• Unchecked Sin
• Pride
• Distractions
• Impure motives
• Unforgiveness

Unchecked sin. 1 Peter 4:7 tells us that ‘the end is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers.’ When we allow faithlessness/sin to enter into our lives on any level it automatically begins to cloud the effectiveness of our prayer. Jesus said that if we ask anything in faith, trusting in God, then he will answer our prayers (Matthew 21:20-21). It is nonsensical to say that we both trust in God and are faithless/disobeying Him at the same time. Psalm 14 bears witness to the fact that only those who do right and are blameless may approach God. 1 Peter 4:7 urges us to live disciplined and holy lives so that our prayers would not be hindered and in turn can be powerful and effective (James 5:16). The good news is that where we might have sin God is continually calling us to repentance and allowing us to seek His grace. Repentance can happen in an instant. Don’t ever think that you are able to approach Gods thrown by your own merit. It is only through the merit of Christ who died for us that we are able to stand before Him (Hebrews 4:14-16). And that leads us to the next stumbling block to effective prayer…

Pride. Pride is a fairly straight forward offense to God. It is essentially a slow process of our attempt to usurp the throne of Christ in our life. James 4:5-10 tells us that God resists the proud. We must be very cautious of pride in our prayer life. If you get irritated when someone points out an unflattering quality of yours… Yep, you have pride. If you constantly defend yourself in conversations and/or recount stories in such a light that makes you look better than what you actually are… Yep, pride. If you are concerned about what people think about you… Pride. If you constantly judge others then pride is lingering in the background there as well. The solution to pride however isn’t thinking and speaking much lower of yourself. No, I believe God has made us to accomplish great things and be incredible people. And the opposite of pride is not low-self-thought but rather right-self-thought. You are not a worm, despised by God, unfit for any calling. No, you are a child of the king: forgiven, redeemed, intended for greatness by the author of Great. You are loved, and vibrant prayer begins with knowing who you are in Christ.

Distractions. One of my favorite passages about Jesus is found in all 3 of the synoptic Gospels where it says that Jesus retreated to lonely places often in order to pray ( Matt 14:23-26; Mark 1:35, 14:32; Luke 5:16, 6:12, 9:18, 22:41). I believe that this seemingly innocent barrier to effective prayer is one of the greatest in our day because our culture bombards us with distractions. It is good to take a note from Jesus and withdraw from all distractions and pray. Maybe it’s a spot outside, in your attic, at the lake, or in your bedroom. One of the keys to getting away from distractions: TURN OFF YOUR DANG PHONE! And listen, if God could make time to pray then you can too.

Impure Motives. Sometimes we engage in prayer for reasons that make no sense. Jesus talked about people who do that in Matthew 6:5-8 and says that people who pray to be seen already have their reward.

Unforgiveness. “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in Heaven may also forgive you (Mark 11:25). Jesus was pretty straightforward there, but sometimes we forget the significant implications in this passage. If we have not actively forgiven someone who has harmed us (to such an extent that it has caused us distress in our being), then God will not heed our prayers. This may sound extreme but Jesus told a pretty extreme parable about the type of person who experiences great forgiveness and refuses to offer it (Matthew 18:21-35).

So in your prayer time ask God to reveal and make you aware of anything that you may be holding back. Humble yourself and go find a place to pray away from all distractions, and forgive (period).

In the next article i will be writing about things that bolster the effectiveness of our prayers.

Now is this bad? No. In fact a lot of things that are ‘instant’ help us help people better. However we need to be aware of how all the instances of instant effect our heart and mind. When everything around us moves faster and faster and becomes more instant we become conditioned to expect this out of other areas of our life. In our relationships we begin to look for quick fixes and easy hook ups, in our search for jobs we want that instant connection and can’t wait through the application process (the idea of waiting patiently through many rejected attempts of applying to a job is foreign to our current culture), and we even port this idea of ‘instant’ into our relationship with God. Sundays become an instant fix for a week of distracted atrophying spirituality at best or a week of apathetic surrender to sin at the worst. We expect to find our calling, be blessed, have victory over persistent sin in our life, and have abundant life with the same amount of gumption that we apply to those ‘friends’ on Facebook. Occasionally we check their page to see what’s up and look their photos, but really our day wouldn’t be much different if we didn’t even do that. Our church culture has at large set their status as ‘in a relationship’ with Jesus, but on the whole it is long distance relationship that bears no weight in the day to day life of believers.

So how and why must we guard our hearts against letting this ‘culture of instant’ harm our relationship with God? We must bypass the craving for instant with patience and diligence in our pursuit of God. We must patiently seek God’s presence even when the world around us is vying for our attention and we must be diligent and intentional in making time to be in God’s presence through prayer and study.

