Our Creed Is Christ, July 22, 2012



"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold."

Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:14-16
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: [15] But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. [16] And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifest in the flesh,

justified in the Spirit,

seen of angels,

preached unto the Gentiles,

believed on in the world,

received up into glory.

I. Introduction: One of the greatest poets of the 20^th century was William Butler Yeats.

One of the greatest poems that he wrote was “The Second Coming.”  The title has a powerful Biblical feel, but the poem only borrows from the Biblical images to present something quite the contrary.
Yeats’ “Second Coming” was not the blessed event in Biblical thought, but something dark and sinister.
He wrote:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Look then upon one line here: Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.

This poem was written in 1919. Written in the aftermath of World War I; written in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, the Irish rebellion, and other calamities of the early decades of the 20^th century.

What do you do when the center cannot hold? When the force, the idea, the glue that holds things together for a civilization no longer holds?

Many of the political events, most of the philosophies, many of the social upheavals, most of the troubles of the 20^th century came from the loss of a center, the loss of something that could keep society and the world together, sane.

Thinkers both Christian and non-Christians have noted the emptiness or lack of cohesion to the world in modern times.

Joseph Conrad spoke of “The heart of darkness.”
Jean-Paul Sartre titled a play “No Exit.”
Friedrich Nietzsche spoke of “gazing into the abyss.”
Christians have noted this emptiness as well:
Herman Dooyeweerd spoke of our being “in the twilight of modern thought.”
And Francis Schaeffer, surveying the emptiness of modern ideas, asked, “How should we then live?”
There is no end to the speculations regarding the fall of the Roman Empire. And there is no end to the thoughts contained in books such as Are We Rome? The Fate of an Empire and the Fate of America

And if we are talking about the fall of civilizations, the despair of modern philosophies, the emptiness of modern materialism, and the hollowness of modern politics, that interests quite a few of us.

“We are sitting here, solving the world’s problems,” we say, gathered around a table at Starbucks.

But there are families that are following the pattern of civilizations, except faster. Dysfunctional families.

And there are individuals suffering breakdowns.

There has to be something to pull people together. Something to pull an individual together. A family. A civilization.

There has to be “A Declaration of Independence” to draw the commitments of the colonists.

There has to be the “fellowship of the ring” to bring men and dwarfs and elves and hobbits together for a common cause.

There has to be what R. J. Rushdoony called “The Foundations of Social Order.”

Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.

That is the story of man.

And then in this emptiness God speaks.

II. God Creates a Place where things don’t fall apart, where the center holds.

1 Tim. 3:14-16
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: [15] But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

3 Phrases to describe the church:
The house of God
The church of the living God
The pillar and ground of the Truth

A. The Household of God. In a context where households have been mentioned 3 times, now the phrase is applied to the church: God’s household.
There are lots of implications, things to think about, from this.
God’s house, God’s family: Heaven, Angels, Saints in glory, etc.
God’s household, family, is the church.
Secondly, we mentioned in past weeks about elders and deacons managing households. Managing the home is a series in itself. More than just a passing phrase.
2 problems: One is, of course, families that are essentially pagan.
The other problem is perfectionism. You don’t have children, you have automatons. You don’t have a home, you have a museum. You don’t have a wife, you have an echo.
God’s household is far from perfect.
Third, people can gather together once a week and share an experience—emotionally, intellectually, physically, etc. For an hour or 2, they are all together. Then it is over and everyone goes home.
What I am describing can either be a worship service or a ball game.
B. The Church of the Living God: The God-Alive Church
Be careful about calling a church a dead church.
This letter is arriving in Ephesus where people worshipped Diana.
We once went to the Parthenon in Nashville. There is a great and awe-inspiring statue of Athena. It is amazing. (You might have seen it in the movie “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.”)
One problem: It is just scrap metal.
The church is the temple of the Living God.
C. The pillar and ground or buttress of the truth.Pillars give a building strength, physical presence, and visibility.
The Temple to Diana had over 150 pillars.
When you travel to a city, you notice the powerful, huge, dominating buildings.
The pillar and ground of the Truth.
D. This all seems to be a world within a world, another dimension, a hidden universe:
Right here and elsewhere: God’s family, the place where God is alive, the pillar—visible support—of Truth.III. How can it Be?Great is the mystery.
Christology—if you want the theology term
Putting it more simply: Jesus Christ
Great is the mystery, the revelation. No wonder so many books, hymns, studies, poems, paintings, stories have been told of Christ.
And Paul now weighs in on a church topic and comes down strongly in favor of
Contemporary Christian Music and Praise and Worship Music.
A Song, A Creed.
A theological statement as deeper than Calvin’s Institutes, more moving than an Isaac Watts’ hymn, more elaborate than a cathedral.
For every debate that says Christ or the church? Paul says YES.
For every debate that says Christ or doctrine? Paul says YES.
For every debate that says reason or emotion? Paul says YES.
In thinking about these statements about Christ, if your mind doesn’t explode, you don’t get it.
If your emotions don’t soar, you don’t get it.
The Creed of the Church. The center that holds.

3 couplets: 3 pairs of phrases.
Each couplet contains a contrast, like the two natures of Christ:
A. The Revelation of Christ

He appeared in a body,

Was vindicated by the Spirit.

He appeared in a body—the incarnation, the birth of Christ.
R. Kent Hughes: He stood at the rim of the universe and dove headlong past a billion starts, through the Milky Way, and into the womb of the Virgin Mary, where he swam and grew until his birth that cold winter’s night.
Was vindicated by the Spirit is the other bookend of that story: Romans 1:4 Christ “through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.”
Two couplets: Christmas and Easter.

B. The Witness of ChristChrist was seen by Angels
Christ was preached among the nations
Heavenly angels and earthly nations. The supernatural and the natural.
Angels announced his coming to Zecharias and Mary.
Angels proclaimed his birth.
Angels ministered to Christ in the wilderness,
An angel appeared by Him at Gethsemane, strengthening Him (Luke 22:43)
Angels sat by his empty tomb;
Angels proclaimed the resurrection.
Angels sing His praises in glory.
Christ is then preached to all the nations, all people. The King James says, to the Gentiles.

C. The Reception of Christ: Two geographies: Earth and HeavenChrist was believed on in the world;
Christ was taken up into glory.
An earthly reception and a heavenly reception.


[Post Script:  The complete poem by William Butler Yeats
　
　The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?]

Encouragement from John Piper

Piper's defining work.

"The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won't enlist you in his service unless you are healthy and Jesus won't enlist you unless you are sick:  'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners' (Mark 2:17).  Christianity is fundamentally convalescence ('Pray without ceasing' = Keep buzzing the nurse).  Patients do not serve physicians. They trust them for good prescriptions. The Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments are the Doctor's prescribed health regimen, not the employee's job description."

From Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper

Likewise, Deacons 7-15-2012



Scripture Texts: 1 Timothy 3:8-13 and Acts 6:1-4

I. Introduction: The Gallipoli Campaign of World War I was a horrible failure. There is a saying, “Victory has many fathers, but defeat only one.” The father or thinker behind the Gallipoi Campaign was Winston Churchill. It was his idea. It became his defeat. Oh yes, those who planned the details blundered. Those who carried out the plans blundered even more. But it was Churchill who took the blame for the defeat.
At that time, he was Lord of the Admiralty. That is, head over the British navy. After the defeat, he resigned. But he did not sit out the war. He volunteered for the infantry—at age 40. He went to France and served in the field army for the rest of the war.
He was truly a public servant. That word, public servant, is a term, a synonym for politician or government official. It sounds like an oxymoron, a joke, a high irony.
Those who lead us in government may call themselves public servants, but they rule and live more as masters than servants.
Being a servant is not always seen as something noteworthy. Servants are lowly, often without authority, often demeaned and despised.
Christianity has taken this lowly position and turned it completely around.
Christianity has made servant-hood something exalted.
The word for servant that we often find in our Bibles is the Greek word diakonos. From diakonos we get the word deacon.
Deacon refers to servants in both official and unofficial church capacities.
How important is this office? How exalted is this title?
Jesus said, in Mark 10:43-45, “Whoever would be great among you must be your deacon, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to receive diaconal care, but to serve as a deacon, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Two amazing things about Christ’s incarnation: He became Man. He came to serve.
He fed people who were hungry. He healed people who were sick.
Along with giving people words of life, Jesus attended to their physical needs.
And then to make His church an image of the Incarnation, to make the church Christ-centered and Christ-like, the office of deacon was introduced.
The usual passage is Acts 6. Two factions in the church. The serving of meals to widows had become a point of contention.
There was a need for a division of labor.
The Apostles, who were the session of the Jerusalem church, said, There are only so many hours in the day. If we are spending our time serving tables, then we have less time for the preaching, teaching, and prayer duties of the ministry.
They listed 3 qualities needed for these assistants: good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and wisdom.

II. 1 Timothy 3
After describing the qualifications for the office of bishop or elder, Paul speaks of the office of deacon with the words, “Likewise deacons.”
He could have, for the most part, left the description with those words. He is not giving a list of duties or skills, but character traits.
But he does speak on some of the particulars of the deacons.
Just as I emphasized last week that the traits given for elders are to describe all Christian men (and women), so the traits given for deacons are to be characteristic of all. And all Christians are to have a servant-like, Christ-like manner. Out of the group, leaders arise.
Leaders rise from among people seeking the same ends or goals.

A. Let me jump ahead in the text and address one issue in particular: Verse 11.
The topic of women deacons or deaconesses.
While there is no doubt that women have served in the church at all times, there are questions about women deacons. That is, women who have the official ordination and office of deacons.
First, there is a translation issue here. Likewise , their wives. Likewise, women.
Second, there is an interpretive issue here. What does it mean?
Good and solid Bible-believing men on both sides of this issue.
Most of the men writing on 1 Timothy that I read oppose women deacons.
Benjamin Warfield, among others, favored women deacons.
I don’t have a strong opinion on either side. I favor the idea of verse 11 referring to the wives of male deacons. I am conservative and cautious by nature. We live in an age where gender and equality issues are so political and volatile that it is hard to venture in such an area.
But if the leaders of a church studied the issue and came out in favor of women serving as deacons, I would not find the discussion or outcome worth having a red-in-the-face, finger-waving, shouting match over.

B. The qualifications

1. Elder-like: Likewise, the deacon. Like the elder, the deacon. Reverent. Dignified. All the same qualities apply. (We will be dealing with teaching gifts later.) All the same ‘nots’ apply.
Like two ladies who borrow eggs and sugar from each other, elders and deacons freely borrow from each others’ lists.
Not double-tongued. As Will Rogers said, he would not be afraid to sell the family parrot to the town gossip. His word is good. His word is stable.
Not greedy for wine. Self-controlled in lifestyle and personal habits.
Not greedy for money.

The observable behaviors, the character qualities, the Christian maturity has to all be there. Visible, experienced.

2. Informed Belief: Holding the Mystery of the Faith in Good Conscience
Two Pauline terms: Mystery and Conscience
Mystery does not mean something hidden or unknown, as in a mystery story.
It does not mean mysterious. “Who knows what lurks behind the hidden door?”
It means that which was hidden which is now revealed: He sees Christ in the Old Testament concealed, in the New Testament revealed.
In other words, this person is not just a walking encyclopedia of Bible facts. Instead, he sees Christ in the Word of God.
Paul’s other word is Conscience. When Paul uses the word Conscience, he has reference to a conscience in line with the Word of God.
An unbeliever may have a good conscience. An unbeliever may correct behavior due to a guilty conscience.
In the Christian man, it refers to a person being oriented to living what he professes.

3. Men who pass the test.
“Let these also first be tested”: Probably a reference to the testing of elder candidates.
What kinds of tests?
First, Studies in doctrine and belief.
Second, Testing according to living up to the standards: Observations by the congregation and leaders.
Third, Specific tasking.

4. The marriage and team ministry.
You should not and truly cannot serve in a ministry if there is division in the home over the matter, or if there is indifference from the wife.
What we learned about ‘team ministry’:
The case of a man who was interested in the eldership whose wife was thinking about leaving him!
Leadership costs.
The hospitality, conduct, time, life style, public nature, and stresses of leadership will impact the home.
The wife will have to compensate for her husband’s labors.
The husband will need to delegate certain tasks to the wife.
Verse 12: Same home and family requirements as the elder: Husband of one wife, children and home ruled well.
The man who aspires to lead has a full time job: Right there in the home.

III. The Rewards
There is a reward for being a good deacon: Those who have served well as deacons, obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
There are not many “famous deacons.” Quite a few famous theologians and preachers.
　
IV. What is to be done?
1. Look around at all the things that need to be done in this congregation and in these facilities. Things the deacons are not taking care of. Then go to the deacons and ask to take on one of those tasks.
2. Thanks the deacons—present and past.
3.  Prayer for and support the upcoming Deacon Training.

The Prodigal God

When you first see the title, The Prodigal God, you think you have misread the words.  Isn't the Bible story called 'The Prodigal Son'?  Actually, that title is an addition, a organizing help that is inserted in Bibles that use subtitles to help us find passages and note divisions in the text.

The Bible story is about a man with two sons.  All three characters are critical to the story, but it is, obviously, important to note who is telling the story--Jesus--and who He is telling it to.  The intended audience, the people with the front row seats, were not the buddies of the younger son.  Jesus did not preach this sermon in a honky-tonk.  The primary audience was made up of Pharisees, the ones who were like the older brother.

