Whom Are You Living For? - Part 2

As promised.

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So now we must look at ourselves in the mirror of God’s word and answer the question, “Whom am I living for? At home, at work, at school and at church, Whom am I living for?” And if the answer is anyone or anything other than Jesus, we must repent and ask God to give us a heart for Him, a desire to see His Name and His fame spread, and the strength and courage to go out and show Him to our community. 

Whom Are You Living For? - Part 1

This post will be part 1 of my notes for a sermon I had the opportunity to preach this past Sunday at my home church. Our pastor and his family were out of town visiting their son in college, so he asked me to fill in for him. It was an honor to be entrusted with such a great responsibility as proclaiming God's Word to His people. I pray that He would be glorified in all that was said.

These are the notes I used and do not contain every word I said, but the core of the message is intact.

Whom Are You Living For?

Philippians 1:18b - 21a (ESV)

Let us turn to Philippians, chapter 1, and as I speak to you today on what I believe God has laid on my heart and mind to speak, I want to encourage you to ask yourselves a couple of questions.

1. Is what Bro. Chris saying the truth according to Scripture?
2. If it is, what am I going to do about it?

Why Not Here? Why Not Now?

If you gotta start somewhere why not here

If you gotta start sometime why not now

If we gotta start somewhere I say here

If we gotta start sometime I say now

Through the fog there is hope in the distance

From cathedrals to third world missions

Love will fall to the earth like a crashing wave

TobyMac, City On Our Knees

I’m going through Radical by David Platt for the second time now. This time slowly, so that I can take in and digest the truths he has written. And one thing is painfully clear: things have to change. If I’m going to follow Christ, I must follow Him in they way He commanded and not how my culture has deemed acceptable. Jesus has no time for casual Christians. The Father seeks worshipers and has commissioned His children to go find them no matter the cost. And while the cost is great, the reward is greater. See, Jesus is the reward. And He is enough!

While I currently give to international mission efforts, and plan to give more in the future, I’m not going to the international mission fields anytime soon. The fields in Pierce County, GA are white unto harvest and the laborers are few. So the place is here and the time is now to go and make disciples. People right here, right now, are dying without the truth. Sure, we’re in the Bible belt and most people here have at least heard of Jesus. But what “Jesus”? The one Joel Osteen and Benny Hinn preach about, who for a fee will give you your best life now and maybe even heal you? Or the Jesus of the Bible who commanded anyone who would follow Him to deny themselves daily. And have they ever seen the Gospel lived out? Or do they just see people gather week after week in padded pews and climate controlled buildings? As my awesome pastor says, “They see the church, but do they see the Church?” So I will go. For the glory of my Savior, I will go. And whatever comes, He will lead and guide me.

I encourage you to read Radical, thoroughly and carefully. I have seen many reviews where people have taken David Platt to say that poverty is the way to holiness and having wealth is evil. These people have missed the whole heart of the book. Two questions you must answer for yourself while reading this book are, “Is this author telling the truth?” and “If he is, what am I going to do about it?”

Book Study - Pastor Dad

I spent time with my lovely wife last night studying a short book by Mark Driscoll called Pastor Dad. This book gives good biblical insight into the joy and responsibility of being a father. I can tell you that I have already been convicted by some of the things Pastor Driscoll has said and we’re only a couple chapters in. Although painful, I know that this study will be worth it’s weight in gold as I strive to be a better father to our three children. I think Sabrina has been convicted as well and I know that God will use this to help mold her into the mother she wants to be.

In reading chapter 2, the most convicting section to me is on page 9 where it talks about hypocritical fathers who tell there children to do something, but don’t do that themselves. I’m not one to tell my children, “Do as I say, not as I do,” but I am guilty of holding them to higher standards than I hold my self. For example, just this week I admonished my daughter to clean her room. She is very bad about not putting things back where they belong when she is finished with them. I’m the same way. So in essence, just me telling her to clean her room and put things back where they belong was telling her, “Do as I say, not as I do!” I need to hold myself to the same (or even higher) standards than I hold my children to. Otherwise, I’m a hypocrite. So I repent of the sin of hypocrisy and pray for the grace to live out the standards I wish my children to live out, so that they will not only hear it in my words, but also see it in my life.

Since we have our book study on Thursday nights, I’ll make it a point to share what how this book has benefited my wife and I in my Friday posts. So until next time, Soli Deo Gloria!

Lessons From A Friend I Didn't Really Know

Yesterday I attended the funeral of a friend I never knew. James Holton “Holt” Rowland, 16, entered eternity on November 10, 2010. I knew of Holt, but didn’t really know him personally, only having spoken with him a handful of times. The last time I remember seeing Holt was on October 14, 2010 at a wild game supper at Bristol Baptist where I was leading worship. I wish I would have gotten to know him, as I feel I have missed out on a great blessing.

As I listened to the men who were asked to share memories of Holt yesterday at his celebration service, I heard the testimony of a young man who loved Jesus. That wasn’t just something that Holt said. It was shared that most often he didn’t even have to say it because his love for Christ was evident in the way he lived his life. It was manifested in the way he loved his friends, family, baseball, church and community and in how he lived out the great commandment - to love God with all his heart, mind, soul and strength and to love his neighbor as himself. Holt understood that there was nothing inherently good in him; that good could only be found in God. And Holt lived and died bringing glory to God.

I came away from Holt’s service with a new perspective on my own life. Learning of Holt’s life challenged me to take inventory of where I’m at in my walk with Christ and showed me that I have a lot of growing up to do. As I pondered what kind of legacy I would leave if I died today, I came to realize that there is so much more I can do to exalt and magnify Christ in my time here on Earth. There are three specific areas where I must, as Holt reminded me, decrease so that Jesus may increase: my family, my church, my community.

If I could sum up in a single phrase what Holt Rowland’s life has taught me, it would be “Bloom where you are planted.” Many times I think that in order to glorify God and make His Name great I have to do something on a grand scale so that a lot of people will see it. But when I dig down to the root of this idea, I see pride and the desire to exalt myself rather than Christ. It pains me to admit this, but ultimately it is the truth. The sovereign Lord of the universe put me where He did so that my life would be spent pointing to Him and not me. So that is exactly what I commit to do from this day on. To bloom where I’m planted so that Christ may be exalted and worshiped.

If I could tell Holt something today, I would tell him how much I admire his love for Jesus and for people. Because of our kinship in Christ, I count him as a brother and a friend, though I never really knew him. And, because of Jesus Christ, I know that I’ll be where he is one day. Although I don’t fully know how it all works up there in Heaven, I hope that I will get to spend at least a small fraction of eternity getting to know Holt. One thing is for certain, I’ll know where to find him - worshiping at the feet of the Savior he loves.

See you later, Holt.