North Church Pastor's Blog

South Asia Trip

2011-12-13T16:30:00.000-06:00

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

2011-12-08T10:08:00.003-06:00

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

2011-11-28T14:11:00.002-06:00

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

2011-09-09T00:21:00.002-05:00

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.

2011-09-06T20:33:00.002-05:00

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

2011-09-01T23:09:00.002-05:00

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

2011-08-31T13:17:00.006-05:00

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

2011-08-29T21:40:00.003-05:00

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

2011-08-26T15:55:00.004-05:00

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"

2011-08-23T21:48:00.000-05:00

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?

2011-08-02T18:01:00.000-05:00

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

2011-07-13T16:49:00.004-05:00

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.

2011-07-09T17:50:00.003-05:00

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.

2011-07-06T00:16:00.004-05:00

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

2011-07-05T12:30:00.005-05:00

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

2011-06-28T08:43:00.002-05:00

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

2011-06-21T17:46:00.002-05:00

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

2011-05-10T12:30:00.002-05:00

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

2011-04-26T12:24:00.000-05:00

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

Religious Repentance vs. Gospel Repentance

2011-04-19T15:38:00.000-05:00

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

2011-04-15T21:45:00.000-05:00

From Exodus 14

2011-04-12T16:52:00.003-05:00

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

2011-04-12T15:35:00.002-05:00

Meditations on Psalm 37:11

2011-04-12T13:44:00.004-05:00

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

2011-04-11T16:17:00.003-05:00

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

2011-04-09T20:27:00.001-05:00

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

Praying for Gospel in Life

2011-04-07T16:52:00.002-05:00

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

2011-03-29T00:20:00.002-05:00

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

2011-03-01T10:22:00.003-06:00

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

2011-02-27T07:57:00.001-06:00

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

2011-02-23T09:17:00.002-06:00

"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

2011-02-22T08:49:00.003-06:00

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

2011-02-10T09:20:00.001-06:00

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

2011-01-25T10:47:00.003-06:00

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.

2011-01-17T09:11:00.003-06:00

"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

2011-01-13T11:36:00.003-06:00

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

2011-01-05T10:03:00.004-06:00

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

2011-01-04T12:35:00.006-06:00

"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

2011-01-03T17:05:00.002-06:00

“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

3 Key Questions for 2011

2010-12-31T20:00:00.001-06:00

So what will it look like for you? Do you have a plan? I believe the reason we fail come March, is because we begin to think, "How in the world can I keep this up until December???" When all we should be thinking about getting through today, knowing that "His mercies are new every morning."

3 key questions you must ask if you will do things differently in 2011.

WHEN? If you don't determine when you will do it, it won't happen.

HOW? If you don't have a game plan, it won't happen.

WHO? If you don't have someone walking with you through it, you will most definitely fail. So who is your accountability?

The times I have been successful are the times I have continually begged the Lord to do it in me. I don't have what it takes to pursue the Lord over the long haul. He MUST do it in me! If you don't beg him to do it in you, it won't happen...and even if it does, it will be futile.

If you want to read some more about this or you want to know what my game plan is for 2011, check out my personal blog HERE.

Praying for more of Him in 2011!
Dave

A Vision for 2011

2010-12-29T08:47:00.005-06:00

The image to the right is a bust that is featured at the St. Louis Art Museum called St. John the Evangelist dated 1500 AD. I saw this image first a couple of years ago at the museum. The transcription talks about the artist wanting to portray his image of John looking upon the cross and the dead body of Jesus. Every angle on the sculpture is pointing down, giving it a very somber feel. If you look at this and study it, you begin to connect with what that moment must have meant to John. I see the passion of a man who loved Jesus deeply.

The elders of North Church want to cast a vision for that sort of passion for Jesus in 2011. This image is one of sorrow, but it is a deeply passionate sorrow. We are praying that 2011 will be a year that our church engages and chases hard after the person of Jesus and that doing so will result in a passion for Jesus similar to the one captured by this sculpture.

We want to encourage you to read through My Utmost for His Highest. This is a daily devotional. This link has each day's reading on it and is very user friendly. If you have never heard of the book or have gone through it before, we want to encourage you walk with us through it this year. We will be blogging consistently about it and encourage you to engage it and engage us as we walk through this together.

George MacDonald said, "Whatever a man does without God he must fail miserably, or succeed even more miserably.” In short our vision for 2011 is that we would pursue God with great vigor in 2011 and live this year with Him.

We have also found a free on line resource from The Gospel Coalition and D A Carson. The resource is a Bible reading plan and short companion commentary. Volume 1 goes along with a family reading plan and Volume 2 goes alone with a secret reading plan.

You will be hearing more about this vision on Sunday in the sermon. If you can't make it on Sunday be sure to listen to the podcast. You will also be seeing blog entries in the coming weeks as well. So we invite you to walk with us in 2011 as we seek to chase hard and passionately after Jesus.

Advent

2010-11-29T13:45:00.002-06:00

Last year, North Church produced a booklet designed to read daily through the Advent season. We want to encourage you to share this link and ask someone to read it with you as you wait with expectation for THE COMING

Some thoughts from today

2010-11-29T10:41:00.003-06:00

I am bound by time and I am bound by my lack of faith. Time chains me to my worry and stress because I cannot see the coming redemption and glory of the Lord. My lack of faith binds me because I do not trust the sovereignty of the Lord and surrender to His goodness with my family, my church, my friends and my finances.

So I find myself bound in darkness of stress and worry and sleeplessness. My mind races to places of insecurity and doubt and when I arrive at that destination I am willing to remain there.

But the truth is, Jesus is has defeated all darkness in all forms. Any chains that bind me are imagined. KNOW THAT and soak it in to your spirit.

Have a great day in Jesus today.

The Advent Season is here

2010-11-22T14:14:00.006-06:00

The Advent Conspiracy is a movement that we connected with last year during this time and we are doing so again this year. Check out the link to learn more about them.

This year it will be a bit different for us as we highlight four different missionaries that North Church is connected with. Each week during Advent we will see a different missionary present who they are and what God has called them to and tell us how we can connect with them.

Here are the four missionaries that we will connect with::

Ryan and Jamie Wagner with Campus Crusade for Christ (November 28)- Ryan and Jamie will be moving from St. Louis to Boulder Colorado sometime this winter to take the gospel to the campus of the University of Colorado. Ryan and Jamie are still raising support and looking for partners for their ministry. You will be given a chance to partner with them.

Vernon and Amber Burger with His Voice for Sudan (December 5)- His Voice's mission is "empowering orphans, widows an church leaders to make disciples of all nations. His Voice reaches out and supports local indigenous churches in The Sudan. There is an epidemic of orphans in the Sudan, so the practical way they are doing this is building, staffing, and equipping orphanages in The Sudan. You can also purchase this song on iTunes and every dime goes to build orphanages in The Sudan.

Dave and Kelly missionaries to Southeast Asia (December 12)- We have been praying with and for Dave and Kelly for more than two years as they take the gospel to this highly populated and gospel suppressing country.

Randy an Hannah Riggs with World Impact (December 19)- Randy and Hannah have are missionaries to the inner city of St. Louis. They help to run ministry center on North Grand in North St. Louis City. Poverty, gangs, drugs, absent parents, and gun fire are all dealt with daily. But God has called them into the culture and has allowed them to see fruit and they have begun to raise up leaders within the culture for the sake of the gospel.

We will be giving you opportunities to connect with time, money, prayer, and other ways to partner with each of these missionaries during the Advent season. Take time to pray for them today and consider how you might partner with them this Advent season.

From the Sermon this week

2010-11-19T14:23:00.004-06:00

The Gospel Coalition is an organization of gospel minded church leaders across the globe. This is a tweet from their Twitter account from today that stuck me as I prepared for the message this week. "The gospel doesn’t just make you right with God, it frees you to delight in Him."

Works based justification makes you pay attention to who you are and what you have done and honest evaluation of this always makes you feel the weight of your inadequacies. Faith based justification puts the work on Jesus and what he has already finished and always leaves us filled.

This all reminds me of a verse that I am struck with lately (Genesis 2:25). I long to be so Christ focused that I am naked and unashamed.

Two Points:: Thursday November 18

2010-11-18T12:31:00.004-06:00

Point 1

"You are no more capable of doing better than you are of creating new world." A W Pink.

So many of us, even those who seek to know, understand and apply the gospel, are plagued by this need to do better, to be better. I was involved in sports and church as a kid. A lot of my sports teams were very good and we were pushed to work hard, practice hard, give max effort all the time and that would yield success.

In church, I was taught the same thing. Our offering envelopes that got mailed to our house every three months had boxes on them to check off. The boxes were giving, bible brought, bible read daily, Sunday School attendance, outreach attendance and some more that I do not remember.

The point of these boxes was to get the minds of the members to think about such things. But the result that was poured into my conscience was that these are things that I could do to make God happy, to be a good Christian. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these things. But there is something very wrong with my working to get to God.

Point 2

Genesis 2:25 says that Adam and Eve were (pre-sin) naked and unashamed. Gen 3:7 says that Adam and Eve (post-sin)knew they were naked and so they did things to cloth themselves.

What if we stopped focusing on who or what we are and started to focus on who and what God is? What if that took away this need to try harder or try to cover ourselves? What if our problem is that we are too focused on ourselves and we need to get back to that place in the garden where we were naked and unashamed. Between Genesis 2:25 and 3:7 the physical thing that happens to Adam and Eve is that their eyes are opened to who they are. That is, they are distracted from God and His pure beauty and provision by themselves.

From the Sermon Tomorrow (11.13.10)

2010-11-13T09:57:00.003-06:00

We are justified by faith and not by the law.

There is no amount of right doing that will get us to God. In fact, it is detrimental to our getting to God, because our success and failure in following the law places our focus on self and not on God. The old chorus, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus gets it exactly right. It says, "Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."

This is a theme that is all throughout the book of Galatians and will be all throughout the sermon in church tomorrow. It is a message that is worthy of redundancy, because we just do not get it. Our bend is always toward religion and trying to earn our way. Even in earthly relationships, we try to earn things. But our relationship with God is based only the fact that Jesus Christ suffered a death that we should have suffered to satisfy the penalty for sin that we could not satisfy so that sin could be put away and we could live.

The thing is that even that understanding of the gospel can self focused. Our right view of God and the gospel can be the things that puffs us up and we wind up centered around our right understanding of God, rather than being centering around Christ Himself.

