Category: Practical

Living as a Missionary in Your Community

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Evangelism, Pastoral, Practical5 Comments

Coffee Shop

I have been reading Tim Chester and Steve Timmis’ book Everyday Church this last week. In chapter 2, everyday community, they explain the need to live like missionaries in our own communities. In order to live like a missionary, we must ask the questions missionaries ask.

Questions Missionaries Ask

Where?

  1. Where are the places and activities we can meet people (the missional spaces)?
  2. Where do people experience community?
  3. Are there existing social networks with which we can engage, or do we need to find ways of creating community within a neighborhood?
  4. Where should we be to have missional opportunities?

When?

  1. What are the patterns and timescales of our neighborhood (the missional rhythms)?
  2. When are the times we can connect with people (the missional moments)?
  3. How do people organize their time?
  4. What cultural experiences and celebrations do people value? How might these be used as bridges to the gospel?
  5. When should we be available to have missional opportunities?

What?

  1. What are people’s fears, hopes, and hurts?
  2. What gospel stories are told in the neighborhood?
    • What gives people identity (creation)?
    • How do they account for wrong in the world (fall)?
    • What is their solution (redemption)?
    • What are their hopes (consummation)?
  3. What are the barrier beliefs or assumptions that cause people to dismiss the gospel?
  4. What sins will the gospel first confront and heal?
  5. In what ways are people self-righteous?
  6. What is the good news for people in this neighborhood?
  7. What will church look like for people in this neighborhood?

Conclusion

Reaching our communities with the gospel, means we need to know our neighborhoods, it’s people, and their stories, values, worldview, and culture. Asking these questions will help us to know and understand our communities better. It’s going to take some work, but it is worth it in order to reach our cities, communities, and neighborhoods. So let’s get to work answering these questions and living like missionaries in our own backyards.

Question for Reflection

  1. Do you believe it is important we live as missionaries in our own neighborhoods? Why or why not?

Resources

Timmis & Chester, Everyday Church, 42-43.

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Do You Know Your Identity Idols?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Books, PracticalLeave a comment

Idol

What are your identity idols? In other words, what do you find your identity in besides Christ?

That question is a broad one, but it is one we can answer with a little information. In order to help you answer it, and provide a follow up to my last post on Identity, let me offer five categories of Identity Idols from Mark Driscoll’s latest book: Who Do You Think You Are? 

Identity Idols

(1) ITEMS – Car, clothes, technologies, home, jewelry, furniture, etc.

If our idol is our items:

  1. Our possessions define our identity.
  2. We are driven to obtain certain items to gain status and prestige with our peers.
  3. Our possessions are not valued by their usefulness, but in how they increase or decrease our status and prestige among our peers.

Our identity and our drive to gain status and prestige are why we fought our parents in school to buy us Polo and Air Jordan’s instead of Wal-Mart brand clothing and shoes. We wanted to fit in. Have our friends think of us in a certain way and Wal-Mart shirts were not going to cut it.

If we are honest with ourselves this drive to fit in has not subsided. It has just gotten a bit more expensive since we have traded our Air Jordan’s for Mercedes’ or BMW’s. Seeking status is why most Americans are in perpetual debt and are constantly overpaying.

So you may ask yourself:

  • Why am I in debt?
    • Is it because I am a bad steward of my money?
    • Is it because I am seeking status and prestige?

Answering those questions honestly may be your ticket to financial and spiritual freedom.

(2) DUTIES – The things we do – Job, hobby, sport, parental and grandparent duties, marriage duties.

If our idol is our duties:

  1. We will always be searching for something to excel in.
  2. When we find the thing we can excel in, we will become overcommitted and extremely competitive.
  3. Winning puts us on top of the world, but losing crashes our world, which can result in depression and others not wanting to be around us.
  4. Winning consumes us so we don’t care about others.
  5. Pride will creep up and we will only boast in ourselves.

Those who find their identity in their duties often lose their compassion for others because being better than the next person is all that matters. It is all about winning.

Not only does compassion decrease, if our idol is our duties, but selfishness increases. Activities then tend to be focused on us as well as conversations as we fish for the praise of others.

