Encouragement

The Divine Contrast

As I was preaching through Jesus’ life in the book of Luke, I was struck by the “divine contrast” that exists between Christ’s baptism and wilderness temptation. Last Sunday, I shared this writing at the end of my sermon entitled “Is It.”

In each of our lives the brushstrokes of God reveal the masterpiece of divine contrast. Carefully, He blends the cool refreshing blues of the baptism with the warm arid hues of the wilderness.

Whether in the refreshment of baptism or the dryness of the wilderness: two things about Jesus are apparent: His obedience and His humility.

When we are in the cool waters of baptism, it is easy to get puffed up in pride: to believe that God blessings are a result of our goodness rather than His grace, to shift our focus from His will to ours. It is in the cool waters of baptism that the compassionate heart is tempted to fill with judgment, relationship yields to ritual, exhorting words are replaced with venomous words, and the life of courageous risk fades to an apathetic life lived in spiritual opulence.

Yet those that find themselves in the wilderness do not escape the piercing rays of temptation themselves. It is the wilderness that we are tempted to lose sight of grace, obedience, and love. When we succumb to the wilderness’ temptation, we sleep in darkness: replacing grace with doubt, obedience with rebellion, and love with fear. Beneath the wilderness stars we are tempted to show our dissatisfaction with God by embracing a life of self-sufficiency. We forget that the church is God’s gift of community, and we bathe in the mirage of isolated loneliness believing that the path to living water belongs to others.

Yet, when we remember the humility and obedience of our savior:

That is when the refreshing waters of baptism open the floodgates of heaven. When we remember the humility and obedience of our savior, that is when we live our lives in the rhythm of Father’s will; that is when we swim in the flow of the Spirit’s current. The cool refreshing blues of baptism restore our soul, announce new chapters, submerge us to new depths, and carve for us a path of purpose.

And when we remember the humility and obedience of our savior:

The divine contrast of the wilderness becomes a tranquil spring of growth for our souls. We march through treacherous days beneath the cadence of our Father’s instruction. The warm arid hue of the wilderness stretches our soul, burns the master’s mark into the plot of our lives, bends our will, and prepares our heart for the day when the dryness of the wilderness becomes the floor of the refreshing river from which we emerge a humble and obedient child of the Father with a soul that dances to the rhythm of the Divine Contrast.

This is Church

Sunday morning when I asked, “Who is going to need a new roof?” virtually every hand in the room went up. I think we all can say, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” In the midst of adversity, there is always opportunity. I have been so inspired seeing the church love one another and love our neighbors during these times. Boarding windows, sweeping glass, opening doors, preparing food, giving dollars, lifting prayers, and sharing hugs: “this is church.”

How ca12512643_10209302675829480_5666941601308330611_nn you help? Well, there are several things you can do:

Love your neighbor—Spend some time walking down your street checking on and extending help to the people who live near you. You’ll be amazed at the friendships that can begin during difficult times.

#rebuildwylie—I spent the morning ministering in east Wylie today. The damage to people’s homes and cars will break your heart. I am very thankful for FBC Wylie and the love they are demonstrating in rebuilding Wylie. The rebuild will take some time. When you see or hear of a need, do what you can to meet it. Loving others is something you can do.

Pray—Every day take time to pray for those who have had their lives disrupted. Teach your children to pray for others, and pray for God’s power to sweep over our communities. God often uses difficult moments to reveal His power. There will be many questions, and there will be many who turn to God. Take delight in seeing God at work.

Worship—This Sunday I looked out and saw people worshiping God and resting in His goodness. In some cases, their cars were demolished and their homes were full of holes, but their faith remained. I was humbled to see such a display of genuine Christianity.

Be Thankful—We can replace roofs, windows, carpet, and cars, but we cannot replace the ones we love. Yes, we need a new roof, but thank God we have a roof under which to live. I give thanks to God that, though things have been damaged, we are okay.

Give—Our church maintains a benevolence fund to help with needs. We will use monies given to help those in our community. You may also be able to give meals, tools, time, and expertise to the cause.

