Responding to the Gift

It’s Christmas morning. You’ve invested time, thought, energy, and money into getting the perfect gift for someone you love. The moment you’ve awaited and anticipated has come. You’re far less excited about anything you may receive than you are about the joy you know your gift is going to bring that other person—it’s just perfect! Now, imagine your loved one’s response. What if it looked like one of these?

The ‘Layaway’ response. I don’t know if layaway is still a thing or not, but it was when I was a kid. I remember me and my sister trying on winter coats in August or September when they first hit the rack at Sears—not exactly my idea of a summer afternoon well-spent! Once we made our selection, we would then carry them to the service counter, mom would fill out some paperwork, and we’d leave our new coats with the clerk. We wouldn’t see our coats again until November or so. They could only be worn after they’d been paid off little by little over a few months.

Now imagine your loved one looking at the amazing gift you’ve given, looking back at you and saying, “I love it and want it, but why don’t you hang onto it for a while. I’ll pay you back little-by-little, and when this gift is fully paid off I’ll come and pick it up.” I’m guessing that’s not exactly a response you’d be okay with.

Some folks respond to the gospel—God’s gift of Jesus and salvation—this way. This is such a nice gift, and I’ll be excited to get it one day, but just not today; it’s too costly today; I need to pay it off before I can claim it. This is an “I’m not worthy of this gift yet, but I will be, you’ll see…” mentality. It wouldn’t bode well for a happy Christmas morning in your living room. Nor will it bode well for a happy meeting with God one day!

Credit. Okay, let’s restart Christmas morning. Same gift, same joy, same anticipation, same intended recipient. But what if your loved one says: “Oh wow! I’ve always wanted and needed this; thank you!” Now we’re talking, right? But then, you notice something strange. Your loved one pulls out a calculator, and after a few minutes of head scratching, a little chin stroking, and some vigorous tabulating looks at you and says, “You know what, I’d like to take this gift home and start using it today, but I also want to prove to you that I’m worthy of it. So here’s what I’ll do: I’m going to wash your car, mow your yard, rake your leaves and shovel your driveway. Basically I’ll be at your house taking care of things for a few hours at least one day per week from now on. You’re not going to regret giving this to me. I owe you and I’m gonna show you I’m good for it!

Sometimes people respond to the gospel this way. Instead of “I’m not worthy now but will be someday,” this response says, “I AM worthy of this gift now, and to prove it I’m going to pay it off with acts of service.”

Both of these responses to your perfect gift would be utterly heart-breaking to you. Motivated by love you had that person’s joy in mind, but instead of taking your kind gesture as a free gift it is seen as a debt to be paid off either in advance of receiving it or in increments after receiving it.

No Thanks. A third horrifying, Christmas-ruining response to your perfect gift is the “No thanks” response. We could also call this the “Not for me” response in which your loved one rejects the gift outright. Just imagine the confused and insulted look on your loved one’s face and the response, “Did you put the wrong person’s name on this present? This isn’t for me. I don’t need it or want it. Maybe another family member would like it.”

Can we just agree that if any of these three exchanges happens in your living room this Christmas morning, the thrill, the joys, the hopes of having given the perfect gift will vanish…and Christmas lunch is going to be really awkward.

As Christians, we will encounter versions of all three of these responses as we faithfully share God’s gospel gift with people in our lives. Many non believers either see the gospel of forgiveness through Christ as something to be earned or paid for (thus not a gift at all), or as a gift wrongly given—a gift they neither want nor feel they need.

HOWEVER, my main concern in writing this post is for us—Christians. The Advent/Christmas season gives us not just a chance to think about baby Jesus, but a needed opportunity to see ourselves yet again as recipients and to examine the response of our hearts to God’s gift based on another year of life as a Christian. Regardless of what we say to one another or even to ourselves about God’s gift of Jesus, we need to ponder what our actions, our motives, our anxieties, etc. are saying to God about His gift? Have we labored this year from a layaway standpoint: I really want eternal life, forgiveness, wholeness in Jesus, but I just don’t feel worthy of all of it…yet; God, please be patient with me as I labor to fully pay for Your gift which I hope to receive one day! OR a credit standpoint: Watch my good works and see how worthy I am of this gift, Lord…?

If not remedied by prayer, devotion to the Word, and humble, oft-renewed submission to the reality of biblical grace in the company of other grace recipients, both the layaway and credit responses will give way to a “No thanks/Not for me” response. Satan wants us to feel unworthy of God’s gift AND he also wants us to feel worthy of it. Either way, he distorts God’s gift into a non-gift, and if we labor uncorrected—even doing great things for the Lord—the “No thanks/Not for me” response will eventually emerge as having been our posture all along just hidden under a mask of false gratitude and pretentious gestures of repayment.

