Church Unity

First post in 11 months, what can I say? Nothing, you're right, just get on with it...

Great opportunity to gather with those who fellowship with the other churches across Watford yesterday. It was the annual 'Bandstand' Service here in our town. I deeply appreciate the efforts of Rev Tim Roberts and his Christians Across Watford team as, and this is sadly true, it is easier not to do this than to do it. I will be the first to admit that Ecumenism at one level equals impotence, but at another level it is as reflective of heaven as anything we will do as believers.
There were a good number of us there yesterday (Christians and more particularly X1ers) proclaiming with an obvious visibility that there are a number of people in this town that love the Lord Jesus. That alone is significant spiritually I feel. So it was good to be a part of that celebration.

There is so much that X1 still needs to do, still needs to become, and to set 'it all' aside for one Sunday could be seen as a distraction to our mission some may feel; but the mission of X1 - to Serve Watford, Transform Lives, Shape Culture - must be attained within the context of the Kingdom of God and what our great Saviour is doing through all the churches in this town.
My prayer is that our attendance, input, and active embracing of this event and all that God is doing through the churches in Watford will grow, not lessen, as the years pass.

Blessings all.
Simon

Be Overflowing with Praise

Umm mmm mmm, did we have a wonderful time as the gathered people of God at X1 yesterday morning or what? Certainly feeling God is shifting things in our very culture with respect to our sung out worship of the King together. As the Lead Elder I can only pray for more and more of the same.

As part of that desire for a shift to be pronounced and affecting in our minds, hearts, and actions I shared a message that had been on my heart as a pastor for over a year. I entitled it, "Be Overflowing with Praise." The simple thesis of the whole message being: Christians are empowered and filled with the Spirit of God in such a way as to overflow with expressive, exuberant praise for their God at all times - even in the dark, dark hours of the soul. (Not with fake outward adherence, or as a religious must, but from deep within a soul aware of all who God is and all HE's done.) Anyway enough of my thoughts, I wanted to re-share the thoughts of Charles Spurgeon on Psalm 103, the text I used for yesterday's sermon.

Here it is:

"As in the lofty Alps some peaks rise above all others so among even the inspired Psalms there are heights of song which overtop the rest. This one hundred and third Psalm has ever seemed to us to be the Monte Rosa of the divine chain of mountains of praise, glowing with a ruddier light than any of the rest. It is as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, and its golden fruit has a flavour such as no fruit ever bears unless it has been ripened in the full sunshine of mercy. It is man's reply to the benedictions of his God, his Song on the Mount answering to his Redeemer's Sermon on the Mount. [here] David awakens all the melodies of heaven and earth in honour of the one only living and true God."

Beautiful isn't it?
Bless you Lord for giving us the words and ministry of such a golden throated orator thoroughly consumed with love for you.

Simon

Inter-church unity

One brief glimpse at Christ's prayer for the 'future believers' in John 17 gives glorious credence to His great desire for unity among His people. Interspersed in almost all the epistles in the NT we see similar hopes, even pleas for unity.
Christ's promise over unity in His prayer of John 17 is majestic and one that I, as a local church leader, am jealous to receive. It's not easy though. Those on the fringes of church leadership, or with a naive view of all things pertaining to the complexity of leadership often can lay offense at 'church'for the disunity that appears to mark us. I will be the first to agree that it is in no way what it should be. Both within the family of a local church and again within the broader fellowship within a village, town or city.

At X1 we are going to make efforts to achieve some form of unity that would hopefully bring honor to our Lord, bring glory to Him, and also receive the rewards of that John 17 promise. I feel that it must be relational, and thus it is with great joy that I can reflect on a wonderful meal with the family called to lead another brilliant local church within Watford. There is so much that binds us and there is the growing foundation of a meaningful relationship that makes me hope and believe for some fruitful partnership in the future.

Bless this church Lord and draw us together to display something of what you prayed for those two millenia ago, and for which you still pray today.

Solo gloria

Simon

Grace - what a ring in that word.

As I tweeted earlier in the week I've got the great privilege as a teaching pastor here at X1 Watford to spend time studying the thoughts, arguments, and stunning expositions on God's word as I prepare to share with our people here. I mentioned that we are to enter into a series on 'Grace' as of Sept 19th and so I'm doing a lot of reading on that subject.
I hope to deposit several jewels from that reading over the next few weeks to enable others to enter into reading they may not have the time or motivation to do themselves. I'll start with something from Charles Spurgeon (not a bad place to start many would say) which is clear and concise on the beauty of God's grace:

"What a ring there is in that word grace. Why it does one good to speak it and to hear it; it is, indeed, a charming sound, harmonious to the ear. When one feels the power of it, it is enough to make the soul leap out of the body for joy.

