Sharing Your Faith

Continuing our series on self-examination, John Wesley asks, “When did I last speak to someone about my faith?” Let’s be honest, we’re not good at this. We know we should be speaking more openly about our faith, but we struggle so much. Why do we struggle? Let me give you a few reasons why I believe we are hesitant in speaking to others about our faith.

1. Uncomfortable – It’s not that we fear talking to people, and I don’t even think that we fear rejection. After all, if people reject the message you share with them, they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting Jesus. It’s simply uncomfortable to share our faith. When we talk about what we believe, we are allowing people to see into the deepest area of our lives.

2. Don’t know what to say – What do you say to someone about God? Where do you start? You can simply invite someone to church, but that’s not really sharing your faith. One of the reasons why we are hesitant to speak to others about our faith is that we don’t know what to say. We don’t have a clear understanding of the Gospel ourselves, and so we know we’re going to mess up when we start talking to someone about Jesus.

3. Not living out our faith – How can you share your faith if you are not living out your faith? Many of us are never going to share our faith because our faith is not valuable to us. We don’t treasure it, and the fact that we don’t treasure our faith is evident in the way we live our lives. Our lives are void of devotion to God because we have a infantile understanding of the life-saturating grace that has been provided for us through the death and resurrection of Christ.

So, what do we do?

1. Build community – Most of us do not feel comfortable walking up to strangers and starting a conversation about the Gospel. However, we do crave relationships and community. The better you get to know someone, the more intimate your relationship becomes, and it becomes easier to share with that person. The easiest way to share your faith is to build intentional relationships that will eventually allow you the opportunity to easily share what you believe. The key is that as you are building relationships, live as Christ before those that you will eventually share Christ with.

2. Learn the Gospel – Have a firm grasp on what you believe and why. You must make it a priority to understand the salvation you’ve been given. Immerse yourselves in the book of Romans or Ephesians. A helpful book for learning the Gospel and how to share it is The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever.

3. Immerse yourself in you faith – Is your life giving evidence of spiritual growth? Are you maturing in your faith? If not, you’re not going to be much of a witness for the sake of Jesus Christ. As you immerse yourself in Christ, you will be continually and increasingly amazed by His grace. The more you grow, the more you want to share. You can’t help it. Christ become a sacred treasure that you want others to experience.

Beginning next month, Big Stevens Creek is going to become much more intentional in our efforts to reach our community for Christ. For the next year, we are going to focus on Servant Evangelism. Simply put, we are going to let our community know that Jesus loves North Augusta in practical ways. I know that God is going to use our efforts to open up opportunities for relationship building that will allow us to share the Gospel. I pray you will be involved in these efforts.

 

Vision Update

I’m learning that one of my weaknesses is keeping people informed of the work that is taking place at Big Stevens Creek. I’m going to try to communicate more clearly and more regularly some of the things that are happening in the background at Big Stevens Creek. Much of the work that is taking place in the background will soon be moving to the foreground and be very visible to our congregation. Let’s recap what has happened over the last seven months.

In February we presented a long term vision to our church family. We clearly defined what is most important to Big Stevens Creek, what we are about (our mission), and where we are going (our vision). You can review that information here. (Scroll to the bottom of the page for a link to the actual handout you received in February.) What we emphasized in February is that our vision is who we want to become as a church family. It’s not a program, nor is it a quick fix. Rather, we believe it’s going to take years before we fully realize all the things we desire to see God do in our midst, but step by step and one by one, we are going to tackle the various issues brought up in our time of vision-casting.

In March, we immediately got to work. We put together ministry teams, as outlined in our vision strategy, to begin working on accomplishing goals that were established by the long range planning team that developed our vision strategy. It took several weeks to get those teams put together, and in the beginning Eric and I spent time with those teams explaining in more detail some of the things discussed in our vision strategy.

These teams have been hard at work. Eric has been working with the worship ministry team, and I am sure that we will soon see some of the fruit of their labor in our times of corporate worship. I’ve been working with the local evangelism team, international missions team, and the discipleship team. You’ve already seen fruit from the international missions team. They put together a wonderful global missions conference that we had the opportunity of being a part of in August. It was phenomenal! The international missions team very soon will begin working on next year’s Russia trip.