The Gospel is at Stake Update

2010-11-10T08:46:00.005-06:00

We are a few weeks into our series on the book of Galatians called, "The Gospel is at Stake." We have just finished the first chapter. So I thought it would be a good idea to bring us up to speed on what is going on and reintroduce the central theme of the book as we study.

Context
Paul is the author of the book and he has started churches in various cities and towns in the region of Galatia. In each one of the cities, Paul had previously preached the gospel and started churches by appointing and training leaders of those churches. While preaching, Paul was threatened with death if he continued to preach by religious power wolves. Paul was actually stoned just outside of one of the cities and left for dead.

This did not stop Paul, he would get up and go to the next city knowing full well that those same power wolves would follow him into the city and cause chaos. But the gospel was more important to Paul than his safety. So he went in and taught these people the gospel.

Theme
It is very simple and it is the message that Paul preached to the people prior to him writing the book. The theme is salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone and not through any religious activity.

Chapter 1
Through the first chapter of the book Paul has reinforced two things strongly. First, the gospel. Paul very simply points out the gospel in Galatians 1:4 and points out, with vigor, his purpose for the book in Galatians 1:6. In the second half of chapter one Paul continues by proclaiming that his message of the gospel is the message that God has charged him with teaching. It is Paul's authority to proclaim the gospel.

What is ahead
This week we begin to look into the mission of Paul and the mission that we have as men and women "entrusted with the gospel". We hope to see you Sunday at 10:00 am at 660 Charbonier in Florissant. You can also check out the podcast of the message linked from our website and Facebook page.

The Gospel is at Stake Part 1:: Set Up

2010-10-25T16:41:00.005-05:00

We started our series on the book of Galatians this past Sunday called "The Gospel is at Stake." We will use this blog to look back at what we talked about in the message and also to look forward to what is coming. Today we will look back at the set up message from October 24.

Galatians was written to the people in the churches in the region of Galatia that Paul established during his first missionary journey. That journey led Paul to preach in several cities across the region of Galatia and then later come back to those cities and establish churches and appoint elders for those churches. You can see those cities (Salamis, Paphos, Perga, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe) on the map. (courtesy to ESV Study Bible for use of the map.)

As he preached he would also receive persecution from religious leaders in the cities who threaten to stone him and on one occasion did stone him and nearly killed him. Paul preached a message of justification by faith alone. The religious leaders contended with Paul saying that converts needed to fully obey the law of Moses, which goes against the core of the gospel.

The ESV Study Bible provides this commentary on the Galatians, "In one way or another, everything in the epistle is related to Paul's defense of justification by faith alone. The letter is also unified by the apostle's intensity of tone, which comes through as strongly here as it does in any of his writings—especially in his intolerance of false doctrine and his indignation with people who promote it."

Thanks for reading, be sure to check back to the blog consistently for more commentary and direction as we go through this series and we hope to see you Sunday.

Marriage Conference

2010-09-15T15:56:00.002-05:00

Strong marriages are a backbone of any good church. At North Church we are consumed with investing in marriages. The best sermon that a man will ever preach is the way he treats his wife. Much of what we do is centered around these ideas.

Along that line, we want to make you all aware of an event that is coming to St. Louis October 1-2 that will be hosted by Central Presbyterian Church and featuring Paul Tripp. Paul Tripp is a well known author and speaker you can visit his website about the conference here. You can get information on the conference here.

Check these sites out and make plans to go today. You can register on your own through the website.

When Obedience is Hard::David

2010-09-09T10:44:00.006-05:00

This week our in series called "When Obedience is Hard" we will look at David. There are so many things that we could talk about in the life of David in regard to obedience.

The message on Sunday will focus on David's encounter with Bathsheeba, Uriah and Nathan. We will look into how and why it is so much harder to walk in obedience after a season or instance of disobedience.

David was a man after God's own heart, but he was also a man who fell into several spirals of bad decisions that were compounded by more bad decisions and ultimately left him as murder and adulterer with a dead infant son.

The story is in 2 Samuel 11:1-27 and 2 Samuel 12:1-24. Try to make time to read through the story and join us Sunday morning at 10:00 at 660 Charbonier in Florissant.

God is faithful

2010-09-02T13:17:00.001-05:00

The Lord has been taking me on a journey to better live out the gospel but more importantly, to speak the gospel to the lost. For the past several months everywhere I go and everything I do has been done with the thought of, how can I communicate the gospel today. This is not a sign of my spirituality as much as it is the Lord's faithfulness to teaching me urgency in my obedience in this matter.

We, in the past couple weeks, I have had the opportunity to speak the message of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin, to 3 different individuals specifically. Each of these opportunities has stemmed from the Lord simply saying to me, "If you are willing and surrendered, I will use you." And so that has been my approach each day, and it's been amazing to see the Lord's faithfulness, even in my unbelief and timidity in those moments. Ask me the stories, they are really cool!

Will we remember that God's faithfulness is the means to our obedience? I challenge you to simply say each morning, "Lord I want to be minister of reconciliation today. Make me aware of opportunities to speak your name today and give me your grace to walk in obedience. I surrender."

Gen 18:14 - "Is anything too hard for the Lord."

Journeying to better obedience with you,
Dave

When Obedience is Hard

2010-08-30T09:13:00.005-05:00

On Thursday last week, my brother-in-law bought our kids a trampoline. It was a surprise to them, they had no idea it was coming. They went off to school that morning with only a swing set in the back yard and they came home to it all set up and ready to go.

The ritual for my kids driving home from school is to snack on what they did not eat for lunch. It is Pavlovian. We pack Cooper and Mia a little extra in their lunch boxes so they can have a snack on the way home. On the way from the door to the car on this day, I asked them if they had homework. Cooper did but Mia did not. I told Cooper to work on his homework instead of eating his leftovers from lunch. This did not sit well with him. "But dad I am hungry...I am starving", Coop whined from the back seat. I told him to trust me, that when we got home he would be glad that his homework was finished. But he was focused on those left over Doritos.

After a couple of minutes of convincing Cooper to trust me, he finally relented and worked on his homework in the car. About a block from home he got it finished. Because his work was done he got to enjoy the new tramp immediately instead of sitting at the kitchen table while his sisters jumped.

As Dave preached yesterday, I thought of this story in relation to our obedience. He talked about Abraham and how hard obedience was for him. Romans 4:20-21 is talking about Abraham. The words "fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised" are beautiful.

The point is that when God calls us to some sort of obedience, He is not trying to rob from us; He is trying to give to us. In the car ride home from school, I was not trying to deprive Cooper of his snack, I was trying to allow him to jump on his trampoline as soon as he got home. I was trying to make him happy.

So many times we end up there. We are distrusting of God. We distrust His motives, we think we are better and getting joy for ourselves than God is. We focus on the thing He is calling us away from (Cooper and his snack) rather than the thing that he is calling us to(the trampoline, which is always better.

Failure to obey almost always is a failure to believe God.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

God's Noahic covenant of grace depicted through the rainbow

2010-08-21T17:23:00.003-05:00

New series starting tomorrow

2010-08-21T08:30:00.006-05:00

There is an element to our pursuit of the Lord and call to obedience that is always difficult and even, at times, seems impossible. But that perceived impossibility is never to negate our response. So how do we, as believers, actually walk out the things Christ calls us to? I think that more often than not our perception of the Lord up in Heaven looks something like this:

------------------------------

THE LORD: "Hey Joe, I want you to go over and share the gospel with Melissa." (laughing under his breath)

JOE: "But Lord, isn't she an atheist?"

THE LORD: "Yeah she is, but that's ok." (under his breath: "good luck with that one - haha")

---------------------------------

While we wouldn't actually say it like that, I think that's how we really see it. As if the Lord enjoys burdening us with impossible tasks and watching, from a distance, as we suffer.

This series will begin to show us how active and present the Lord is in engaging us in our call to obedience -- that he isn't distant in the things he calls us to, but rather is actually the very one that enables us to live for him.

Over the next 6 weeks, We will look at the stories of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Gideon and Hosea. We will see the gospel portrayed through the Lord's covenant relationship with each of these Old Testament characters.

I want to challenge us to begin preparing our hearts and giving permission to Christ to address our obedience to him, or lack there of. Will you join me in praying Psalm 139:23–24?

"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

Journeying to better obedience with you,
Dave

Worship

2010-07-30T12:39:00.003-05:00

Here is a quick excerpt and a quote I will use in the sermon on Sunday.

“Gratitude exclaims, very properly, 'How good of God to give me this.' Adoration says, 'What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!, One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun.” C S Lewis

One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun. God intends for us to have joy and contentment. When we encounter gifts that he has given to us and engage them as gifts from him and enjoy them, we worship.

Hope to see you Sunday at 10:00 at 660 Charbonier.

Sleepless night thoughts

2010-07-15T00:14:00.002-05:00

A couple of thoughts that come together...

There is a song that is written by a youth pastor who had a close friend and fellow youth pastor die in an accident. The two were very close. The surviving friend wrote a song called "How He Loves Us" that David Crowder covered. There are a lot of great lines in that song. My favorite is, "I don’t have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about, the way He loves us…"

Many times I, and I suspect you, get caught in this ridiculous self centered trap of regret or anxiety or feeling sorry for our situations. But my heart yearns for the truth of the sentiment of this line in this song to ring deep in the darkest corner of my soul. That I would not waste time on self centered pity parties, and instead rest and bask in the overcoming knowledge of the love of Jesus.

It is not that I am loved and I have my health and wonderful kids and friends and family and as a result count my blessings and thank God for them. It is that the love of a savior that is compelling me to worship and breath in deep the contented exuberance that His love leaves me with has made me forget about the momentary difficulties that are results of living in a fallen world.

Uncertainty of future, strained relationships, physical pain, struggle with sin, broken relationship, idiotic people, financial struggle and so much more are so very small.

The second thought comes from Hebrews 12:3. I am begging God tonight to give me a grace gift of endurance and strength. I am asking God to allow me to consider Jesus and all that he endured until I receive and God granted resolve and strength that Jesus left the Garden of Gethsemane with.

Theology Thursday :: The Holy Spirit

2010-07-08T17:31:00.004-05:00

A Theology of the Holy Spirit

We believe the biblical teaching that a Christian receives the Holy Spirit at the moment of their conversion. It is not something that they have to strive for or beg for in any way, but rather the means by which God does his regenerative work in conversion and continued sanctification in the life of a believer is through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

In Romans 7, the Apostle Paul expresses his deep and continued struggle with life as a Christian. He continually finds that no matter how hard he tries to live right before God, he fails. His conclusion is found in the very next chapter that the answer to his failure as a believer isn’t in him simply trying harder, as that has proved to fail continually (Rom 7:18), but rather through the Holy Spirit’s work in his life, he is able to live a life of continued growth and sanctification.

