Couple of Hours with Mark & Friends - 2

A bunch of you ACTUALLY did this last week, so I thought we would try it again. Don't assume this. Some of you should be writing study guides like this.

1. Vs. 1 identifies the Lord as Jesus Christ (the gospel of Jesus Christ), not just Jesus. Most of the time, the Bible calls Him Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ, or the Lord Jesus. What is the deal? What is the significance of 'the Christ'? His last name? (kidding)

2. The people, as the Holy Spirit regenerates them, What is regeneration?

3. OK. Now, read Luke 3:1-10 again along with Mark 1:4-8 as the people are regenerated by the Holy Spirit as John preaches about the Kingdom of God and repentance. How significant is it that the people then ask in Luke 3:10, “What, then, shall we do?” Share stories with your cell members of remembering that moment when you saw your dirt and God’s holiness and knew that you must respond. What did you do?

4. Jesus answered their question in vs. 15 as he shows the response necessary for redemption, for salvation. “Repent and believe the Gospel.” Discuss this statement: 'Jesus not only proclaims the gospel (the good news), He is the Gospel.' Discuss what it really means to truly believe in Jesus (obviously much more than mental ascent).

5. The word repentance means ‘to change course, to turn around, to change direction. It would be like a 180 degree turn in our holiness (we walked in selfish sin, we now walk in Christ’s righteousness as a new creation). Most people think that repentance is just confessing sin when actually there are five stages to repentance. Deeply ponder and discuss in cell how deep you go in your life of DAILY repentance in these stages.
A. Conviction -- a role of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin (Read John 16:7-11).
B. Confession -- this is agreeing with God that we have sinned. (1 John 1:9)
C. Repentance -- empowered by the Holy Spirit, we turn from the sin -- STOP. (1 John 3:4-12)
D. Joy -- there is joy that comes from moving from darkness to light. We should celebrate.
F. Abundance -- we move from struggling so much with the sin into helping others through it.
Note: Repentance signifies something to turn from (sin); belief signifies something to turn to (Jesus).

6. I think that the average Christian that hangs around church sees himself as vastly different as the disciples who were called to Jesus’ original team in Mark 1:16-20. They were awesome (walked with Jesus, performed miracles, authored Scripture, etc), but the spirit of this call is the same to us. “Drop your agenda,” Jesus says, “and follow me.” How does this play out with you personally. What does “drop your nets” look like? What does following Jesus on His incredible mission to a dying world look like?

7. James and John leaving their father Zebedee (we know that the disciples had lots of contact with family later) in the boat should remind us of some tough Scripture that Jesus tossed out later (read Matt 10:37-39, Luke 14:26). I think looking at these Scriptures together give an idea of how Jesus views our priorities. Balance these with Ephesians 6:2 “honor your father and mother” and 1 Timothy 5:8 which is about a man’s responsibility to work and take care of his family.

8. Share some of the mission that you think the Holy Spirit may be pressing you toward as a disciple. A true disciple is always developing another disciple. Do you have someone that you are developing in the faith? Who is investing time in you?

9. Israel had a notion of God as king (Exod 15:18, 1 Sam 12:12, and Ps. 5:2). God is exalted above His creation. Jesus affirms that notion as he begins this Kingdom of God talk. He is King, and he is going to define His Kingdom. Run through the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:3-?) as a quick refresher to some of the concepts of how different his Kingdom is to what we ordinarily think.

10. The verbs in the Greek for repentance and belief are in the imperative, so they are not temporary, one-time events; they are continuous, a condition. Also, both things cannot be applied only to certain areas of life, but they lay claim to a total allegiance of believers. Belief assumes the act of repentance. Grace and faith are given by God, but these are definitely imperative verbs of response to regeneration.

Couple of Hours with Mark & Friends

Items for study and reflection this week that surround Mark:

1. This John that prepares the way for Jesus is an interesting cat. Read the Malachi prophecy about him and discuss his significance (Malachi 4:5-6). Do a little research and see if you can figure out why Malachi might refer to John as Elijah.

2. Read the Matthew account of John (Matt. 3:1-12). We get some more detail here as John boldly confronts the religious leaders and preaches strong judgments on those who do not believe in the One. Discuss the fact that this writing was focused toward a Jewish audience.