The local evangelism team has been hard at work putting together an evangelistic plan and calendar for 2012. Our goal is to engage our community with at least one outreach event a month. In 2012, we are going to focus on servant evangelism. Simply put, we are going to serve our community in various ways to practically show our community the love of Christ. We are also looking toward some evangelistic training that will be provided before we start engaging our community in 2012. I’m very excited about some of the projects we will be attempting! We are also planning an evangelistic crusade to coincide with our 250th anniversary. It is going to be unlike any crusade you’ve ever seen, and I’m extremely excited about it. It will be unique, and hopefully the crusade will draw many from our community to our facility to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The discipleship team has been hard at work as well. We have just completed a New Members Class curriculum that we will allow the church to preview in the next month or so. Our goal is to start our first New Members Class in January. It will be a five week course that we will offer quarterly during the Sunday School hour. In the last month our discipleship team has begun addressing our current Sunday School and brainstorming about different ways to make our Sunday School more effective. We believe that Sunday School’s primary goal is to provide discipleship training to our congregation, and we are working to make Sunday School more effective in accomplishing that goal. Our goal is to involve everyone who attends Sunday morning worship in Sunday School. Hopefully over the next year or so you will begin to see different things take place in our Sunday School ministry that will help us to better make disciples of those who attend Big Stevens Creek. Don’t get me wrong, we have a great Sunday School already, and we have some of the most fantastic Bible teachers I have ever served with. However, we do want to evaluate our current Sunday School and make sure we are doing our very best for the glory of God.

You might not see all that is going on behind the scenes, but much work is being done to move Big Stevens Creek toward the mission that God has for us. Continue to pray for our church and its leaders as we strive to lead our church to know Christ and make Him known in our community and around the world.

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

One of my favorite preachers to listen to is Tullian Tchividjian. He is the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. You’re probably familiar with this church. D. James Kennedy was pastor of Coral Ridge for many years. Tchividjian is also the grandson of Billy Graham. He has a powerful testimony of how God pulled him out of a life of rebellion and sin. He is also one of the strongest Gospel preachers I have ever heard. He has the ability to take a passage of Scripture and seamlessly connect that passage to the work of Jesus Christ. It’s something I strive to do in my own preaching.

Tchividjian is releasing a new book in October that I’ve had the opportunity to pre-read. The title of the book is Jesus + Nothing = Everything, and in this book Tchividjian gives a wonderful exposition of the Gospel. He explains that when we understand the Gospel we will also be able to say that all we need is Jesus. Tchividjian wrote this book as a result of a difficult time that he went through during his first year of ministry at Coral Ridge. His leadership was not well accepted by all, and he feared losing his position at the church. It was during his time of trial that he was reminded afresh that at the end of the day all that matters is being accepted by Jesus.

I strongly encourage you to pre-order this book. It will sharpen your understanding of the work Christ has done on your behalf.

Missions Conference Reflections

It was a great week at Big Stevens Creek. Through different missionaries and pastors God reminded us of the lostness that exists all around us in our own community and across the world. Here were some highlights that were significant for me as we went through this week.

1. For the sake of those who have not had a chance to hear the Gospel, do not pursue comfort over obedience.

Pastor Kevin Steele reminded us through God’s Word that we are not called to comfort as Christians. Rather, we are called to obedience, and why should we not desire to obey? Our Lord has given His all for us. Is He not worthy of us giving our all for Him? We heard from three missionaries this week and all of them have given up comforts to reach people who know little to nothing about the God of all creation. When one missionary was asked about his living conditions on the field, he shared about his small, two bedroom apartment where he, his wife, and five small children live. What was really convicting is that they are absolutely content in their living conditions. The missionary families we met this week have made extreme sacrifices so that they might have opportunities to share the Gospel in contexts where the Gospel is not readily available.

While God may not call all of us to serve vocationally in some crazy place half-way around the world, He has called us to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even if you never have the opportunity to serve on a short-term international mission trip, that does not excuse you from making the necessary adjustments in your life to allow the Gospel of Christ to shine through you. I am convinced that we are way too comfortable. We have built kingdoms for ourselves rather than being led by the Holy Spirit to expand the Kingdom of God. We are not called to live for ourselves, we are called to live for the sake of others. I admire the missionaries we had with us this week. Each one of them and their families epitomize what it means to live for the sake of others so that others might hear and experience the Gospel.

2. For the sake of those who have not had a chance to hear the Gospel, be willing to suffer.

It was incredible to have Pastor Nicholai and his wife with us from Russia. When we have been on the mission field with him, I have not had the opportunity to hear much of his story and what it was like to grow up in a communistic society. I so enjoyed hearing his experiences. He did not share as much about his story on Sunday evening, but Saturday night I had the opportunity to sit in our home and listen to him share story after story of communist Russia. He told of friends who had been imprisoned for their faith, and who suffered tremendously at the hands of the communist regime. He told of his own life and the suffering and persecution that he experienced being a believer in a culture dominated by atheism. When communism fell, Pastor Nicholai had the opportunity to migrate to the United States. He could have had a better, easier life. However, he chose to stay with his people and suffer alongside of them as Russia was rebuilt. He did not want to settle for easy when so many of his countrymen needed the hope of the Gospel. I really admire that.

