How to do battle against sin

This is a great video message from Matt Chandler who is pastor of The Village. We grow through grace-driven effort.

You can access the video here (about 30 minutes)

http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/?p=691

10 Reasons Why I believe Leaders Flame out

This is from Perry Noble on his blog Leadership, Vision & Creativity

#1 – They feel like have something to prove…and so instead of becoming obsessed with God’s greatness they become obsessed with their own.

#2 – They have a hard time accepting Gods grace…thus throwing themselves into an achievement based mentality. They think the more they accomplish the more God loves them – despite what is written in Ephesians 2:8-9

#3 – They feel like rest is sin…despite the LONGEST command in the 10 commandments being the one on rest! (Leaders…Isaiah 30:15…READ IT NOW!!!)

#4 – They do not trust the leaders around them…thus they feel like they need to do it all. (We were not called to do life and ministry alone!)

#5 – They are unwilling to ask for help…thinking that doing so is a sign of weakness, when in actuality it is a sign of strength!

#6 – They fear man way more than they fear God…thus becoming obsessed with “their” expectations rather than HIS! (SEE Proverbs 29:25)

#7 – An unwillingness to repent of sin…instead of doing so they become obsessed with pointing out the sins of others!

#8 – They do not allow their identity to be established in Christ but rather in how many people they having attending/giving to their church/ministry.

#9 – They refuse to care for their own family and begin to recite the ridiculously stupid phrase, “I take care of the church and God will take care of my family.” Dude…the church is HIS bride, not yours!!!

#10 – They get consumed with fighting the wrong battles. Christian leaders fight over the most ridiculous things…and doing so ALWAYS drains the life out of them! We should fight for what Jesus fought for–period–and leave the rest alone.

The Sweetest Aroma

"The sweetest fragrance, the most beautiful aroma that God has ever detected emanating from this planet, was the aroma of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus that was offered once and for all on the cross." - R.C. Sproul

Are you dead in the sight of God?

From jcrylequotes.com comes a sobering thought for all of us and our people who are in our churches...

There are myriads of professing Christians in every Church whose union with Christ is only outward and formal. Some of them are joined to Christ by baptism and Church-membership. Some of them go even further than this, and are regular communicants and loud talkers about religion. But they all lack the one thing needful. Notwithstanding services, sermons, and sacrament, they have no grace in their hearts, no faith, no inward work of the Holy Spirit. They are not one with Christ, and Christ in them. Their union with Him is only nominal, and not real. They have “a reputation of being alive,” but in the sight of God they are “dead” (Rev. 3:1).

~ J.C. Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, volume 3, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987], 106, 107.

10 Signs that we don't believe in the power of the Holy Spirit

A thought-provoking and convicting post from Tony Morgan from his blog Tony Morgan Live

10 Signs that We Don’t Believe in the Power of the Holy Spirit

1. We are experiencing anxiety and bitterness in our lives rather than joy and kindness. (Galatians 5:22-23)
2. We can’t remember the last time we prayed for the people we lead. (Romans 8:26)
3. The churches we lead aren’t growing and reaching more people. (Acts 9:31)
4. The churches we lead aren’t outreach focused. (Acts 1:8)
5. We think it’s our responsibility to convict people of sin. (John 16:8)
6. We are stuck in sinful patterns rather than pursuing the things of God. (Galations 5:16:17)
7. We think we have the power to change people. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)
8. We are more concerned about the rules than we are our freedom in Christ. (Galations 3:2-3)
9. We think we can explain the mysteries of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-12)
10. We are creating division and aren’t promoting unity within the Church. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

It might be good to begin the week and this next season of ministry by studying and praying through this list. My prayer is that your life and your ministry would continue to experience its fullest potential in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Nowism of the Gospel

This is a post from Paul Tripp at Desiring God...

Jason sat in front of me with the head-down, humped-shouldered posture of a confused and disappointed man. It wasn't that Jason's life had been a sad narrative of personal suffering. Sure, he had faced some hard things, but they were the typical things that you face when you're living in a world that has been broken by sin. It wasn't that Jason was alienated and friendless. He was surrounded by a group of less than perfect, but pretty faithful companions. It wasn't that Jason was impoverished or homeless. No, he had a decent job and an adequate condo.

Jason's problem was that he was lost in the middle of his own faith. It had become harder and harder for him to connect the beauty of what he believed to the gritty and often difficulty realities of his daily life. Jason's problem was that he carried a gospel around with him that had a great big hole in the middle of it.

Jason could explain to you what it meant to say that he had been "saved by grace," and he knew that he was going to spend eternity with his Savior. His problem was in the here and now. Day after day, in situation after situation and relationship after relationship, Jason didn't carry with him a vibrant and practical sense of the nowism of the grace of Jesus Christ. Yes, Jason believed in life after death, but he desperately needed to understand life before death; the kind of radical life you will live when you understand what Christ has given you for the life he has called you to right here, right now.