In the midst of such a powerful chapter (Rom 8) on the work and role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christ, Paul makes some profoundly important statements that shape how we view the Holy Spirit. Paul makes it clear in the first few verses of chapter 8, that the only means a believer has to “success” as a Christian is through the Spirit and to the extent a believer tries to fulfill the law, he has and will utterly fail (vv. 3-8).

Romans 8:9 says, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (ESV). What Paul is teaching here very clearly is that a person who does not have the Holy Spirit, is not a Christian. The Apostle John affirms this in 1 John 4:13 when he writes, “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit” (ESV).

The Holy Spirit is given to a believer at the moment of their conversion and Paul continues in Romans 8 to warn against living in opposition to the Spirit’s power when he says, “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8:12–14). So Paul is showing us that the leading of the Spirit is a defining mark of all true believers, and in fact is the means by which a believer is adopted into the family of God and whereby the work of Christ—in His death, burial and resurrection—takes root in the believer’s heart. - “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:15)

And God’s Spirit is continually revealing to us the reality of our acceptance as sons and daughters of the Living God. “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16).

What about Acts 2 and the believers at Pentecost?

Jesus made it very clear to his disciples that he would not leave them as orphans on this earth, despite the fact that he was going to physically leave them (John 14:18-19). Be he continually told them that the Helper (the Holy Spirit) was going to come and live within them (John 14:15-17, 25-31). But that would not happen, and didn’t need to happen, as long as he was still with them (John 16:7).

Then in the book of Acts we have the account of Jesus ascending into heaven, as he promised, and sending the Helper to indwell the believers. Acts 2:1-12 records the Holy Spirit descending and indwelling the New Testament Church for the first time. Those who had been Christians for a while, later received the Holy Spirit, because they had to wait until Jesus ascended to Heaven so that he could send the Spirit. This is really the only New Testament instance where believers did not receive the Spirit at the moment of their conversion, because he wasn’t “available” yet. These believers at Pentecost were dwelling in a different period of redemptive history than we are today and at the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we see a shift in redemptive history which will be expressed beginning in Acts 2:37.

After Peter then preached his sermon at Pentecost, the people were “cut to the heart” and wanted to know what they should do (Acts 2:37). Peter’s response was “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Here we see this shift in redemptive history where Peter makes it clear that receiving the Holy Spirit happens at the moment of conversion. This shift becomes a picture of what Baptism of the Spirit looks like in the life of a Christian, and is one indication that the initial account in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit first indwelled believers, was a unique situation in Christian history, as are a few other situations with the early church in Acts.

Questioning the Church...Gifts

2010-07-08T15:38:00.004-05:00

We talked last week in the sermon about gifts. We were going to talk in the sermon this week about specific gifts. I think that blog posts are a better vehicle for that discussion that a sermon. So read through this passage and the Greek word definitions and then take a look at the questions and statement that follow.

You are encouraged to interact here.

Romans 12:4-11

Service- execute the commands of another. Service is a great English translation for this word in this context.

Teaching- Exposing truth, instructing, deliver didactic truth.

Exhortation- Language intended to incite or encourage. In scripture this is a very pastoral gift, to deepen or give practical application to teaching. Teachers are very professor like dispensing of truth, exhorters are encouragers and motivators of truth.

Giving- To impart, to give.

Leadership- Protector, guardian, to set over, to preside over.

Mercy- To help one who is afflicted.

Who do you know that personifies each of these gifts?

Where do you see your two strongest gifts and you two weakest gifts?

Encourage someone today by telling them you see these gifts in them. There may even be a good chance that the person you encourage has no idea they even have this gift.

How are you/can you serve North Church and the Global Church with these gifts?

A Culture of Prayer

2010-07-03T13:55:00.005-05:00

THE NEED::
This past week I spent about 2 hours prayer walking the community around Florissant Presbyterian. The thing that the Lord continually impressed upon my heart was the need for the gospel to penetrate the hearts and lives of every home, family and life that I walked by, looked at, talked to, etc. We are at a point as a church that I believe we will either begin to take the great commission seriously or we will become content with just not really living our lives on mission with the good news of Jesus. I'll be the first to admit, talking out loud to strangers about Jesus is not natural for me, in fact, I hate it, to some degree. That is something that I have continually been confessing and repenting of this week, begging God to do it in me...which is what it's all about even for the person who loves evangelism. The question becomes, will we take God seriously regarding the great commission, but even before that regarding the great commandment. I am learning more and more that the more we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, the more we will love our neighbors and therefore fulfill the great commission.

THE ANSWER::
God has to do it in us. We won't do it ourselves (Rom. 7:15; 8:13-14, 26-27; Col. 1:29; 2:6-7), or if we do it will be a miserable failure, or an even more miserable success. But the answer isn't just to sit back and hope that it happens, but rather to beg God to do it in us and through us. Will you join me is seeking to make a culture of prayer at NC? That no matter what is happening--good, bad, tragic, or incredible success--our first thought is PRAY, run hard to Jesus with it.

THE HOW::
Rik continually reminds us that you have as much access to God as him and I do, as well as any other pastor or believer. I say that to say, you don't need us to always be leading you in prayer. Now our goal is still to do that--to shepherd you to pray more--but the question becomes, do you only pray when we schedule a time or when we say, "Hey lets go over here and pray before the service?" The first Sunday of every month we will pray from 9-9:45am under the pavilion. This time will typically be elder led, with some structure. Every other Sunday morning from 9:30-9:45ish under the pavilion we encourage you to pray before the service. There might not always be an elder there, my desire is that all of you lead out here. Even if an elder isn't available or around to say "Hey lets go out to the pavilion and pray," somewhat else needs to. This is the culture I pray we will have at NC. The last thing I encourage you to do is Prayer walk your communities. Take your wives and families and regularly walk around your community praying for your neighbors and asking God to show you how to be intentional in reaching them with the gospel.

The next 2 sundays, and even beyond, will we create opportunities for you to sign-up to serve at NC. One of the things on the list will be prayer. I hope that every person signs up to create a culture of prayer at NC. Will you join me? I'm praying that you will!

Travis on Submission to Authority

2010-06-14T20:45:00.002-05:00

Two Points:: Tuesday May 25

2010-05-25T10:55:00.004-05:00

We are into week two of our series Questioning the Church and week two of our blogs that will help us to reinforce our understanding and what we are learning about our purpose and God's ultimate design for the church. With that understanding, let's get to the two points for today.

Point 1- Our purpose is bigger than ourselves.

We are called together to a purpose that is higher than ourselves and it is part of God’s plan to redeem the world. I hope you feel the gravity of that. This time that we spend together and live up close and pray and be discipled is not just a good way to spend our years on this planet to pass the time and have fun and have a network of people to cling to…It is instead the plan of a great and providential sovereign God to know his character and proclaim His great redemptive plan to the world. You are part of that plan. The church is that plan.

Feel the gravity of that. When you feel the gravity and begin to understand that, church is less about preference and style and more about theology and purpose. So as we walk through this series and you follow along in community groups and on this blog and talk in your homes I pray that you would understand that you are here for a purpose bigger yourself. I pray that this blows up our understanding of church.

Point 2- Ephesians 2:19-22

This passage adds to the understanding of Jesus as the cornerstone with this notion that our foundation comes from the prophets and apostles, which is essentially scripture. Jesus is the cornerstone (strength and direction) and scripture is the foundation in this metaphor of the church being a building.

I bought some concrete yesterday to set a couple of posts for a clothesline for Jen. The concrete will become very sturdy and strong and hold a lot of weight. But right now, that concrete is a bag of powder and small rocks. Prior to being mixed with water, that concrete will not accomplish its task of securing the post. Those rocks and that powder must get mixed with water in order to become concrete. We are held together and receive our growth from Jesus and the gospel. Verses 21 and 22 are repetitive giving us insight that the church is held together by Jesus, gets it’s growth from Jesus and becomes a holy dwelling place for God through Jesus.

In our task as a church, everything rises from and is built upon Jesus and scripture.

Two Points:: Wednesday May 19

2010-05-19T09:07:00.003-05:00

To restate the point of the frequency and content of this blog...Our series on the church will give us a compass for the purpose of our church. Our series Questioning the Church seeks to provide us with a biblical understanding of the church. This blog will reinforce those teachings.

Point 1- “You can be baptized in the church, raised in the church, confirmed in the church, serve in the church, marry in the church, die in the church, and have your funeral in the church, and still wake up in hell if you are merely in the church and not in Christ.” (Mark Driscoll)

Dave used this quote in the sermon last week and it really leads us well into some of the stuff that will talk about this week and it gets to the heart of the foundation of the church.

Scripture uses lots of metaphors and imagery to teach about the church. The principle that is taught by most of them is that Jesus Christ is the essence of what the church is built upon. This is the heart of the message that I will preach this week.

I think that Driscoll here is getting to that point, but he is also getting to a critique on the church and on church people. Church can become the end. Church is supposed to be a means to an end. That end is God. It can become the thing that is worshiped.

Point 2-Acts 2:36-47

In this passage verse 42 is a well known and frequently quoted verse in regard to the activities of a church. It says, "They devoted themselves to..." Dave summed up the passage with four calls for the church.

1. Gospel centered preaching

An Apostle was one who had been with Jesus and been given charge by Jesus to go and preach. A church should have at its core of preaching the gospel and Jesus.

2. Gospel centered, loving relationships
Dave used a phrase on Sunday that was great and I want us to think on it. He said, "The gospel informed how they lived their lives." These people in the church that Acts 2 is talking received their instruction, direction and motivation for their relationships from Jesus and his gospel. The gospel informed how they lived their lives. This is a natural outflow of a church that is on mission.

3. Baptism and the Lord’s supper

These are what are called sacraments or rites of the church. Scripture teaches that churches are to be administering these rites, helping to remind the church of what Jesus did to cleanse and feed the assembly of called out believers.

4. Pursuing relationship with God together (Acts 2:42, Acts 2:46)

Go back and reread those verses. Think deeply on them and understand that our privatized culture has made giving ourselves over to this kind of living very difficult. We are guarded and like to hide. But this early church was not. Ask yourself this question: What relationships do I have that could develop into this kind of relationship? Then pray that God would begin to prepare you and develop you for it.

Two Points::Monday May 17

2010-05-17T15:35:00.006-05:00

Today's two points come from the sermon from yesterday. You can listen to it here. We began a new series yesterday called "Questioning the Church" and this is a vital study for us and for Christians in general. We need to learn what scripture says about the church and what God intended the church to be and what God intended the church to do. So we will use this blog to go into detail with some topics that are touched on in the messages. Be sure to check the blog frequently and know that you are encouraged to interact here and connect with a Community Group for face to face interaction.