Our actions speak louder than our words, and when it comes to prayer our actions many times say that we really don’t believe in the worth of prayer. So lets reexamine what scripture says about the effects of prayer and the reason of prayer. In the book of Revelation John peels back the curtain of reality and lets us take a glimpse of what is happening in the spiritual world and how it intersects with our world. In 5:8 he paints this picture of the church falling down before the thrown of God and holding golden bowls that are full of incense and that incense he says are the prayers of the saints. A few chapters later we see what happens with that bowl full of incense:

3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

-Revelation 8:3-5

So John gives us this picture of our prayers being stored up in a golden censer that is at God’s disposal to ‘hurl it on the earth’. Don’t you just love the language there… our prayers are hurled! And then once they hit the earth there are peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Didn’t know your prayers could do that did ya? But in all seriousness, the language of thunder, lightning, earthquakes and the like is the way scripture speaks of God’s activity in the world (think of Mt SInai in Exodus 19:18-20 or moments immediately following the crucifixion and resurrection Matthew 27:45-54). So the idea is that God uses our prayers to act in our world. John Wesley once said that “God does nothing except in answer to prayer”. However, many times it does seem that are prayers are ‘bouncing back off the ceiling’. Yet God hears the prayers of His children and responds in his own time. Our prayers are at His disposal. So does prayer exempt us from action? Certainly not. Keep in mind what John Bunyan said, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you will never do more than pray until you have prayed.” So the starting point for our spiritual lives and our corporate life together is prayer. Take the beginning of the church as a case in point:

12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk^[c^] from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues^[a^] as the Spirit enabled them.

Acts 1:12-14, 2:1-4

Now, Jesus had told them to go back to Jerusalem and wait. But wait for what? The Holy Spirit, of course, but what does that actually look like? No one knew what it would be. But they waited and prayed, and waited and prayed. I have a feeling that if we were in this same situation our ‘superior reasoning’ would kick in and we would soon realize that we have our mission: to make disciples of nations by proclaiming the Gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. We have all the knowledge that we need… we had been with Jesus for nearly 3 years, we saw the crucifixion and resurrection. What are we waiting for? Lets go do it! However, there first reaction was to wait and pray. And this is God’s will for our lives and churches today as well: to begin by waiting and praying. We can either start on our mission and get going in our own power, or delay gratification and wait and pray. Psalm 37 tells us that if we trust in the Lord he will act, and it also admonishes us be silent before the Lord and wait patiently on Him.

If you examine the New Testament the two things that we are admonished to pray for are spiritual maturity for believers, inlcuding deliverance from temptation, and the expansion of the Gospel. While there are instances of praying for healing, for enemies, for boldness, or other petitions, the overwhelming majority of prayers in the New Testament are for the building up of believers and the expansion of the Gospel.

For the maturity of believers:

• John 17 – Jesus prays for the disciples and for the ones that will believe because of them
• Acts 8:15 – For new believers to receive the Holy Spirit
• 2 Corinthians 13:7-9 – For restoration of believers and strength during temptation
• Ephesians 1:18 – Fuller knowledge of hope for believers
• Ephesians 3:16-18 – Maturity in and knowledge of Christ’s love for believers
• Philippians 1:9 – For believers to grow in love
• Colossians 1:9 – For the knowledge of God’s will for believers
• Colossians 4:12 – For believers to stand firm, mature, and assured in the will of God
• 1 Thessalonians 3:10 – To supply what is lacking the faith of believers
• 2 Thessalonians 1:11 – For God to make the believers worthy of His calling and to produce fruit in their lives

So if it safe to assume that Paul and the other New Testament writers were in line with the will of God it is also safe to assume that at the heart of God is both the maturity of the Church and the expansion of the Gospel. So even in our prayers our ultimate goal is the fulfillment of the great commission to make disciples of all the earth.  And in praying we join in the fight for maturity of believers and the expansion of the Gospel in a real way.  Prayer is the workhorse of the Kingdom. (Romans 15:30).

To be continued…

Oh boy… giving.  This is the core value we have all been waiting for isn’t it?  The great thing about writing an article on giving is the depth and clarity which scripture provides on the matter.  The hard part about writing an article on giving is the reluctance we have in really taking scripture to heart and obeying it, especially in this matter.  Nevertheless at the end of the day the question we should be most concerned with is, “What does Scripture say about the matter of giving for a follower of Christ?”