Grace how good, how cheap, how free,
Grace, how easy to be found!
Only let your misery
In the Saviour's blood be drowned!

Grace, how it suits a sinner! How it cheers a poor forlorn wanderer from God!"

Sweet, and simple.

Simon

The 'if' of Covenant

Yesterday I preached my penultimate sermon in our Joshua series: Living Life Without the Fear. (See videos here) My focus was on Joshua's final words to the Israelite leadership in Joshua 23.

After stressing the importance of an individuals final words using the illustration of the scene of the frog king in Shrek 3 where he draws Shrek close to him to tell him essential words. I called the people of X1 to heed the emphasis of verse 11 in this chapter:

"So be very careful to love the LORD your God."

The words here talk of a 'cleaving' to God. The verse speaks of a steadfast, diligent and applied watching of our relationship with God in order not to fail in our fulfillment of our part in our covenant relationship with the Lord. I spoke of the many warnings and exhortations in the NT not to turn away, or fall away from God, or to entertain temptation by not resisting the devil written not to unbelievers but to believers.

Joshua speaks here of God being astonishingly faithful to His part of His covenant with the Israelites but also of the dire consequences that come from not ' being very careful to love God.' Tragically, and I feel the words I'll quote now are some of the saddest in all of scripture, the Israelites do not listen and intermingle with the destructive spirituality/immorality of the nations surrounding them with this result

"The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel...After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel." - Judges 2: 7, 10

This is so possible for us as the people of God in a generation virtually devoid of a God-consciousness saturated in consumerism and materialism and pluralism (all faiths are the same). He can have, and does have, such stunning promises and grace towards us to live life truly abundantly in the power of the Spirit, but we can forget to 'be very careful to love the Lord our God' and not enjoy any benefits of relationship with Him.
We will not lose the justification that comes from our being renewed by Him in new birth but we certainly can live out a life of mundane, legalistic, apathetic, guilt-ridden obedience earthed in human striving instead of Spirit-empowered joy filled loving obedience and we must be careful to heed the words of Joshua and the other biblical authors to ensure that does not happen.

Seek strength in His Spirit, as Jesus said, "If you love me you will obey what I command."

Simon

Personal Reflection on TOAM 2010

Just back from a brilliant 4 days in Brighton at the Newfrontiers TOAM Conference. This is a yearly gathering of the leaders of Newfrontiers churches from all over the globe (38 nations represented this year). It is always a great time and so strengthening while often restoring a vision for God's heart for the nations - this year was no different. It was extra special this year to know that 19 people from X1 (only 5 of us last year) would be part of the week and taste the heart and ethos of Newfrontiers as a movement of churches.

In the very first session on Tuesday we were launched immediately into God's global mandate, His passion for the nations, and His calling upon us to plant healthy word & spirit churches for the sake of the redemption of mankind. Scott Marques now based in Nampula, Mozambique (literally in a mud/metal hut in the bushes) who is living this mandate out encouraged us to be radical, adventurous and wild in capturing God's heart for people. Other individuals echoed this throughout the 4 days, with Dave Stroud (Christ Church, Central London) fixating our attention particularly on God's 'demand' upon us to remember the poor in all we do. (Strongly echoing the themes in a book by Tim Keller, Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road)

For me personally, the afternoon sessions with Terry Virgo were so enriching and uplifting in their effect that I am so pleased to have been able to hear them.

Terry expounded Ephesians 6: 10 - 20 with biblical accuracy, clarity, and much pastoral wisdom. On day 1 he highlighted that we are to be 'strong', that we are to see that we are soldiers in conflict as we follow Christ. In fact the whole book of Ephesians must be read with this mindset. But this strength is not stoic, or self-induced, it is 'being strengthened in the mighty strength of the Lord.' This means drawing on the promises and power of God regularly.
On the second day, Terry detailed the elements of the armour of God with real brilliance and then brought the exposition to a crescendo in highlighting the 'salvation' that is intimated by Paul as he writes 'helmet of salvation.' This is so much more than a one off personal-historical event but the transformation, restoration, reconciliation and renewal of all of creation. The day when 'darkness disappears and all of creation is brought into the light.'
The final day was truly apostolic in its application as he centred on Paul's exhortation to pray 1) with various prayers on different occasions, 2) empowered by the Spirit, & 3) with focus on the apostolic gospel mission to the nations.
Here Terry's heart for prayer was truly evident and the charge to be likewise in our leadership - to lead with prayer and in prayer - was certainly taken on board by this elder.