Point 1- Deuteronomy 4:10 (ESV)
10 how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

The word that is translated here as gather is translated elsewhere as assemble and it is the Hebrew word for church. The Hebrew church is a gathering or assembling of God' people. But the real information that is here is what follows because it lays out the purpose of the gathering or assembly or church. The author lays out three things as purposes for the church.

1. To teach the word- We gather together as the church for the purpose of being taught the word of God. The Bible is the word of God so the church exists to teach the Bible.
2. To learn to revere God and place Him in proper perspective- Deut 4:10 uses the language "Learn to fear". The is a commonly used phrase in Old Testament and it can be summarized as having a proper view of God and his power, glory, love and other attributes. It means to respect, revere, worship, see properly. The church exists to lead people to a proper view of God.
3. To disciple others- We have the word taught to us and we receive this proper view of God and then we teach it to our children or those who come after us. The church exists to create disciples.

There are so many places in scripture where the purposes of the church are spelled out, none of them are exhaustive. This one is no exception. These are not the only things that a church does, but they are what a church does. Every church should be doing these things, if it does not it is either not a good church or it is simply not a church.

Point 2 The church is more than just doing something spiritual. This is a point that Dave made in the message last night and it is spot on, especially for this current generation.

We live in a culture that rebels against organized religion. Many of the critiques on organized religion are valid and need to be challenged. But the pendulum has swung too far. Instead of reform to the church we have fake replicas of the church. We have three guys meeting at Starbucks and talking about spiritual things replacing the gathering. We have Christians living outside the gathering who have no one who has authority or discipline in their lives. This is not a church and this is not what Go has called His people to.

We have to KNOW that God has brought about this redemptive plan of Jesus and has impacted the world through this plan to reconcile man to Himself and He has created the church to accomplish this task. Living outside of a gathered expression of God's called people (another way to church) is living outside of the plan of God. This is important and heavy stuff that must be said to this generation of people who have been hurt or turned off by particular churches.

Mark Driscoll says this about this idea, "The postmodern world would have an entirely new definition of church, one in which church is understood as a community of Christians and non-Christians who love together without distinction, without leadership, or discipline or doctrine, trying to emulate the character of Jesus without stressing the gospel requirements of repentance of sin and faith in Jesus that enable the life of Jesus to be lived by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Get into and connect honestly with a church THIS WEEK!

Men's Retreat

2010-05-10T14:26:00.003-05:00

One of the reasons that North Church began was to attempt to lead men to be men. We believe that many of the problems in the culture in 2010 are present because men are silent, lazy or absent. There is a great task that God has given to men.

God has placed in men an innate drive to explore and create and conquer. Men are drawn to adventure. Men like movies about war. Men like red meat. Men are also arrogant and dumb and seldom ask for help. Men are called to serve their families and their communities and each other.

The men's ministry at North Church is called Band of Brothers (patterned after the HBO mini series). All that Band of Brothers is about is helping men realize their God given task and to war along side each other.

Our Men's Retreat is the big event for the year. We will tent camp at Timbercreek in DeSoto Missouri. It is only an hour from North County so that people can come and go if schedules dictate that.

We will cook over an open flame, use the many free facilities at the resort (check out the website linked above), hang around the fire under the stars late nights and watch some of the new HBO series The Pacific.

Details:
Cost-Free
Food and drink-Bring your own
Sleeping-Bring a tent and sleeping bag/air mattress or share tent space.
Dates-Arrive anytime after 4 on Friday May 21 we will leave the morning of the 23rd.

Email me with any questions rik@northchurchstl.com

Overwhelmed with Sorrow

2010-05-04T21:50:00.005-05:00

Recently my mind has been consumed with the deep pain and suffering many dear friends have been experience in these days. As I grieve with them, everything in me want to just fix the situations. As much as I want to have the "right things to say," my greatest desire would be to just make it go away completely. I'm sure they wouldn't complain :).

In all of my love and encouragement to the brokenhearted, my desire it to point them to Jesus. Why? Is that just the good Christian thing to do? How in the world does saying "trust Jesus" offer any hope when the bottom has fallen out of life?

One of the most comforting things to know is that Jesus is intimately acquainted with our pain. Not simply because he is God, but because he has been there. The night before he was going to be crucified he prayed to the Father, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death" (Matt 26:38). Maybe in your pain you have thought this...I just want to die so this will all be over. Jesus was so overwhelmed with sorrow (Isaiah 53:3) that he began to sweat blood. One of our tendencies is to dumb down the agony of the cross and simply say, "He's Jesus, it wasn't that bad for him." This passage clearly tells us that the last thing Jesus wanted to do was die. He didn't want to suffer the agony of the cross. He didn't want to suffer the agony of His Father's wrath poured out for sin. He was "OVERWHELMED WITH SORROW." This moment of his life was the deepest darkest pit he had ever experienced and he wanted to do whatever it took to get out, at least in that moment. He said, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matt 26:39).

But his conclusion is one that offers us so much hope and purpose in our suffering. "nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will" (v.39). In the deepest, darkest pit of his life, Jesus, the Son of God, turned to the greatest and most sure hope he had...the same hope that we have today. That hope was the loving, sovereign will of His Father. He didn't understand it in that moment. He even wanted to run from it, but he found more joy in walking in the will God had for him than he would have ever found if he could have removed his pain.

We never will that pain would happen in our lives. In fact, we do everything we can to run from the pain. But we learn from Jesus that it's in the deepest pit of the pain where we find a Father whose will is certain and his plan is perfect. Imagine if Jesus would have escaped the pain and ran from the cross...but he didn't. He ran to it.

My prayer is that you would run to your pain. Don't suppress it! Don't hid from it. Run to it! For it is in the deep pits of your life that you find a loving Father who want to bring miraculous salvation to your soul. Don't waist your suffering! Allow it to be the tool God has designed it for...to get you to Him. For it is there you will find rest and hope and yes even JOY that you would have never experienced otherwise. (Ps. 16:8-11)

Ps. 119:50
This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

Lord help my friends find abundant life (John 10:10) in you knowing and believing the truth of Isaiah 26:3-4

3 You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

Purpose

2010-04-13T13:58:00.003-05:00

Let's say a friend of yours, no a hero of yours was leaving town. That hero was a great influence and mentor to your life. He calls you and few of his closest friends and asks you to come over for a bit the day that he is leaving. He says that he has something important to share with you before he leaves.

At the risk of being cheesy, this is what happened with Jesus. The gospels and the book of Acts record this conversation. The circumstances are as follows: Jesus has resurrected and shown himself to his followers and taught them. Then he gathered them to give them some last minute instructions.

He told them that they were his agents of the Kingdom. We can take that directive from Jesus as well. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are his agent of the Kingdom.

Let me explain what it means to be an agent of the Kingdom. When sin entered the world, all types of strife came with it. Pain, sickness, death, famine, disease, broken relationships, hate, natural disasters and all that brings pain to you and I in this world. Jesus did not come only to save us from our sins, but begin the process of reestablishing his Kingdom. All that strife will be gone one day. We are to be his agents of that Kingdom on this earth now.

The words of Jesus before he left at translated as, "go proclaim the gospel to the whole world." The word that is translated as proclaim is to make known with gravity and authority. The word that is translated as the gospel is the good news of what Jesus did for you. Included in that good news is this sense that he was here to bring the Kingdom.

I am not much on alliteration for the sake of alliteration, but on earth Jesus was about restoration, redemption and reconciliation. That is what he was talking about when he talked about establishing his kingdom.

Here is the kicker to it. Jesus came to do all of this, it was God's plan from the beginning to have Jesus come to this earth and live a perfect life to restore brokenness of this world, brokenness of relationship between man and man and the brokenness of the relationship between God and man. But that is not the end of the plan. Part of that plan is for you and I and other followers of Jesus to be agents of the Kingdom. To act on its behalf.

We all want to be a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. This is it! You are an agent of the Kingdom, that is way bigger than you and it is an adventure that you are called to.

Experience Easter:: Saturday

2010-04-03T09:27:00.004-05:00

I am in the library and I am here to prepare for the sermon tomorrow. I cannot concentrate on the sermon. My mind is taken to the darkness that I had to be in the minds and spirits of those who followed Jesus the day after he died.

Many of you who might read this know about Megan Moss. She has a sick heart and she needs a transplant. Last night was a very difficult night for her and she had an emergency procedure to help her heart do it's job. The procedure went well.

There were many praying last night. Many different circles of people who do not know Megan or anyone in her family. I am not sure why the procedure succeeded, if the prayers that were lifted up changed anything or not.

But I do know this. Whatever happened last night and whatever happens today or in the coming days. If Megan gets a new heart and lives to be 100 years old with lots of kids and grand kids or if none of that happens, tragedy does not stay tragic. It turns to hope because of what we will celebrate tomorrow.

There is a song I know, its first lines are these...
All you ever do is change the old for new.
God is bigger than the air breathe, the world we'll leave.
And God will save the day, and I will say my Glorious.

The point that I am trying to make is that we know the end of the story. You may be in darkness, dealing with difficulty or tragedy. You may have hurt or pain. It might not all make sense. But let me say one word about this darkness. Before I do, stop and think about darkness that is or has been in your life. Maybe even write it down on a piece of paper or in your minds eye, write it on a piece of paper. There is one word that is written across that piece of paper. TEMPORARY.

That word is written by Jesus as a result of what we will celebrate tomorrow. Temporary is a beautiful word isn't it? Celebrate temporary today. Weeping may tarry for the the night but joy comes with the morning Psalm 30:5

Experience Easter Part 5

2010-04-02T09:42:00.004-05:00

Today is a day of immense sorrow and injustice, as the perfect Son of God is treated unfairly and brutally murdered. While you were sleeping last night, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, arrested and tried against the law.

