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Pastor's Blog - Entries tagged "Christian Living"

TueTuesdayJulJuly6th2010

Forgiveness

Posted Tuesday, July 06 2010 @ 4 PM byPastor Trevor Tagged Christian Living 0 comments Add comment

A few weeks ago we looked at the importance of forgiveness. We all are in desperate need of it and without it we are eternally condemned. Those who are true followers of Christ understand well their need for forgiveness. However, they are not always quick to extend forgiveness to their fellow man. Christ illustrated the foolishness and wickedness of this with a parable. (Matthew 18:21-35) In the parable there is a servant who has an unpayable debt owed to a king. He asks for patience from the king, saying that he would pay him back. The king was merciful and forgave him his debt. However, having been forgiven an unpayable debt the servant does not respond to his fellow servant in the same way. He does not forgive the debt owed him and has his fellow servant thrown into prison. The king then hears what has happened and has the unmerciful servant thrown into jail until he should repay the debt. (Remember that this debt was unpayable) The consequences were great for the unmerciful servant! Jesus ends the parable by saying, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” These are sobering words for anyone who is not willing to forgive their fellowman. These words are repeated in Matt.6:12-15 in the Lord’s prayer and commanded in other verses in the New Testament (Col.3:13; Eph.4:32). Forgiveness is not an option for the believer.

Photo courtesy of Harley Winborn

Our sins can be completely forgiven through Christ. (Ps.103:12)

The book “The Self Confrontation Manual” outlines how forgiveness is lived out.

Forgiveness in Action

1. Keeps no record of wrongs

1 Cor.13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; (the Greek word for irritable includes the meaning of not keeping track of wrongs committed)

2. Not a gossip about a person’s sins to others

Eph. 4:29 “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear”

3. Not dwell on the offense yourself

Phil.4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

4. Restore fellowship with the forgiven person or the offender, as far as is biblically possible

Rom.12:18,19 “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

It may be that the person who offended you is unrepentant. The transaction of forgiveness can not then happen. You are able to forgive them before the Lord, but if the person is not willing to repent and change then there can be no restoration of the relationship.

Ie David and Saul…Saul at times even spoke of repentance, but there was no repentance and the relationship was never restored. David trusted the Lord to deal with the sin of Saul and yet he did not move back to the palace, because he knew the heart of Saul.

5. Loving God without loving people is an impossibility (1 John 4:20,21). Forgiveness should include comforting those who have sinned and repented, as well as reaffirming your love to them. (2 Cor.2:6-8)

6. Forgiveness is to be granted when requested without limitation (Matt.18:21,22)

It is the Lord’s desire that the body of Christ be united.(John 17:20-26) There can be no unity without forgiveness. We will inevitably sin against one another, but we need to be a people who are quick to repent and a people who are quick to repent. We need to be people who are eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. (Eph.4:3) We can forgive, because we have been forgiven. We would not understand what true forgiveness is without having experienced the forgiveness of God. When we truly grasp how much we have been forgiven, we will be a lot quicker to forgive. As we forgive we are able to pursue being the kind of church that God wants us to be. I conclude this blog with the words written by Peter in (1 Peter 3:8). “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”

ThuThursdayJunJune17th2010

Priorities

Posted Thursday, June 17 2010 @ 8 PM byPastor Trevor Tagged Christian Living 1 comments Add comment

Rather, ironically I just spent two hours writing a blog on priorities only for it to disappear into thin air. So the question is whether or not writing this blog should be a priority? There are many things that I need to be and should be doing. So I have reached a compromise, so to speak. I believe that this is an important blog so I will rewrite it, although with brevity. There are many of us who go week after week and life just kinda happens to us. Our days are on an escalator and we are along for the ride. Many days we look back and have regrets about how we spent our time and wish that we could have that time back so we might do things better. However, our regret rarely brings us to a crisis where we actually do anything about it.

Yet, there is a crisis. How many have been led away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ? (2 Cor.11:3) I believe many are so caught up in the rat race of life and the things of this world that we have lost our focus. How many of us can say Christ IS our life (Col.3:4)? If we can't, then we need to stop making excuses and start prioritizing our lives accordingly.

What were the priorities of those in the early church? There are 4 things I want to highlight that need to be part of our daily lives.