I want to spend the majority of this article explaining and fleshing out the following statement.  Scripture provides no specific amount or percentage that a Christ follower is commanded to give, but there are conditions of the heart that are commanded and have an effect on our act of giving.  In most churches, especially in the southern US, you will hear some version or other of our call to give 10% of our income to the church, otherwise known as tithing.  Many preachers will use the Old Testament to command their congregations to give 10% at the minimum.  And what is essentially communicated is, ‘Give 10% of your income and that is what you should be giving to be in God’s will and anything over 10% is icing on the cake but you aren’t necessarily commanded to give more.’  However, Jesus in fact only mentioned the tithe once and it was in regard to Pharisees keeping the rest of the law as well (Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42).  He said that they should have kept the whole law by tithing along with offering justice and mercy.  But the question in this instance for us is does this mean that we too should keep the whole law (also see Jesus command to offer gifts to the priests in Matthew 8:3-4)?  In regard to keeping the practices which Jesus referred to in both those passages the books of Galatians and Romans makes it very clear that as Christians we are no longer bound to that Law.  In fact in Acts 15 when the church was trying to decide whether new Gentile converts should become circumcised and follow the law they said, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.” (Acts 15:28-29)  Tithing was not mentioned in that list of requirements nor is it commanded anywhere else in the New Testament.  In fact Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that “Each of you should give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”  That is to say, that exactly how much you give is a matter to be settled upon in your heart through the Spirit’s guiding.  And Paul even says explicitly that believers should not settle how much they are to give ‘under compulsion’.  That is, don’t let someone else tell you how much you are to give.  Now, Paul was specifically speaking of a collection he was taking to the church in Jerusalem so it may be said that this does not fall under the typical ‘Sunday-morning-pass-the-plate-offering’ category, but it is one of the most direct teachings on giving the New Testament provides, and the principle can be applied to other areas where scripture is less clear.

And while tithing is a non-issue in the New Testament (I say this with Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wycliffe, John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, the Quakers, and many other church leaders from our history) even though it has been made an issue by our church culture, the New Testament still calls us to give something.  So the question remains: What does Scripture say about the matter of giving for a follower of Christ?  We can see evidence throughout the Gospels and the letters in the New Testament that giving is supposed to be a common part of the life of faith and radical dependence upon God.  Jesus commands us multiple times to ‘give to those who ask,’ ‘give to the poor,’ and ‘give to God the things that are God’s’ (Matthew 5:42, 6:33, Mark 12:17).  Also, when Paul traveled to the various churches and wrote them letters he often had as one of his goals to collect money for other churches and urged them to give generously.  Jesus also speaks about the heart issue concerning money when he said that where our treasures are our hearts will be as well.  That is to say that if we cling to our money or possessions then it is a good indication that our heart is clinging to them rather than to Jesus.  So how much are you supposed to give?  Good question… in fact it is so good you should probably study scripture and take some time to pray about what God would have you give and to where it should be given.  Giving is not an option for the believer, but how much we actually put in the offering plate is.  Total Surrender is what God requires of you, how that gets lived out in terms of giving is different for all of us and it is your responsibility to listen to the Spirit’s guiding in what you should give.  However, there are some guiding principles that we can take to heart when contemplating this spiritual discipline.  The first is how much should I give?  Now at first glance this seems to be an appropriate question, but I believe a much better question is, “How much should I live on?”  You see when you have this question answered then every time you get an extra dollar here or there it has already been determined that you do not need it and it comes to you by default as something to be given away.  In his book, Radical, David Platt suggests that believers put a lifestyle cap on their lives.  That is to say that whatever situation you find yourself in now (type of car, size of house, number of toys, etc) is your baseline and you don’t ever need to go over that line.  Resolving in your heart not to pursue the bigger and better things helps you put your treasure in Christ and the things Jesus is passionate about.  John Wesley had 3 guiding rules he taught in regard to finances: 1) earn all you can (Yes it is ok to have a rockin job), 2) save all you can (not in a savings account, but save your money and buy cheap stuff and only what you need), 3) give all you can.  You see when you are doing #1 and 2 then #3 is the natural and New Testament reaction.

All of us are called to work in this world and make a living.  In fact Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3 tells us that if someone is unwilling to work then they should not eat and other believers should stay away from them.  This would put a cramp on the social life of some young adults in our church culture if this command was followed through.  Jesus also said that to the person who is faithful with a little will be placed in charge of much (Matthew 25:21).  Later in that same passage there are pretty severet consequences for those who neglect opportunities that God gives them.  If you are looking for work do not turn your nose up at any job unless it is immoral.  Do not think of yourself as better than others who work those same jobs.  And in that passage the King’s servants were not given opportunities for themselves but in order to expand the dominion of the King. So when thinking about giving consider how you can use your skills and jobs to make more to be used for the Kingdom of God and not on yourself.  And as we consider the amount we should be giving I believe the new testament response is , ‘as much as we can.’  Jesus came to give His whole life and calls us to a deep dependence upon Him as we lose our own lives… Why would we even think of holding on to our money for our own kingdom-less pursuits?

