We are hidden from our greed because we tend to live in a particular socioeconomic bracket.  Once we are able to live in a certain neighborhood, attend it’s schools and participate in the social life we look around and see the people who have more money than we do.  Regardless of how lavish our lives are, in comparison, we live modest lives.  In other words, we don’t compare ourselves to the rest of the world, we compare ourselves to the rest of the neighborhood.  This allows us to continually justify our lifestyle and our greed remains hidden.

In Luke 12:15 Jesus says, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”  In this passage Jesus explains that greed is not just a love of money – it is also excessive anxiety about it.  To “consist” of your possessions is to be defined by them.  It is equal to believing that your worth and value is the sum of what you own and consume.  You see this all the time.  When riots break out over a new pair of Nike shoes.  When people are trampled on Black Friday.  We are driven even to the point of violence so that we can have the newest shoes or a nice TV.  We believe these things will define us in some way.  Jesus’ warning hits home , we cannot allow our personal identity to be wrapped up in money and possessions….or the lack thereof.

We typically think of greed as having a lot of money.  However, the person with few possessions who is constantly anxious about acquiring more is just as guilty of blinding greed as the rich man who is constantly seeking to gain more for himself.  Greed refers to the person who, if they lost their wealth, would not have a “self” left.  It equally describes the person who, if they were to gain wealth, would finally feel as though they have found their true “self.”

This is not what Jesus intended.  ”You cannot serve two masters….you cannot serve both God and money.”

So, how do we address this hidden sin?  We reorient our lives according to the Gospel.

2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Jesus had infinite wealth; treasure in heaven – and he gave it all up for us.  If he had stayed rich, we would die spiritually poor.  If he died poor, we could become rich in Him.  The Gospel and the cross of Christ reorients our life and money loses it’s grip.  Listen to Tim Keller on this point (from his book, Counterfeit Gods):

“The solution to stinginess is a reorientation to the generosity of Christ in the gospel, how he poured out his wealth for you.  Now you don’t have to worry about money – the Cross proves God’s care for you and gives you the security.  Now you don’t have to envy anyone’s else’s money.  Jesus’s love and salvation confers on you a remarkable status – one that money cannot give you.  Money cannot save you from tragedy, or give you control in a chaotic world.  Only God can do that.  What breaks the power of money over us is not just redoubled effort to follow the example of Christ.  Rather, it is deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ, what you have in him, and then living out the changes that that understanding makes in your heart.”

This is why Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33 to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well.”

Scripture teaches there is a wedding coming (Revelation 19).  The wedding is between the very different realms of heaven and earth, but when they come together it is beautiful.

I was always taught that heaven was “up there.”  That if you could somehow go high enough into the sky that you would eventually come to a place where pearly gates and streets of gold are sitting on a cloud foundation and people have halos, wings, and a harp.  While this is inspiring, it isn’t what the Bible says.

Heaven is God’s realm.  It is the place where his will is accomplished perfectly every time. It is where his ways rule and reign.  The New Testament often calls “heaven” the “kingdom of God” or the “kingdom of heaven.”  Jesus taught us to pray, “May Your kingdom come, Your will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.”  Jesus taught us to pray that heaven would intersect with earth in order to display God’s goodness and his intention for the world.  There are moments when heaven does intersect earth.  It happens every day, all over the globe.  Heaven and earth are interlocked at this moment, but they aren’t yet fully united.  To keep the wedding metaphor going (and this may be a bit crude), heaven and earth are dating…..with the intention of getting married.  And the person in charge of the courting is Jesus.

The ultimate intersection of heaven and earth is Jesus himself.  The ultimate display of heaven on earth is the resurrection.  In the resurrection, death was defeated and God’ new creation begun.

As we seek to understand the implications of the resurrection on our daily lives, we must realize that the resurrection teaches us to anticipate the day when heaven and earth will at last be fully united.  To anticipate this day, we live right now in ways that demonstrate heaven on earth.

We forgive.

We love.

We answer injustice.

We create.