1. Be Devoted to Prayer (Acts 1:14, 2:42, 6:4; Eph.6:18; Rom.12:12; Col.4:2)

2. Be Devoted to the Word (Acts 2:42; 1 Tim.4:13; 2 Tim.3:16)

3. Be Devoted to Fellowship (Acts 2:42; Heb.10:24,25)

4. Be Devoted to Good Works (2 cor.9:8; Eph.2:10; Col. 1:10; Titus 2:7,14, 3:8, 14; 1 Peter 2:12)

These are things that need to be priorities in our lives if we are going to live in devotion to Christ. How does your life measure up against these priorities? If you are not sure, then keep track for a week where you spend your time. Record each hour what you've done. At the end of that time, you will see where your priorities are. Are they what you want them to be? If they are not, then schedule into the following week those things that you know should be your priorities. It may mean less sleep or less leisure time. . . it may even mean some drastic changes in what your family does each week. But. . . it will be more than worth it! Something I heard said years ago still applies today. If someone arrested you for being a follower of Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Prioritize your life accordingly!!

ThuThursdayJunJune10th2010

Hospitality

Posted Thursday, June 10 2010 @ 4 PM byPastor Trevor Tagged Christian Living 0 comments Add comment

Yesterday, we looked at the importance of kindness in the church. Today, I would like to take that a step further. The Bible is clear that we are to show kindness to one another in the body of Christ. We are too good to everyone, but especially the household of faith. The many verses that we looked at yesterday highlighted the need to show kindness to our brothers and sisters in Christ, to those we know.

However, we are also to show kindness to strangers. We translate the Greek word φιλόξενος and get our English word hospitality. The Greek word is actually two words put together. The first word is philos which is a Greek word for love, or a friend. The second word is xenos which is a word for stranger. Thus the word means a friend to strangers or loving to strangers, kind to strangers.

Romans 12:13 says that one should seek to show hospitality. The idea here is to pursue, to do something with intense effort and with definite purpose or goal—‘to do with effort, to strive toward. ^{^[1]} We need to be intentional in our pursuit of being hospitable. It doesn’t just happen. We need to purpose to be a people who pursues being hospitable. Harvest, will we be a church that is hospitable? Will be a church that shows kindness and love to strangers.

When looking at someone who would be qualified as an elder in our church we see that he must be one who is hospitable. An elder should be one who is kind to strangers, one who is a friend to strangers. (1 Tim.3:2; Titus 1:7,8)

The writer of Hebrews highlights it’s importance when he tells them that there are some who have entertained angels when they showed hospitality to strangers.( Heb.13:2) We need to be a church that does not neglect showing hospitality to strangers. When we do show hospitality we need to do it with the right heart attitude. Peter writes that we need to show hospitality without grumbling. (1 Peter 4:9) How many people do the right thing with the wrong heart, which ultimately defeats what was to be accomplished. Let us be hospitable with joy and thankfulness. It is our opportunity and privilege to serve God in this way. Who knows what eternal good could come about by our showing hospitality! Harvest let us not neglect the importance of hospitality!!

^{^[1]}Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996, c1989). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament : Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd

edition.) (1:662). New York: United Bible societies.

WedWednesdayJunJune9th2010

Kindness

Posted Wednesday, June 09 2010 @ 2 PM byPastor Trevor Tagged Christian Living 0 comments Add comment

Every one of us in the church has ministry to do. While we may function in different roles we all have ministry responsibilities. NEVER, EVER, should it be said that there is no ministry to be done. It should never be said, “we currently don’t have anywhere for you to serve”. There is always ministry to be done. While many of us have grown up in churches where ministry has been seen as a position there can be a tendency to think that only the mature and talented can do ministry. However, we miss out on so much when we think of ministry as a position. Everyday there is ministry to be done and everyone that is a believer is equipped to do this ministry, because you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Ministry is done through the power of the Spirit. We are to be people that are characterized by the fruits of the Spirit. (Gal.5:22,23) This is how we are to function around one another and throughout our week in contrast to the list that preceded it. The fruit that I want to focus on particularly is the fruit of kindness.

Why is it that I can go to Disneyland I see more smiling faces and people who are kind to me then I find in a lot of churches? From the people who pick you up at the parking lot, to the people you buy tickets from, to the people who check you in, to the staff who run the rides, work at the food places, to the characters...all the staff is taught to be kind...if you don’t you lose your job. If we are not a kind church we ought to close our doors, because we are not exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit.

