What Does LOVE Require Of Me?

Recently, my messages for LifeSpring Church were based on a similar sermon series and small group study taught by Andy Stanley called Christian, It’s Not What You Think. 

         Over the last couple of weeks I’ve tried to raise the awareness of our congregation that “Christians” and “Disciples of Jesus” are not always the same thing.  I did this by placing an emphasis on Jesus’ teaching & His modeling of what many call The Great Commandment found in Matthew 22 with His followers (insiders) and others (outsiders), along with Jesus’ own definition of what the defining characteristic of His Disciples…

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”   John13:34-35

This past week, I concluded the message by challenging everyone to ask of themselves (at least once a day) …

WHAT DOES LOVE REQUIRE OF ME?

I have received several texts, emails, and I have even had multiple conversations with people who have been wrestling with this question since last Sunday’s message.  The comments range from

“I don’t know what love requires of me” to “I think I know, but don’t think I can do it”. This combined with other comments like “I don’t think I’m worthy to be a Disciple of Jesus”, “I love God, but struggle with loving others”, “thinking about what Love requires of me makes me very uncomfortable” leads me to believe that I have touched on a very important issue for many. 

Well I have good news for those of you who are struggling with this question! This Sunday, June 2^nd, I will give everyone the answer to this question.  The answer is based on what the Bible teaches and will be life altering for many people who hear it.  You do not want to miss this message.  If you are unable to attend personally, please visit our website and listen to the podcast or watch it online.  

Inside vs. Outside the Church

Hey Everybody,

I cannot BELIEVE what a Sunday we just had. Thank you SO much for coming out.

As a follow up, we posted this on our Facebook page to see our what type of responses we would get.

"What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
1 Corinthians 5:12

How does this passage challenge your assumptions about what the Bible says regarding judging others? As Christians we have to hold ourselves accountable rather than judging nonbelievers.

 In response, I just wanted to give you guys my answer.

In this past Sunday’s message, I used 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, I also used 1 Corinthians 9:19-22, and connected them to John 13:34-35

I explained that when we Love one another as Jesus Loves, then we will be recognized as Disciples of Jesus. This type of love draws “outsiders” or “non believers” toward Jesus and encouraged “insiders” or “believers” to learn more of Jesus teachings and together with the encouragement and help of others, live them out daily.

I summed it up by saying…

Loving one another as Jesus loves means:

• Loves both Insiders and Outsiders
• Stop judging OUTSIDERS
• Hold Insiders ACCOUNTABLE

Too often, followers of Jesus do exactly what Paul chastised the Corinthians for doing—judging nonbelievers, while failing to hold themselves and other followers of Jesus accountable for their behavior.

It’s not a Christian’s job to judge the behavior of a nonbeliever.

In fact, followers of Jesus lose influence when they approach nonbelievers with anything but love.

When we connect this with Matthew 28:19-20, we find that Jesus commissioned us (His Disciples) to “go and make disciples…”. In other words, help “outsiders” become “insiders”.

Now, let’s clear this up here and now.

1) It’s not a disciples place to try and do the job of the Holy Spirit.
2) The Holy Spirit guides people toward the choice or decision to accept the Truth of Jesus or reject it (John Wesley would call this the Prevenient Grace of God.)
3) The Holy Spirit uses the actions of the Disciples, as well as many other ways, to accomplish this.
4) Just because the Holy Spirit works through the actions of a Disciple, it doesn’t make that Disciple the Holy Spirit… just an instrument of the Holy Spirit.

Once an “outsider” accepts the Truth of Jesus and becomes a believer, or “insider”
(John Wesley would call this the Justifying Grace of God),
then the Holy Spirit guides the “insiders” to learn and obey the things that Jesus taught… “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you….”
(John Wesley would call this the Sanctifying Grace of God.)

When I read “teaching them to obey”, I feel this is the point where accountability comes in for Disciples.

Notice in the great commission that Jesus gives His Disciples, that it is only “AFTER” the outsider has been baptized into the body of believers, AKA “insiders”, that the “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” occurs.

You see, for the most part, Jesus is saying “I taught you 1st, you must teach them, but it won’t make sense to them and they won’t be able to fully give themselves to this way of living until they accept me as their Lord and Savior. Because once they accept me, then I will send them the Holy Spirit to help them in their efforts to obey my commands. And remember this, You are not alone, nor are they. I will be with you all, to the ends of the time. So what are you Disciples of mine waiting for….”