We play.

We delight in God’s good creation.

We worship.

We live in these ways in order to anticipate the day when heaven and earth are one as described in Revelation 21-22.  Dress for the wedding.  Discover some new ways that you can live in anticipation of God’s new world and the wedding of heaven and earth!

However, if we first embrace the fact that resurrection is the stamp of God’s new world (as I’ve mentioned in a previous blog) then we will be given new perspective and see evidence of that new world breaking through.  Every time you find healing from brokenness, every time your tears are dried up and peace put in their place, every time you experience forgiveness after you have wronged someone or offer forgiveness when you have been wronged, every time a person in need is offered a drink or a meal or a bed; these are all evidence of God’s new world breaking into our broken world.

Here, then, is our hope – if I can see the evidence of God’s new world now, I can have assurance of what the future holds.  The preacher who wrote Hebrews put it this way, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

We can be sure in our hope because Jesus got up out of the grave, defeated death, and started a brand new world!  However, hope is often reduced to a wish!  I wish I could be reconciled with that person.  I wish we had enough food on the table.  I wish my dad would be healed.  I wish I would be healed.  We don’t have to reduce hope to a wish!  We can rest on the assurance of God’s promise to bring a new world.  One day you will be reconciled!  One day everyone will have what they need!  One day my dad will be healed!  And one day I will be healed!  Being hopeful is not wishful thinking, it is being certain of God’s future!

Every situation that seems “dead” and all hope is lost is pregnant with potential for resurrection!  And that gives us hope!

Too often the resurrection becomes a “remember-it-once-a-year” thing.  We put on our Easter dresses, give away Easter baskets, and then hunt eggs.

Let’s admit it, the resurrection has become pretty far removed from our daily lives.  This should not be.  The resurrection is central to the Gospel.  To live Gospel-centered lives means to realize the implications of Easter morning.

The message of Christianity is this – redemption.  The word “redeem” means to “compensate for the faults or bad aspects of something” or “regain possession of something in exchange for payment.”  Christ paid it all on the cross.  He took on the sin of the world and died that we might gain possession of life.  He has redeemed us, and the entire world.  His work of redemption is complete, our only possible response is to accept His redemption through faith.  We cannot be redeemed through good morals, acts of justice, or being really nice (something that “being Christian” is often reduced to).  We can only be redeemed by accepting Christ’s redemption – His death &  victory over death so that we can gain possession of life.

However, God’s redemption isn’t limited to you and I!  Scripture clearly indicates that he plans to redeem all things (see Revelation 21-22, Isaiah 65:17-25 for example)!  The resurrection, then, is the proof that redemption has begun for the whole world.  Death and all the things that belong to death have been defeated and are being swallowed up by God’s goodness, mercy, and grace!  Any version of Christianity that offers escape instead of redemption is not biblical.  God’s plan is not escape, it’s renewal.

The purpose of the resurrection, then, is not so we can be more ethical or have a new spirituality or even “get to heaven when we die.”  The resurrection means redemption has come and is coming to our world and to us!  It’s all about you being made new.  It’s about God’s new world breaking into the middle of this one!  So to live in Gospel-centered ways is to proclaim God’s new world, to live according to this new world, and to help bring it about.  God could just fix brokenness in a moment, but he chooses to use the obedience of His followers to bring about change.

Somehow, this is a scandalous idea.  People are more comfortable with a Gospel of escape because it requires nothing of them now.  We believe Christ died and rose, confess our belief to Him and then wait for this world to be destroyed in favor of heaven.  Under this framework our only responsibility is to get others to believe so they avoid hell.  The resurrection life of Jesus is much more profound than avoiding hell.  If we allow the resurrection to sink in, embrace the full scale of his redemption we will begin to see that it is the stamp of the new world God is bringing, and God is inviting us to enter into this new world, participate in it, live in accordance with it, and work to bring it about.  That moves the resurrection from a “once-a-year remembrance” to a way of life.