We don’t know much of suffering in the United States. We are able to freely proclaim the Gospel without the fear of persecution. Any persecution we do face is minor in comparison to what Christians around the world face. This leads me to ask myself three questions: 1. Do I praise God enough for the freedom I do have? 2. Do I take advantage of my freedom for the sake of the Gospel? 3. If God required me to suffer for the sake of the Gospel, would I be willing?

3. For the sake of those who have not had a chance to hear the Gospel, make the most of your time.

Kevin reminded us last night to live in light of eternity. When we live in light of eternity, it changes everything, including the way we use our time. We do not spend our time investing in things that will fade. Rather, we spend our time investing in those things that will last for an eternity. Time is slipping away. How are we using it? Before Nicholai shared with us Sunday evening, I had been with him and a group of others in Louisiana. In Louisiana I had the opportunity to hear him share in a couple of different settings. In one setting he talked about the religious freedom that Russia experienced after the fall of communism. Missionaries from the west poured in to the former Soviet Union to make an impact for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even the public school system allowed missionaries to come into their schools to freely share the Gospel among students. Can you imagine that in the United States? However, Nicholai also told us that as years have passed, the government has  clamped down on the freedom that they experienced right after the fall of communism. The government is making it difficult for Protestant Christians to minister in Russia. Nicholai explained that the time for Gospel witness in Russia is fleeting. You and I know that it’s fleeting in the United States as well. The ACLU and other organizations are doing all they can to squash our Gospel witness. Our time to freely proclaim the Gospel is limited. Therefore, let us make the most of our time. While we are able, let’s be willing to give our all for the sake of the Gospel so that the people of our own community might know God loves them. Let’s be willing to step out of our comfort zones and go to places where it is more difficult to share the Gospel.

God is worthy of the praise and worship of every people group on the face of the planet. For the sake of His glory, and for the sake of the 1.8 billion people who have never even heard the Gospel, let us pray that our Gospel witness will grow stronger than ever.

What did God teach you through our Missions Conference?

 

Am I enjoying prayer?

In E.M. Bounds Complete Works on Prayer he says in a chapter titled “Hindrances to Prayer,” “Prayer in the Old Testament is called wrestling. Conflict and skill, strenuous, exhaustive effort are all involved. In the New Testament we have the terms striving, laboring, fervently, fervent, effectual, agony, all indicating intense effort put forth, difficulties overcome.”

How can we enjoy prayer when it is such a struggle? If you have ever prayed you have experienced some of these things that Bounds mentions. I know I have. Prayer does not come naturally to us. We struggle with it. It is wrestling. It is laborious. However, we can’t give up. We’ve got to be persistent in our prayers if we want to experience the power of God working through our prayers. Matthew 7:7-8 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you fill find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”  In these verses Jesus is calling us to persistent prayer,  because when we persist, wrestle, and labor in prayer we will see the hand of God at work.

I believe that it’s through persistence that we learn to enjoy prayer. As we persist, we see God at work, and it encourages us to persist even more in our prayers. Ultimately, even in those times we do not enjoy our prayer lives, our knowledge of what Christ has done for us should bring rejuvenation to even the driest seasons of prayer. Christ suffered the wrath of God in our place so that we might be reconciled to the Father so that we might be able to come before the presence of the God of all creation any time we desire. You have complete access to the Father because of what Christ has done for you. Hebrews 4:14-16 says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

 

Take time to listen.

John Wesley asks a simple question, “Did I give it [the Bible] time to speak to me today?”

Mastering the contents of any book takes time. I love to read, and I try to read a book a week. That’s tough, especially with time obligations to the ministry and my family. I have little time to set aside for reading. And honestly, when I finally get a free moment to read my brain is so overworked and worn out that I either don’t feel like reading, or I have a hard time comprehending what I’m reading. I’ve found myself finishing up a book and then asking myself, “What did I just read?” If I fly through a book without intentionally thinking through it, I miss the point and reading becomes an exercise in futility. In fact, I just finished up a book this morning, and as soon as I finished reading it, I spent about 20 minutes simply going back through each chapter to remind myself again the main points of each chapter. All that to say, reading can be a difficult task.

