The Benefits of Gospel Relationships

So everybody always wants to know, "what I am going to get out of it?" That's not a bad question. It's not a primary question, especially when it comes to community, because it is quite a selfish question. But there is a reality to it.

In 1 Corinthians 16:5-12, Paul end this section in talking specifically about the benefits we do get to enjoy by God's grace when it comes to gospel relationships.

First, there is the benefit of opportunity. Specifically, ministry opportunity. Participating in someone's life getting transformed by the gospel is simply a great joy. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus. The account of his ministry there is in Acts 19-20. Upon arriving at Ephesus, he 12 guys that immediately responded to the gospel and began to work with him. Through their collective effort (because ministry is always a group project), they saw lots of great opportunity and response to the gospel.

A second benefit is that you never have to face adversity alone. The truth is, whenever there is great opportunity, there is always great diversity. Here are four big adversities that Paul faced, along with his ministry partners:

• Demonic adversity - Acts 19:11-16
• Cultural idols - Acts 19:23-41
• Religious adversity - Acts 20:19
• Personal idols - Acts 20:29-30

Life is hard. Life as a Christian is harder. Life as a Christian leader is even harder still. But going through it with others makes it better.

The last benefit that Paul touches on is enjoying the love and encouragement of others. In the 1 Corinthians 16:10-12, Paul talks about how the church should receive Timothy, Paul's main disciple, ministry partner, and future pastor of the church in Ephesus. While we all need love and encouragement, this is directly specifically to a church leader. Here's what Paul outlines:

• "Put him at ease" - it's hard to be a pastor or leader, you're always 'on' and have expectations
• "Let no one despise him" - pastors & leaders often have to say hard things to people for their good that aren't always received well
• "Help him on his way in peace" - ministry is never done, and it's difficult to find contentment in a pastor's/leader's work

We all need the benefits of gospel relationships, whether we're pastors, leaders, workers, members, or Joe-pew-sitter (actually, Joe needs to get off his butt and start doing something). There is great opportunity out there as we labor for the gospel together, that will also bring with it much adversity, so we all need to be loving and encouraging each other with the grace & mercy of Jesus.

Practicing Gospel Relationships

In taking a close look at 1 Corinthians 16:5-8, we get a picture of how Paul practiced having gospel relationships.

The first thing we see is that Paul was intentional. He knew that having gospel relationships didn't just happen anymore than getting a spouse just happens, picking up a paycheck from a job just happens, or getting a college degree just happens. It all demands effort and intentionality. Paul planned to see the people in Corinth...he made an intentional effort to be with them. And not just to be with them, but to invite them on mission with him... "so that you may help me on my journey" (v. 6). Gospel relationships always include being on mission together for the gospel.

The second thing we see is that Paul created time margin. He had no desire to go through Corinth "in passing" but rather wanted to "spend some time" (v. 7). This really rubs our American culture! We're a drive-by, drive-through, microwave, Starbucks Via kind of culture. We value burning the candle on both ends and in the middle. But that does not allow gospel relationships to foster. You have to aggressively create margin in your life for relationships to flourish.

The third thing we see is that Paul lived in rhythm. He talks a lot about seasons and holidays (Pentecost - v. 8) to order his life. Rhythms are important to us. God gave us the gift of time and the Sabbath to help us order our finite lives around for our benefit. Having daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly rhythms allow people to be healthy physically, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally. Saying you're a "spontaneous" person is just a nice way of saying that you're chaotic, lack self-control, and are ineffective. Developing and living in rhythms don't enslave you at all; rather, they free you!

So in an effort to live out gospel relationships, take some cues from Paul and be intentional, create some margin in your life, and develop some rhythms.

Next up: The Benefits of Gospel Relationships

What are Gospel Relationships?

Have you ever wrestled with the question (as Christians), why are we here? Not individually, but corporately. What is the purpose of this community called the church?

Many times, the answer comes from bible verses like Genesis 2:18 (it's not good for man to be alone), or Psalm 133:1 (good for brothers to dwell in unity), or Proverbs 27:17 (iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another). While all these things are fully true, to simply define the purpose of community as a cure to my loneliness, my need for camaraderie, or my personal growth is just shallow and selfish (notice all the "my's"). Don't you think God wants something deeper and bigger for his church?

Of course he does. One passage we can look to is 1 Peter 2:9. We see that God has indeed made for himself a people, and that his people are to proclaim the excellencies of God. So what we see right away is that community is first and foremost God's (not ours) and that the purpose of community is to share the gospel. I think this is the point to where the best descriptor of community is "gospel relationships." Looking at community through a gospel lens points us vertically toward God and horizontally out to people, not for the purpose of getting our needs met, but giving the gospel to those who need it.

But what about the real needs that you and I have? This is where it gets beautiful. When we fully live for God's glory and live on mission for the gospel, along the way our needs get met. Our loneliness is cured as we are on mission with other. Our camaraderie is met as we have a deep common goal. Our personal growth happens as others sharpen and encourage us along the journey. It truly is the best of both worlds!

Community - gospel relationships - are interconnected to mission. You can't fully have community without mission, and you can't fully have mission without community. This is what we see littered all throughout scripture, in particular the new testament. People on mission together in community enjoying God Himself and the benefits of each other.

