Burying the Lead

Students can be incredibly hard to reach. I mean really reach. They’ll be your friend. They’ll talk to you. They’ll even let you develop a perception that you’ve reached them on a deep level…but you haven’t.

My truck was in the shop recently and a colleague picked me up and gave me a ride to the office. En route we drove by a large high school. In talking about it we both instinctively said, “I do NOT miss high school!” Honestly, it was pretty awful. Middle school wasn’t much better. High school is hard, so in order to protect themselves students build up various levels of walls to keep the big scary world out.

As youth ministers we have to climb over the monumental fact that we’re not students with them. We’re not their peers. As much as why try to be “relevant” or “on their level,” at the end of the day we’re still just another adult vying for their attention and claiming the authority to speak into their lives. Once you work, and invest in the relationship, and lose hours at lock-ins and online playing CoD, and sitting in the bleachers cheering at football games, there are still just some areas that won’t let you through. There are just some gates you can’t get past.

And then, usually you have no idea that it’s coming, a student will come up to you and share something spiritually amazing that’s happened in their lives…and they thank you, sometimes you hug, sometimes there are tears. You really have to treasure those moments. And I do. I write about them in my journal. I have a file for things that students hand to me. I even keep scrapbooks of ministries I’ve worked with in the past. All of those things are an important part of keeping your sanity in ministry.

All of that being said, I kind of always thought those moments were amazing, but just an unexplainable mystery of the greatness of God. I mean, how we can get over the disparity of our stations in life, somehow sneak past their defenses and then find amazing rewards…and, maybe I’m burying the lead here, then I read this:

Isaiah 45:2-3

I will go before you
    and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
    and cut through bars of iron.
³ I will give you hidden treasures,
    riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord,
    the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

Holy Frustration Batman!

Luke 9:35-41

                        A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” ³⁶ When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.

³⁷ The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. ³⁸ A man in the crowd called out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. ³⁹ A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. ⁴⁰ I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”

⁴¹ “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”

                I absolutely love this passage of scripture because we see Jesus in kind of a strange place. We’re used to seeing him in miracle mode or teacher mode, but this story finds him in between those places. He’s just come from the Mount of Transfiguration. I suppose you could consider this a spiritual sabbatical of sorts. Just prior to this he had been teaching, healing, calming storms, raising the dead…a busy season of ministry to say the least (and you thought Christmas time was rough). So he took some time away. He went up to the mountain to pray and refocus and get away from the crowds and even most of his disciples. He has this amazing time on the mountain communicating with some old buddies (i.e. Moses and Elijah). He comes back down the mountain refreshed…and here are the people waiting for him, unchanged and needy.

Adam West is easily the greatest Batman
of all time...sorry Christian Bale

                Like I said, I love this passage of scripture. My yearly Bible plan takes me through it at least once and I usually read it more than that in a year. Every time I come away with something different and today I saw something amazing…Jesus was frustrated! Even the Lord of all Creation was frustrated! There it is! Holy Frustration! The divine mandate for my curmudgeon ministry!

I don’t believe he was frustrated that the people had needs, but in their lack of spiritual maturity. Meaning, it’s not about the disciples healing this kid, it’s about the power of God.

 The fact that even Jesus got a little frustrated says a lot about me, and you, and about ministry in general. Here are two new things I took away from this passage:

       1.            Jesus got frustrated…but never sinned.

a.       It’s easy to cloak the cause of sin in frustration. Don’t let yourself get away with saying, “I’m sorry, I only said that (or looked at you that way or treated you badly or threw you under the bus to a church member) because I was frustrated.” Always choose your words carefully!

                                                               i.      “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”[1]

       2.            The Kid Really Was Possessed!

a.       Just because the people were not where He might have wanted them to be spiritually doesn't mean they were just being needy…the kid was really possessed! The point here is that Jesus, despite his frustration perhaps even to the point of disappointment, still happily worked to meet the need. A wise minister I worked for advised me to always love people where they are even if that’s not where you hoped they would be.

i.       “If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?”[2]

            Jesus, help us to be like you. Help us to be sinless in frustration and to love people where they are.