Talk—As you go, talk to people. Ask them how they did during the storms. Everyone around you has a story. As you engage the people around you, I promise you will be blessed with opportunities to pray, serve, and lead people to the saving love of Christ.

I’m proud to be a part of this community and church. During the coming weeks, I will be preaching a series entitled the Opportunity of Adversity. I look forward to our times of worship. I look forward to hearing the stories of God. I look forward to seeing the church be the church.

Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer Romans 12:12
Pastor Lash

Life from the Margins: Abnormally Normal

Among the battle-grounds in the same-sex marriage debate was an elusive, sought after quality called “normal.” For centuries, those with same-sex attraction were labeled as abnormal, so much so that society cut them off from what Justice Kennedy described as the “foundational” rights to love and marry. But that has now changed. In a 5-4 vote of the Supreme Court, the label of abnormal was officially removed. The White House, Coca-Cola, Cinderella’s castle were among the millions proclaiming their joy and support with rainbow gleam. Our culture celebrates when that which was abnormal is embraced as normal.

Among many Christians, there is a deep seething. You likely won’t see it marching down streets, hash-tagged, or acknowledged in the news. But, as a pastor, I have never seen such despair in the hearts of church-goers, especially those who remember America before the sexual revolution. They are depressed and frustrated; they feel betrayed, lost, and abnormal in their own country. Many of them feel they are being cut off from the “foundational” rights to exercise free-speech and faith. It is a painful irony that many in our culture also celebrate when the normal becomes the abnormal.

As a graduate of approximately 6,500 Christian worship services and 10,000 sermons, I have an observation: American Christians have been obsessed with being normal! We desire Jesus, love, grace, and the blessings of the cross, but we have often run from the scorn that accompanies His message. Have we forgotten that Jesus’ own culture wanted to kill him? The message of Jesus has always been abnormal. In our quest to be relevant, we have often abandoned our heritage and embraced the superficial. We have tweeted self-help with a twist of Jesus and unfriended the substantive preaching of sacred Scripture. We have envisioned church as an amusement park where we ride the Jesus-coaster to our preferred destination instead of a community of believers who profess that Jesus is the destination.

Where has our obsession with normal gotten us? Well, fewer people are now going to church, fewer people are being baptized, our cultural voice is on mute, churches are closing at an alarming pace, and we have a shortage of godly pastors. Meanwhile, our congregants struggle to understand page-one truths of Christianity like: life is a gift from God, gender as divine design, marriage and family as foundational to society and well-being, sexuality as an expression of biblical marriage, and new-life as both the destination of redemption and the action of God’s love. (https://lashbanks.com/2014/10/25/5-gifts-of-covenant-marriage/)

Now Christians are being forced to the margins of the discussion, perhaps we should take a deep breath, familiarize ourselves with our new surroundings, and realize that the margins are our earthly home. Genuine believers in Christ are not normal; we are abnormal. Remember the words of Jesus:
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, because they don’t know the One who sent Me (John 15:18-21,HCSB).

As Christians, we have a unique place within the social order. Our faith is anchored in sacred truth. For centuries, millions have lived their lives, loved their families, and cared for the world guided by the truths of Scripture. We understand that the 100 year window of earthy life is not the tense of past, present, and future. Our lives here are but a vapor and our future is with Christ in eternity. The cross is the place where the normal become abnormal; heaven is the place where the abnormal become normal.

When Good News Gets Twisted

I’m currently leading a Bible-study on the book of Galatians.  Galatians is one of my favorite books in the Bible, because it teaches us what it means to find freedom in Christ. Ultimately, our freedom is anchored in the gospel, and so Paul begins Galatians with a passionate plea to never twist the gospel or “good news” of Jesus.

Christ has rescued us from the world by giving Himself for our sins according to the will of God. Those who repent of sin and believe in Christ, receive the grace and peace of God and live for His glory forever and ever. This is the heart of the true gospel that Paul describes in Galatians 1:3-5:

3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. 5 To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The gospel of Christ is the most uniting force on earth because it answers our universal problem of sin and our most basic need of forgiveness. The gospel empowers me to live a life of true significance where success is measured by eternal rather than earthly means. The gospel causes me to lose control and discover the joy of life beyond the box. It demands that I take the risk of faith and get beyond my sanitized world of control and power. The gospel frees me from the prison of self. To be God’s means that I no longer have to spend all of my energies trying to be God. “I do because I am not in order to be.” I pursue holiness because I am God’s child rather than attempting to be God’s child through my holiness.  Talk about good news!