3. Read the Luke account of John (Luke 1:1-45, 57-80, 3:1-22). Why is God so meticulous in his preparation of things?? This whole ministry of John fulfills prophesy of a new Exodus -- where God's people will once again be delivered from a wilderness to the river Jordan -- really cool. (cf. Isa. 11:11–15; 40:3–11; 42:16; 43:2, 5–7, 16–19; 48:20–49:11; 51:10)

4. What does God stir in you as you consider that Jesus held John in higher esteem than any other man, but John models the lessening of himself and the elevation of Jesus (vs. 4-8)? In the Matthew account, you might recall that he said to Jesus, “I should not be baptizing you; you should be baptizing me” (tlg, paraphrase, Matt. 3:14) as he continually points us to worship Jesus, not man.

5. Do you walk around feeling as though the heavens have been torn open and the Spirit has descended upon your life, your world? If so, journal what that looks like, or tell your cell what that looks like. Our regeneration is not as big of an event in history as the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:9-11), but the whole trinity gets involved with our salvation also, so it is pretty special. God has a plan for salvation, and then a plan for the mission of His church. Discuss the plans you feel that God has for you right now. Does it change to realize that the same Spirit that descended upon Jesus has descended upon you? How?

6. Read the Luke account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13). How significant is this event that Jesus, as a man, felt every temptation that we have ever felt, but did not sin? Discuss how much easier it is to sin when we are tired and hungry. Ever notice?

Bonus Time:

Read chapters 12-15 of Acts and look at how the early church leaders function. We see the author of Mark mentioned here as a part of the missionary journeys and a church fight. It is really significant to me that Paul reconciles with John Mark (Col. 4:10, 2 Tim. 4:11, Phil. vs. 24). It is also significant to me that these disciples were made because they were willing to hang around constantly with people who could pull them along in their faith toward their mission for God. John Mark hung around with Paul and Barnabas. We also know that he spent considerable time with Simon Peter and many others (see above Scriptures) to attain the information for the writing of His Gospel. Who is teaching you the ways of the faith, digging into Scripture, rebuking you when you do something silly, praying with you, and at the same time, who are you discipling?
As we can glean from this, the Bible teaches us how to “make disciples who make disciples.” This is the prophesied mission of the church -- prophesied AND commanded by none other than Jesus Himself. Are we as centered in our mission as John? He eliminated distractions and received blessings beyond measure. What distractions need to go, so that we could be counted as one worthy?

One last point. In a day where God’s love is defined as the prosperity that we will receive upon a relationship with Him in American terms (health, stuff, etc), do you find it interesting that the person (John, not the Apostle) that Jesus has esteemed higher than any other man goes to prison as soon as his mission is complete and gets his head cut off? God defines blessings and rewards and prosperity vastly different than we do. It is time to start getting some of that figured out.

Lessons from 4,000 Miles

It is good to be home from a long vacation with Kelley, Justin, Taylor, & Randy & Connie (Kel’s brother and his wife) -- about 4000 miles of American beauty covered from Lake Tahoe, to the Tetons, to Yellowstone, to the Black Hills..

Saw many things, but had two serious lessons taught:
First, I got my patriotism stoked.
I probably need to clarify some things I said in a recent sermon. I think Christians are TOO cause oriented and spend TOO much time declaring what they are against instead of what they are for, and so I declared that disciples of the Lord Jesus are not called primarily into causes. What Christians are called into is the Great Commission which is to ‘make disciples who make disciples world-wide.” I was specific though that causes are not wrong though.
Let me be specific. I love my country -- I don’t love it more than Jesus -- but I would have been proud to defend the US from evil if called to do so at any point in my life. I remembered this at the 9 pm ceremony at Mt. Rushmore a few nights ago as they lit the faces of men who sacrificed greatly for causes. I had tears storming off of my face as they had all servicemen on the stage for the classy flag ceremony as I wished I could have pushed my father down there for that moment. The tears were partially from missing him, but also being reminded of how much I appreciate the sacrifice of many for the freedoms of my life. My dad got shot at by the Nazis for over 30 missions in the back of a B-17 as evil tried to storm the world, and I will NEVER forget that (Justin better not forget or let his grandchildren forget). I believe that true Christians who are called into a cause like that should use the opportunity to ‘make disciples who make disciples world-wide’ AS they do what is right. They simply shift mission fields as the cause does not override their commissioned purpose in this world.
We should vote as Christians, but we should not think that voting Christians into office is going to fix the world. Only Jesus, and His Gospel, is going to fix the world. Let's proclaim HIM!
We should support the American Cancer Society, but we should not think that humans are going to eradicate the curse even if He blesses us with a cure. Only Jesus, only His Gospel, is going to bring a day with no more tears and no more suffering. Let's proclaim HIM!