(3) OTHERS – Broadly in our identification with a collective tribe. Narrowly in our individual relationships.

Our tribe is the greater community we closely identify with, which can be our family, city, school, class, sports team, nationality, race, gender, ethnicity, culture, income level, hobby, political party, theological affinity, or even sexual orientation to name a few.

Don’t get me wrong community is good, but community can easily be turned into an idol.

When we make our tribe into an idol we:

  1. Demonize other tribes.
  2. Are devastated when our tribe loses or fails.
  3. Push for our tribe to win/succeed at any cost.

Tribal idolatry often results in hostility between tribes. Think high school football rivalries or the demonization of another political party.

Not only does tribal idolatry result in hostility, but it also results in a desire to win at any cost. Breaking God’s Law, hurting or using others doesn’t matter. It is all about winning. No price is too high to pay.

Alternatively, when we find our identity in individual relationships, we make personal relationships unhealthy because we turn them into an idol and a place where we find our identity.

When we find our identity in others we typically:

  1. Give into peer pressure
  2. People please
  3. Have a codependency problem
  4. Fear man
  5. Change appearance and/or behavior depending on the group we are around.

Idolatry of individual relationships is why peer pressure is so powerful. Acceptance and subsequent identification is why a person may perform acts that are out of character. As well as it is why they may act a certain way around their church friends but another around their neighborhood or school friends. The desire to fit in by pleasing others is powerful and can only truly be combated with the cross.

Identity with relationships can manifest itself in one of two ways: Independence or Dependence. 

Some signs you find your identity in being independent are:

  • You want nothing to do with others.
  • You avoid close relationships so you won’t be hurt.

Some signs you find your identity in dependent relationships are:

  • You can’t be alone.
  • You have unrealistic expectations of relationships.
  • You are demanding, smothering, and needy.
  • You are easily inflated by praise or deflated by criticism.
  • One word either makes or breaks your day, giving others god-like control over you.

(4) LONGINGS – It is a hope that tomorrow will bring something better.

We all have longings. Our longings are what get us up in the morning, cause us to pray to God, and keep us hoping for Christ’s return. These are good longings to have.

Even so, our longings can become an idol when they become the source of our identity. When our longings become our identity, our life becomes excessively governed by our feelings and future, rather than our present, and God’s past, present, and future work on our behalf.

Living for the future can cause our identity to be based in getting physical healing, getting married, having children, fulfilling our vocational ministry goals, achieving financial security, or reaching the next season of life, just to name a few.

An unhealthy idolized view of the future can cause our life to shift in a moments notice leaving us:

  1. Feeling powerful and hopeful when we are healthy, receive good news, or receive an achievement.
  2. Feeling powerless and hopeless when we are sick, receive bad news, or fail to achieve a goal.

In addition, when we live for the future, our identity is always out there and governed by what will happen next. When we set our identity in who we will be in the future, we sin because we are not trusting in who we are in Christ right now. As well as we are setting ourselves up to be swayed by our feelings and future.

Often longing idolatry is most evident when people are diagnosed with a terminal disease. If their world comes crashing down and they become depressed, that may be a sign their future was their idol. However, those who stand strong in the face of death prove they do not find their identity in who they could become in the future, but in something else. Hopefully, that something is Christ and who He has made them right now.

(5) SUFFERING – Emotionally, financially, mentally, physically, relationally, spiritually.

We will suffer in this world in many ways. When we suffer, our hurt and pain can become our identity if we are not careful. My mom constantly dealt with her suffering becoming her identity, as do a number of guys at my church.

While my mom fought Scleroderma, several men in my church are fighting back pain. Their constant pain is a real struggle for them physically and mentally. As they quietly suffer, the one thing they tell me over and over is that they refuse to allow their pain to take over their life. In other words, they refuse to allow their pain to become their identity, which in a real sense it could.

Since suffering often presents itself front and center, we must fight especially hard against this identity idol when presented with the temptation.

