Warning!! Your Christmas Under Attack by Paul David Tripp

You and your family are under attack. You probably won’t feel the siege—it’s subtle, seductive, and attractive—and that’s why this attack is infinitely more dangerous.

What in the world am I talking about?

Look at the calendar. The Advent season commences in just a few days. It should be a glorious time of remembering God’s response to his lost and rebellious image-bearers. That response wasn’t to condemn but to give the ultimate gift of grace: the gift of himself.

But instead of a peaceful season of worship and celebration, Advent has devolved into a spiritual war.

A False Christmas Story

The “Christmas Story” which the surrounding culture celebrates puts us at the center, the place for God and God alone. It looks to creation for fulfillment rather than worship of the Creator. It makes physical pleasure our primary need rather than the rescuing intervention of the Redeemer. It’s dominated by the comforts of the moment rather than eternal priorities.

In every way, the story you will hear over and over again during this season is dangerously wrong when it comes to who we are and what we need. It encourages us to find comfort where comfort can’t be found and to place our hope in things that will never deliver.

To be clear, I have no problem with beautiful decorations, family feasting, or giving gifts. The Christmas season can be a time when families gather again, renew relationships, and express love for one another.

But I’m concerned that we’re listening to a false Christmas story instead of remembering the true Advent narrative—a story that defines our beliefs about who we are, what we need, and what our lives are about.

The True Advent Narrative

Unlike that false Christmas story, the true Advent narrative is humbling and unattractive. It’s a sad story about a world terribly broken by sin, populated by self-centered rebels who are willing participants in their own destruction. It’s about beings created to live for God who in every way live for themselves.

This story is about the dethroning of the Creator and the enthroning of his creation. It’s about conditions so desperate that God did the unthinkable, sending his Son to be the sacrificial Lamb of redemption. And why did Jesus come? Because we were so lost, so enslaved, and so self-deceived that there was simply no other way.

Until we hear and understand the bad news, the good news won’t be attractive to us. The news that Jesus came on a glorious mission of grace to live, die, and rise in our place is only worth celebrating when you understand it’s our only hope.

Fight For Your Heart

The war for Advent isn’t about whether we should sing silly seasonal tunes versus gospel carols, or have worship times versus big family feasts. You can do both. Rather, this war is about what story of identity, need, meaning, and purpose we will believe and give our hearts to pursue.

Life really is a battle of stories, and the battle rages most fiercely when the true story is meant to be told most loudly.

So enjoy the gifts, the decorations, and the delicacies, but start defending your heart and your family by telling the true Advent narrative.

Before you begin to get distracted by all the traditions of holiday fun, take up the battle for your soul.

God bless

Paul David Tripp

How to Recognize Repentance in a Restoration Process By Eric Geiger

When friends or ministry leaders fall, we can find ourselves in the serious conversations of designing a restoration process – a process that places the leader in the care of others with the purpose of restoring the person to some type of leadership.

In recent years, I have been asked frequently about restoring someone to a leadership role. Sadly, the sheer number of leaders disqualifying themselves has continually surfaced the conversation. While I do believe leaders can be restored, there must be repentance before there is restoration. We must be careful we do not rush to restoration without seeing the sweet fruit of repentance.

The Scripture gives us the story of two kings who sinned and who responded very differently to correction. Both Saul and David disobeyed the Lord and were confronted by a prophet. Saul and David’s responses to confrontation revealed their hearts were very different. Only one was really a “man after God’s own heart.” Based on their stories, we learn…

Repentance does not blame others.

In David’s prayer of confession in Psalm 51, noticeably missing is the mention of anyone else. He did not attempt to assign even partial blame to someone else, did not ponder if God was going to hold someone else accountable. He did not offer context about his stage of life or the pressures he faced as king. Saul’s response to confrontation was very different as he shifted responsibility to people around him, implicating the troops and his desire to please the people. Sincere confessions contain no qualifiers. When confession has a qualifier, the confession is disqualified as sincere. To be clear — when fallen leaders point to the pressure they face, the people around them, or their phase of life, they have not yet fully owned their sin.

Repentance does not bargain.

In David’s prayer of confession, he said he would not bring a sacrifice because he knew God really wanted his heart. Saul, on the other hand, desired to make sacrifices to God in attempts to right his wrongs. When repentance is sincere, the person repenting does not feel he or she has any bargaining power at all. Sin is fully owned and there are not attempts to justify with the good that can be brought to the table. When a fallen leader points to what he or she can still bring to the table or attempts to bargain in the discussion around their restoration process, the person has not yet fully felt the weight of the sin.

Repentance is brokenness, with no hint of blaming others or bargaining with God. “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God” (Psalm 51:17).

This applies to me and it applies today. Repenting is not merely for leaders who have fallen. The Christian life is to be one of repentance. We don’t only turn from our sin when we trust Christ and become a Christian, and we don’t only turn after we blow up our lives. As believers, we are to continually turn from sin and turn to Christ. That was the premise of Martin Luther’s first and famous theses: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

How God Changes Our “Why Me?” Questions in Suffering by David Powlison

David Powlison:

So often the initial reaction to painful suffering is

Why me?

