Heart To Heart Mentoring

As I studied and prepared over the past week to teach on mentoring yesterday I was struck by how often mentoring/teaching/instructing another is a theme in the Bible. I believe the mandate for older men and women to teach the younger men and women that we find in Titus 2 is at the core of the Great Commission. Matt.28:20 tells us to "teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you". After a person comes to the acceptance of Christ's sacrifice for their sins- the first step of the Great Commission- they must next be taught how to live out their salvation. This is the second part of the Great Commission.

This strikes my heart as a mom. I have a responsibility to mentor-to teach or counsel another wisely and in a trustworthy manner-my 2 daughters. By God's grace and through their faith they have come to know Jesus as their Saviour from all their sins. Now I must mentor them in living out their salvation daily in our home as well as in our community. What an awesome responsibility!

Corporately, in our church, Titus 2:3-5 is carried out through our Heart To Heart ministry. Older women paired with younger women for the purpose of mentoring us in godly living. Elizabeth Elliot points out that this involves "taking time from one's own schedule to place ourselves in anothers' schedule and walk her the way of the cross Monday through Saturday". I love that! Mentoring is to occur in the mundane, day in and day out of our living. That means I need to rubbing shoulders with another where they live in order to pattern for them and instruct them in godly patterns of living.

How are we doing with that at Cornerstone, Ladies? Whose schedule have you inserted yourself into so that you can pattern godly living for her? Who is inserting themselves into your schedule so you can observe godly living of another?

My prayer is that we will each be a godly mentor to another and have teachable spirits towards those mentoring us!

Watch Your Mouth! - Sermon Wrap up from 8/31/08 AM

Words are powerful and our tongues are hard to control. In weak moments we may speak words that can do great damage. James spends quite a bit of time focusing on the tongue in his epistle and it's been our privilege to spend the past fews weeks on this important topic.

Sunday we talked about the tongue's "Power to Direct." Just as a horse is directed by a very small bit, and a ship is guided by a small rutter, so our tongues can direct people. This is why I believe James gives the special warning to teachers. What we say as teachers can change the course of someone's life.

As a pastor/teacher I am challenged by Paul's words to Timothy;
2 Tim 4:1-21 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.(NKJ)

The Word of God MUST be the basis of teaching in the local church! We must direct people into a closer relationship with God through obedience to His Word. What a wonderful challenge!

But it's not only pastors who are called to teach. We are ALL to "stir each other up to love and good works" (Heb. 10:24-25). The Bible calls all believers to teach and admonish one another (Col. 3:16). The picture that is painted of the church in the New Testament is a very intimate one. We are to carefully consider each other seeking to teach, and admonish one another!

This is why we have a small group ministry here at Conerstone. We feel it's important to provide an opportunity to get closely involved in each others lives! We want to help each other to go further than knowing the Word...we want to help each other DO the Word.
So let's ask some hard questions as we seek to apply the Word of God this week.

Grow Group Questions:

1. Who are you closest to in our church? What "kinds" of people are most drawn to?
2. When was the last time you taught someone in our church?
3. When was the last time you admonished (challenged) someone in our church?
4. What does our culture teach about these kinds of intense relationships?
5. What does the Bible teach about them (Eph. 4; Col. 3; Rom. 12, etc)?
6. What areas do you struggle in the most?
7. How can your Grow Group help you in these areas?

Moody's Heart

I have a love / hate relationship with vacations. Being a pastor is not my job...it's who I am. Turning that "off" for a week is extremely difficult. I LOVE my church and really don't care about being anywhere else on a Sunday. I'll sit at _____________ Baptist Church on Sunday and think, "I wonder how things are going at Cornerstone. I hope the fill-in preacher is challenging them and loving them. I hope the worship service is going well..." and so on. It's torture!

That is until I look over at my family and realize how precious it is sit in church together. You see we never get to do that. I'm always up front and never in a pew (or chair). While other families get to sit together in church every Sunday, we get to do that only twice a year.

Vacation is a week that I can totally focus on them. I can put ministry aside for a few days and give them my full attention. THAT is where the LOVE of vacation comes in. Spending time with them is wonderful and precious...well worth the difficulties of "turning off" ministry.

