ANTI – Teaching the Tough Truths

I am somewhat humbled by the responses, emails, and comments I have gotten over the last couple of weeks concerning the series I am preaching. ANTI is a series in which we are tackling some real issues that are tough, sensitive, and honest. This series has been an emotionally charged and draining series for me. The toughest part of dealing with these types of issues as a pastor is being real, personal, and honest. Authenticity and transparency are necessary when you speak to the issues that people struggle with in their daily lives.

Over the past two weeks (since I last blogged) we have dealt with sexual immorality and divorce. The Bible has much to say about these issues. The truths of these issues are hard to face because we know the reality of life. The Church as we know it has not addressed such issues in a Biblical manner. Sure we have heard things are wrong, but have we heard why or what to do about it or how to treat someone when they have failed. The truth is that too often we tiptoe around such issues because we are afraid to offend someone or we bash people about these issues because we enjoy offending people. Either way, the Lord is not pleased.

So over the last two weeks I have tried to approach some sensitive issues that are raw and real in the lives of people in personal and honest manner that allows people to deal with the reality of where they are. The right reasons for dealing with these issues are because of their response to God not because of their response to me or my opinions or condemnations.

I think the most encouraging things I have heard have been from those who have dealt with some of these issues directly. One person simply told me after the sermon on sexual immorality "I wish I would have heard that sermon when I was 16." Another person simply wrote, "I'm thankful you had the courage to send a positive and truthful  message to our teenagers of what God's word says about sex and some tips on how to deal with compromising situations, but also that our church is here to help them and not condemn them.  They need that. "

The last email really hit me as I heard from one person in the congregation. They said, "If I would have heard the sermon on pornographic material when I was a younger man, I wouldn't of had to struggle with what became a full-blown addiction by age 16. I don't know how many people are telling you how good you are doing, but trust me; you are affecting everyone in the service because no Christian deals with murder on a daily basis, we deal with the things that the modern church is afraid to speak of."

This blog is not about me or the wonderful job I am doing. I don't necessarily even agree with that part. I do believe, however, that people need the church to be real and honest and open and to the point about issues the church has either said nothing about or has simply ranted and railed about. It is time we just opened up tough topics with grace and love and laid out the truth.

I challenge church leaders to step out there. Honestly, it is a little unnerving to stand in front of a group of people and be real about the issues of sexual immorality, divorce, etc. It is hard to do, but it is worth it. The feedback I get makes it worth it.

Here are some things you have to do it…

1. Be real. If you can't be real about you, you can't help others be real about them.
   
2. Say what is there; not what is not there. Speak to what the Bible says not what it does not say.
   
3. Don't hold back on any truth.
   
4. Be full of grace and mercy. After all, Jesus was.
   
5. Don't apologize. We cannot apologize for the standard Jesus died to attain for us.
   

So I challenge Christians to ask themselves these tough questions…

1. What am I for? Not what am I against?
   
2. Do I define my spiritual life by what I do not do? Or by what I do?
   

This week's sermon will have a little bit of an interesting twist to end the series. I hope you will be there. If you are interested in hearing the past sermons here is the link to my podcast. They are titled under ANTI – and honestly they are a tad long. I would say I am sorry about that, but I am not.

ANTI – Week One

Well, we kicked off the ANTI series Sunday and we had a great time in worship and in the Word. (Maybe a little long in the Word – my apologies to the heroes of FC – aka children's workers.) This series is really challenging me and others to consider some real issues.

We started this week in 1 Cor. 5. This passage deals with how the Christians (for this discussion meaning those who profess Christ as Savior and participate in a local church as a result of that profession) should deal with another Christian who is living in sexual immorality.

The first thing this sin should cause in our lives is grief not judgment. Paul said it should grieve us. I believe this is why this series is needed. The world things Christians are ANTI because Christians are not grieved by the spiritual condition of the world around us. If we truly believe that people who die without forgiveness in Christ die and go to hell we should have a lot more grief about the lives of those around us. But too seldom we do. More often we feel real good about ourselves more than we feel broken others.

So once we are grieved we have to hold the other Christian accountable and allow their sinful choices to have consequences without having our condemnation. The reason that we cannot condemn is because the Scripture clearly says that the goal of such judgment is for the saving of the soul.

I think the biggest issues Christians face in holding to standards are…
1. Not becoming arrogant toward others that do not share them.
2. Being grieved by what is commonplace in the world in which we live.
3. Not bringing standards to those who do not believe in their Savior.

This passage goes onto tell the church in Corinth that they should in NO WAY judge those who are outside of the church like they have the one inside the church. The reason we should not do that is because that a person that is not a follower of Christ does not have the Spirit of Christ empowering them to live in obedience. We, as Christians, believe this is necessary to live out the commands of Christ in our lives. Yet, we often find ourselves trying to demand that this world live up to them without Christ.

My main point for the week was that "Our world does not need our standards. They need our Savior."

So my challenge to the Christians of the world is quitting pointing out to the world around you everything they do wrong and start sharing with them everything Jesus Christ has made right.