The Thursday night offering was as stunning and mind-blowing in it's fervor and passion as ever and affected each of the X1ers who were part of it.
Yip, we had a wonderful time and my hope is that we will bring back much that we learnt and absorbed and affect our church with it. O and of course I hope that next year we will have even more than 19!

Check out the videos as they get uploaded here.

Simon

'Christian' - noun or adjective

I have been asked to have a close look at Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis as part of a discussion I'll be involved in over this week. It is a book I read several years ago and which I found brilliant, challenging, and refreshing, yet also unhelpful, dangerous, and volatile. (Read it with grace and maturity)

This blog post is not to divulge my reasons for such responses to the book but to just highlight a tiny section that is relevant to several discussions taking place within the life of X1 at this time. Again and again I interact with conversations exposing a secular/holy divide in people's thinking (even my own). This divide is one (created by us not God I feel) that marks so many believers today and can almost cause them to have a view of created reality that is unbiblical and certainly cramping of all the truth and goodness that is God's that does not wear the 'Christian' label.

Here is where Rob Bell's thoughts are insightful

“It is a dangerous thing to label things 'Christian.' The word Christian appears in the bible as a noun. The first followers of Jesus were called Christians because they had devoted themselves to living the way of the Messiah, who they believed was Jesus.

Noun. A person. A person who follows Jesus. A person living in tune with ultimate reality, God. A way of life centered around a person who lives.

The problem with turning the noun into an adjective and then tacking it on to words is that it can create categories that limit the truth...

Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective."

We as Christians must make things lovely - not Christian. Do them with passion and devotion that honours the Lord and exposes His glory to a watching world. Teach like that, design like that, dance like that, write songs like that, mother and father like that, account like that, pack boxes in a factory like that, run like that, play football like that and so on. That doesn't make them Christian necessarily but it should make them so beautiful, so reflective of the way those things were ultimately intended and created to be done that they are 'holy' bathed in God and His purpose for those things.

I hope I've somewhat got my point across with Mr. Bell's help.

Simon

Wanting to just 'play.'

The people of X1 gathered last night for our regular Unite prayer meeting and it was a truly precious time for all of us. There is a dynamic when we get together and earnestly and humbly seek God's heart together like this in prayer that is different to every other setting. I encourage so many of you out there who see the prayer meeting as the 'cop out' moment of church life to really seek your hearts and allow God to convict you of any wrong attitude towards this part of a church's true spiritual identity.

Anyway, on to what I wanted to share briefly. Praying with charismatic people who still believe that God is real, alive and longing to personally communicate with His people is so exciting. So often the Spirit of God leads individuals to share what they feel is on God's heart for us as a family and then we are blessed, strengthened and encouraged as we follow that 'theme' in our prayers together.
Last night one of the wonderful themes was that of God expressing His desire for us to just 'play' with Him. To enjoy Him I guess. To be in on His team, not to feel like we'll be the last one chosen, waiting at the very end of the line (like the 'bad old days' at school if you were anything like me) but to be chosen first, and to just truly enjoy freedom, peace, exhilaration, fun, activity and joy with Him.

We felt that so many of us miss out on this vital element of our faith in Christ whether it be through sin, pre-occupation with self, distraction, apathy, just add to the list, but so many of us are not 'playing' with Jesus, our whole journey with Him is laborious and official. I am certain that is not God's heart for us - certainly the gospels portray a very different Jesus to that - and I ask our God and King to set many of us free (at X1 and wherever else) to know this lifestyle as we follow Christ.

Simon

Corporate Praise

As a family we've been away from Christ First for a couple of weeks, missing two Sundays in the process. In that time we've been either traveling or a significant distance away from an evangelical church so have not had the opportunity to worship with the people of God. This Sunday was a return for us to our family within the body of Christ and it was truly sweet to worship within them once again.

We live at a time where there is a significant number of believers who are not at all 'bothered' about gathered worship (admittedly there are, of course, those who think that is all 'church' is). In fact even within X1 a typical attendance pattern for many would be 3 Sundays in every 5, and as the summer is upon us I see that figure shifting more to 2 in 5.