Today's reading:

Christ’s final prediction of His death and resurrection (Matthew 26:31-35)
Christ’s great high priestly prayer (John. 17:1-26):
En route to Gethsemane (Luke 22:35-38)
In Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-56)

Christ’s Unfair Trials

1. The Jewish religious trials
A. Christ stands before Annas (Jn. 18:13-14, 19-23)
B. Christ stands before Caiaphas (Mt. 26:57, 59-68)
C. Christ stands before the entire Sanhedrin (Mt. 27:1)

(two-fold tragedy during those trials)
(1) The denials by Peter (Mt. 26:33-35, 69-73, 75)
(2) The death of Judas (Mt. 27:3-10)

2. The Roman political trials
A. Christ stands before Pilate—for the first time—(Mt. 27:2, 11, 12-14)
B. Christ stands before Herod Antipas (Lk. 23:6-12)
C. Christ stands before Pilate—for the final time—(Mt. 27:15-26)

3. The military mockery trial
A. Christ stands before the soldiers (Mt. 27:27-31)

Crucifixion - approx. 9am-3pm (Mt. 27:32-56)
Burial - evening (Mt. 27:57-61)

This day in history bears so much weight on historical Christianity and all that was accomplished for us in the crucifixion of the perfect Son of God. In the sorrow of today, we know from Scripture that none of these things matter apart from what we will celebrate on Sunday. Don't lose site of the true meaning of this time of year and pray that the Lord would give you the ability to truly celebrate all that he has done for us. Praying that the Lord would give us opportunity to tell others why we celebrate Easter.

Experience Easter Part 4

2010-04-01T08:53:00.003-05:00

Today's reading is about The Passover. For the followers of Jesus, The Passover was a huge deal. It was the day the people celebrated the freedom from the slavery they endured under the Egyptians. It is Christmas and Independence Day today rolled into one. It is a week long celebration of the freedom from oppression. It is significant, because at the time what you read today was written they were being oppressed, this time by the Romans.

The reading is Matthew 26:17-30.

As you go through this day today, understand that this day in the holy week is the last day that is somewhat normal for Jesus. It is the last time that Jesus will spend a full day with his disciples. It is the last time Jesus will lay his head down to sleep. It is the last day of his life, he will be dead tomorrow.

Experience Easter Part 3

2010-03-31T09:10:00.004-05:00

Our reading today is very short, but vital to the ultimate course of events. The only event is Judas agreeing to betray Jesus it comes from Matthew 26:14-15.

As you read this, think about how matter of fact Judas is. It was his idea to go to the leaders. We know from previous places in scripture that Judas had a lust for money. It was an idol of his. Here he sells out his friend for 30 pieces of silver. He sacrifices Jesus at the altar of his idol.

We know that later Judas throws the money away and commits suicide. Our idols and the things we sacrifice for that are not Jesus, leave us as they left Judas. They become worthless and leave us empty.

Think today about your idols and what idols you sacrifice for. Ask God, as I am today, to expose your idols and shine a light on their lack of value.

Experience Easter Part 2

2010-03-30T09:16:00.003-05:00

There is a lot to read today. But stay with us and read it all. Today is the day that Jesus is very active and setting up the rest of the week. He is actively picking a fight with five separate confrontations with the over religious Pharisees. Then he is preaching a long sermon and then the ball is rolling to the crucifixion. It is an exhausting day for him filled with harsh confrontation and preaching.

5 Confrontations::
1. Over His authority (Mt. 21:23-27)
2. Over paying tribute to Caesar (Mt. 22:15-22)
3. Over the doctrine of the resurrection (Mt. 22:23-33)
4. Over the greatest commandment (Mt. 22:34-40)
5. Over the Messiah (Mt. 22:41-46)

Jesus then preaches what is referred to as the Olivette Discourse. This the last sermon that he preaches. Give it that special attention because it is his last. His audience is not just the 12 disciples but also those who have been following him and those who have come as curious on lookers. The Olivette Discourse is Matthew 24-25.

The last thing to read today is Jesus predicting his death and the Pharisees resolving to plot to kill him. (Matthew 26:1-5)

Thanks for reading. We are praying that we all Experience Easter deeply this year. May God bless you with an encounter with Himself today.

Experience Easter:: Monday

2010-03-29T09:35:00.003-05:00

Each day this week we will offer a reading from scripture that chronicles the events of Jesus during that day of the Holy Week. The beginning of the week there is not much that is intense that is going on, but Jesus is setting up the end of the week. He is preparing his disciples, picking fights with religious people and teaching with symbolism.

Make sure to check this blog every day as we Experience Easter together and join us this Sunday at 11:00 AM at NCCS for our Easter service.

It might do you some good to listen to the podcast from the sermon yesterday if you missed it. You can also stream it here. This sermon sets up the events of Palm Sunday which was yesterday.

The reading for today is John 12:20-50. There is a lot of set up here. Those around Jesus are confused as to exactly who he is, but he is making claims the he is God here. We can relate to that. Many times we are confused as to what God is doing, but he is always at work doing things to bring us into a deeper relationship with him.

Experience Easter Part 1

2010-03-23T10:06:00.005-05:00

Easter is in less than two weeks. Easter is centered around a few things. First, there is the Easter bunny stuff like chocolate and eggs. A lot of Pastors like to rip on this part of Easter, I do not want to do that. My kids will dye eggs and eat chocolate and I hope to eat a Snickers Egg or a Cadbury Carmel Egg or two.

For church people, Easter is also about a new dress or a new tie. It is about shoes that you better not scuff up. It is about pink, light blue and yellow. It is about nice and new. Maybe that is because Jesus rose again and brought new life, so we like to look nice and new. But that is a stretch.

But it would do us some good to look into scripture for what was happening in the life of Jesus during the days leading up to Easter. Jesus was just about to enter into Jerusalem. Many call this the triumphal entry. He goes into Jerusalem and it is like a parade. People are cheering him and shouting, "Hosanna!" Hosanna is the Greek for an exclamation that you are the chosen one that has come to save us. They are shouting this to Jesus and all gathered around him.

It is also the week leading up to The Passover. For the Jews, Passover was the most important day of the year. Passover is the day that they celebrated their being freed from slavery under the oppression of Egypt. It is Christmas and Independence Day rolled into one; it is a religious and a national holiday. You can listen to a sermon on this here.

But Jesus spends his week picking fights with religious people and spending time with his friends. That sounds like a good time to me. Stay tuned to this blog this week and next week for more about the last week of Jesus' life. Walk with us through those last days as we seek to experience Easter in a deep way.

Two Points::Friday March 19

2010-03-19T09:51:00.004-05:00

Point 1::The kingdom of God. What does that mean?

I want you to take a minute to read this and think hard and perhaps even pray and think about how God is pursuing you.

This is a question that I read in a book, "If Christianity was only about finding a group of people to live with, who shared openly their search for God and allowed anyone, regardless of behavior, to seek too, and who collectively lived by faith to make the world a little more like Heaven, would you be interested?"

The kingdom of God that Jesus spoke of is in that question. We live in a world of brokenness. Disease, broken relationships, divorce, pain, famine, earthquakes and tsunamis and so many other things are evidence of our broken world. We each contribute to that brokenness. Mine rubs up against yours and yours against mine. We are left more broken.

But Jesus came to bring this kingdom of God, to restore the brokenness, to redeem it. There is beauty in each of the things that are broken. The body that can be broken with disease is an beautiful thing; the brain, the form, its various systems, skin, the eye, these are all beautiful things. Relationships that can broken can be deeply meaningful. To look upon a wide ocean or a massive mountain can move the soul to poetry yet they can be broken and bring devastation. We are meant to live in th rhythm of that poetry, but our brokenness and the brokenness of the world breaks that rhythm.

Jesus came to restore that, to bring the kingdom of God. He invented gospel centered groups of people for the purpose of being the agents of change to bring about that kingdom.

Point 2:: Gospel Centered Community

If I were to use the term church, you might think of a building you knew as a kid or a place your grand mother took you on Easter. You might think of a place filled with judging people or a place that spends millions on a building or thousands promoting a political agenda while people around them go hungry.

The term church has been hijacked by religious people and by culture. What it really means is a group of people who come together around the fact that they are messed up and that Jesus offers them hope and love. This offer is not attached to any required behavior and is unearnable. It is just given.

People within a gospel centered community give room for other people to be messed up. They do this because Jesus gave them room to be messed up and still gave them relationship. They do this because they are messed up and will need to be given room to be messed up.

This is what Jesus is leading us to be at North Church. I want to be bold enough to ask you to come and give this community a chance, to give Jesus a chance.

Two Points:: Thrusday March11

2010-03-11T11:34:00.005-06:00

Point 1. A few words on community.- In Genesis the Bible starts with God creating. There is a rhythm that is going on. Each day there is something created and then God proclaims it to be good, it is very rhythmic. Then in Genesis 2:18 we see the words "it was not good". The reference is that man is alone. For the first time something is proclaimed to be not good and it is man being alone.

Simply put you were not meant to be alone. We were all meant to be in community. Community is is not a neighborhood. The root word of community is commune. When I use community in this context, I mean that we partake of life together and we partake of each other as we do life. You are meant to live this sort of communing life with people.

There is more though. As North Church, we seek to live in gospel centered community. What this adds to it is that we are fully aware that we are messed up and you are messed up and we do not hold back our acceptance of one another based upon being or messed up or the times that we mess up.

Do you see the freedom in this? There is no need to impress or perform. The analogy is we are free to wear our sweats and hoodies and slippers around the house. Communing with people is one thing, but hurt can come and come deep when it is not gospel centered. When it is not gospel centered, we are guarded and hold back our vulnerability and thus it is not real community.

I encourage you to engage in real community. I encourage you to think deeply about the relationships that are the most comfortable or healthy or vital to you. What characteristics are true of those relationships?

Point 2 a gospel centered community example

LOST SPOILER ALERT

This weeks Lost episode documents it perfectly. The episode is called Dr. Linus If you do not know Lost and Ben Linus, first off I pity you and second this will be irrelevant to you. But you can watch it anyway because there is background given. The scene I want to direct you occurs at 34:35. Ben has come to complete grips with his awful nature and says that he is going to join Locke because he is the only one who will have him. Ben is repentant about who he is for the first time in his life. He is really broken. The response of the one who has been pursuing him is, "I'll have you."

There is so much to this scene. So much about the gospel and repentance and idol worship and a struggle for power. But what is also here and demonstrated brilliantly is gospel centered community. Broken people who have done very hurtful things to each other, yet there is acceptance.

Past Tense of Salvation

2010-03-09T17:01:00.004-06:00

Sunday I preached on the 3 tenses of salvation found in the Scriptures. Here is a video describing the past tense.

Two Points:: Thursday March 4

2010-03-04T09:38:00.004-06:00

I have been thinking a lot about prayer in the last few days. So I wanted to make two points this week about prayer.

Point 1: Pray with Importunity. Read Luke 18:1-8 Jesus said, "Ask you will receive...seek and you will find...knock and the door will be opened." When Jesus is teaching about prayer he is always teaching us to be persistent.

