Posts from February, 2012

Dear church,

This Sunday will be a significant springboard for our church family. Lord willing, two things will begin. First, I hope God stirred your heart last week to join in our Three50 Challenge. If you were not here, please take a moment to get online and visit the blog section of our website to watch the video introduction (www.osefc.org/blog/). We’re praying for and planning to see 50 people sent out as short-term missionaries and 50 people become followers of Jesus over the next three years. Then, three years from now, we’re hoping to send 50 people out as the core group of a new church-plant. That challenge starts this Sunday. We’re asking everyone to invite someone they know to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My message will be titled Investigating Jesus and that is what we will do together. We’ll start in Luke 1:1-4 and do our best to examine the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. This will be a great message for those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ to hear and, my hope is, it will provide the basis for great discussions with your friends and family afterwards. Through it, I’m praying that people would turn to Jesus in repentance and become followers of Him.

The second thing we will begin this Sunday will probably not take us quite as long as Three50, but it will be a substantial commitment. Together, we will launch into a study of Luke’s Gospel. At this point, I am not even sure how long it will take us, but my rough estimate is two years. There will be some messages here and there that are not from Luke, but it is my plan to work through the whole Gospel.

Let me tell you why I think it’s important for us to undertake a study like this. My conviction to preach straight through books of the Bible is rooted in studying the whole counsel of God. What I mean by that is it is, of course, my intention to be accurate and Biblical with all that we say through our preaching, however, if we are dependent on preachers to pick and choose topics, we may, unintentionally, open ourselves up to the possibility of never addressing difficult topics and hard realities. However, if we make the commitment to study straight through whole books of the Bible, there is nowhere to hide from difficult passages. We will be forced to consider all that God has given His people in these books. Also, preaching sequentially through entire books of the Bible helps us to make the main point of a passage the main point of a sermon. If, on the other hand, we began with an idea that we wanted to communicate (even a Godly idea) and went to find texts that supported our idea, foundationally, we would be preaching ideas that derived from us, not God. We want to ensure that what is said from the Scriptures is what God intended to say. This is called “expository preaching” and for the reasons I just listed, it is one of our stated values as a church.

I hope you see our reason for approaching preaching, in general, in this way. Now, the big question of this sermon series: why Luke? Why, out of the 66 books in the Bible, do I want to spend two years in Luke? Simply, I love Luke’s purpose in writing and I think it is still a vital purpose in our area today. In the third and fourth verses of his Gospel, Luke tells us why he is writing. “It seemed good to me…to write an orderly account for you…that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” Many people we know, both inside of and outside of the church, find themselves in one of two places. Either they know the stories of Jesus, but they don’t understand the Gospel. They have a vague sense of religion, but they do not have a vibrant faith. Luke writes to them. He says, “I want to giving you certainty about what you’ve heard.” The other place people generally find themselves is having no background in the church and not knowing anything about Jesus. Luke writes to them, too. He says, “I’ve written an orderly account for you, so that you can be introduced to these truths.”

No matter how long you have been following Jesus or whether you are not yet a worshipper of Jesus, the Gospel of Luke has something to say to you. It will challenge those who are skeptical and unbelieving and it will challenge those of us who have followed Jesus for years to revival and true faith. Perhaps, even more so than the first, I am excited about that second purpose. For all of us, it is a testimony to the victory of God through Jesus, the Christ. That’s why we’ve entitled the series Victorious: Following Jesus through Luke’s Gospel.

This will be an exciting Sunday, one that will launch us into the next two years and beyond. I hope you will be here. I hope you will bring some friends.

For the sake of His name,

Pastor Adam

This past Sunday was big for Our Saviour. We announced a challenge to pray for and plan to see 50 people sent out as short-term missionaries and 50 people become followers of Jesus over the next three years. Then, three years from now, we hope to have 50 people become the core group of a church-plant in our area. We’re calling this challenge Three50. More information and more importantly, many opportunities to be a part of this challenge, will be coming in the next several weeks and months. For now, we just have one question: Are you in?

Dear church,

Everyone is contending for truth. While relativistic thinkers have been around for thousands of years, perhaps they have never been so widespread. One of the attacks the secular media and those antagonistic toward the Church bring on a consistent basis goes something like, “Christians are so narrow-minded for making absolute truth claims.” What are we supposed to do?

If we believe the words of the Bible, not only is truth knowable, but it, or should I say He, is personal. In John 14:6-7 Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Isn’t that amazing? We can see and know truth!

We can also read truth. Perhaps that does not seem like a controversial statement around our church, but try telling many of your neighbors or coworkers that and see what kinds of reactions you receive. King David says, “The sum of your word is truth” in Psalm 119:160 and Jesus says, “Your word is truth” in John 17:17. If we can read the truth and know the truth, we are compelled to proclaim the truth; namely, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we gather this Sunday morning, we will focus on another commitment that defines our church: truth. As a church, we are committed to studying, teaching, and submitting to the truth of God. This is not something that comes easily to us. In the face of resistance and many opposing viewpoints, we must contend for truth. We are not just committed to this for ourselves, but for the hundreds and thousands of people in our lives and the billions of people around the world who do not know the Truth.

This Sunday, we will talk about the nature of truth, but it will not be a philosophical time for distant ideas. We will proclaim and celebrate the nearness of the God of truth in Jesus Christ. He is knowable and He is truth. Truth can be known and it is essential to life that we know Him. I hope you will join me.

For the sake of His name,

Pastor Adam

Dear church,

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

-Romans 8:9-11

            Christians are spiritual people. In fact, we are the only spiritual people. You may know someone who disagrees. It is not uncommon to hear a person say something similar to, “I’m not religious, but I am very spiritual.” In fact, I would mostly agree with this statement when it comes to myself. However, most people making it and I probably disagree significantly over the meaning and intention of their words. They are probably referring to a new-age, alternative understanding of faith and purpose in life. When I think of spirituality, I think of life through God the Holy Spirit.

The Bible teaches that those who place their faith in Jesus Christ are no longer empty shells, but temples of the Holy Spirit. That’s a significant change. It is a change in purpose. It is a change from an inward focus on oneself to an outward focus on God and others. And, mostly importantly, it is a change from death to life. In the verses above, the Apostle Paul says a person without the Spirit lives for the flesh. That is his way of saying they only seek to gratify themselves. However, he says a person who lives by the Spirit glorifies God.

As we continue in our series of Sunday morning messages on our core commitments, this week we will define our commitment to the Spirit. In this commitment, we are claiming both our life through the Spirit and our intention to trust the Spirit for assurance, seek the Spirit for direction, and grow as disciples of Christ through spiritual disciplines. Because God’s Spirit is the only true Spirit and His Spirit brings life, we, as Christians can celebrate being the only true spiritual people. I’m looking forward to celebrating with you this Sunday.

For the sake of His name,

Pastor Adam