Judging Rightly

My sermon yesterday was from Luke 6:37-45 on Jesus' teaching about judging other people's sin.  This is often one of the most mis-quoted and misunderstood verses in the Bible.  Almost everyone quotes this at one time or another.  People who don't know any other verses of Scripture except "Jesus wept" are fond of pulling this one out whenever they need some sort of vindication or justification for their personal sin.  However, is that what Jesus meant when he said "Judge not, and you will not be judged"?  Was Jesus advocating an attitude towards others that never calls into question unwise decisions, misguided living, or blatant sin?  Was Jesus advocating that each person's life is completely a personal matter and that nobody ever has a right to question another's lifestyle choices? 

Certainly not.  This is another classic example of not understanding Scripture in context and only taking one verse and building a theology off it.  Jesus also taught in the verses following in Luke 6 about fruit and judging the health of a tree by the quality of its fruit.  Our society and law requires an accurate system of investigation and judgment in order to maintain law.  How do we justify that the pedophile who destroys many lives by his actions is guilty and deserving of punishment while the guy who unwisely drinks more alcohol than he should and destroys his personal life and relationships around him does not deserve some sort of correction?  How do we say that the corporate head who leads his company in millions of dollars of unwise investments that cost taxpayers billions to bail out is worthy of condemnation while we should turn our eyes from the average Joe who cheats on his taxes?  The reality of life is that because we are all humans, we are accountable to one another for our choices and actions because we do not live in a vacuum.  All of our choices have consequences to ourselves and others.   

Jesus does not condemn judging when it consists of accurately assessing a situation and then seeking to help someone who is making choices that are harmful to himself or others physically or spiritually.  Its basic and inherent to the Christian heart that has been transformed by the gospel to want to be a conduit of grace and forgiveness to others.  As a matter of fact, I believe if you are cold and indifferent to other people's sinful choices then you probably don't understand the gospel.  What Jesus condemns is a cold, judgmentalism that seeks to justify yourself by constantly putting down other people, standing in a condemnation over them.  This was the righteousness of the Pharisees.  They were religious without grace.  They wore their religious badges proudly, but missed out on the sessions about mercy and justice.  Sadly, this is also what many in the unchurched culture see from those who attend church.  They see us as piously looking down our noses in condemnation while we forget that at one time "we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another." (Titus 3:3).  We forget the truth and power of Ephesians 2:3-4 which says:

"among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

Jesus illustrated the kind of judgment we should exercise with the familiar illustration of the speck and the log.  He said for us not to try and help remove the debris in other's lives until we are actively aware and removing the obvious debris in our own.   This is why we all need an constant understanding of our personal depravity and the excessive goodness of God's grace.  While God doesn't want us to dwell in self-pity because of the sinful choices we've made, he wants us to keep the reminder of what we have been forgiven of to motivate us to engage in aggressive and violent war against the sin in our members so we can have leverage by which to help others in their sin.  This is the essence of judging rightly.  People will be much more open to the reality of their sin and to the truth of the gospel when they see God's people come from a position of graciously forgiven sinners instead of pious, condescending Pharisees.  This isn't easy though.  The longer we move from our justification experience, the easier it is to forget the terror of standing before the righteous Judge.  The more we craft an image of God as a gentle, benevolent grandfather, the harder it is to remember that our continuing sins are still a terrible affront to his holiness.

How about you?  How easy do you find it to judge without being judgmental?  Do you lean too much to the judgmental Pharisee side or too much to the tolerant, non-confrontational side?  Have you learned the tender art of speaking the truth in love?

The Power of an Unexpected Blessing

A few weeks ago I had the unique privilege of being invited to take part in a small pastor's retreat with Bob Russell.  Bob (we're on a first name basis now) was the pastor of Southeast Christian Church for over 40 years.  When he went there as a young man in his 20's the church was just a few hundred.  When he retired a few years ago, it was one of the largest churches in America, averaging over 18,000 people each weekend.  When Bob retired, he had some people who wanted to fund his ministry dreams and goals.  One of those was to hold private retreats for pastors where he could minister and pour into a small group of pastors at a time.