Why this?

Why now?

Why?

You’ve now heard God speaking with you. The real God says all these wonderful things, and does everything he says.

He comes for you, in the flesh, in Christ, into suffering, on your behalf.

He does not offer advice and perspective from afar; he steps into your significant suffering.

He will see you through, and work with you the whole way.

He will carry you even in extremis.

This reality changes the questions that rise up from your heart. That inward-turning Why me? quiets down, lifts its eyes, and begins to look around.

You turn outward and a new and wonderful question forms.

Why you?

Why you, Lord of life?

Why would you enter this world of evils?

Why would you go through loss, weakness, hardship, sorrow, and death?

Why would you do this for me, of all people?

But you did.

You did this for the joy set before you.

You did this for love.

You did this showing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

As that deeper question sinks home, you become joyously sane. The universe is no longer supremely about you. Yet you are not irrelevant. God’s story makes you just the right size. Everything counts, but the scale changes to something that makes much more sense. You face hard things. But you have already received something better which can never be taken away. And that better something will continue to work out the whole journey long.

The question generates a heartfelt response.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget any of the good things he does, who pardons all your iniquities and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassions, who satisfies you with good things as your adornment, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. Thank you, my Father.

You are able to give true voice to a Thank you amid all that is truly wrong, because all sins and all sufferings have now come under his lovingkindness.

Finally, you are prepared to pose—and to mean—an almost unimaginable question.

Why not me?

Why not this?

Why not now?

If in some way, your faith might serve as a three-watt night light in a very dark world, Why not me?

If your suffering shows forth the Savior of the world, Why not me?

If you have the privilege of filling up the sufferings of Christ?

If he sanctifies to you your deepest distress?

If you fear no evil?

If he bears you in his arms?

If your weakness demonstrates the power of God to save us from all that is wrong?

If your honest struggle shows other strugglers how to land on their feet?

If your life becomes a source of hope for others?

Why not me?

Of course, you don’t want to suffer, but you’ve become willing: “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Like him, your loud cries and tears will in fact be heard by the one who saves from death.

Like him, you will learn obedience through what you suffer.

Like him, you will sympathize with the weaknesses of others.

Like him, you will deal gently with the ignorant and wayward.

Like him, you will display faith to a faithless world, hope to a hopeless world, love to a loveless world, life to a dying world.

If all that God promises only comes true, then Why not me?

—David Powlison, God’s Grace in Your Suffering (Wheaton: Crossway, 2018), 115–17.

Does God Hate People.....Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Does God Hate People?  WOW - what a question.  And most Christians in our American church would immediately respond with a loud "NO."

Why?  Because the American church has mainly only heard about the love of God.  We even have false prophets today (and some in very large churches and on television) that is propagating that the only thing we need to know about God is that He is love.  We are like what Hosea the prophet said about Ephraim "is a cake unturned." (Hosea 7:8).  We are a fully baked cake on the love of God and that is good.  But if we fail to "be turned" to the wrath and hate of God, then we stand in judgment of that loving God for being "unturned."

Let us be quick to say, "God is love." (I John 4:8).  And God loves us and thank God that He does.  But most in our churches do not know the true God who not only loves people but also hates people and their sin.

"Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." is what Paul wrote in Romans 9: 13. 

We will examine this tonight in our study of Psalm 5: 5 as the writer says, "You hate all workers of iniquity."  Verse 6 - "The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man."

Due to the Auditorium being used tonight, the Adults will meet in the Locker Room at 6:10 for our Bible Study.  See you there. 

Weak by Paul David Tripp

I long to be strong
full of vitality
energy to spare
wide awake
brain in gear
muscles ready
motivation engaged
purposed possessed
raring to go
unstoppable zeal
a competitor
a completer
the envy of others
no frailties
no worries
no regrets

But you have rendered me weak
unable to be what I once was
ever again
not in this life
the old me
gone

I cannot live as I once did
I cannot do what I once did
I cannot press through
what you have chosen for me
I cannot escape
I cannot break free
I cannot will for something better

Weakness is my lot
Suffering is my prison
You have chained me to frailty
I cannot break free

But this prison is your workroom
and I am your clay
You are not a jailer
You are a potter
I have not been condemned
I am being molded
Your hands have been heavy
Your push on me is hard
When the soil is resistant
the molding is violent

My weakness is not about what I am
enduring
My weakness is about what I am
becoming
My travail does not preach your
anger
My travail preaches your
grace

This prison is your classroom
I am learning
Your presence
I am learning
Your promises
I am learning
Your power
I am learning
Your mercy
I am learning
Your gospel
I am learning
learning
learning

The danger for me was never
weakness
The danger has always been
my delusions of
strength

You have shattered my delusion
and in shattering have proven
My strength is and has always been
you

Paul David Tripp

Wells of Joy.....Friday, November 9, 2018

How is your joy level today?  Is your first response to talk about how you feel?  How your spouse (or lack of one) is treating you?  How to think about your lack of finances to do what makes you happy?