---

[1] Luke6:45, NIV

[2] James2:15, NIV

TINSTAFL

          At my high school Economics was a filler class. It got only one semester and it was paired up with American Government so it was boring by association. One, I’m sure it was a Monday, my econ teacher told us one day about the glorious “TINSTAFL Principle.” He was so proud of this word because none of us knew what it meant. TINSTAFL is an acronym for “There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” It comes from people who use free stuff as “bait” to suck you into a sales pitch. They may offer to buy your lunch or to give you a week at beach front resort, but you’re going to hear their sales pitch or time-share presentation. It’s never free…never. 

          I serve at an amazing church called Evangel Community Church here in Northeast Atlanta. We just finished a week long session of outreach. We call the week CityReach (Check out a CityReach rewind video here!) and for us it’s just about simple acts of kindness. We give out water at the T-Ball Park and packs of gum outside of the Italian restaurant here in town. We feed firemen and policemen and we monitor school lunch rooms so that teachers can get a break. We cap the whole week off with a blow out Family Funday with free food and inflatables and we give away groceries to the first 125 needy families that show up. There was one question that got asked over and over at each outreach and with a confused look, “It’s free?”

          I was thinking about how “free” these things were the last few days while recovering from the outreach whirlwind. We do tell people that the items and services they are receiving are free, but that’s not really honest. Someone has paid for all of that gum, and doughnuts, and bottled water. In this case it was our church budget and the generosity of our congregation that bore that burden. It’s not free…more accurately it’s a gift. It cost someone something, just not you.

          For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
1 Peter 1:18-21

          Often times archetypal evangelists talk about salvation as a free gift. They’ll even pull out a $20 and ask someone to come down and take it. They say, “It’s free, c’mon somebody come and take it!” and then they tell you that your salvation is the same way. They are wrong. That money wasn’t free. It cost the evangelist 20 bucks! It was just a GIFT. Salvation wasn’t free either. You see our sin was so great that GOD had to die for it! God! Is there anything more valuable? Think of that next time someone tries to convince you that something sinful is no big deal.

          There’s a new hotel in Las Vegas called “The Cosmopolitan.” Apparently they believe the “Sin City” moniker is a bit too much. Their new slogan is “Just the Right Amount of Wrong.” Please hear me when I say, there is no right amount.

          Sin is a big deal and TINSTAFL applies to salvation too. It’s not free, it cost God his Son and it cost the Son his life. It IS however, a gift. Have you received it?

          …if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9

Fighting "Rock Middle" Part 2

It Doesn't Matter What You Think!

          I've been talking recently about being stuck in the middle. So often we hear fantastic testimonies of people who are just scraped from the bottom and are used by God to do amazing things. I think there’s a trap in that. I think far more people, particularly Christians, are stuck in the middle. They are stuck somewhere between saved and free. Jesus addressed this in Luke and I talked about dissipation last time, now we’re moving on to “Drunkenness and the Anxieties of Life.”

          “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
Luke 21:34-36

Step 2: Avoid Drunkenness and the Anxieties of Life

          Please don’t think, “Here we go, another Jesus Juicer’ talking about drinking…zzzzzzz” and turn your brain off. There is some debate over this issue so I’ll just keep it simple. Paul wrote that we should, “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22, KJV). That means we should stay away from stuff that someone might consider bad, or ungodly, or unfitting for a follower of Jesus. You might be thinking to yourself, “That’s not fair!” or “I have intellectual arguments that make it ok!” You’re right and you might but here’s the deal….it… doesn’t… matter what you think! (Where are my old school WWF fan’s at?!?) If something in your life whether it’s drinking, or drug use, or the way you talk, or how you dress, or they way you part your hair makes someone reconsider Jesus as their savior you have just made a poor decision. Jesus said, “It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:2).

          The second part of this phrase is, “anxieties of this life.” I think this means more than just being worried about your bills. Yes, many Christians will trust Jesus with their eternal salvation and not to meet their day to day needs, but I don’t see that as the full meaning of this phrase. Paul wrote to his spiritual son Timothy, “Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica…” (2 Tim. 4:9-10). For some of us our anxiety is not our worldly cares and needs but our care for what the world has. How many people have walked away from a call of God because the craved what the world offers. I almost did. Their anxiety derived from the belief that they were missing out on something. Are you really afraid you’re missing out on sin…which leads to death?