So many of us are so 'infected' with the rampant, prevailing individualism that makes capitalistic, consumerist culture exactly what it is that we can not detect in ourselves how our 'selfish' pursuit of Christ ("it's my faith", "it's about me and Jesus" mentality) is in exact opposition to God's intended pattern for us as members of God's body. Keeping that idea in mind, the idea of the body, to state, "Ah just kinda want it to be about me and Jesus this Sunday, I'll sneak in a little quiet time and then be still with Him," is like the toe saying to the knee, "Ah just going to take a break from the body today, you guys get on without me would you..."

There should be a hunger within us to be with the people of God, to gather to praise and worship the risen King. In that there is this astounding dynamic that as we lift up Yahweh, focus on Him, set our gaze upon Him, our affections are united, our emotions engaged and elevated, and, I hope in almost every case anyway, our faith reinvigorated and stoked for further mission fulfillment!

I think this is what we felt yesterday anyway, and it was good, very good, to be back with our 'family' knitting hearts and being blessed by the presence of the living God in our midst.

Simon

On NOT speaking on 'Tithing.'

This week at X1 I had the joy/challenge of speaking, or NOT, speaking on tithing to our people. The reason it is a challenge is twofold really, I feel.
Firstly, you are entering into a great emotionally charged/ 'do not invade' space of the western believer's psyche. This is one of those 'do not go there' areas of our walk. The personal area where it is hard to determine how a church leadership displays any God-given authority.
Secondly, as I mentioned to the people of X1 on Sunday, it is a definite Spiritual Warfare battleground because we are confronting a very significant idol in the Western world. As a preacher and leader entering into this territory it is a case of 'get locked and loaded,' put on that 'heavenly armor' and get ready for some attack. As I suggested to the congregation it is akin to confronting biblically people from my home country of Zimbabwe about Ancestral Worship (African Traditional Religion) and declaring that these idols are to be knocked off their perches by the only true, living God. Some of you may know how that goes - speaking about money here is engaging in similar combat but the enemy here appears to wear far more inconspicuous clothing and one wonders where he is actively gunning people down.

My preaching was out of Joshua 21 continuing on in our series in Joshua - 'Living Life without the Fear.' Here we see the Levites given their cities out of the inheritance of their fellow Israelites and the obvious point is that without the God-honoring, other-centered obedience of the Israelites there would be no Levite cities to speak of.
Without them giving 48 of their cities and giving of their grain, livestock and income there would be no places of Spiritual input and direction within the nation of Israel. These Levite cities were the Spiritual Communities offering TRUTH, JUSTICE & MERCY within the Israelite community - which like any other human society (as seen by the tragic and dreadful Cumbria shootings of last week) was/is fragile and fractured and prone to soul-atrophying, rebel-making distance from God.

We too as God's people have the great joy and privilege (According to Paul in II Cor. 8 & 9) to give generously as tasters of God's grace in Christ to the building of Levite cities within our own fractured and fragile communities. And nowhere is it meant to be 10% - the NT makes absolutely no obligation along the lines of a percentile of your income it is purely as an overflow of being transformed by the grace of God and wanting true 'equality' for all people and 'investing' in such through their local 'home of spiritual sustenance' and hub for God's mission - the local Church.

I can only hope the people of X1 will arise to give much to see X1 truly be a Spiritual Community offering refuge, hope and direction to the community in Watford. It should not be my compulsion but a resposiveness to their tasting of the abundant, lavish grace of God.

Blessings
SLJ

Struck by a plague of insects - well one.

Thought we were an accursed people this Sunday - thought the Lord had declared His final say upon us. I guess you probably need me to explain. IT APPEARS WE WERE STRUCK BY A PLAGUE OF INSECTS! Well not really - just one, and a little one at that, but he/she did enough to bring the morning service at X1 to a halt.

Humorously, the exact timing of us as a people needing to gather our things and rush to the nearest fire exit was dead in the middle of me leading us in a corporate prayer of confession using David's prayer in Psalm 51. There I was down at the front of Vue Screen 7 reading out this stunning prayer and one of our key coordinators for Sunday mornings comes running up to me (I have to say I just did not know what was going on) and says, "The fire alarm is going off they are evacuating the building. Well there you go - one of the down sides of meeting in 'public space' was that we had to respond, gosh we couldn't even pass it off as some form of desperate final attack by the enemy to stop us meeting and stand against with raised voices and vociferous faith, we just had to up and leave.

Back to the 'plague.' After a few moments standing outside with everyone from the other screens the fire crew checked the building, declared it safe for re-entry and we were back in. Turns out that our creche lights were the problem - to be more exact a bee roasting away in one of our creche lights (and as we know there's no burning bug without smoke - or is that smoke without fire, mmm...) which set the alarm off and brought all proceedings to a stand still.

