Tuesday, March 24, 2009

THE BLESSING OF TESTING

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together
unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word,
nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means:
for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4



Good Morning Friends,

I'm so glad I'm Forgiven by God's Amazing Grace, Saved by the blood of Jesus, Filled with the Spirit of holiness, Walking in the Light, Separated from the world, and Joyfully obeying the will of God! Aren't you?

The incredible erosion of Christian commitment and the tsunami of immorality that is flooding our land, has some now writing of the "COMING EVANGELICAL COLLAPSE." (See Michael Spencer's article in the Christian Science Monitor, and Warren Smith's new book "Lovers Quarrel with the Evangelical Church).
They point to studies like those of George Barna, to reinforce their thesis. Barna is now reporting an alarming increase in skepticism and resistance to Christianity among those who are 16-29 years of age. (see Barna.org)

Michael Spencer writes, "Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministries, Christian music, publishing, and media, has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their faith...it has become a church that really focuses on therapy rather than redemption."

Yet in the midst of the political, economic, social, and even spiritual turmoil we now face, we have "Christ's own promise, which can never fail!" He said, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!" Matthew 16:18.

THE SPECTRE OF CROSS-LESS CHRISTIANITY HAS AT LEAST THIS ONE BENEFIT, WE'RE NOW FINDING OUT WHO WILL "CLING TO THE OLD RUGGED CROSS" AND WHO WILL NOT.
- We're finding out who will live for The Book, and who will explain it away!
- We're finding out who will die for The Book rather than deny The Book!
- We're finding out who will love Christ even unto death, and who will save their own skin.
- We're finding out who will hate even "the garment spotted by the flesh" and those who crave the life of the flesh.
- We're finding out who will justify their sins, rather than be justified from sin! Bonhoeffer warned of cheap grace that "justifies sin" but not the sinner!
- We're finding out who will stand against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and those who will not.
- We're finding out who will lead in the Cause of righteousness, and those who will follow the crowds of the carnal.
- We're finding out who will be popular with God, and who will be popular with the devil's crowd.
- We're finding out those who desire to get the love of the world out of the church, and those who desire to get the life of the world into the Church. (God deliver us from rock and roll, night-club, food-court, sabbath breaking, money-changing, churchianity!)

These are trying times, but God has always had His people.

ENLIST TODAY! God is calling for a rugged band of holy disciples to stand like a Gideon's Band against the onslaught of the Enemy.

ENGAGE TODAY! Having identified ourselves with the Confessing Church, not the "Professing" Church, we must engage the enemy, and press forward in the battle for truth!

We need men and women with warm hearts, enlightened minds, and faithful action! We're now finding out who will "take up the cross," who will "fight the good fight," who will "finish the course," and who will "keep the faith!"

ENJOY TODAY! Assured that our cause is just, our Christ is risen, our eternity is secure, and that Christ, Our Commander in Chief is on the way, we can press on with FAITH IN THE FUTURE, and an unwavering confidence! We are on the winning side.

Monday, March 23, 2009

OSWALD CHAMBERS - CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST

The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to myself.

Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ . . . ." He did not say, "I have made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ," or, "I will really make an effort to follow Him"-but-"I have been identified with Him in His death."

Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all that Christ accomplished for me on the Cross is accomplished in me. My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

ME AND JESUS GOT OUR OWN THING GOING

How many times have we heard it? "Christianity is a relationship not a religion!"

At first I thought I understood what was meant. I thought we were being challenged to walk with the Savior rather than rely on church membership or rituals.

But I have come to see that this "relationship" talk has really been more about reshaping Jesus to fit our expectations, rather than our conforming to His demands, humbly and without reservations.

After Pastor Bill Hybels and the Willowcreek Leadership team discovered the large gap between church attendance and Christian commitment, he determined to change the accent of his ministry. He recently wrote:

"Instead of 'Is Jesus my friend?' we will be asking 'Is Jesus the authority and guide for my life?'"

We could not agree more.

All this reminds me of a silly bumper sticker that was popular years ago, "Jesus is Savior, But Is He Lord?"

The truth is, "Unless He is Lord, He cannot be our Savior." Furthermore, "If He is not Lord of All, He is not Lord AT all!"

At the root of the moral crisis facing our nation is a theological crisis in our faith communities. Some are relying on ritual. Some are relying on intellectual assent to a set of beliefs. Some are relying on super-natural experiences. But Christ has called us to rely on Him.