The wonderful news for followers of Jesus is none of those things affect our joy.  Joy is a continual and current experience of the presence of Jesus in our Spirit-filled life.  Now that definition is not found in any theological dictionary and certainly not in Webster's.  In fact, Webster defines joy as "a very glad feeling; happiness; delight.  Anything causing this."

But joy is Jesus.  And our Lord is calling His church back to His joy.  Isaiah 12: 3 declares "Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation."  Our joy is based solely on our understanding and living out our salvation.

This Sunday at 10:15 we will continue the series of messages "Revive Your Church" with this message "Wells of Joy."  Sunday night we continue our series of messages "Restore Your Church" with a message from Acts 2: 42 "Devoted to the Church."

Also this Sunday we will celebrate our Veterans thanking God and them for their service to our country.  The sacrifices they have made through the years and many are still making remind us of why we live in such a great country.  And just this week to be freshly reminded of our precious right to vote as we went to the polls is kept alive by men like Army National Guard member Major Brent Taylor who was killed in Afghanistan just hours after posting on Facebook he hoped everyone would exercise their precious right to vote.  Thank you Veterans and to the families of those who have lost loved ones, we remember.    

An Extraordinary Journey by Billy Graham....Wednesday, November 7, 2018

For the past several years, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Associaton has produced films around the first of November in coordination with Dr. Graham's birthday.  These films were messages through media from Dr. Graham with a strong evangelistic appeal. 

It has been my practice to show these films as I never knew when it would be his last.  Well, we know on February 21 of this year he passed on to Heaven at the age of 99.  To celebrate what would be his 100th birthday today, the ministry has produced this film "Billy Graham:  An Extraordinary Journey."  In honor and memory of his life, we are showing this 70 mintue film tonight in the 6:10 service.  This is a documentary on Dr. Graham's life and it is quite a story.  I hope you will seek to be present.

I have always loved biographies of great men and women.  I have read his autobiography "Just As I Am" but I really enjoyed watching his story on screen and I think you will, too.

We are back tonight to a full and regular schedule with a meal at 5:00; Students and Arrow Kids' at 6:10 along with the adults in the Auditorium at 6:10.

A Mother's Letter by James Emery White

A Mother’s Letter I’m curious. I’m going to reprint a letter a mother sent to her 15-year-old son. I’ve redacted their names to guard their privacy. Here’s why I’m curious: Should this letter have been sent? Do you think it will prove helpful or harmful? Here it is: “Dearest __________, “… I have much to say to you, I’m afraid not of a pleasant nature. You know, darling, how I hate to find fault with you, but I can’t help myself this time… Your report which I enclose is as you will see a very bad one. You work in such a fitful, inharmonious way, that you are bound to come out last – look at your place in the form! Your father and I are both more disappointed than we can say, that you are not able to go up for your preliminary exam: I daresay you have 1000 excuses for not doing so – but there the fact remains… “Dearest __________ you make me very unhappy – I had built up such hopes about you and felt so proud of you – and now all is gone. My only consolation is that your conduct is good and you are an affectionate son – but your work is an insult to your intelligence. If you would only trace out a plan of action for yourself and carry it out and be determined to do so – I am sure you could accomplish anything you wished. It is that thoughtlessness of yours which is your greatest enemy… “I will say no more now – but __________ you are old enough to see how serious this is to you – and how the next year or two and the use you make of them, will affect your whole life – stop and think it out for yourself and take a good pull before it is too late. You know dearest boy that I will always help you all I can. “Your loving but distressed, Mother” So… What’s your vote? A letter well sent, or a case of unnecessary emotional discouragement that could scar for life? Should parents work at encouraging their children at every turn, or at times give them the facts of life in a way that refuses a trophy for every effort? Okay, it’s time I came clean. This isn’t a recent letter, but one taken from history. It was from London, June 12, 1890, to be exact. And I’ll give you the mother’s name. It was Jennie. Jennie Churchill. And her 15-year-old boy’s name was, … Winston. Yes, the reveal probably sways you that this letter had a positive and formative influence on the future world leader. And you would be right. Her call for Winston to be “determined” was apparently the key. Indeed, it would be the greatest single characterization of his leadership and lasting influence. And he knew it. Take his adult address to the boys of Harrow, the very school he attended at age 15, on October 29, 1941. Memorably, he said:       “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never – in        nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in, except to        convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never        yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” So when reflecting on Winston’s life, don’t forget his mother’s influence. And maybe whisper a prayer that there will continue to be moms taking up pen and paper – or text and email – to say precisely what their sons need to hear. James Emery White Sources David Lough, “A Letter From Winston Churchill’s Disappointed Mother,” The Atlantic, October 2018, read online. Winston Churchill, “Never Give In, Never, Never, Never, 1941,” National Churchill Museum, read online.

About the Author James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and the ranked adjunctive professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Meet Generation Z: Understanding and Reaching the New Post-Christian World, is available on Amazon. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit ChurchAndCulture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. Follow Dr. White on Twitter and Instagram @JamesEmeryWhite.