Bit of a laugh really, and I am actually so proud of the people of X1 for there patience and togetherness. All part of 'worship' I guess.

Oh yes here's a pic of the unfortunate perpetrator of the pestilence



Simon

You looking forward to church?

My co-elder Andy said a beautiful thing during the welcome at X1 yesterday. He highlighted that several years ago when you went on holiday from the UK often you could not purchase many things that you enjoy in the UK and so you could not wait to get back to partake of those 'home-comforts.' That situation has changed he said; but this time while they were away in Austria skiing all he had missed and that which he longed to return to was the worship gathering at Christ First.

He is a man of integrity so I know he was not just people-pleasing. I have thought about it since yesterday and am prayerful and hopeful that many of us at X1 have that mindset about Sundays.

I know I have got to a place at some of the churches I have been serving at where I felt no desire whatsoever to go on Sundays. That is a tragic, probably consumerist, view of things but it was where I had got to. What about you? How much do you look forward to your worship gathering with your church? If you don't why not? Are you serving or just taking cause that can make a massive difference? Is God joining you by His Spirit? If not why not?

Pray for a heart change if so, also see if there is an opportunity for you to talk to your leadership about your waning affections and see what changes can take place.
As for our little gathering of folk, I pray that they will continue for many a year to ache for our gatherings together and to come prayerfully expectant!

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 8

An overview of this week's sermon at X1 Watford in our series, "Living Life without the Fear"

RAHAB: FREED THROUGH FEARLESS FAITH!
This week as we return to Joshua 2 we will turn our attention from the select missional men who encountered an ‘awakened seeker’ within the walls of Jericho and look at this woman RAHAB who hid them from the King’s army.

OUR CENTRAL FOCUS – HER FAITH
As we look at this woman, what stands out about her, what distinguishes her from the other people in Jericho?

• NOT HER NATIONALITY
• NOT HER RELIGIOSITY
• NOT HER SUPERIOR MORALITY

It is not our goodness; it is not our attendance, it is not our morality, our likeability, our nationality, our superiority, not even our good works or anything of ourselves that causes God to look upon us and say well you deserve all my lavish love, affection and grace here is eternal, abundant life. NO! It is one thing and one thing alone and we see it here in the life of Rahab – FAITH. The apostle James makes that clear (Ja. 2: 24)

With this in mind I want us to clarify 3 fundamental elements of faith seen in the life of Rahab...

FAITH RECEIVES
Rahab heard the messages that were being rumoured throughout the streets of Jericho, she listened in attentively to the fearful retelling of tales by the fear – bound soldiers frequenting her establishment. Upon that testimony, on hearing these facts Rahab states, “I KNOW...” “She heard, she believed, she acted upon that belief...”

FAITH RESCUES
I know we are told to never turn to the last page of a good story as it will spoil the whole thing, we all know there is nothing worse than ‘that guy’ who cannot help but tell you what is about to happen in a movie while you are watching it. But, turn with me to Jo. 6: 22 -3 and see the outworking of this amazing ‘deal’ between two ‘missional’ men and an Amorite harlot. She is rescued from the crumbling Jericho!

FAITH REVEALS
This is for those of us who have received this message (or maybe think we have) who have been rescued from a life without life and been made alive by the inner working of the Spirit of God who has given us abundant life. Make sure you know this: Faith reveals itself.

Read the words of the 15th century Italian reformer Benedetto –
“Faith imprints us with a certain violent love of good works.”
Here is another way of saying that,
“We are justified (declared right before God) by faith alone, but the faith which justifies is inevitably accompanied by works: which are the evidence of that faith!” – Peckham

The faith that saves the soul is the faith that gives that soul holy affections, spiritual energy to serve God for the coming of the Kingdom. It is visible, and active!

Blessings
Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 7

Wow, seems silly how time passes by on occasion. I realize I have not updated this blog the last two times I have had the joy of preaching at X1 in our series: "Living Life without the Fear" from the book of Joshua. These past two times have been rooted in chapter 2 of the book and have been extremely helpful to us as a church. Here is an overview of week 7:

FEARLESS MISSIONAL IMMERSION – ‘GET IN!’
This passage of scripture catches us up in the Missio Dei - God's mission to restore, heal and redeem!

SELECT MISSIONAL MEN
These two were Joshua’s Special Forces providing essential Human INTEL.

