I just had my 40th birthday last week. Birthdays are hard days for me because they magnify the battle between my flesh and my spirit. Some back story is needed to convey what God has placed on my heart.
Rex Alexander was my youth minister in high school. He was and is a great man of God. The thing that made me admire him so much was that he lived a life where he died to himself. In his marriage, his ministry, the way he interacted with everyone, he was more concerned about them than himself.
It was in high school that God began getting my attention about a life given to pastoral ministry. It was Rex and his dying to himself that led to this. Successful life and successful ministry were dependant upon grasping and living out this idea.
Fast forward many years to a conversation I had a few years ago with a close friend. He was working as an assistant to Darrin Patrick, who is the pastor The Journey in St. Louis. My friend said that on of the reasons for the success of The Journey and that men flocked to Darrin to be discipled was that Darrin had figured out how to die to himself.
That statement has rung in my head and when he said it I was reminded of Rex who God had used to woo me with the same notion 20 years prior.
That is the back story and leads me to this. There are a few things that I want more than anything for my life. Sometimes I don’t act like I want these things, but ultimately, there is nothing that I want more than these things and when I pursue things that are contrary to these things, I am disgusted with myself.
So more than anything I want first to know Christ in the most intimate way. Secondly, I want to be the husband to my wife that she deserves because of who she is in Christ and model Christ to her in a tangible way by laying down my life as I am called to in Ephesians 5. Third, I want to shepherd my kids to the gospel and be a model of Christ to them and remind them of the love of Jesus in a practical way. And lastly, I want to lead North Church in such a way that its people see the beauty of death to self and the joy that comes from it so that they are inspired or compelled to practice this sort of humility.
So back to the context of my recent birthday; our culture wants to make much of people on their birthdays. I find nothing wrong with celebrating a person on the birthday, I do not mean to convey that or to try to get you change the way that you celebrate a person on their birthday. But for me, as I wrestle with this death to self sort of humility, I was in deep conflict.
In one corner of my soul was death to self that was the known way to what I want from my life. In the other corner of my soul was a desire for everyone to cater to me and celebrate me on this day. Ultimately these are two very self centered ideas. It is obvious that wanting everyone to make much of me and celebrate me is a self centered idea. But it is an idea runs against the laws and plans of God.
But really this idea of death to self is a self centered idea as well. It is the way that leads to everything that I want out of life. It leads to intimacy with Jesus, beautiful relationship with my wife, kids that love Jesus and love the gospel and a thriving church to lead.
Take a look at Philippians 2:3-8. Pray through it, chew on each word, meditate on it. Here in these words are the secrets to joy and purpose. Taste of them and see that the Lord is good. Place your faith in these words, trust that God has your very best interest in mind. Surrender to these words and their ability to bring you Jesus.
Faith= Trust + Surrender
In the sermon this week we looked at Galatians 3:15-29. We centered the message around the conclusion of the this passage, in particular Galatians 3:26. You can listen to it here.
Faith is such a key component of who we are in Christ. It is also a WAY misunderstood concept. Faith as a word in our cultural context is so little compared to what it means in respect to your relationship with Jesus. Faith is where trust and surrender meet. Here are some definitions that I came up with in the sermon Sunday.
Trust- I believe with all that I am that you have my best interest in mind and that you are able to come through on what you have promised. I believe you.
Surrender- I bet my life on that trust. I quit trying to do something that I cannot do. I ask you to expel my desires and replace them with your own. I die to myself.
These are big words, big concepts for us to wrestle with. If we really wrestle with them, much of who we are and much of our motivations have to change. Take some time this day to meditate on these definitions and how they shape your faith and your relationship to God.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Post them here or email them to me.
Faith is such a key component of who we are in Christ. It is also a WAY misunderstood concept. Faith as a word in our cultural context is so little compared to what it means in respect to your relationship with Jesus. Faith is where trust and surrender meet. Here are some definitions that I came up with in the sermon Sunday.
Trust- I believe with all that I am that you have my best interest in mind and that you are able to come through on what you have promised. I believe you.
Surrender- I bet my life on that trust. I quit trying to do something that I cannot do. I ask you to expel my desires and replace them with your own. I die to myself.
These are big words, big concepts for us to wrestle with. If we really wrestle with them, much of who we are and much of our motivations have to change. Take some time this day to meditate on these definitions and how they shape your faith and your relationship to God.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Post them here or email them to me.
"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Romans 8:13 Galatians 2:20 Philippians 3:8-12
I have been wrestling with this notion of dying to self. It is a struggle that has been in me since high school. But recently it has been more severe as I struggle through raising a family, planting a church, walking through hard times with friends and preaching Galatians.
Then I read this quote today on a friends blog and I cannot get past the line, "narrow confines of his individualistic concerns..." I do not have to look to hard at myself to see a desire to satisfy myself. That is the root of sin, a mistaken idea that somehow I am better at pleasing myself than God is, I am better and giving myself pleasure than God is.
My prayer is this, "God would you give me whatever I need to crucify my flesh, to look beyond myself and to the needs of others? Would you remind of that every day?"
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Romans 8:13 Galatians 2:20 Philippians 3:8-12
I have been wrestling with this notion of dying to self. It is a struggle that has been in me since high school. But recently it has been more severe as I struggle through raising a family, planting a church, walking through hard times with friends and preaching Galatians.
Then I read this quote today on a friends blog and I cannot get past the line, "narrow confines of his individualistic concerns..." I do not have to look to hard at myself to see a desire to satisfy myself. That is the root of sin, a mistaken idea that somehow I am better at pleasing myself than God is, I am better and giving myself pleasure than God is.
My prayer is this, "God would you give me whatever I need to crucify my flesh, to look beyond myself and to the needs of others? Would you remind of that every day?"
From My Utmost
Today's Reading from My Utmost for His Highest
This is a great and simple reading. Sometimes these readings can be hard and very deep. This one is beautifully easy and simple, but still full of truth.
The last thought Chambers gives us is this, "Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can expound nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him."
I love that notion of fussy notions, fussy comradeships and fussy ideas. What is cluttering your brain that keeps you from being alone with God? Chambers talks about affliction heartbreak or temptation being a factor is God getting us alone with himself.
Yesterday was my wife's birthday. It was a long full day. But I remember sitting down at Pi for dinner. I knew when we left Pi we were going home to a surprise party for her and there would be lots of people in our home. We had just come from a movie and she had spent the morning with some girl friends. This was going to be my only time to really engage her and talk to her on her day.
To our left was a TV with Sports Center on. Usually I would have been distracted by that and not fully engaged in the conversation with her. But on this day, her birthday, a day when I wanted to celebrate her all day long, I was not. I was fully engaged in her. This was my time to just be alone with my wife. It was wonderful.
Ask God in this moment to give you some alone time today. Today is a day to celebrate Him, do not be distracted, take time to be alone with Him today, maybe even now.
Thoughts from todays Utmost reading
Today's reading is here
"he had come to the end of himself and all his self-sufficiency, there was not one strand of himself he would ever rely upon again, and in his destitution he was in a fit condition to receive an impartation from the risen Lord."
God has been really pressing in on this notion. Through a conversation with a recovering drug and alcohol abuser, through reading Radical by David Platt, through personal private study, born in a desire to see God work in North Church; God is calling me and I pray also that He is calling you to die to yourself that He might live through you.
In Radical, Platt says, "God delights in using ordinary Christians who come to the end of themselves and choose to trust in his extraordinary provision." All over scripture God is making this plea to us, to find our joy and our strength and our hope and our desires in Him. Psalm 37:4 promises that God will replace your lack luster desire with His life giving desires deep in your heart, Psalm 130:7 promises that when our hope is placed in him and not in self we experience steadfast love, Matthew 5:3 tells us that when we realize and come to grips with our spiritual poverty we receive the Kingdom.
My prayer for myself and for you, "God would you show me what it looks like to die to myself? Give me a deep passion and zeal for this."
From Radical by David Platt
"The Gospel confronts us with the hopelessness of our sinful condition. But we don’t like what we so of ourselves in the gospel, so we shrink back from it. We live in a land of self improvement. Certainly there are steps that we can take to make ourselves better. So we modify what the gospel says about us.
We are not evil, we think, and certainly not spiritually dead…My life is not going right, but God loves me and has a plan to fix my life. I simply need to follow certain steps, think certain things and check off certain boxes and I am good.
Both our diagnosis of the situation and our conclusion regarding the solution fit nicely in a culture that exalts self-sufficiency and self-confidence. We already have a fairly high view of our morality, so when we add a superstitious prayer, a subsequent dose of church attendance and obedience to some of the Bible we fell pretty sure that we will be alright in the end."
David Platt from Radical
One of the things that gives me great discouragement is that we have a lot of people walking around this planet who, if you asked them, would call themselves Christian and they have no idea what the term Christian even means from a Biblical perspective. This quote gets to the heart of that issue. Our self diagnosis of our spiritual condition is based more on our morality, church attendance as a kid, and a general sense of entitlement than scripture.
That is a very dangerous thing. The extent of the danger of this misdiagnosis is truly unable to be communicated in this forum. It is dire. We are called to daily lay ourselves down and crucify our self centered desires and have them replaced by Christ. Matthew 16:24. Galatians 2:20. We are mistaken if we think that half-hearted Christianity is Christianity at all.
I encourage you to reflect on this notion is a real way. Stop right now and examine your heart and mind.
A Great Luther Quote
“Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
