How Jesus Connected to HIS World

Last Sunday I did a talk on how Jesus connected to the world. I believe the Lord would have all HIS followers follow him in connecting to the world the same way HE did. So how did HE do it? He connected by serving the world and according to Paul, we all need an attitude adjustment to learn to serve the way Jesus did.

I get all of this from Phillipians 2:5-8 where Paul says, your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though HE was God, HE did not demand and cling to HIS rights as God. HE made HIMSELF nothing, HE took on the humble position of a slave (NLT)… I know that we are used to that passage being translated as HE took on the nature of a servant… This is one of those places where the translators are trying to make something sound better to our modern ears but in doing so, they lose the power of the passage. The only real translation of the original word here is slave. In Bible days there was no servant like there is today. Today the word servant evokes pictures of housekeepers, nannies, gardeners… People we pay to do things we don’t want to do. That is humble enough but in Bible days there was no such thing. When you wanted a “servant” to clean your house, you went to the slave market to buy a “servant.” In todays language, we would call that a slave. There were two kinds of slaves in ancient times, house slaves and field slaves but there were no servants in the modern sense. So Jesus became a slave in order to connect to the world around HIM.

As if being a slave was not enough to turn the modern American stomach, HE did not demand or cling to HIS rights as God… That is about as un-American as you can get! How can we possibly give up our rights??? You might say, “no one can take my God given rights from me.” That is true. No one took Jesus’ rights away from HIM either; HE laid them down freely by HIS own choice. “But I might become a doormat for someone.” Thank God Jesus became a doormat for me!

As I read this passage, I realize I need an attitude adjustment. My attitude is anything but that of someone who freely gives up his rights and chooses to become a slave. But if I call myself a follower of Jesus, I must follow HIM. That means that if HE gave up HIS rights and became a slave, I must follow. Only there is true life found. Not in using God as a cosmic slot machine to make me rich in return for my goodness.

Flee TO Love

Paul tells us to flee youthful passions (2 Tim 2:22). In 20 years of ministry, at least 12 of those with youth, I have found myself teaching this over and over. I have preached quiet a few “Don’t do this…” “Stop doing that…” type sermons. No wonder people develop religious/ controlling spirits. We teach rules; people try to follow the rules and impose those rules on more people. Eventually, we realize that we struggle with the rule so we create a new, more stringent rule to protect people from breaking the first rule… And the wheel keeps spinning around. Then we wonder why dead religion is so prevalent.

But Paul did not teach dead religious rule keeping. He did NOT stop with flee youthful passions, he went on to say and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace… Paul was not just telling us not to be bad, he told us to pursue the good. Many times I have tried to resist temptation and found myself failing because while I was resisting, the temptation was all I thought about. Paul says, run from the temptation and replace it with righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Flee TO these things. When tempted to exact revenge, don’t just resist it, DO good to them. When my spirit is dry and I’m tired, I need to do more than just not let the enemy steal my joy. I need to force my flesh to get up and worship God. I need ask what true love would do in the situation. I need to let the love of God flow out through me. In short Paul is saying be more concerned about righteousness, faith, love, and peace and you won’t have to worry so much about righting youthful (or not quiet so youthful anymore) lusts… Stop fighting against things and start running to God.

Lord, help me get this deep down in my spirit. I need to live FOR you not against stuff. If I immerse myself in YOU, the lusts of the flesh will melt away. Help me get it straight. Help me focus on letting YOUR love flow in and through me. I can’t do this alone, Lord, fill me.

Remember Where You Came From

I love how Paul never forgot where he came from. He says, YOU “came into the world to save sinner, of whom I am the foremost…” (1 Tim 1:15). By this time in his life he had already traveled the world establishing churches. He had already written most of the New Testament. He had already been beaten and imprisoned many times. Yet he says, I am the foremost of sinners. No chest beating. No faith proclamation that he is a saint and not a sinner. Not even an “I used to be…” Just plain and simple. YOU came for sinners and I am the biggest sinner…

I know Paul is not saying that he is living in sin. He is remembering where he came from. It is so easy to forget. After twenty years of following YOU I sometimes forget my past. When I do that, I tend to get puffed up with pride and think of myself as better than others. I tend to become real religious and judgemental in those moments (and they can be really long moments). Lord, deliver me from these things! Paul never did them because he remembered where he came from. I want to remember also.

By remembering where he came from Paul also kept his eyes on YOUR priority for the world. To lead the lost into a relationship with YOU. He goes on to say that he “received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display HIS perfect patience as an example for those who were to believe in HIM for eternal life.” (v. 16). In other words, if God can put up with me, HE can put up with anyone! There is hope for the worst of sinners!

Lord, help me remember where I came from. Help me remember that I am nothing special. I know I am special to YOU but it is not because of my holiness or my accomplishments. Let me be a living example of YOUR mercy that inspires hope and hunger in other people.