Your Pastor,
Dorsia

Text the Pastor Answers: Why did wars begin?

Recently during one of our worship services we decided that the sermon message would be based off of questions that our congregation "Texted to the Pastor". Because of time, I was not able to answer all the questions during the service, so over the next several weeks, I will be answering the ones I didn't get to in my blog. Some may be long answers, others shorter, but hopefully they will stimulate you to consider your own answers to these questions. So, here we go!

Why did wars begin?

Wars on earth are merely a result of (or an extension of) a war (battle/conflict) that occurred in heaven between Satan and God and continues today on earth.

In Revelation 12:7-12 we read about this war between Satan and God; between Satan and his angels (Satan’s followers) and God and his Angles (God’s followers, lead by Michael).

We see that this battle originally took place in heaven, with Michael winning this particular fight. Satan is overpowered and cast to earth (forced to retreat) with his followers.

Note:

1) Satan was not destroyed, simply caste out of heaven.

2) Satan didn’t change his ways, rather he just change the location of where the future battles would take place.

So, what caused this fight to begin in heaven in the first place? I mean its heaven, right? Everything is all good, streets of gold, peace & harmony, right?

If we take a look at Ezekiel 28: 14-17 we get what I think is a description of what the cause of this war was back then and it is still the cause of many wars today.

Satan was an “anointed cherub” who was in heaven “the holy mountain of God” and walked and moved about with God. He was “perfect in his ways from the day” he was created.

Note:

3) This does not mean that Satan was perfect on the inside…just at that point his actions were perfect.

It is then that there was an “iniquity found in” Satan. Whatever this “iniquity” was, it caused him to be “filled with violence” and led Satan to sin.

Note:

4) What was inside of Satan (the “iniquity”) took over Satan and began to drive his action, causing Satan to move form being “perfect in his ways” to sinning against God.

We then read that Satan was cast out of heaven “the mount of God”. Then in verse 17 we start to read about what might have been the “iniquity” that drove Satan to sin (and still drives many of us to sin…and is the cause of many of the wars that have ever been).

Satan’s heart became PROUD because of his 1) beauty 2) wisdom 3) splendor.

Note:

5) Other angels in heaven followed Satan into battle, so the Pride in Satan must have been contagious to some of those around him.

So, what was the source of Satan’s contagious pride that changed him and some of those around him? Let’s take a look at Isaiah 14: 12-15

Isaiah describes Satan’s down fall in verse12. Then in verses13 & 14 we see it. Isaiah describes the root of what was going on in Satan’s heart (the root of Satan’s pride).

Satan wanted to take over God’s throne in heaven!

Satan wanted to be like God.

In some warped way Satan thinks he can be God by defeating God. Satan, who hasn’t created anything, nor can create anything, is trying to destroy the Creator. Since that isn’t going to happen, Satan then turn to God’s creation (the cosmos… AKA: Earth, and its inhabitants… AKA: Humanity) and tries to get them to join him.

And when would Satan try to do this? … look at Genesis 3:1-19

Pay close attention to the actual temptation of Eve… it’s not the apple… the temptation is found in verse 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.

Up to this point, things were perfect; Adam and Eve’s actions were perfect (like Satan’s were at one time). But like Satan, something wasn’t right in the hearts of Adam and Eve, and Satan could see it (ever heard that phrase “it takes one to know one”? That phrase holds true here).

Satan tempted humanities heart with the same temptation that his heart yielded to…. wanting to be “like God”. And what sin did this cause? Disobedience to God. (not a good thing.) How things might be different with more self-discipline when it comes to temptations like this…

Guess what. Even though humanity was tempted into sinning against God, that still didn’t make Satan God. So, Satan’s focus turned to destroying the one and only heir of God, the one who would one day take over the throne of God… God’s one and only Son, Jesus the Christ.

Having said all that, I’m back to the original question… Why did wars begin?

Because humanity continues to succumb to the prime deception of Satan that one day some person (or group of people) might be in control of everything (like God is) and can implement their own will (how they want things to be) on all that they control.

So one side fights to do it their way… and another fights to stop it.

One side starts out defending something (like freedom or democracy, etc) only to fall to the temptation of becoming the Master of (Controller of, God of) freedom and democracy.

