South Asia Trip

Exciting things happening at North Church!!!  
January 3-13, we will be sending a team to S. Asia in partnership with Freshwater Church in Bolivar, MO.  The team will consist of 7 individuals (3-NC, 4-FW). 

The goals of the trip will be the following:

• A vision trip to see how NC can further partner and support the believers and churches there
• To encourage and train the national church planter and his guys
• To encourage and disciple believers within the 5 church-plants and 2 widow colonies
• To help break new ground through prayer, evangelism and story-telling

How you can get involved:

1.  PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!

• Team unity with 2 churches going
• Effective team training meetings as we are planning and preparing
• Reception of visas before we leave
• Our national church planing partner and his family - His uncle passed away Sunday and the funeral is Wednesday.  
• Raising funds - $2000 per person

2. EAT AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO EAT!

Helfer's Pastries and Deli Cafe - giving 10% of every bill to our team when you mention North Church.   Now until Jan 4.

Helfer’s bakes amazing Christmas cookies, pastries, and cakes that would be perfect for your office or Christmas party. You can also stop into the deli for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  M-F 6am-6:30pm, Sat 6am-6pm.

Helfer's is located on the corner of St. Ferdinand/Graham and Washington/Charbonier in Florissant. (380 St. Ferdinand St.).

Frontenac Grill - giving 15% of every bill to our team on DEC 29 only for lunch or dinner.

The Frontenac Grill is a new fine dining restaurant at S Lindbergh and Conway Road (731 South Lindbergh Blvd), owned by the Talayna family. They serve prime steaks, pasta and Talayna’s famous pizza in four different styles. This would be a perfect time for a client lunch or holiday dinner with your family.

Please make a reservation for lunch or dinner by calling 314-569-4115 and mention India. Print out this ticket to present to your server to ensure your bill will count towards our team.

3. GIVE FINANCIALLY!

Online donations can be made by clicking here.  Or you can make a check out to "North Church" and mail it to 49 Meditation Way Ct. Florissant, MO 63031.  All gifts are tax-deductible and must be received by Dec 26.

Greed, Baseball and Albert Pujols

I put up a tweet today that simply said "Greed..." I am not sure if greed was a factor in Albert's decision to leave St. Louis to go play for the Angels. I suspect that it was at least some sort of factor, but I do not know him personally. I don't want to make a judgment about Albert, at least I do not intend to.

Ultimately greed is bad and it is in everyone of our hearts. This Pujols situation is a platform to expose the greed that is in our culture. Again, I do not intend to label Albert as greedy, there may have been other circumstances in play that I am not aware of. Even if Albert was completely motivated by greed, the conversation of greed in our culture does not start or end with Albert Pujols. It is present with or without a $260,000,000 contract to play baseball.

Many have said, "If someone offered you more money to move, you would move." But that does not make it right. It just means that I might be influenced by greed or pride or the need to be respected through money. If I am influenced by those things then I am wrong and have sin in my life. We all have sin in our lives.

This is present everywhere. According to Forbe's magazine, in a 12 month period Johnny Depp made $75,000,000. Ben Stiller made $53,000,000. Tom Hanks made $45,000,000. That is just silly.

Meanwhile, take a look at the price of a movie ticket. Take a look at the escalation of baseball ticket prices.

What I object to is calling pride and greed, ambition and business. Pride and greed are sins and they are both present in us all and should not be celebrated. They should be identified and rooted out of us.

The whole process and this whole blog post serve to take us to the gospel. Proving once again, that we are filled with sin and in need of redemption. Forgiveness of sin and complete forgiveness and redemption is offered through Jesus Christ.

The Incarnation

Join us starting Sunday December 4 as we embark on a study examining the coming of Jesus Christ. We have title this series of worship experiences "The Incarnation" because we want to focus in on a beautifully artful theology that will bring us to place of wonder that God would leave perfectly rhythmic heaven to take on a breakable body and live among people who will abandon, lie and torture. All of this for the sake of becoming our hero.

This is the incarnation...God sending Jesus into the world as an absolute guarantee that he will do everything he has ever promised he would do.

Steadfast Love

One of my favorite phrases in all of scripture is "Steadfast Love". It is found mostly in the Psalms, which are mostly meditations and poetry of men who deeply experienced the love of God.

At first notion, steadfast love speaks of the fact that no matter what we do, God will always love us. I am reminded of this type of steadfast in the way I love my kids.Many times I have told them that I will always love them no matter what. I say this frequently in the early ages so that when the real hard stuff happens as they get older, the idea that I love them not matter what is pressed deep into them and they never doubt that I love them.

But there is a second notion with this phrase that I want to get you to think about. I pray that this notion is pressed deep into your soul so that you will never forget it.

The God of the universe loves you with a steadfast love. That means that not only will his love never change based on your actions; but it also means that it will never HAVE to change to completely satisfy your soul.

This is a very impractical notion. It does not make in sense in the light of life. If God loves me with this sort of love that does not need to change in order for me to be completely satisfied, then why is my heart restless, why do want for things?