The Prodigal, according to Tim Keller, was not the young guy who spent all his inheritance on wine, women, and song.  The Prodigal was the father in the story. 

Keller writes,

 The word "prodigal" does not mean "wayward" but, according to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, "recklessly spendthrift."  It means to spend until you have nothing left.  The term is therefore as appropriate for describing the father in the story as the younger son.  The father's welcome to the repentant son was literally reckless, because he refused to "reckon" or count his sin against him or demand repayment....In this story the father represents the Heavenly Father Jesus knew so well....Jesus is showing us the God of Great Expenditure, who is nothing if not prodigal toward us, his children. God's reckless grace is our greatest hope, a life-changing experience, and the subject of this book.

I have come to appreciate and profit from Tim Keller's books.  King's Cross is a great study of the life of Christ as seen through the Gospel of Mark and The Meaning of Marriage is a great study as well.  But The Prodigal God is, perhaps, the best place to begin reading and meditating on a familiar parable seen and unpacked (exegeted) in greater fullness.

If there are those who want to order copies of the book, let me know.

Note:  The Tuesday night study for men (of all ages) is studying and discussing The Prodigal God. 

Leaders Above Reproach July 8, 2012

Godly leaders:  The Scottish Covenanters

Scripture Text: 1 Timothy 3:1-7

I. Introduction: It happened to me every fall—October or November. A sinus infection, stuffy nose, occasional fever, congestion, and sleepiness.
I had gone to the doctor to the get the usual regimen of drugs and finally reached that point where I had to take off from school and rest and sleep my way to recovery.
Between naps, I read.
And on that day—around 1989 or 1990—I was reading the second volume of the biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
Lloyd-Jones was one of the greatest of pastors and preachers of the 20^th century.
This biography was written by one of his students, Ian Murray.
I don’t remember too many details of reading that book on that day, but I remember the overall effect. It was, perhaps, the most influential, mind and heart moving book I had ever read in regard to being in ministry.
I had thoughts about the eldership before that book, but it was the life of Lloyd-Jones that brought me to the point that Paul mentions right here in the text:
If anyone desires the office, if anyone aspires to the office, if anyone wants to be a leader in the church (The Message).

II. There is a reason why we ask children…”What do you want to do when you grow up?”
God gives us desires for certain kinds of labors or pursuits. He gives these through the cultivation of gifts and experiences.
This passage is devoted to the office of overseer, or bishop, or elder or pastor. The study of these terms is worthy, but not in mind for today.

The first thing that should grow out of a cultivation of this passage is the concept of recognizing the honor or the goodness of pastoral leadership.
Ministry is a good task, a noble task.

1. One of the fruits of Christianity is developing a system of honoring various people and offices. Honor parents, civil leaders, authorities, teachers, etc.
1 Peter 2:17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Christianity is to create a society of manners, deference, and honor.

2. Honor and nobility is given to the office of pastoral ministry.
A thousand failed examples does not allow us to dishonor the office.
Familiarity does not allow us to dishonor the office.

3. This honor is not to be given at the expense of dishonoring other professions or labors.

4. This honor given to elders and leaders does not imply or lead to ‘the royal treatment.’
Pastoral ministry grows in a environment where pastoral ministry is desired, cultivated, loved.

5. Let us promote an environment where the desire for pastoral service is honored.

III. The Qualifications for the Office
A. Providentially, while studying through this passage, I came across the book The Measure of a Man by Gene Getz. This book is a study of the qualifications for elders as given in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.

“These qualities enumerated by Paul form a composite profile that is complete and comprehensive….Here truly are the marks of a man of God! Paul brings together in these passages many characteristics of spiritual maturity that are scattered throughtout the New Testament. In fact, as will be shown in this study, the majority of these twenty traits are prescribed elsewhere in the Bible for every Christian, including women.”

Getz also emphasizes that these passages give very little emphasis to either abilities or skills. Out of 20 qualifications, 19 have to do with reputation, ethics, morality, temperament, habits, and spiritual and psychological maturity. And the other one has to do with his ability to lead his own family.

When the men of the church gather, we are all running the same line drills. This passage describes what a Christian man is or is becoming.
We are all in this together, guys. We are a band of brothers.
This passage is telling us what we are to be and what we are to be becoming.
If a man is converted and is now with wife number 5, he is not exempt from the ethical demands of this passage. (I am not dealing with his qualifications for being ordained to the office of elder.) “From this moment on,” he is to be the husband of one wife.
And men, we have to be growing one another, mentoring one another, discipling one another toward these Marks of a Christian Man.

B. While applying to all men in general, these traits are to be present in those who lead the church.
These are the prerequisites for pastoral leadership.
These traits are not discernible on a written test or mastery of academic skills.
These traits are recognized in the church, or in a church.
Time and experiences are the best proving grounds for these traits.

C. These traits have to be handled with a degree of judgment, wisdom, and perspective.

1. Paul had some background problems. Peter lopped off someone’s ear once…and he cursed and denied Christ. Almost all of our Old Testament heroes are multiply disqualified. King David and King Solomon.

2. Many of my own theological heroes had some really severe bumps in the road. Francis Schaeffer was known—inside the family—for throwing things in anger and his son, Franky, has been a real disgrace.

3. Titus 1:12 "One of the Cretans, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies."  This cultural and racial profiling was stated after Paul gave out qualifications for choosing elders in Crete.

5. While we don’t want to water these requirements down so that anyone can be an elder, we don’t want to raise the standard to such a degree that you have to be crazy even to mention desiring the office.

IV. The Qualifications

When it comes to a formal, detailed study of 1 Timothy 3, the parallel passage is Titus 1.
If, as Gene Getz says, there are 20 attributes here, we have, potentially, 20 sermons.

The bishop is to be obedient in observable behaviorBlameless, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy, gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, etc.
Politically, we have the process called ‘being vetted.’
When Reagan was running for office, the goal of many an opponent was to make him publicly lose his temper.
Elders have to be vetted. They have to be public and transparent.
We can all fake it during the church hour.
Sometimes you see family photos: The perfect family.
But we don’t need photographs; we need reality TV.
People have to work, talk, play, and spend time around the elder candidate.

The overseer is to lead his family wellThe husband of one wife and a "one woman man.

“The literal phrasing seems less concerned with one’s marital history and more focused on whether the man being considered for office is perceived as living in honesty, faithfulness, and devotion to his spouse.” Bryan Chapell

1 Timothy  3:4-5:  One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

The Puritans referred to the home as being a small church.
Home and family are the training grounds for church leadership.
(Can single men or married men with no children serve in leadership? Yes. Their leadership qualities are manifested elsewhere.)

The overseer needs experience in his Christian walk.Like all the qualifications, this one is a judgment.