To whom should I give?  This is a legitimate question in our day and time as we continue to see the misuse of funds within the secular and relgious arenas alike.  Jesus commanded that we give to those who ask us and to the poor. I believe the best way this happens is when you give to a person and not an organization. When you have to look a person in the eye that is suffering and/or hungry you have a much richer opportunity to be Christ-like than you do when writing a check and putting it in an envelope. However there are plenty of opportunities to see people helped across the world by mailing a check or giving online.

Should I give to a local body of believers?  Yes. In some form or fashion if a local church is to have community there will be a sharing of resources. This can range from a small donation or the time and resources spent preparing a meal to helping a college student afford tuition. Sharing resources with a community of believers is a way we live out Acts 2:45 and our love for one another. However we aren’t simply called to have community. We are a group of people who have a common mission, namely to see people reconciled to God through Christ.  So if we are serious about completing that task then we should put our money where our mouth is. When natural disasters occur in our world today it doesn’t take long at all before people have been motivated to respond by giving. It is almost instaneous:  disaster, the red cross gets involved, and then you can txt a donation straight to them.  We see people in peril and we want to respond. How much more should we desire to see the mission God accomplished and people saved from eternal peril?!  Where your treasure is indicates where your heart is and I want my heart to be about expanding the dominion of the King in the hearts of people here and abroad, and this is best accomplished through the local church.  So should you give to a local body of believers?  Yes. And if you don’t feel that the local church you are apart of is worth giving money to in order to better accomplish this mission then you should probably find one that is.

Now, at the risk of making this article too long I want to include the benefits of giving. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “the one who sows sparingly reaps sparingly and the one who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.”. Later Paul says that when you sow abundantly you harvest righteousness. The question is this:  Where is your heart?  If it is in seeing God’s Kingdom take root in the hearts of people who were once far from him then you will be willing to sacrifice your resources (time and money) to see that happen. If your heart is still focused on yourself then you will not care about asking God what you should give but will toss a few dollars here and there to fulfill a sense of obligation, and you will have your reward.  In closing, I can say this, I have never regretted giving sacrificially to the mission of the church or to the poor, but I have many regrets from holding on to a few meager dollars when I could have been blessed with righteousness.

Remedy, I am asking you to search your heart and ask yourself if God has the whole of it.  Is your heart set on accomplishing the mission He has set before us of seeing 18-35 year olds in our community come to Christ and become transformed and radical disciples of Jesus Christ and then to see our community used so that racial walls can be broken down, the Good News can be taken to other communities and cultures, people can be freed from modern day slavery, and poverty might be abolished.  How much is it worth it to you?  If Christ has your whole heart then it is worth more than you could ever give.

As I have contemplated the word ‘serve’ throughout this week I have had to postpone writing this article because I kept finding that service is multi-faceted and I was only planning on approaching it from one angle when it in fact has many.  While we are called to serve in the context of a local church in varying degrees, our lives should be marked by serving others in every arena.  Serving is not simply an action but a new way to be in this world where people are served and serve for a price.  From drive-thru restaurants and customer service call centers, to the Apple Store and businesses such as Zappos.com, the world has begun to understand the effects of offering good service.  Yet the type of service that we have come to expect to be offered in all areas of our consumer world is not what we would think of as ‘selfless service’.  I mean 99% of the time you are paying someone to serve you, right?

So what is a Christian perspective on serving?  Throughout the New Testament we have example after example of what it means to serve and you could even say that Christ’s whole life was a life of serving.  In Matthew 20:28, Jesus says that He came, not to be served, but to serve and even serve to the point of death.  That’s not in the Apple Store Concierge training manual!   And Jesus makes it clear that ‘servant’ is not only His title but ours as well (Check it out: Matthew 23:11-12, 25:14-30, Mark 10:43-45, Luke 17:10, John 12:26).  So how are we to wear this title?  How are we supposed to serve?

I believe one of the clearest pictures that will help us answer this question is found in the Gospel of John:

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

-John 13:3-17

When Jesus knew that all power and authority was given to Him He lowered Himself and served the disciples by performing the task that no one wanted to do… wash their feet.   Now after I had been walking around all day in the hot dirty streets of Jerusalem, amongst sand, dirt, manure, and other waste I would thinking twice about touching my own feet let alone someone else’s.  However Jesus, the most powerful person in the room, did not think that He was above even the lowest act of washing the filth off His followers’ feet.  Now we can jump straight from here to the application and say that we too should be willing to serve those around us by performing the lowest task out of love for our neighbors, that’s obvious.  Yet many of us would rather take 5 minutes and do a task that demands humility rather than commit to be someone who works behind the scenes for an extended amount of time.  We like to pick and choose our levels of service and we hold the right to relinquish our servanthood if it is not convenient for our schedules.  However the New Testament idea of servanthood is much different than our contemporary edition.  In first century culture, to be a servant meant that you effectively surrendered your own will and leisure to your master.  Now if you were lucky you might have a gracious master, and we are blessed because our Master is the author of grace and works everything for our good, but He is still our master.  And a servant is to be about his master’s business.  Jesus describes this well in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30).  The servant that did not work to expand his masters riches and kingdom suffered gravely.  Our business is to be about expanding the Kingdom of God and serving the will of our master.  And sometimes this means undertaking tasks that are not our ideal way of spending our time and are sacrificial in nature (disclaimer: there is not a limit or weekly quota of those tasks prescribed in the Bible either).