The simple answer is that we are so easily distracted. As C.S. Lewis puts it, "a child go on making mud pies in the slums because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea."

A.W. Tozer says, "God wills that we should push on into his presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held, it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day."

God has been pressing in on me much lately to pray with passion and fervor for those he has connected my heart to, tonight I pray this for you, "God would you give us a burning heart for you? Show us the steadfastness of your love. Remove distraction of the things that this world offers that will pass away. Capture our imaginations with the wonder and beauty of you. Give us fire to rest in you."

Thank you for reading and know that I love you but God loves you perfectly and completely and with a steadfast love.

I am thinking a lot lately about suffering. I am thinking about it even more as 9-11 approaches. I remember being asked about God's role in it. I am not sure of God's role in it. I have ideas but they are flawed and my ability to communicate those ideas is even more flawed.

Romans 11:33-34 puts us in our place in this regard. What I do know is that God loves us. He loves us more than we can ever know. He loves us with a redeeming love that never changes and does not need to change to bring us to complete fulfillment.

I want you to click on this link. The voice you hear of the preacher here is a man who is a pastor in Dallas who has brain cancer and doctors say the average life expectancy of man his age with stage of cancer is 2-3 years. The song you here mixed in in was written by a man whose best friend died in an accident.

I pray that God gets your attention. I pray that you know the beauty of a God who is so magnificent and satisfying that his glory eclipses even the greatest of tragedies.

Thanks for reading.

Rik

A Lesson From Job

Take a minute to read Job 38:1-13

Know that God is in charge. Know that God knows what is best. Know that God is moving in your life to make you aware that he is in charge and can do what he wants. Know that God is in charge and loves you more than you can ever understand.

Know that God is faithful and does not forget or lead his people. Know that God is bringing you to a place where every longing that you have ever had will be fulfilled in a deeper way than you could ever imagine.

Know that God is not trying to take from you, he is trying to give to you. Know that God is smarter than you and knows how to give gifts to you. Know that any joy that you might experience on this planet is a mere shadow to what is to come for those who love him.

Know that the time you spend here in the body you currently occupy is less than the smallest amount of time you can think of. Know that pain is temporary for the one who places hope in Christ. Know that pain is a tool in the hand of God.

Know that I love you, but God loves you more and sent his son to be brutally abused and abandoned so that full and complete redemption could be yours.

Thanks for reading. I love you and I long to pray for you.

Rik

A Clear and Present Battle

Fact: There is currently a high level of spiritual battle and restlessness present within many that I am close to and those close to those I am close to.

I have heard many statements like these lately, "I feel like I am under attack", "I need you to pray for me" and other general thoughts about knowing truths about God, but believing lies about myself or God's plan for me. I could get more specific, but for the sake of the public nature of this forum, we will leave it there. The point is that we all are in desperate need of God to minister peace, love and perspective to our souls.

When I say minister, I mean he is pouring into us from and unending fountain the things that we lack. Like a pitcher pouring into an empty glass, we are in need of God to minister to our souls. I use the word soul to convey a depth way below the surface; so deep that it impacts our view of every situation in our lives.

I am praying this for many. I am praying it for specific people and I am praying it for general people. By that I mean people who have needs that I am not aware of. If this is you, please email me here rik@northchurchstl.com. God is pressing in on my spirit with an absolute need to do spiritual battle, please email me. God is leading me to pray for you.

God has ministered his peace to me through his word lately with these scriptures, perhaps they may be of some help to you now.

Psalms 37
Matthew 11:28-30
Psalms 130
Romans 11:33-36
Philippians 4:4-9
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
James 1:12
Psalm 20:6-7
Philippians 1:6

I leave you with a little something I wrote during an especially great time with God:
Hope is found in you, so I endure.
Peace is given by you, so I rest.
Grace is found in you, so I am free.
Mercy is given by you, so I breathe.

You have created meekness in me, so I look at your dealings with me and declare to to be good.
You have created steadfastness in me, so I see your suffering son and that image upholds my spirit.

Thanks for reading and may your soul find rest today in the Steadfast Love of God.

Jesus Inoculation

I was listening to Matt Chandler (Pastor of The Village Church in Dallas) the other day and he said this, "People have enough of Jesus to be inoculated to the whole of him."

To be inoculated is to have a disease introduced into your system for the purpose of creating a resistance to that disease.

What he is getting at is that we have little doses of Jesus and the result is that we never get the whole of Jesus. To have a little Jesus and not the whole of him is to not have him at all. Jesus calls us to take up our cross (daily make a decision to die to self and self born desires) and follow him.

Lessons from the season

We have been talking a lot in recent days about our meeting location for North Church. In Elders meetings, in community groups, in text messages from one member to another and other venues there has been much conversation about where we will be.

I have included images of the different buildings that we have been in from the start of NC to the right. Think about God's provision as you read the rest of this post.

Two things that really stand out to me that make this a season of nearness to God. First, we are learning what the church is and what it is not. The church is people not a particular building or a group of people that gather in a particular place at a particular time. The church is God's people living on mission together.

