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

Wise words to preachers & bible teachers from Spurgeon

We do appear to live in an age of Christendom in the West that is at the very least shy of doctrine but can often actually be averse to it. Again and again I am confronted by this in my ministry. Here, in a sermon almost 144 years old, the wonderful Charles Spurgeon highlights his thoughts on preaching doctrine, and it's great importance:

"If we would influence thoughtful persons it must be by solid arguments. Shallow minds may be wrought upon by mere warmth of emotion and force of excitement, but the more valuable part of the community must be dealt with in quite another manner. When the apostle Paul was desirous to influence his son in the faith, Timothy, who was a diligent and earnest student and a man of gifts as well as of grace, he did not attempt to affect him by mere appeals to his feelings, but felt that the most effectual way to act upon him was to remind him of solid doctrinal truth which he knew him to have believed.

This is a lesson for the ministry at large. Certain earnest preachers are incessantly exciting the people, and but seldom if ever instructing them; they carry much fire and very little light. God forbid that we should say a word against appealing to the feelings; this is most needful in its place, but then there is a due proportion to be observed in it. A religion which is based upon, sustained, and maintained simply by excitement, will necessarily be very flimsy and unsubstantial, and will yield very speedily to the crush of opposition or to the crumbling hand of time.

The preacher may touch the feelings by rousing appeals, as the harper touches the harpstrings; he will be very foolish if he should neglect so ready and admirable an instrument; but still as he is dealing with reasonable creatures, he must not forget to enlighten the intellect and instruct the understanding...
...I do not doubt but that a far greater power for usefulness lies concealed within the doctrines of grace than some men have ever dreamed of. It has been usual to look upon doctrinal truth as being nothing more than unpractical theory, and many have spoken of the precepts of God's Word as being more practical and more useful; the day may yet come when in clearer light we shall perceive that sound doctrine is the very root and vital energy of practical holiness, and that to teach the people the truth which God has revealed is the readiest and surest way of leading them to obedience and persevering holiness."

- Salvation Altogether by Grace, July 29th 1866.

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

Joshua's Gilgal and Calvary

A true joy of being called to 'feed' the flock God has enabled us to lead as an Eldership here at X1 is that of searching deeply multiple resources to provide the most beneficial sustenance possible. I love this, even when it is a chore (as it can be demanding spending 10 - 15 hours a week preparing a sermon) as the input it gives to me personally is great - I only pray it will have the same effect on those who hear the sermon weekly.
With that said I want to highlight a brilliant quote from one of the commentaries I am using for the "Living Life without the Fear" series here at X1 in relation to the camp of Gilgal as a 'Spiritual Home Base' for the Israelites. The quote is from the British Expositor Alan Redpath and it gives a 'fascinating parallel between Gilgal and Calvary:

"May I remind you of the great words of NT truth and salvation which have their roots deeply imbedded in Gilgal. Here they are; refresh your memory. It was a place of rememberance, where all of God's people together went down unto death; it was a place of resurrection, where together they came up with their leader into life. It was a place of renunciation, where they cast off the carnal existence of the wilderness; it was a place of restoration, where they came again into fellowship with the lord. It was a place of realization, where they began to taste of the strong food of the land; it was the place of revelation, where they met their captain with a drawn sword.
The Christian life has its own roots firmly imbedded in Calvary, the place where we died with Jesus and rose with Him, where we have deliberately renounced carnality and have entered into a living fellowship with our Lord, where we have begun to take the strong food of His Word and to realize every moment of our lives that the Captain of the Lord's hosts is with us."

Yes o Yes - the great victory of Calvary!

Simon

A Wife's Blessing, a Pastor's Rebuke/Exhortation

My beautiful wife has absolutely blessed my socks off this Sabbath morning by taking the kids out and leaving me to invest time devotionally with my Lord. What I chose to do was listen to a sermon by Matt Chandler, who hopefully, prayerfully, will be coming to share at our Newfrontiers Prayer and Fasting on May 11th. Matt Chandler is a special guy and a guy I met almost 8 years ago now on a youth summer camp in Galveston Texas - but whom God has used powerfully to lead a speedily growing church in Dallas Texas called The Village Church.

I looked in my 'theResurgence' rss feed in my Mac mail program and found a list of sermons based on the Acts29 media page. I chose to listen to this one: 'Ministry for the Long Haul & Ambition' (click here to listen yourself). I was not disappointed and was significantly rebuked and exhorted to search my own heart as a Leader of God's people.
What a joy to have a morning spent receiving a Wife's blessing and a Pastor's rebuke!

On my next entry I want to read a quote Matt read out from Eugene Peterson that may be a bit more challenging to the flock rather than the Shepherd.