I close with this quote from New Testament scholar N.T. Wright:

“The world could cope – and would cope – with a Jesus who ultimately remains a wonderful idea inside his disciples’ minds and hearts.  The world cannot cope with a Jesus who comes out of the tomb, who inaugurates God’s new creation right in the middle of the old one.”

“What was so wrong with traditional church that you had to make it contemporary?”

or they carry baggage:

“Traditional is soft and boring.”  ”Contemporary is loud (too loud).”

Both sides will use scripture to defend their preferred method of doing church and church music.  The traditional side will consistently call people to be grounded and established in what has worked for many years.  The contemporary side will push ministry forward to innovate and do the unexpected.

All of this leads to a question that I, as the Pastor of a church, hear all the time: “Are you are a contemporary church or a traditional church?”

It’s a well-meaning, but misguided question.  Scripture says that Jesus has promised to build and protect His Church; what we often miss is why the Church exists.  From the Gospels to Paul’s letter, it’s clear that the Church exists to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to the world.  That is precisely what the earliest believers did.

Acts 2 records for us a miracle of hearing as the very first believers proclaimed God’s wonders and the Gospel.  It says that everyone who was gathered there “heard them in (their) own tongues.”  While this is miraculous intervention from God, I believe it what the Church must strive for today.  We must speak the Gospel in the tongue our culture can understand and identify with.  Each church must have cultural touch points that allow guests to know that these people live in the real world just like they do.  Some churches will choose to sing “secular” songs as a touchpoint.  Others will use sermon series and titles that mirror something in culture (like “GodTube” or “Mynopoly”).  The point is that the Church must speak to the culture, not just to ourselves.  If we fail to do so, the world will not hear our message.  We will be yelling in the wind.

In light of all this, the question is not, “Are you traditional or contemporary?” but, “How is this church speaking truth and love to the surrounding communities?”  The answers will vary.  Styles will be different.  We must realize that contemporary and traditional are ultimately styles of presenting the Gospel.  I know of “traditional” churches that have lost touch of how to proclaim Christ to the world around them.  I also know of hymn-singin’, every-week-communion-takin’, Sunday-schoolin’, VBS-havin’ churches that are making a tremendous impact in their community.  The same is true of “contemporary” churches.  The issue is not contemporary or traditional.  The issue is fulfilling our mission as the Church, and each church being obedient to the style God has called them to.  Your task is to find a church that is reaching culture is a style that you agree with so you can get involved and help them fulfill their mission.

May His Kingdom come and His name be made famous through the work of the Church!

“Evangelism” is a bit of a dirty word in the Church.  In conjures up all kinds of images from people knocking on doors or standing in the streets to being asked a question they don’t know the answer to.  Evangelism can be scary.  Especially when we see the broken world around us and think we have to save everyone.  The problem is, if we think we have to save everyone, chances are we won’t save anyone.  And if we think we have to share the Gospel everywhere, we won’t share the Gospel anywhere.

There is a difference between “everywhere” and “wherever.”  The early Christians who were scattered because of persecution didn’t share the Gospel everywhere – each scattered shared the Gospel wherever they were.  Everywhere gives us a heavy burden that produces guilt when we don’t lead people to Christ.  ”Everywhere” is when you spend five minutes with a nonchristian and your Christian friend says, “Did you witness to them?”

“Wherever” means that God can use you where you are.  ”Wherever” is that moment when a door opens to talk to your friend about your faith.  ”Wherever” is when your life of faith spills over into someone else’s life and a new disciple is born.  And that is what the Bible talks about.  That is how the Church as we know it has spread throughout the world!  Each person of faith allowing their life to spill over into the lives of people they are already in contact with.  No evangelistic program.  No crusade.  Not leaving evangelism up to the Pastor.  Not standing on the street corner.  Not going door to door.  Just allowing God to use us “wherever” we are.

Last Sunday at Emmaus Road we launched our Spilling Over Initiative.  We are inviting everyone to identify five people that they already have relationship with and make two commitments:  1) pray for those five people daily  2) invite those five people to church.