The church is much more than just that one simple statement, in fact entire books have been written about the church and it is not something that can be encapsulated with that one simple statement (God's people living on mission together). But that is one very key element to what the church is. It is a key element that we are seeing come to life in this season of our church.

The second thing that stands out is a truth that God taught me years ago and is reinforcing and reminding me now in this season. It is that God brings circumstances into our lives that make us want to seek Him for the answer. Questions like, should I take this job, should I get married, should I buy this car are circumstances that make us seek God. Events like the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, losing a job or difficulties in a marriage also drive us to get closer to God.

In this season in our church, I have had countless conversations with NC people and others who care about NC that have been praying and talking and seeking God for guidance on our next step and laying down stress and anxiety.

In our minds, our circumstances or situations are what we are consumed with, but deeper more surrendered relationship is the product of our seeking God for our circumstances.

So continue to pray and live on mission together.

Thanks for reading!

Rik

"He cares for you"

If you are or have been the parent of a toddler, you know how frustrating and long the bedtime routine can be. The child does everything to stall and comes up with every excuse as to why it's not time for bed ("daddy I have to go potty," "daddy we forgot to brush my teeth," "daddy we have to read a book," "daddy I didn't kiss mommy," "daddy I need a drink," "daddy I need to tuck my baby in" and on and on...).  All the while, the things you have to do once you get that child to bed is a list too long to write.  It's crazy the reality that a child TRULY doesn't have a care in the world. 

Tonight as I watched Mikail play and play and play, enjoying every last moment until she fell asleep, it hit me that she really has NO CLUE how much I absolutely love her.  She has NO CLUE how much I want her to learn obedience and follow Jesus with her life.  She has NO CLUE how hard I pray for her, how much I sacrifice for her, how much money I spend on her, how much I stress myself out over her, how much I worry about her growing up in this difficult world, how much I think about and pray for her husband (Lord willing), how much I desire her to be successful, how much I long for her to have good friendships and how much it breaks my heart when she disobeys and makes poor decisions.  I care for her SO SO SO much and while she might have a glimpse of that reality and know it to a small degree, she really has NO CLUE in comparison to the depth of my true care for her. 

1 Peter 5:7 says, "cast all your anxieties on him, because HE CARES FOR YOU!"

Much like my daughter, we are CLUELESS as to the infinite depth of our Savior's loving care for us.  While we "play around" in life, our cares and burdens don't even come close to comparing with the Lord's cares and burdens for us.  May we be reminded of this today and run to him as often as we can knowing his loving arms are so much bigger and stronger than we even know or imagine.

Why???  Because...HE CARES FOR YOU!

Thanks for reading,
Dave

Are you losing a battle you don't realize you're fighting?

We are under attack!  Whether you realize it or not, the enemy is working overtime to destroy your faith and efforts to live out the gospel (John 10:10).  Some of you have recently begun walking with the Lord in a depth of obedience that hasn't happened in a long time, and the enemy is ticked about it.  

A friend of mine shared the following thought with me recently:

"The greatest like in America is that Satan doesn't exist.  We are losing a game we don't even realize we're playing."

As to whether or not you are presently losing, I cannot answer.  But one thing I do know, if you are a child of God, you have the victory.  While you might presently be living in defeat, under the attack of the enemy, there will come a day when the devil's authority will cease and he will suffer under the wrath of God forever (Matt. 25:41).

Eph. 6:10-20 is an amazing passage that reminds us of the battle we fight everyday and the strength and means by which we can walk in victory.  We as Christians take this battle way to lightly, more accurately, we fail to realize we are even in a battle...going about our day as if it's just another day, while in the spiritual realms all hell is breaking loose for your soul. 


"We cannot know what prayer is for until we know that life is war." - John Piper

This is what the apostle Paul is screaming at us in Eph. 6:18
"praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints."

Quit going through life as if it's just another day.  Quit buying into the lie that Satan doesn't exist.  You might think you don't really believe that lie, but look at how you live.  Are you putting on your armor each day?  Are you "keeping alert"?  Are you living in an urgency of prayer as if your life really depends on it?  Most of us don't, and we need to repent and start fighting in the Name of Jesus against the schemes of the enemy on our life, family and church. 


1 Tim. 6:12
"Fight the good fight of faith.  Take hold of eternal life to which you were called."

Fighting with you and for you,
Dave

Grace Compels

Thinking a lot in the past few days about the power of grace. Read Luke 7:35-39. Read Luke 10:30-37. As you do look for the grace of God.

Compel is a word that I have studied. Some of the definitions of the word I have found are:
-to force to submit.
-to have a powerful irresistible effect.
-to influence.

Many times we look upon grace as a lyric to a song or just something that we are grateful that Jesus was filed with and gave us on the cross. But when we look at grace in it's pure sense, we see it as a force, we are compelled to action.

I am praying today that God would give me a more pure view of grace. I am praying that this view would compel me to action, holiness and mission. I am praying the same for those who read this.

Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow, I will be preaching these scriptures as we look at the old hymn "Solid Rock" These are wonderful verse to write down, memorize and meditate on. I thought it would be good for anyone who is interested to read through them and even pray through them prior to the message tomorrow.

Psalm 20:7
Matt 7:24-27
Proverbs 3:5-6
Acts 4:12
John 14:6
2 Cor 5:21
Hebrews 6:19
Lam 3:21-23
Matthew 26:28
Eph 1:7
Heb 9:22
Isaiah 61:10
Philippians 3:9

Thanks for reading!

The King's Speech.

I finally watched this film tonight. What a beautiful statement. We have the main character who is a broken man (both in is stammering and in his failed search for love and affirmation from his family).

Because of his awareness of his brokenness he shrinks from the purpose of his life and uses his brokenness as a vessel to run from his purpose. He lacks faith, he is aware deep in his consciousness of his purpose but when he gets close to probing the depth of his consciousness to bring it to the surface, his lack of faith wins and he hides.

But the heroes of the film that lead to the redemption of this great man enter to pour security and faith into him. The obvious hero is the therapist. He forces the man to deal with the root of the problem rather than changing the surface behavior that everyone can see. It is that fact that leads the man to his ultimate fulfilled purpose.

The less obvious hero is the wife. She is the truest hero in my eyes. I say that, probably because I see so much of my bride in her. She nurtures and unconditionally believes in her man. The ferocity of her devotion to him will not allow him to hide in his brokenness. She firmly and gently nudges him to his purpose. God has given me such a bride and helper. For that I cannot speak words thankful enough to my God for her.

I have prayed a prayer tonight that those who read this and those to whom God has called me to shepherd and those whom I interact with, will be granted someone to pour courage into them as I have had and as George VI has had. And that courage would spur you on to the realization of purpose and mission in this life which ultimately leads to perfectly intense contentment in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks for reading and God bless you today.

C S Lewis Song

I was introduced to the music of Brook Fraser a few weeks ago and I stumbled upon the C S Lewis Song. It is a great song with two simple prepositions in the chorus that carry so much weight that I am compelled to write this blog post about them.

The first is, "Speak to me in the light of the dawn, mercy comes WITH the morning." This lyric, at first or superficial glance, can be cliche. Many songs have been written and poetry penned with something about God's mercy being new every morning or the sunrise reminding us a the new mercy we have everyday. As we see a sunrise or experience a new day, God refreshes us. There is truth in this idea and it is also Biblical. (Lamentations 3:22,23)

But I want to point out a simple use of the word, "with". There is an idea born with this word. It is a beautiful idea that the new mercies of the Lord come even without our asking or knowledge of needing them.

Each new day comes WITH new mercies. They are a pair, they cannot seperate. So whatever yesterday brought to you, today mercy comes WITH the morning, just like fries come with your number three value meal.

The second preposition comes in the chorus as well. She writes, "I wait for hope to come FOR me." Hope, in a spiritual context, is not crossing your fingers and hoping for something to happen. It is a future reality, a confident expectation of something that is to come.

Tonight, I will leave work and go get Cooper and take him to baseball practice and then take him to the Cardinal baseball game. Cooper is at home right now waiting his dad to come FOR him.

Take a listen to the song and breath in deep the mercy that is yours and the hope that is yours.

Thanks for reading

Preaching to yourself

My mind in the last few weeks and months has taken me to a notion of my need to hunger for God and take responsibility for cultivating my relationship with him. Scripture is clear that this is the case.

While reading Psalm 42 this morning, I had this thought. Read the Psalm with this in mind: David is preaching to himself. Many, many times in our lives our hearts or spiritual selves are dark, dry and difficult. It is in those times that we must fight. It is in those times that we must remind ourselves of the Steadfastness of the love our God.

So, as you go today, preach the gospel to yourself.

From The Pursuit of God

I am rereading A.W. Tozer's classic The pursuit of God. I reread my favorites once a year or so and this is one of them. Sometimes I can't get past a chapter or a page because of it's depth and weight. The second chapter is one I can't quit reading. The following few paragraphs are taken from it. The chapter is titled, "The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing".

Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He first prepared for him by creating a world of useful and pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the Genesis account of the creation these are called simply “things.” They were made for man’s uses, but they were meant always to be external to the man and subservient to him. In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Within him was God; without, a thousand gifts which God had showered upon him.

But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul.

Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and “things” were allowed to enter. Within the human heart “things” have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.

Ben's Story

Ben Somers is a friend of mine. I have known his family for at least 15 years. For many of those 15 years we have been praying for Ben. His father and I were part of a four person prayer group that met weekly for 3 years. Much of our prayer time was spent focusing on Ben.

After that prayer group stopped meeting, I became the youth pastor to Ben's brother Chad. Chad and I got close and I began discipling him. Much of our time was focused on prayer for Ben and what God was teaching Chad through difficult times with his brother.

This is Ben's Story.