Jesus also makes it clear that part of God’s will is that we serve those around us.  We do this by doing things that build them up and help make them better.  Sometimes it is simple of acts to help them.  It will always require us to take the focus off of ourselves and put it on the person we are serving.  Christian service is by definition a selfless act.  It is an act that looks out for the well-being of the other person.  It asks the questions, how can I encourage, motivate, teach, help, relieve, comfort, lovingly correct, assist, or better this person.  In essence it is the question, ‘How can I better disciple this person?’, for making disciples (whether that be seeing individuals won to Christ, or furthered in their relationship with Christ) is our main task and we do it best by leading a life that is exemplary in service.

Service is not something we seek credit for.  The moment we grasp for credit in an act of service is the moment the true servant nature of that task slips away.  Instead we should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty (Luke 17:10).”   This is a heart condition that takes time to and consistency to develop.  Many times our hearts will long for credit for something we have done and we constantly have to ‘take every thought captive to Christ,’ (2 Corinthians 10:5) and be about weeding the garden of our heart so that pride, envy, and resentment do not take root and destroy us.  How many times has this happened in relationships of every kind where there is one who serves?  Churches, friendships, and marriages are not immune to people with servant hearts turning into people with bitter hearts.  To serve faithfully our actions must be knit to a humble heart.

So humility and selflessness are two things that should define our service, but in what context(s) does Christian service get played out?  The argument can be and is made that to be a Christian and serve one need not serve in the context of a church.  While it is certain that Christians should be consistently serving others outside of a church context, all Christians are called to serve in the body as well.  Paul tells us in Ephesians that,

“…Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,  to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:11-13

Read 1 Cor 12:12-30.  Between these two passages Paul clearly makes the case that Believers should be fulfilling their God-given roles in the body.  If our task is disciple making and we not only do this individually but corporately then we should be serving on both an individual and corporate level.  This necessitates that one be connected to other believers in using the gifts and graces with which God has blessed them so that the body might be ‘built up’ and grow.  What does this look like?  People being won to Christ and then discipled by others in the church.  If you are not serving to accomplish or support one or both of these tasks in the context of a church then you are resisting God’s whole purpose and plan for your life.  What does this look like at Remedy?  It involves serving to support and better our corporate worship and outreach on Sundays, to participate and serve in the area of LifeGroups, to help disciple our children, to help us corporately grow as disciples through service to our community and those in need, and sometimes it looks like being a prophet to help the church see where it is dropping the ball or going against God’s will.  The point is this: if you feel God has called you to be a part of Remedy then He has called you to join us in service and he has equipped you to do it.  And here is the great news, as we join hand in hand to accomplish the task of seeing Transformed Lives Transform the World through the power of Christ and we each take up the call to serve we will more effectively see our mission accomplished.   And while it is selfless and humble, when you serve you find your life and God exalts you!

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”

Romans 12:9-16

In the New Testament there are hundreds of references to the Holy Spirit. And amongst those references are promises, information, and instruction about the Spirit of God. God meant for His Spirit to be the guiding and empowering force of the church. You can see this lived out in Acts as the church constantly listens and obeys the promptings of the Spirit: the church was to receive further instructions through the Holy Spirit (1:2), the Spirit enabled the them to preach (2:4, 4:31), the church looked for leaders who were full of the Spirit (6:3), they were sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in where to travel and who to send (13:2-4, 15:28, 16:7, 19:21, 20:22, 20:28), and the Spirit speaks and instructs individuals personally (2:7, 8:29, 10:38, 11:12, 20:23). One of the passages that struck me as counter-intuitive in our compulsive culture was the fact that the Holy Spirit would not allow Paul to go to Bithnyia to preach the Gospel! What was God thinking?! He was wanting to tell people about Jesus! But God had a more effective plan for him that Paul would not have been aware of if it had not been for his sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading.