For this vacation, Courtney had a wonderful idea. We are having "special days" with each of the kids. We'll get a sitter for two, and take one for a day of doing whatever they choose. So far, it's been a BLAST.

Yesterday Courtney and I took Landen to the Lego Store in Chicago. The kid would rather build legos than do just about anything esle. That includes, sometimes, sleep. It's not rare to wake Landen up in the morning and discover a pile of legos in his bed....a late night project, I suppose. We knew the trip was going to be a blast for him....very special.

We boarded the South Shore Line in South Bend and took the train into the Windy City (by the way, Landen loves trains too). Though we nearly missed the ride over, the parking lot dash to get "on board" was the most frustration we experienced all day. The rest our time in Chicago could not have been more smooth!

But I was caught off guard by all the people. There are a lot of people in Chicago and there are a lot of different kinds of people; business men, college kids, families, homeless people, store clerks, tour vendors....the lady with all the dogs....the guy on the side walk sweeper that nearly ran us over.... People...lots and lots of people. And though they were all different, two things grabbed my heart about how they are all similar. First, they all had something they were concerned about. From securing that business deal, to finding enough food to eat. From building the next great hotel in America (we saw the new Trump tower) to finding a place to sleep that night. They ALL had something they were concerned about. And as I watched them, God brought to my mind the other thing they all have in common. All their concerns...every one of them, don't' really matter. In the end the ONLY thing that DOES matter is what they believe about Jesus Christ. Did they know Him? Did they accept His payment for their sins? All other concerns will pale when they are before Him. And even Trump will one day stand before the King of Kings and his money and achievements will mean NOTHING.

It must have been the very thing that Moody thought when he looked at the faces in Chicago. That very burden must have motivated him to have the zeal for evangelism that he did. I was challenged, heart-broken, and for a moment I felt helpless. How in the world can we help so many people? They will ALL stand before Him...every single one of them.

Not knowing what else to do, I prayed. "God help Cornerstone to have some impact. Help us to share Your gospel with those around us. Lord just help bring some into a realtionship with You." As I pondered this, it put me in a melancholy mood. It was daunting and frustrating and depressing.

Then I looked at my little boy with a smile he couldn't just wipe off his face. And I looked at his mother who, though tired and a little nervous, was setting it all aside to give her boy a special day. I had to remember that today was not about street evangelism. Today was about my family. I didn't want to lose the zeal, but I today had to be abou them. So I prayed again, "Lord, let me not lose this burden. Help me to keep it and share it with my church. Let it drive us to reach Elkhart for Christ. But Lord help me love Landen and Courtney today with just as much zeal."

We enjoyed a great day and I hope it's one I'll never forget...both as an evangelist and pastor...and as a father.

"Walk It, Don't Talk It" - Wrap-up from 8/3/08

"Are you on your way to heaven?"
"Yeah."
"Why do you believe that?"
"Well...I'm saved."
"OK...what does that mean?"
"Well...it means I got saved."
"Right. But what do you mean by 'saved'?"
"Ummm...I'm not sure."

I've had that conversation (or one like it) too many times. People know the terminology and they will say what they think you want them to hear. But in reality, they really don't know the answer for sure. And if you looked at the way they live, there is no evidence that they are really and truly different.

James 2 takes the conversation above a step further. The people in James' example had the right answer. "I'm saved through faith." But when it came down to living it, they fell short. The kind of faith they were clinging to was a professed faith....words only. James says that kind of faith is dead. REAL faith will have some from fruit. Saving faith will show itself in works.

I hope it was clear from the sermon that James and Paul are more in agreement than many give them credit for. Paul was clear in Eph. 2:8-9 that faith alone saves but he was also clear in verse 10 that "we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works." True saving faith will be accompained by a changed life. That was exactly what James was saying. Many translators skip an important articile in James 2:14 that is crucial to a proper understanding of the text. I appreciate how ESV translates the verse...."can THAT faith save him?" (emphasis mine) meaning that KIND of faith. A faith that is words only.

So what kind of faith do you have? Is there a difference in your life from those around you? Is the pattern of your life identical (or close) to the pattern of the world? If there is NOT a marked difference, then I would encouarge to you examine your faith! Do you REALLY believe this stuff? Or, are you playing a game?

