Comparisons, Impossible Standards, and Good News

I have a neighbor with a perfect lawn, it's immaculate.  He has beautiful flowers, precisely trimmed trees and shrubs, deep green fluffy grass, and professional landscaping.  Compare to mine where the grass is kinda green, I trim my trees so I don't have to duck when cutting the grass, I have beautiful yellow flowers called dandelions, and I haven't changed my mulch since moving in over 3 years ago.  Sometimes I feel like he's judging me on a consistent basis because he spends so much time on his yard.  Sometimes I look at his yard and think how it would be pretty neat to have such a nice lawn...then I pull in my garage, go in the house, and forget all about it.


Someone once said to me they wish they could connect with God in worship like I do, that they wanted to be like me one day.  While I was flattered for a moment I let them know I don't want them to desire that.  I'm a sinner.  I'm broken and my heart is wretched.  My motives aren't always pure and I struggle with a multitude of sins.  My only hope is I rely on my salvation in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.  I'm not worthy to lead God's people in worship of Him and it's only by His grace that He allows me to do this.  No, I'm not a person you want to be like.  I am not someone you want to strive to be.  You can do better.  Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Robert Cray has been a huge influence on my playing style, Iwant to play guitar like him when I grow up

Your pastor, your worship leader, even your greatest human heroes are flawed.  Every minister of
your church staff, every deacon, every elder, every Sunday school teacher are sinners, who struggle with sin, and without daily relying on the grace of God would be no more than a blind person blundering about a 4 walled room with no doors or windows desperately trying to escape.  Without Jesus we would all be leading our churches into an aimless future with no vision or direction.

I will let you down.  Your pastor will let you down.  Your leaders will let you down.  I and every person will fail you, disappoint you, and possibly cause you undue hurt.  Jesus Christ should be our standard.  Jesus Christ should be our goal.  Jesus, and Jesus alone, should be the only standard to try to compare ourselves to. 

Matthew 5:46-48 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers,[i] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

So, Jesus just set the standard of what God's expectations are of us....to be perfect. I say with 100% certainty you have already failed to meet that standard.  Perfect is the standard we must achieve to be in God's presence.  Perfect is the standard we need to spend eternity with God and avoid being separated from Him for eternity.  That's such depressing news!  Can you imagine the look on people's faces when Jesus said these words on the sermon on the mount?  If I worked hard enough and put in enough time I could get my yard looking just as good as my neighbors and we can work hard enough to look like the people we may achieve to be like, however, no matter how hard we try I nor you will ever be perfect.  

God is fully aware it's depressing news and He doesn't apologize for it either.  Instead, God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect sacrifice for sin.  Our eternal, sinless God stepped out of heaven, lived a sinless life, taught and revealed more about Himself than any other time in history, then willingly laid His life down on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.  When we accept the sacrifice of Jesus God no longer sees our sin but sees the perfection of Jesus Christ.  His grace covers every sin.  Our God is just and in His holiness and righteousness sin must be accounted for but our God is also a God of grace and mercy who provided the answer.  In place of depressing news we now have the good news, we have the Gospel!

Keep your eyes on Jesus.  Keep His sacrifice in forefront of your mind.

In Court, Bad Advice, and Clear Expectations

If you remember back in January I got pulled over for the first time in my adult life and got my first speeding ticket.  This past week I went to court for my speeding ticket.  One of my biggest observations I made was there are a lot of innocent people lined up with me.

I had the most contact with a young man in front of me who was pulled over for running a red light.
 The officer who pulled him over gave him a warning for running the light but gave him a citation for having his window tint too dark.  The officer let him know if he corrected the issue he could get his ticket dismissed.

As I was talking with this young man he was using some very flavorful language and was very upset by being there.  As I talked with him and got to know him I found he worked at Ford making hoods for SUV's.  When I shared with him I was a pastor he was surprised.  His eyes got big and his language cleaned up immediately and all of a sudden became very pious.  I've always found it funny when people have that kind of response when I tell them about what I do.

When I began to talk about what I was there for he told me to contest it because I'll probably get out of it.  That wasn't my plan because like I said a few weeks ago I knew I was guilty and I needed to pay the fine.  But what bothered me is he followed some advice he was given from a friend.  His friend told him if he sold his car he would get out of the ticket because they can't give you a charge on a car you don't own.  I offered him some pastoral advice and I didn't think that was right, however, he said his friend sold his car and bought a new one every time he got a ticket and it worked!

Let's just say he was very disappointed when he found out it doesn't work that way.  He still had to pay the fine even though he followed his friends advice exactly.  His expectations didn't turn out the way he wanted nor were they realistic.

Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."

This young man was given the clear expectation of how to get his charge dismissed.  Just correct the window tint.  Jesus gave us clear expectations too.  He's the only way to reconcile our sins with God's.  As christians we know that.  Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life.  Jesus is not a way, a truth, and a life.  He didn't leave that option open for us, Jesus was very clear with His message.  We live in a culture where people are searching for answers and there are many competing voices telling them to follow this person, do these things, and find it within yourself to improve your life, make you happy, and bring you peace none of which point to Jesus.  Where the church can fail is when we remain silent or believe our actions are enough to draw people to Christ.

One of the many ways to gauge the depth and commitment to Christ is to think about how passionate are you about verbally sharing Christ with others.  I know some Christians who have been followers of Christ for over 50 years, always wear suits and tie to church, and know about 800 memory verses yet have never shared the wondrous good news of Christ with anyone.  I have also seen a gang member who came to know Christ while in prison who is covered in tattoos, wears shorts and a t-shirt to church, and can quote about 2 cliche Bible verses yet 6 months out of prison had led over 10 people to the foot of the cross.

Love is the motivation for telling the Gospel.  The expectations the young man had about his ticket were based off false hope.  The expectations many have in the world to make them right with God are also based off false hope.  If we truly believe that reconciling with God can only come through Jesus Christ and we truly believe that not being reconciled with God means an eternity of separation from Him in hell why would we not be passionate and excited about telling people about Jesus Christ.  Many of us don't tell because many of us truly have a love problem.

Each week we gather for communion.  Communion is proclaiming the Lord's death.  It's a moment for remembering and also a moment for teaching.  People can learn about Christ through the simplicity of the bread, representing the body of Christ, and the wine, representing the blood of Christ.  His death is the only atonement for our sins.  I am thankful God did not withhold this information for us or tell us something contrary to what's real to give us false hope but clearly communicated what His expectations are and exactly what we need to do.  Surrender to Jesus, follow Him, and never look back.  Be thankful for that this week.

Aging, Death, and Unity in Battle

I know I don't have too much room to talk about this but I feel like I'm getting old.  A few weeks ago I went to the doctor to get my eyes checked.  When asked if anything has changed with my vision I let her know I was seeing a blur or shadow sometimes and it was uncomfortable.  "That's easy", she said, "You've developed an astigmatism, it's just part of getting older."  That's reassuring right?  When I was in highschool we did spring workouts and if I was lazy all winter break I would be a little sore the next day, however, now when I miss a week of working out I'm sore at least 4 days.  I've started having to watch my cholesterol and taking weird pills like fish oil and B complex.

Getting older is just a part of life.  Even though I still don't think about it much I'm closer to death now than I've ever been and I'm showing signs of aging.  Truthfully the thought of dying doesn't bother me to terribly much because I know when I die I will enter into eternity with my Creator and Lord Jesus Christ.  

These pleasant thoughts are not shared for a church dying though.  When a church goes there is no eternity in paradise, no being ushered through the gates of glory, no lasting legacy.  A church that is dead sits as an empty forgotten building long forgotten and irrelevant to the people passing by.  Eternity in heaven is for people, for souls, not for buildings, institutions, or programs.  Just like how I'm showing some subtle signs of aging so can a church.  Here are some reflections to think about when it comes to your community taken from an article I read last week and questions to evaluate your church.

Here are 7 subtle signs your church is dying:

• Passion is waning

• Are we on fire for Jesus Christ?
• Are we on fire for God's heart?
• Are we actively concerned for reaching the lost?  Notice the word actively.  Saying we're concerned for the lost but doing nothing about it is a false concern.  We must be doing something and moving forward!
• Innovation is rare
• When was the last time we actually made real changes and did something truly new?
• If you can name something was it a significant change or something just surface level
• In the case of our church getting a sound system isn't innovation, it was a much needed surface level change.  Surface level changes won't win people to Jesus.
• Management has replaced leadership
• When you start managing you may stop building anything of value
• Instead you simply manage what you've already built
• Is our church thinking of ways to actively reach people and ways to actively disciple believers in the church or is our church more focused on paying bills, attendance numbers, dress code, handbooks and procedures?
• Are we a church full of leaders or a church full of managers?
• Maintenance trumps mission
• Is maintaining the organization we've built more important than the mission that got us started in the first place?
• When maintenance trumps mission, the end is near.
• Is the church we were 20 years ago still the church we're trying to maintain today?
• Your church has become fixated on being...YOUR church
• In scripture the church is never identified as belonging to anyone but Jesus Christ, He is the foundation
• If we're actually focused on the mission long term we much be constantly prepared to reinvent to remain relevant to our community
• A church life cycle is around 10-15 years, think again, how different is our church.
• Do we get upset, bicker, complain, gossip, and cause division when leadership begins to make changes.
• How much do we value other cultures other than our own?
• Younger leaders are criticized
• Young leaders bring innovation, they bring change.  Young leaders can be a catalyst for growth if they're encouraged and allowed to focus on the mission.
• Dying churches resist them, dismiss them, and ridicule them
• Does our church resist young leaders?  Do we drive them off and make them feel unwelcome?  Do we ridicule them in our hearts and private conversations?
• Your relationship with God has gone flat
• Are we a vibrant church with vibrant faith or are we more vibrant about keeping things the same?
• How many people have made a decision to follow Jesus in the past 10 years?  This is a great indicator to the health of church in regard to it's relationship with God.

