"Living life without the Fear" Week 12

Finally made our way back into the book of Joshua after a break for Advent and early January. We have got to chapter 4 after 12 weeks in the book, strangely although that may seem like slow progress there is much more content in those first 3 chapter we could have lingered over.
I took this week speak to our church quite personally as I saw this moment in the life of the Israelites and their Godly leader Joshua mirroring our situation currently.
Here is a break down of the sermon:

LIVING LIFE WITHOUT THE FEAR
I reminded us again that we live in a 'culture of fear', check this quote out as a reference to exactly that

“The culture of fear is not a spontaneous reaction by the public to a truly dangerous world. The worldwide anthrax panic sparked by a handful of anthrax-related deaths in America shortly after 9/11 was not caused by a genuine and widespread mortal danger facing US and European citizens. Our propensity to panic about everything from child abductions to mobile phones does not come from the fact that modern life contains more risks than ever before - on the level of everyday reality, the opposite is the case. . . . The culture of fear comes from the top down. It comes from society's leaders, and their inability to lead. . . .” – Jennie Bristow

If we allow fear to enter our faith relationship with Christ, if we are drawn into our fear culture and defined by such rather than being transformed into the likeness of Christ - we will not know the Spiritual blessings in Christ

Fear is a grave enemy of faith!

A MIRROR MOMENT
At this time I recognized that there is immense theological significance in this passage but that at this time I wanted to highlight how this moment mirrors our life as a church.
We as a church have set aside this year to seek Greater Health through Greater Impact and one of the core values we have as a church that needs to be embraced, owned, is this
“WE VALUE THE GIVING OF OUR LIVES, OUR TIME, AND OUR MONEY TO GOD’S MISSION”
If we become a serving people, caught up in the mission of X1 to fulfill the mandate of Christ in Matt. 28 then we will know joy, but as in this passage some things need to be in place -

LEADERS LED BY ‘THE’ LEADER
4: 1 – 3 “The Lord said to Joshua...” Here we see that Joshua is not the real, ultimate leader of the Israelites. And that is so true of X1 as a people. We, your elders are not the leaders of this church. We are a leadership that, like Joshua, are led by Jesus Christ who is actually the leader of ChristFirst.

ANONYMOUS, OBEDIENT & UNIFIED SERVANTS OF THE MISSION
4: 4 – 8 “So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them...”
Here the scripture expose a stunning truth about leadership – Any great Christian leader is surrounded by obedient, unified, co-warriors working together to fulfil the mission for the glory of God and the joy of the people. (Ps. 84: 10; I Cor. 12;Eph. 2: 14 – 22)
These 12 men were anonymous – they are never named – but get this they were absorbed into the building of a sign that would testify to the faithfulness, mercy and awesome power of God to future generations.

SELFLESS SERVANTHOOD
4: 10 – 13 “The men of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites...”(1: 12 – 13; Deut. 3: 18)
These men who had already claimed their inheritance served the mission and joy of the other Israelites.
This has been true of the initial core group of people who came with us to VUe cinema but...
It is time now for us all to rise up and claim our inheritance: To live a life of joyous, obedient mission, realizing the stunning life there is to be had in giving our all to see a church that actually affects the culture of a whole town.

The call to serve the mission of X1 - GET IN!

Simon

Helpful Book - Master Leaders

Over the Christmas season one of our friends visiting from the States mentioned a leadership book he was reading that he found really helpful. It is a book by George Barna who is not an author I read typically; but it was the idea of the book that initially caught my intention.
This book MASTER LEADERS is basically the gleanings of Barna in conversation with 30 excellent, Godly leaders all located in one fairly small book.
I am currently reading it, actually have just finished a fantastic chapter on Confrontation and Challenge, and would recommend it to people on a journey of leadership wanting some helpful insights. Unfortunately you will need to look quite a few Americanisms and the fact that American Christian authors seem to write in a style that us British folk would accuse of being far too corny - but the content is so helpful, and as stated earlier it is the insights and interactions of many gifted leaders on important topics in leadership in one location.

Give it a read if you'd like.