Blessings
Simon

Isaiah 53

Read this in my preparations for this week's sermon on Isaiah 53: 4 - 6, it is simply quite wonderful:

"As an artisan laying a mosaic of complicated pattern and diverse colours, has before him a working drawing, and carefully fits the minute pieces of precious stone and enamel according to it, till the perfection of the design is revealed to all, so do the evangelists and apostles, with the working-drawing of OT prophecy, and Old Testament types and shadows in the tabernacle services and ceremonies, in their hands fit together the details of Christ's life on earth, His atoning death and His resurrection and say, 'Behold, this can be none other than the long looked-for Messiah.' The central knop, or flower pattern, of the mosaic, from which all the other details of the design radiated, was the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah."

It is a truly beautiful prophetic message that draws us to the very cross of Calvary.

SImon

Bonhoeffer on 'Truth'

I'm studying in my little office at the bottom of the garden for an Advent series that I want to take the people of X1 through in this season. As part of that study I have been reading a little book called Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christmas Sermons.s Which is actually my first real induction into the writing's of Bonhoeffer. I have read many a quote by him in a multitude of other books I have read, but this has been truly affecting.
One of his sermons preached with the looming election of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 in mind is one about truth - God's Truth. It is preached from the text of John 8: 32 and is simply heart-opening. Here is one powerful section:

"The truth will make you free. It is not something we have to do, not our courage, our church, our people, our truth; but God's truth alone that makes us free. Why? Because to become free does not mean becoming great in the world, not becoming free from your brother, nor even free from God, but to become free from oneself, one's lie. It means to become free from thinking only of myself, from being the center of my world, from hate, by which I despise God's creation. It means to be free to be for the other: the person for others. Only God's truth can enable me to see the other as he really is. It tears out the twisted image that I have of the other within me and shows him to me in a new light. And insofar as God's truth does that, it bestows upon me the action, the love, the grace of God. It destroys our lies and creates the truth. It destroys hatred and creates love. God's truth is God's love and God's love makes us free from ourselves for others."

O to be truly freed by and for God's Truth - the one to whom Pilate posed the ironic question, "What is truth?"

Simon

Here are the Joshua series Videos Part IV - thanks Vimeo

11-10-2009 - Simon LJ - Joshua - Part 1 #1 from X1 Video on Vimeo.

Here are the Joshua series Videos Part II - thanks Vimeo

27-09-2009 - Simon LJ - Joshua - Intro Pt 2 from X1 Video on Vimeo.

Here are the Joshua series Videos - thanks Vimeo

20-09-2009 - Simon LJ - Joshua - Intro Pt 1 from X1 Video on Vimeo.

Living Life Without the Fear Videos

Yo yo people, starting to host our videos on the brilliant Vimeo.com.
Check out this url to have a look http://tiny.cc/0PI23

Be blessed

Simon

12 Marks of a Christ-like church.

We have spent the last 2 weeks of our life as a church seeking God's heart for His vision for us as a people. We have been literally battered by Satan in the interim but have also sensed the Lord speak so powerfully into where this local church is heading.
I spent yesterday preaching into the truth that God has called Christ First as a local Christ Community into the stunning ongoing story of His Global Rehab project. We as a church are an essential section of the great tapestry that is God's Universal Redemptive initiative.

My thought is that as much as a church can seek to create a community that is a 'foretaste' of the CITY we see in Revelation chapter 21 the closer we are to being fully on board with the Missio Dei. It is a stunning thought! 70 people meeting in a cinema in Watford, England are spirit-empowered, spirit-gifted ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.

A charge I set before us as a people (that which I hope God would say to us) was this:

"A body of believers most like Christ is the 'most healthy' church."

These are just 12 marks that I feel would reflect that:
*COMMITTED *HEALING
*SERVING *HUMBLE
*REDEEMING *MISSIONAL
*PURE *SELFLESS
*OBEDIENT *LOVING
*GRACEFUL *TRUTH SOURCE

I hope to maybe expand each of those marks in this week. But hope they will be helpful.

Simon

Finances

So much has been happening in my heart and mind regarding money, finance and vision over the past 3 or 4 weeks. A lot of it sprung out of some personal thoughts one morning, but then was confirmed after a discussion with a leader of a church in Hillingdon, London. His thoughts were provocative, particularly in how finance and vision are inherently linked. The point seemed to be that for all that God is calling a Body of Believers to do there has to be provision to support that- obvious I know but new revelation for me.