Alright, let’s try this one more time. It’s Christmas morning, the gift is prepared, you hand it to your loved one. Upon opening the gift, you see that person’s mouth open slightly and hear a gentle gasp. As the crinkle of wrapping paper fades, a pregnant silence fills the room. Still looking down at the gift and holding it in one hand, the other hand rises to the slightly opened mouth. A certain (good) kind of tightness rises from your chest to your own throat. You are as fixated on your loved one as he or she is on the gift in hand. Slowly the head rises and your loved one’s eyes meet yours. Sniffles. Hard swallows. Tears (good ones). And because vocal chords would be of no use, you watch as your beloved mouths an inaudible “Thank you!” Looking down at the gift and again back at you, another mouthed phrase comes, this time in a whisper: “I love it. It’s perfect! Thank you!”

You’re going to be buying, wrapping, and giving a lot of gifts this Christmas. As badly as you want your loved ones to receive them joyously, God likewise wants you to rejoice again in His matchless, undeserved, limitlessly valuable Gift of the person of His Son and the eternal and abundant life that can only be had through Him. Let’s take time to gasp and gaze at Jesus and the grace of God that He is to us. Let’s take every opportunity to be captivated in speechless wonder and gratitude and to mouth (and mean) the words “Thank you! It’s perfect” to our heavenly Father this Christmas!

And Hezekiah Welcomed Them Gladly...

"And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them."

~Isaiah 39:2

No, he didn’t write a book of the Bible—as some occasionally tease—but Hezekiah was a king, and a pretty darn good one too. That’s really saying something when you scan the vast majority of Judahite rulers between David and Jesus, the permanent Occupant of David’s throne. What a bunch of scoundrels!

Hezekiah is a fascinating study with some important points of connection for us today. Here are a few bullets of context for the verse quoted above (see 2 Chronicles 29-32 for even more):

• At 25, Hezekiah takes power in a time of great national rebellion, decay, and danger

• He has the Levitical priests purge the Temple of its filthy idols and reinstate proper worship

• He calls all Israel to remember and celebrate the Passover rightly

• He organizes the priests for faithful & more effective service

• In the face of Jerusalem being vastly outnumbered and besieged by Assyria, a hostile northern superpower, Hezekiah cries out to God who hears and delivers him and His people from destruction and domination.

We read in 2 Chron. 31:20-21: “Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God. And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered.” Certainly an impressive guy in the midst of a string of mostly awful kings!

After Hezekiah’s faithfulness in the Assyrian crisis and God’s subsequent deliverance, a personal crisis strikes: Hezekiah becomes deathly sick. Isaiah the prophet tells him to get ready to die for his time is up. Again Hezekiah prays. Again God delivers and gives him 15 more years of life.

Here’s where Hezekiah’s deepest crisis hits.

Great leadership, great faithfulness, great effectiveness, and great humility had led to great prosperity for Hezekiah’s kingdom and great notoriety for himself. News of Judah’s national deliverance and Hezekiah’s personal deliverance ripple out from Jerusalem. These kinds of things don’t just happen! People far and wide are curious and want answers. When the Babylonians send an envoy to find out how such great things could happen to such a nobody king and worthless nation, what does Hezekiah do?

We’ll get to that, but first, what does Hezekiah’s God do? After all, the LORD is the One behind all this national and personal success, right? Second Chronicles 32:31 tells us: “…in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign (i.e. all the good stuff) that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his (Hezekiah’s) heart.”

Wow.

If you’re picturing angry Moses atop the rock while Israel writhes in rebellion; if you’re picturing lustful David atop his palace roof when his men are out fighting; if you’re picturing hiding, despairing Elijah complaining to God that he’s the only faithful one left in Israel; or if you’re picturing boastful Peter declaring his readiness to die with Jesus in front of the other disciples, you’re on the right track towards understanding Hezekiah’s plight: he’s been faithful to God, used of God; he’s said right things, done right things, and experienced visible signs of God’s favor and blessing; but he has a blind spot: his own heart. God isn’t blind to Hezekiah’s, Moses’, David’s, Peter’s, or our blind spots … but they were, and we can be too! The moment we feel the glow of success however big or small, especially having faced crises with faith, having followed God through hard stuff, having attained a moral and experiential footing from which to ascribe credit for the success, that is the most dangerous moment of all for a child of God.

How easy it is to look at visible successes and to overlook the invisible God who made them possible, even when we’ve acknowledged Him openly in the past, before or during a crisis. How easy it is to unlock the storehouse doors, to open the lids on the treasure chests of our lives and point curious outsiders to beautiful, tangible blessings when it is only God who has granted them.