Next up: Practicing Gospel Relationships

Haiti Earthquake Relief

Here's an email I just sent out to the members of Delta Church regarding relief for Haiti:

Dear Delta,

As you all certainly know, a terrible 7.0 earthquake occurred in Haiti on Tuesday afternoon. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and upwards of 1 million people are homeless. 80% of Haiti's population lives below the poverty line, which makes them the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. By their own admission, they are no where near equipped to handle a disaster like this and are in need of tangible help. Please pray fervently for the people of Haiti and the relief workers. But beyond that, financial gifts are necessary to fund the relief efforts - everything from food, search & rescue, etc. Here are 5 tremendous organizations that you can send a financial gift to (even a small micro-gift of $10 will go a long way):

Baptist Global Response

http://www.baptistglobalresponse.com/new/giving.php

The Red Cross

http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.94aae335470e233f6cf911df43181aa0/?vgnextoid=15c0c5a210826210VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD

World Vision

http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10324

Samaritan's Purse

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Relief_and_Development/Emergency_Relief/

Compassion International

https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/disasterrelief.htm?referer=105910

Additionally, let me emphasize this as well: this is in no way any type of "judgment" from God punishing people. There are misinformed, arrogant, judgmental, non-gospel centered religious people who are saying and believing such things. Do not believe them. Romans 8:22 says "For we we know that the whole creation has been groaning..." The context is the suffering that this life brings because of the terrible effects of sin. The fall (Genesis 3) not only brought death to people, but to all of creation as well. An event like this earthquake is a stark reminder of the brokenness of the world and great need we have for the hope of the gospel to renew not just us, but all of creation. So let us be a people of prayer, a people on mission for the gospel, and a people who do what we can to renew this creation and bring comfort to those who are hurting for the glory of Jesus.

Pastor Ryan, on behalf of the Delta Elders

"Be Generous" Wordle

"Wordle" is a fun website that makes word pictures. It recognizes the most common words in a document and creates a design with the words. The words most repeated get the larger font size. I like to do this every now and then with my sermon transcripts just to make sure that Jesus gets top billing in my sermon. This is this past week's Wordle from my "Be Generous" sermon from 1 Corinthians 16:1-4.

Greed, Generosity, & the Gospel

I know very few people who aren't greedy. Greed is a such a widespread epidemic it's hard to see sometimes. Also, because only the grossly greedy get the attention, it's easy to think of yourself as not greedy; or least, not as greedy as "that guy." But when it comes to money, possessions, and lifestyle, do you find yourself seeking to acquire more, being stingy with what you do have, being overly anxious, being fixated on the bottom line, or living as a workaholic to achieve or maintain a perceived "successful" lifestyle? If so, greed has got you.

The problem with greed boils down to trust. There is a misplaced trust in money, stuff, and a way of living that is supposed to provide a sense of comfort and security. And even deeper still, it's a very selfish problem as the only comfort and security you're worried about is your own, not really anybody else's. A life marked by greed will end up being destroyed. A constant personal dissatisfaction and discontentment will make you miserable, and if anything bad happens to your bank account, your whole sense of self is lost. Relationally you'll end up alone. People at best will use you (if your greed has equated in some type of prosperity) and at worst people will hate you and avoid you (because you only care about yourself and no one else).

How can you get rid of greed? You have to root it out and replace it. You must replace it with generosity. A generous person genuinely seeks the welfare of others first, gives as much as they can, and most importantly, has their trust rightly placed. This rightly placed trust is actually the way you root out greed, and the way you do that is by believing the gospel of Jesus.

Jesus, who is God, was ultimately generous. He left his throne in heaven, totally humbled himself out of love, and gave up everything so we could have everything. Tim Keller writes that "if he stayed rich, we would die poor; but if he died poor, we could become rich." Paul writes of Jesus' generosity and ties it directly to financial giving (being generous) in 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 and 2 Corinthians 9:12-15. As we live worshipful, generous lives, that must express itself in how we use the money that God has blessed us with (since all the money in the world is his anyway - Haggai 2:8).

So they key to getting over your greed is not just to try harder to be more giving, but instead to place your trust in Jesus, who gave up everything and gives everything to those who love him back.

Transforming in 2010

It's been officially 2 months since I've posted anything here. *sigh*

I've been pondering how 2010 needs to be a year of transformation in many ways in my life, my family, and my church. The biggest points of transformation needed I feel are the following: our view of self, our view of others, and our view of situations & circumstances. Let me expound just a bit:

• View of Self. One of the biggest lies of our pop-psychology happy culture is the need for greater "self-esteem" or "self-worth." This is totally unbiblical and destructive. Left to myself, I'm sinful - totally and completely sinful. Why would I want that greater in my life? As a Christian, what I need is greater "Christ-esteem." Colossians 3:3-4 clearly state that as a Christian, my life is hidden in Jesus and that He is my life. I need "me" to continue to die and for Jesus to live more and more. Only by embracing this truth will my thoughts, actions, words, and attitudes by changed.

• View of Others. One thing I need to get clear as well (in light of the first point) is to view others properly, especially other Christians. Their lives are Christ as well, and so according to 2 Corinthians 5:16, I must not regard them according to their flesh. This allows me to be free to love, forgive, and pray for other Christians fully confident that the Holy Spirit within them will convict and lead them to truth, and I get to enjoy encouraging them. Now, conversely this also means to view non-Christians as non-Christians and not expect Christian attitudes, affections, or actions from them. I get to freely love them as well and extend to them the grace & mercy they need to experience.

• View of Circumstances. Colossians 3:2 says to set our minds on things above. I cannot allow my present situation, circumstances, or earthly heartaches to determine how I react. Tim Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book "How People Change" write, 'There is always something bigger than the heartache of the moment." They are talking about the eternal promises of God embodied and given to us in the gospel. This trumps everything and transforms my response to every circumstance in my life.

Now, to be able to be transformed, it takes a submission to the Holy Spirit and submission & transparency to the church community so they can confront & encourage as needed. I pray that 2010 finds much transformation in my life and yours.

May grace be with you.