These people aren’t your next “evangelism project.”  They aren’t a target.  We are simply allowing our genuine love for God and our genuine love for people to spill over and allow God to work.  Would you join us in this initiative?  I hope you will.

To join the movement:

1.  Identify five people who are already in your life that do not know Christ.

2.  Write their names down on a piece of paper and put it in a place that you will see everyday (bathroom mirror, car, Bible).

3.  Commit to praying for these five people daily.  Invite them to your home church between now and Easter.

This is how the Good News spreads.  This is how we change the world.

While I understand some of the reasons for church stopping, it is still a dramatic denial that the Church belongs to Christ (Mt. 16:18).

The Church is God’s ordained plan to bring His Good News to the world!  There is no plan “B.”  Jesus didn’t established the 401(c)3 to bring his Good News to the world.  He didn’t set up a parachurch organization.  He established the Church – the community of people who confess him as Messiah – to share the Good News that the True Messiah has arrived and new creation is now bursting forth right in the middle of our broken world.

Jesus promised to build His Church and protect His Church.  Regardless of the efforts of hell to bring the Church down – God will protect it!  The Church will continue to thrive.  200 hundred years from now that organization that is doing great work may not exist, but the Church will.

These two promises, to build and protect, show that Christ and His Church are inseparable.  You cannot love God and not love his Church.  Yet there are many who would say they are “part of the Body of Christ,” but don’t attend a local church.  They love Jesus, but hate his Church.  This line of thought is missing one key revelation – the global Body of Christ only exists through the local church!  Without the local gathering of believers there is no global Body of Christ.  Many people want to be part of the greater reality without participating in the local expression of that reality.  It is a bit like saying you are part of a school because you like the degree they offer, but never attended any classes.

If you are a Christ-follower that has stopped going to church, it is time to start again.  I know the Church isn’t perfect.  But the Church is God’s way of bringing his message to the world, so if His message is important to you, get involved in a church and help that community proclaim the Good News!

The old church hop was going to one church for a while (like 6-12 months), until you discovered that the church didn’t have everything together like you thought.  Or the Pastor said something you didn’t agree with.  Or you didn’t like the music.  Or the ministry just didn’t seem to be meeting your needs anymore.  Or your chiropractor invited you to their church.  Or there is another church in town that has become the “cool” place to be.  So you hopped to the next place.

In my view, church hopping – in either of it’s forms – is one of the most dangerous tools the Enemy uses to cripple the Church.  There are two main dangers to church hopping.  One is to yourself.  The other is to the Church.

Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  This verse isn’t about starting new church meetings, it’s about experiencing community so you can encourage one another.  If you are hopping from one community to another, or trying to have your foot in two or three places at once, you are ultimately robbing yourself of the authentic community that God intends for you through the Church.  If you leave a community at any drop of the proverbial hat you will never be able to invest in the lives of people to be a true encouragement.  And you will not be able to be encouraged.  Church hopping robs you of community.

It also hurts the Church.  Every time you leave.  Every time you are half involved.  Every time you plug in only to unplug, you leave a wake.  Your influence (positive or negative) ripples throughout that community.  Did you move on gracefully?  Did you talk with the leaders about how God was leading you in another direction?  Did you give the leaders thoughtful feedback on how they might improve their ministry?  Or did you just leave?  You leave a wake when you leave.  Make sure it is a positive one.

The church hopper is focused only on themselves, which is why church hopping is ultimately a denial that the Church belongs to Christ.  If you are hopping, you are making it about you.  It’s not about you.  It’s about Him.  It’s about what He can do in you and through you.  Stop looking for a place that has everything you could ever want and start looking for a place where God can use you.

The Church is the entity that God has established and wants to use to change the world.  I wonder if we are missing out on what God wants to do through the Church because we are too busy trying all the different flavors of church and we never plant somewhere long enough for God to use us effectively.

