Longing for More

 I've found myself lately to be wanting... something more. Encouragement, guidance, direction- for truth to be poured into me.

 Longing, for true worship, for true fellowship, for REAL maturity to push me, to shape me, to challenge me.

What I long for is a group of mature Believers that want to authentically worship, who want to be taught and challenged, and who want to partner in ministering to the world, reaching out to the world...

Wasn't that the point of the Restoration movement? Restoring the church to the model of the Early Church? 

I long for it, but I find very little of it in the Western Church. Maybe its why I had such a hard time coming back to the church after living on the mission field.

Venting to my little corner of the blogisphere will have to suffice for now. 

Works of Faith: Not the Root of Salvation, but the Fruit of Salvation!

(This is an except from the sermon I am preparing for this Sunday. The purpose statement that I have put before the church that I pastor is Teach, Disciple, Send- based on Matthew 28:19-20. This sermon is part 1 of the final pillar of that purpose: Send.)

Your faith is not dependent on the works that you accomplish. God is not watching everything you do with a clipboard, waiting for the balance on your account to become negative so that He can cut you loose. Our salvation is justified by our faith in Jesus and His sacrifice on our behalf; it is justified by works, just not ours- it is justified by Jesus’ work on our behalf. In the grand scheme of salvation, ours is but a very small part to play.

We were drowning in an ocean of our own sins when Jesus came along in a ship called HMS Salvation and extended to us an invitation to rescue us and bring us to His Father’s house. Now, our part in the process: we must accept His invitation of rescue! We must accept salvation. We can neither brag nor complain about our place; we were drowning in sin because of our own choices and sins. If we are saved, it is because of the grace that Jesus extended to us; if we remain unsaved, we cannot complain that we end up in hell- eternal separation from God will have happened because we refused Christ’s offer of salvation.

The works of faith that James is referring to, that we are looking at in this first part of our Send pillar, come later. They have nothing to do with us accepting salvation. We didn’t strike some bargain with God- salvation in exchange for some future works of service. God extended grace to us when He had no use for us- He loved us and wanted to save us. That’s it.

Now anything that we do in service of the Kingdom is an outward expression of our thanks! It is the outward proof of our faith in Jesus and His gift of salvation to save us from our own sins. James is not saying that we are saved by faith plus our works- He is stating to us that to have an authentic faith is to do active, authentic work in service of the one that justifies and saves us.

Our works are the fruit of an authentic faith. A faith that is fruitless is dead and, as Jesus says in Matthew 7:19, at risk of being cut down and cast into the fire. In other words, not the root of salvation, but the fruit that grows out of it!

The Unity of Believers: Ecumenism

 Ephesians 4:11-16

"And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.  

"Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.  

But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head—Christ. From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part."

 

I've been pondering this question for some time as the Spirit has laid it on my heart: why are we, believers and followers of Jesus Christ, so divided? More importantly, why have we allowed ourselves to be so fractured and "un-unified?"

A quick search of Christian denominations breaks the Body of Christ into two sides: Eastern and Western. Each side is then broken into smaller subsets: Eastern Catholic vs Western Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox vs Protestant (Adventist, Anabaptist, Anglican, Baptist, Evangelical, Holiness, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Pentecostal, Quaker, Reformed).... 

Each claiming that their doctrinal beliefs and denominational structures make them the "one true denomination," the one that has got everything correct.

And within each of those subsets, at least within Protestantism, are a seemingly infinite number of smaller subsets, which have generally come about because of disagreements about pseudo-doctrinal issues or issues that have nothing to do with doctrine and only to do with personal preference. 

This past Sunday as I left FCC Marianna and headed back toward Springdale, I began thinking about the number of churches just in Marianna, then about the number of small towns, Marianna included, that have multiple churches within the same/ similar denomination that have split over small, petty issues, and then began considering the number of larger cities that have hundreds and hundreds of churches, with multiples falling within the same denominational structure (First Baptist, Second Baptist, Such-and-such Avenue Baptist, etc...). 

As the Apostle James says "Brothers, this should not be!" (James 3:10)

 

We are supposed to be working toward unity and maturity, so that we will no longer be "tossed by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit."

You see, this division amongst the Believers is the enemy's plan for us to never reach maturity and then never be able to stand firm against contrary teaching and the deceit that comes against us. It also causes the world to look at us and ask, "Why would I want to be a part of that Body; it's completely fractured and can't even work together?"

We need to be The Church. Are there doctrinal issues amongst us that need to be worked out? Yes, of course. But it shouldn't divide us and keep us from fellowship together, let alone working together to grow the Kingdom of God! 

 

As I was thinking the other day, I tried to consider myself and my attitude in this question, especially now in my new role as a Senior Pastor. If there was another Christian Church in Marianna (or another church of any denomination, actually) that came and said "We hear what you're saying, Pastor Josh. Let's merge congregations, sell one of the buildings and you and our Pastor can be co-pastors of the church." 

I questioned myself: Would I be okay with that? Would I be okay with losing my status as Senior Pastor to become a co-pastor if it meant finding some unity in the Body? 

And the answer is YES! 

All of that to say this: while we have got to get back to a place of unity, of the church working together to grow the Kingdom of God, and get over being divided by paint color, worship service time, etc, there are serious doctrinal issues that divide us that need to be worked out Biblically. 

Some denominations need to take a long, hard look at the doctrinal beliefs that they have and why they are so divisive. We shouldn't be divided as the Church, but there are some within the Body that may need to be expelled if they continue pushing beliefs that are obviously antithetical to the teachings of the Bible. In those situations, we need to be "speaking the truth in love" to correct those beliefs and behaviors- rather than just saying "Well, since we can't agree, let's just split." 

Unity means putting aside petty differences (paint color, carpet color, pews vs chairs, hymns vs contemporary), cultural issues (black church vs white church, service on Saturday or Sunday) and the lesser doctrinal issues (if it's not a salvation issue or a sin issue, then why are we disagreeing so vehemently?), and worship together, do life together and grow the Kingdom together. 

How can we really make an effective difference in this world if we are not unified in our faith?