These men are chosen to engage with a pagan culture, to live out their faith in the midst of a hostile, impure culture because -
OBEDIENT - Joshua would have known the character of these men.
PURE - Able to engage with non-faith culture but not get sucked into the seedy underworld driving it.
FAITH - FILLED - Unlike 10 of the spies sent 40 years earlier these men were full of faith even when encountering any opposition, they knew the power and delivering work of God. (Jo. 2: 14)

If we are to be 'missional', if we are to be those willing to engage with secular culture around us, we must be Obedient, Pure & full of Faith.

Will you be an anonymous missional warrior refusing all self-comforts, self-glory that this world seeks to force feed you for the great glory of the saving power of God to bring the lost and broken to new life?

THREE PEOPLE TYPES YOU WILL ENGAGE
If you are willing to take on the ‘Missional’ battle; if you are willing to let the power and work of the Holy Spirit to mould you then be aware of the ‘people types’ you will engage:
1) Aggravated authorities - 'King of Jericho'; the enemy Himself will conspire against you, authorities of mind and world-views ( Dawkins etc)
2) Spiritual Masses - ‘We have heard...” “For forty years God had been giving the people of Canaan an opportunity to turn to Him.” Now we can see that for 1900 years the story of Christ has been ‘out there.’ But people will reject and ignore it because they want life their way.
3) Awakened Seekers - And then the glorious marvellous truth that there will be those that our Powerful God is awakening: asking the deep questions, feeling new feelings, certain ‘there is more to this!’

GO! SECURE IN GOD’S SOVEREIGN SAVING GRACE
God’s infinite grace and power to restore the broken and the lost to himself cannot be thwarted. No matter how ‘impossible’ it appears for some to know Christ, we see here that God can change the heart and transform the life of anyone!

God can and will transform the lives of even the most ‘lost’ people that we will encounter if we are willing to faithfully, obediently, purely engage them missionally. If you think I am pushing a personal theology here, why don’t you turn with me to John 4 to see another missional warrior engaging a lost soul that God had freely, gracefully and mercifully wanted to know

GOD’S IRRESISTABLE LOVE & GRACE TO RESTORE THE UNCHURCHED – HIS PEOPLE
Why am I so certain that we should be engaging with those immersed in a secular culture with only a media-governed view of Christ? Simple because the immense love and grace of God is irresistible to those He awakens, and there are more than we can estimate outside the walls of the church.

Get into culture, be pure, be obedient, be bold, be fill of faith, God will change lives!

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 5

So 5 weeks in, and I feel as if we are barely scraping the surface of this 'immense' book of Scripture.
This week was one of those weeks when a preacher is acutely aware of the challenging nature of what Spirit has given him to share. I felt certain not to rush on from the first nine verses of the first chapter as there was one more notable command from God to Joshua (and very much to us today) that seems to me a pivotal condition of him enjoying the fruit of the 4 promises noted last week.

I entitled the message: FEAST ON THIS FOOD FOR FAITH FOR FEARLESS LIVING

At a point where Joshua would surely be expecting some divine strategy or superior elemt of war with which to encouter the enemies within 'The Promised Land' God says only this:

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

God basically says to him

“THIS, THIS Joshua! (Scripture) If you want to be ‘prosperous & successful’, if you long to enjoy the stunning array of promises that I have just laid before you then READ THIS, STUDY THIS, LIVE THIS LOVE THIS EAT THIS!”
Joshua was to feed on (meditate) the words of the book of the Law that Moses had been entrusted and inspired by the Holy Spirit to write.
Within the verses ( 7 - 9) you can see there appears to be a four part 'way' by which to feast on Scripture, the food for fearless living:
1) ‘know God’s word’ – Be constantly looking at in order to fulfil command of having it as guide; Joshua would need to get it from ‘ark of covenant’ often
2) ‘talk about God’s word’– (Josh. 1: 8) Clearly Joshua was to be conversing about the bible in his normal day-by-day contacts with family, soldiers, friends.
3) ‘meditate on God’s Word’– Meditation implies reasoning about the Word & deducing things from it. Meditation has application as its goal.
4) ‘obey God’s Word’– The last element in this list of requirements is the most important... Not only know it, speak, obey it...he was also and chiefly to obey it. NOT TURNING TO LEFT OR RIGHT. Keep on Line determined by God’s word.

