Why It's Not Funny

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. (Ephesians 5:4, ESV)

Interacting with many Christians today, you might think that the things we laughed at didn't matter to God. It's strange to write something which tries to convince people that the Bible they claim to believe means what it says. Ephesians 5:4 is exasperatingly clear. Exasperating because I cannot understand what's so hard to understand. Crude joking, humor that makes light of sin and/or treats sex as a dirty, common thing rather than a holy thing, is out of place.

It is out of place for those who belong to a holy God to tarnish what He has made beautiful. It is outrageous to claim to be redeemed from sin and death, and then find delight and humor in the sins of the spiritually dead. It is absurd to claim to be anticipating escape from the wrath of God, and then revel in the very things that kindled His wrath to begin with.

It's more and more common to think that these things do not matter. What really matters, they say, is finding innovative ways to reach more people. Of course reaching people for Christ matters. But do you believe you can escape one of God's commands by calling people's attention to another? If only laughter, in all its simplicity, did not reveal so much of our hearts. If this describes you, humble yourself and replace your filthy jokes with thanksgiving.

Are you afraid to make things awkward? This amounts to fearing men rather than God. Make it awkward. Wouldn't you rather offend a person, made from the dust and alive only a little while, than offend God, Who is in heaven and reigns forever? Tell them you don't find it funny. Tell them sex is a sacred and beautiful thing. Tell them to read Ephesians 5:4. Tell them whatever seems best. Do it with loving gentleness, but do it. Some will laugh at you and talk behind your back. Welcome to following Christ.

Treasure Christ

Three times in the last six days I had the opportunity to preach from Philippians 1:20-21. It hasn't gotten old and I wish I had more opportunities in the near future to continue preaching from this text. I've learned a lot and God has opened my heart to treasure Christ. I was intellectually curious about how treasuring Christ works; thankfully, instead, God opened my heart to it more.

So while this particular expository expression of treasuring Christ is still on my mind, I thought I'd share the key thoughts of this sermon.

"To live is Christ and to die is gain" (v. 21) is a very popular verse and for good reason. But part of the uniqueness of this verse often goes unappreciated. To live is Christ? This is more than saying that life is about Christ, or for Christ, or with Christ. Life is defined in Christ. Consider how else the Bible writers link Christ and life, from 3 passages:



Christ is the Creator of our lives. (John 1:3)

power (Philippians 2:12-13)

worker

enjoyer

Lord (1st Thessalonians 5:9-10)

Savior

Treasure ("so that...we might live with him" [v.10])



A lot of people talk about accepting Jesus as your Savior. When this turns into a liscense for godless living, others come along and say that Jesus isn't our Savior unless He's our Lord. So then some will clean up a few things in their life; they'll go to church and stop cussing perhaps. "Now he's my Lord and my Savior", they think to themselves, and thus reduce the Gospel to a pretentious business exchange. This is a silly game to play and it lands us in the lame hobby known as religion. A more biblical view of God and of Christ is that He is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:6). Christ is the Creator, power, worker, enjoyer, Lord, Savior, and treasure of our lives. "Enjoyer" and "treasure" are especially important because these are the results of God's redeeming us: He enjoys us, and we enjoy Him. If you obey Christ out of a perceived obligation, you are missing the point. Consider what Jesus said about the kingdom:

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

(Matthew 13:44-46)

Without this truth of Christ's supreme value, "to live is Christ and to die is gain" collapses into self-righteous, masochistic religion. It makes sense for Christ to define our lives, and for death to be gain, if Christ is more valuable and more great than any other thing. But if He's not, and if you reduce Him to the Lord-Savior business exchange, but still try to claim complete devotion to Christ, you are exalting yourself and not Christ.

So finally we are left with Paul's earnest expectation and hope: That Christ would be exalted in his (Paul's) body, whether that meant Paul living or Paul dieing.

What is your number one expectation and hope for your life? Is it to travel somewhere? Is it to reach some certain place in your career? Don't get defensive. I never said traveling is wrong. I'm asking what holds your heart. If you'd rather defend your pleasures than treasure Christ, that's a huge problem.

Is Christ so great and so valuable to you that expressing His glories means more to you than your life itself? This is the everlasting joy.

Church planting: notes to self

These are scattered thoughts that are not intended to represent a complete philosophy of church planting.

1-Until there is a group of Christian believers gathering together, you don't have a church; you have a religious worship service. So even though my goal is to "plant a church", I find "church planting" a contradiction of terms if the only believers present are the paid and volunteer staff. Then it's kind of a game.