Blessings
Simon

Jealousy

Reading Acts chapter 5 this morning. A passage which begins of course with that astonishing display of the continuity of the Holiness and splendor of God between Old & New Testament with the slaying of Ananais & Sapphira for lying to the Holy Spirit. But it was another verse (s) that grabbed my attention today.

What we see in the 16th verse referring to the Apostles are these words, "Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem..." Suddenly in the next verse we read (and this is the verse that got me), "Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy."

There it is that word that is not often referred to in the list of sins that are spoken against from the pulpit, but a powerful destructive sin all the same - JEALOUSY! And this jealousy was in the context of ministry, the place where it is most insidious and undermining. What has obviously happened here is the ministry of the apostles is the GLORY ministry of the time, it is the one drawing the crowds, the one receiving the air-time in the local papers, you know what I mean. This sends the high priest and the Sadducees into a spin as they feel outdone, old hat, forgotten, I'm sure you get the point. Their resulting actions are evil and conniving.

Confession time. I've felt this slip into my heart, into my attitude and it is sickening and destroys you inwardly. In this media age where great ministries from all over the world are brought right to your inbox or macbook screen there is endless opportunity to be drawn into the terrible grip of this sin.
In or out of ministry, where is your heart with regards to jealousy? What do you want that another has that causes you to speak bitterly of them, think wrong thoughts towards them?

We need to chop this weed at the root or it will cramp out the joy the Lord promises to us!

Simon

Guest Preacher

Had a superb morning yesterday at X1. So conscious of the presence and the power of God. That is a prayer of mine again and again, "Lord please encounter us with your power and your presence."
Part of the reason for that was cause we had a guest preacher who came in and shared God's marvelous truth with us. I don't know if I'm saying that we need to have more guest speakers cause I'm no good, maybe... but what I am saying is that his being with us was a symbolism of the unity of the body of Christ. He is of another - very traditional - group of churches but our hearts are knitted much on the essential components of reformed, biblical faith.

His name is Greg and he is the principal of a new leadership college here in Watford, UK called the Watford School of Leadership. He is all over transformational leadership, the person and gospel of Christ, seriously embraces the missional concept and is a gifted evangelist - like I said we had a great morning. The whole thrust of his charge to us was that Discipleship is Apprenticeship: That means OBEY, BE HOLY, & BE LIKE the one you are following - Jesus Christ. His passage was the first 11 verses of Luke 5.

One thing he asked us as a church to do was stand and pray in unity the 'Covenant Prayer' of John Wesley. This we did, and then re-entered a time of worship - it was wonderful.
Here's that prayer

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt;
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low by thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Willing to pray it?

SImon

Balance

First week of a New Year so, like many, I am thinking about the year ahead and what that would hold for me as an individual. I don't think that we as Christians should be individuals that start each year with half-hearted resolutions that only last the first days of the year. But the dawning of a new year is certainly a time where we can take stock and decide upon the areas of our lives that need adaption in some way in order to be more Christ-like - that is the overarching goal of our Faith! To be so much more like Christ in every way in our closing days then in the beginning. If there is a change in the opposite direction we can be sure that there is an area of our life that is not under submission to His Lordship and not being led by the inner working of His Spirit.

In the early years of my faith I would focus on one of the key fruit of the Spirit or a spiritual habit as an underlying theme for my focus on the year. Prayer, Humility or others, sure you know what I mean. This year I have really just lingered on the concept of balanced living. My thoughts on this have always been governed by several things:

1) The impetus of the Wisdom literature towards this concept
2) An Edwardian awareness of the inherent link between our Spiritual health & our mental, physical, or 'soul' health.
3) Personal maturity as a man heading towards mid thirties.

I see that a balanced life submitted to the Lordship of life avoids so many unhelpful extremes - inferior, impure sub-standard Spirituality or the other superior, self-righteous, legalistic super spirituality. Extremism is a mark of spiritual immaturity (don't sit there saying, "Well what about extreme devotion, extreme love?" You know what I mean).
We must balance every area of life - I laugh as I recall a recent comment by a leader I truly respect. He said, "Sometimes an hour of body-refreshing nap is better for me than an hour of prayer, if you know what I mean." I know exactly what he means and have seen the detrimental overflow of many who would never admit this or even dare embody this.

balance, I'm going to give it a go...
Simon