Jesus is not the reason for the season

Jesus is not the reason for the season. I know that may sound like a shocking statement, especially coming from a pastor but oh well. This phrase, "Jesus is the reason for the season" has always rubbed me the wrong way, I cringe every time I see it or when someone sends a Christmas card with it. I imagine it was some slick slogan drummed up by a marketing team to compete with the over commercialization of Christmas, but for the love of God please stop saying it.

I know and understand that we, as humans, are different in many ways, but bad theology always has been and will continue to be BAD theology. Jesus didn't come into the world for Jesus. God didn't send his Son to earth or to the cross for that matter for himself. Isaiah 9 states, "For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." And we read in Luke 2, "Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:  to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord."

For all people, to you, for us, to us; we are the reason for the season, not Jesus. Jesus came for you, for everyone that has ever been and for everyone who will ever be. God is self sufficient, He sent His Son for the redemption of all of creation, so that we may gain salvation and everlasting life if we choose to believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus came to restore what was lost in the Garden so many years ago. He came to take what we deserve, death, to rescue us from slavery, not from slavery in Egypt, but from the slavery of sin, death, Satan, and Hell.

You are the reason for the season, you are the reason for Christmas. The next time someone asks what Christmas is all about, tell them Christmas is about them, us. Tell them about what God did for them and why he did it. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." John 3:16. Enjoy Christmas, after all you are the reason for the manger. Worship God in a new way this Christmas, step into the calling he has given you, the life he wants you to have. Remember the words of Jesus, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." - Merry Christmas to you all.

Be ready at all times

Recently I had some time to spend in the woods. It is one of my favorite places to be, when I get  completely surrounded by God's creation and have no other place to be. There is something special about sitting in the woods, when you know that not another living person knows where you are at and God is the only one who is aware of your current location. It is this perfect time of solitude and peace, although I am covered in camo with a weapon as I wait to try and harvest one of God's creations. I will admit that I have been completely lost in thought with God a time or two, while a deer has strolled up.

On this occasion I was sitting on the ground, legs hanging over the edge of a ridge, watching and listening to all that was going on in the trees. It's as if you become one with nature, you can feel the wind shift, the sound of a stick being stepped on 100 yards away and then it happened. Something caught my eye, I looked down and a snake was right next to my leg. Are you kidding me, how did this snake get right next to me, how did I not see or hear it, so much for being at one with nature. As soon as I saw the snake, he or she, saw me too (remember camo) neither of us was going to move. Now, I am not afraid of any snake, as Jesus commanded, ^"See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you."

Although I was in no real danger form this snake it did make me think. Thanks to Adam in the garden of Eden, I can't help but think of Satan when I see a snake slithering by. This snake got really, really close and it made me ponder, how many times has Satan slithered right up next to me without me noticing. As R.C. Sproul put it, "Cunning. Craftiness. Subtlety. Guile. These are the descriptive qualifiers that paint the biblical portrait of Satan."   I can get so comfortable in my surroundings that I don't see him coming. Or I can get super focused on a task or objective that I'm like a horse with blinders on. And then it happened again. Where did it go, as slick as it slithered up to me, it has vanished. So I started looking, I mean really looking without moving (I'm still hunting) for this snake. There he is, somehow he moved without notice and had turned the tables on me and was completely camouflaged in the grass to my left.   

Just like Satan, when I thought the snake was gone, I see him hiding in the grass. What a perfect vision of Satan, he loves to slither up next to us and hide, close enough to strike. Unless your different than me, I find it that I am in the most danger, I am at my weakest, when I am alone. When no other person knows where I'm at. The problem with me, is me, as good as I try to be and as much as I try to follow Jesus, at my core I'm still sinful by nature or as some might call it depravity. My take away from this little encounter with a slithering friend, keep my guard up, especially when I think I'm alone(we are never alone, Jesus is always with us). We also get some good advice from Peter,  "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that- the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings." - 1 Peter 5:8-9

We are all Children

Jesus liked calling those who followed him children. Maybe because they where young, maybe because they acted immature, maybe it was because in following Jesus they became just like him and he was the Son of God. Disciples of any kind have one real job, to be like their teacher in every way. If you were a good disciple you would talk like your teacher, walk like your teacher and as you grew, you would start to think like your teacher.


Now in 1 John 3, John talks about us being children of God and that we are to abide in him. We like to think of ourselves as children of God, co-heirs with Christ. As followers of Jesus we identify ourselves as brothers and sisters of Him and each other. I believe He uses this language because we all have a desire to be apart of a family, we were designed by God to be in relationships with each other and Him. John takes this a step farther and in doing so he makes the case for whom we are children of.


"Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning." Well, how does that make you feel? Granted I am far from perfect, I struggle with sin just like everyone else, but I don't think there has ever been a time in my life that I thought to myself, "I'm a child of the devil". A child of the devil is a title for those really bad people that kill others, rape, destroy, ya know those evil people that do really bad things. I mean, my sins are not that bad. Yet in the eyes of God a sin is a sin, He has no scale from 1 to 10, either you abide in Him or you don't. Either you follow his Son or you follow someone else, there is NO middle ground.