Second, I got reminded what a baby I can be. I was in a great, worshipful state of mind for the entire trip until the last day (I hope the others would agree with that), but we decided to wipe out the last 17 hours of the trip on that final day. So, had that gone smoothly, everything would have been fine. Sound familiar? Long story short, some 70 miles of I-29 is under the Missouri River, and what was going to be 17 hours and a 1:00 am arrival at home, became 20 hours and 4 am. Instead of having some compassion for the thousands of people affected by the flooding or realizing the detour was going to allow me to show the group my birthplace (Cameron, MO), I huffed and puffed like a baby because this inconvenience had affected the kingdom of me. Sin abounds when we are tired -- we need to stay rested. I finally did relax and enjoy a beautiful sunset, a Cardinals win, and a few more hours with my folks (even got a little nap in). But, for a minute, sin abounded. Glory to God who takes away the sin that so enslaves us.

Disciples making Disciples WORLDWIDE

OK. Thrice is no longer coincidence. Months ago, as our missional cell family studied through Radical, I had a stark realization that I (and maybe our entire faith community) were not doing enough to directly bring the Gospel to people world-wide. Within a few days, God made two potential opportunities available for me to go to India and train & encourage pastors from the persecuted church and preach the Gospel to some folks who have never heard it. I am looking forward to making that trip with Mike Harrison (the lead pastor of Parkland Chapel in Farmington that is sponsoring MAN UP in July), who is also feeling pressed to get the Gospel out to the world into populations that are growing up and dying without ever having heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. So, this was encounter number one -- OK, Tim Gray, what are YOU personally going to do to get the Gospel to some people who have never heard it? Kelley and I are going to make a very difficult and dangerous trip to India in September to see.

The second encounter (which actually may have been the first) took place in a very quiet moment at the house as I was reading a book written in 1962 that was given to me by one of the pastors at The Bridge named Lance Smith about world missions. I don’t remember the name of the book or the author, but I remember the epiphany. As I read the description of the importance of ALL Christians being concerned with getting the Gospel to the ENTIRE world, I originally reacted poorly, thinking this dude was some whack dispensationalist who was trying to put some goofy things in motion that would try and manipulate Christ into returning. I have to confess that I am overly sensitive to things like this since we have whackjobs out there trying to funnel MILLIONS of dollars to the secular nation of Israel to get all of the Jews back home there and rebuild the temple because they mistakenly believe that Christ will not return until those two things happen. This Spirit-filled author though was giving a correct analysis of Matthew 24:14 which states “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” The author’s correct premise was that there were many people groups (obviously nations here mean people groups as nations have changed borders and names thousands of times since Jesus uttered these words) in 1962 that had not heard the Good News of Jesus Christ; therefore, our lack of attention to the commission of of Christ to preach the Gospel to the entire world, to make disciples of ALL PEOPLE GROUPS, had in effect made the fulfillment of this prophecy to be delayed. Jesus is clear that He will not return until all people groups have been exposed to the preaching of the Gospel. The church has a role to fill, and it has not gotten the job done. I immediately began praying for God to reveal the role of The Bridge in this mandate.

The return of Jesus is something that we should all pray for as John did as he closed out the Bible in Revelation 22 as he prayed, “Come, Lord Jesus.” So, I was still rolling around with the ramifications of this as I started reading Platt’s Radical Together, and here came punch number three. Platt brings up Matthew 24:14 again and declares that the disciples of God (all of us) MUST be daily concerned with not only discipling our families and our neighbors -- important stuff -- but with the Gospel being preached and disciples being made in every tiny corner of the globe. ALL OF US. Then, he had the punch in the gut. As Americans, we cannot imagine there being many people who have not heard of Jesus, but all of his research points to a fact that there probably about 6,000 people groups in the world right now that have not been exposed to the Gospel. And, some of these are going to be dangerous and TOUGH. The church worldwide is going to have to develop some true amazing disciples to get the Gospel into these places, and he brings back up the point that it MUST be the concern of all of us to do so. So, I thought immediately, “Is The Bridge Community Church, the church that I have the awesome privilege to lead, making the kind of disciples that will not only pray for this effort, but become actively engaged with resources AND personal investment into this commission?” Well, are we?