Keep My Eye on the Ball

As a kid I played baseball in Little league and High School. Because I was big, everyone would back up when I came to the plate. They didn’t realize that I really couldn’t hit. I just never developed the skill. The coaches would always tell me, “keep your eye on the ball.” I always pretended that I understood and appreciated their advise but it never helped because I couldn’t really see the ball and even if I did, I just don’t have that kind of hand-eye coordination. I would just close my eyes and swing the bat blindly.

As I was reading 1 Timothy 1:3-7 this morning I was reminded of those words about keeping my eye on the ball. In this passage, Paul tells Timothy to “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrines, nor devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculation…” He goes on to say that “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith…” Then he goes back and says that “Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussions…” Sounds like Paul is telling Timothy, and me, to keep our eye on the ball.

In this case the “ball” seems to be LOVE. Paul is saying focus on love, not geneologies, theological contoversies, and hidden truths. Not only am I to focus on love, that love is to issue from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. How much time have I wasted in every kind of theological dead end and vain discussion? Paul is saying, don’t get into all that stuff. Just work on love. Once I think I have love down, I have to start working on making sure that it comes from a clean heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. That should pretty much take the rest of my life. The truth is that I am more comfortable arguing about the end times and eternal security than dealing with the fact that love rarely flows from my life and when it does it is usually from a junk-filled heart, a seared and suppressed conscience, and selfish faith (if I give, I will get). The things Paul wants me to focus on are too hard. They will take too long, like the rest of my life… Maybe that is the point. YOU want me to focus on love until I get it right by which time I shouldn’t care anymore about trying to prove who is right and wrong or to impress people with my theological prowess.

Lord, help me keep my eye on the ball. Help me focus on love even when I get bored and think I need to focus on other things. Help me spend the rest of my life on one theological principle, love.

Community is God’s Plan to Change the World

A week ago I did a talk on how fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.

The last reason I want to talk about is that God’s whole plan to change this world is based in community. In John 13:35 Jesus said, “By this will all men know that you are My disciples, that you love one another…” In other words, our community is supposed to be our witness to the world. We have so many ways of trying to let people know we are followers of Jesus. We wear Christian Tshirts, put Christian bumper sticker on our cars, listen to Christian music, etc… Not that there is anything wrong with all of this but Jesus said they would know who we are by how we love each other. This world is crying out for true community and if they see it in us, they will come running.

My dad has been a biker for 20 plus years. The reason he is a biker is because they love one another. They fight for each other. They help each other. In other words, his biker gang is exactly what the church is supposed to be. The reason people keep going to bars is that they find community there. Maybe the church should be more like a bar… If we truly live in Godly community, we will not need huge evangelistic events. If we live out true community, we will not be able to handle all the people trying to get in our buildings.

Lord, help me show my commitment to You by being committed to Your people. Help me to see that my acts of love and service to someone who aggravates me is really an act of service to You. Help me be as concerned about living in community as I am about knowing how to explain the Romans road. After all, the Romans road is supposed to lead them to You and to Your community.

Community is a Command

A week ago I did a talk on how fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.

The fourth reason that fellowship or community is spiritual is that Jesus commanded us to do it. Fellowship was not a social benefit added by the church to augment our worship.Community is so important that Jesus addressed it many times. We will look at two of those.

The first is found in John 13:34 where Jesus says, “A new command I give you… love one another as I have loved you.” What is amazing is that he does not say, “love me as I have loved you…” That would make sense. Instead, Jesus says His followers should love each other and everyone as AS HE HAS LOVED US.

Another place where this is reflected is in 1 John 4:11 which says, “since God so loved us, let us love one another…” Again, I would expect it to say that since God loved us, we should love Him. That is NOT what it says…

Herein lies the problem. It is impossible to love people without interacting with them. I know it is very American to “live and let live” and call that love. Actually, that thought comes from Confusious who said, “do not do to other what you do not want them to do to you.” In other words, don’t bug people if you don’t want to be bugged. But that is not Jesus’ definition of love. He said, “DO to others as you would have them do to you.” Love goes first. Love acts even when other people don’t deserve it. That is how He loved us and how He commands us to love others.

Lord, help me to not try to avoid people. Help me to engage them and love them as You have loved me. Help me to go first in loving them. I can only do this by being filled with Your love. Thank You for Your power and strength in my life.

Video Talks

Hey everyone,

I just figured out how to connect video of the talks I do with our church. Check out “Tim’s Talks” in the right side bar. Each time I do a talk, it will get loaded there and I will try to let you know when there is a new one.

Community is the Definition of Church

Last Sunday I preached on the fact that fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.