As we start to weave this into the fabric of our church life (early days) I am aware that the primary means is to release people from a false understanding of money and to set them free into the CONTENTMENT that comes from God's view of giving and attitude towards money. I want this for my own life first. I know I am immersed in a culture which worships money... there is no other way of seeing it. Piper makes this clear so powerfully as he talks about the nature of God or money:

"There is something about God and money that makes them tend to mastery. Either you are mastered by money and therefore ignore God or make him a bellhop for your business, or you are mastered by God and make money a servant of the kingdom. But if either tries to master you while you are mastered by the other you will hate and despise it. This is why Jesus said it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Much money makes a cruel master."

Many are 'mastered' by money. I mean good people, not people that use it for evil or hoard it, but those who cannot let it go out of fear. Placing such immense faith in money saying, "If I have it, if I give less away then I'm ok." We need to be freed from this fear, and discover the great contentment and joy of storing treasures in heaven. I will write more on this but read more of Piper's words here!

Simon

Golden Nugget Moment

Lat night was what I call a 'Golden Nugget' moment of ministry. I say that because it was one of those moments that grow in worth and satisfaction the more you reflect upon it.
We have 21 men at our church above GCSE age and last night 17 of them were at my home enjoying a meal of fish/pie/battered sausage and chips and then watching a message that spoke very powerfully into 'men and marriage.' Church and men do not seem to mix any more; church has become quite effeminate in its leanings and true masculinity has been sidelined in culture, a deadly potion that means 'men don't do church!' Well last night at X1 men were doing church, and it was a fantastic thing to be a part of.

I want us to make a stand as a church right from the outset in the area of Biblical Masculinity. Now while we only have 21 I want the Spirit of God to quickly make Christ like manhood a real passion and endeavor for us. We watched a sermon by Mark Driscoll called 'Men & Marriage' part of his The Trial series from I Peter. I know every one of our men were convicted and inspired to pursue godly manhood with renewed vigor. That can only be good.
We need to call each other to stand for a masculinity that is dynamic and inspiring, we cannot and must not fail our God, our ladies, our kids and our church.

Bless you Xmen!

Simon

A Bridge for the Good News

It was sort of our re-launch Sunday as a church this past week. We had used Sunday May 10th as a run through of how it would all go and then asked people to bring friends and guests to VUE for this week.
I have said to a few people already that it was a morning where I felt we could really use the word 'BUZZ' in relation to us as a church. There was energy and enthusiasm oozing from everywhere which is brilliant because it is very attractive for anyone looking in. People got to the tasks of setting up, welcoming, serving refreshments leading the worship and all sorts of other essential bits with fervor and vigor.

I felt it strongly on my heart to preach about moving to VUE out of a real desire to bridge the gap between church and culture. It was a fantastic opportunity and I finished off explaining how I hoped we would go about doing that. Here is the gist of it:

This is the mission we think we must proclaim and embody, we will certainly give it our best shot at least.
We must overcome that which has made the church invisible in culture, we must:

NO LONGER FLEE FROM CULTURE OR HAVE A 'BOMB SHELTER' CHURCH MENTALITY
NO LONGER IMPOSE OUTDATED CULTURE BUT ADAPT TO CULTURE TO GIVE OUR MESSAGE
OFFER DIVINE COMMUNITY TO A FRACTURED CULTURE
LOVE AND NOT JUDGE (DON'T ASK SOMEONE TO CHANGE BEFORE THEY HAVE ENCOUNTERED THE AGENT OF CHANGE- GOD)
'SHOW' THAT FOLLOWING CHRIST IS THE GREATEST THING AND NOT JUST 'TELL' PEOPLE IT IS!

I finished off stating that if the church has a message that can transform the lives of 21st Century people, if the gospel is true than everyone should get a chance to hear it without having to leave their cultural reality to do it!

We want to make a difference, we must.

Simon

What 'Owns' You

"You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity..."

These are the words with which John Piper challenged 20000 college students in the summer of 2000 (see here). Piper's earnest plea was that this groups of 20-somethings not waste their life on the cheap temporal pleasures lavished upon them by a society fixated only with the now. Piper wanted their lives to count for so much more.

What owns you? What dominates your affection, what grasps your attention more than any other thing? Maybe it is a multitude of things all wrapped up in this wicked rat race of keeping up with the mind-blowing levels of consumption by our peers in order to maintain 'the image.'

Piper's whole message is borne out of his focus on the words of Paul in Galatians 6:14. Here Paul claims that he will boast only in one thing: THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. For Paul, and so it should be for us, the cross of Jesus Christ was the central element of all reality. For him reality is because the cross was. As Christians we must ask ourselves if we could make the same claim.

We must ascertain whether everything we seek to do, our thoughts, our affections stem from our absolute love for the person and work of Jesus Christ crucified. It will bring about transformation if that is the case.

Simon