Each week during this series I am issuing a public apology for where I see the church has failed at this. This week's apology is this. "We are sorry we boycotted Disney." Why? Because we told the people of Disney we care more about your morality than we do your eternity. What if they had changed to meet our convictions and yet they never came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? What profit it a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his own soul? What is the profit to the people of Disney to live by my standards so I will give them my money for my entertainment if they die and go to hell?

We as Christians must start acting on what we truly believe to be essential in life and sharing that with a world that needs it. The people in your life do not need your rules. They need Christ's righteousness.

Fellowship Church - ANTI series video promo

Well, this video is my first ever video blog. I recorded it in hopes that you Fellowshipites might use this video post as a way to share what is going on at Fellowship through your online social networks. The video posted on my blog is to you. Below it is a link to a video that I have recorded as a message to our community.

Here is why I have done this. Sunday I am starting a new series titled ANTI. It will be an interesting series where we look at some real issues. So take a couple of minutes to watch the video and then send the other video out into the world wide web.



This is the link to the second video.
Share it with others. Thanks.

My lesson from the life of Jack Daniel

Today, my family is celebrating the life of and mourning the loss of Jack Daniel. Uncle Jack (Wendy's uncle) was a great man that lived an impressive life. As I write this he is being honored with a full military burial at one of our national cemeteries. My prayers and thoughts are with Wendy and her family as they are there with each other during this time.

Jack was a special man. He has a unique life story and leaves a powerful legacy. Today, I want to share with you what I learned from Uncle Jack. In the 13 years since I met Uncle Jack I have gotten to spend some unique moments with him, but not as many as I would have liked. I wish I could have had more moments like the ones that I will share that gave me my insights into the life of Jack Daniel, but they are limited. I will simply share what I had the great privilege of hearing, observing, and learning from him.

I will start by saying that Jack Daniel was a man I greatly respected. By nature and personality I am a leader. I am also a leader by calling and profession. Men like me tend to gravitate toward other leaders that we see great leadership qualities in. Jack was such a man. In the often short but meaningful times I spent with him I always walked away with some observation or story that stuck in my mind.

In observing his life from the lens of his nephew by marriage, I gathered the opinion that this verse in particular would describe his life well. "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:13-14)

One of the first personal memories I have about Uncle Jack was at Grandma's house in Winnfield, LA. It was Memorial Day weekend and some of the family had gathered. I remember sitting outside on the porch and listening to Jack talk about the Vietnam War and his experiences there. This man served bravely in that war along with a lot of great young men in our nation at that time. He rose to rank of Major during the war and would later retire from United States Marine Corps as a Lt. Colonel. The story he shared is one I will not give the details of, but it was a particularly tough day in the war. The day included casualties and loss. I could sense in his telling of the story (which by the way story telling was one of his many gifts) that this memory was one that was still vivid and real in his life. That day he made some decisions (although not wrong ones) that had consequences that were unforeseen. Jack had to live with those types of decisions everyday as a military officer.

I share this to tell you that what I realized about Jack Daniel was that he was a man willing to make the decisions at hand, but he was not a man that lived in the past. His life was shaped by those days in Vietnam but it was not defined by them. Jack was simply not a man that lived in the past, yet he loved the past. He was a history buff especially his own family history. He could retell and recall the smallest details of life in the Daniel family and loved to share that family's heritage of love and faith with others. Yet I believe he left behind the past and always lived in the present.

I learned this from him on the golf course too. Jack was a prolific golfer. While visiting him this summer – while he was sick and weak from chemo – he and I went to the driving range. Jack, in a weakened condition, consistently hit the ball further and better than I did for the entire time we were out there. He lived a life goal by shooting his age. A goal few golfers accomplish and then not usually till their late 70's or early 80's. Jack did it at 69.

He helped me with my golf swing every time we played – mostly because I REALLY need the help - but that was not what I learned from him on the course. Jack had the ability to not allow one bad shot to become two bad shots. He forgot what was behind on the course and focused on what was ahead. That is a difficult thing for a competitive person to do, yet he did every time I golfed with him. He did not push back to where he failed, he pressed forward to where he would succeed.

His military career was quite impressive. This summer I learned – along with some other members of the family – some of the details of his service for our nation. Uncle Jack has a display case with his military medals and honors presented in it. In it was his White House staff badge. I had never known he worked at the White House. I asked about his time there and learned some new and impressive things about Jack.

Uncle Jack served under 3 presidential administrations. He was military debriefer to the President and was a military liaison there at the White House. One of the roles he held during his time there was to carry the "football" – that is the nuclear code brief case often seen in movies. Jack was a man trusted by our nation with one of the codes necessary for launching nuclear war. (I have to admit that when he told me that my "man crush" level increased even more. As did my respect for him.) I did not know what to say to such a neat thing presented in such a nonchalant way, so I said, "You realize they put you in movies. They just have never used the right name." Then he told me that he was also in charge of the President's evacuation plan in case of attack and would sit at the desk in the oval office and "play" the part of the president when they would run the drills. How cool is that. And yet he had not really talked about it to that many people. I don't know why. Maybe some of that was not something he was supposed to talk about at the time, but I think there was more to it than that.

Jack's life was not defined by such important roles and responsibilities. He did not live his life as a former important person at the White House. He enjoyed that and served faithfully while doing that and then he pressed on. He forgot (without forgetting) what was behind and pushed on toward what lay ahead. He went on to a successful career in a business that carried some military contracts and then started a cabinet business that makes some of the finest cabinets I have ever seen.

His life was full of successes and accomplishments. In sports he was multi-sport letterman in high school, made the varsity basketball team at Arizona State University, played football for the Marine Corps, and won the club championship several years at his home golf course in Virginia. As a marine he was a highly decorated officer. As a business man he was successful. But I don't think any of those things best describe this man's life and legacy.

Wendy summed it up well when she said this about her Uncle Jack as I started writing this tribute this past summer. "Whatever he is doing at that moment he is the best at it. If he is playing golf it is golf. If he is a soldier then he is the best soldier. When he is with me, he is the best uncle. He listens and cares and truly interested in my life. When he is dad, he is being the best dad he can be. When he is making cabinets he is making the best cabinets he can make."

Jack was a man that understood that life, faith, and love are built on past experiences but are lived in present life. That life cannot be lived in what lies behind, it must be lived in what lies ahead. I thank God for great men like Jack Daniel. Our country needs them. Families need them. The world needs them. I think this world is best impacted by those whose stories rarely get told because they do not desire them to be told because they are too busy living them. These types of men and women leave the greatest legacies because they are always living life now.

Jack's love for God, family, and country was evident in his life and will continue to be evident in his legacy. My prayers are with Aunt Karen and her children, their spouses, and his grandchildren today. My prayers are with his brothers and sisters and family members. Yet in this moment of loss, I am thankful. I am thankful for such a great example of what it looks like to not live in the past and to live a life that grabs hold of what is ahead.

So, learn from yesterday, but don't stay there. Press on for what lies ahead. You never know where it might take you.

Brokenness not Broken down

Sunday I had the privilege of sharing a word from the life of David. David – a man after God's own heart – was also a man that committed adultery and murder. He was a man that was not allowed to fulfill his life-long desire to build a temple for God because of the shortcomings in his own life. This man loved God but he was very imperfect in living that love in all he said and did. He was like the rest of us…he failed. Yet it says of David that he was a man after God's own heart and that he was faithful in his own generation.

There is nothing I would rather have said of me than those two things. I think that is why David is one of my favorite people in Scripture. I want to be known as a man after God's heart and I want God to use me in my own generation. I so want those things that I often allow them to become burdens in my life.

It is an interesting spiritual issue when our desire for God and for being who he wants us to be becomes the stumbling block for us having a proper relationship with God and being who he wants us to be, but it can happen. In my life this burden is often attached to the fact that I feel there is more God desires from me and my ministry. I believe he desires to use me for some purposes than are bigger than what I can see and do right now. And at times, I so desire to be successful for that reason that it gets in the way of me being that.

It is odd how being who God wants you to be – if you are not careful – is what prevents you from being who God wants you to be. God wanted David to be king. David acted like a king the day he committed adultery. He said to his servants go get this woman. He got what he commanded. He was being king, but he was not being the king God wanted him to be.

Today as I was dealing with some things that are bothering me in my own life and spirit, God really spoke to me through a Psalm I was reading. Psalm 144:2-4 is a powerful passage from the heart of David about God. He says that God is his loving God…fortress…stronghold…deliverer…shield. God was those things in his life. Then he says who is man that you are mindful of him. Who am I that even though my life is but a breath of air you care about me?

This passage really hit me because I think the reason that I often feel burdened is because I am not good at allowing God to be all those things in my life. I too often think I can be that person in my life. I would never say it that way, but I live it that way. I have confessed that in blog before, but it is just the back and forth in my own spiritual life. So this morning, God once again began to do some breaking. He showed me some brokenness I have been lacking. And in an instant, the burden became lighter. It is not gone. I still have some things to do right now that I know God has told me to do that are going to take a lot of time and effort. But they are not really mine to do.

So what does brokenness look like? Brokenness is actively, honestly, and pursuing pursuing change in yourself. God reminded me of that this morning. When your life's work is about seeing other lives changed it is easy to forget that your life must be the one first being changed…even when you say it in sermons.

So, what are you going to do today to actively pursue change in yourself? What are you going to do to honestly pursue change? What are you going to do to personally pursue change?

Well, whatever you do, remember that ultimately it is God that changes us. It is not our activity, our honesty, or our person that changes us. It is God. David forgot that. I sometimes forget that. I imagine sometimes you do, too.

Brokenness is not the state of being broke down. Brokenness is the state of being open to God. Open to who He is. And that brokenness requires us to know who we are not.

So, are you willing to live broken?