One point I'm not sure that came across clearly was that I DO believe a person can be saved and still struggle with sin. The book of Corinthians is written to Christians who were struggling BIG TIME with sin. There are Christians that come to church every Sunday and "play church" then try to live like the world the rest of week. They are miserable people....never truly getting on fire for Christ (which brings great joy) but never fully living for themselves either...and when they do they are convicted by the Spirit. That's why we went to 1 Kings 18. Elijah is confronting Israel who had been "kinda" worshipping God and "kinda" worshipping Baal as well. Listen to this verse...
1 Kings 18:21
21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. (ESV)

Here's was my challenge. Get off the fence. As James MacDonald said in a recent message:
"If you are NOT going to serve God then go home, burn your Bible and live for yourself. But you say 'Oh I would never do that.' Fine. Then get SOLD OUT for Jesus Christ."

Here are some application questions:
1. Are you on your way to heaven?
2. Why do you believe that?
3. What changes have you seen in your life recently?
4. What sins are you still holding onto?
5. How can we as a church / grow group help you make those changes?
6. Do you really WANT to change? Why or why not?
7. What's keeping you from being sold out to Christ?

Labels; Good for Soup...Good for Christians?

Funamentalist...Evangelical...Emergent...Emerging...Conservative...

Christian churches and speakers like labeling one another. We discover a few things about what a church believes or, more often, how a church operates and we label them. And the labels we use are many. But are these labels really effective? Do they do what they are intended to do?

I like labels on soup. It's good to know when I grab the can off the shelf if I'm getting Chicken Noodle or Cream of Celery. Before cracking it open, the label clearly identifies what I going to get. Barring some freak accident at Campbell's, I'll never open a can of Tomato and somehow get Cheese and Broccoli. Soup labels clearly identify the product.

Not so with our modern church labels.

Just try to get a clear definition of the term "Fundamental." I'm a part of a fundamentalist forum where we are endless debating the definition of fundamentalism! No one seems to know exactly what it takes to be a "fundamentalist" or what it takes to cease to be a “fundamentalist”. The same would be true of the term "Evangelical" or...well just pick your label! And the labels have different meanings to different people. They even change depending upon your geographical location. What may be "progressive" in the Bible belt would be considered "conservative" on the west coast.

For example, there are many who are trying to fully understand and clarify the emerging or emergent church. Dr. Doug Brown identifies the problem of defining the movement in his article entitled "The Emerging Church: The New Worldly Church"; "Leaders and proponents within the emerging church seem to relish the fact that the emerging church eludes defining. Much of their literature is intentionally slippery and vague, often raising more questions than answers." The point? "Emerging" cannot be clearly defined therefore it does little to clearly identify a ministry.

I understand that sometimes labels are helpful, so I'm not advocating completely abandoning them. However, I think they can make a person lazy. Since “so-and-so” says that a certain church is “emerging” then we throw them in the bad box without doing any research ourselves. Or we read an article where Dr. “what’s-his-name” declares that radio preacher leans “more evangelical than fundamental” and we think, “Well, maybe I shouldn’t listen to him.”

In my opinion, we are called be God to be more diligent that that (2 Tim. 2:15). We should thoroughly study God’s Word, listen carefully to a person, read a ministry’s doctrinal standing, and then compare them to God’s Word! For sure there are some things the Bible would say we are to separate from. But to please God in this area it takes study, time, and hard work. But diligent study is what God has called us to do! Not lazy labeling!

I guess what I’m saying is that we need to practice the biblical teaching of separation with more effort than we give making soup.

Worship Series Wrap-up!

It was a somewhat difficult decision for me to cover the topic of music and worship here at Cornerstone. It was something I had been thinking about and praying about for months prior to actually doing it. Why did I feel it was so important?

First of all, I sensed there was a great deal of diversity on the topic. As our church has grown, so has the diversity. Diversity is not a bad thing…but it is a dangerous and volatile thing. Diversity CAN breed dissention and division. So what can bring diverse followers of Christ together? One thing…uniting and rallying around the TRUTH of GOD’S WORD! So one of the main reasons I felt the series was necessary was to get God’s heart and say, “Ok…let’s be all about THAT! Let’s see what GOD thinks in important about music and worship and let’s make THAT important to US!”

So as we wrap up this mini-series up this week, here are some truths that I want us as a church to be united around.