In Christ

Instead of finding our identity in our idols we should find it in Christ. He is the One who has made us a new creation, gives us hope, joy, satisfaction, and eternal life. We should not, then, find our identity in our sins, occupation, addictions, hobbies, items, duties, others, longings, or sufferings.

Christ defines who we are by what He has done for us, not what we do, or fail to do for Christ. In Him we are a new creation and a child of God. Being God’s child is one identity that will not let us down. Instead it will change us so that we are able to accomplish our purpose in this life – to glorify God.

So then, as Christians we can say we live from our identity in Christ, not for our identity.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Which category or categories do you fall into?
  2. Does understanding what could be your identity idol help you fight for your identity in Christ?
  3. Are there any other categories you might add?

Resources

Post adapted from: Who do you think you are? Ch. 1

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Where Do You Find Your Identity?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Books, Practical10 Comments

Who Do You Think You Are?

Recently, I have been reading Driscoll’s new book: Who Do You Think You Are? His book deals with identity. Specifically, where we should find our identity.

Reading his book over the past few days has me asking the question: Who do I think I am? I want to put that question to you as well: Who do you think you are? In other words, where do you find your identity? Do you find it in your possessions? Do you find it in your job? Do you find it in others? Or do you find it someone else?

When someone asks you who are you, what do you say? Do you respond by saying, I am a farmer, a business man, a missionary, a pastor, an addict, an alcoholic, an abused person, or an angry person?

It is common, we respond in these ways, but should we, or should we find our identity in something else? In order to answer this question, we must start at the beginning, the beginning of the Bible and time.

The Beginning

Genesis is the first book of the Bible. It starts with the creation account. After God created everything else, He creates man. In Genesis 1:26-27 God says,

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Notice God makes man in His image, which means we are God’s image bearer. No one else bears God’s image. Humans are the only ones’ created in the Image of God.

As God’s image bearers, we are created to reflect His goodness and character to the world for His glory. When we love others, we reflect God’s love to the world for His glory. When we forgive others, we reflect God’s forgiveness to the world for His glory. When we are merciful, we reflect god’s mercy to the world for His glory. And so on and so forth.

Genesis 3

As we move on through Genesis, we come across the temptation of man in Genesis 3. The entire chapter focuses on the fall. For the sake of time, let’s just look at verses 1-7.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

Satan told Adam and Eve they would “be like God.” Adam and Eve believed him and ate the fruit. When they did, they forgot they were already like God; they forgot they had been made in His image. Instead of recognizing they were already like God, they sought to create their own identity apart from God by eating the fruit God had forbidden.

Just like Adam and Eve faced an identity crisis – they forgot who they were – we wrestle with our identity as well. In fact, man has been wrestling with their identity ever since our first parents sought their identity outside of God in the garden.

Problem with Seeking Our Identity Outside of God

What is the problem with seeking our identity outside of God? When we seek our identity outside of God, we go from a God given identity to a Man sought identity. Instead of becoming like God, we become like our idol – the thing that represents God to us, but is not.

When we seek identity in something other than God – Job, Hobbies, Nationality, Cultural Tastes, Status – we deify that something. It becomes our god. It is what we live for and seek to glorify. Our identity then becomes rooted in our idolatry, a false god instead of the one true God.

This is a problem because we are not created to image our idols. We are created to image God for His glory. When we seek our identity in an idol, we take away from God’s glory. As well as we don’t accomplish our purpose in life – to glorify God.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do you find your identity in God?
  2. Do you seek your identity in something other than God?
  3. When others ask you who you are, how do you respond? Do you say I am a Christian or something else?

Resources

Post adapted from: Who do you think you are? Ch. 1

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What is Your Purpose in Life?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Practical4 Comments

Got Purpose

Why did God created you? In other words, what is your purpose in life? I know I think about the reason God created me. I am sure you do as well. How do we answer the question?

For What Purpose Did God Create Us?

Glorifying God and enjoying Him forever is how I answer the question.

What does it mean to glorify God?

It means: We worship Him; we praise Him; we lift Him up; we honor Him; we adore Him; we revere Him. These are all synonyms that help us understand what it means to glorify God.

