Making Disciples by Ed Stetzer

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You need to check out these clips from sermons by Ed Stetzer. ?He is a missiologist that works for Lifeway. ?Came through on my RSS reader yesterday and I thought I would share. ?Make sure you watch both segments…they are both great! ?Painful though. ?Good preaching often does that, doesn’t it…sometimes the truth of God hurts!

He starts off with an amazing rant about people with a lack of the idea that they need to be on mission for Jesus…

If we [church leaders] disciple people through knowledge without action we’re training people to be puffed up gnostics.. . .Listen, I’m worn out–I am sick of?knowledgeable,?religious people not living on mission and then criticizing those who are. . . . I just think that what we need to have happen is that this knowledge-based needs to lead to an action life and they need to get off their “Blessed Assurance” and do something for Jesus!

and ends the first segment with this gem…

“The greatest sin in most churches is that we [pastors] have made it o.k. to sit there week after week and do nothing and call yourself a follower of Jesus.”

He does a little Ross Perot imitation and says this afterward in the second segment…good stuff…

The reality is, I don’t care if you have 5 purposes, if you rename yourself ‘missional,’ if you move into a house, or you ’emerge’ into something else! I care that you have a Biblically driven church that is challenging people to be changed by the Gospel and then in doing so, they follow Jesus on His mission in the world! ?I care less about the label and more about the lifestyle. Maybe we need to fight a little less about that and focus more on the calling that we have.

The?irreducible minimum…

Disciples see what Jesus in doing and they join Him in doing it. ?Is your church leading your people to join Jesus in His mission?…[Pastors] Go home and say “what am I going to say differently about my message so they’ll join Jesus on His mission.”

This message sure does go along with the message that I am preaching tomorrow @FPCarthage in our Outflow series. ?We are going to be talking about the idea that Christ wants us to reach out to those people in our community.

Why? The Problem of Evil and Suffering

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banner_why--the-gospel-and-suffering

I can remember in my Philosophy of Religion class in seminary spent a very long time discussing this issue.? I believe that Dr. Keith Putt knew that we would be facing this issue over and over in our daily lives and ministry.? It seems for a twenty something guy with “the world by the tail” something that might not be applicable at all.? However, it seems that my seminary education got personal very quickly.

One of my great friends is Jenny Crowder Long.? She was Jenny Crowder when I met her as a little 7th grade girl in my youth group.? She was also the youngest daughter of an amazing lady–Martha Crowder.? Martha was my secretary at First Baptist Battlefield, my first ministry position.? Basically, Martha kept me straightened out for the year and a half while I was a youth pastor there in Battlefield.

Right after I took this Philosophy of Religion class, I got a phone call from Jenny saying that her mom had a very aggressive cancer and only had a short time to live.? Why? What do you say? Why would God do this? Eventually, Jesus took Martha home to heaven to be with Him.? That left a huge hole in the lives of those around Martha. The amazing part of this story is what God continues to do to help Jenny use this pain and suffering for His glory.? She is a psychologist and helps people every day to deal with the problems and issues in their lives.

One case in particular where I saw God use Jenny’s pain for His glory was the summer she was my intern in Burleson, TX.? One of my student’s mother was dying of, you guessed it, a very aggressive cancer.? This woman had gone through a battery of therapy to kill the cancer and she had “beat cancer.”? She beat cancer for less than a year.? She eventually was taken home to heaven the spring before Jenny came to be my intern.? God used Martha’s death to help Jenny minister to this young lady in her pain. Does it make the pain of either lady’s death less difficult? Absolutely not! However, God is sovereign over both blessings and suffering (see Job–“he gives and takes away…blessed be the name of the Lord.”)

If you have been living and breathing for very long, you will have to deal with this issue of suffering.? The problem is, especially with guys, we don’t deal with it very well, do we?? We tend to “clam up” and not want to discuss the issues.? We tend to push everything down deep into our hearts.? We often get mad at God and other people who are His representatives.

Our LifeGroup has been wrestling with this issue lately and I have been researching a bit on the topic.? Here is a great series from David Platt on this issue.? Check it out.? Has some great resources as well such as a Small Group curriculum.

Camille and Kevin?s Weekend?|?Buckhead Church Blog

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Check this out! ?What a cool deal! ?This couple got married on Saturday and then were baptized on Sunday at Buckhead Church in Atlanta. ?Click on the link below and watch their baptism videos. ?I absolutely love to hear stories of changed lives!

I am waiting on a couple as I write for some premarital counseling. ?I actually enjoy hearing each couples’ story. ?I get to hear theirs tonight here in a few minutes.

Camille and Kevin?s Weekend?|?The Official Buckhead Church Blog .

Fellas, enjoy the kickin’

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marriageandmen

Check out this message by Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill in Seattle.? He says what a TON of us guys need to hear.? WOW!!? Pretty hard core man!

Here is the outline…

TEXT: 1 Peter 3:7
PREACHER: Pastor Mark Driscoll
DATE: March 22, 2009

After addressing women last week, this week Pastor Mark preached specifically to men.

