want to know that eternity is real and achievable. The thought that everything we see around us will one day fall to decay is simply too hard for us to face (see Ecclesiastes 3:11).

We were made for so much more than the accumulation of wealth and knowledge and the pursuit of comfort and happiness; we were made for eternal glory with Jesus.

On Easter Sunday, we celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead after paying the price for our eternal salvation on the cross. Isaiah 53 is one of the clearest Old Testament prophetic Scriptures that points to the death and resurrection of Jesus. These words also remind us that Jesus was not a victim of a terribly botched trial nor of mistaken identity. Everything that happened to Jesus happened on purpose in fulfillment of prophecies like Isaiah 53. Jesus is the creator God who took on flesh; he was born and lived at a specific time in history to die on a Roman cross and then to be raised to life. Only Jesus could do what He did; only Jesus who was fully God and fully man could pay the price for the sins of man.

In Isaiah 53:10-12 we see five key attributes of Jesus starting at verse 10a, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief, when his soul makes an offering for guilt…”


Jesus is – the Perfect Sacrifice

Under the Law of Moses, there were multiple different types of offerings. The guilt offering was one of these, and this offering provided a way to be cleansed from unintentional sin. It also provided restitution when someone had been personally wronged because of a sinner’s actions. It covered both unintentional and unknown sins. 

The prophet Isaiah wrote that Jesus was a guilt offering on our behalf. Jesus knows every sin we have (or will) commit, even the ones we don’t realize. On the cross, Jesus paid the price for our sins, including the sins we are yet to commit and including our unintentional and unknown sins. 

Does this mean we can sin without consequence? Absolutely not; it was our sin that drove Jesus to the cross—past, present, and future. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, the only pure spotless lamb of God (see Hebrews 10:11-14).

Jesus is the Risen Lord

Jesus is alive! Isaiah 53:10b-11a says, “he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied…”

Only living people see their offspring; only living people have extended days and prosper.

This is the line in the sand that differentiates Christianity from any other world religion. Our God is alive; the tomb where he was buried was only occupied for a few days. Paul clearly stated this in 1 Corinthians 15:3-6; this is the Good News: he is risen!

Not only did he rise from the dead, but he rose with a body that will never decay, the same kind that we will also get one day if we believe in Jesus as Lord. The resurrection of Jesus is our glorious hope of a certain eternal future.

Jesus is our Righteousness

Isaiah 53:11b says, “by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

The word righteous means that there is no longer a need for justice or punishment. For the Christian, to be righteous means to be in right standing before God. This is the privilege that we have as those covered by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. We cannot stand before the all-holy God without the righteousness of Christ.

Without the righteousness of Christ, we have no hope of any sin being forgiven, but because of what he had done, no sin is too great for his forgiveness.

In Isaiah 64, we read that those who trust in their own righteousness or good works are like filthy rags in God’s sight. There is no good work that we can do that will make us righteous. Nothing we do will make us righteous before God; only through Jesus can we stand righteous before the all-holy God

In Jeremiah 23:6 we read that Jesus is Jehovah Tsidkenu, meaning Jehovah is our righteousness. Our being in right standing with God is only possible when we place our faith in the completed work of Jesus on the cross. Righteousness comes through faith.

Jesus is our Inheritance

Isaiah 53:12a says, “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,”

The Bible is full of references to the inheritance believers have in Christ (see Ephesians 1:11).

Our inheritance is the sum of all God has promised us in salvation. Our inheritance is not dependent on our works; it is based on being part of the family of God. Being a Christian makes us heirs along with Christ (see Romans 8:16-17).

When we understand and value the glory of the inheritance that awaits us, we are better able to endure whatever comes our way in this life. With an eternal perspective, we realize that this life is gone in a flash, and eternity awaits us all. We can praise God during trials because we have His guarantee that we will receive all He has promised (see 2 Corinthians 4:17).

Jesus is our Advocate

Isaiah 53:12 closes, “because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

An advocate is someone who pleads the cause of another before a court or tribunal. Jesus is our advocate, pleading for us before the Perfect Judge (see 1 John 2:1).

Jesus, the creator of the universe, gave his life for you as the Perfect Sacrifice once and for all so that he could be your Righteousness. He rose from the dead to be your Advocate.  He is now seated next to God the Father where he is pleading and advocating for you until the day when you receive the glory of your eternal inheritance in him (see Hebrews 7:23-25). Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Do you know Jesus?