Hollywood Star Pleads For Life

Nick Cannon, a Hollywood actor and singer, gives us a glimpse of what his mom went through when she considered aborting him.

The Local Church: Indispensable

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. (1 Corinthians 12:21-22)

Paul is speaking here of the local church. He assumes the reader already understands that members of the church which appear to be stronger are indispensable. So too, says Paul, the members of the church which appear to be weaker are indispensable.

God has designed for Christians to be relationally committed to a local group of other Christians.

While there are some extreme circumstances when it is not possible to be committed to a local group of believers (frontier missions), when it is possible it is not to be seen as optional or dispensable. The people in your local church are indispensable. All of them. They have a grace given to them by God to contribute to your life. Without them your experience would be less than what God designed for you.

It is inappropriate for anyone to say, “I have no need of you,” concerning any other member of their church.

Throughout this blog series there have been responses on the blog and on Facebook from people who see their local church as weak in many areas. Maybe you are dissatisfied with your church because you feel it fails to equip others for ministry, hold people accountable, or care for hurting members. Every church has its unique weaknesses, and some churches may appear to be weaker than others. Yet, I implore you. Give yourself to your local church. You need them. Don’t dare say, “I have no need of you.”

As you come together on this Lord’s Day thank God for your church. Dig in to your church community. Stir up the brothers and sisters in your congregation to love and good works. Encourage people in their gifts and look to be ministered to by them. You need them, no matter how weak they appear to be.

Posts in This Series

• The Local Church: For Your Perseverance
• The Local Church: Training You for Ministry
• The Local Church: Helping You Grow Up
• The Local Church: People to Suffer With
• The Local Church: People to Rejoice With
• The Local Church: A Safe Place to Be Judged
• The Local Church: Indispensable

HT: Desiring God

The Local Church: A Safe Place To Be Judged

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? (1 Corinthians 5:11-12)

It is dangerous not to be judged. We need other people to judge us, with righteous judgment (John 7:24). We need accountability. If we don’t have Christian friends that are close enough to confront us when our lifestyle doesn’t match our confession, then we ought to tremble.

The type of judgment I am referring to is not generated by a desire to look down on others for the sake of feeling superior—a condescending disposition. Rather, it comes from a tender disposition of love. It comes from a Nathan who is willing to tell David to repent and turn to God (2 Samuel 12).

We should fear God in light of the sin that can deceive and destroy us. We should not fear the judgment that comes from friends in the church which helps us to fight sin. This is grace!

It is immeasurably more safe to be a part of a local church that watches for our souls. Praise God for the safety that is in the righteous judgment of his people. It is grace from heaven!

Posts in This Series

• The Local Church: For Your Perseverance
• The Local Church: Training You for Ministry
• The Local Church: Helping You Grow Up
• The Local Church: People to Suffer With
• The Local Church: People to Rejoice With
• The Local Church: A Safe Place to Be Judged
• The Local Church: Indispensable

HT: Desiring God

FINANCIAL PEACE UNIVERSITY

Yes, he’s coming back…at least by video!  If you haven’t heard, we are hosting Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University 13-week video seminar again starting Tuesday, Sept. 7^th, 7:00 PM.  This course helped so many last time and was such a great outreach to the community, we wanted to do it again.  Just ask anyone who attended the first seminar in the spring…they’ll confirm that it is well worth the $99 curriculum kit fee!  A few changes this time — Chris Cagle and Bill Brown will be hosting the class and childcare will be available, but it will be limited to guests only.  Come this Saturday, Aug. 28^th, 7:00 PM for the free Preview Night to find out more, get registered and order your curriculum kit.  If you’ve already been through the course, would you consider offering childcare for a couple to attend?  What a great help this would be so both spouses can be there!

 If you are at all struggling with your finances and are considering this seminar, here is Matt Bell’s testimony that he shared Sunday to encourage and inspire you…

When Jim asked me to come and speak about Financial Peace University, at first I was reluctant.  I didn’t want Dave Ramsey to get all the glory for the mighty work that GOD is doing in our household these days.  BUT I serve a life-changing God who has used Dave Ramsey’s course to transform our financial management and turn our hearts to the Lord more fully! 

 Kristen and I married very young.  We weren’t Christians then.  We had very little money and no plan.  We thought we’d ”live on love”  and it would all work out.   We justified charging car repairs, birthday gifts, medical bills and vacations when we didn’t have cash.  We didn’t feel guilty because we thought that’s what everybody did when they started a family.  After being married three years, we were both saved; but, even then, we continued to be irresponsible with money and got further in debt.  With each promotion, we increased our standard of living.  Living paycheck to paycheck, having a big mortgage and two car loans was our version of the American Dream.  We always hoped things would get better for us, but we never took steps to grow in our knowledge of handling money responsibly.  It wasn’t until last year that God’s Word penetrated our hearts and brought deep conviction regarding our finances. 