The third reason that fellowship and community are spiritual is that the very idea of community is behind the word “church.” Jesus was the first one to use the word “church” in the Bible (surprise). But the word existed before He chose to use it. The thing is that the word always referred to a group of people. It was only after we started building buildings to meet in that the word “church” became a place. When Jesus picked that word it meant “group of people.” Today we go to churches to vote. In Greek cities, the “church” (group of voters) would get together to vote… This is the word Jesus chose to describe what His people were supposed to be.

So when Jesus says to Peter, “…on this rock I will build my church…” (Mt. 16:18), He is saying that He will build His group of people or community. Isn’t it interesting that when we decided to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus by personal confession (the rock), He places us into a group of people where relationships to others becomes important??? There is no such thing as a “lone ranger” Christian. By definition, it is impossible to be a Jesus follower alone. You can’t be part of the church without being part of a group of people.

The church was not man’s idea. It was Jesus’ idea. I know this because it makes no sense. From my experience, it seems foolish to throw a bunch of people together and expect them to get along much less to change the world. After all, if you put two people in a room, you usually have at least three opinions. This has to be God’s idea. Only He can make it work. After all, “the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man…” He wants us to spend time with people who drive us crazy. A rock only becomes smooth by crashing together with other rocks and knocking the edges off each other. Without community, who smooths off your edges? You just become a crusty, grouchy, judgemental rock instead of getting polished.

Lord, help me embrace Your idea of community. Help me stretch and prioritize relationships over tasks. Polish me.

Community Was Important to the Early Church

Last Sunday I preached on the fact that fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.

The second reason is that community and fellowship were very important to the early church. We always say we want to get back to the way the early church was. Well, immediately following the birth of the church in Acts 2 there is a verse that describes what the 3,000 new members did. It says, “they dedicated themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the fellowship, the Lord’s supper, and to prayer.” I doubt that anyone would argue that the teaching of the apostles (the Bible), prayer, and the Lord’s supper are important. But did you notice how “the fellowship” was listed along with those spiritual activities? It was one of the top four things the early church did! It was not a hand shake on the way out the door once a week. It was a priority. Maybe community should be a bigger priority to us also…

Many people dismiss these verses by saying that the early church was a commune and we don’t have to live that way. A careful reading of the first few chapters of Acts blows this theory out of the water. First of all, it says that whenever there was a need, the believers sold their possessions to meet the need. It does not say that they sold their stuff, lived communally, and met needs. When Annanias and Saphira sold their property and tried to make themselves look good by saying they were donating all the proceeds, Peter says, makes it clear that the property was theirs and they were free to sell it and do whatever they wanted with the money (except lie to the Holy Spirit). Doesn’t sound like a commune to me. Sounds like a community. They lived in their own homes and had their own property but they were so committed to each other that they met each other’s needs. This is how we should live.

Lord, help me be so committed to YOUR community that I would sacrifice to meet needs. Help me not be so isolated in my own little world. Help me get involved in living life with others.

We Are Created For Community

Last Sunday I preached on the fact that fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.

The first reason is that we are all created for fellowship. This true whether we are “people people” or not. Personally, I am not a people person. I have all kinds of reasons for not wanting to interact with people much. I am a guy and generally we are not the most social. I am an American and in general, we are not the most communally minded people on earth. After all, accomplishing tasks and checking them off our lists is way more important than people. I am from Los Angeles, so I grew up in a very rushed and busy culture. In LA we don’t talk to cashiers. They don’t want us to either. They want us to get our stuff and get out so they can help the next person and we are usually more than happy to oblige. When I moved to the south I had a very hard time getting used to cashiers and service individuals wanting to talk. OK, I am still uncomfortable with this… I am form a disfunctional home. I never learned simple, polite personal interactions. I struggle with things like manners and being polite to people. Lastly, my whole spiritual experience has been in the Pentecostal church. We Pentecostals look down on those denominations who fellowship a lot. Why spend our time in worship and at the altars! By the time we have started late, had extended worship, preached for an hour and had altar time, there is no time left for fellowship. We leave that for those churches that get out early. And we hope they eat quickly at the restaurants so they will be empty when we get there.

The problem is that these are all excuses for not being who God created me to be. He created me to be in relationship and to live in community with others. After all He created me in HIS image. According to Gen 1, God said, ” Let US create man in OUR image…” Even before God created the universe, He lived in community. The Trinity shows God as a communal being. He created us in His image so we must be made for community also.

Almost immediately after creating us, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone…” He knew we were created for community and fellowship. So when I isolate myself, “it is not good…” None of us can be all we were created to be in isolation. Shunning relationships falls short of God’s best for us. I believe that is the definition of sin…

Lord, help me today to overcome all my excuses and strive to build relationships. Help me become who YOU created me to be by living in community with those around me. Overcome my excuses and preferences with YOUR love and power.