Stop the hop.  Get planted.  Serve.  Experience community.  Change the world.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it.”  While this verse is packed with material that could be discussed in length, I want to focus on one phrase, “I will build my church…”  The global community that God is building belongs to Christ.  It’s his.  He has promised to build it and he has promised to protect it.

However, just as anything else in our lives, we often try to take ownership for ourselves.  The three topics for this week are ways we deny the Church belongs to Christ and try to take ownership for ourselves.  First, the Church Blocker.

“Blocking,” in athletics, is the action of frustrating the endeavors of the other team so your team can advance and move to victory.  Blocking assumes two things:  1)  There are two teams  2) Your team is better and deserves to win.

I see a lot of blocking happening in the Church today.  I see churches seeking to block other churches from victory because they think theirs in better.  I see this among individual churches and I see it among denominations.  Denominations are a good thing.  They provide structure, organization, accountability and unity.  The problem is when we draw sharper denominational lines than actually exist.  Just before the passage quoted above Peter confesses that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”  Upon this confession, Jesus is drawing a worldwide community to himself to do his work in the world – that community is called the Church.  There is inherent unity in this confession!  We tend to shortchange that unity by saying, “You believe Jesus is the Messiah (that’s great), but what do you say about tongues?  Gifts of the Spirit?  The end times?  Wesley or Calvin?”  We draw all kinds of lines based on things that are important, but not central to our faith.  And then, if someone doesn’t agree with us, we block them.  We block them because we see their message as dangerous.  ”If you aren’t teaching tongues speaking you are producing weak Christians.”  ”If you aren’t teaching holiness through a second work of grace you are producing immature Christians.”  These arguments, and others like them, make one big assumption – we are the ones producing the fruit in people’s lives.  We don’t do that, God does.  We can facilitate Christian growth through discipleship, but we don’t produce it.   Once we realize that, we are set free to minister as God has called us and watch God do his work among all kinds of churches and denominations that profess him as “Messiah, Son of the Living God.”

Let’s STOP THE BLOCK, and start experiencing community with Christians who see things differently than we do.  Let’s pray for our brothers and sisters as they preach and proclaim Christ.  They may not go about it the same way you do.  They may do some things you don’t understand.  They may have difference theological views than you do.  But if they confess Christ as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God they are on the same team.  We are working together in each community around the world to see God’s kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

It’s His Church, he is building it.  Don’t deny his ownership by drawing lines that aren’t there.

I hear that line all the time.  You probably do too.  You may have said it yourself.  It typically comes from people that have had some exposure to the Church.  You grew up going to church.  You accepted Christ as a teenager.  Your grandparents were faithful Baptists.  But somewhere, somehow, something went wrong.

You were mistreated.

You were offended.

You were hurt.

You were beat.

All in the name of Jesus.  All by people who loved Jesus.

The only logical conclusion to these actions is that the Church is full of people who say they follow a loving Savior, but are anything but loving themselves.  Your mind is made up. Jesus makes no difference.  Jesus can’t help me.  The Church is full of people who say one thing, but do another.  So you resist faith.

I understand this resistance.  It is difficult to enter into a faith whose followers don’t mirror the Savior.  However, your resistance may not come from an improper view of the Church. It may come from an improper view of God.

If you are resistant to faith because what you see from Jesus in the Bible and what you see from His followers are two different things, there is a chance that you think have you to get everything together before you can come to God so you don’t become a hypocrite.  You know that you aren’t perfect, and you don’t want to become what you hate.  If that is the case, Jesus has become a cosmic school teacher to you; rewarding those who do well and punishing those who do poorly.  Jesus is not a school teacher.  He is the Savior.

Jesus makes it clear that he wants to restore us.  He wants to take the imperfect parts of us – the pieces that are broken, messed-up, off track – and work to make those things right.  The community that God is building called the Church is not made up of people who are already perfected – it is made up of people who have declared their need for the Savior and are being transformed by him!  The Church is not a social club for the already perfected, it is a hospital for the sick!

Don’t resist faith in Christ based on the actions of others.  Receive faith based on his action on your behalf.  His life, death, and resurrection.

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”