Philip G. Ryken tells the stories of 2 candidates for pastoring. One was a young man in his 20s. But he had been a believer since childhood and had grown up in church.
In contrast, former Dallas Cowboys star Deion Sanders became a professing Christian, he wanted to start preaching right away. As he put it, he wanted to take a month to study the Bible “or however long it takes” and then start preaching.

Lots of guys who are newly converted (or convinced) hit the ground running. I long for and desire to have to see this kind of problem.
A guarantee that a young guy armed with a stack of books could run circles around me.
I cannot even remember how much I have forgotten.
We have been looking at cars. The higher the mileage, the lower the price.
But in church leadership, you want to see the odometer well worn.

The overseer must have a good reputation with outsiders.Employers are often reluctant to hire preachers.
The reputation of preachers is often on a par with that of a used car salesman.
Preacher scandals are recurring news stories.
While the world quite often does hate the faithful, this passage is dealing with another angle on that.
If the pastor’s car is getting repossessed or his neighbors hate him or his co-workers despise him, something is likely wrong.

V. Conclusion: For reasons beyond me, Jesus Christ has entrusted the care of His sheep in the hands of weak, struggling, sinful men.
Christianity rightly lived out does not lead to perfection, but should result in men achieving, however weakly, the characteristics described here.
These traits are to describe all of us, but those set apart to lead must have these qualities.

The Sins of Men and Women, July 1, 2012

"I will therefore that men pray everywhere..." 1 Timothy 2:8

I. Introduction: The novelist Bret Lott talks about the time he began writing a mystery novel. In a mystery, you are plot driven. Prior to that, Lott says, most of his novels’ plotlines consisted of a woman and a man standing in a kitchen, thinking about things.
Much of real life in this world consists of the mundane, the ordinary, in standing in the kitchen, thinking about things.
There is a realm we call heaven. God is present there in a way that is beyond His very real presence here.
There is this realm we call earth where we have women and men, kitchens, and every routine, ordinary aspect of life.
We pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
C.S. Lewis says, “The petition, then, is not merely that I may patiently suffer God’s will but also that I may vigorously do it. I must be an agent as well as a patient. I am asking that I may be enabled to do it.”
“Thy will be done—by me—now” brings one back to brass tacks.”

II. 1 Timothy is a visionary book:
The theme of the book is found in 1 Tim. 3:14-15

These things write I to you, hoping to come to you shortly: [15] But if I am delayed, I write that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

The church, the microcosm, the small band of the faithful: With the church then reaching out to the whole world:
“Therefore, I exhort first of all that …prayers…be made for all men.”
The church, operating on behalf of the one and only one connection and hope between this world and the world beyond: One God and One Mediator between God and men—the Man Jesus Christ.
This passage teaches that the church be a united force for prayer.
In the Matthew 21 account of Jesus cleansing the temple, He quotes from Isaiah, saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”
In fact, in the Isaiah passage, “For my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:7)
The church, the people of God, are to be praying and interceding. In a sense, this entire worship service is to be a prayer to go. We enter into worship, into the presence of God. We have prayers, but all of this is a type of prayer to God.
Every problem, societal, social, economic, moral, personal, theological, philosophical, finds its resolution, its answer somehow in the revelation of Jesus Christ.
All we attempt to do here is to bring us and the world into a right relationship with Jesus Christ.

As we come to reorient our lives around prayer, there are hindrances.
Post-salvation hindrances.
Indwelling sin, remaining sin, old habits, the old man, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and everything that defines the way we are, apart from God’s saving grace.

Sometimes Paul lists sins, such as in Galatians 5:19-21, where he includes such sins as "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred," and so on.

In this passage before us today—verses 8-15, Paul picks a particular focal point and expounds upon it. A particular thing that hinders a particular group.
Often called besetting sins. Recurring patterns. Typical sins.

Two mistakes could easily be made at this point:
1. A surface paint job. Horse traders were well known to be scoundrels in the past. There were things that could be done to a horse, like painting it, that enabled the trader to offer something that wasn’t the real thing.
Men: Prayer posture—raised hands.
Women: Buy an outfit of clothes at “Amish Are Us” and think all is well.

2. The other would be to assume that the problem focused on here is the only problem. Paul picks a representative sin for men and one for women.
Women can be in strife and men can be consumed with vanity.

So let us focus on each group.

III. The Besetting Sin of Men
1 Tim. 2:8:  I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

The men get one verse and the women get 7 verses.
A man might say it is because women have a lot more problems. It may be because men don’t focus as well on getting homework done. Tom Garfield: You have to hit men with a 2 by 4.
This is a call for men to pray instead of being contentious, divisive, skeptical, and angry.

A. This is not a call for men to be accepting, overlooking all manner of differences, namby-pamby, girlie men.
Chapter 1: Some of the teachers are to be given their walking papers—verse 3;
Verse 20—some men in the church are to be disciplined, turned over to Satan.
This is not a call to be cuddly with a false teacher or heretic.

B. Men have the built in mechanism to be competitive, aggressive, and protective.
Even non-athletic, rather laid back males still tend to have this aggressive drive.
This is why young, male Calvinists are so much fun, but are like bull dogs. Keep them chained.

C. Church history—from the Early Church to the American experience—has been the story of many, many, too many church squabbles and splits. Theological Wars.
John Frame’s “Machen’s Warrior Children.”
If we could have 100 years of Christ-centered men praying without wrath and doubting, the world would be transformed.
Reformed Christians have often been some of the best of the lot. Brilliant, energetic, devoted.
And men who could not unite in prayer, could not raise holy hands together, without wrath and doubting.

D. Men’s Hands: 3 things here
Men fight with their hands.
Men speak with their hands.
Men work with their hands.
Literally and figuratively, hands represent the total efforts, life, and labor of men.
Men fight with their hands. Strength.
“God made some men strong and some men weak, but Mr. Sameul Colt made all men equal.”

E. Conflicts and Rivalry and Competitive Aggressiveness is built into the heart of men.
In this room, the men, who hold to basically the same worldview, philosophy, and outlook on life, could easily find themselves, OURSELVES, in a series of strong, divisive arguments and squabbles.
And if our arguing isn’t enough, there is the realm of Doubts.
Doubts theologically.
Doubts about life leading to an essentially pessimistic, cynical view of life.

F. Men, be holy. Set apart to God. Put these things aside.
　
III. Women’s Besetting Sin
A. First of all, Paul is not making a fashion statement, it is a call to prayer:
“In like manner”: Men pray everywhere…In like manner, women prayer everywhere.
And here is a hindrance: A focus on appearance, a self-absorbed consumption with how you look.
Not with braided hair;
Or Gold
Or Pearls
Or Costly Clothing.
As we think through this, realize, women, that you can come here with straight hair, no gold, no pearls, cheap clothes and miss the point.
AND, you can have a nice hair style—braided hair, a gold necklace with pearls, and an outfit that really cost more than you can normally afford and be in line with this.