::Don Carson says, "In prayer, we are like naughty boys who ring the door bell and run away."
::Andrew Murray says, "God trains us in the school of answer delayed. To teach us perseverance, he does this."
::Isaiah 30:18 says, "Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him."
::Read Psalm 130 here

All of these things are pointing to teaching us to wait on God, to pray with perseverance. We live in 2010 America and we want things to happen quickly. Comfort is important to us. As we learn these lessons of prayer not just in a scholastic way, but also in a practical and personal way, we learn to depend upon God.

We also learn that comfort for today is really quite over rated. This life is not about you and your comfort. Each day can be seized to attempt to bring more comfort or for deeper communion with God. Prayer can be a great teacher of this truth.

Point 2:Prayer is based on God's promises. Read Jeremiah 29:11-12 Many times we read Jeremiah 29:11 and get all excited about the promise that is there. We put that on coffee mugs and bumper stickers. But verse 12 brings more to the table. Meditate on verse 12.

I have heard people ask if God is all knowing and all powerful , isn't prayer redundant or what is the point of praying if God does what he likes? Terry Virgo said, "Praying not redundant, it is motivation to seek God. God's statements of promises are invitations to move."

Some quotes on prayer

2010-03-03T10:25:00.003-06:00

From Paul Miller's "A Praying Life"

"Helplessness is a door to God. The gospel uses my weakness as the door to God's grace. This is how grace works"

"Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God."

"Jesus is not just the Savior of my soul. He's also the Savior of my prayers."

"Suffering is God's gift to make us aware of our contingent existence."

"Both the child and the cynic walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The cynic focuses on the valley and the child focuses on the shepherd."

"Even when the father turns his back on him, Jesus trusts. Faced with the storms of life, he tightens his grip on the father."

"Pray yourself into prayer" -Don Carson

"We are like naughty boys who ring the door bell and run away." -Don Carson

"God trains us in the school of answer delayed. he does this to teach us perseverance." -Andrew Murray

"Its as thought the promises of god are waiting on our prayers to release them." -Andrew Murray

Prayer

2010-03-01T13:49:00.003-06:00

I would like you to take a moment and think about a question. What would you like for God to do in your life or change about yourself?

The question is to help me to know how to pray for you in a proactive way. So much of my prayer for people is reactionary to difficult times or circumstances. There is value to that sort of prayer. But it has gotten stale. I want to pray for you, help me to pray for you.

As you think about that question, I would like you think deeply about it and think dangerously about it. By deeply, I mean go beyond the surface thoughts. Get to the core of what you want God to do in you. By dangerously, I mean to ask for something that will require a change in you that may not be comfortable. Ask for something that you have found impossible to attain for yourself.

Leave your answers in the comments section. If you want to share something a bit more personal and do not want to comment here, email me at rik@northchurchstl.com.

Prayer

2010-03-01T13:44:00.001-06:00

As a way to more effectively pray and to be more active in my prayer life, I would like to ask those who read this blog to give me some things to pray for them about specifically.

A few guidelines for you. First, I want to pray proactively. That is to say I do not wish for this forum to be a place for you to write about issues that you are having with health or friends

Two Points::Thursday February 25

2010-02-25T15:49:00.005-06:00

Point 1: I have quoted on several occasion the book "A Praying Life" by Paul Miller. It is one of the best reads I have found. Each page is filled with gospel centered thoughts about prayer and very practical. Life sped up for me for a while and I did not read it much, but I have picked it back up and found this gem today.

He is talking about the role of prayer in parenting when he says, "Until we become convinced we can't change our child's heart, we will not take prayer seriously." That is not a truth that is only applied to the area of parenting. Many time we do not pray because we are not yet convinced that we can not take of our problems and the problems of others.

I have learned this in my own life and as I pastor people. My first reaction is to apply my skill set to problems to "fix" them. It is only when I am unable to "fix" the problem that prayer becomes the option. I am focused in my own prayer life to pray first.

Point 2: I like to listen to sermons on my way to my new insurance job. I have 25 minutes or so in the car and I have found a good way to redeem that time is to listen to sermons on my iPod instead of wasting that time listening to sports radio. Today I listened to this sermon.

The manuscript of the sermon is here. I put in the manuscript so that you might be able to wrestle with the points more than just hearing it.

The reason that I post this on here is that I have been in contact with some people on places like facebook and in everyday life who are not involved in a church, but consider themselves to be Christians.

Let me be clear about two things. First, your salvation is not tied to your being engaged at church. Church involvement or membership is vital to the Christian life. The sermon details the reasons for that well. Second, I am not saying this to get you to come to North Church. I want you to be involved in any church where Christ is preached and the gospel and scripture are honored.

Many who are Christians and are not involved in churches are in the place they are in because of past involvement with churches or because they reject their own need to be involved. If this is you I want to ask you to read the sermon I linked on here with an open mind. We are all in need of authority in our lives. The church is an organism that God created for that purpose.

5 questions for North Church

2010-02-08T08:55:00.006-06:00

Last night Dave talked about 5 questions as he finished his message. I wanted to take a minute to talk about them and give my thoughts on the direction that God took my spirit last night.

1. Will we take God at His word?-John 17:20-23 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. This is Jesus praying for us just a few hours before his death. Jesus prays for us to be connected with God and each other for the purpose of world knowing Jesus and that He loves them. Scripture is filled with promises of God doing things in us and through us.

Mark 9:24 has been in my head since I preached it in the Images of Jesus series several months ago. The context is a man with a demon possessed son comes to Jesus and asks Jesus to heal his son. Jesus says that all things are possible for those who believe. The man responds with honesty and humility and vulnerability by saying, "I believe; help my unbelief!"

I thought of this last night during response time. I believe Jesus. But I have unbelief as well. That is my prayer. I believe, help my unbelief is my prayer because I trust God, but I am weak and like the man in Mark 9, there is much at stake.

2. Will we serve in our gifting?- Here are a few facts that we know from scripture: God has gifted each of those who trust in Him as Savior. God has prepared you for works of service for the building of the church. The one who knows what he ought to do, but does not do it, sins.

One of the objectives of your leadership is to make you aware of your giftings. There is responsibility on us as your leaders to equip you and to help you realize your gifts. There is responsibility on you as the one that is gifted to seek out those gifts and to serve with them. The question is simple, will you serve in your gifting?

I want to say a bit more about this one. This does not simply mean a role that you have in our Sunday service. There are many things that need to happen on Sunday nights for our service. These are things that are service to the body. What Dave is getting at here is more than that. We want you to run in the giftings and serve in them because of the magnitude of what is at stake. Romans 12 is a good place to read about gifts.

3. Will we give up what is comfortable- Leaving what is comfortable is hard and we do not like it. We have to understand that the prize of following God is beyond our ability to comprehend. Giving up our comfort for the sake what God is calling us to not a trade down! The prize is deeper relationship with God, the prize is the blessing that we receive because of obedience.

Let that thought sit on your spirit, because you might get asked to something that will threaten your comfort.

I will write on the other two questions later in the week. I wanted to keep it shorter because I want to encourage response and interaction. Please, interact on here with your thoughts and anything that God spoke to you last night or even today.

Churches Helping Churches

2010-01-28T12:47:00.006-06:00

We have talked on this blog and in our services about this Churches Helping Churches orginization. We gave you a chance to give last Sunday and we will give another chance this week. So be prepared to give this week.

Also, we are in the process of putting together another opportunity to support the effort there. In the next couple of days you will be able to buy a specially designed t shirt. We will have a link on northchurchstl.com to buy them via paypal or directly put them directly on a credit card. All of the proceeds will go to this Churches Helping Churches. We hope that this t shirt will create awareness of the needs in Haiti and serve as a reminder to pray for what is happening there.

Check out their website here churcheshelpingchurches.com. There is an update that tells of the recent developments and possibilities to be on the ground in Haiti helping that are coming soon.

Giving to the Church in Haiti

2010-01-23T09:43:00.006-06:00

Tomorrow, the 24^th and next Sunday, the 31^st, we will take a special offering for Haiti. We are all very aware of the incredible needs that are very present in that country. Many people are pouring money and relief efforts into the general needs present, but the big need that could go overlooked is the needs of the Church. Who will help the Church? An incredible organization has been started called Churches Helping Churches (www.churcheshelpingchurches.com) and this is where we will channel all money given.

Potential questions:

Q: What if I’ve already given to another organization for the relief efforts in Haiti?

A: Awesome! In no way do we want to tell you what obedience to the Lord looks like for you in this. We simply want to challenge the corporate body of believers at North Church to consider the needs of the Church in Haiti. Many, many resources are being poured into that country to help with medical needs, rebuilding roads, schools, governmental structures, hospitals, etc, and that’s awesome, but what relief is being targeted to the Church there? This is the heartbeat of the organization Churches Helping Churches and we as a church want to be a part of that. “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).

Q: Can I give online?

A: Absolutely! But here are a few things to consider. Part of the purpose of providing this opportunity to give during tomorrow’s service is for us as a body of believers at North Church to worship God by responding to His leading in this and to do it corporately. What an incredible thing for us to join in together in the context of sitting under the teaching of the Word and the celebration of the Lord’s supper and in the midst of that say that we as a church are responding to the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ in Haiti. Rather than this be several isolated acts of worship, which in turn will result in the same monetary results, we would love to worship the Lord and respond as a church body, together.

Q: How far will my giving go?

A: A long way! $1 US dollar is $10 Haitian dollars. $100 US dollars is $1000 Haitian dollars. The ability for us to provide greatly at this exchange rate is huge.

Q: Who should I make a check out to?

A: “North Church” We will pool all the money and then send in one payment.

Check out www.churcheshelpingchurches.com for more information.

My Prayer

2010-01-19T12:00:00.003-06:00

My Prayer::

I am fully aware of my dependant existence. Each breath is a gift and the next breath is not promised. Today as i get to celebrate the my daughter's birthday, I am reminded of the gift that life is.

I am fully aware that my comfort is not a priority. To live is Christ and to die is gain. I am to be a living sacrifice not conformed to the pattern of the world. Everything in this world, EVERYTHING, is rubbish when compared with knowing Christ. I am an exile on this earth, but I have an inheritance that cannot perish spoil or fade that is kept in heaven for me. No eye has seen no ear has heard no mind has perceived the glory of what God has prepared for me.

God continue to remind me of my contingent existence. My purpose here is to live as Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me."

God shape me to deny myself and serve you and others.