To believe in Him is to believe HIM, and believe everything He said is right. What He said about love and obedience is right. What He said about marriage and morality is right. What He said about repentance and forgiveness is right.

If it can be said that we have a relationship with Christ, it is not a relationship of peers! It is the relationship of a Sovereign to His Servants. Oh that God would purge our hearts of that pride which lifts us up to His level, and that sin which brings Him down to our level.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

THE TRUTH AND THE CHURCH

The Church of Jesus Christ must be
...unwavering in its commitment to truth,
...passionate in its presentation of truth,
...unrelenting in its defense of truth, and
...unyielding to those who would compromise the truth.

We know that Truth is not simply an idea, it is a Person!
We believe the Lord Jesus Christ who declared,
"I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life,
no man comes to the Father but by me."
The Gospel of John 14:6

The urgent need of our day is for men and women who will acknowledge Christ as the Truth, believe everything He said is the Truth, and then act according to His Truth.

Monday, March 9, 2009

THIS LOST GENERATION

George Barna reported today that only 9% of Americans surveyed hold a Biblical Worldview. He defined a "Biblical Worldview" as holding these basic convictions:

1. Believing that absolute moral truth exists.
2. The Bible is totally accurate in the principles it teaches.
3. Satan is a real being or force, not merely symbolic.
4. A person cannot earn their way to heaven by trying to be good or doing good works.
5. Jesus lived a sinless life.
6. God is the all-knowing, all powerful creator of the world who
still rules the universe today.

BUT WHAT IS MOST ALARMING IN THE RESEARCH FINDINGS WAS THAT LESS THAN 1% OF YOUNG PEOPLE AGES 18-23 HELD A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW.

This study, and other polling data suggest that while the overwhelming majority of teens have at least some experience in Evangelical ministries, by the time these young people reach their 20's fewer than 20% attend Evangelical churches!

WHY ARE THEY REJECTING OUR BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW AND DROPPING OUT OF CHURCH?

1. They have not been born-again. They have not truly tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

2. They have been programmed by secular educators and godless media to be skeptical of Christianity and to view the Bible as unreliable and unrealistic. Young people have not even heard the Christian perspective and sound Biblical teaching.

3. Too often they have seen inconsistencies in the lives of those who confess Christ. This is not to say that Christians will never mess up, but it is to say that if they do--repentance, confession, and consistent Christian living must be exampled. Authenticity is vital.

4. Too many churches have tried "Night-Club" methods to achieve Spiritual results. Unless there is a clear delineation between the world and the church, the church will be impotent and ineffective. The Church can never, and will never out-world the world.

5. Too many Christians are too lazy, apathetic, or afraid of getting involved in reaching out to the younger generation. Spectator Christianity cannot win against the onslaught of the enemy.

6. We have failed to challenge young people to "deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow Christ!" Until we give them something worth dying for, they will not invest their lives in the cause of Christ.

The battle for our nation's young people can only be won by New Testament methods! Those were the methods that transformed the ancient world, and only those same methods will transform ours.


Saturday, March 7, 2009

THE CROSS AND THE CROWN



"Must Jesus bear the cross aloneAnd all the world go free?No there's a cross for everyoneAnd there's a cross for me."Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." We gladly have taken up that cross. Our only regret, are the times when we have failed to faithfully carry the cross. Our greatest joy, are the times when the Savior has invited us "come unto me," and we have listened and obeyed.May God deliver us from "cross-less" Christianity.

THE TRUTH ABOUT WORSHIP

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Good Morning ,

He has attended our church on and off for several months and this morning he called to offer some friendly advice:“Pastor, you need to get up with the times and preach a more positive message…

"You need to lighten up…you should just pray and help people to think good thoughts…most people are going to heaven they just need encouragement…you’d be more popular.”

His call was not well timed. I had just been reading A. W. Tozer’s warning to the Church. “Modern preaching does not deal with a genuine call to repentance from sin and a separation from the world to the cross of Christ.”

Literally minutes before he called I had re-read the words of Catherine Booth, “Popular Christianity is a misnomer. Neither Christ nor his work has ever been popular. When it becomes popular it ceases to be Christian.”So, on the one hand I was being encouraged by a friend to “get up with the times” so that the church would be more popular. On the other hand I was being reminded that popularity is anti-thetical to Christianity.

+ + + +

Observers of Evangelicalism are reporting that mega-churches are growing. They also are alarmed that American church attendance is falling. For the first time in our nation’s history, those attending services on an average weekend will number less than 20% of the population. (See Christianity Today, “Christianity in Crisis.”)