 Aware that we needed guidance, we were excited to hear that Crossway would be hosting a class about money last spring.   We attended and brought our teen daughters along as well.  What we learned in that class has turned our family right side up financially.  Today, we have a plan.  We pay for things with cash.  We have a budget.  We save for emergencies (like Christmas!) instead of relying on a credit card because we failed to plan ahead.  So far, we’ve reduced our debt by $16,000!  We still have a long way to go; but, we have faith that, step by step, we’ll climb our mountain of debt and God will be glorified in our freedom.  

 Our hearts are full of gratitude.  We are grateful to God for not giving up on us.  We are grateful to CrossWay for hosting the class, offering counsel and providing support.  And, we are grateful to the person who made it possible for us to attend by anonymously paying the tuition.   

 Maybe your story is similar to ours.  If you’re struggling in your finances, then Financial Peace University can help you.  Would you consider joining us?

 Maybe your story isn’t at all like ours and you don’t need this course.  Do you know someone else who needs help with their finances?  I bet we all do — maybe a family member, fellow care group member or someone in the community.  Would you consider paying for a struggling family to take this class so they can learn a better way to handle their money?  God may use your generosity to change a family’s life.

The Local Church: People to Rejoice With

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. . .  if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Corinthians 12:25-26)

God designed it so that, as Christians, our joy is increased in the joy of others in our church. We ought to be united to our Christian brothers and sisters in such a way that their happiness is personally experienced in us.

The more we are knit together with and invested in the lives of church members, the more we have reason to celebrate when a member gives birth, gets married, gives testimony of deliverance from a sin issue, graduates, gets a job offer, or is reconciled to an astranged family member or friend. Their joy is our joy, because we are one body.

Moreover, the joy the Christian community experiences is the very joy of God (John 15:11, 17:13), delighting in the unity and the good of his people (Psalm 133).

This kind of communal and spiritual joy can only be experienced by the church. Let us follow the example of Paul who gave himself for the joy of the church (2 Corinthians 1:24, 2:3), and who’s joy was increased by the church (2 Corinthians 7:13, Philippians 2:2, 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20; 3:9; 2 Timothy 1:4; Philemon 7).

Invest your life in your local church to increase the joy of others, and give yourself more opportunities to rejoice!

Posts in This Series

• The Local Church: For Your Perseverance
• The Local Church: Training You for Ministry
• The Local Church: Helping You Grow Up
• The Local Church: People to Suffer With
• The Local Church: People to Rejoice With
• The Local Church: A Safe Place to Be Judged
• The Local Church: Indispensable

HT: Desiring God

The Local Church: People to Suffer With

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together… (1 Corinthians 12:25-26)

In March of 2008 my wife almost lost her life giving birth to our second daughter. She was in excruciating pain as the doctors moved quickly to stop the bleeding. Four blood transfusions could not keep up with the 3500 cc’s she was losing.

She was rushed into emergency surgery. I wasn’t sure that I would ever see her again, this side of eternity. As I paced anxiously in the waiting room with my newborn child I saw my pastor walk through the door. He traveled well over an hour to embrace me in my pain, to pray for me and read a Scripture passage to me. Another friend of ours came and prayed through the night. Dozens of people from the church visited us and brought us meals.

A few weeks later my wife had more postpartum blood loss needing two more transfusions and another surgery. It took her months to recover. It was an extremely difficult time for us, but the church was there to suffer with us. We were not suffering alone.

Though Christians suffer, in the local church they are to suffer together. It is the way God designed it. Just as Christ entered into a world of suffering and ministered to us, we also should enter into one another’s suffering.

Suffering with a believer is an entirely different experience than suffering with an unbeliever. Believers serve to remind us of the immovable hope grounded in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Christians can share deeply in each other’s pain, and do it in such a way that nurtures immense hope.

Give yourself to the local church to suffer with those who are suffering, and allow others to come alongside you in your suffering.

Posts in This Series

• The Local Church: For Your Perseverance
• The Local Church: Training You for Ministry
• The Local Church: Helping You Grow Up
• The Local Church: People to Suffer With
• The Local Church: People to Rejoice With
• The Local Church: A Safe Place to Be Judged
• The Local Church: Indispensable

HT: Desiring God

The Local Church: Helping You Grow Up

. . . so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (Ephesians 4:14)

Hope, my two year old, is constantly on to new things. It is not uncommon for her to climb up on my lap with a book, signaling for me to read to her. It is also not uncommon for her to climb down from my lap when I’m not even halfway through, only to get a different book or be entertained by something else that caught her eye. She is distractible, even when I pour myself into engaging her with a semi-theatrical portrayal of the book’s content, attributing different animated voice inflections to different characters. This can be disheartening for the performer (me).

However, I must remind myself that this is normal activity for a two year old. She is trying to get her hands into everything to figure it out, beginning to process the world around her.

With the mature it is different. They have trained their faculties to be focused, to go in one direction. Christians that are tossed to and fro in multiple different directions, like a two year old constantly being distracted by something more colorful, will struggle to be directional enough to make an impact as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.