I had applied over a year ago and was extremely excited when I got the invitation to go.  What an honor and privilege to be invited to spend three days with a faithful servant of the Lord who did it the right way for over 40 years.  God used Bob's ministry and preaching to literally change the lives of thousands of people.  However, he was an extremely humble and joyful man who seemed to be loving getting to spend time with 8 pastors that for the most part no one has ever heard of.  He shared some painful moments in his ministry and valuable lessons he learned.  It was truly a once-in-a lifetime experience.  Here are a few takeaways I had from the week:

1.  When you cultivate a generous heart you are able to be a blessing and be blessed at the same time.  Bob Russell gave us dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, set up a private time with the CEO of Louisville Slugger, and even gave our wives a generous gift.  What a refreshment to see someone who wants to give away to make others feel appreciated and valuable.
2.  There is no substitute for cultivating a servant spirit in your church.  Southeast Christian Church is a very unique place.  My sanctuary can fit under their driveway.  The lobby is big enough to play a football game in.  The worship center can seat 9,000 people.  However, all of their landscaping is done by volunteers in the church.  Much of their setup for events is handled by volunteers.  The people of the church who helped Bob with the retreat were some of the most gracious servants I have ever encountered.  They really thought it a blessing to be able to serve pastors by carrying our luggage or by driving us to events.
3.  There is no substitute for godly lay leadership.  We had the opportunity to spend time with three elders of Southeast who talked about pastor/elder relationships.  These three men have been elders at Southeast for a long time.  Each of them were very successful businessmen and entreprenuers.  However, they also were men of great spiritual wisdom and the Word.  They showed the power that can happen in a church where men step up to be students of the word and lead the church spiritually.  This is no doubt one of the biggest reasons for the success that Southeast Christian has had in reaching people. 
4.  Preach the Bible and let God do the work.  This was one of the statements that Bob Russell made and perfectly sums up his preaching and ministry philosophy.  Russell's ministry shows the lasting impact that can be made when a preacher believes in the authority and sufficiency of God's word and chooses to rely on the power of the word preached over slick ministry strategies.  It was a great encouragement to me.  There is no guarantee of large numerical success in preaching biblically, but there is assurance of its power to change lives and build a healthy foundation for a church.
5.  Multiply your ministry effectiveness by investing in future ministers.  This is where Bob Russell is now.  As a faithful pastor for decades, he's earned the right to spend his days playing golf, going on occasional mission trips, speaking at conferences, and writing books.  However, Bob has chosen to spend some of that time pouring into guys that are in the trenches.  It doesn't matter where at or what size church.  In our group, we had churches ranging from 200 to 3500.  We had pastors from the Christian Church movement, a Wesleyan, Church of Christ, and one SBC (me).  A couple of guys were in their 50's, a couple in their 40's, and a couple in their 30's.  We were all much the richer for spending time with Bob and with each other.

All in all, my heart was blessed and I was impacted beyond measure for my time with Bob Russell.  It gave me a renewed vision for what could be possible at my church and a renewed passion to preach God's word with passion and application oto God's people.

"What Bible Should I Use?"

As a pastor, this is one of the questions I get asked a lot over the years.  It usually comes up when someone is looking to buy a Bible for someone in their family or when someone who's been using King James since childhood finally decides to try something else.  Honestly, it was not a question I gave a lot of thought to for the first 10+ years of my ministry.  I would usually answer with "New International Version" because it was the most popular and every preacher I knew used it.  However, sometime around 2004 I picked up a copy of Leland Ryken's The Word of God in English from a recommendation at John MacArthur's Shepherd's Conference.  It was the first time I began to seriously investigate the issue of Bible translation and why it's so important.

First, you need to know that the leading factor driving most of the Bible translation market is "what sells."  Most (not all) Bible publishers only want to produce what they can sell.  Marketing is the master.  This is why you see versions like the New International Version and the New Living Translation advertised so much.  It's not because they are better translations.  It's because they sell well, the publishers can put slick covers on them, and those names are familiar.  Most publishers are not primarily concerned with delivering a faithful and true text of Scripture.  What good does it do to have an accurate translation if you can't sell it?  This is why the New American Standard Bible (probably the most accurate) still only encompases about 2% of Bible sales every year.  John MacArthur tried to publish his first edition of the MacArthur Study Bible in NASB because that is what he preaches out of.  His publisher denied it because NASB doesn't sell.  It was only after he sold hundreds of thousands of NKJV editions that they agreed to release it in NASB.

The issue of Bible translation really comes down to understanding what drives translators.  Basically there are two historic schools of Bible translation.  One is the "formal equivalent" (FE) crowd which tries to be more "word-for-word" when translating.  The other is the "dynamic equivalent" (DE) crowd which tries to be more "thought-for-thought."  The FE crowd desires to get the most accurate translation to what the author says as possible.  The DE crowd desires to interpret what the author was saying and then put it in more modern, understandable terms.  Both of these ideas are difficult because of the syntax of the Greek language.  Greek sentence structure makes a "word-for-word" translation difficult to read.  However, trying to alter the text to fit a nice English structure can lose much of the author's meaning.  The basic historical formal equivalent translations are King James Version, New King James, Revised Standard Version, and New American Standard.  The basic dynamic equivalents are Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version, The Message, and the New Living Translation.  The New International Version claims to be an balance between the two, but leans heavily towards dynamic equivalence in my opinion. 