B. This passage calls for a bit of cultural and fashion updating.　
This is not an easy ‘try-this-everywhere’ point to make: In some cases, we have to adjust the culture and conditions of the Scriptures to our times.
Examples of culturally 'updating' Scripture:  Greet each other with a holy kiss, references to footwashing, bring me my scroll and parchments, references to sheep, oxen, and donkeys, etc.

If Paul had been living and writing revised versions of this letter, he would likely be changing these four items—braided hair, gold, pearls, and costly clothing—to reflect the trends of advancing times.
So, if a woman is sitting here right now feeling uncomfortable: You braided your hair today, you happened to wear the gold necklace with pearls that you got for an anniversary, and you are wearing that dress that did not come off the sale rack at Fred’s, don't run out of here.
There is a problems trending in the church at Ephesus with women and fashion. Paul addresses some specifics.
In a later era, he might have specifically just said, mini-skirts and high heels.

Here are the operative phrases:
“in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with…, but which is proper for women professing godliness….” (NKJV)

This calls for a recurring, often revisiting, ever rethinking study of women’s fashion.

If the elders ‘notice’ a problem, it has usually gone too far.

At least 4 levels of accountability on this issue:
First, self control.
Second, the male leader in your life: Husband, Daddy, Big Brother.
Third, the women in your life: Mom, Sisters in Christ, wise women in the church.
Fourth, the elders, and again, here the problem has gone too far.
Priority and wisdom issues at stake: The issue is a woman professing godliness with good works.

IV. Paul lobs two grenades into the church assembly: Men’s combativeness and women’s fashion slavery.
His call is not for pacifist, weak men or for women dressed in potato sacks.
This is a call to prayer.
Because he focuses on 2 besetting sins, we could add other distractions.
But the call, again and again, is I desire that men pray everywhere…in like manner also, the women.
　
　

　

Women in the Church, the Minefield

Sermon Text: 1Timothy 2:8-15

Introduction: God has blessed the modern age with many good and great Bible teachers and leaders. Theologians, pastors, authors. We have J.I. Packer and R. C. Sproul; we have Tim Keller and John MacArthur; we have John Frame and John Piper. And we could go on and on.

One of the great teachers might even be called ‘the theologian of suffering.’
This theologian of suffering did not set out to be such. Rather, this person set out to be a diver. But a diving accident left her paralyzed.
A young beautiful girl paralyzed had to confront the great issue: Did God have anything to do with her breaking her neck?
Her name is Joni Eareckson Tada. Her seminary training was the experience of becoming—at age 19—a quadriplegic with the grace of a mind and soul that had to deal with this great issue of human suffering.
Joni Eareckson Tada has been a teacher to the Church.
She is just one reminder among many of the great women who have—in our times—instructed the church through word, example, writings, and life:
Women like Edith Schaeffer, Corrie TenBoom, Elizabeth Eliot.

Today, we enter the minefield of 1 Timothy 2, verses 8 and following.
The controversy in the terms used today is framed this way:
Egalitarian Views of Women’s Roles in the Church versus Complementarian Views.

Egalitarian Views emphasize all people—men and women—being equal in regard to what can be done in the church and society.

Complementarian Views emphasize that men and women are to complement or complete the roles each has. A woman is a help meet or a helper that it perfectly fitted to complete man’s roles and needs.

The Minefield
Imagine if we were an orchestra and I as the conducted passed out our music scores to each of you. Imagine it was a piece by  Mozart. We would each be scanning the music, looking at what particulars we had to play. Violins and other string instruments at the string parts, woodwinds at the woodwind parts, and the percussion people looking at their parts.
Page 5—measure 122 and following: A jumble. A really hard and confusing set of measures. As musicians, we would be anticipating some long, hard sessions just working through the intricacies (details) of that portion.
Every musician and singer knows the experience. The exhaustingly long practice almost solely devoted to one portion of the music.
But imagine if the orchestra never played the entire piece because it was so overwhelmingly focused on page 5, measure 122 and following.
It is so easy to have a focus on 1 Timothy 2 that says, “A woman shall not…” and then see the chapter in its fullness.

Not every particular and scenario of church worship and church life is addressed here and not every Christ-centered church is going to look alike in what they do.
We have, for example, had women preach sermons in this church.
Case I am referring to, we have had a woman here in times past who would sign the sermon to a visitor who was deaf. She preached the sermon to that deaf person.
We can let our minds race to a thousand different scenarios and ask questions about them.
What about if your congregation has foreign language needs?
What if all the men were called away or taken away?
Can I, for example, preach a sermon message I learned from Joni Eareckson Tada?

It would be easy to get caught in that trap and miss the gist of a portion of God’s word that twice uses the word holy, and also mentions good works, faith, and love.

Three Overwhelmingly Presuppositions, Irreducible Elements, regarding women in the church:

1. Any viewpoint that diminishes or subtracts from women’s ability and opportunity and obligation to learn is wrongful.
The four words that would have been overwhelmingly shocking in the time and culture of this writing: LET THE WOMEN LEARN.
In regard to men and women at worship, the Babylonian Talmud said, “The men came to learn, the women came to hear.”
In contrast, you see the example of Mary (sister of Martha and Lazarus) who chose to neglect the kitchen for sitting and learning from Jesus. (Luke 10:42 etc.)
There is no distinction between the parts of the Bible for men to learn and the parts for women to learn.
There are often apparent differences between the ways men and women learn. Men tend to be more interested in abstract thought (meaning, ideas that don’t entail actually having to work) and women more interested in practical application.
Hence, a man might write a book on the theology of why bad things happen, while Joni E T writes about how to live with suffering.

2. Any viewpoint that diminishes or subtracts from women’s engagement in church life and ministries is wrongful.
In this passage, in 1 Timothy 5, and in Titus 2:3-5, there are more than enough kernels of applications for women being heavily involved in ministry.
Let us not forget that we have at many women who are working full time in Christian ministry Veritas.
There are many counseling situations where women are needed in the church.

3. Any viewpoint that diminishes or subtracts from a woman’s obligation to seek after Christ and personal holiness is completely wrongful.
Any view is wrong allows a woman to think like this: My husband does the theology, Bible study, prayer, worldview, etc. I just have to bake cookies and bread and serve my husband.
This passage speaks of godliness, good works, faith, love, and holiness: directed at women.

Two Principles Concerning Leadership in the Church:

1. Women are not to exercise the pastoral, preaching-centered, authority position in the church.
By the way, most men are not to exercise these positions either.
By the way, children don’t exercise these positions.
Churches have to work out the details of the wide range of teaching venues in the life of the church.