It was a great honor and privilege recently being involved on mission in Joplin, MO in the aftermath of the horrible tragedy there. We are called to serve people in need and the need there is great. It is the right thing to do, and I pray that Jesus will be made famous with our efforts. Upon returning though, I had a local church member (won’t say from where) telling me how glad he was that we went and did that because we were taking care of “our own.” I had to just walk away because I was livid -- downright angry. What is “our own?” Missourians? Americans? A quarter of a million people died in the tsunami in Indonesia - maybe near that many in the earthquake in Haiti! They are OUR OWN also! In Biblical terms, were their lives less important? How about Rwanda? Millions slaughtered by evil. The aids epidemic in Africa; the death of the real church in Europe -- the list is endless. Did this person mean that the American church had less mandate to bring the love of Jesus, the good news of the Gospel, to those situations than Joplin because the God-image-bearing people of those regions were less ‘our own.’ Different skin color - different nationality, what? This statement needs to be prayed over as it is not only offensive to God, but borders on downright racism sin. Look at this passage from Acts -- “Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.’” (Acts 10:34-35) I am glad that we are able to help in Joplin because the need is great and its proximity allows for participation by a LOT of folks, and I feel hugely blessed by living in America. However, Missouri and the US are NOT our only mandate.

What has happened since God started blowing us up about this?
1. We have partnered with a church (TVCC of Paris, TN) to help plant a church in northern Haiti. This has also led to strong relationships with two mission/church planting organizations in the Cap Haitien area of Haiti.
2. Bridge members, Michael & Melissa Goldsmith, and their two children - Emilee & Seth - are headed to Haiti for the next month to work on these projects. We are not only sending money; we are sending people.
3. We have developed a relationship in India with CV Vadavana, the author of a book called Mission Fields (http://www.truthintlusa.org/page/page/7456871.htm), to help him support, encourage, and train pastors all over that country of 1 billion people that contains hundreds of the 6,000 people groups that have not heard the Gospel. This has been initiated by a blooming relationship with Parkland Chapel in Farmington. Kelley and I will be making our trip to India with Mike Harrison, the pastor there, and CV will be in the Parkland in July.
4. We have mission teams headed to Costa Rica and Nicaragua this summer.
5. We may have a couple beginning to work toward church planting with Stan Jackson & Ernest Ehabe in Cameroon, Africa.
5. We have planted multiple missional cells (home church missional communities) in St. Francois County this year.
6. We are supporting Journey Community Church in Herculaneum, MO and The Bridge Community Church in Nixa, MO as they plant missional communities in Jefferson County and Christian County.
7. Kelley and I, along with other current Bridge members, will be moving into the Arnold area starting in August (Kel & I will go in November) to start missional communities there with the intention of planting a full Bridge campus that would meet for its first worship celebration on March 18, 2012.
8. When the tornado hit Joplin, we sent teams in immediately and continue to have people go.
These efforts mean that we are involved in taking the Gospel and compassionate works to (Acts 1:8) Jerusalem (SFC, & surrounding counties), Judea & Samaria (Herky, Arnold, Nixa, Joplin), and to the ends of the earth (Haiti, India, Cameroon, other?).

I think we are getting it!
Disciples making disciples WORLDWIDE!

I started this blog (finishing days later) almost feel guilty as I sat 16 stories up in a high rise condo complex at Pensacola Beach, FL preparing to marry my niece. I looked at hundreds of people moving about below me like ants on the beautiful sand beaches that God has provided wondering if any of them are EVER concerned about the 2 billion people on the earth who have never heard the Gospel, let alone their friends and family that they profess to love. It was a good day with God, but I long for spending more time training up His people to GO and DO what He has really called us to do.