It is impossible to over-emphasize the need for us as 21st Century believers to apply this command and this process to our lives. I say this because, and I quote my words from Sunday:

"Feeding on God’s word is absent from so many of our lives, it is an afterthought after glutting ourselves on the lies of our culture through media over-saturation...People are more willing to believe the ‘fiction’ of Dan Brown, the quasi-biblical teachings of 80% of the Christian world over and above the profoundly glorious truth of scripture!
And it’s wreaking havoc! We become emaciated, withered followers of Jesus being kicked about by our enemies and unable to engage in the battle necessary for us to claim the glorious promises offered to us in Christ!"

Feast on the divine truth of God for faith for fearless living!

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 4

Ok, we finally entered the magnificent book of Joshua for real this week. We have spent 3 weeks trying to give a helpful background to this time in the life and history of the Israelite people, this man Joshua, and of course the stunning relevance to our own lives and situation.

I intended to preach one sermon from the first nine verses but of course on deeper investigation discovered that there was more than enough Spiritual Meat to chew on for 2 weeks.
So we entitled this weeks sermon

NOTE THIS: GOD'S PRECIOUS PROMISES FOR FEARLESS LIVING NOT DELIVERED WITHIN REALITY VACUUM

The major emphasis of the sermon was as follows

THE IMMENSITY OF GOD'S PROMISES:

Within these few verses God gives 4 Immense promises to Joshua in preparing to enter the promised land that are so real for us as New Covenant believers. Those 4 are -
BEING IN THE WILL OF GOD -right there, right then God had Joshua exactly where he wanted him. We too have this promises if we respond to the leading of the Spirit.
THE POWER OF GOD - Vs. 3 & 4 All the power made available to Moses in his leading the people is promised to Joshua. This power is promised to us, see Acts 1: 8; I Jn. 4: 4; II Cor. 10: 4; Col. 1: 11.
THE PRESENCE OF GOD - Vs. 5, 8 Far greater than the promise of Power was this glorious promise of the actual presence of the 'I Am', YAHWEH the living, redeeming, covenant keeping God. That promise is for us see Acts 2; Heb. 13: 5; MAt. 28: 20
THE SUCCESS OF GOD - Vs. 8 Not to be reduced to human, narcissistic terms. The success of God is the joy of living in such a way that our lives draw other to His glorious love.

Note: These promises are made to a people on mission.

THE INDISPENSABILITY OF STRENGTH & COURAGE

"...see here that Joshua receives promise and assurance one after the other and then suddenly he is told he needs to be STRONG & COURAGEOUS. In fact God is almost like a stuck record on this one see vs. 6, 7, 9 (x2), Deut. 31: 6, 7, 8, 23.
Why is this the case? Surely after these magnificent words spoken to him he could have sat back on his camel-skin couch, munching on some dates and catching up on his favourite episodes of ‘Survivor: Sinai Desert ’ on his Sky+ box.

The opposite is true. It is exactly because there were such promises to claim, so much to be possessed that Joshua would need all the strength and courage imaginable. To embrace all the joy and the fruits of this new place there would need to be constant conflict against and eradication of all that would deny that.
It is exactly the same today! Every great promise of Ephesians 1 and which are distributed on almost every page of scripture are not delivered to us devoid of living within the reality of a fallen, secular, fear-inducing culture."


So that was the gist of it. There are stunning promises available but as is promised in II Tim. 1: 7, the need for Faith-inspired Strength & Courage to posess the promises.

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 2 - Quotes

Here are some quotes from several of the books studied in preparation for this series;

“ [In the defeat of the Amalekites] Joshua & Israel clearly understood that the victory was accomplished by God, not the strength of the army. Joshua’s military action in the valley was necessary but it was not sufficient in itself to defeat the enemy.” - Downey

“[Joshua] did not selfishly desire personal advantage. There was no lust for selfish gain. His life was characterized by obedient faith, dauntless courage, indomitable perseverance and a total dedication to God & his word. He revealed cheerful confidence in the face of difficulties. Others gave him high honour because of his unselfish disregard of his own personal interests...In every circumstance he displayed a supreme desire to know the will of God...”

“ Joshua was [acutely aware] of the seen and the unseen worlds. There is no vast chasm between them; the unseen world is right here. The unseen world is always immediately present, not far off. Above everything and overshadowing everything is the reality of God in His glory. It obviously stood Joshua in good stead many times for Him to understand that God was close at hand, that HE is the God who exists and who is ‘here.’” – Schaeffer

“He has seldom been given the full credit he deserves as perhaps the greatest man of faith ever to set foot on the stage of human history. In fact, his entire brilliant career was a straightforward story of simply setting down one foot after another in quiet compliance with the commands of God.” – Phillip Keller

Hope these help.