Are there scenarios related to church life where a woman can be standing in the front of a room teaching or delivering information to an audience containing men?
Yes.

Is there a scenario where a woman would be standing here in the pulpit officially proclaiming the Word and Doctrine in the manner that I am doing?
No.

Is there a scenario where, particularly in a larger church, a woman is on the ministry staff?
Yes.

Is there a scenario where a woman is a pastor?
No.

Is there a scenario where a woman would attend a session meet and present information to the elders?
Yes.

Is there a scenario where a woman would be asked to join the session as an elder?
No.

Consider Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2:
She may have ridden up in a green chariot, wearing a green toga, bearing the initials CPS (Christian Parcel Service) and checked the street address (Christ’s Church, 4232 Appian Way, Rome): Special Delivery from Paul to the Church of Rome.
It appears there was more interaction. You can imagine elders sitting down with this woman, asking questions.

2. It is healthy to have a disposition toward favoring, cultivating, and using male leadership in many (perhaps most) situations involving both men and women.
In other words, there are many cases where either a man or woman can take on a particular task, but it is healthy to call on a man to do so.
Male passivity is a besetting sin.
Women overworking is a besetting danger.

Conclusion:  Remember the main context of 1 Timothy 2:
This is a passage calling for prayer EVERYWHERE.
This is a passage calling for godliness and holiness.
For Good Works.
For Faith, Love, Holiness, Self-control.
This beautiful community, this utopia, this heavenly society is possible because God has placed two groups in the church. 2 groups whose inclinations and duties overlap at many points, yet at other points are different.
Two groups—each incomplete in themselves—but complete, complemented, together: 
Men and Women.

Sermon: Praying for the World (6-17-2012)

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men....

Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-7

I. Introduction: In this passage before us today, we have a call to prayer.
In the beginning, we are told to pray a specific prayer: For Kings. For Caesar.
That prayer is to have a particular result: So that God’s people can live quiet, peaceful lives pursuing godliness and reverence. So we can sit here safely, week after week.

Paul is writing this letter to Timothy somewhere in the vicinity of 62 A.D.
It will be the year 312 A.D. before Constantine the Emperor is converted to Christianity.

250 years between 2 events. On the one hand, Paul was not simply asking Timothy and the church in Ephesus to pray for the emperor to be saved.

This look at prayer reminds us of two things:
First, our prayers have the long term in mind: Thy Will Be Done. Our prayers have a 250 year plus range.
Second, we are the living answers to prayers reaching back 250 years. For Americans, that goes back roughly to the events known as the Great Awakening. A series of revivals that swept across the American colonies.  Great preaching and preachers: George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. And great prayer.

Prayer is not subject to objective tests. Prayer is not subject to scientific study:
          Group A prayed 3 times a day.
          Group B prayed 10 times a day.
          Group C was given a placebo. Their "prayer" was actually, a Dr. Suess story.
          Group D did not pray at all.

And yet, prayer is a vital part of the Christian and the church’s life.
And are the results we see in life and history just coincidence?
In May 1989 at Leipzig, in the historic Nocolai Kirche (St. Nicholas Church) where the Reformation had been introduced 450 years earlier, a small group began to meet.
They were reading the Sermon on the Mount and praying for peace.
The group grew and had to move to larger and larger rooms.
They moved to the nave of the church, which filled up.
The Communist authorities got concerned. They began threatening attenders, jailing some, and blocking roads to the prayer meetings.
October 9, 1989, some 2000 crowded in to pray for peace, with another 10,000 outside.
Soon the Berlin Wall came down.

Right here in the central part of 1 Timothy is an exhortation to prayer. Largely a whole chapter devoted to prayer.
1 Timothy and 2^nd Timothy are teacher manuals, seminary guides, doctrinal handbooks.
Teach, instruct, train are recurring words and themes. Doctrine and specifically SOUND Doctrine is the motif of these letters.
“Timothy, here is how you are to get into the minds of your congregation.”

And yet, this is a book calling for prayer.
As we look at these verses today, we will be able to look at the immensity, the greatness, the vastness of what our prayers are to focus on, and then we will look at Paul’s personal explanation of how he…and by extension, each of us, then tackles the world.
II. The Universal Scope of Our Prayers1 Tim. 2:1-2
1. It is good for us to have the more local, individual prayers on our church prayer list. Jobs, marriages, babies, sicknesses, travel, and more are things to pray for.

2. Four words or phrases are used to expand upon what we more easily call prayer.
Supplications:
Prayers:
Intercessions:
Thanksgiving:

The Scriptures are a literary text. Rich in literary devices; not just barebones instruction.
Multiple words are used often for several reasons: 

     i. To show different aspects of a thing to be done. Housework: cleaning, cooking, ironing, dusting.
     ii. To show the richness or multi-layered nature of a thing: You are my mentor, friend, guide, brother.
     iii. Often it does both. Easy to see the difference between thanksgiving and supplication, but not so    easy see the difference between prayers and supplications. To focus on definitions would be misguided. Rather we are to be hit by the richness of the fourfold testimony.

3. We are to pray for all men. At least 4 times in this text this word ALL appears. All men is not the same as all who are in authority.
All does not always mean every.  Usually, it is better seen as all types. 

As you think through the 4 alls (all men; all who are in authority; and the all who God desires to be saved and the all for whom Christ was a ransom), pray on the larger side of this.

If you are hung up in a theological struggle between this passage and verses from John 10, read Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God if you wish. Do the study of issues relating to predestination and the free offer of the Gospel,

But for now, for all times, pray expansively.
Children are often at best theologians in the church: Pray for God to heal all the sick people in the world.

Philip Graham Ryken tells of his experiences some years ago at the Gilcomston South Church in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Every Saturday night—for 2 hours—the congregation gathered for prayer.
They had a large board listing the names and locations of ministers and missionaries sent out by the church.
They prayed their way around the city of Aberdeen.  They prayed for Scotland and the British Isles.
Someone would mention a continent and prayers would follow for the countries of that continent.
They prayed for the whole world.

Pray expansively: World, US, Texarkana. 

4. For kings and those in authority: Pagans, in their case. Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, Washington insiders, establishment figures, etc.

III. The Universal Reach of the Gospel
In the essay, “Epic as Cosmopoesis” by Louise Cowan, she talks about the characteristics of epic literature.
One of those characteristics of the great epics—like The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost—is the penetrating of the veil between gods and men, immortals and mortals.

Right here: Paul gives us the easy answer to the epic question: Where is the veil separated between God and man:
In Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ alone, in Jesus Christ only.

Prayer, Paul’s topic, becomes a focus on Jesus Christ.
Prayer focuses us on a Christ-centered life.
One Mediator between God and man: the Man Christ Jesus. The Man—Christ’s human nature. The Christ—the messiah, the one who is coming. Jesus—One who saves.