To read the rest go to http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2561_the_nowism_of_the_gospel/

Kingdom Centered Praying

This is a great post from Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Church in NYC

People are used to thinking about prayer as a means to get their personal needs met. However we should understand prayer as a means to praise and adore God, to know Him, to come into his presence and be changed by Him. We need to better learn how to pray, repent and petition God as a people.

Biblically and historically, the one non-negotiable, universal ingredient in times of spiritual renewal is corporate, prevailing, intensive and kingdom-centered prayer. What is that?

1. It is focused on God's presence and kingdom.
   Jack Miller talks about the difference between "maintenance prayer" and "frontline" prayer meetings. Maintenance prayer meetings are short, mechanical, and totally focused on physical needs inside the church. But frontline prayer has three basic traits:
   1. a request for grace to confess sins and humble ourselves
   2. a compassion and zeal for the flourishing of the church
   3. a yearning to know God, to see his face, to see his glory.
   It is most interesting to study Biblical prayer for revival, such as in Acts 4 or Exodus 33 or Nehemiah 1, where these three elements are easy to see. Notice in Acts 4, for example, that the disciples, whose lives had been threatened, did not ask for protection for themselves and their families, but only boldness to keep preaching!
2. It is bold and specific.
   The characteristics of this kind of prayer include:
   1. Pacesetters in prayer spend time in self-examination. Without a strong understanding of grace, this can be morbid and depressing. But in the context of the gospel, it is purifying and strengthening. They "take off their ornaments" (Exod. 33:1-6). They examine selves for idols and set them aside.
   2. They then begin to make the big request–a sight of the glory of God. That includes asking: 1) for a personal experience of the glory/presence of God ("that I may know you" – Exod. 33:13); 2) for the people's experience of the glory of God (v. 15); and 3) that the world might see the glory of God through his people (v. 16). Moses asks that God's presence would be obvious to all: "What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" This is a prayer that the world be awed and amazed by a show of God's power and radiance in the church, that it would become truly the new humanity that is a sign of the future kingdom.
3. It is prevailing, corporate.
   By this we mean simply that prayer should be constant, not sporadic and brief. Why? Are we to think that God wants to see us grovel? Why do we not simply put our request in and wait? But sporadic, brief prayer shows a lack of dependence, a self-sufficiency, and thus we have not built an altar that God can honor with his fire. We must pray without ceasing, pray long, pray hard, and we will find that the very process is bringing about that which we are asking for – to have our hard hearts melted, to tear down barriers, to have the glory of God break through.

The Days of Darkness may be Many

From Jon Bloom of Desiring God on a much needed reminder that we are still on this side of heaven living in a fallen world.

One thing the Bible isn’t is utopist about life in this world. It gets unfairly criticized for encouraging a pessimism that makes people passive about doing anything to improve things; people who are “too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.”

Of course, that’s a lot of hogwash. History has shown that those who have a hope of heaven are far more likely than their agnostic or atheist neighbors to willingly make the personal sacrifices necessary to seriously address the horrors and hopelessness in the world.

But the Bible doesn’t gloss over horrors. Reading the whole Bible through, we wince a lot. And it is pretty frank about what we can expect during our sojourn on earth:

So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 11:8)

When Jesus walked the earth he was not a bouncy, positive-thinker. He was “a man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3). And he promised his followers, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33).

Life is hard. The days of darkness will be many. And you know what? That’s hopeful.

When we find ourselves experiencing “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” (2 Corinthians 12:10), something strange isn’t happening to us (1 Peter 4:12). It is what we must expect living in a creation subjected to futility (Romans 8:20).

But it was subjected to futility in hope—hope “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). And yes there is deep groaning as we wait for the completion of our redemption (Romans 8:22-23). But it is a hope-infused groaning, full of anticipation for what is coming.

And it’s this Spirit-empowered dynamic in the soul that allows us to be both “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). We expect sorrow from the world and redemption from our Savior, who will work even our sorrows for ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

So in your days of darkness, Jesus understands (Hebrews 4:15) and wants you to take heart:

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Your Church may not be a church...

This is a post from The Gospel Driven Church by Jared Wilson

• You never hear the word "sin" there.

• You hear the word "sin," but only briefly or redefined as "mistakes."

• You can't remember when you last heard the name of Jesus in a message.

• The Easter message isn't about the resurrection but "new opportunities" in your life or turning over a new leaf.

• On patriotic holiday weekends, the message is about how great America is.

• On the other weekends, the message is about how great you are.

• There are more videos than prayers.

• People don't sing during "worship," but watch.