1. John 4:23-24 – God wants worship to be passionate and laden with truth.

John 4:23-24
23 "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
(NKJ)

God is SEEKING worshippers! He wants people who can be passionate about His truth and He wants people to worship from the very depth of their hearts! THIS IS IMPORTANT and IT INVOLVES MY ENTIRE BEING! And the truth of God should generate an EMOTIONAL and PASSIONATE response!!

Now…how various people express that passion may be different than how YOU express that passion and that’s OK. Some of you don’t get into raising your hands…fine. You don’t have to. In heart-felt moments, some of you express your passion by raising you hands…and since it is a biblical expression of worship…it’s all over the bible…I say worship! Diversity With unity!!

2. John 4:24 -Worship is the ACT of attributing WORTH to God.
From that same passage, when we look at the definition of the word for “worship” we see that it is an ACTION! It is much more than coming here and sitting and being entertained. It is a GIVING to God because you believe He is WORTHY of your “sacrifice of praise.”

3. Heb. 1:6 – Jesus Christ should be the object of our worship.

Heb 1:6
6 But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him."
(NKJ)

This is literally found all over the OT…Christ is seen ALL OVER the elements used in corporate worship. He should be the object of our worship today.

Not worshipping worship... not worshipping US. But our worship here should lift up JESUS CHRIST and Him alone!

4. Ps. 150 – God wants to worshipped in everywhere for what He has done with a variety of instruments.

There is a tremendous amount of freedom for what we bring to worship God and there is freedom with the instrumentation used in worship.We should embrace that freedom!

5. Rom. 14; 1 Cor. 8-10 – We should exercise our freedom with caution and in such a way that the gospel is not hindered.

We had a lengthly and involved message about freedoms last week. And I hope you clearly got the picture. You have a wonderful freedom, but your freedom is not an excuse to serve YOURSELF! It is always about GOD and OTHERS…both saved and unsaved. Practice your freedom in such a way that GOD is honored and other’s are loved.

6. Rom. 15:1-6; Eph. 4:1-6 – We should work hard to walk in unity.
I started with this and I ended our time last week with this. DIVERSITY AND UNITY! We are different…but more important that us getting our way worship being what I want…we need to consider our brother FIRST and UNITY should be our ultimate goal.

Rom. 15:5-6
5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,
6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(NKJ)

I've enjoyed the series and I'm glad we went through these truths. My prayer is that this will UNITE our church so we can move forward with effectiveness!

"How's your love life?" By Steve F.

Is it possible that you have been born again; but, that you do not love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Are there times in your life when you have been warm toward Him; but now find yourself to be cool?
Do you wish that you and He were closer?

I can remember a time in my Christian life when I wondered if I really loved Jesus Christ. I was hanging out with some radical Christians (those people whose fearless actions match their profession). Their commitment to Christ made me question my own.

Love begins with prayer. I began to fast and pray. I told Jesus that I did not love him near enough. (He already knew that.) I begged Him to teach me to love Him more. Here are some conclusions that can help you.
Love grows with reflection. (We love Him because He first loved us. 1John 4:19) To fully appreciate Jesus we need to see Him in the light of Scripture. This involves searching to see who He is. I suggest starting with Isaiah chapters 52-58, continuing with Luke, and finishing with 1John. If you are earnest, you can read all of this in one week. You will also need to set aside time to “see yourself exactly as you are”. Prayer helps here, too.
Love deepens with conversation. Your life with Christ, just like a marriage, will not go any farther unless you spend time together. Get in the habit of turning off noise-making devices so that you can have a real conversation with Jesus. You will be surprised at how many thoughts and actions you can take captive for Christ. God created you so that you could have fellowship with Him.
Love leads to obedience. (If you love me you will keep my commandments. 1John 14:15). Obedience is the natural outpouring of a love for Christ. That kind of love asks, “Would this please Christ” before acting. Some mistakenly try to keep His commandments to earn His love. A love that is “earned” is the antithesis of His grace.

Your love will be tested. Expect Jesus to test your new level of love so that you can see it and so it is fixed in place. (John 21:15-19)

Love will carry you along in your journey to heaven way beyond where obedience will let you fall.

How about you? Are you hungry to love Christ more?