The Mission of the Church

We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me. (Colossians 1:28-29)

This passage has been on my mind for weeks. As I sit in a Brenham, TX hotel room I felt compelled to meditate on this verse today. Our family is in Brenham to watch the Trolls play for the state championship in soccer. This is the team Christa and Lauren Levens play on. The entire family made the journey yesterday after Jessica Runnel’s wedding. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was the spiritual union of two young adults who sought out God’s will for their lives. It was beautiful, yet it was not flashy. It was a ceremony that kept the focus on the commitments being made--this is what a wedding ceremony is all about. What a joy it was to see the two believers focus their wedding ceremony on what is really important. Mom and Dad of the bride and the groom should be proud! By the way, did you see them? Davelyn looked beautiful of course, but did you see Richard? I became a little concerned about my job security! Put that man in a suit and he looked ready to take over the pulpit. He set my mind at ease though when he told me it was a “two for one” purchase. He was going to wear this suit one more time and that was when he was at his own funeral.

Back to the verse...If we had to do it over again, it would make sense that this be the mission statement for Southside. It really is the mission statement for every church. Evangelism and discipleship are at the heart of all we do as a family of faith. All church mission statements must include this, we just word them differently to fit our particular church. In the verse we find the idea of evangelism and discipleship which are at the very core of everything a church does. These two things lead a believer to all the other purposes of life. Worship flows naturally from the heart of a person who has been saved and discipled. Ministry just becomes of part of the being of the mature believer. Fellowship with other believers is desired by those who have a strong understanding of God’s Word. This verse really speaks to what the church should be--it gives us the mission statement for the New Testament church. We will look at this passage closely in a couple of weeks as we consider the mission of Southside. We are not a big church, but we are a church doing big things for God. In order for this to continue, the people of Southside need to proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. [We need to] labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in [us].

An Above and Beyond All God

Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think--according to the power that works in you--to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Do you like to dream? Do you spend a lot of time in the What if’s of life? Not the self pity what ifs but the ones that are dreams of what could be. What if God blessed me with the ability to …? What comes to mind when you complete this sentence? It could be as simple as God giving you a full night’s rest or a pain free day. It could be that you desire to be debt free or just pay your bills this month. Maybe it is to overcome a terminal disease. It could be to spend Christmas with a loved one. Paul tells us that God is able to do this and more. When we really tap into the heart of God, we begin to have dreams like: What if God used me to teach someone deep truths of Scripture? or What if God allowed me to spread renewal across our city?

According to Paul in the letter to the Ephesians, God is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think. That is amazing! As we sit and dream about how God could use us, He is moving above and beyond that. No matter how big we are thinking, God is able to do more.

Let me share with a couple of things that have happened in the last week to testify to this. For some time Southside has been praying specifically for personal renewal to take place among the people of God. Last week I spoke with a man dealing with some tough issues in his life. It is a man that I have been praying for just over 10 years. In our conversation, we talked of how God has orchestrated the events of his life, specifically over the last 10 years. God has used these events to bring him to a point of desperation. “Desperation” was the word he used to describe his status. In praying for him, it was always the thought that at some point I would have an opportunity to pursue a conversation concerning a deeper spiritual walk with this man. This is exactly what happened except that I was not the one to pursue this conversation. He came to my office looking for answers in his life. I was able to use the Scripture to point him to personal renewal. God did above and beyond what was asked of Him.

Another request that we have been asking God to provide is a stateside Burkina Faso contact. We would love to have someone here who can help us with our work in Burkina Faso. We prayed and then began to work to find someone. We planned a mission trip to New York City. There is a large contingency of West Africans there, so we thought we may be able to find help there. That trip did not make, so we continued to pray. We thought that maybe we could find someone closer. Dallas and Houston were logical places to consider since they have many foreign cultures within their city limits. Contact was made with some schools, and some leads were found but nothing ever panned out. Last week I received an email from Randy Brown, pastor at Calvary in Lufkin. He gave the phone number of a seminary student who grew up in Burkina Faso. I immediately called this student and he was overjoyed that we were working to reach his people for Christ. He offered to help us in any way he could. I wish you could have heard the excitement in his voice. It was so strong. It was so genuine. God has once again provided what we asked for. Did I mention that he was attending seminary in Jacksonville, TX? God is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or even think.