Spotting Idols in your heart

From Gospel in Life by Tim Keller, pgs 43 & 44:

Religious Repentance vs. Gospel Repentance

Last Sunday we looked at 3 different ways to live:

1. Religion makes law and moral obedience a means of salvation

2. Irreligion makes the individual a law to him or herself

3. Gospel takes the law of God so seriously that Jesus paid the penalty of disobedience, so we can be saved by sheer grace.

It's very easy to think you are living a gospel centered life all the while you are really living a life of religion or irreligion -- both of which are attempts at making yourself your own God.

The answer is repentance!!!  But how do you know if you are even repenting properly?  Maybe these will help. 

Religious Repentance

  Goal is to keep God happy  

Gospel Repentance

  Goal is to experience eternal joy in Christ

  

Religious Repentance

  Sorry for sin b/c of consequences 

Gospel Repentance 

  Sorry for sin b/c it breaks God’s heart 

Religious Repentance

  Way to pay the price for our own sin 

Gospel Repentance

  Jesus suffered and paid the price for our sin

Religious Repentance

  Earn our forgiveness with our repentance 

Gospel Repentance

  Just receive it

Religious Repentance

  Disappoints b/c your counting on your own morality

Gospel Repentance

  Brings freedom b/c Christ always loves us

Gospel in Life (Part 2) :: Heart - Three Ways to Live

From Exodus 14

Exodus 14:13

This verse tells you to hold still and watch the salvation of the Lord. Take time right now to stop and look at the salvation of the Lord.

The context of this verse is that the people have been in slavery under Egypt and they were let go by the Pharaoh who was now chasing them to put them back into slavery. They were nervous and scared and said that it would have been better to be slaves than to die in the wilderness. In the midst of the the pressure of circumstances God tells them to stop and watch your salvation happen in front of your eyes.

He says, "You are about to witness me defeat your enemy." He says, "You will never see your enemy again."

Exodus 14:14

The lord is fighting for you. Stop looking at the enemy. That is direction for you. Stop looking at what you see as your enemy, be quiet and watch the Lord fight for you.

Exodus 14:15

Just go forward.

Gospel in Life (Part 1) :: City - The World That is

Meditations on Psalm 37:11

11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Meek is a word that is totally misunderstood in our culture. Meekness has developed this connotation that there is weakness involved or some sort of willingness to be walked over.

Here in this context, it simply means full awareness of our need and inability. Other scriptures translate this as humble.

I think about Mia, my 5 year old, and how she wants nothing to do with a swimming pool unless I am with her or how she wants nothing to do with going to our basement unless her big brother goes with her. It is not so much about fear of the pool or the basement as much as it is about trust in her dad and big brother. She is completely at peace when we are there with her.

When we are aware of our own brokenness and need and aware of the protection and complete perfection of God and run to him in all circumstances we are meek. When we are meek we live in abundant peace.

Peace in this verse is welfare, contentment, completeness. We have these things in excess in Christ. We have more peace than we need, we have extravagant welfare in Christ.

Difficult circumstances are not be feared or cause us dismay, they serve us in that they push into the arms of the giver of abundant peace. When Mia and I are in the pool she clings to and learns to trust in her dad who would give his life to protect and provide for her.

The Gospel in Life

The tag line for our series "The Gospel in Life" is, "Grace changes everything". As we are the beginning of the series, let's look the word grace and how it affects us and in turn how that ought to affect how we affect the world.

From the NAS Greek Lexicon, the word Grace (Charis) is a noun defined as::

favor of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection.

The root of this Greek word is verb that simply means to be glad. So grace is that quality possessed by God and given without external provocation to you and I. It is delivered to us through the work of Christ and our surrender to it.

Grace changes everything.

I want to explain what I mean when I see without external provocation. Grace rests within God. God gives that favor (see above definition) without regard to anyone deserving it. When I look at my wife and see her eyes and I say to her, "you have beautiful eyes." The actual beauty of her eyes is an external factor that has stirred up affection in me and caused me to tell her that her eyes are beautiful. When one of my kids does something sweet or funny, I am stirred to action by telling them they are cute or smart or funny or a superstar. Those are external provocations.

God giving us his grace was unprovoked, unmerited, unearned in anyway. When we realize that we have been rescued from a broken world and been redeemed from our own brokenness and when we realize that we have been rescued purpose and deep interacting love; it must change everything.

Join us in this series (sermons, blog, community groups, vimeo) as we breathe in deeply how grace changes the way we look and and interact at work, in our cities, in our families and everything about us. We are broken, but through the grace of God, we have been redeemed. That should motivate us to live in a broken and bring redemption to it.

New series begins April 10 - Gospel in Life

Gospel in Life - Intro from North Church STL on Vimeo.

Praying for Gospel in Life

We are about to officially kick off our series "The Gospel in Life". It is an eight week series with a couple of breaks thrown in. The intent of the series is to look closely into the gospel and press it into the core of who we are in such a way that it takes root and begins to dictate how we interact with our world.

We will engage this series on Sunday mornings in service, in community groups and with a home study. All are invited to any and all of the settings.

As we prepare for the first sermon in the series this Sunday, I want to give us all something to pray through and ask God to prepare us.