I have come to the conclusion that I want to have as accurate a translation as possible for both my personal study and for my preaching.  I do have several versions that would be dynamic equivalence that I look at sometimes to see an alternative way to say a text.  However, I think not having an accurate translation hinders people from being grounded in the sufficiency of God's word.  There are deep theological truths buried deep within the greek words and structure.  I don't think that a group of translators can accurately understand or convey what Paul or Peter were thinking enough to put it in modern terms.  I think that DE translations have helped foster the rampant biblical illiteracy we have in the American church.  We have more Bible translations than any culture at any time in history.  At the same time, we have more ignorance to what God's word says and alignment with it than at any time.

A few years ago a group of scholars released a new FE translation called the English Standard Version.  Crossway, a major publisher, has put a lot of money into marketing this very good text of Scripture.  Several well-known scholars were brought in to work on the project and many strong expositors and preachers have endorsed it.  Their website, esv.org, is an excellent one.  You can read the Bible on there.  You can work through a Bible reading plan.  This is the Bible I preach from every week and will continue to do so for a long time.  Here are some reasons why:

1. It's extremely accurate to the Greek text.  I don't know Hebrew, so I can't comment on that.  However, when I have translated and compared to ESV, I find it to be strong.
2. It's very readable.  Although it is a FE text, it is not as difficult to read as KJV or NASB.  It reads a lot like the more popular New International Version but stays much more true to the text.
3. It's affordable.  Crossway has done a good job of keeping these translations where people can buy them.  The Bible I preach from each week is a thinline version that can be bought on Amazon for about $20.  The ESV Study Bible is one of the best I have ever seen and can be bought in hardback for about $30.  
4. It's popular.  Most of the guys I like to listen to preach are now using ESV.  Men like Matt Chandler, Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll, David Platt, John Piper, and James MacDonald use it.  These men are diligent, faithful theologians and scholars with a deep pastoral heart.  

Here is a great video to watch with some endorsements:

ESV Trusted By Leaders from Crossway on Vimeo.

I would recommend to every one of my church members to get a copy of the ESV and dive deep into it.  Memorize Scripture from it.  Rest in the fact that you can read it and know that you are reading a faithful text written much like the Apostles wrote.  The issue of Bible translation is not a matter of taste.  Not every version of the Bible says the same thing.  It does matter what you read and what version shapes your theology and ultimately your obedience.

Here is a vimeo website by Crossway with other important videos on the ESV and Bible translations.  There are some great interviews on there. 

A Midweek Update

Still lots of crazy things happening around here that are keeping me from being consistent with my Monday morning updates. Some Mondays are so filled with catching up that I find myself late Monday night trying to come up with something. Anyway, here is a midweek update on life and ministry.

• Great Sunday this past weekend at Sixth Street. However, attendance continues to be sporadic and less than what I anticipated. We have been getting several visitor cards the last few weeks though. I hope that we can develop an attitude of anticipation that motivates our church members to be more faithful.
• My youth minister, Eric, preached for me Sunday night and did a pretty good job. He's young and eager to serve the kingdom and has a great future ahead of him. I know that one of the reasons I am where I am is because men like Mickey Dalrymple, Wes Cantrell, John Gibson, Scotty Hogan, and Les Hughes believed in me and nurtured in me ministry and opportunities to preach. I hope I can be as good at mentoring the next generation as those guys were to me.
• Sunday was my birthday. It was a great one. I turned 41. Lots of great well-wishes from the congregation and someone even bought our lunch at Pizza Hut. Then, Wednesday night, one of my church members brought me a pound cake! It was still warm when I cut into it. Mmmmmmmm!
• I am starting a new series this coming Sunday called "Amazed by Grace." I have been doing a lot of reading in the Scripture and in some great books on grace. It has been a wonderful and enriching time. I don't do it enough, but this kind of saturating in God's Word is great.
• One of the main reasons for the lack of postings has been our housing situations here and in Alabaster. This past Tuesday, we drove back to Alabaster and signed the paperwork to sell our house. It was a huge blessing. Our house sold in 2 months from putting it on the market to pocketing the money! (And this in a down house market) Many thanks to our realtor Tim Mitchell. He did a great job! Check out his website at timmitchellsells.com. Now we have to find a house here. We are back to square one in our search, but I hope we will put a contact down on something in the next week.
• I am challenged each and every day by my need to be a more effective father. God has blessed me with three incredible gifts and I am way too passive in their spiritual development. They have been very challenging lately. I know this is in part to the chaos of moving, new schools, and an uncertain housing situation. Alison and I are starting a new book from Kevin Leman that looks great. It's called "Have a New Kid by Friday." I also have to start being much more proactive with starting and being consistent with family devotions. I want them to be students of God's Word and they need to get that from me. Much prayer is appreciated on this.
• I am trying to be more active in getting out of the office and visiting some of our dear saints that can no longer attend church. I got out to three of them yesterday afternoon and it was a major blessing for me.
• It's a great time of the year sports-wise. The Red Sox clinched the wild-card berth this week and start the playoffs next Wednesday. I got to go to the MSU/LSU game for my birthday. So close! It was a great rocking environment. Good days are ahead in Starkville!