The mega-churches have learned how to market the church, how to manage the church, and how to make their messages “relevant.” But they are not producing mega-spiritual results. The more they have chased after relevance to the culture, the less relevant they have become to Christ. They have unwittingly embraced a humanistic gospel that seeks to make men happy to the neglect of making men holy.

One pastor recently admitted that after spending millions of dollars in programming and marketing their message to “seekers,” they have failed in their mission to produce fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

What is our goal? Is it popularity or is it Pentecost? Is it influence with men, or power from God? Is it affluence, or is it the riches of Grace?
+ + + +

In reflecting on the state of contemporary Christianity, I have found myself asking God to reveal the Truth about our worship.

1. Is our worship spirit-ed or spiritual? Spiritual worship is ordered by the Holy Spirit and inspires holy love that results in holy lives.

2. Is our philosophy of ministry geared to “fit in” or to “stand out?” Are we trying to look, sound, and act as worldly as possible to attract a crowd, or are we trying to separate ourselves from the love of the world in honor of our coming groom—the Lord Jesus Christ?

3. Does our music call attention to the musician or to the Master? Is our music geared to entertain, or does it inspire virtuous living and Scriptural thinking? Does our music, and our presentation of it, appeal to the carnal nature or to the spiritual man?

4. Do we depend more on our technology to “wow,” than we do on the majesty of God’s presence to “Woe!” Remember Isaiah’s reaction when he stood in the presence of God? “Woe is me for I am undone.” (Isaiah 6)5. Does our preaching bring comfort more than conviction? Are our messages burning in our souls and bathed in fervent prayer and fasting, or are they simply adaptations of the latest greatest evangelical book hot off the press? Are we more likely to say, “Thus saith Rick Warren, or Max Lucado or Joel Osteen, or some other popular author” than we are to say, “Thus saith the Lord?”

6. Are we producing Christian spectators or Christ-like participants? If the ministry is fulfilling its God-given assignment, it will “perfect the saints for the work of the ministry.” Ephesians 4:12.

7. Is our Christianity self-absorbed or does it move converts to “turn the world upside down?” Are we producing pray-ers or play-ers? Are we “me” oriented or mission minded? Are we, like our Lord, “moved with compassion” when we see the multitudes scattered abroad like sheep having no shepherd?

8. Are we giving to get from God or are we giving to Glorify God? Do we give incidentally or do we give sacrificially? Do we tip or do we tithe? Do we give to be loved or do we love to give? Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

9. Do we seek to justify our sins or are we seeking to be justified (made righteous) from all sin? Do we love sin or do we hate even the garment spotted by the flesh? (Jude 23). Do we desire to sin, or do we desire to be sanctified wholly?

10. Is the accent of our ministry on this world, or is it on the world which is to come? C. S. Lewis says that those who are the most heavenly minded are the most earthly good.

+ + + +

On the day that Jesus announced there would be no more free fish suppers so many of his followers left, that Jesus turned to the disciples and asked, “Will ye also go away?” (John 6:66)

As it was in the first century, so it is in the twenty-first century. Jesus is still asking his followers, “Will ye also go away?” Sadly many have. But we agree with Peter, “Lord to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life!”With the song-writer we have decided to follow Jesus!
“Though none go with us,
still we will follow!
No turning back.
No turning back!”

THINK THINGS LOOK BAD NOW?

Good Morning!

Think things look bad now, imagine what the disciples were thinking on Good Friday.

Jesus was betrayed by one of his twelve disciples, falsely accused by the religious leaders, convicted in a kangaroo court, cruelly executed by the Romans, and carried by his broken-hearted disciples to a grave just as the sun was setting. From the perspective of our Lord's faithful disciples, everything had gone wrong. Certainly it appeared that the Lord was powerless against the onslaught of Satan.

And what of our day?

Like Judas, there are many who have betrayed the Lord for personal gain.

Like our Lord's accusers, "professing" religious men mock and reject those who will stand with the Christ for Biblical Truth (Witness the shouts of "legalist!" against those of us who strive to enter in to the straight gate of purity and holiness).

And like Pilate and the Roman culture he represented, our generation is unwilling to acknowledge even the existence of Truth. Governance is more about personality than principle. And like sheep led to the slaughter, we are being led to the precipice of moral anarchy.