Pray that God would lead you to his truth. Read and pray John 16:13. This verse says that the Holy Spirit will guide you to truth. Pray with vigor that you would lay hold of the truth of the gospel. Pray that he would bury his truth deep into your soul.

Pray that God would allow you to live this truth. Read and pray Eph 4:1. This verse urges us to live lives worthy of our calling. This word worthy means of equal weight. This calling is the gospel. So our prayer is that God would change us in such a way that the life we live would reflect the gospel that we have engaged.

I am praying these things for us all. I hope to see you Sunday. Thanks for reading!

The Gospel in Life

This Sunday we begin our series "The Gospel in Life" with an intro message. Throughout this series,on Sunday mornings, in Community Groups and in your private study, we will strive to see the world through the lens of the gospel. You may not even know what that looks like, you may not know what I am even talking about when I use the world gospel.

Let me say two things about that. First, when we see the world through the lens of the gospel, life looks and tastes better. Second, the gospel is a churchy word that means when we were unworthy and repulsive to God, Jesus gave away all that he was to make us worthy and attractive to God.

Come join us on Sunday mornings, in Community Groups or in home study as we go through this series. All three facets of the series can stand alone. But we want to invite you to engage with us fully in this.

Engaging, My Enemy My Hope

I wrote this poem at 5:30 in the morning one morning last week when I could not sleep. It is rooted in place that God has been taking my soul in the last few weeks and I am currently there. What God was teaching me that resulted in this poem is the foundation for my sermon last week.

Here is the deal with it. This is a really frustrating thing about the Christian Condition, we never ever get there. We will always and forever be wrestling with our flesh. Paul says in Romans 7, "I do not do what I want but I do what I hate." Can I be completely honest and say that I absolutely hate that?

I know what I want to do, but I do not do it. That drives me crazy. More than anything in the world I want to have a deep intimacy with God, I want to be everything in the world to by bride that God is calling me to, I want to be everything in the world to my kids that God is calling me to be and I want to be the sort of pastor that God is calling me to be for North Church.

But I do not do what I want but I do what I hate.

What is the take away from this for you who are reading this? I think that it is two things. First, if you are not aware of the battle that rages within you for the affection of your soul then you really need to wake up and pay attention. Second, if you are aware of it and it paralyzes you or makes you walk around this life melancholy; know that you are no different that me or the apostle Paul or any other Christian to walk this earth.

So I offer this poem that God gave to me again. Read it and know that it is true and will always be true.

Like a wandering soul in the night, looking for light, looking for happiness, looking for peace.
Like a wandering soul in the night; searching in the darkness for light where there is no light to be found.
Like a wandering soul in the night; looking for light and unaware of enemies to my quest.
Like a wandering soul in the night, walking back into the same pit, falling again and again.

I look to things that cannot hold light, only reflect it.
I look to things that reflect light as my enemies.
I engage in battles with them.
My enemy laughs at my ignorance and glories in my torment.

But I call to mind your truth and hope returns.
Like a lost friend long forgotten.
Like a lost slipper whose form remains.
Like a warm bed on a cold night.
Like a soft lover after time away.

You oh Lord are my hope, Satan is my enemy.
You offer peace and community.
You inclined your ear and heard my cry.
Your thoughts to me and your deeds never failed.

Satan glories in my torment.
He laughs at my loneliness.
He plots my pain in moments.
He seeks after the temporary.

Fleeting are his deeds,
Given is his power,
Taken is his glory,
Empty is his reality.

Real is my pain, but only for the moment,
for the Lord is the victor.

My Enemy; My Hope

My Enemy; My Hope

Like a wandering soul in the night, looking for light, looking for happiness, looking for peace.
Like a wandering soul in the night; searching in the darkness for light where there is no light to be found.
Like a wandering soul in the night; looking for light unaware of enemies to my quest.
Like a wandering soul in the night, walking back into the same pit, falling again and again.

I look to things that cannot hold light, only reflect it.
I look to things that reflect light as my enemies.
I engage in battles with them.
My enemy laughs at my ignorance and glories in my torment.

But I call to mind your truth and hope returns.
Like a lost friend long forgotten.
Like a lost slipper whose form remains.
Like a warm bed on a cold night.
Like a soft lover after time away.

You oh Lord are my hope, Satan is my enemy.
You offer peace and community.
You inclined your ear and heard my cry.
Your thoughts to me and your deeds never failed.

Satan glories in my torment.
He laughs at my loneliness.
He plots my pain in moments.
He seeks after the temporary.

Fleeting are his deeds,
Given is his power,
Taken is his glory,
Empty is his reality.

Real is my pain, but only for the moment,
for the Lord is the victor.

Thoughts from Bono

"There's nothing hippie about my picture of Christ. The Gospels paint a picture of a very demanding, sometimes divisive love, but love it is. I accept the Old Testament as more of an action movie: blood, car chases, evacuations, a lot of special effects, seas dividing, mass murder, adultery. The children of God are running amok, wayward. Maybe that's why they're so relatable. But the way we would see it, those of us who are trying to figure out our Christian conundrum, is that the God of the Old Testament is like the journey from stern father to friend. When you're a child, you need clear directions and some strict rules. But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross."