I don't know about you, but now I feel bad, crap, every time I sin I know it's because I'm not putting Christ first. I'm putting myself first, chasing what I want, what the world say's is good, I have a right to feel good (wrong) and every time I do that, what I am is a child of the devil. Satan has one goal, to kill, steal, and destroy. He hates us and I have no desire to be called a child of him. John continues, "The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil."


When the Son of God, Jesus Christ, gets revealed to you, when you allow yourself to be in His presence, when the light shines in the darkness of your soul all the shame, guilt, sorrow, and work of the devil will be destroyed. And what will be left is a child of God. Jesus didn't come to punish you, he came to give life, to restore, redeem, and forgive. But we have to come to him, we have to let the old self die, so that we may be made new in Christ.


So, who are you a child of? According to the Christ follower John, we have 2 choices, be a child of the devil or be a child of God. So how do we abide in him, love. John says we need to love one another, if we hate anyone then we fail. "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us - and we ought to lay down our lives for one another." You can't be a follower of Christ if there is no action to support it. John says, "Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action." In light of all the racial tension, the political hate speech that is all over the world, can't we do better. Let us love one another in the name of Christ, and show the world what it really means to be child of God.    

Reflecting

Now that 2015 is over and we are off and running with 2016, we all have the task of doing our year end paper work. You know the boring end of year reports that you have to do, ugh, the financial statements that come in the mail as we start to prepare for taxes and I can think of a hundred other things I would rather do with my time. So I did those reports this week and it came with a large dose of reflection, God has blessed us this year, God has blessed the church and that deserves some praise.

When you start out in ministry it always comes with a little or a lot of unknowns and can require or dare I say must require a level of trust, faith, and knowledge that without God none of it will work. If you wait for everything to be perfect no ministry will start, so you jump in and pray and pray and pray some more that God will use you and that you will listen for His will.

So with 2015 over I looked back and WOW, you know you miss it in the moment. At times it might not even seem like much is happening, measuring success in ministry is a very tricky thing to do, which has led to many of great people to fold up shop and leave the ministry all together. At Rejoice Community Church we have been blessed, I have been blessed. In 2013 we had 177 members, our tithing was at an all time high as well as our weekly attendance. 2014, 211 members, good tithing and steady numbers. 2015, 255 members, tithing at an all time high, every measurable stat is at it's highest in the 16 year history of the church, except weekly attendance. Members doesn't count all those who call Rejoice home and have not officially joined the church, so that means we are over 300 people calling Rejoice their church, praise God. I know it's not all about numbers, but every number is a person, it's a face and a story.

Now this is my thought, I have been blessed to be the pastor of this church for the last year and I pray with many more years to follow. But calling a new pastor has very little to do with church growth and success. There are hundreds of struggling churches with around 3,500 closing each year and if just bringing the right pastor was the answer this would be an easy fix.

When I came to Rejoice, I took the advise of friends who have been pastors longer than I, and started praying about vision, what is God's will for this church. The vision that God gave me was 5%, reaching 5% of the unchurched with the love and message of Jesus Christ. I didn't know how this was going to happen, and as it turns out 5% is a really big number (425). Visions are great, but if the church(the actual people that make up Rejoice) doesn't fall in love with the vision it is worthless. The only reason we have grown over the last couple years is because of the people have started to live into their calling to be followers of Christ. I share with them the vision and try to equip them for the battle, as they go and reach out to others in the community. The people of Rejoice deserve the credit and not the pastor, God deserves the credit and not the pastor. When a church is struggling it's usually not the pastor's fault, but the people of the church are the one's who have to decide if they will take an active stance for God's Kingdom mission. The church exist for non-members.

Struggling churches are not full of bad people, they are mostly full of really great people, who love God. If a struggling churches answer is bring in a new pastor and all the problems go away, they are CRAZY. The result will be that same as it was with the last pastor, he or she will lay out a vision and the church won't support it and things will go bad and it will be the pastors fault. The church is God's, it is the bride of Christ and He is relational, so if your church is not relational with those outside of your church, with the Non-members, with the outcast, with the lost, then YOU need to CHANGE, not the pastor. Okay rant over.

I thank God for the hearts of the people of Rejoice, for their love of each other and for those they don't even know. But now it gets real, we are at a place of unknowns. Rejoice has never been here, and I get crazy excited just thinking about it. I think of Star Trek, "going where no man has gone before", that's us and praise God that it is. This means we are going to be doing things that we have never done before, I pray that in the next year I hear people say, we have never done this, haha that's right and here we go. God is soooo much bigger than we can imagine, but what about the fear of not knowing? We are children of God so what do we have to be afraid of, we are free and there are so many people in our community that have never heard that message, so who cares if we can't see the shore, if we, all of us, can allow God to steer the ship all we have to do is invite others aboard. God gave us the mission, and now we have a vision. Thank you Jesus for allowing us to be a part of your Kingdom and help us to follow your will, Amen.