The Bible can be a difficult read. While the Bible is God’s Word to us, it was originally written in a different time in a different culture to a different people. The language is hard to understand. The customs and traditions are sometimes weird. Reading the Bible is not easy. We can casually spend time in God’s Word each day and then a few hours later completely forget what we read just a few hours before. If you want to hear God speak to you through His Word, you’ve got to be intentional. I’ve found a couple of things to be helpful to me in my reading. First, a good study Bible is an invaluable tool. If I run across a passage that is difficult to read, I can glance down at the study notes and get an idea of what the original author intended when he penned his words. I highly recommend the ESV Study Bible. Second, a note taker’s Bible has been a helpful tool for me. Here’s the one I use. The wide, lined margins allow me plenty of space to jot down thoughts and questions that come to mind as I read. I also have several different Bibles. I have my note taker’s Bible and my ESV Study Bible that I use for my daily Bible reading. I also have a Bible that I use when I am in Bible study or sitting under someone’s preaching that I can write down insights as I hear them. I’ve tried taking notes in a notepad or journal, but I always end up loosing my notepad. For me, it’s easier to take notes in my Bible. That’s just me. You do what works for you.

Obviously, you can study the Bible in many ways, but the point is to be intentional in your study. Do not casually read the Bible like you do the Sunday morning paper. Rather, spend time getting to know the text. Spend time meditating on it, praying through it, asking God to speak to you through His Word. Take time to listen, and you will be amazed at what you discover as you study God’s Word.

Boogity, Boogity Boogity…

This is funny. However, at the same time that I laugh at this, I want to cry.

I’ve watched this video several times today. Every time I watch it I cannot help but laugh. You must give this pastor credit for creativity. His creative prayer  has caught the attention of many. It’s been on local television stations. It’s gotten close to 700,000 hits on Youtube. You can read about it on Fox News. According to Fox News, when asked why he prayed this unforgettable prayer, Nelms said, “I want to get somebody’s attention, so that’s been our desire every time we’ve been up there, to try to make an impact on the fans and give them something they’ll remember, and maybe they’ll go home on a Friday night or a Saturday night and say, ‘Maybe I ought to get up and go to church in the morning.’”

Mission accomplished. He’s gotten the attention of a nation. Perhaps a few got up on Sunday morning and went to church because they wanted to hear more from this creative prayer. However, is this the kind of attention that exalts Christ? Without a doubt, this pastor has made a name for himself, but has he made a name for Christ? What in this prayer exalted the name of Christ and demonstrated His power and glory? Is the purpose of prayer to get the attention of others or to cry to the God of all creation by magnifying His name with the knowledge that He hears our prayers and answers according to His will? Let me remind you of what Jesus said in Matthew 6:5-6, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.” Let us make sure that our prayers are not an attempt to be seen by others. Let us make sure that we pray in such a way that Christ as exalted in our words and God’s will is sought as we bow in the presence of Almighty God.

What lived in you today?

Did the Bible live in you today?  In other words, have you lived out the truth of God’s Word to the best of your ability today? The answer to that question highly depends on your view of the Bible. If you view the Bible as just a book of stories, then it probably has little to no effect on your life. If you view it as an outdated religious book, chances are you are not going to take its teachings seriously. If you view it as myth and propaganda, you will be closed to its truths. If you view it as merely an ancient history book, you will miss its point.

However, if you view the Bible as the life-changing Word of God that is true from Genesis to Revelation then the Bible should change the way you live on a daily basis. It’s not the Bible that changes us; rather it is the God of the Bible that changes us through His Son, Jesus Christ. The overarching purpose of the Bible is to tell us the story of God’s plan to save His people through the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son. When we understand the main story of the Bible, the story of salvation, we are compelled to surrender our lives to the one who gave His life for us, and that changes us. All of a sudden, because of the change made in us through Christ, we desire to obey Him. We desire to live up to the standard that He has set for us in His Word. All of a sudden, we become a people of the book who have a longing to know the God of the Bible and to worship Him with our lives.

Do the truths of God’s Word resonate in your life? Are they lived out in you because of the life-change you have experienced in Jesus Christ? The Psalmist got it right when he said in Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Get Over Yourself

Here’s a good question that will help you examine your heart and your motives: “Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?”