"Religion can be the enemy of God. It's often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building."

"You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics; in physical laws every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It's clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I'm absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff."

"But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity."

"But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled . It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven."

Your Enemy and Your Hope

Your enemy has a name. Your hope has a name. Your enemy is Satan and your hope is Jesus.

We get confused often and label things other than these things as our enemy or our hope. We often call created things our hope or we call created things our enemy.

Maybe this will help to explain what I mean. I have a great wife, great kids, great friends and a great church family. None of those things are my hope. Many times I act like they are my hope. When I say my hope, I mean thing that I trust in to give me happiness or peace. Sometimes they succeed in giving those things. When they fail to provide or when they do not provide, they can become my enemy. They are an enemy because they are blocking my happiness.

But my wife, my kids, my friend and my church are all created things. They are all great things. They are all great things that were created to give glimpses of the beauty, care, love and so much more about the majesty of our God. When we see them as such and engage them as such, we are truly worshiping and growing in knowledge and affection for God. When we see them as our hope, they will fail us and leave us alone.

Make no mistake, God intends for you to be in rich community with both Himself and with people. Satan on the other hand intends for you to be alone with feeling of darkness and despair.

In my Insurance job, there is a political inner office battle going on in the midst of our board of directors. The winner of this battle directly affects my ability to do my job well and succeed. There are clear people that are on my team and clear people that are against me. Neither group of people are my hope or my enemy. Both groups of people can, when placed in proper perspective lead me to worship.

Look at any created thing, it is neither your hope nor your enemy. It is created by God to be seized as an opportunity to grasp His beauty, creativity, poetry, love and care for you.

There are a couple of Psalms that I read this morning that give me peace. May they give you peace today as well. Psalm 40 and Psalm 46.

Maybe the most important thing I have written

I just had my 40th birthday last week. Birthdays are hard days for me because they magnify the battle between my flesh and my spirit. Some back story is needed to convey what God has placed on my heart.

Rex Alexander was my youth minister in high school. He was and is a great man of God. The thing that made me admire him so much was that he lived a life where he died to himself. In his marriage, his ministry, the way he interacted with everyone, he was more concerned about them than himself.

It was in high school that God began getting my attention about a life given to pastoral ministry. It was Rex and his dying to himself that led to this. Successful life and successful ministry were dependant upon grasping and living out this idea.

Fast forward many years to a conversation I had a few years ago with a close friend. He was working as an assistant to Darrin Patrick, who is the pastor The Journey in St. Louis. My friend said that on of the reasons for the success of The Journey and that men flocked to Darrin to be discipled was that Darrin had figured out how to die to himself.

That statement has rung in my head and when he said it I was reminded of Rex who God had used to woo me with the same notion 20 years prior.

That is the back story and leads me to this. There are a few things that I want more than anything for my life. Sometimes I don’t act like I want these things, but ultimately, there is nothing that I want more than these things and when I pursue things that are contrary to these things, I am disgusted with myself.

So more than anything I want first to know Christ in the most intimate way. Secondly, I want to be the husband to my wife that she deserves because of who she is in Christ and model Christ to her in a tangible way by laying down my life as I am called to in Ephesians 5. Third, I want to shepherd my kids to the gospel and be a model of Christ to them and remind them of the love of Jesus in a practical way. And lastly, I want to lead North Church in such a way that its people see the beauty of death to self and the joy that comes from it so that they are inspired or compelled to practice this sort of humility.

So back to the context of my recent birthday; our culture wants to make much of people on their birthdays. I find nothing wrong with celebrating a person on the birthday, I do not mean to convey that or to try to get you change the way that you celebrate a person on their birthday. But for me, as I wrestle with this death to self sort of humility, I was in deep conflict.

In one corner of my soul was death to self that was the known way to what I want from my life. In the other corner of my soul was a desire for everyone to cater to me and celebrate me on this day. Ultimately these are two very self centered ideas. It is obvious that wanting everyone to make much of me and celebrate me is a self centered idea. But it is an idea runs against the laws and plans of God.

But really this idea of death to self is a self centered idea as well. It is the way that leads to everything that I want out of life. It leads to intimacy with Jesus, beautiful relationship with my wife, kids that love Jesus and love the gospel and a thriving church to lead.

Take a look at Philippians 2:3-8. Pray through it, chew on each word, meditate on it. Here in these words are the secrets to joy and purpose. Taste of them and see that the Lord is good. Place your faith in these words, trust that God has your very best interest in mind. Surrender to these words and their ability to bring you Jesus.

Faith= Trust + Surrender

In the sermon this week we looked at Galatians 3:15-29. We centered the message around the conclusion of the this passage, in particular Galatians 3:26. You can listen to it here.

Faith is such a key component of who we are in Christ. It is also a WAY misunderstood concept. Faith as a word in our cultural context is so little compared to what it means in respect to your relationship with Jesus. Faith is where trust and surrender meet. Here are some definitions that I came up with in the sermon Sunday.