1. Your father: Adam (Genesis 1?3)

  • Marriage is a covenant (Prov. 2:16; Mal. 2:14).
  • Men are the covenant head, responsible for their wife and family (Gen. 2:18; 5:2; 1 Cor. 11:2?16, 14:33?34; Eph. 5:21?33; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:3?5; 1 Pet. 3:1).
  • Adam and Eve both sinned, both are at fault, and both are cursed, but God held Adam responsible (Gen. 3:9).
  • Marriage is cursed (Gen. 3:16). Work is cursed (Gen. 3:17?19). Jesus is the only hope (Gen. 3:15).

    1. No Sissy Stuff Sam: whatever women do, do the opposite

    2. Success and Status?Stewart: masculinity = material success

    3. Give?em Hell Hank: angry and abusive

    4. I?m the Boss Bob: domineering and controlling; in authority, not under authority

    1. Little Boy Larry: never grew up, disorganized, lives with his mother, etc.

    2. Sturdy Oak Owen: absolutely dependable but emotionally absent

    3. Hyper-Spiritual Henry: Hides behind religious behavior and ?God talk.? Talks at you but not to you.

    4. Good Time Gary: irresponsible life of the party

    1. Honor her maritally. Take a wife honorably. Establish right priorities, and be a one woman man?absolutely faithful to your wife.

    2. Honor her physically. Be strong for your wife, not against her. Be protective of her and present with her.

    3. Honor her emotionally. Be emotionally present and intimate. Take her on dates.

    4. Honor her verbally. Speak honorably to her. Speak honorably of her, when she is present and absent.

    5. Honor her financially. Provide for the financial needs of your family, organize your budget, and be generous towards your wife.

    6. Honor her practically. Consider her needs and how you can serve her.

    7. Honor her parentally. Be ?Pastor Dad? by shepherding your children (praying with them, teaching them about Jesus, reading the Bible with them, etc.).

    8. Honor her spiritually. You initiate and lead prayer, Bible, chats, church attendance, etc. Take responsibility for your church.

    • 2. Your Manhood

    Like Adam, the sins of men fall into two general categories: sins of comission (doing what you?re not supposed to do) and sins of omission (not doing what you?re supposed to do). This leads chauvinistic or cowardly tendencies:

    Chauvinism

    Cowardice

    3. Your Savior: Jesus Christ (the Last Adam, 1 Cor. 15:45)

    Ephesians 5:25
    calls men to love their wives as Christ loves the Church. Men are not
    ready to be good husbands until they are a part of the Church and
    understand how Christ loves the Church by taking responsibility for her
    and sacrificing himself for her.

    The essence of true masculinity is taking responsibility.

    4. Your Wife

    Understand that a wife?s fears (1 Pet. 3:6) are legitimate; men dominate the lives of women and children, for good or for evil. Honor your wife:

What happens when you fail to honor your wife? God ignores you (1 Pet. 3:7). Repent.

Further Study:

Youth Camp–Day 4

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Another really busy day of travel.? Mark Dinwiddie, from Forest Park, brought my new computer down yesterday along with a bunch of paperwork to get my employment stuff setup.? We headed to Forest Park Joplin to turn that stuff in after I met with the camp staff reporting and praying for the week.

I went by the Lowe’s in Carthage to buy some dowel rods to use as takeaways for tonight’s sermon.? They are going to be “wooden pegs” that are used in building–thanks to my student pastor friends.? (They also helped me flesh out the rock takeaway last night–I love sitting around in a room with creative people and seeing how the Lord will work out all of the details!

I really feel like I “brought it” tonight!? I don’t know if I could preach much better or harder than tonight.? I talked about Isaiah 6 and Haggai.? Basically that we all have some “building” and “rebuilding” to do for the Kingdom.? Again, the spirit of expectancy in the room before and during worship was really evident.? Lots of kids praying for one another at the altar.? They took home a wooden peg to remind themselves about the story in Haggai where the people of God obeyed Him and went up the hill, chopped down trees, and rebuilt the temple.? I love the promise from God–“I am with you!”

I am actually sitting right now in the ER waiting room at St. John’s hospital . . . don’t freak out grandparents . . . we are all OK!? We were all walking back down to the worship center after the service and Tucker had on his brother’s flip-flops and was running and fell and cracked his head open on the asphalt.? Right next to his almost healed spot where he ran into the coffee table.? He bled like crazy . . . and immediately went to see the camp nurse.? She bandaged him up and recommended that we come to St. John’s to “make sure” everything is alright.? I hoping that they will just Durmabond him up and we can head home.? I will let you all know how things turned out, but think everything is fine–Tucker is busy playing here in the pediatric ER waiting room.? They must be really busy with the holiday or something, but we have been waiting over an hour after they took our vitals.? I sure hope this is not as long as my horrible 6 hour ER visit this January!!!? Pray for us!? We have a long night ahead and a final message tomorrow morning. Yikes!