If you are like me, and your probably are, you probably think about yourself a lot. When I woke up this morning, I thought about what I was going to do today, what I was going to eat for breakfast, when I was going to exercise, what I was going to wear, the tasks I was going to complete, and on and on. Most of my thoughts were centered on me. Now, I know each day as you work through the tasks of the day and go through your routine, you have to think of the tasks you have to complete, but even in the most mundane tasks of life, can’t we do them for the glory of God?  Scripture tells us to set our minds on the things above. Paul says in Colossians 3:1, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” In an attempt to refocus my mind from self-centered thoughts to Christ-centered thoughts I have developed the habit of spending time in the Word of God and prayer first thing in the morning. That time of early morning Bible study helps to reorient my thinking from self-centered thinking to Christ-centered thinking. I’m far from perfect in this area, and my natural default is to think much more of myself than I ought. However, by God’s grace, I am growing in the reorientation of my mind a little each day.

We all struggle with self-consciousness, self-pity, and self-justification. If my thoughts are always centered on me, then I can easily become self-conscious. When I am self-conscious, I am constantly thinking about what others are going to think of me. What will others think of the way I look? What will others think of the things I say? What will others think of the choices I make? On the other hand, when my thoughts are set on things above, it really doesn’t matter what others think of me. All that matters is what God thinks of me, and I know what He thinks of me. He accepts me, flaws and all. He loves me in spite of my sins. He does not condemn me, He has forgiven me. The work that Christ has done on my behalf puts me in a right relationship with the God of all creation. That’s good stuff. When my mind is set on things above, I find myself being much less concerned about what others think of me.

When my mind is set on the things above, I’m not as prone to self-pity. Why should I feel sorry for myself? Christ has made me new. He has promised me an abundant and eternal life. I share in the riches of heaven. Everything I have is a gift from God. When I focus on my identity in Christ, it’s hard for me to feel sorry for myself. However, when I fail to focus on my identity in Christ, I very easily fall into the trap of self-pity. In my mind I will say, “No one loves me. No one cares about me. No one wants to be my friend.” You know how it goes. We are good at self-pity.

When my mind is set on things above, I’m also not as prone to self-justification. I don’t have to prove my actions worthy or right because I know that apart from the Holy Spirit guiding my thoughts and my actions, all of my actions are absolutely worthless. I cannot justify myself. Rather, Christ has justified me, and that’s all I need. He has declared me righteous even though I am far from righteous. When my thoughts are centered on myself, I am constantly defending my actions, words, and decisions.

I need to get over myself, and you need to get over yourself. Unfortunately, we live in bondage to ourselves. Because we believe that we are the center of the universe, we are constantly self-conscious, self-pitying, and self-justifying. However, when are minds are set on Christ and understanding our identity in Him, we are absolutely free from ourselves and free to be who God has created us to be. If you struggle with an over inflated infatuation with yourself (and we all do) let me encourage you to run to Christ. Find your identity not in who you are, but in who He is. When we see ourselves for who we are in Christ it completely transforms the way we look at ourselves, and we see our need to be self-conscious, self-pitying, and self-justifying drastically diminish. Find your identity in Christ!

 

Who is your master?

John Wesley asks, “Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?”

Perhaps the better question is, “Am I a slave to anything other than Christ?” If Christ is not at the center of our lives, it is easy to fall into the hands of another master. On Wednesday nights, we’ve been studying the book of 1 Corinthians. For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been studying 1 Corinthians 7. It’s an interesting passage of Scripture in which Paul elevates the gift of celibacy as a viable option for believers. Now, I’m not going to get into all the details of this passage in this blog post, because that’s not the point of this post, but Paul does say something interesting in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31:

“This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”

Staci and I have been married for over three years now, and not for one day during our marriage have I lived as if I have no wife. Every morning, when I wake up, and look across the bed and see Staci, I am reminded that I have a wife. It is impossible for me to live as if she is not my wife. Does Paul really intend for us to live as if our spouses do not exist? I don’t think our spouses would take too kindly to us starting to ignore them. So, what does Paul mean in these verses?

I think it’s very simple. We realize that the time is short. Christ is returning soon, and since He is returning soon we must make the most of the time we have on this earth for the sake of the Gospel. Much work is to be done for the Kingdom of God. Therefore, we should not be controlled by anything but Christ. If we are controlled by anything but Christ our work will be hindered. Therefore, Paul is not instructing us to start ignoring our spouses, but he is warning us not be controlled by our spouses. Rather, we are simply to be controlled by Christ. And, you and I know that when we are controlled by Christ it revolutionizes our marriages anyways.

Anything that we allow to control us is our master. Our master can be our spouse, our children, our jobs, our hobbies, or our dress. I think that was at the heart of what John Wesley was getting to when he posed this question. We are to have one master. We are slaves to Christ. We allow Him to control us and nothing else. What controls you? What do you allow to have control over your life? If you are serving anything other than Christ you have the wrong master.