Moses had encountered God face-to-face; he’d prayed for God to spare rebellious Israel in the past, and he felt he ought to get to strike the rock like before when this time God specifically said to speak to the rock in order to provide Israel with water. David stood for God’s honor when Goliath blasphemed, refused to kill Saul when his own men urged him to do so, and defended Israel valiantly time and time again. Surely these successes afforded him a one-nighter with another man’s wife? Elijah called down fire and slew 400 false prophets. Isn’t that worth a little self-congratulatory wound-licking? Peter nailed the answer to Jesus’ question: “Who do you say I am?” But even here Jesus reminds him and the other disciples that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” came from the Father, not Peter.

“In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the LORD, and He answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud.” (2 Chron. 32:24-25)

God does nothing for us that He doesn’t expect us to fully credit or praise Him for doing. Hezekiah showcased God’s bountiful blessings for the Babylonian inquirers, but failed to showcase God. 2 Chron. 32:26a tells us that“Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.” That’s good, right? Sure, for Hezekiah and his generation, but it wasn’t good for the coming generation! Hezekiah dies and the next chapter opens: “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty five years in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD…”

What if while visiting all the grain storehouses and treasuries with his father the boy Manasseh had heard his dad give God worship before the Babylonians rather than showing off all of his wealth? One generation’s prideful failure to fully credit God became the next generation’s utter abandonment of God.

I want you to experience success. I want you to face adversity and crises of all kinds with faith and to taste the blessings and favor of God in real and tangible ways on the other side. I want curious outsiders and onlookers to investigate the visible goodness of God in your life. I want your church to weather its present crisis under your faithful, prayerful leadership and to emerge into a new season of revival and growth such that other pastors and even non-believers notice. I want the strife in your marriage or other strained family relationships to be the occasion for personal, spiritual deepening and dependance on God such that true healing and reconciliation not only happens but gets the attention of others. I want you to know the healing touch of God on your physical body, your emotions: your depression, your anxiety, etc. I want these and other kinds of “successes” for myself too! But what I want most of all is to avoid the temptation to showcase the tangible marks of blessing to the neglect of the Blesser. What I want most is for us to not fail to “make return according to the benefit done to us” by our great and gracious God.

We won’t fail in this if our pride is in check. We do this by keeping close to God’s word and to God in prayer, not just when the heat of pressure and crisis is bearing down and threatening to crush us but also (perhaps especially) when the pressure and crisis subsides. Then, when the curious come wanting to know why, what, and how, like Hezekiah, we can still welcome them gladly, but without failing to identify the right Who that has brought us through and blessed us!

Others More Significant

When the default mode of the flesh is "me first, me most, me best, ..." it takes incredible focus and discipline to set aside selfish ambition and humbly count others more significant than ourselves. The Philippians 2:3 life can't start from the body; it has to start in the mind. And it won't start in our minds on its own; that's why Paul tells the Philippians in v. 5 to have the mind of Christ.

The most important word in Phil. 2:3 is hegemenoi ("to count," to "consider," to "think," to "have the opinion," etc. in English). If the individual Christian is to count, consider, or esteem others as more important than him or herself, is it reasonable to assume that the Philippians 2:3 principle applies at the church-to-church level as well? I have to believe so! I have to believe it's right, good, and proper for each church to live out Philippians 2:3 in relation to other churches.

What might this look like?

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate every church's undesignated gift to Cleveland Hope whether large or small. This enables us to collectively meet needs across our network from a central fund. Please don't stop giving to your association!! But can a church make Philippians 2:3 a more hands-on, direct, and targeted mindset and lifestyle? As you prepare mission budgets for 2020 (i.e., what you’ll invest in the Kingdom beyond your church), consider setting aside a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars for the purpose of blessing a specific neighboring church and/or pastor or two. Would you consider reaching out to a couple of churches or pastors whom your church could serve in such a way that your church receives no tangible or material benefit but only the intangible blessing of knowing you invested in the Kingdom next door, next town, next ward, next zip code over? What's that neighboring church got in the way of obstacles that your church doesn't have (or does have but to a lesser degree)? Can you help them purchase a van because they're reaching folks who can't afford cars? Can you help them with some money and manpower to patch a leaky roof or refurbish a church bathroom? What's that neighboring church got in terms of opportunities that your church doesn't have but that your church could help them seize with some periodic volunteers or bucks?

This is how a net works. A fish may not swim into every square of a net at once (unless it's a really big fish!), but that part of the net depends on all the other links (especially those closest to it) to lend it strength so that the catch isn't lost. It's radical (downright unfathomable to many) in our competitive culture to consider others more significant than oneself. Sadly, a church can become so convinced it's at the epicenter of God's global mission that it can actually miss the mind of Christ, which always sacrifices self to bless others.

What will your church do in 2020 to rock the Philippians 2:3 principle?

In-vite to Re-vite!

Invitation. Revitalization.

Those two words have the same root: vite. It’s Latin for life (think: vital, vitality, vitamins, etc.)

When you invite someone to something you’re asking them either to enter into the 'life’ of something or to allow ‘life’ to enter something. When you revitalize something you’re basically re-life-ing it—that is, putting life back into it.

Let’s face it, the numbers aren’t encouraging. Somewhere north of 85% of all churches are either plateaued or declining. In an American context we also know that a good number of the 15% of churches that are growing are doing so off of the losses of the 80+%, not because they’re necessarily reaching lost people.

Churches need help. My church needs help!

One of the great benefits of Southern Baptist partnership is the availability of outside eyes. What I mean is that within an associational and state convention structure, we can invite like-minded/like-hearted lovers of the Church of Jesus Christ to come help us look at our church—to see it in ways we haven’t seen it in a while, to notice things we no longer notice, both inside and outside of the church. No matter how well-staffed or structured, every church at times needs the blessing of an outsider’s perspective.

One of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio’s main objectives is to help in the area of church revitalization. Essentially, the SCBO is extending an invite to revite! And I am so grateful that our state staff have structured this process to begin with a renewed emphasis on prayer. Unless churches are committed to seeking the Lord’s will through united, consecrated prayer, any changes that are made will amount to very little in terms of spiritual awakening and regained missional momentum. Do we really think a church’s gospel effectiveness boils down to a new coat of paint, or do we want to get under the hood and get at the real issues?

It’s a humbling thing to admit as your associational leader that the church I shepherd is in need of revitalization. But on the other hand, I consider it a gift from God and an opportunity for Bridge Church and me as a pastor to face hard questions and tough answers about where we are, how we got here, and what we need to change in order to exhibit once again a life-giving balance of upward desperation for God, inward care for one another, and outward focus on the unreached going forward. Perhaps the Lord will use us/me as an example and encouragement to others across our network in need of the same?

This past Sunday at Bridge we began to answer the invitation to revitalization by utilizing the “Praying with Jesus: 40-Days Toward Revitalization Prayer Guide” provided by the SCBO for FREE as well as the companion 8-week sermon series. Simply click on the title in the preceding sentence to order your copies today! Even though I know it won’t be entirely painless for me or our church, and even though I don’t know what the end result will be, I am hopeful and excited for this journey.

Would you consider leading your church onto the road to revitalization? Prayer guides in any number will be sent to you FREE of charge for your congregation. Your SCBO team stands ready to engage with you in prayer and serious conversations about your church. I am also eager to come alongside you as a local coach and encourager, and I’m happy to share with you what God is doing in my own church/ministry setting as well as other churches across greater Cleveland.

Grace Upon Grace

"As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him."

Have you been in a place of prolonged discomfort or discouragement? Sometimes there are things we can do to improve the situation; sometimes (as in the case of the blind man) there aren't. For religious people, it's natural to assume like the disciples did that every instance of suffering is owing to some particular sin. In one sense, that's true. Suffering is part of God's curse upon all mankind for Adam and Eve's rebellion in the Garden of Eden. But there isn't always a 1-to-1 correlation between specific suffering and a specific sin in an individual's life. As Christians, we must always return to the fact that to even be permitted to live in a world where suffering is present is a grace of God we don't deserve. If we got what we deserved, we would be infinitely worse off than than even the most grievous earthly suffering imaginable.

The point is that there's a point! There's a point to your suffering, your discomfort, your discouragement as a Christian. The point is that suffering is an occasion for the works of God to be displayed. As a Christian, to want a trouble free life is to want a life that's also void of the mighty working of God, who delights to demonstrate His grace's sufficiency in our weakness, in our weariness, in our woundedness.

The blind man received his sight, but that wasn't the end of his suffering. The controversy of his healing by Jesus opened up all new areas of discouragement and distress--perhaps even worse than when he was blind--as his faith in Jesus made him a a target of ridicule and Pharisaic intimidation and even estranged him from his parents.

May God in His mighty working demonstrate his grace to us in easing our present discomforts and discouragements. But, as the process of sanctification unfolds, John's words in John 1:16 remind us that the grace we receive for today's troubles will need to be replaced (and surpassed) by new grace for tomorrow's.

"And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work." (2 Cor. 9:8 CSB)