• The pastors' chief responsibilities are things foreign to Scripture.

• There is more money budgeted for advertising than for mission.

• The majority of the small groups are oriented around sports or leisure, not study or service.

• You always feel comfortable there.

• Church membership just appears to be a recruiting system for volunteers.

• You only see other church people on Sunday mornings at church.

---
If your church meets one or more of these, it might be a spiritual pep rally, a religious performance center, a Christian social club, or something else entirely, but it is probably not, biblically speaking, a gathering of the biblical church.

Saved from What?

R C Sproul in his book Saved from What? answers what we really need to be saved from.

What do we need to be saved from? We need to be saved from God—not from kidney stones, not from hurricanes, not from military defeats. What every human being needs to be saved from is God. The last thing in the world the impenitent sinner ever wants to meet on the other side of the grave is God. But the glory of the gospel is that the One from whom we need to be saved is the very One who saves us. God in saving us saves us from Himself.

Woe unto those who have no Savior on the day of wrath. The Bible says that on that day the unbeliever will scream to the mountains to fall upon him, to the hills to hide him. People will be looking for refuge from nature itself, crying, “Cover me! Give me a shield!” But there is only one Shield that can protect anyone from the wrath that is to come. It is the covering of the righteousness of Christ.

When we put our faith in Jesus, God cloaks us with the garments of Jesus, and the garments of Christ’s righteousness are never, ever the target of God’s wrath. He who flees to Jesus has peace with God, and there is no condemnation left.

- R.C. Sproul, Saved from What?, p. 25, 26

The Grace of God

Paul David Tripp is one of my favorite authors. I would highly recommend his books like Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands along with How People Change co-authored with Tim Lane.

Paul has a twitter sight in which he gives daily observations about the gospel and grace. Below are some insights that challenge me to think and reflect more on the grace of God.

"No matter how attractive it may seem, your tiny little kingdom of one has no capacity whatsoever to satisfy your heart."

"You live in a bad neighborhood (fallen world), but the God who determined your address lives there with you giving you everything you need."

"Your hope is not found in people, places, situations or possessions, but in this one thing, your Redeemer lives and is with you always."

"God's gift of grace should never result in moral laziness. The sacrificial gift of grace is essential because sin really is that serious."

"Grace frees you from trying to earn what you could not earn and then calls you to do what you would be unable to do without grace."

Interested in more. Check out Paul's twitter and subscribe to it. http://twitter.com/paultripp

Wrong reasons to love the church

Follow up to the previous post with a post by Josh Harris that looks at the issue of commitment to a local church from a different angle (Wrong Reasons to Love the Church). You can read the full post by Josh at http://www.joshharris.com/2010/01/wrong_reasons_to_love_the_chur.php

Here are his wrong reasons to love the church:

• Don't love the church because of what it does for you. Because sooner or later it won't do enough.
• Don't love the church because of a leader. Because human leaders are fallible and will let you down.
• Don't love the church because of a program or a building or activities because all those things get old.
• Don't love the church because of a certain group of friends because friendships change and people move.

Good and Bad reasons to leave a church

Jason Helopoulos has an article detailing good reasons, possible reasons and bad reasons to leave a church. In light of the revolving door mentality of many Christians today who are consumer driven in their selection and commitment to a local church, his insights are much needed. Below is a summary of his article. You can get the full article here (http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2010/07/23/good-reasons-for-moving-on/).

Also, another post by Josh Harris is helpful as well in light of the lack of long term commitment as believers to one church


Good Reasons for moving on (4 P's):
1. Providential moving
2. Planting another church
3. Purity has been lost
4. Peace of the church is in jeopardy due to my presence

Possible Reasons for moving on(3 C's):
1. Spouse
2. Special needs
3. Special gifts

Reasons often used that are insufficient:
1. Children's ministry
2. Buzz
3. Youth group
4. Church has changed
5. New pastor
6. I'm not being ministered to
7. Music
8. Others

The Gospel's Extreme Makeover

I have been reading books and studying Scripture working in developing a workshop entitled, "By God's Grace You can Change." The starting point for change into the glorious image of Christ is an extreme makeover. We are given a new heart and a new capacity to actually change by the grace of God.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss, in her book Brokenness, made this statement: "The Good News of the gospel is that the Great Physician has made available a cure for our deceived, diseased hearts. Jesus came to do radical heart surgery - to cleanse and transform us from the inside out, by the power of his death and resurrection."

This is what the gospel can do. The prophet Ezekiel writes: "I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." Ezekiel 36:25-27

For us as believers, the extreme makeover internally has been accomplished. Now we must begin to live out that reality for his glory.

Ambitions for God and his glory

This is a new blog in Christ alone. We will see what God has for us