At our church we promised transparency and open communication as we have gone through a consultation process with Healthy Growing Churches.  Many in our church have not felt that way and we must ask forgiveness if we have come across as secretive or aloof.  If we were to read through our HGC assessment then dig through our file cabinets and find an assessment our church did over a decade ago our church meets all 7 signs of a dying church.  That means that over a decade we have been in the process of dying.  If you were in our service where HGC presented it's findings they said we have 1 year, 2 if we're lucky, to totally turn this church into a totally different church before we reach the point of no return for revitalizing this church.  Our church is not alone in this, in fact 90% of churches in the United States are in this same boat.

That may sound daunting and hopeless but here's some good news.  Those assessments measure our past as a church, did you get that, our past.  It does not assess our future.  We serve a great God!  We serve a God who intimately knows every detail of what we're going through as a church.  We serve a God of miracles who can do wondrous things!  There is no shame in fully owning our dysfunction, naming it, confessing it, and addressing these issues head on!

Matthew 16:13-18 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  

Jesus says the "gates of hell" will not prevail!  Unless you're a super clumsy person I can say with certainty you've never been attacked by a gate!  Gates can't win a battle, they can only prevent forward progress.  The gates of hell are standing in front of our church ready to be broken through because hell has already been defeated!!!  For too long we have sat in our cushy pews with our noses in the air staring at those gates looming without taking action or refusing to acknowledge them.  We are both actively and passively being defeated by an enemy who has already been defeated!

It's time to march together in unity as a church.  Every age, every gender, every economic class, and every race.  Marching arm in arm and tearing that crumbling excuse for a barrier down.  We would march valuing each other and placing equal value on our respective cultures.

This is going to be uncomfortable for some, some of you may downright think you hate it.  For some of you it's going to bring out the worst and ugly parts of you but that's okay because God can deal with that if you'll confess it and allow Him to work.  For some of you it's going to be encouraging, for some of you it's going to light a fire under you, for some of you God is going to do great things through you and if we let God do great things through each one of us individually God will do great things in our church and if God does great things through our church He's going to do great things through our community and if God does great things through our community He's going to do great things through our city and if He does great things through our city He's going to do great things through our state and if He does great things through our state he's going to do great things through our country and if He does great things through our country He's going to do great things to our world!  IF we allow Him to work through us.

Each week we take communion with the bread representing the body of Christ and the cup of juice representing the blood of Christ that was spilled for us.  We remember His death that paid the penalty for our sin, reconciled us with God, and established His church.  We remember how our Lord got uncomfortable, went through terrible suffering, and died for the forgiveness of our sin.  Without His sacrifice we wouldn't have the church, the church HE paid for and He alone owns. In that moment our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did something innovative and new, He did something He never experienced before, He experienced the weight of sin, guilt, and shame for the first time and then He died.  Not just my sin, guilt, and shame but all of it, everyone's, past present and future!

Are we going to be a place where we come to have an experience that caters to us, our preferences, and is at our beck and call to do what we say?  A place where we defiantly declare to leadership "it's my way or the highway" or "it's my way or I'm taking my money someplace else"?Then we need to cease being a church and become a “feel good morals club.”  Or are we going to be a CHURCH!  A church that stands up and conquers the gates of hell to see this community come to know Christ in a mighty way.  Reflect on that this week personally and think about how you can contribute to what Jesus bought with a price and totally belongs to Him.  I hope our congregation chooses to be a Church and I hope your congregation chooses to be a Church as well.  Let's all allow God to go great things through us for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Glory of God alone!