Who would have dreamed that a Burkinbe pastor would come to be trained in the Word sixty miles from Lufkin? Who would have dreamed that after ten years God would bring a man to a place of personal renewal? Who would dream that God will do for you above and beyond that which thought in the sentence you completed at the beginning of this writing? He can and will. According to the power that works in you, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Dealing with Condemnation

Nearly thirty years ago I was a struggling teenager searching for purpose in life. My search was not a diligent one, it was more of a Don’t know what I’m looking for until I find it kind of thing. During that time period, there were multiple failures associated with my life. Most of the failures were not public so very few people knew of this struggle. Recently I was reminded of one of these areas of severe failure in my life.  It was so convicting and even condemning. Missy and I talked about it for a while. She was just becoming part of my life at this time, so she was not involved for the most part. This failure was right in front of me--there was no way to deny it; no way to blame it on anyone else. It was my own doing. That night I went to sleep with this on my mind. How could I have allowed this to happen? There is no way to go back and repair this. My façade of a great life was suddenly confronted with the reality of how messy I really am. There in front of me was glaring evidence of the mess I made of my life. I fell asleep talking with the Lord about this issue.

The next morning I woke up and grabbed my Bible and began to think again about the confrontation I had with my former self the night before. God did a work in my life in two very distinct ways. I realized that it was my former self because I had been made new in Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17). God reminded me that there really was no way for me to deal with this myself (Eph 2:8-9). He reminded me that I should leave the past behind and move ahead with the call that He has placed on my life (Phil. 3:13-14). He also reminded me that His grace is more than sufficient to cover my struggles and failures (2 Cor. 12:9). He reminded me that all that is good about me is due to His working in my life. My goodness does not measure up to much in His eyes (Is. 64:6).

The two lessons I took away from this were not new to me and probably not to you either. First, the Lord brought afresh and anew to me the truth that no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Even though I cannot make up for my past mistakes, God can. That is why Jesus came. That is what Christmas is about. It is about the gift of forgiveness; the gift of reconciliation; the gift of salvation! The fact that Jesus took my failures and placed them on Himself means that I can be cleared of those transgressions. That truth brings both joy and sadness. It brings sadness that I forced Jesus to the cross by my sin. It brings joy to know that Jesus went to the cross to take away my sin. I was reminded that Jesus died for me.

Secondly, I was reminded that no matter how far along I get in walk with Jesus, I must never forget that He is only reason I am what I am. Had I been left to my own way, I know that my life would have been one failure after another. I have no idea where I would be right now, nor do I want to know. I actually thanked God for bringing this reminder into my life. It helped me put myself back into proper perspective. On my own I am failure but working with God, success in the Kingdom is readily attained.

It is intentional that the specifics of this particular failure are not mentioned. Intentional because it really doesn’t matter what the failure, the truths that God brought to light through His Word apply to all failures. And I pray that as you read this, you will realize the same truth in your life. Is there some failure from your past haunting you? Go back to the second paragraph and look at those truths. Maybe you are stuck in some failure right now. God’s Word applies the same to you. All you need to add is repentance onto the front of the second paragraph and you can move ahead.
Don’t let failures get you down. God sent Jesus so that you could escape condemnation. If God doesn’t condemn those who trust in Jesus, why should they condemn themselves? Christmas is about gifts—really it is about a gift. It is about the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Be reminded of that as you go through this Christmas season.

The Real Battle

(By John MacArthur, October 19th, 2008)
This article originally appeared here at Grace To You.

With the nation focused on the November elections, we thought a post on politics might be appropriate. The point of this article is not that we should abstain from any participation in the political process, but rather that we must keep our priorities straight as Christians. After all, the gospel, not politics, is the only true solution to our nation’s moral crisis.

We can’t protect or expand the cause of Christ by human political and social activism, no matter how great or sincere the efforts. Ours is a spiritual battle waged against worldly ideologies and dogmas arrayed against God, and we achieve victory over them only with the weapon of Scripture. The apostle Paul writes: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5).

We must reject all that is ungodly and false and never compromise God’s standards of righteousness. We can do that in part by desiring the improvement of society’s moral standards and by approving of measures that would conform government more toward righteousness. We do grieve over the rampant indecency, vulgarity, lack of courtesy and respect for others, deceitfulness, self-indulgent materialism, and violence that is corroding society. But in our efforts to support what is good and wholesome, reject what is evil and corrupt, and make a profoundly positive impact on our culture, we must use God’s methods and maintain scriptural priorities.

God is not calling us to wage a culture war that would seek to transform our countries into “Christian nations.” To devote all, or even most, of our time, energy, money, and strategy to putting a facade of morality on the world or over our governmental and political institutions is to badly misunderstand our roles as Christians in a spiritually lost world.

God has above all else called the church to bring sinful people to salvation through Jesus Christ. Even as the apostle Paul described his mission to unbelievers, so it is the primary task of all Christians to reach out to the lost “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me [Christ]” (Acts 26:18; cf. Ex. 19:6; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9).

If we do not evangelize the lost and make disciples of new converts, nothing else we do for people--no matter how beneficial it seems--is of any eternal consequence. Whether a person is an atheist or a theist, a criminal or a model citizen, sexually promiscuous and perverse or strictly moral and virtuous, a greedy materialist or a gracious philanthropist--if he does not have a saving relationship to Christ, he is going to hell. It makes no difference if an unsaved person is for or against abortion, a political liberal or a conservative, a prostitute or a police officer, he will spend eternity apart from God unless he repents and believes the gospel.

When the church takes a stance that emphasizes political activism and social moralizing, it always diverts energy and resources away from evangelization. Such an antagonistic position toward the established secular culture invariably leads believers to feel hostile not only to unsaved government leaders with whom they disagree, but also antagonistic toward the unsaved residents of that culture--neighbors and fellow citizens they ought to love, pray for, and share the gospel with. To me it is unthinkable that we become enemies of the very people we seek to win to Christ, our potential brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Author John Seel pens words that apply in principle to Christians everywhere and summarize well the believer’s perspective on political involvement:
A politicized faith not only blurs our priorities, but weakens our loyalties. Our primary citizenship is not on earth but in heaven. … Though few evangelicals would deny this truth in theory, the language of our spiritual citizenship frequently gets wrapped in the red, white and blue. Rather than acting as resident aliens of a heavenly kingdom, too often we sound [and act] like resident apologists for a Christian America. … Unless we reject the false reliance on the illusion of Christian America, evangelicalism will continue to distort the gospel and thwart a genuine biblical identity…..

American evangelicalism is now covered by layers and layers of historically shaped attitudes that obscure our original biblical core. (The Evangelical Pulpit [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993], 106-7)
By means of faithful preaching and godly living, believers are to be the conscience of whatever nation they reside in. You can confront the culture not with the political and social activism of man’s wisdom, but with the spiritual power of God’s Word. Using temporal methods to promote legislative and judicial change, and resorting to external efforts of lobbying and intimidation to achieve some sort of “Christian morality” in society is not our calling--and has no eternal value. Only the gospel rescues sinners from sin, death, and hell.

Change Is Inevitable

It has been said that the only constant is change. This phrase is attributed to Heraclitus of Ephesus, a Greek philosopher (c.535 BC - 475 BC). Although he was a strange and bitter man who hated his own people, he hit on a note of truth with this phrase.

Things constantly change. I remember as a young child going from house to house on Halloween excited about the candy I would get from complete strangers. A few years later I was only allowed to go to the homes of the people known to my family because things had changed. It was no longer safe to go to houses of people you did not know. Now many churches offer a safe alternative to Halloween due to the change in attitude toward Halloween.

Think about this. Did you know that the second generation of computer users is now online? Many people don’t think about it - but they are. Personal computers started appearing in the mid 1990s. Now, approximately twelve years later, those children who grew up with computers are now computing. They use computers a great deal in their education, careers and personal lives. They use them much more than the first generation of computer users did. Just a little more than a decade ago most computers use was limited to the work place. Now we bank online, share our personal photos with the world, and some even share their thoughts with the world by blogging. In the case of the latter, I wish many of them wouldn’t!

No matter how hard we fight it, change is inevitable. Let show you another example of this. This happens often when someone comes into my study for the first time. They look at my wedding pictures and Who is that? referring to me. In the pictures I am a skinny twenty-five year old. Now I am an old, fat man. No matter how hard I tried to keep it from happening, my body changed. It is a part of life.

Change is a part of your spiritual life as well. The very moment you said yes to Jesus Christ change took place in you. You became a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! You were changed by the power of the Holy Spirit coming into your life. Jesus became the center of your universe. He became to ruler of your life. Your sins were forgiven; you were made clean. It was a fresh new start for you. What a change!

This change continues until the day we see Him face to face. The greatest Christian to live since Jesus said this toward the end of his life, Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you also. (Phil 3:12-15) If Paul was still seeking the goal years after he gave his life to Jesus, we should be doing the same thing. Our lives should be in a constant state of change.

This will be until the final change is made. We should all strive to be more like Christ until this final change is made. This change will happen in an instant. We will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.(1 Cor 15:51-52) Then our change will be complete—no more sorrow, no more sin, no more sickness. What a great change that will be.

Heraclitus may not be a man we can pattern our life after, but he did stumble on to something that can help us in our Christian walk. The one constant is change. Our lives are changing everyday. Until the day of that final change, we need to be conscious of the change taking place in our lives now. The one constant is change. That is true in the spiritual realm. Every day we are changing into a person more like Christ or less like Christ. We need to work hard to make sure we are becoming more like Jesus.

Slingshot

Have you seen the Slingshot video? My family went with the Runnels family on vacation to DisneyWorld recently. We had a great time and one of the attractions that drained my wallet, I mean that we enjoyed was called the Slingshot. It is a ride that Richard and I found by accident as we were doing our manly duties on the vacation--grocery shopping. We left the house we were renting following the instructions of that bossy woman. How dare you think of Missy and Davelyn--I was referring to the lady on the GPS system that Richard and I have. You should be ashamed of yourself. Anyway, as we were carefully following her instructions (twenty years of marriage teach you to do that), we passed this place with brilliant lights and a couple of rides. As we drove by and saw the Slingshot I told Richard, You have got to be crazy to get on that thing. It is 365 feet high, propels you at over 100 mph, and pulls around 6 G’s. I can handle the G’s and would actually enjoy the 100 mph, but the killer for me is the 365 feet. I don’t do heights.

By my own assessment, I must be crazy because I was on the ride just a few days after my statement. All of us, except the mothers, ended up being crazy because we all rode the Slingshot. It was one of the most thrilling moments of the trip. We even bought videos of our rides. They are so funny! If you haven’t seen them, come by and I will show them to you.

On a subsequent trip to buy groceries, I had the opportunity to offer a diagnosis of someone possibly being mentally unstable in another situation. As I was checking out at the grocery store, I entered into a conversation with the lady working at the register of the grocery store. It was early in the morning so there was not much business taking place. This afforded me the opportunity to talk with her at length about her life situation. Upon inquiring about her relationship with Jesus, she told me that she was a Jew who believed in Jesus as the Messiah--a Messianic Jew. I rejoiced with her in that and then asked about her family. She asked me to pray for her husband and father. They both are Jews and have not come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. I asked her what her husband believed about Jesus. She told me that both of the read the New Testament and that he believes Jesus was a prophet. It is then that I told her of the potential diagnosis of mental instability.

It is irrational to believe that Jesus was merely a prophet. When considering who Jesus is, He said He was the Son of God. That eliminates the possibility that He is a only a prophet come from God. If that statement is not true, then He is a liar at best and a lunatic at worst. If He is simply lying about who He is, then all the credibility of His words is lost and nothing he says can be considered authoritative. You may consider is wise and poetic, but not authoritative. If He is crazy, then we simply must pity Him for dying a horrible death needlessly.

But as I told the lady working at the grocery store, Jesus is neither a liar nor a lunatic but He is Lord of lords! I asked her to read passages with her husband that make this claim clear such as John 10:30. Then ask him what he thinks about Jesus.

I challenge you to do the same. Most of you that read this article claim Jesus as Lord of your life which is great! What does your life say about His Lordship? Is He the one giving the commands? Are you following His instructions turn by turn as Richard I did with the GPS lady? That is really what lordship is all about--following one command at a time. You don’t even know what lies ahead, you follow His leadership. When you do this it will lead to some of the most thrilling moments of your life.

Southside Going Green

There is much talk today about the need for Going Green. We have hybrid cars, solar panels, recycling plants and organic produce. All of us are being asked to raise our awareness of our carbon footprint. OK, maybe that is a little extreme but it is such a great phrase I had to get in somewhere.

Southside is going green by moving our Sunday evening worship service into the fellowship hall. We have more than enough seating room to handle our Sunday crowds. Besides going green, this will help with a smoother transition to small groups after the teaching time. The adult and youth small groups will meet in rooms adjacent to the fellowship hall. The teaching and worship time begins at 5:00pm with small groups following immediately afterward. We will begin this immediately.

When we say we are going green it could be that we are concerned about the enviroment which would be a noble cause. Of course, it could also be that we are concerned about the kind of green that goes into a wallet. Not quite as noble, but we could argue stewardship as the basis for this concern. Probably it is a combination of the two. Anyway you choose to look at it, Southside is going green!