IV. The Specific Application
The universal prayer—All men, all the world
The universal answer—Jesus Christ
Specific application: Paul appointed to carry the truth to Gentiles.
GCC: appointed to proclaim the Gospel and minister in Texarkana.
Prayer focuses us on Christ. A focus on Christ sends us out to let people know.
V. How do we further apply all this?
1. Application for a sermon on prayer: Pray. Pray more. Pray better.
2. Attend at least one of our prayer times this week.
3. Go through the shelves at home and pull out that book on prayer that you read years ago or never read or read and did not apply.
4. Pray in an uncomfortable or unfamiliar setting. Embarrass yourself if necessary. Pray spontaneously.
5. Pray bigger, more Christ centered, evangelism centered, and specific.
The world, the message of Christ, those, like Paul, who carry the message of Christ.
　
　

Wage the Good Warfare

Wage a good warfare!

Scripture: 1 Tim. 1:18-20
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; [19] Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: [20] Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.


Introduction: When I was growing up, one of the most frightening ongoing news stories was the Vietnam War. For the first time in history, the evening news brought the war into our living rooms. And the war was confusing. My parents never understood what was going on. Neither did most Americans. I as a child certainly didn’t understand.
Among the points that was confusing was this shaded place on the mats of Vietnam. The country of Vietnam was divided into a north and a south. The country had a shape somewhat like a snake. Dividing the north and the south was an area known as the DMZ.
The de-militarized zone. A portion of land between north and south that was supposed to be free of military activity.
Like so much of that war, the DMZ didn’t make a lot of sense.

We will likewise make a big mistake if we think there are areas in this life that are the DMZ.
The Christian life, the spiritual life, is by definition a life of warfare. Repeatedly, in the Bible, descriptions and pictures and commands are loaded with military language.
It is not just God using metaphors or figurative language. The Christian life is a battle. It is not just like a battle. It is a battle.
There is a war going on and the battle is for the soul.
Let’s think again about the good warfare that Paul calls upon Timothy to wage.

II. Wrong Approaches to Good Warfare

A. Actual Wars in History waged under the banner of Christ that have brought reproach to the name of Christ.
The primary example is always the Crusades. Lots of misunderstandings and confusion over the wars for the Holy Land waged by European kings and popes during the Middle Ages.
Back and forth warfare between the Muslim east and the Christian west.
Yes, Europeans many times tried to conquer the Middle East in the name of Christ, doing things very unchristian.
4^th Crusade—a victory for the Europeans. They captured the Christian city of Constantinople. Senseless and wicked.
Many times the Muslim east tried to capture Europe.
Bad theology and wrongful use of the name of Christ.

B. Another wrong approach has been one close to the heart of Reformed Christians.
John Frame has spoken and written about what he calls ‘Machen’s Warrior Children.’
J. Gresham Machen waged the good warfare against real enemies of the faith: Men who denied the Bible, the Deity of Christ, the Resurrection of Christ, and other key doctrines.
He and his followers had a zeal with study for knowing exactly what the Bible teaches.
But all too often, Reformed Christians have fought against each other, viciously, over doctrinal differences. Great men of God whose books set side by side on my shelves could not get along together.
Frame talked about over 20 different conflicts between Reformed Christians.

C. Another wrongful approach is the one that says that Christians should not wage war against others FOR ANY REASON. Sad to say, many Christians have bought into the idea that we just get along, we just accept differences, we overlook doctrine.

III. The War to be Waged
A. There are at least 2 fronts on this war: There are the big picture theological battles for the truth and there is the personal battle.

B. In the history of the Church, there have been major conflicts where the essential truths of the Bible, the essence of the Gospel, were at stake.
1. The Nicene Creed, which we recited today, is an example. The big word for some of the early Church battles is Christology. It simply means, the study of Christ.  Who is Jesus Christ?The Nicene Creed was a defining statement of what the Church believed reflects Scripture.

2. The Reformation. This topic is dear to the heart of this church since we are by definition a Reformed Church.
The truth of the Gospel had gotten increasingly obscured during the Middle Ages. There were Christians in the Church, which meant the RC church, during the Middle Ages.  There were Christians in the RC church before and during the time of Martin Luther and John Calvin.The Gospel was there, but obscured, distorted, ignored.  People were converted before the Reformation not by the teachings of the Church, but in spite of the teachings of the Church.

3. The Battle for the Bible in the Twentieth Century.
This was J. Gresham Machen’s great battle at Princeton Theological Seminary.  Later, men like Harold Lindsell (The Battle for the Bible) and Francis Schaeffer carried on this war. You cannot understand the real culture war of modern times without understanding this. Machen’s book Christianity and Liberalism is still one of the defining books of sound, Biblical Christianity.

C. The Personal Warfare
These great world-changing battles for the faith are a big part of who we are. They give us the role call of the faith: Men who spent their lives for the sake of sound doctrine. But Waging the Good Warfare is not just about those great battles.
It is also about you.
What if the church holds to a right view of Christ, salvation, and the Bible, but you personally are a wreck?
If GCC holds to sound doctrine, thank God, but again, the question has to be faced, what about you?
There are no group rates or package deals for either getting into heaven or for living a faithful Christian life here on earth.

Yes, sometimes Christians have faced the Bible and faith too individualistically.
“Me and Jesus have a good thing going. Me and Jesus have it all worked out.”
Just you and your Bible and your own walk with Christ—yes American Christianity errs in that direction all too often.
But it is an error of emphasis, not an error of essence. 
You, personally, need to be waging the good warfare.
Traditionally, the talk has been about ‘Christian Disciplines’ or ‘Spiritual Disciplines.’
If the word Discipline is scary (and it derives from Disciple), then the next word is also scary—Daily.
Prayer, Bible Reading, Fellowship, Meditation, Giving, and Worship.
Setting aside specific times where you pray.
Purposefully reading Christian books, not just good books containing a Christian element, but specifically Christian books that challenge and change the way you live.
Reading the Bible—by a plan or pattern. Whether it is all the way through or repeated readings of a specific book.
Talking with a brother or sister in Christ about the Faith. Not just a safe conversation, but a sharing of the faith.
These are among the elements of Spiritual Disciplines.

These are not things of which you advertise, boast, post on your FB, etc.
If you are doing your Bible reading and prayers on the corner of AR Blvd. And Stateline where all Texarkana can see you, you have a problem.  You recognize the Pharisaical problem with all that.
When Jesus spoke of the spiritual disciplines in the Sermon on the Mount. Repeatedly, He said, “Your Father who sees….”
But I will tell you something else, and you know this from experience, the Christian who is doing all these spiritual exercises is not talking or boasting, but in time, it is like there is a flashing neon light around you.
Church members start knowing that when they are around you, they are going to hear exhortations, hear Scripture, be encouraged.
They will know that when they ask you to pray for them, you will—maybe right there on the spot.
Much more can be said on Spiritual Disciplines, let me sum that matter up with a few suggestions:

1. A couple of studies that women and girls can sign up for in the foyer.
2. Start or restart or improve what you are currently doing: Bible reading and prayer.
3. Turn something off, minimize some screen, slow down somewhere.
4. Find a book that slaps you in the face and read it slowly.
5. Do something small that makes a difference.