Some thoughts on Haiti's situation and the Christian's response

2010-01-15T11:53:00.002-06:00

Pat Robertson made a fool of himself and of Christians everywhere yesterday with his comments. I have listened to people in the media and in offices mock him. I have listened to people talk like Mr. Robertson is the voice of the Christian. Pat Robertson speaking on behalf of the gospel of Jesus Christ is like listening to McGwire talk about the purity of baseball or Gilbert Arenas about gun control.

Here is an excerpt of an article from Albert Mohler who is a more qualified speaker on the subject of Haiti and the Christian response.

Does God hate Haiti? God hates sin, and will punish both individual sinners and nations. But that means that every individual and every nation will be found guilty when measured by the standard of God's perfect righteousness. God does hate sin, but if God merely hated Haiti, there would be no missionaries there; there would be no aid streaming to the nation; there would be no rescue efforts -- there would be no hope.

The earthquake in Haiti, like every other earthly disaster, reminds us that creation groans under the weight of sin and the judgment of God. This is true for every cell in our bodies, even as it is for the crust of the earth at every point on the globe. The entire cosmos awaits the revelation of the glory of the coming Lord. Creation cries out for the hope of the New Creation.

In other words, the earthquake reminds us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only real message of hope. The cross of Christ declares that Jesus loves Haiti -- and the Haitian people are the objects of his love. Christ would have us show the Haitian nation his love, and share his Gospel. In the midst of this unspeakable tragedy, Christ would have us rush to aid the suffering people of Haiti, and rush to tell the Haitian people of his love, his cross, and salvation in his name alone.

Everything about the tragedy in Haiti points to our need for redemption. This tragedy may lead to a new openness to the Gospel among the Haitian people. That will be to the glory of God. In the meantime, Christ's people must do everything we can to alleviate the suffering, bind up the wounded, and comfort the grieving. If Christ's people are called to do this, how can we say that God hates Haiti?

More from Paul Miller's A Praying Life

2010-01-15T11:01:00.004-06:00

"We don't like God too close, especially if God is a deity we can't control. We have a primal fear of walking in the garden with God, naked, without clothing. We desperately want intimacy, but when it comes, we pull back, fearful of a God who is too personal, too pure."

He talks about how God is both infinite and personal. God is majestic and humble. God is Lord and Shepherd. As begin to understand these things, prayer becomes more easily understood and at the same time hard to grasp. He says, "Trying to dissect how prayer works is like using a magnifying glass to try to figure out why a woman is beautiful. If you turn God into and object, he has a way of disappearing. We do the same thing when a spouse or a friend treats us like an object, we pull back.

"If you are going to enter this divine dance we call prayer, you have to surrender your desire to be in control, to figure out how prayer works. You've got to let God take the lead. You have to trust. Then God will delight you."

My prayer for myself, my family, my church and all who read this is that God would reveal his infinite and personal nature to you today. It is also that you would let go of your grip of control and rest in the wonder of relationship with Jesus. Let it go and swim in the sea.

From A Praying Life by Paul Miller

2010-01-13T11:56:00.002-06:00

"To teach us how to pray, Jesus told stories of weak people who knew they couldn't do life on their own. Learned desperation is at the heart of a praying life."

"Suffering is God's gift to make us aware of our contingent existence. It creates an environment where we see the true nature of our existence- dependant on the living God."

These quotes that use phrases like learned desperation and contingent existence, make me think about what I have seen to be practically true in my own prayer life. So many times, I operate in my own skill set. When that does not work I seek someone with a skill set that will get the job done. Very rarely is the first reaction to pray and to pray with intensity and persistence.

This is not always the case. When a pastor who I admire and respect named Matt Chandler came down with a serious brain cancer diagnosis, there was a national call to pray. A great number of people began praying for Matt. An old friend of mine, named Jeff, about the same time, got a diagnosis of a cancer in his brain. The prognosis is not good. The reaction from everyone was to pray.

Cancer is something that we do not have to learn to be desperate about, we are desperate immediately. When we hear of malignant brain cancer, we know immediately that we are helpless.

But what do we do when the situation is not as grim as brain cancer? Is our first reaction to operate in our own strength? For me the answer is yes. When will we realize that our existence is a contingent existence and the our situation on this planet is desperate one? When will we understand that God has our very best interest in mind? Even when the diagnosis is cancer, even when we get a cold, even when our spouse leaves, even when we want a new job, even when we have an autistic child, even when we can not find our car keys, even when we can't make rent this month...God has our best interest at heart.

We have to understand that ours is a contingent existence. When any of these things happen, God is teaching that to us. Pray today, live today, be aware that yours is a contingent existence today.

Have an Intentional Devotional Life in 2010

2009-12-28T23:00:00.003-06:00

As we get ready to launch into a new year, I'm been thinking a ton about what 2009 has held and what I want to be the same and or different about 2010. The one thing I keep coming back to is our calling to relationship with our God. John 17:3 defines it incredibly well - "This is eternal life, that you KNOW HIM." So regardless of what your relationship with Him has looked like in the past, it can and should look different in the future. Prov. 4:18 teaches us this very truth -- there is alway more of Him to be had in our lives. I found an article written by an Acts 29 pastor on this very topic. I thought this was incredibly helpful and wanted to share it with you. The content is below or you can access the attached link. Will you join me in 2010???

Planning an Intentional Devotional Life for 2010. Do you have a plan?

by JR Vassar, Pastor of The Apostle's Church NYC

The most important thing you can do in 2010 is cultivate a devotional life that facilitates the intimate nearness of God. You won't accidentally get close to God. So, for 2010, I wanted to encourage you to embrace a focused intentionality in your devotional life. Here are some things I have been thinking through with regards to my devotional practices in 2010.

Have a no exemption time and place to meet with God. If you do not schedule in focused time with God, everything else in your life will schedule it out. Have a time and place and treat it as an appointment with the most important person in the universe. And, keep it; no excuses. It might be morning, evening, night, whatever. Just pick a time that you devote to seeking God with uninterrupted focus. If you have to put it on your calendar, do it.

Have a plan. What will you do during that time? The obvious answer is that the time will at least include contemplative bible reading and prayer. But, what will be the content of that contemplative reading? There are several options and no one option is best or right. You need to find what keeps you engaged and maybe even mix it up a little. Here are some options that some friends have shared with me on Twitter:

The M'Cheyne Reading System. Robert Murray M'Cheyne was a minister in the Church of Scotland from 1835-1843. He died at the age of 29 but left an amazing legacy. This is a plan he developed. The esv.org site explains this plan as "featuring four different readings for use in both family and personal devotions. Each day has two passages from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from either the Psalms or the Gospels. In one year, you read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice." You can subscribe theRSS feed and have it delivered into your google reader every day. Or you can download a printable version here.

ESV Study Bible Reading Plan. In my opinion, the best study bible available today is the ESV Study Bible. The Doctrines section in the back exceptional and the notes are very helpful. There is also a reading plan in the back of the ESV Study Bible. The esv.org site describes it as "readings every day from the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, Pentateuch and History of Israel, Chronicles and Prophets, and Gospels and Epistles." You can subscribe to the RSS feed and have it delivered to your google reader everyday.

The Book of Common Prayer. For those of us from the free church tradition, this seems a little foreign, but I have found the BCP daily office to be a great approach. Every day the BCP gives you a morning and evening Psalm, an OT reading, a Gospel reading and an NT reading. The great thing about the BCP is that Christians all over the world are reading the same Scriptures everyday together. You are reading with the Church. The BCP daily office is a two year cycle, each cycle beginning in the season of Advent. We just started Year Two. You won't read through the entire bible in those two years, but you will get a wide and diverse diet of the Scripture. For more information on the BCP visit this site and click on the Daily Office Lectionary. You can also subscribe the RSS feed and have the readings delivered to your google reader everyday.

Customize Your Own Reading Plan. If you want to customize your own reading plan so that your reading is heavier in one area than the other, you can use this website and have your customized plan emailed you to every day.

Choose Individual Books. Some prefer to stick in a book and go deep with it for a season. For instance, you might want to spend a month or two in the Gospel of John focusing on the glory of Christ. It is a good idea to alternate between OT and NT and different genres. Again, which plan you choose is not the most important thing. Don't stress over it. Just have a plan.

Begin your time with prayer and confession. Confess your sins to the Lord and ask him to cleanse your heart (of things you have done and things you have left undone) and open your eyes to behold wonderful things in his word (Psalm 119:18). You want a heart that is open and responsive to God and confession and prayer postures us in that way.

Read out loud. Maybe it is just me, but if I don't, I get really distracted.

Look for Gospel patterns. As you read, realize that Jesus and the Gospel is The One Story of the Bible. Look for Gospel patterns, grace on display, as you read. Especially in the OT. Every story has Christ as the ultimate hero. For example, don't read the story of David and Goliath and leave your devotional time "ready to face your giants." Realize that you are Israel in the story, not David. You are weak, powerless, cowering before your enemies of sin, Satan, and death, and you need an anointed King to defeat your enemies and cause you to rise up in hope and courage. Jesus is the true and better David, and he is the point of the story of David and Goliath. Look for these patterns in everything you read and rejoice in what God has accomplished for you in Jesus. We don't have devotions and pray in order to avoid the guilt of not having devotions and not praying. We have devotions and pray to know Jesus and his Gospel, and revel in all that he is for us and all that he has won for us.

Journal your thoughts and prayers. Journaling helps us process what we are reading and learning from the Lord. It is good to go back and read your journal to remind yourself of how God has been at work in your life in the past. Get a moleskin or a cheap equivalent and just do it for a season and see if it helps you.

Realize that this is a community project. You need to share what God is saying to you and have others share what God is saying to them. Consider doing one of the above plans with a group of people, a spouse, a roommate, or your church staff.

Don't give up. I have missed meals in the past, but never gave up on eating. I just made sure I did not miss the next meal (and usually made up for it). You are going to miss days, often times multiple days. Repent of your neglect of God and press on in knowing him. Your righteousness is not in how consistent your devotional life is; it is in Jesus Christ who is constant and ever faithful. So, relax and pick up where you left off.

The beauty and joy of 2010 will not depend upon your circumstances, but upon your experience of the One you were made for. As much of him that you want to experience, you will experience. He promises to reward those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Friday, Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T00:20:00.000-06:00

Friday Love::

Read Luke 2:1-7

Love is here. The reading today is intentionally short. All of these readings are intended to connect your heart with THE COMING hope, peace, joy and love that is found in Jesus. Reflect on the simplicity of the story you have just read in Luke 2:1-7.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Thursday Christmas Ee

2009-12-24T10:44:00.000-06:00

Thursday Love::

Read Luke 1:39-56.