One side’s passionate fight for justice leads them down a slippery slope called pride, where they implode in the battle because they lose sight of why they went to war in the first place.

The internal urges to “be like God” (doing things “my way”) when unchecked by the self-discipline provided to those who love God and are guided by his Holy Spirit, to live and love as His one and only Son Jesus does, will always lead to wars and rumors of wars.

Hopes this helps.

Dorsia

Loving Through Awkward

I hate being in places or situations that make me feel awkward. Don’t you?

It’s not that the places or situations that I am in are “good” or” bad” that cause me to feel awkward, usually I feel awkward because I have not been in that particular place or situation before, and I don’t know how to act or behave. (Heck, I have been in the same place or situation many times again, and I still felt somewhat awkward.)

Think about your first kiss. Was that awkward? Come on now. Think about all the things that led up to that first kiss. All the thoughts that went through your mind weeks and days before that kiss. The things you `watched on TV or in real life to get a heads-up on what a good kiss should look like. Remember the conversations you had with your close friends (some who had already experienced their first kiss, and others who hadn’t, but since they were your best friend you listen to their first kiss advice and tactics anyway)

Awkward, I tell you. AWKWARD.

But thank God, I didn’t quit.

Heck, many of us learned to get over that awkward feeling so well that we would actually look forward to sitting around with a bunch of our friends, spin a bottle, and then a guy and a girl would go into a closet and have their “first kiss” with each other while the rest of the group made strange noises outside the door. (Shut up, you know you’ve done something like this…or at least heard about it)

So many good things can happen when we learn to overcome awkward in a healthy way. In fact, if I had avoided kissing in order to avoid awkwardness, I wouldn’t have gotten a second kiss (or a third kiss for that matter). Yes, avoiding “awkward” could have cost me 29 years of a happy marriage.

Jesus had the same kind of approach when it came to overcoming (not avoiding) awkward.

Time and time again in the Bible, we see Jesus coming across a situation that was awkward…like the time some religious leaders brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus, in order to get his nod of approval to have her stoned to death (which their laws said was just and reasonable punishment).

Talk about AWKWARD!

Awkward for Jesus…Awkward for the woman…Awkward for the religious leaders.

But awkward didn’t scare or intimidate Jesus. Jesus didn’t hide from awkward, or avoid it, but rather Jesus overcame awkward.

How?

With Love.

Jesus loved through awkward! He loved & forgave the woman who had messed up…His words to her, “go and sin no more”.

Jesus loved those misguided religious leaders who may or may not have had good intentions, but definitely missed the mark when it came to humility, empathy, compassion, and forgiveness. Jesus reminded them of what they really looked like in the eyes of God by saying, “you without sin, you go ahead and cast the first stone”.

Jesus’ actions always match His words. Jesus always loves us through awkward.

This is one of the things that I love so much about LifeSpring Church where I pastor.

We all remember awkward…

The first time we visited the church, the first time we were asked to serve, the first time we met someone who had different values and upbringings, the first time we met people might know our past, our ex-spouse, our mistakes, our short comings, our failures, our lifestyle choices…

And since we remember our awkward past, we don’t avoid awkward with others, we simply love others through it (like someone did to us).

We are learning every day new ways to love others through awkward, just like Jesus loves us through awkward.

Below is a blog post by Seth Godwin that stimulated my thoughts about the hypocrisy of saying one thing and doing another. He reminded me that what we say isn’t the problem. It’s what we do.

I choose to love through awkward, what about you?

Blog post by Seth Godwin

We say we want a revolution...

Of course, what we say doesn't matter so much. What we do is what matters and we have far more influence that we'd like to confess.

We say we want local merchants to offer great service, deep selection and community values, but we cross the street to the big box store to save $3.

We say we want companies to honor their promises and act transparently, but one new product or big discount from a business that has deceived us in the past and we come right back for more.

We say we're disgusted with Congress, but almost all of us vote to re-elect the dufus we sent there in the first place.

We say we hate spam, but we send it. And sometimes buy from it.

We say we'd like people to think first and act later, but we get cut off in traffic and all bets are off.

We say we love art, the brave work that touches us, but we listen to oldies and rarely head out to hear live music or visit a cutting edge gallery.

Hypocrisy may be an epidemic, but the problem isn't in what we say. It's what we do.

Momentum: It’s essential to moving forward

Today I learned an important lesson on the ski slopes on Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia about MOMENTUM.