So how do we know when and where the Spirit is leading? Before answering this question I think it is wise to distinguish between knowing and proving. Our postmodern culture wants to equate the two and forbids anyone to say that they know something without being able to prove it’s truthfulness. However, unfortunately for the postmodern worldview, knowing is simply believing something to be true and it actually being true. For instance, if I asked you what you had for breakfast three days ago you might know the true answer to that but be completely unable to prove it. Likewise when we say that we know that Jesus saved us, we believe it sincerely and it is in fact true, but at this moment in history it is not provable. So when when we say we know the Spirit is leading this way or that we are essentially saying that we believe it sincerely, we have examined our hearts for our own assumptions and misplaced motives, and wholeheartedly believe the Spirit is leading. The only real test for this is to see whether it goes against scripture. If we say the Spirit is leading in a way that contradicts what the same Spirit inspired in the Bible then we know for a fact that it is verifiably false. And likewise when we are guided by the Spirit we must view our actions and words with humility understanding that we are not called to defend or fight for the Spirit’s leading but simply obey. You get a sense of Paul’s humility in 1 Corinthians 7:25-40 when he admits that he does not have a direct command from God but believes, ‘as one who has the Spirit’, what should be done in certain life situations. In short, our interpretation of the Spirit’s leading is neither complete or infallible.

So, essentially we are asking the question, ‘how do I examine my life to judge where and when the Spirit is leading?’. We know from Scripture that the Spirit lives and empowers everyone who trusts in Christ for salvation (Galatians 3:2-5, John 14:17). We also know we essentially have as much of the Holy Spirit that we want (Luke 11:13) in accordance with our obedience to Christ (Acts 5:32). That is to say that if we want the Holy Spirit enough to ask for more we should also be willing to obey more. It is by the Spirit that we have been made new in Christ (Romans 2:29, 8:2, 8:15-16, Titus 3:5-6) and through the Spirit that He is sanctifying and leading us (John 7:39, Romans 5:5, 8:5, 8:10-11, 8:26, 15:16, 15;30, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Galatians 5:5, 5:16-25, Ephesians 4:23, Titus 3:5-6, 2 Timothy 1:17, 1 Peter 1:2, 1 John 2:27). It is therefore imperative that His church rely and be led by the same Spirit that unites us and equips us for accomplishing the great task He has set before us. To not be led by the Spirit is paramount to a general pointing to the enemy and telling his army to, “go get em” without any strategy. We must operate out of the mindset that our King has a plan of battle that we might not understand, is always good, sometimes very hard, and will never contradict His Word. a good question to examine our state of heart when seeking the guidance of the spirit is, “Does my life provide evidence of my surrender to the Spirit according to Galatians 5:22-26? Have I dealt fully with all known sin in my life? Is my heart totally set right with God?”. If we answer negatively to any of those questions then we first need to take the appropriate measures to be able to answer them affirmatively.

We must then let our hearts be examined in prayer and tested to see if our desires align with the desires of God (Psalm 37:4, Matthew 6:33). While many know of St Francis of Assisi for his many selfless acts it was said of him that he spent 25% of his time in public ministry while spending 75% in prayer. He knew that being in God’s presence deliberately and intensely was the most prudent way to hear His voice and be sensitive to His Spirit. The great George Mueller who founded an orphanage never once asked for donatins for the orphanage but rather waited diligently for God’s hand to provide for the children through prayer. In regard to his prayer life, he said that he would not bring his petitions before God without waiting until he had, “an active and living realization of the presence of God.” While we pursue easy formulas for pretty much everything in life there is no short cut to the intimacy with God that is required to be truly led by His Spirit. It is gained by setting prayer as our primary activity throughout our day and coming to God in surrendered humility and sincerity. When we see the Spirit moving in the NewTestament it is more often than not in response to prayer (Acts1:14, 4:23-31, 13:1-3). In fact it is non-sensical to say that the Spirit leads or speaks in any context other than prayer for it is in prayer that we hear God’s voice.

So what does it mean to be led by the Spirit? It means that we have become people of prayer and the Word, seeking God’s will diligently through purposeful time devoted to Him. And how do we know when and where the Spirit leads? We may never be 100% sure so we must act and speak with humility, but after seeking God’s face and trusting that He is leading, ultimately it is our trust in Him through obedience thatp leases Him.

Now there is not a great description in Scripture as to what that gathering is supposed to look like.  However, whenever it is referenced in Scripture there are a few basic elements that are vital to us “growing up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (Ephesians 4:15)”.  This is captured in Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers,” and in Ephesians 5 after Paul encourages us to be filled with the Spirit, “be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  So, a couple of things become apparent as appropriate activities for the gathered people of God, namely studying God’s word, community, praying and worshipping.  These things done alone have a certain good effect in our individual lives, but divorced from their corporate practice will only get us so far in our Spiritual journey.  