Starting with verse 46, this is Mary’s song of praise, also called The Magnificant. The title is derived from the first line of the song, “My soul magnifies…” Mary’s song is intended to make larger the love that has come to her and is COMING to the world.

As you read, know that Mary is a teenager and of no worldly significance. Also know that Jesus comes to those who seek Him and who are humble and hungry.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Wednesday

2009-12-23T09:07:00.001-06:00

Wednesday Love::

Read 1 John 4:10

God is the love; not us. Jesus is the love; not us. When Jesus was born to Mary in that stable, true love that gives of itself for the betterment of another was born. True love that has no motive other than the object of love was born.

You might need to know what propitiation means. Simply put, it means "paid for." Jesus is loved defined. That definition is to come and bring to us what we could not bring to ourselves, which is the payment for sin and reconciliation with God.

Pastor and author John Piper says, “"Love is bringing the object of your love to a place where they are enthralled with that which will eternally satisfy the soul, namely Jesus."

Jesus is love. Christmas truly is THE COMING of love.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Tuesday

2009-12-22T09:58:00.000-06:00

Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Think of the person that you love the most. For me it is my wife. I am a pretty decent husband. My wife tells me I am. She tells me that I love her well and that she feels loved by me.

When I read the verses in 1 Corinthians that you just read, I am embarrassed of my love. I am not always kind or patient. I am often proud and rude and easily angered. I hold wrongs against my wife. I am not always protective, trusting or hopeful. I am a failure at the Biblical definition of love.

I am that way with the person I love the most. The bad news is that you're the same way. The good news is that Jesus does not care. He came as love to show us how to love, knowing we would not ever do it fully. But He came anyway.

That is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our failure does not diminish our acceptance. I want to say that again in a more personal way. Your failure does not diminish your acceptance. The love of God overcomes your failure, and it is not dependant upon you in any way. Jesus is the perfect love; it is love that has no condition.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Monday

2009-12-21T10:23:00.000-06:00

Monday Love::

Read Romans 5:8

The greatest act of love this world has ever seen is God giving His son Jesus. John 3:16 says that God sent His son because He loves us so much, and that if we would just believe in Jesus we would have eternal life.

There is more to this love than just that familiar verse. Read Romans 5:8. There are two striking phrases that are here. The first is easy to miss without knowledge of the Greek language. The phrase is, “God shows his love…” The word that is translated as “shows” is profound.

The word picture that is painted is placing something within your reach. This book that you are holding is within your reach. When my children were very small, we had to make sure things that would hurt them were outside of their reach. There was nothing sharp left too low.

The second phrase is, “still sinners.” As sinners, we are repulsive to God. God cannot be in the presence of sin; it would contradict His holiness. Romans 3 says that as sinners our mouths are as open graves and filled with disease. In our most wretched and repulsive state, love came to our world.

This is what is happening here. As sinners, we are dead and unable to move toward God. But God’s plan to redeem us was to place His life-giving love within the reach of a dead man. Jesus is that love personified, and with the birth of Jesus that love is within our reach. That is what we celebrate this season and what we celebrate in THE COMING of love.

Advent 2009:: The Coming PEACE Wednesday

2009-12-16T07:54:00.000-06:00

Wednesday Peace::

I have a good friend in Afghanistan who flies attack helicopters in the war. He gets a chance every now and then to send me pictures and emails about some of the stuff happening. He asks me to pray for his wife and kids who are home without their husband and father. He asks me to pray for the people that he serves with who have been wounded. And he asks me to pray for the families of those who have died in the battles.

As I do that, I reflect on the pain that he and his fellow service men must be facing and that his fellow service men face. I also reflect on the stress and fear that has to overcome these guys’ families. This is not the first time my friend has been in Afghanistan. When he returned home the last time, the reunion of my friend and his family was cherished because they knew intimately what it meant to be apart, to be separated. The peace they have in those moments of reunion is a peace that I cannot fully understand, because I have not been in an attack helicopter over enemy territory.

I think we cannot truly appreciate the peace we enjoy unless we know the pain, fear and difficulties of what it means to be at war. In today’s reading, we see the place that we are before Christ comes into our lives with his peace.

Advent 2009:: The Coming PEACE Monday and Tuesday

2009-12-15T13:49:00.000-06:00

Monday Peace::

The following comes from a sermon by Tim Keller given on December 21, 2001 at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York.

At some point in all relationships, you get in a conversation that goes something like this:

“You’re to blame!”
“No, it’s your fault!”
“No, it’s you.”
“No it isn’t. It’s you.”

What’s happening? The relationship is falling apart because neither side will take the blame, budge an inch or make any concession. Neither side will admit wrong or drop defenses. And as long as defenses are up, the relationship is going awry.

But then something happens:

“You’re to blame!”
“No, it’s your fault!”
“No, it’s you.”
“No it isn’t. It’s you.”
“Okay, it’s me.”

One person drops defenses. The relationship starts to come back because one person is willing to say, “Yeah it’s me. I am to blame here.” One person makes himself/herself vulnerable, and the relationship is restored.

Why would a person do that? Because in midst of all the yelling and all the hostility, one person decides that, despite how distorted the other person has become because of anger, he/she wants the other person back. He/she wants the relationship to be restored.

The only way to do that is to take down the shield, become vulnerable, and let one of the verbal blows land. It hurts, but it’s the only way. It’s a costly act of redemption. And it works because we were created in the image of the One who gave the ultimate expression of this part of his own nature at Christmas.

Tuesday Peace::

In this passage we see interaction between Mary and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Mary are related in some way. We are never told how exactly; they are probably close cousins of some sort. In these verses, Mary is pregnant with Jesus and Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist.

Read Luke 1:39-45

"Blessed (in Luke 1:39-45) is to be brought back to full shalom, full human functioning. It makes you everything that God meant for you to be. What Elizabeth is saying is that if Mary believes and owns this incarnation that the angel is speaking to her, she will be totally changed, transformed…blessed." -Tim Keller

This is peace that is offered. We were made to enjoy eternal peace with God. We were made to enjoy Him and His creation and be enjoyed by Him. But the fracture of self dependence and self provision has come. That fracture has taken away our peace, leaving us longing for something more and different.

Even the irreligious would admit that there is something within each of us that longs for something more. We are longing to get back this “full shalom,” this full peace that came in the form of a baby. Celebrate this baby today and the peace that He brings.

My prayer for you this week is that you will have a deeper knowledge and experience of the peace that Jesus came to bring to you and to the world.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Friday

2009-12-10T23:08:00.000-06:00

Friday Joy::

Philippians is book that deals greatly with joy and greatly with Jesus. It is a short book. Take a chance this weekend to read the entire book, more than once, if you can. The Apostle Paul wrote the book and uses a form of the word “joy” 12 times in this short book. Many scholars consider joy to be this book’s theme.

Here’s some background for you on the book: Paul’s major job was to start churches. He would go into a town and draw people with his teaching about Jesus, and then he would appoint pastors and invest in them and help them start a church. He’d then go into the next town. Paul did this thing in the city of Philippi . Years later, he wrote this book to the people of Philippi .

Paul is in prison and in very poor health as he writes the book. He expects to be killed for his belief in Jesus and the things he’s spoken about Him. Paul hopes to see the Philippians again, but he expects to be killed by his captors.

There is a man named Epaphroditus, who was one of the pastors of the church in Philippi . The Philippians sent Epaphroditus to Paul during his time in prison. While Epaphroditus was with Paul, he developed a nearly fatal illness.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Thursday

2009-12-10T23:04:00.001-06:00

Thursday:: Joy

Joy is not found in the circumstances of your life. Circumstances can change; health can fade, the economy can fall apart, jobs can be lost. If your joy is found in these things, it can fade, fall apart or be lost. The joy that THE COMING of Jesus brought to this world is deeper than that.

Scripture says in 1 Peter that the follower of Christ has an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. That same passage says that we are strangers in this world and that we were not meant to live in a broken and fallen world. It is a world with death and disease and heartache. But God has given us a hope and a peace that is the epicenter of our joy.

I have a friend named Denny. Denny had a son named Jon who died in a tragic accident just after his junior year of high school. The days and weeks following his death were very difficult on Denny and the rest of his family. I do not remember a father and son closer than Denny and Jon. They were best friends.

As time went by, Denny began to talk about how grateful he was that God gave him the 17 years with Jon and the great memories that would never be lost. He was grateful for the fact they were best friends. There is a lot that Denny likes to talk about in regards to Jon, but this is the most profound for me. Denny doesn’t simply mourn the loss of his son. Denny celebrates his son. Denny celebrates the God who allowed him to spend 17 great years with Jon.

Denny’s joy was not and is not bound by his circumstances. In John 14:6, Jesus calls himself the truth. The definition of the type of truth Jesus uses here is a truth that is unaffected by circumstances. Think of a concrete pillar holding up a great bridge. The waves and boats that pass by do not affect the pillar. This is Jesus. This is the kind of joy THE COMING brought.

If the joy in your life is bound to the circumstances in your life, I invite you to investigate this Jesus that came to bring you real joy that is unaffected by circumstances. Think on that joy – the joy brought by THE COMING of Jesus.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Wednesday

2009-12-08T22:26:00.001-06:00

Wednesday Joy::

In Genesis 22, you find the story of Abraham and Isaac. You might know this story. Abraham is over 100 years old when the story takes place, and his son Isaac is just a boy. God has promised Abraham that he will be the father of God’s people. Isaac is the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise.

Then God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Sin is a big deal to God, and in the Old Testament times, God’s people offered sacrifices to appease the wrath of God toward sin. So Abraham trusted God and resolved to surrender his promising-fulfilling son.

The Bible says that Abraham traveled to a mountain and bound his son on an altar and took a knife to slaughter him. As the knife in Abraham’s hand reached its apex, an angel of the Lord commanded him to stop.

In the moments between the command to sacrifice Isaac and the command to stop, Abraham had to be filled with fear. As a father, this story always brings great sorrow to my heart. One of my greatest fears is the loss of one of my children. The scriptures say there were four days from the command to sacrifice until the command to stop. Fear had to grip Abraham. He had to have fear of God, fear of people and what would they think of him, fear of Isaac’s mother, fear of being misunderstood, and fear of the culture having a backlash at God and blaming him for this death. Fear gripped that man on that journey to that mountain.

Imagine what had to be running through Abraham’s mind for those 96 hours. Think on it deeply. Think also on the joy that filled his heart when God stopped the sacrifice. God provided a ram that was nearby to be the sacrifice. Abraham called the name of that place, "The LORD will provide," as it is said to this day.

The Lord will provide, and has provided. Celebrate the joy that God has provided for you today.