On a good note, there was a showing of our house tonight at around 7 p.m.!? With this new Rural Development loan, we can re-do the amortization schedule again after we apply the proceeds from the sale of our Ozark house, so we can move forward and close on our house in Carthage.? So we signed papers today and took the contingency off of our contract on our house in Carthage, so we are hopefully going to close on that house on July 24th.? It would be AWESOME to have a contract on our house before we close in Carthage!? Keep praying!

Youth Camp–Day 3

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Spent the entire day at camp today–except to make a run into town for some supplies.

The morning celebration time was the “Guatemala? Mission Team” sharing about their experiences and perspectives of their trip last week to Guatemala.? I was VERY impressed with these students as they shared about their week!? Plus, the “future worship leaders” did and AWESOME job in leading the worship time.

I met with the “Moms and Pops” and student pastors to discuss the service and pray for the students.? Man, there is some really heavy stuff going on with some of these kids–much more than any student should have to deal with, that is for sure!? There is a real sense of urgency for these leaders to be in prayer for the night tonight!!? That is really cool!

LATER:? We talked about the woman caught in adultery (John 8) tonight.? We had a “guest speaker” tonight as I did a dramatic monologue of the event.? I was “Jonathan,” a Jewish businessman in Jerusalem that was caught in the act with the woman.? I was told to “disappear,” as the Jews really wanted to question Jesus rather than car that much about the woman . . . she was just a convenient pawn in their game.? It really turned out well and the Lord really moved tonight–especially during the worship response time.? We used rocks to help the students physically respond to the spiritual invitation.? They went and grabbed a rock and prayed over it and left it at the altar–along with their sin that has been forgiven.? There was a real sense of brokenness in the room and a lot of students responded to the Lord.? It is really exciting to see that kind of movement of God.

Youth Camp–Day 2

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We spent most of the afternoon driving in the car!! We left camp after the morning celebration time and had to go all the way back to Ozark to pick up some papers for the banker. We are changing loan “programs” and are getting at “Rural Development” loan and this particular loan has manual underwriting instead of the web-based underwriting that we had already completed several weeks ago. We had to have a lot more documentation than the other loan had that we had already packed up and put in storage–nice. So, it was off to the storage unit and then to the house to get some more documents. While we were there, the Doyle’s came home, so the boys wanted to play, so we were later getting to Carthage than planned.

We did finally get to Carthage and back to camp just in time for dinner–not back in time to swim during free time. So after promising to stay and swim on Wednesday, we prepared for night two at camp.

I talked about one of my favorite stories in the Bible . . . John 11 and the story of Lazarus. We talked about why tragedy happens and that everything in life is for God’s glory–the good and the bad. The worship band has done an AWESOME job this week and did an excellent job tonight as well! They are called Broken Outside Beautiful. They are all from around Joplin and Cartersville (right next to Carthage.) So basically this is a week as they said, “to welcome me to the neighborhood.”

There was a lot of good discussion in church group times and I think the Lord really moved tonight!

Taylor and I went to the “Late, Late Night” and watched the “Don’t Forget the Lyrics.” Pretty cheesy indeed!!

Going to bed . . . Taylor and I are sharing a bed tonight and Jenny and Tucker sharing . . . we’ll see how that works for us tonight! Exhausted from all the driving and searching through the storage for files! More tomorrow. No showings today I don’t think–bummer.

Youth Camp–Monday Night

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We had an awesome night at youth camp last night!! The worship was really good and I felt good about the message! The theme is “fresh” for camp this year. I will be talking about four different passages where people had “fresh encounters” with the Lord and He changed their lives. Last night, we talked about Nicodemus. The Gospel in one verse–John 3:16!

We are in a TINY room with the boys! We “acquired” a mattress from one of the dorms for the boys to share and Jenny and I are on a double bed using their fleece throws that Grandma Betty made for them this Christmas. We didn’t bring double sheets, just twins as we thought we would all be in twin bunks or something like that.

Taylor and Tucker stayed in the worship service last night through the entire service–including my talk. Tucker loves the drums, so he needed mom to hold him up to see the drums during worship and Taylor stayed on the side all night to watch the band and dad from close up. I’m really proud of them, but they are wearing mom out right now in that TINY room while she is getting ready!! Pray for that deal!!

Pray for our house to sell!! Did I mention the house needs to sell?!?

Here are some pics from last night:

Off to Youth Camp!!

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We are heading off to Youth Camp at Baptist Hill Assembly outside of Mt. Vernon, MO.? I will be the camp pastor for the Greene County Baptist Association’s Youth Camp and Jenny and the boys are going to be hanging out with a bunch of teenagers.? Back to my roots!!? My friend, Kurt Simon, invited me to preach for them this week.? I am actually kind of nervous!? I haven’t been around a large group of teenagers in quite a while–and I am pretty scared of them to tell you the truth–just kidding.? I always have a nervous stomach before these kinds of events because I know the potential that is just waiting to be realized.

I can remember youth camp at Centrifuge in Glorieta, NM when I was going to be a Freshman in High School.? I can remember making a decision at that camp that I wanted to be around these kinds of environments for the rest of my life!? Maybe it was the shorts and t-shirts, but I think it was the Lord calling me to ministry!

Be praying that God really moves in the hearts of these students and leaders this week!