We are accustomed in our culture to think that with a little determination and vision we can do just about anything on our own.  Yet the Bible makes it clear that Christianity is not a solo sport.  It is something that must be lived out in community.  Think about the Scriptural evidence:
We are called to bear one another’s burdens, and restore each other when someone sins (Galatians 6:1-2).  We are to work for the good of the family of faith (Galatians 6:10).  We are ‘built together spiritually’ (Ephesians 2:22).  We are to be of ‘one mind’ and ‘look to the interest of others’ (Philippians 2:1-4).  We are to ‘bear with one another’ and ‘forgive one another’ (Colossians 3:13).  And we are to urge one another on to good works and not neglect meeting together (Hebrews 10:23-25).  As we read these passages and many more the implication is very clear: GOD DID NOT INTEND FOR US TO DO THIS ALONe! We are called to be Together In Mission!  

Think about it this way, all but a few pages of the entire New Testament was written and intended for churches, not individuals.  Thus if someone wanted to be a ‘Christ follower’ but not have to attend gatherings then they would have missed out on the instruction and wisdom and revelation needed to fully live out their calling in Christ.  Think about the book of Revelation.  The first few chapters contain Christ’s words, not to individuals, but to… Churches.  It is unbiblical, and rebellious to think we can live out our faith fully without a community of believers.  We cannot have the head (Jesus) without the body (the church) (read 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:1-16, and Colossians 3:1-7).  Jesus didn’t just die for you and me, but he died for His whole church.  He died so this group of people might be the beginning of the new creation and be trusted with the task of seeing lost sinners reconciled to God through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).  

So is attendance important?  Yes (period)

What does that look like for us?  At Remedy we gather to worship and learn in a large setting on Sundays.  We come together to be equipped, inspired, and informed so we might go out and fulfill the disciple-making mission of God in our individual lives.  We gather in Life Groups to fellowship and pray for one another as well as to learn so that we can be more effective in fulfilling that same mission.  Think of it is this way, our end goal is to Love God and Love people, attendance and participation in a local body of believers is simply one of the God-ordained ways that happens most effectively.  So I call us again to a fuller obedience in our walk with Christ in this area.  Are you faithfully living out this area of your faith?  Are you attending AND participating in the body of Christ (worshipping, praying, studying, fellowshipping, and being in mission together)?

And the thing is, when we devote ourselves to God in this area we begin to experience the joys and benefits of community in the Spirit.  And while we will be called on to bear the burdens of those we are in community with, the faithfulness of following through with them produces righteousness in us!  

As I see people from time to time who hear a message of repentance and yet don’t acknowledge any need of it in their lives, as well as looking back over my own life and seen where I was in sin yet saw no need for real heart-breaking, on your face, real life changing repentance, I have come to understand that the greatest danger of walking in the ‘grey’ of life is the self-deception that comes with it.  Paul speaks to this when he says in Galatians:

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.  Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.  - Galatians 6:7-8

So how do we determine our dependence on God and know whether we are surrendering all to God?  Because to others we may be able to hide behind of mask of good works, church attendance, and churchy language… Hell we might even deceive ourselves with that stuff.  So how do we break through and test our heart before our God?  It comes down to whether we are willing to lay our lives open before a holy God and let Him examine the motives, secrets, and passions of our hearts.  We do this through prayer and submitting ourselves to the Word.  As Hebrews says,

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.   – Hebrews 4:12-13

Here are some questions to ask yourself and examine your heart as you seek to submit your life more to God (taken from Darren Patrick’s book, Church Planter):

• Which do I want more – to know God or to achieve for God? Phil 3:10 Exodus 33:13 1 Timothy 4:6-10
• When was the last time I experienced a prompting of the Holy Spirit? John 4:7-19 Acts 16:6-10
• Am I consistently being convicted of sin in my life? Heb 12:5-11 John 16:7-8 1 John 3:9
• Am I consistently accepting my acceptance by God through Christ? 2 Cor 5:17,21
• Where do my thoughts go when I am not forced to think about anything? Psalm 63:1-4

Hannah was a woman who tasted the good and bad, the bitter and the sweet, and surrendered in it all.  Her story is found in 1 Samuel 1-2.  Essentially here is the plot:  One man, Elkanah.  Two wives, Penninah and Hannah.  Penninah had kids Hannah didn’t.   What this meant on a day to day basis was that Penninah got special treatment, Hannah felt the sting of her barrenness, and meanwhile Elkanah, being the innately intelligent man he was would say things like, “Hannah, why are you crying?  Ain’t I better than 10 sons?” (literally, he said that, 1 Sam 1:8).  Now in this culture to be barren was to be looked down upon, to be thought of as worthless, and sometimes to be shunned by God.  Hannah was in a dark place, a place where value was removed from her because of what she couldn’t produce.   For some people they feel this sting because they can’t produce a pay check, or a balanced checkbook, or a stable relationship, a guilt-free record, a sober past, a social standing, or 100 friends on Facebook.  For Hannah it was because she was childless.  She felt it in her husband’s treatment, and in the snide remarks of the ‘other wife’ (1:6).