What does the Bible say about kindness? The Old Testament shows that kindness is to be pursued. “He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. (Job 6:14) Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honour. (Prov.21:21) Describing the godly woman the proverbs read, “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”(Prov.31:26) He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8) Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, (Zech 7:9)

The Rainbow Reminds Us of God's Kindness
(Photo from Harley J Winborn)

The New Testament shows that kindness is not only to be shown to our friends and family, because God is kind to all. “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” (Luke 6:35) “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4) “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.” (1 Cor.13:4) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” (Gal.5:22) “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph.4:32) Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, (Col.3:12)

This list of verses is by no means all the verses that speak of the importance of kindness. Kindness is important to God. Is it important to you? Is your church known for its kindness? Do people see your kindness in your words, in your disposition towards them and in your actions towards them? Everyone in our church needs to be exhibiting the fruit of the spirit of kindness. This is something that is a fruit of the spirit and to be truly impacting it needs to be an overflow of your walk with the Lord. But we need to be intentional to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Harvest lets be a church that is marked by its kindness! People need to be ministered too!

WedWednesdayJunJune2nd2010

Speaking the Truth in Love Part 2

Posted Wednesday, June 02 2010 @ 12 PM byPastor Trevor Tagged Christian Living 0 comments Add comment

Eph.4:11-16 reminds us of one of the key central purposes of the church. The goal of the church is the maturity of disciples. At HBC Calgary our mission is to see lost people saved, saved people matured, matured people multiplied...to the glory of God. As we see from this passage in Ephesians one of the primary ways that men and women are matured is by speaking the truth in love. What does that look like?

If we were to say it another way we could say it involves saying the right thing with the right action and the right motive.

What is Truth?

Pilate when speaking to Jesus asked a question that all people ask at one time or another. What is truth? (John 18:38) If I am to speak the truth in love I first need to determine what is truth. You will hear people say, what is true for you may not be truth for me. They live with the thinking that there is no such thing as absolute truth when it comes to living. I can not disagree more. I believe that there is absolute truth. That truth is found in God's Word. (Ps.119:60, Is.40:8) That truth is found in Jesus Christ (John 14:6). I may not like the things I read in God's Word. It may be convicting, it might make me uncomfortable, but none of that changes the fact that God's Word is true. I can either submit to it or deny it, but I will be judged according to the truth found in His Word. If I am to speak the truth in love, I need to make sure that what I am saying to someone is Biblically supported.

What is love?

Something that is often said at Harvest is that God’s love is not a pampering love, it is a perfecting love (God disciplines those who He loves (Heb.12:6) Love does not say I will give you whatever you want and I will say whatever you want. Parents with children know the importance of not giving their children whatever they want. My youngest would live on bread and candy if we were to let her have whatever she wanted. I'm sure by 18 she would be regretting that her mom and dad had not spoke the truth in love to her and told her that she needed to expand her food tastes. Love says the tough things, the truthful things even when it is unpopular.

Love says I am going to lay aside my desires for someone to like me out of my love for you. Love compels me to say it...even it jeopardizes our relationship. (Prov.14:25) I realize especially in our day that being bold and being truthful is going to be seen as unloving. But what does the Bible say…speak the truth in love. Prov.27:6 “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Profuse means abundant) A true friend will tell you the hard things with the hope that you will become more like Christ, that you will mature in your walk with Him. Speaking the truth in love doesn’t mean cutting the truth in half. (Zech.8:14-17) We are to speak the truth to one another, the whole truth, anything else is really a lie.

Love will not procrastinate...speak the truth in love now, don't put it off. However, when you do speak, make sure you know all the facts...don’t speak in a vacuum. If you don’t know all the facts, don’t approach the person as if you do. Tell them what your concerns are and allow them to clarify the facts. This should be obvious, but the loving thing is to go to the person not everybody else under the disguise of a prayer request. (gossip!)

Lastly, what should your response be when someone is speaking the truth to you in love. We need to welcome it in humility. (Ps.141:5)

I realize two things going through this topic with you.

This is counter cultural and that this is not easy!

Ask God to give you courage to do the right thing when needing to speak the truth in love and the humility to receive instruction. Don't put off doing the right thing, but do it when you have the time to work things through (not when you need to rush away). Be people of prayer.

Our church needs to embrace the value! It has to be held high. Do you want to be a church that is growing quality disciples? Do you want to be mature in Christ? Do you want each part of the body of Christ operating properly? We need to, we have to, speak the truth in love to one another. (Heb.10:24,25)

MonMondayMayMay31st2010

Speaking the Truth in Love Part 1

Posted Monday, May 31 2010 @ 2 PM byPastor Trevor Tagged Christian Living 0 comments Add comment

How Would You Define Biblical Love?