In Him
Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 2

Week 2 of our Joshua series: "Living life without the fear!" Still in Joshua 1: 1 so we could be here for a while.
Whereas in the first week we noted some principles as to why the book Joshua was so important for us this week we sought to discern why Joshua was a

'3500 year old model for living life without the fear'

One thing I noted was this

"I think one definite reason so many of us get sucked into the culture of fear that surrounds us, a primary factor that draws us into living life according to the principles and fear-inducing beliefs of our time is the NEED to be someone and of course in a ‘celebrity-obsessed’ media-saturated culture that someone is better looking than us, more famous than us, more wealthy than us, more ‘happy’ than us."

Then I made this point -

WE ARE DESTINED TO INFERIORITY

Joshua to could have lived his life defined by inferiority, starting off as a slave and then living constantly in the shadow of Moses the great Jewish 'celebrity.' But he didn't he became a fearless leader who delivered the people of Israel into their promised land.

There are FIVE FACETS FOR FEARLESS LIVING that I believe we can glean from his life that will 'equip' us as followers of Jesus (or not) to live our lives without being sucked into the fear-culture in which we are immersed.
Here they are:

LIVED LIFE AGAINST THE FLOW – One of only 2 (Caleb) to actually survive the wilderness wanderings. (Nu. 13 & 14)
All 12 spies return with the same story. It is just that 10 spies “focused on the difficulties rather than on the promise of god...” See also Ex. 24 – 32 and the events detailed there.
While all Israel rebel & pursue idolatry again Joshua stands with Moses and for the Lord against the masses.

ENGAGED THE BATTLE– Ex. 17: 8 – 9 this is seen also in his report from Canaan.
In this he would have learnt that a life of following God is a lifestyle of warfare. (Eph 6: 10 – 18) “Victory is always possible but always depends on both faith in God & obedience to His commands.”

PRIORITIZED GOD’S AGENDA – His agenda, his comfort was not primary. Humble submission to the leading of God to undertake the mission of God was what marked him. It is the same for us, if our agenda or comfort is primary we will get sucked into and tainted by the ‘fear-culture’ that surrounds us.

OBEDIENT TO GOD– He learned the lesson of “the terribleness of sin” in the camp Ex. 32.
Resisting the temptations of living in a secular culture and standing against the pressure to live according to its agenda is far better than disobedience & the destructive consequences of that lifestyle.

PURSUED INTIMACY WITH GOD – He knew the ‘reality of God’ & the ‘glory of God.’ (Ex. 33: 11)
Joshua loved lingering in the presence of God.
There is simply no more effective way of counteracting ‘the fear’ than a deep, personal intimacy with Christ. See John 15.

Are you willing to be a Joshua in your generation?

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 1 - Further Quote

Here is another great quote which gives some background and insight to the strength of the book of Joshua to speak into our Christian lives:

"The book of Joshua has a very practical application to the believer today. The Promised Land cannot be a type of heaven since heaven is not a place of conflict & conquest. Heaven is received as a gift of the grace of God. Rather, the Promised Land represents the place to which believers are brought right here in this world today. The book of Joshua corresponds to the Epistle to the Ephesians in the NT where we see that the believer is blessed with all spiritual blessings. The practical possession and experience of them depends upon conflict and conquest. These are never attained through the energy of the flesh, but through the power of the Holy Spirit in the yielded life of the believer."

Simon

"Living life without the Fear" Week 1 - Quotes

I will share three quotes that I mentioned on Sunday morning (in fact one I did not get to share) as a help for all of us considering the book of Joshua and what it means for us today.

“Spiritual victory comes through obedient faith... [T]he believer who wants to defeat the enemies of his soul – the world, the flesh, and the devil – must believe God’s promises & obey God’s instructions.” - Paul Downey (click author's name for link)

“While wandering in the wilderness in fear & disobedience may characterize the lives of many believers, it is not normative Christian living.” – Paul Downey

“While in the wilderness, although they had been redeemed by blood, they were not in the place of their appointed inheritance... Because they did not believe that God could give them the land in the face of all the giants and walled cities they died in the wilderness... Like them, through unbelief and disobedience we too can miss the wonderful fullness and the blessed nearness of the Lord Jesus, indwelling and enthroned, possessing, controlling and motivating our lives. We too can die in the wilderness of blighted hopes and unfulfilled aspirations, of inward battles and outward failures, of sad defeats and wasted years... That weak, ineffective Christian life is most certainly not the inheritance which we have in Christ.” - Colin Peckham

Hope these help.

Simon