Heroes of the Faith

Just wanted to take a second on this rainy Saturday morning as I wait for my last MAC graduation before retirement and THANK OUR HUNDREDS OF VOLUNTEERS who serve the LORD so faithfully at The Bridge. If you go over to the church this morning, the lawn has been mowed and weed-eated and looks great. The bathrooms are clean and carpets vacuumed. The Bridge Kids area is ready for hopefully 120-130 kids tomorrow. The music has been rehearsed. Lots of needy people in our community received financial support, prayer, and love this week. Cell homes were cleaned and folks prepared food to make our missional cells launching pads for the mission of God. Our teens were taught Bible and taught to go on mission by VOLUNTEERS. Tomorrow, hospitality folks will be up early to prepare food and drink for guests, our greeters will meet regulars and guests with a smile and a handshake, around 40-60 volunteers will put off an amazing morning of Bridge Kids (and we need 25 more as the children just keep pouring in), and our tech team will prepare to broadcast the magnificent Gospel of our Lord Jesus live to hundreds of people. Counters will have a very late lunch as they very professionally get God's money counted and deposited in the bank. Our prayer team will also have a late lunch as they pray over EVERY prayer request before they go home for a Mother's Day lunch. Volunteers have been to Jefferson County, the CSC, the county jail, and the Farmington to deliver Conquering Addiction and the hope of the Gospel to trapped people -- all this week. The entire building was constructed by the hands of volunteers. I could go on and on, and I know that I have missed somebody.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you and PRAISE GOD for you!!!

What does a local church look like?

What should we be seeing in a local church that is filling the Great Commission of Christ?? Every individual believer and every local church are commanded to go and "make disciples who make disciples," baptizing them, and teaching them to obey God's commands. How do we really do that?

These are not in any particular order, but these are things that we should be seeing.

1. The local church should be developing foreign missionaries and FULLY funding their time in the mission field. These missionaries don't spend time fund-raising; they spend their time preaching and teaching the Gospel, church planting, and training pastors in the field. Their sabbaticals back home are to rest and study, not fund-raise. This is the one that God has been hammering me with. The Great Commission to the whole world is vastly more for the local church than sending a check to a denomination. Missionaries must be cultivated, trained, supported, and sent.

2. The local church should be developing ordained campus pastors to plant new campuses and churches in the United States. If we are Biblically discipling, a new elders should be raised up. In this pool of elders, some to lead new local churches should arise.

3. The local church should assist developing churches with resources and training to become Gospel-centered and missional. The Bridge is currently doing this with churches in Leadwood, Nixa, St. James, Kansas City, and Herculaneum.

4. The local church should be developing qualified elders to oversee this entire effort. GET THE MEN! GET THE MEN! GET THE MEN! These overseas missionaries, pastors, and missional cell (community) leaders will come out of a system of developing elders from 1 Timothy and Titus. I am believing that this level of training may be the key step in fulfilling the Great Commission.

5. The local church should be developing missional cell leaders (Biblical deacons) who will plant missional cells to redeem local communities for the cause of Christ. The Bridge - Leadington should be planting about 10-20 a year in St. Francois County and surrounding areas.

6. The local church should be baptizing about 10-20 percent of the average attendance a year as new believers. The Bridge nearly reached the 20% in 2010. Strong Gospel-centered teaching in missional cells if not-yet-believers are being invited to homes will help accomplish this. Preaching Jesus and the Gospel into primarily expository preaching will be a primary catalyst for the Holy Spirit to call His people also.

7. Developing women who actively making disciples who make disciples by being obedient to Titus 2:3-5. Our Spirit-filled women also should be filling many ministry roles around the local church and our missional cells.

Lots more to say, but I believe that is a good start to what it looks like to be Gospel-centered and missional in the local church. The keys of course are to developing Jesus Freaks (people who are absolutely blown away by the person of Jesus lifting high His name), and a commitment to doing all things according to Holy Scripture, and a massive commitment to prayer for the freeing of the power of the Holy Spirit of God to accomplish all these things. This is not a matter of human effort, but of submission to a powerful God who can make the impossible seem possible. Then, when submitted, we "GO."

Thought you might like to see the responses that I put together to the directives of Jesus about what this fruit of the Spirit that is presented in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. These responses are just prayers to a Sovereign God for Him to bring us into line with his commands, so that we love instead of hammer as we use our spiritual gifts.

Love is patient. Response: Lord, make me patient with your gifts.
Love is kind. Response: Make me kind to difficult people.
Love does not envy. Response: Make me satisfied in YOU.
Love is not selfish. Response: Lord, make me a giver like YOU.
Love is not angry. Response: Keep me calm so that people will see YOU.
Love does not record wrongs. Response: Lord, help me to forgive like YOU forgave.
Love is not evil. Response: Protect me from the evil one.
Love rejoices with the truth. Response: Lord, fill me with YOUR truthful Spirit.
Love protects. Response: Help me use my gifts to protect, not destroy.
Love trusts. Response: Lord, help me to fight jealousy.
Love hopes. Response: When people see me, let them feel hope.
Love perseveres. Response: Lord, keep me at the table no matter what.

May the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified!