How to Eliminate the "What About Me" Attitude.

The Authority of Scripture Over Our Lives

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work." | 2 Timothy 3:16-17

With those verses in mind, listen as Matt Chandler shares an always relevant truth from Acts 20:26-31:

Men & Idolatry

Jesus. The Cure for Addiction.

"When Jesus becomes your treasure, nothing else will ever satisfy you again."

How do you overcome a pornography addiction? Believe it or not, it's not by finding the perfect method to modify your behavior. It really comes down to one simple thing...finding your satisfaction in Jesus Christ.

When we love Jesus more than ourselves, we begin to develop a love for the things he loves and a hatred for the things that he hates. This will include the sins that we have been enslaved to for years or even decades. The liberty Christ offers to us isn't simply the ability to remove sin from our lives. It's far greater than that brothers. Jesus not only helps remove the worldly pleasures that we have so easily accepted and settled for, he also fills those voids with what we were created to find our ultimate satisfaction in, namely himself.

If you truly desire to be set free from the chains of addiction...don't focus your attention on the behavior itself but instead invest your time, energy, and effort into Jesus Christ. When Jesus becomes your treasure, nothing else will ever satisfy you again.

The Good News of the Gospel

 The good news of the gospel is this: God confronts our primary problem (sin) and offers us the only sufficient solution, namely his grace purchased by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The (12) Minute Challenge

Gentlemen:

I have a challenge for you. Give me (12) minutes of your time by choosing to listen to the sermon clip below, from Matt Chandler, and then try to convince me that you've spent 12 better minutes today.

Ready, set, go!

SIN - The Root Cause of Most Conflicts.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?   | James 4:1 (ESV)

Regardless what the relationship, the reality is still the same; quarrels and fights are most commonly caused by sin. God has been teaching me a great deal about this lately, and unfortunately most of it has come by trial and error. When it comes to certain things, I'm a fairly passionate man. Don't ask my wife what things I'm passionate about because you might end up getting me in trouble, but all kidding aside I'm a man with fairly strong convictions on certain things. This is a good thing! God has wired every person uniquely and because of this we will be passionate about different things. Food, poverty, global warming, social justice, the sufficiency of scripture...these are all things that people hold a great deal of conviction over. And when there is true conviction, passion is sure to be present as well. 

It's a blessed thing when a church is full of passionate people...and the more diversity there is in the passions of the church, the more opportunities the local body will have to glorify God in how they live and serve together.

But be ye aware! What the words from James show us is that our passions (even if they are good things) can also be the cause for fights and quarrels. You've probably experienced this in some capacity in your own life, no? If you're living by the Spirit, your passions will drive you towards decisions which you believe honor God and bless others. But not everyone else is equally passionate about the same things. So in trying to get people to join your causes, you plead your case and pour your heart into your argument...but sometimes your convictions fall on deaf ears and others don't understand what the big deal is or simply can't relate. Where does this leave you? Do you lovingly accept their indifference and choose to move on in faith and obedience, or are you bothered by the lack of passion you've been able to stir up in others? Do you embrace the diversity of passions among your church body, or do you cast judgement on those who don't see things your way?

This is exactly what James is alluding to in this passage. It is true that God has wired you with certain passions...and he has done so in order that you might use those passions for his glory. But that doesn't mean he desires for you to do so on a holistic or corporate level inside the church. There will be certain passions that your church will embrace holistically and there will be other initiatives which will need to work on more of a grass-roots level. In these situations, individuals from the body work to promote their passions on a much smaller scale. This doesn't mean these passions are any less significant or important to the work God is trying to accomplish in the church or the world, it simply means that they don't have the same corporate buy-in as others things will. And that's OK. The question we need to ask ourselves in moments like these isn't, are my passions valid, but instead...will I be satisfied even if I'm the only one who's passionate (or convicted) about this?

Personal holiness and obedience must be key concerns in this conversation. God's word seems fairly clear that one day he will hold each person accountable for how they lived. But as I already stated above, the way God calls us to live, as individuals, is often times very different from how He calls others to live. 

We will have far more success in influencing others if we are satisfied in simply being faithful to the convictions and passions God has laid on our hearts. 

When others know the things we are passionate about and see us living faithfully and consistently into those convictions, they will see that we don't live for our own selfish ambitions or the approval of others, but instead we live to fulfill the call that God has put on our hearts. Our submission to God, in humility and obedience, will speak volumes to others and will have a far greater impact on people than our words ever will.

So, the next time you find yourself discouraged by the perceived lack of passion in others around the things God has convicted you about, remember that God has wired us all uniquely and he will hold us all accountable to the truths, convictions, and passions he has placed on our hearts as individuals and as a greater church body. Don't allow your personal passions and convictions to become idols, which dominate your thoughts and goals. We can easily turn godly things into ungodly things when we elevate them to an unhealthy place in our lives. It's great to be passionate about the things God, through his word, has convicted us on. However, if we allow these passions to consume and control us and drive us to ungodly decisions because others don't equally share with us in these passions...we are no longer honoring God. Instead, we have elevated self above others, which is not the path towards peace and unity, but is instead the path towards fights and quarrels.

"The root cause of most conflict is desires in our hearts that have become so strong that they begin to consume and control us. These desires can become little gods or idols that dominate our thoughts, goals, and actions. Since these idols are often good things we have come to want too much, we are usually blind to how wrong and destructive they are. Until they are exposed and cast down, genuine peace and reconciliation will be elusive." | Ken Sande - The Peacemaker

Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. These are the (2) greatest commandments and anything that falls short of this is sinful. God will not judge you based on how well you can sell, promote, and peddle your personal passions to other people. Instead, you will be judged based on how faithful and obedient you were to the convictions and passions God placed on your heart. Essentially, it's godly stewardship with a humble and loving heart.

For His Glory,

Jason

Have We Forgotten How to Blush?

I'm back from vacation and I am catching up on my Bible reading program. I came across a section of Jeremiah today, which brought me back to the first time I really read (and understood) it. Almost as if it was yesterday, I can still remember how this section of scripture hit me like a ton of bricks...like a punch to the stomach from Mike Tyson. The reality for Israel (as well as people today) is they became so comfortable and used to their sin, that they forget how to blush.

Jeremiah 6:13-15 (ESV)

“For from the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the Lord. 

Questions that deserve answers:

- Just like the prophets and priests of Israel, where is our embarrassment and shame about our own sin?
- Why can we so flippantly wear our sin around our necks, like a badge of honor, joking with our friends about choices we've made and things we've done which (as professing Christians) we should be embarrassed by.
- Why do we swat away, like a pesky fly buzzing around our food, the Holy Spirit's conviction...without taking even a moment to consider the damage we are causing by being so dismissive about our sin.
- Why have we lost our ability to see the reality of what sin is doing to us and to our lives, and worse yet...what our sin already cost our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ?
- Why does it seem that we we are more concerned with how our sin affects/hurts other people (i.e. our family, friends, co-workers etc) or selfishly: how the consequences of our sin affects us (i.e. feeling sorry for ourselves) and yet we give so little regard to the fact that the most disastrous part of sin is that (as R.C. Sproul puts) it is cosmic treason.

"Even the slightest sin that a creature commits against his Creator does violence to the Creator’s holiness, His glory, and His righteousness. Every sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is an act of rebellion against the sovereign God who reigns and rules over us and as such is an act of treason against the cosmic King." | R.C. Sproul

Wake Up:

Isn't it time for us to wake up from our slumber? Isn't it time that we start to think biblically about sin? Put aside, just for a moment, how sin may affect other people. While the horizontal effects of sin are important, there is something much more devastating when it comes to the eternal significance of our sin, namely that unrepentant and habitual sin is what makes us enemies of God? (James 4:1-6)

Examine Yourselves:

The apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!"

"The truly loving child of God, though he knows sin is there, hates that sin; it is a pain and misery to him, and he never makes the corruption of his heart as an excuse for the corruption of his life; he never pleads the evil of his nature, as an apology for the evil of his conduct. If any man can, in the least degree, clear himself from the conviction of his own conscience, on account of his daily failings, by pleading the evil of his heart, he is not one of the broken-hearted children of God; he is not one of the tried servants of the Lord, for they groan concerning sin, and carry it to God’s throne; they know it is in them – they do not, therefore, leave it, but seek with all their minds to keep it down, In order that it may not rise and carry them away." | C.H. Spurgeon

I pray that as professing Christians, we will truly understand the significance of our sin. We can't afford to take this subject lightly. Yes, Jesus Christ paid the price for sin on the cross, but that was not so people could make a mockery out of Him by the way they choose to live their lives. We must examine ourselves and our hearts, to see if we are truly in the faith. If a person is not (by the power of the Holy Spirit) making war against the sin in their life....like it or not...they very easily might be heading towards eternal damnation. If a person cherishes their sin more than they cherish Christ, then the writing is already on the wall. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and [sin]."

The Christian walk (i.e. discipleship) does cost us something, In fact, it costs us everything. Jesus said, "therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." We must do all we can to ensure we are not being fooled by false and misleading doctrine. The cost of true discipleship is very significant. However, what is gained by renouncing everything we have, will last for eternity. (Luke 14:25-33)

One of my favorite authors on the deadly effects of sin is John Owen. In his work, The Mortification of Sin, he said the following:

“Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root.” | John Owen

“Do you make [killing sin in your life] your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you” | John Owen

For His Glory,

Jason

No Plan B - On Discipleship.

The Mystery of Marriage

Take the mystery of marriage. In Genesis 2:24, right after the account of how woman was created, Moses (the writer of Genesis) says, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Now when the apostle Paul quotes this verse in Ephesians 5:31, he says, “This is a great mystery, and I say it refers to Christ and the church.” And, with that as his clue, he unfolds the meaning of marriage: it’s a symbol of Christ’s love for the church represented in the husband’s loving headship toward his wife; and it’s a symbol of the church's glad submission to Christ represented in the wife’s relation to her husband. | John Piper - Male and Female He Created Them in the Image of God

Looking Back....Looking Forward.

“Men, you'll never be a good groom to your wife unless you're first a good bride to Jesus.” | Timothy Keller 

It's been almost a year since I finished reading Tim Keller's book "The Meaning of Marriage" and I'm trying to see how well I've retained some of the great wisdom within it's pages. There were so many sharable things in this book and I highly recommend it to everyone...married or not. I probably went through 2-3 highlighters while reading the book, which speaks volumes if you know me. After reflecting on the book and the central theme that continued to stick out to me while reading it, here are some thoughts I'd like to share with you.

Question: What is the single greatest reason I know Christ really loves me?

Answer: For me it's Romans 5:8. I'm a sinful man.

Yes, that's right...the fact that I'm a sinner. Here's what I'm getting at. Even though Jesus knew me completely...my strengths and my flaws, he still committed himself to me wholly. This is exactly how love can truly be demonstrated. It's easy to love someone who is lovable isn't it? But when the stakes change..that's when the real opportunity comes for us to be a reflection of Christ. To be willing and able to love my wife through her most difficult, sinful, angry, bitter, and grief-stricken seasons...is my greatest aim and ambition if I'm striving to be a fitting echo of Christ's love for her. Think about it this way. In your relationship with Jesus, where you often times play the role of the angry, bitter, proud, sinful person, what is Christ's response to you? Exactly! So now comes the question...how does knowing this lead us to become better husbands for our wives?

Here's how it worked for me. Remembering that my marriage is without question the deepest relationship I'll ever have, apart from my relationship with God, has been a helpful. It has been the nudge that' I've needed to remain faithful and diligent in praying for my wife and her walk with the LORD. For far too long I simply took my wife's relationship with Jesus for granted. That is until one day I discovered that she was struggling with anger and resentment towards Him. Much to my own shame, I realized that I had unknowingly turned my back on my primary ministry field, without ever intending to do so. I began to understand that for my wife, much of her anger and bitterness towards God was based on emotion, but I also realized that I needed to invest as much time and energy (if not more) into her sanctification as I was willing to invest in the lives of my accountability partner, my small group members, my ministry team, the church, and the acquaintances with whom I talk about Jesus on a regular basis. The reality for me was simply, I was failing to be faithful in my most significant ministry and my wife was paying the consequences.

This may not be where you find yourself at all, and if that is the case...that is wonderful news. However, for me to see things in this was was also wonderful news. It was an eye opening revelation and reminder about being invested in and aware of my wife's spiritual condition.

I was at a church plant conference last April and one of the major themes I remember hearing from many of the speakers was this, your ministry will never flourish if your home isn't flourishing. What a convicting thought. Where are we investing our time and our effort? If our marriages are struggling, are we giving all should to restoring them? Are we spending our time and our energy wisely? I pray that God will give each of us the discernment we need, to know how we can and should be ministering to our wives and our children. And I pray that he will bless our faithfulness to our primary mission field.

“When over the years someone has seen you at your worst, and knows you with all your strengths and flaws, yet commits him- or herself to you wholly, it is a consummate experience. To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” | Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Finding Happiness in Your Most Profound Relationship

For His Glory,

Jason