2-I believe in the in-depth, meaningful teaching of Scripture (in preaching!) that should both inform and call into action. If it fails to do either, it's irksome. Most old, stale churches inform without calling into action. Most shallow churches call to action without deepening knowledge. And yes, this is a problem, because a shallow faith cannot withstand the blows of life. We look for deeper answers. Preachers, I'm begging you- More conviction! More truth! More of Christ! Stop with shallow, silly, stupid things. Treasure Christ above all else. He deserves no less. The rest will fall into place.

3-I believe in neighborhood ministry. I walked around in Greenwich village today. There were a lot of homosexuals. I realized that, if people are as generally hostile to Christianity in NYC as I understand them to be, then I really have no idea how to reach a person for Christ outside the context of relationship, where a person can see the difference Christ makes in your life and experience the love of God through you. Therein lies part of the answer.

4-I get so frustrated when people cannot simultaneously embrace both Scripture (and all of its value, and depth, and weight) and the importance of relational evangelism. Hence, numbers 2 and 3 of this blog.

5-People don't come to Christ through a bait-and-switch method. Either God saved the person in spite of your best efforts to water down Christianity, or they didn't actually come to Christ.

6-I believe in the importance of doing things with a professional level of diligence and efficiency, without seeing yourself as a "professional". We are all beggars in the kingdom of God.

7-I think the recent trend and interest in liturgical worship is a bad idea.

Without apology

I do not believe the lie that the Church or the world are better served by Christians who lack a reverence for God, spend their time watching shows and movies and listening to music that God hates, and joke about the things that God hates. It's popular today to recount one's experience during the musical worship on Sunday, often with colored lights and stunning sound systems and emotional “worship faces” from the leaders as a great time “in the presence of God”. We don't know what the presence of God IS today. I know this because the presence of God frightens us and convicts us of our sin. Look at Isaiah's experience. Look at Peter's experience. If more people were entering the presence of God, they would stop dressing immodestly, stop joking irreverently, and stop living flippantly. They would have something more amazing to talk about than American Idol. They would pursue something greater than looking stylish. The popular claim to have been in the presence of God is in many cases either blasphemous, or nonsense, or both.

Brokenness, Part 2

I figured that since I had made a certain statement about God ordaining our brokenness which goes against what many Christians and churches teach, I ought to defend my statement. Some are quite uncomfortable with certain aspects of God's exercising His sovereignty, even though Scripture assumes God's total authority and righteousness in it. First off, does God ordain my pain?

Example 1: Joseph. What does he say when he reveals to his identity to his brothers, after years and years of slavery, imprisonment?

⁴So Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." And they came near. And he said, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. (Genesis 45:4-8, ESV)

Example 2: Paul. I referred to him as an example. Here is the text:

⁷So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Brokenness

We hate it. To lose a loved one. To be less attractive, strong, smart, funny, or musical than other people. To be different. Of course we hate it. But if you are a Christian and this is all you see, you are missing something huge.

The fact is that God ordains and uses our brokenness for His greater purposes. When we accept and celebrate this, we finally realize that we are not missing out, in the big scheme of things. With God's purposes as our joy, we can finally face the pain. Yes, it remains painfully real and really painful. But those areas of pain are not meaningless pockets of God's neglect or absent-mindedness, but rather they are part of God's purposes. Furthermore, the pain actually works to our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

Paul was given some kind of physical and/or mental anguish in order to keep Him humble in light of the increasingly great revelations he was experiencing. As God's power in Paul's life grew, Paul's sense of self-reliance and self-sufficiency had to be done away with. Paul understood. He begged for it not to be that way, but he understood.

Where do YOU stand?

You can embrace God in and through the pain or you can become a depressed, self-centered, worldly Christian. He designs our pain so that our affections would go to Him rather than to this world and this life. I have learned this is the only way. I didn't ask for my brokenness and I've tried to fight off my brokenness. But I see as clear as day the greater advantage of it. I gain something of eternal value; I lose something of temporary value. I am enabled to identify myself in no way other than as Christ's. I have less of a “me” to present to people and more of a Christ to present to people.

Passion for Truth

Whatever quirks, strengths and weaknesses I have, passion for truth is perhaps my defining characteristic regarding the contribution I burn to make for the good of the Church. My heart and soul and mind are burning to bring the Word of God. I have not yet had that opportunity since moving to Arizona.