         I think these worldly behaviors are what keep us stuck in the middle. So in order to get out of the middle and move forward remember that it doesn’t always matter what you think. Be careful to not be a distraction to others and don’t be a Demas and be too concerned for the things of this world. 

Be on the lookout for Part 3 coming soon! 

The Great Comission Lifestyle

     At my church, Evangel Community Church in Snellville, GA, one of our values is to live what we any many other churches call a "Great Commission Lifestyle." We believe that "Reaching Lost People Here and Around the World" is our job. When Jesus ascended into heaven (Matthew 28) He commissioned believers to go into all the word and make disciples in His name and to spread the Good News to the four corners of the earth. He did not call us to do this once. He called us to do this with our lives. In a sense, everything in our lives should exist just to support our evangelism efforts.

    If humans are good at one thing it's complicating a simple task. It's rather easy for us to make reasoned efforts to talk ourselves out of sharing our faith with those who desperately need it.

    We make excuses like: "I'm really busy today." or "I'm not in a good place right now." or "Who am I to tell them how they should live?" or "I've got my own problems..."

    Let's take a look at a biblical example on that last one:

Acts 16:22-36 
     The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 

     About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” 

     The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 

     They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

    If anyone had a good reason to excuse themselves from the Great Commission for a moment it was Paul and Silas. If you read the beginning of chapter 16 you will see that they were beaten and jailed for casting out an evil spirit that was tormenting a young slave girl. It's not until later that we find out that her owners were making money off of her torment. They had lost all of their income. So Paul and Silas were brutally beaten and tossed in jail.

     There are so many parts to this story that just baffle me.

    First, they were singing praises to the Lord.  Am I the only one who will bare their poor miserable soul and admit that I might not be inclined to sing three verses of Just As I Am right after being publicly beaten and tossed in the slammer?

    Second, they didn't run for the hills as soon as the doors clanked. I would've been out like the Atlanta Falcons in the playoffs. But they stayed. My first thought is, "Why?" We get our answer in the next verse.

    Third, they led a man and his entire household to the Lord! In their condition, after the day they'd had they held an altar call! These guys are awesome!

    I know my excuses like "I'm tired today" or "I've been through a lot recently" don't hold much water in the light of Paul and Silas.

    What about yours? Which of your excuses does this story shatter? How can you live out your Great Commission Lifestyle today?

Potty-Training Christians?

    Do you remember when you were little and you were being potty trained? Do you remember how everyone would celebrate every time you went, “Poo-Poo in the Potty?” Actually, now that I think about it, you were three years old. You probably don’t remember. I only remember because I have a younger sibling. And let me tell you, that’s a weird time in the life of the older sibling:

            “Mom and Dad! I got a 94 on my spelling test!”

            “Who cares? Your sister made a two-sie!”

            And then you think to yourself, “Man…the folks used to be harder to impress.”

            It’s good to celebrate that with small children who are potty training. Positive reinforcement helps them learn the behavior and that’s good, but we don’t do that when we’re older right? Did you jump out of the bathroom at age 17 going, “Mommy I did it!” They would have gotten you an appointment with a psychologist right away.

            WHAT’S THE POINT: You are supposed to get credit and praise for these things when you’re learning them, but now that we’re older it’s considered the bare minimum that you can use the bathroom without any assistance. You don’t get credit for that right? Check out this parable from Jesus:

Luke 17:7-10 “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

            Sometimes our first impulse with this kind of story is to read it and think, “What a jerk! He won’t even cut that guy a little slack!” What you need to understand is that the master had paid for this man to do some work and the worker should not expect a shower of gifts for completing the job. Our Master, Jesus, paid for us. He died on a cross for my sins and your sins. When he left this world he commissioned us to do a job. He asked us to go forward and make disciples (Matt. 28:16-20).

            With God though, we still want credit for the bare minimum. We say, “God I prayed today and it didn’t start with “God is great…God is good…Let us thank Him for our food…!” or “Jesus if you will please let this cop not give me a ticket, but a warning I will commit to ten years of missions work in Bangladesh!”

We want applause, but God is saying, “That’s good, really. I’m glad you did that today, but your friends are destined for the wrong side of eternity…is there anything you want to ask me about them?”

I want to have the heart that craves more than the bare minimum. I want a heart that desires to live a Great Commission Lifestyle. I think Paul describes this lifestyle well:

“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”

Colossians 1:28-29