That's about all so far for this week. Lots of stuff on my mind and I hope to have some time to do a mind-dump later on this week.

Monday Morning Clarity (one day late)

Alright, I intend each week to start off the blog with observations about the past week in ministry and the gathering of the saints on Sunday. However, the tyranny of the urgent, the opportunities of the day, and the tendency to have a brain drain (especially after preaching twice on Sunday) all join together to keep me from writing. Nevertheless, here are my observations about ministry and pastoring this past week.

• The great momentum here at Sixth Street continues. I meet new people each Sunday morning that are returning. There is a real sense of hope and purpose here. There is a real pioneering spirit among the remnant here that wants to see great things happen.
• My prayer for each and every one of us in the church is that we continue to see that the church does not exist for me, but I exist for the church. I want to develop in them a missional lifestyle that helps them to see themselves as missionaries living among one of the largest unreached people group on the planet.
• I hope that we can dumb-down religion and elevate our dynamic, powerful relationship with Jesus Christ so that we don't substitute religious activity for relational affection.
• I am loving the studying and preaching on the kingdom of God for Sunday mornings. I believe as we elevate the kingdom, we gain purpose and meaning in life.
• I have had some great "after church" conversations that make pastoring exactly what its meant to be. God is breaking down our walls so that we can be empowered to serve Him and reach others.
• I have to spend a lot of time in the next few weeks on several priorities: 1.) Define who we are as a church (vision, core values) and create a strategy to make disciples (mission, strategy) so that what we do makes sense and is not just what we do. 2.) I have to fight the tendency to create programs and instead facilitate ministry. 3.) We have to become much more family friendly in our programming and make great programming that reaches children. 4.) Create systems that help people feel welcomed and help them get where they need to go. We are not very visitor friendly in our structure right now. We have great people at the door to greet them, we just don't know what to do next.
• I am pumped about working with our men in developing a life-changing men's ministry. I mentioned this Sunday having a BBQ in a couple of weeks and we already have a location along with cooking a whole hog! Nothing more powerful than men who love Jesus sharing experiences and burnt pig flesh. I believe that Sixth Street will experience powerful spiritual renewal in the next year because of the men in our church.

This Sunday's message will be a good one. We'll be looking at the kingdom parable of the sower and the soils. Looking forward to it. See you Sunday!

Monday Morning Clarity

Being new of the field and first time as senior pastor, I want to take advantage of my blog to do more communicating my thoughts and observations as pastor and use this blog as a tool to communicate with my church. (Although, most of my church doesn't know yet I have a blog.) With that in mind, here is a mind-dump of my thoughts about the weekend.

• I am loving being called "pastor". It's a new role for me, but an exciting one. I love that people look at me as their spiritual leader. I also recognize I am still in the "honeymoon" phase.
• The people at Sixth Street at a very loving and exciting group. I know as we begin to reach people on Sunday mornings that our ushers and front-door people will do a great job of welcoming.
• We need to do a better job of making room. At the start of the service, most of the back rows were full and people were coming in looking for room. Got to get a "First Impressions" team going and trained to help make room. I think there is an expectation from some that we may have to go to 2 services sometime next year. Don't know what kind of schedule change that will prompt, but we will need to do something to make room.
• I had a wonderful surprise visit yesterday from some dear friends in Alabaster. I looked out the window at my office to see 4 motorcycles driving across the parking lot. A great reunion with Scotty Vines, Doug Archer, Susie Mattis, and some of the guys from the Westwood Motorcycle Riders ABS class.
• We have some immediate programming challenges with children on Sunday and Wednesday nights that need to be solved soon. Praying for wisdom as we evaluate and create a programming schedule that is friendly to families.
• Started a new series on the importance of the Kingdom of God for the believers. It's called "Kingdoms Collide: Finding Spiritual Sanity in an Insane World". Seems to have started good. Coming soon, we'll look at the kingdom and our possessions. We'll also look at the parables that Jesus taught about the kingdom and what he was trying to teach us.
• Got to get some balance to the schedule quick so I can do a good job in sermon prep and planning and also get to visit some members. Give me balance Lord!

That's a quick dumping of my thoughts and observations from my second week as pastor. I consider it an honor to serve the Lord Jesus as pastor in advancing the cause of Christ in Alexander City. I pray that God will unite us as a missional force in the community and around the globe.

No, Mr. President

more about "No, Mr. President", posted with vodpod