If our purpose is to glorify God, that means our purpose is not:

  • To get a great job.
  • To have a great family.
  • To live in a great house.
  • To make a lot of money.
  • To live a comfortable life.
  • To be secure.
  • To have everything go just our way.
  • To have others praise us.
  • To have others lift us up.
  • To have others worship us.

Some of these are good – Job, family, house – and if God so blesses us with them, we should be thankful. These things, however, are not our main purpose in life. Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Now that is a massive claim, so where do I get this from?

The Biblical Evidence

The Biblical Evidence for Glorifying God

Let’s start with Psalms 86:8-13. There we learn:

  • There are no other gods like Him, nor can they do works like His (8).
  • He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe (9).
  • His ways are truth (11).
  • He is the one who loves us and saves us (13).

Since the Christian God is unique, our Creator and Sustainer, His ways are always true, and He loves and saves us, we are to glorify and worship Him.

Another Scripture that helps us understand our purpose in life is Isaiah 43:7. It reads,

“everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.””

Isaiah teaches us that everyone is created by God and they are created for His glory.

Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 6:20 tells us that we are not our own. We were bought with a price. The price we were bought with was not silver or gold but the blood of Jesus. For that reason, we should follow God’s commands, glorifying Him with our actions.

Finally, 1 Corinthians 10:31 exhorts us to do everything we do to the glory of God. Whether we are eating, drinking, having fun, working, or whatever else we do, we are to do it for God’s glory.

The Biblical Evidence for Enjoying God Forever

Our purpose in life is also to enjoy God forever. I get this from:

Psalms 16:9 & 11 which tells us the Lord is the One who gives us life. As well as He is the one who provides us with joy, with pleasures forevermore.

“Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure…You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Revelation 21:3-4 is another Scripture that tells us we are to enjoy God forever. There we learn the Lord will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Death will be no more, along with no more mourning, crying, or pain. Instead, we will live in a New Heaven and New Earth, enjoying God and His creation forever.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”” (Rev. 21:3-4)

What the Evidence is Telling Us

From these Scriptures, we see that our purpose in this life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, which means it is not all about us, but it is all about Him. Finding out this life is all about God can be a tough pill to swallow, especially since our natural desire is to glorify and promote ourselves, in order to seek self-worship.

Even though God’s Word goes against our natural desires, it is God’s Word. It never lies. It is always true. If His Word is inerrant, we must trust it, believe it, and submit to it.

How Can We Glorify Him?

With our newly discovered purpose, we need to know how we can glorify God. Let me offer a few ways:

  • By praising Him.
  • By worshipping Him.
  • By living according to His commandments.
  • By calling others to Christ.
  • By enjoying Him and Him alone, being completely content with Him.

Diagnostic Questions & Challenge

Before we end, let me provide a few diagnostic questions for you to consider.

  1. Do you seek to glorify God in all that you do?
  2. Do you ask whether your actions are glorifying God before you do them?
  3. Do you search Scripture to see whether or not you are living in accordance with God’s Word?
  4. Do you enjoy God and the things of God?
  5. Do you enjoy reading His Word?
  6. Do you enjoy fellowshipping with His people?
  7. Do you enjoy hearing God’s Word preached?
  8. Do you enjoy singing praises to God?
  9. Do you enjoy telling other about God?

If you enjoy and seek to glorify God, you should be able to answer these questions in the positive.

I am afraid, however, there are many who call themselves Christians who can’t answer these questions positively. In other words, they don’t seek to glorify God, nor do they enjoy Him or His people. I believe this is especially true in the Bible Belt where people are quick to call Jesus their Savior, but fellowshipping with His people, reading His Word, and submitting to His commands are absent.

If we are truly Christians, we will live to glorify God and we will enjoy God and the things of God. With that in mind, let’s glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Resource

Westminister Shorter Catechism Question 1

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Are You In Adam or In Christ?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn PracticalLeave a comment

There are only two categories of human beings: those who are in Adam, and those who are in Christ. Are you in Adam or in Christ?