IV. What about Timothy?
A. At an early point in Timothy’s life and ministry, there was an ordination, a laying on of hands. There was a prophecy made regarding him. Prophecies are teachings from God. Sometimes about the future, sometimes just truths about God. Several references to this point are made, but Paul never tells us specifically what the prophecy was.

There is a warped old evangelistic saying, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
I don’t want to dwell on how it is misused, but rather, take note that there is a great element of truth in it.
The world affirms the truth of it in that popular movie, “It’s a wonderful life.” God saved you for a purpose. God placed you in a Christian church, or perhaps a Christian family, or a Christian school for a purpose.
You are probably not going to be a Martin Luther or Billy Graham, but you are not just a number or a statistic.
What has God purposed for you?
Paul is reminding Timothy of his ordination and the prophecies.  “Timothy, stay on mission.”
Timothy is battling the big picture, the big issues—the church, the faith. But repeatedly, Paul tells him to attend to his own personal warfare. And if Timothy needs reminders, encouragement, teaching, how much more the rest of us.

B. Conclusion:  There is no DMZ—no demilitarized zone. No place on earth or in your soul where the spiritual battle is not being wages. 

Wage the Good Warfare.

How We Often Feel

Where is The Safest Place on Earth?  The Church.

Taken from the book The Safest Place on Earth: Where People Connect and are Forever Changed by Larry Crabb:

You're tired. Life isn't turning out as you'd expected.  When you became a Christian, you packed your bags for Bermuda but your plane landed in Iceland. Without a coat, you need the warmth of community to survive.

You thought by now you'd be farther ahead spiritually, less tempted toward bad things..., more content in a church fellowship, better connected to family and friends. You expected, after all those years in church and mornings with your Bible, to struggle less with spiritual dryness, greed, lonliness, and anger; to be happier in career and ministry, more optimistic and relaxed.

After all, you've been at this thing called the Christian life for quite some time. Like Peter, you tell the Lord that you've been working hard all night and haven't caught a thing. 

And He says, "Let down the nets. Row back into deep water."

Reading this this morning, I had the thought:  He is describing me and many of us.  Has he been snooping around in my mind and heart?

I had to jump on to the end of the chapter:

It's time to build the church, a community of people who take refuge in God and encourage each other to never flee to another source of help, a community of folks who know the only way to live in this world is to focus on the spiritual life--our life with God and others.  It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Our impact on the world is at stake.

Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day.  Like all too many celebrations and commemorations, this one has suffered from a lost focus.  The essence of Patrick was not Irish culture, not the color emerald, or drinking to excess.  Rather, we should remember that Patrick was an Englishman who set out to evangelize lost people.  In fact, he set out to evangelize the barbaric people who had once kidnapped and enslaved him.

Remember Patrick's Morning Prayer this day: http://grantian.blogspot.com/2012/03/st-patricks-morning-prayer.html.

And for a more detailed look at the life of Patrick, read the short biographical sketch written by the late Dr. Francis Nigel Lee:

Dr.  F. N. Lee

The Britannic Christian Padraig Converts Ireland, Going into All the World

By Rev. Professor-Emeritus Dr. Francis Nigel Lee

According to Britain's oldest Historian, the North-Brythonic Celtic Christian Gildas,¹ the Gospel arrived in Britain before 37 A.D. According to Eusebius, Maelgwyn, Isidore, Freculph, Nenni, Baronius, Cressy, Hearne, Rev. Dr. James Ussher, Rev. Dr. John Owen and Rev. Dr. H. Williams—there is some evidence that Joseph of Arimathea preached (and was also buried) in Somerset's Glastonbury.²

Also according to the American Rev. Dr. A. Cleveland Coxe in the Ante-Nicene Fathers,³ there is strong reason to conclude that the great Anti-Roman British General Caradog became a Christian—perhaps even while still in the West of Britain before his exile therefrom in 52 A.D. Too, from A.D. 75 onward, his relative the apparently-Christian Prince Merig is said to have ruled over the Britons from near my own birthplace Kendal in Cumbria's Westmorland.⁴

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Lenten Reflections--The Blood of Christ

Lenten Season Reflections

The New Testament uses the concept of Christ’s blood as a way of describing His sacrificial death and what it accomplished.  It makes several affirmations about Christ’s blood:

• Acts 20:28: God acquired the church through Christ’s blood.
• Romans 3:25:  God publicly set Christ forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood.
• Romans 5:9: Christians have been justified by Christ’s blood.
• Ephesians 1:7: Christians have redemption through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of trespasses.
• Ephesians 2:12-13: Gentiles have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
• Colossians 1:20: God was pleased to reconcile all things to Himself and make peace through the blood of Christ.
• Hebrews 9:12:  Christ entered the Most Holy place once for all through His own blood.
• Hebrews 9:14:  The blood of Christ cleanses our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.
• I Peter 1:2: God’s elect were chosen for sprinkling by the blood of Jesus Christ.
• I John 1:7: “The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
• Revelation 1:5:  Christ loved us and freed us from our sins by His blood.
• Revelation 5:9-10: Christ purchased for God by His blood men from every tribe and language and people and nations, and made for God a kingdom and priests who will reign on earth.

[Adapted from A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith by Robert L. Reymond.]

Donate-A-Smile

Dr. Rick Skowronski

On Sunday, March 25, we will be hosting Dr. Rick Skowronski and his wife Joe'l.  Dr. Skowronski will be talking about the mission work of Donate-A-Smile.  http://www.donateasmile.org/about_us.php

This organization will be sending a medical missionary team to the Central African Republic in April.  Pray for this mission and for the fundraising efforts needed to make this possible.

Out to Pasture, Part 2

Currently, these are the places where I have been enjoying spiritual feasts:

Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ by John MacArthur highlights those many times that Scripture reminds us that we are SLAVES, not just servants or bond-servants, to Jesus Christ.  And, amazingly, that is our Freedom.  Prior to that, we were slaves to sin.

This book is also a powerful defense of the Doctrines of Grace, or what we often refer to as the Five Points of Calvinism.  This is not a TULIP exposition, but the doctrines of total inability and irresistable grace and perseverance of the saints are all ably supported.  What a great blend of theological and exegetical study with devotional encouragement. 

I do not recommend that you read this book:  I am planning on borrowing extensively from it for future sermons!

Still reading from Eugene Peterson's delightful and really soul-shaking Pastor: A Memoir.