Objective truth is being sacrificed for subjectivism, freedom is being sacrificed for the illusion of security, responsibility is being sacrificed for immediate gratification, and holiness is being sacrificed for popularity. We are paying dearly now, but I fear we have only begun to realize the cost of our folly.

It appears to us, like it must have appeared to the disciples, everything is going wrong. So what are we, as the people of God, to do?

OUR COMMITMENT .

1. TRUST THE WORD OF GOD!
The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament are inspired by God, and are inerrant. God's Word is intellectually credible and rational. It means what it says and says what it means. Extensive knowledge of the Word is important, but obedience to the letter and to the spirit of God's Word is more important. When Biblical commands demand that we change course, we must trust the Word more than our feelings or our desires. For example: If God's Word says we should not marry a particular person then we should not marry them. If God's Word says we should dress modestly and according to our gender, then guys shouldn't wear dresses and ladies should not dress in a revealing fashion.

2. ACT BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD!
Beginning at Pentecost, the New Testament Church was Spirit-driven. The Power of Pentecost moved them to action--witnessing publicly and from house to house, walking in the Spirit of Holiness not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, and prayerfully following the leadership of the Spirit. If God's people would truly act in the Spirit, we would fill our world with the Gospel, like the 1st Century Christians filled Jerusalem with their doctrine.

3. LOVE THE WILL OF GOD!
It is not natural for men to love to do the will of God. But when the "Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost," then "His commandments are not grievous." "Herein is our love made perfect" as we "dwell in Him and He dwells in us." Pray God will perfect your love for Him, so that "you whole body, and soul, and spirit, will be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord!" "Faithful is he that calls you who also will do it!"

OUR PLAN OF ACTION .
This is NOT the time for God's people to retreat from the mainstream of society and confine ourselves to our comfortable Christian sub-culture.

This is NOT the time for the Church to imitate the world, ingratiate the flesh, or surrender to the devil.

This is NOT the time for the Church to blend into the culture (I'M HEARTSICK AT THE NUMBER OF CHURCHES THAT LOOK AND ACT MORE LIKE NIGHT-CLUBS OR SHOPPING MALLS, THAN HOUSES OF PRAYER!) This is the time for our services to God-ordained, Spirit-filled, and Christ-honoring gatherings.
Our mission must be to disturb the comfortable and to bring comfort to the disturbed.

This is NOT the time for the Church to give up on the Great Commission (Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:19,20), it is time for us ramp up our efforts, increase our investment, and give all we have to this holy Crusade.

TO THAT END WE ARE DEDICATING OURSELVES TO:

1. INTERCESSORY PRAYER. We will pray fervently and "without ceasing" for the salvation of the lost, for believers who are battling the enemy, for the Church of Jesus Christ, and for our nation. Watch for announcements of special prayer services. Every service of the Church will begin with prayer.

2. AGGRESSIVE EVANGELISM AND SOUL-WINNING. With the Lord's help, we will take the Gospel to 500 homes every week, in addition to our regular calling on prospects and families. Time is short, millions are unprepared to meet the Lord. We cannot, we dare not stand idly by.

3. SPIRITUAL WORSHIP. Jesus said, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shallworship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." Our singing, our praying, our testifying, our giving, our preaching--all will be Spirit led, and Truth driven. Church must not be turned into entertainment or a performance or a rock and roll concert. Only spiritual worship can produce spiritual worshippers.

4. TOTAL COMMITMENT AND COMPLETE INVOLVEMENT. It is settled in our hearts that our Christianity will not be segmented to only a few hours a week, but that it will be integrated into all that we do or say, at work, at school, at home, and wherever we are. It's All for Jesus! Discipleship is not optional!

The Apostle Paul encouraged the Corinthians,
For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.
For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

Indeed we too are "weak in him" but WE SHALL LIVE WITH HIM BY THE POWER OF GOD! For "the same spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead," will "quicken our mortal bodies" to live in victory!

WE LOVE ALL OF YOU AND LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THIS SUNDAY! IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU COME THIS WEEK FOR A VERY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.

Pastor Rick Jones

FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH
2969 North Lindbergh Blvd,
St. Louis, MO 63074
Telephone (314) 607-1424

Sunday Service Schedule:
Children's Bible Hour & Adult Bible Study 10:30 A
SundayMORNING PRAISE AND WORSHIP 11:00 A
SundayEVENING SERVICE OF EVANGELISM 7:00 P
MIDWEEK SERVICE, Wednesday 7:00 P
FRIDAYSTeen Service 7:00 P