When contrary doctrinal winds try to throw us off course, the ministry of the local church serves to focus us on what is important. The gospel. We are all in need of teaching, shepherding, and accountability to stay on track. By ourselves we are too easily deceived and distracted from the thing in life that is of first importance.

The local church is a stabilizing and protective force. It helps us to grow up so that we can move steadily in one direction, the right direction, bearing gospel fruit with our lives.

Posts in This Series

• The Local Church: For Your Perseverance
• The Local Church: Training You for Ministry
• The Local Church: Helping You Grow Up
• The Local Church: People to Suffer With
• The Local Church: People to Rejoice With
• The Local Church: A Safe Place to Be Judged
• The Local Church: Indispensable

HT: Desiring God

The Local Church: Training You For Ministry

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-12)

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7)

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

It is God’s will that you be active in life-long ministry, in your church. You are called to edify, build up and encourage a local body of believers by utilizing your own unique giftings by the power of the Spirit. How are you to be equipped for this ministry? Through the ministry of the local church itself.

The role of the local church leaders is to equip the members for ministry by teaching and shepherding. Then, the ministry of each member collectively builds up the church. Hosting small groups, evangelistically engaging your city, equipping younger men in trades that will provide for their families and serve the community, encouraging and helping mothers of young children, assisting in practical needs by working with your hands, teaching Sunday School, facilitating fellowship through hospitality, nurturing the young, caring for the old, practicing intercessory prayer, etc.

One of the reasons the local church exists is so that we might learn to serve one another, according to the various capacities and gifts we have been given, under the gospel of God’s amazing grace in Christ. Dig in to your local church to be equipped and serve in the ministry God has for you!

Posts in This Series

• The Local Church: For Your Perseverance
• The Local Church: Training You for Ministry
• The Local Church: Helping You Grow Up
• The Local Church: People to Suffer With
• The Local Church: People to Rejoice With
• The Local Church: A Safe Place to Be Judged
• The Local Church: Indispensable

HT: Desiring God 

More Stuff for the ‘Owner’s Manual’ (part 3)

Ok, the title isn’t exactly right for this post, but I kept it for consistency’s sake (you can see the previous two posts if you don’t get it).  These last things aren’t necessarily points in the ‘Owner’s Manual’, they’re actually quotes that I would have liked to squeeze into the last two sermons.  They didn’t really fit into the flow of the messages in a way I liked, so I thought I’d include them here on the blog.

 The first quote is from a book called Feelings and Faith by Brian Borgman and I thought it was another helpful encouragement for openness and transparency in Care Group.  In the last message I talked about how few things break up a ‘surfacy’ discussion like a good, honest, old-fashioned confession.  Here’s some further encouragement to the point; to take a risk – model transparency – and open up your life for the good of the rest of the group:

 “When we actually dare to be sinners among sinners something amazing happens.  When we get serious about wanting to encourage each other; pray for each other, and walk with each other; the Holy Spirit waters our hearts with his power, and his fruit grows.”

 This last quote is simply another big picture answer to the question: Why Small Groups?  What we’re seeking to cultivate in our Care Groups are godly relationships that testify to the saving and transforming power of the gospel.  So that in the end there is an evangelistic mission that care groups contribute to. And that mission is why the church exists – that she might bear witness to the reality and glory of God for the salvation and joy of all people.

 May we see the connection between that mission and the question, “Why small groups?”  In the words of Francis Schaeffer…

 “Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful – Christian community is the final apologetic.”

 Lord, give us fresh motivation, desire, perspective and purpose as we re-engage in another year of Care Group life! Amen.

The Local Church: For Your Perseverance

[This is a series of posts from Desiring God Ministries on the Local Church.  We will post them over the next several weeks on the Crossway Blog].

Today is the first installment of a seven part series on the local church. Every day this week we will look at a different Bible passage, seeing how it shows the local church to be vital to the life of a believer.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:12-14)

In this passage we have wonderful assurance and firm warning. The wonderful assurance comes from the last sentence: For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Said another way, if we have come to share in Christ, we will persevere. True believers will never fall from grace and be disqualified from their inheritance, period.

On the flip side, this passage comes as a firm warning. We are exhorted to seek out the means that God has appointed to keep us from falling away. Namely, the local church. Not only as an institution or formal assembly, but as friends and encouragers—brothers and sisters battling for each other’s sanctification and perseverance. This regular and honest interaction with other believers is a means of grace that God has appointed to counteract the self-deceiving, heart-hardening sin that would otherwise lead us away from God.

God has designed for our perseverance to be realized in authentic community—living and dying together in the gospel of Christ.

Posts in This Series

• The Local Church: For Your Perseverance
• The Local Church: Training You for Ministry
• The Local Church: Helping You Grow Up
• The Local Church: People to Suffer With
• The Local Church: People to Rejoice With
• The Local Church: A Safe Place to Be Judged
• The Local Church: Indispensable

HT: Desiring God