In Galatians 1:6-7, Paul dropped his jaw in amazement that those who have experienced the liberating power of the gospel, abandon freedom in favor of enslavement to selfishness and pride. Paul wrote:

I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah.

False gospels are subtle, because they wear Christ’s robes while stripping His message, they speak Christ’s language without God’s dictionary, embrace Christ’s love while ignoring His holiness, and desire the benefits of the cross but not the savior.

In Paul’s day, the Judaizers were luring the young, Gentile Christians of Galatia to a false gospel that taught Jesus + Judaism = Salvation. Today, the equations of apostasy may read like this:

Gospel of Friendship--Church Activities + Friends = Community
Gospel of Accommodation--Your goodness + Jesus’ love = Success
Gospel of Legalism–Jesus + Rules = Control
Gospel of Self–Jesus + Opportunity = Admiration
Gospel of Exhaustion–Pleasing People + Doing Good = God’s Love

Paul’s response to the false gospel was, to say the least, rather firm in Galatians 1:8 he wrote:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!

Now, just in case you missed it or thought maybe Paul was just blowing off some steam. Paul and, if you have a high view of Scripture, the Holy Spirit say it again in verse 9: As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

False Gospels are such a BIG deal that they make Paul curse! In Greek, the word translated “curse” is anathema. The root idea is that false gospels should be banned, excommunicated, shunned to extinction. What gets really scary is that if we plunge into our souls there are times when all of us are tempted to settle for a message that only resembles the true gospel. It is often comfortable, encouraging, self-empowering, containable, and rewarding to listen to or communicate. False gospels can win friends, draw crowds, increase budgets, provide comfort, build careers, and elicit cheers. But, in the end, they fail to satisfy, fall short of grace, and enslave you into a prison of works producing a heritage of pride of selfishness.

So Paul brings us to the eternal conclusion in verse 10:

For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.

Christ has rescued us from the world by giving Himself for our sins according to the will of God. Those who repent of sin and believe in Christ receive the grace and peace of God and live for His glory forever and ever.

Let us shun to extinction any other gospel.

Look Up

I am sure that many of us can look back over our lives and remember times when you looked up and Jesus’ power reigned in your life. But along the way it’s so easy to get distracted. We have our ministries, our job, our church, our families, our friends: all this activity that we do for God. If we are not careful we can lose sight of the one thing that really matters: Jesus.

I have made a decision in my life that there is only one thing in my Christian walk to which I want to be radically committed, and that is Jesus. I’m not talking about commitment like one might have to your favorite team or a loyal dog, but I am talking about a radical commitment that cannot be measured in wins or years. My dream is to follow God’s purposes and abandon my dreams when they conflict with His. I am no longer satisfied with telling or yelling the good news of Christ, but my heart’s desire has become to communicate the good news of Christ in both words and deed. I will not embrace or minimize the sins of the world, but neither will I spend my time judging when I could be loving. I must accept the fact that the world has changed and know in my heart that with a sovereign God this is not by chance. So I must give myself to Him anew to use His gifts in ways that are new. I have come to grips with the fact that leadership is about serving others rather than others serving me. And worship is not about music, tradition, style, or emotion, but it is about exalting Jesus and my changing to be like Him. God has not made me to be an island unto myself; I need other people to love me and encourage me. My goal has become very simple: look up and follow God and don’t get in the way of others seeing Jesus.

An excerpt from the sermon Look Up: God Finishes What He Starts     http://www.buzzsprout.com/17504/197248-look-up-part-1

Lash Banks is Lead Pastor at Murphy Road Baptist Church (murphychurch.com). Lash’s weekly podcast/sermon can be heard at http://www.buzzsprout.com/17504