It's been nearly 5 years since my last attempt at skiing. In the first couple of hours, I am proud to say that I only fell once, and it really wasn't a bad spill. Skiing on a recovering stress fracture in my shin did have me moving very gingerly across the snow.

It was then that I came across a long, basically flat section of snow. After slowing down as I came down the hill (fear of falling at a high speed compelled me to slow down), I realized that I didn't have enough momentum to make it through this flat section of the ski trail.

I leaned forward as for as I could using my ski poles and upper body strength to keep me moving forward.

And then it happened. Moving at a snails pace, leaning forward, trying to pick up momentum, I lost my balance and fell face first in the snow. (For those of you who know me, no curse words came out…not because they weren't on the tip of my tongue, but after the word "OH…." came out of my mouth and before the next word did come out, my face was in the snow, my open mouth full of snow, and my skis were sticking straight up in the air…Imagine me kneeling face down to pray with my face on the ground and my backside up in the air, and you sort of get the picture)

My lack of momentum caused me to press forward hard to get it back, and I busted my face in the process (only a small cut, and some "snow rash" on one side of my face, and what looks like half my eyebrow hair is gone…I may blog about this another day).

Momentum is one of those things that when you have it, you know you have it, and when you lose it, well, you know you've lost it. Without it, there are times you feel like whatever you do, no mater how hard you try, you just can't get on track.

Momentum is important in skiing for sure, but it is also important in one's life and in the life of a church.

People & churches spend great amounts of time trying to get momentum, countless hours of energy trying to keep it, and when it's gone, they struggle trying to figure out "how the heck did we lose it".

The truth is, if we are going to find the results we as individuals are hoping for, and the "fruits" our church is striving for, we definitely need momentum in both areas.

Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church, outlines the two elements of momentum; creating it and sustaining it. Here are four of those points.

• If you want to create momentum you are going to have to change something.


• Change always produces conflict.


• You have two choices to deal with conflict.
  
  
  
  • Choice one is to back off when you are in conflict. This will result in decline.
  
  
  • Choice two is to push through the conflict and the results will produce growth.


• If you want to sustain momentum you have to practice certain "key routines" in "excellent ways" over and over.

Here's a couple of things I have learned about momentum in life, in the church and in skiing.

First, momentum is not constant. It comes and goes, moves up and down, and is a lot like a wave on the ocean.

Second, though many may disagree, I believe that people, a church, even a team can do things that can help them catch the wave of momentum when it comes by.

So, with all this said, how should I catch momentum, in my life, in my church, and in skiing?

Well, you really can't just sit back and wait for it…because momentum most likely won't just come to you. I could have waited for someone to come by and give me a "push" when I slowed to a stop skiing, but no one was stopping to do that (just like no one offered to help me up after my face first crash).

For many people, they are caught in this trap of hoping for momentum to just come back to them, and use this as an excuse to just do nothing while telling others they are actively watching and waiting on the signs that momentum is passing by, and then they will "jump on board".

I believe that if your have lost momentum in your life, your church, or your team, you have to begin by DOING SOMETHING…EVEN AT THE RISK OF FALLING FLAT ON YOUR FACE!

Change something!

Don't keep doing the same things and expect different results.

Get a quick win!

Don't just talk about it for 6 months, find a change that will have a positive impact on attitude, and JUST DO IT! Start something new every month if necessary, knowing that half will make it and half will "fall face first into the snow". The half that make it will give you enough momentum to overcome the crashes.

Do certain practices well, over and over!

The only way to sustain something is to do it well over time. Keep practicing! Don't give up! Don't let a failure, a head first crash, or a few people stop what you need to do! If they want to be critics in the stands, fine, but if you're like me, we're in the game of life and want old "mo" on our side.

Lead by example!

Understand that people watch what we do. If you try something to catch momentum in your life, church or team, and crash face first in the snow, and quit, what example are you sending to those following you (like your family, church family, or your self-esteem). Get up, try it again. Try something else. But don't quit after the 1^st try. Let people know by your example it's ok to strive for something that is important and miss the mark, but it's not ok to quit after just a few tries.

Momentum is essential in moving a skier forward.

Momentum is essential to moving a congregation forward into a new future.

Momentum is essential to individuals move into their God given potential and purpose in life.

Momentum; GET SOME!