When we find our lives in a place like this we have two options, we can surrender to our circumstances and become bitter, cynical, lazy, or worse.  We can even make excuses why we surrender to our circumstances.  And before long we sound like the greatest debater in the world because we have a reason for every subtly wicked behavior we have and we live imprisoned to our self-deception.  The book of 1 John calls this walking in darkness.  Our other option is to surrender to God.  And the good news about this option is that faithfulness to God merits no excuses, no excuses in our victories and no excuses in our failures.  That last bit may sound a little odd, but the reality is that even a life that is totally surrendered to God is gonna have mistakes that must be corrected and potholes that need to be filled.  When we are surrendered to our circumstances we make excuses for them, because after all we are a slave to our situation.  When we are surrendered to God we admit our faults, correct what we should, and move on.  Surrender to God looks like humility and shapes us into humble people.  In fact it is impossible to be surrendered to God without humility (James 4:5-7).

Hannah came to God with humility.  She knew that whether or not she had a child was in God’s hands and if she were to have a child he/she would not hers, but ultimately would be God’s.  In verses 9-11 Hannah submits to God’s will and surrenders her ‘yet to be conceived’ child to God and promises that he will be raised as a servant of God at Shiloh.  The resident priest, after he accuses her of being drunk (seriously, its a good story, you need to read it), tells her that God will answer her prayer.  So Elkanah and his family go home, nature takes its course and soon Hannah has a son.  And at the end of chapter 1 we read some of the most heart-wrenching and life-fulfilling words, ‘She left him there for the Lord’.  She left her only son for the Lord.  She surrendered her greatest desire to God, because surrender to God is ultimately the only desire worth having.  The first half of chapter 2 is then one of the greatest songs of praise to God.  When we surrender it all our hearts are completely satisfied in God’s presence, resting in His love, working for His glory, and trusting completely in His word, no matter what the circumstance.  Hannah’s life: another call to surrender again.

I have spent much of my Christian life as a con-artist.  In fact I would consider myself closest to Jacob out of all the Biblical characters.  Jacob was a lying, conning, momma’s boy.  And in a sad but true way I have lied and cheated my way through faith and consequently I have not been a man of God.   As a pastor I have asked people to sacrifice more than I have, and I have called people to live holier lives than I was willing to live myself.  The bad thing about cons and lies is that the longer they exist the thicker they get and the more ‘manageable’ they become.  So much so that they con the con-artist and deceive the liar.  And sometimes God lets them run their course in your life and lets you take yourself to the edge of death and wrath so that you can see the lie, so you can taste the bitter fruit of sin.  Then that literal death grip you have on your life and even the sin in your life begins to loosen and once again, or maybe for the first time you realize the sweet joy of surrender, and that sprint back into the light begins.  Now repentance is good but not always easy, as you approach your God, His light and holiness begins to reveal your life for what you are.  Much like Jacob, when he wrestled with God had to admit who he was (because all the drama of his life began when he stole his brothers identity, see Genesis 27) before God would bless him, so do we have to look our wickedness in the face, repent of it and surrender it to God’s grace.  We cannot continue to deceive ourselves and think we can manage our sin and that we will be blessed by God.  Managing and clinging to sin in your life will get you one thing, the wrath of God (Ephesians 5:6, Colossians 3:5-6).  Wrath or blessing, life or death.  It is our choice and we need to wake up because we are choosing one or the other every day.  Paul says it this way,

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.  For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.  Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.  Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.  -Romans 13:11-14

When we start to walk in the light.  When we begin to not make provisions for the flesh, but rather make provisions for the Spirit, then amazing things begin to happen.  The old hymn had it right, ‘Trust and Obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to Trust and Obey.’   When Jesus sent out the 70 disciples in Luke 10 He told them to not take anything with them:

Carry no purse, no bad, no sandals… -Luke 10:4a

They went out and proclaimed the Gospel and performed miracles in Jesus name.  And when they came back Jesus said, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.  See , I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you,” -Luke 10:18-19.  This happened when they trusted Jesus and took Him at His word and obeyed Him.  And it is the same for us.  Let us dare not try to tread on snakes and scorpions if our lives are not completely surrendered to Jesus.  We cannot have victory over all the power of the enemy if we are actively letting him have power in our lives.   Later, before Jesus was arrested, He reminded the disciples about this moment in their ministry together:

He said to them, “When I sent you out without a purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?   They said, “No, not a thing.” – Luke 22:35.

When we surrender all to Jesus we do not lack a thing.  When we surrender all to Jesus we do not lack a thing.  When we surrender all to Jesus we do not lack a thing.  Let us live like we believe that.

Discernment is as simple as asking yourself the question, “Does the song, movie, book, show or video game spark something inside me? Does it make me think about the truths of this world or show me a glimpse of heaven or make me feel joy? Or does it play to those base attributes of my old self—envy, meanness, lust, pride?”