Let me share with you some of the things that I have seen and heard in the church over the last 20 years.

1) Biblical love does not offend. (disciples were concerned with offending -Matt.15:12)

2) Biblical love does not judge. (Matt.7:1) Judge not lest you be judged!

3) Biblical love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8) Interpretation: We should ignore the sin we see in others…cover it up so to speak.

Is this an accurate picture of what Biblical love is? If so then these are the things that we need to strive for in our church. We need to make every effort not to offend, not to judge and not to point out sin in another’s life.

Let me suggest to you that our culture has defined how we read those verses…not a proper understanding of the context and the original intent of the author. A text can not mean what it has not meant. (We can not say when these words were written 2000 years ago in meant X, but now in our day it means Y. There may be different ways to apply the truth, but the truth does not change.)

1. Biblical love does not offend…Jesus offended (Matt.15:10-19) The Gospel offends those who are perishing. (1 Cor.1:20-25) Now are we to be offensive people in our conduct. By no means but our message will be offensive. So our greatest concern is not to be non offensive, but rather to speak truth. This does not give license for people to be offensive in their actions or conduct, but the truth may offend.

2. Biblical love does not judge. There are plenty of Scriptures that seem to contradict Matthew 7:1, so what is Jesus talking about then. He is referring to the self-righteous judgment that was prominent in His day and is still seen in the church today. The kind of person who believes that they have reached perfection and that it is their job to point out the sin of everyone around them. This person is self-deceived and their sin is much more dangerous, because they do not recognize their sin. We can never come to another with any kind of pride, because we are fellow sinners until we should depart from this earth. However, a man in proper humility will come to his brother to help him with his speck in his eye. (Anyone ever had something in their eye…comfortable or not…it drives you crazy right…he still needs help) But we come out of love and concern not as a hypocritical judge. (James 5:19,20; Gal.6:1; Matt.18:15)

3. Biblical Love Covers a Multitude of Sins 1 Peter 4:8 This is to be interrupted not as an ignoring of the sin, but rather as a forgiving of the sin. The Lord’s prayer makes it clear that we are to forgive just as we have been forgiven by the Lord. This is the sense that Biblical love covers a multitude of sins.

Next we will look at what Biblical love looks like in the context of speaking the truth in love .

WedWednesdayFebFebruary10th2010 Honor the King

Posted Wednesday, February 10 2010 @ 12 AM byPastor Trevor Tagged Christian Living 1 comments Add comment

I recently studied and preached Malachi 1:6-14. This passage was a great reminder of what happens to people when they lose their focus. The priests had the best job in the world. They were in the service of presenting sacrifices and offerings to the King of Kings each day. They had been brought back from years in exile and once again they were serving in the temple. Yet as we look at the actions and the attitudes of the Priests we see that their hearts were far from the Lord and they had lost sight of who and why they were serving. The Lord begins by stating that a son honors his father and a servant his master. To honor is to respect, to esteem, to give weight to and to make much of. Everyone knows it is proper that honor is shown in these relationships. However, they were not honoring the Lord who was the Father of Israel nor fearing Him as they should as He was their master. However, the priests were apparantly clueless. The following is the outline that I preached on vs 7-14.

1. Examine Your Actions Says the Lord of Hosts (vs 7-9)
2. Quit the Charade Says the Lord of Hosts (vs 10)
3. Reflect My Greatness Says the Lord of Hosts (vs 11)
4. Examine Your Attitude Says the Lord of Hosts (vs 12,13)
5. Fear the King Says the Lord of Hosts (vs 14)

The Priests lost view of the fact that the Lord of Hosts was who they were serving. The term "Lord of Hosts" means that He was Lord over all heavenly powers, over all armies or another way of saying it is that He is the Lord Almighty. There is no one greater than Him. Their actions showed that they despised the name of the Lord. Their indignance at the Lord's charge against them shows their pride. I'm sure they felt that they were better than the people around them. So what if we are not perfect? At least we try! Well God is never OK with half heartedness. In fact in verse 10 he says that it would be better for them to shut the temple down then to continue sacrificing in the way that they were. God deserves all our best. He deserves actions that would bring him honor. He is a great God (vs11)! Our attitudes can also become skewed when we lose focus on who God really is! The priests were complaining about how tiresome it was to continually have to sacrifice animals. They had become complacent and lost their focus on the King. The Lord reminds them that those who don't worship Him in the way that he requires will be cursed for they are to fear the King! How are your actions and attitudes giving honor to the Lord? Do you reflect the greatness of God in your life? Is the power of the Gospel seen in how you live and who you live for? Are you just going through the motions in your life, church, prayer, devos or are you still amazed to be forgiven by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and your greatest desire is to know Him more! I pray that it is the latter!