Question for Reflection

  1. After watching the video, would you say you are in Adam or in Christ?

Resource

Watch the full sermon here

Turn the Other Cheek

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Practical3 Comments

Slap in the Face

In Matthew 5:39, Jesus says:

If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

If you are a regular church goer, chances are you have heard this phrase before, but what does it mean? Is Jesus advocating physical abuse? Is He is telling us never to defend ourselves? Or is He talking about something different?

The Action

Before we answer our questions, let’s imagine the action. Two blows are involved. The first blow comes from a person slapping you on your cheek with the back of their hand, causing your face to turn to one side. The second blow would come when you voluntarily turn your other cheek to them, so that they could then come across your face with their open hand.

What does this have to do with being a True Disciple of Jesus?

In Jesus’ day, when someone slapped you with the back, or palm, of their hand, it was more an insult than a physical attack. The person being slapped would be dishonored and shamed. This is true in our day as well. When a man says something rude to a woman, she may slap him. There is no question she may desire to physically harm him, but her slap will probably do nothing more than bruise his ego, dishonor, or shame him.

Jesus is teaching us we are to allow ourselves to be shamed and dishonored instead of retaliating. The idea then is that we are to relinquish our rights to worldly honor. Instead of finding honor from the world, we are to find honor and acceptance in Christ. After all, as Christians, we are the sons of God. What could bring more honor than that?

What would relinquishing our worldly right to honor and personal retaliation accomplish?

(1) It would break the chain of evil.

Our natural response is to hit, take, or offend back, when we have been hit, stolen from, or offended. When we relinquish our rights to worldly honor and personal retaliation, we break the natural chain of evil.

(2) It would take retaliation out of the personal realm and give it to God.

Jesus provides this teaching because the Old Testament Law an an eye for and eye was being misused. The Law’s original intent was to take retaliation out of the personal realm and place it into the hand of the judges, in order to keep blood feuds from starting and preserve Israel’s witness to the surrounding nations.

By Jesus’ day, the Law had been misused. Instead of accomplishing its purpose of limiting personal retaliation the opposite happened. Personal retaliation was exacted more often outside of the court of law. Part of the reason this was happening was because people felt dishonored. In order to gain their honor back, they retaliated.

Jesus then is teaching us that a willingness to be dishonored is necessary to preserve peace and unity in a community, as well as to be patient and allow God or the court to work.

(3) It would show a completely different way of thinking and living than the world, allowing us to witness to those around us. 

Allowing someone to dishonor us, and even physically attack us without defense to a certain extent is completely foreign to most people. When we act in ways different than our society, people want to know why we are acting that way and how we can act that way, which then allows us to be a witness to Jesus and His life transforming power.

Are you willing to give up your worldly honor and be shamed, in order to be a witness for Christ? The question is tough, I know. It is, however, what Jesus is calling us to as His disciples.

What turn the other cheek doesn’t mean

(1) It doesn’t mean we allow someone to abuse us physically, or even mentally.

Advocating physical or mental abuse would be a misuse of Jesus’ teaching. If you are in an abusive relationship, get out of the situation, and get some help. Cities often have abuse shelters. As well as most churches are willing to help. Seek these resources out if you are being abused.

(2) It doesn’t mean we must be a pacifist

We can defend our country, our family, others, and even ourselves at times.

When it comes to defending ourself it gets a bit complex. Some say never, but I believe we can defend ourselves when we are left with no choice. When we do defend ourselves, we should use the least amount of force necessary to protect ourselves. Remember, it is not about our honor. We do not have to win the fight. We can simply punch someone in the face and run away.

Conclusion

Returning to our initial questions, we now see we can fight back against abuse and an attacker. Jesus’ teaching is more about relinquishing our rights to honor than self defense. With His command, Jesus is doing what He has been doing all throughout the Sermon on the Mount, He is attacking our heart, probing to see if we love Him more than our own honor.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Do you agree or disagree?
  2. How have you taught or heard this passage taught in the past?
  3. Does thinking about this passage in light of honor/dishonor help you understand Jesus’ teaching better?

Resources

Sermon: Do Not Resist the One Who Is Evil

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