Trust- I believe with all that I am that you have my best interest in mind and that you are able to come through on what you have promised. I believe you.

Surrender- I bet my life on that trust. I quit trying to do something that I cannot do. I ask you to expel my desires and replace them with your own. I die to myself.

These are big words, big concepts for us to wrestle with. If we really wrestle with them, much of who we are and much of our motivations have to change. Take some time this day to meditate on these definitions and how they shape your faith and your relationship to God.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Post them here or email them to me.

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Romans 8:13 Galatians 2:20 Philippians 3:8-12

I have been wrestling with this notion of dying to self. It is a struggle that has been in me since high school. But recently it has been more severe as I struggle through raising a family, planting a church, walking through hard times with friends and preaching Galatians.

Then I read this quote today on a friends blog and I cannot get past the line, "narrow confines of his individualistic concerns..." I do not have to look to hard at myself to see a desire to satisfy myself. That is the root of sin, a mistaken idea that somehow I am better at pleasing myself than God is, I am better and giving myself pleasure than God is.

My prayer is this, "God would you give me whatever I need to crucify my flesh, to look beyond myself and to the needs of others? Would you remind of that every day?"

From My Utmost

Today's Reading from My Utmost for His Highest

This is a great and simple reading. Sometimes these readings can be hard and very deep. This one is beautifully easy and simple, but still full of truth.

The last thought Chambers gives us is this, "Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can expound nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him."

I love that notion of fussy notions, fussy comradeships and fussy ideas. What is cluttering your brain that keeps you from being alone with God? Chambers talks about affliction heartbreak or temptation being a factor is God getting us alone with himself.

Yesterday was my wife's birthday. It was a long full day. But I remember sitting down at Pi for dinner. I knew when we left Pi we were going home to a surprise party for her and there would be lots of people in our home. We had just come from a movie and she had spent the morning with some girl friends. This was going to be my only time to really engage her and talk to her on her day.

To our left was a TV with Sports Center on. Usually I would have been distracted by that and not fully engaged in the conversation with her. But on this day, her birthday, a day when I wanted to celebrate her all day long, I was not. I was fully engaged in her. This was my time to just be alone with my wife. It was wonderful.

Ask God in this moment to give you some alone time today. Today is a day to celebrate Him, do not be distracted, take time to be alone with Him today, maybe even now.

Thoughts from todays Utmost reading

Today's reading is here

"he had come to the end of himself and all his self-sufficiency, there was not one strand of himself he would ever rely upon again, and in his destitution he was in a fit condition to receive an impartation from the risen Lord."

God has been really pressing in on this notion. Through a conversation with a recovering drug and alcohol abuser, through reading Radical by David Platt, through personal private study, born in a desire to see God work in North Church; God is calling me and I pray also that He is calling you to die to yourself that He might live through you.

In Radical, Platt says, "God delights in using ordinary Christians who come to the end of themselves and choose to trust in his extraordinary provision." All over scripture God is making this plea to us, to find our joy and our strength and our hope and our desires in Him. Psalm 37:4 promises that God will replace your lack luster desire with His life giving desires deep in your heart, Psalm 130:7 promises that when our hope is placed in him and not in self we experience steadfast love, Matthew 5:3 tells us that when we realize and come to grips with our spiritual poverty we receive the Kingdom.

My prayer for myself and for you, "God would you show me what it looks like to die to myself? Give me a deep passion and zeal for this."

From Radical by David Platt

"The Gospel confronts us with the hopelessness of our sinful condition. But we don’t like what we so of ourselves in the gospel, so we shrink back from it. We live in a land of self improvement. Certainly there are steps that we can take to make ourselves better. So we modify what the gospel says about us.

We are not evil, we think, and certainly not spiritually dead…My life is not going right, but God loves me and has a plan to fix my life. I simply need to follow certain steps, think certain things and check off certain boxes and I am good.

Both our diagnosis of the situation and our conclusion regarding the solution fit nicely in a culture that exalts self-sufficiency and self-confidence. We already have a fairly high view of our morality, so when we add a superstitious prayer, a subsequent dose of church attendance and obedience to some of the Bible we fell pretty sure that we will be alright in the end."

David Platt from Radical

One of the things that gives me great discouragement is that we have a lot of people walking around this planet who, if you asked them, would call themselves Christian and they have no idea what the term Christian even means from a Biblical perspective. This quote gets to the heart of that issue. Our self diagnosis of our spiritual condition is based more on our morality, church attendance as a kid, and a general sense of entitlement than scripture.

That is a very dangerous thing. The extent of the danger of this misdiagnosis is truly unable to be communicated in this forum. It is dire. We are called to daily lay ourselves down and crucify our self centered desires and have them replaced by Christ. Matthew 16:24. Galatians 2:20. We are mistaken if we think that half-hearted Christianity is Christianity at all.

I encourage you to reflect on this notion is a real way. Stop right now and examine your heart and mind.

A Great Luther Quote

“Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”

Martin Luther