FriFridayDecDecember11th2009 What Does Repentance Look Like?

Posted Friday, December 11 2009 @ 5 PM byPastor Trevor Tagged Christian Living 0 comments Add comment

I recently preached on James 4:1-10. The passage is dealing with worldliness. The people that James was writing to were trying to live for the things of this world. They had the same aims and goals as the world. Their focus was on themselves. God made it clear in James 4:4-5 that this is not OK with Him. When we do this we are essentially telling God that we hate Him and we are making ourselves enemies of God. Obviously, God is not OK with this. God opposes the proud (verse 6)! The picture is of an army poised and ready to go. This is how God views the proud. He never has good things to say to those who are proud. BUT, BUT...God gives grace to the humble. God enables us to do that which He calls us to do. He shows us what we must do if we want to get things right with Him. James 4:7-10 gives us maybe the best breakdown in all of Scripture as to what repentance looks like. There are 10 imperatives...10 commands as to what we are to do.
Top 10 Things to Do to Repent
1. Submit yourself to God. -This is to put yourself under. You are placing your life in the Lord's hands and submitting to His will and His commands for your life.
2. Resist the devil. -The idea of resisting is a defensive posture. The word resist can be defined by "standing one's ground". You refuse to give into what the devil would have you do. The result...he will flee from you.
3. Draw near to God. -Sin causes seperation between the sinner and the Lord. (James 4:1-5) However, if we repent and draw near to God an amazing thing happens. God draws near to us.
4. Cleanse your hands. -This is not the idea of cleaniness is next godliness. James was writing to a Jewish audience. They would have been reminded of the command in the OT to cleanse their hands before different times of worship. The act was symbolic of being cleansed of their outer deeds. In this setting James is calling us to stop pursuing friendship with the world.
5. Purify Your hearts -As with all sin the problem begins in our hearts. It is not enough to just stop practing the sin, there also needs to be a change of heart. The Lord said of the Pharisees, these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. Are hearts need to be fully devoted to the Lord.
6. Be Wretched -This is the idea of being miserable. Why does God wants us to be miserable...to be wretched. When we realize the ugliness of our sin we should be miserable and wretched. We should not be complacent or OK with sin in our lives.
7. Mourn -Carrying on the change in emotion that needs to happen, we are told to mourn. This is the passionate grief that someone sees in someone who had lost a loved one. The persons whole persona changes when they are mourning. It is evident to others that they are in deep grief.
8. Weep - The third in this list of emotional changes that should happen in the life of one who is repentant is that they will weep. Some translate the word, "wail". This is the outward pouring out of the grief that this person is experiencing. Numbers 6,7,8 really are joined together in describing the emotional changes that one sees in the person who is truly repentant.
9. Turn -Next we are told to turn. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into gloom. What does that mean some might ask? Doesn't God call us to rejoice in Phil.4:4? Yes, he does. However, in this context, the people that are being written to had put their pleasure and their happiness as the number one goal in their lives. Instead, of putting their personal happiness as the primary goal they needed to rather be broken over their sin and their chasing after friendship with the world.
10.Humble yourself. -We need to bring ourselves low before the King of Kings. This really shouldn't be that hard. When we stop and think about the reality of who we are in reflection of who God is we should drop to our knees. He is the Creator...we are the creation, He is the Savior...we are sinners, He is the Potter and we are the clay, He is eternal...our lives are but a mist. You get the picture.

We need to do this daily. If we want to live lives that are honoring to the Lord, we need keep short accounts in regards to our sin. We need to daily submit our lives to Him, resist the devil, draw near to God and our actions and hearts need to be fully His. When we do sin, we need to turn from our sin and humble ourselves before the Lord asking for His forgiveness and then again submit ourselves to Him, etc. Our focus is key as we strive to live holy lives. John Owen wrote, "Christ is our best friend, and ere long will be our only friend. I pray God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything else but converse and communion with Him." Have a great week! Apply these 10 commands to your life and you will will grow mightily in Him.

Pastor's Blogby A window into the heart and mind of the Senior Pastor for Harvest Bible Chapel Calgary.