PEACEMAKER: NO MO FALSE PEACE

Inspired by Pastor Greg Caruso Message on Matthew 5:3-10 April 17, 2011

Eight quality characteristics of Jesus

He wants to reflect them through us

First one, blessed are the poor in spirit

Total surrender on God instead of fear it

Second, blessed are those who mourn

Honest about those sinful tendencies – emotionally torn

Third, blessed are the meek

Power under control in humble learning position is not weak

Fourth, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Growing desire to empty self for God’s fullness

Fifth, blessed are the merciful

Empathetic listening and into others perspective pull

Sixth, blessed are the pure in heart

Cleansing and purifying is God’s part

Seventh, blessed are the peace makers

And that is not the false peace keepers

Eighth, blessed are the persecuted

No longer thinking of self because we are with God connected

Jesus was a threat by exposing what was on the inside

While many wanted to deny the truth and that is why He died

Reason He shared step by step inner spiritual formation

Going deeper with God and others after salvation

Concluding with three thoughts about true peace makership

Bringing up concerns, dealing with what is real, with a conflict stewardship

A peace maker-tude

Exposing hidden false peace

Something that is blessed

Dorrine Schlebaum April 18,2011

PEACE KEEPER GAME

Inspired by Gregg Caruso talk on the Beatitudes Matthew 5:3-20 April 17, 2011

Peace keeping was the name of my game

Pleasing people and taking all of their blame

Peace maker is what I want to be now

No longer to false peace will I bow

I thought I was doing right when I was so wrong

It is by being meek and humble is when I am strong

Peace keepers don’t have conflict resolution skills

They usually lie down in the battle of the wills

They will adapt and adjust to the other

And the person they really are smother

Until they come to believe they have value

They keep doing what they do and don’t accept anything new

Peace keepers are good people that is for sure

They just need some help to grow up and mature

Peace makers is what they need to be

Graciously bringing up concerns and listen reflectively

Dealing with what is real and where they contributed

Being a steward resolving problems when they are conflicted

No more false peace game

Peace maker resolves conflicts

God wants it that way

Dorrine Schlebaum April 20, 2011

I AM BLESSED WHEN….

Meditation inspired by Gregg Caruso, Beatitudes and the Thread

I am blessed when I am poor in spirit as I totally surrender

BUT NOT WHEN I RESIST IT!

Lord, give me a this surrendered spirit so I can be worthy of the Kingdom of this earth

I am blessed when I mourn my sinful tendencies

BUT NOT WHEN I RESIST IT!

Lord, give me a spirit that mourns my sinful tendencies so I can be comforted

I am blessed when I am meek and humbly learn

BUT NOT WHEN I RESIST IT!

Lord, give me a meek spirit humbly learning power under control to inherit the earth

I am blessed when I hunger and thirst after righteousness as my desire

grows to be filled with God’s fullness

BUT NOT WHEN I RESIST IT!

Lord, help me hunger and thirst for your righteousness so I will be totally satisfied in my soul

I am blessed when I’m merciful with empathetic listening, looking at others perspective

BUT NOT WHEN I RESIST IT!

Lord, help me to be merciful forgiving as You forgive so I can receive mercy.

I am blessed when my heart is pure turning to God to purify and cleanse it

BUT NOT WHEN I RESIST IT!

Lord, cleanse and purify my heart so I can see You in everything.

I am blessed when I am a peace maker and not a false peace keeper

BUT NOT WHEN I RESIST IT!

Lord, help me to be a peace maker with courage to expose the truth so I can be truly called a son of God

I am blessed when I am persecuted for righteousness sake instead of thinking of self

and not God’s Kingdom

BUT NOT WHEN I RESIST IT!

Lord, help me see persecution is the highest form of spiritual maturity for this is the Kingdom of God

Dorrine Schlebaum April 23, 2011

It’s Palm Sunday and we are remembering and celebrating the triumphal entry of The Servant King Jesus – arriving into Jerusalem to the praise and adulation of the multitude — and less than a week later, he is to be brutally and shamefully murdered…

1. Next week is the high point of the Christian calendar as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
2. Jesus triumphed over death and hell and bridged the gap between our utter depravity and God’s standard of holiness. (To miss the mark by even a little is still to have missed the mark.)
3. We call this sacrifice the Gospel – or Good News.

I believe it is Tim Keller who reminds us that the Gospel is not advice, it is news.  It is the ultimate Good News.  He suggests that weekend services are not primarily the place to give advice… Gospel-centered (or Christ-centered) change is rooted in remembrance. We are to remind one another of what Christ Jesus has done, not what we must do.

We cannot commend what we do not cherish.  -John Piper

The essence of Christian maturity is when the Gospel – or, what Christ has done — gets worked in – and then through our lives, which is what I’d like to spend our remaining time considering.

Turn to Matthew 5 where we will take a look at the Beatitudes.  While you’re turning, allow me to offer a few introductory thoughts.

What is Christian conversion? Christian conversion, or salvation, occurs when genuine repentance and sincere faith in Jesus intersect.

1. These are not two separate actions – but one motion with two parts:
• As we turn to Christ for salvation we turn away from the sin that we are asking Jesus Christ to forgive us from. (Rom 3:23 – All have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard.)
• Neither repentance nor faith come first – they must come at the same time.
2. They are two sides of the same coin.[1]

Contained in the Beatitudes are eight qualities that characterize the life of Jesus Christ, and therefore, through conversion, they begin to characterize our life in Jesus Christ.  Jesus calls us to follow him through life and to depend upon his strength and power.

The word beatitude comes from the Latin word meaning “blessed.”

1. More specifically the word means exalted joy, or true happiness. (Joy is calm delight in even the most adverse circumstances.  Joy fueled Paul’s contentment.)
2. With the beatitudes, Jesus dives into our innermost being probing the heart and raising the question of motive.
3. What made Jesus a threat to everyone and the reason He was eventually killed was that in His encounters with people (particularly the religious leaders), He exposes what they were on the inside.  Some people find it liberating – others hate it.

The Beatitudes, I have come to see, are our surrendered response to the Gospel.  I view the Beatitudes as a step-by-step spiritual formation process that moves us toward spiritual depth and maturity.  This becomes cyclical as we grow deeper and deeper in our faith.  The Beatitudes become the outworking of the Gospel in and through our lives.

Matthew 5:3-10…

³“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 ⁴“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

 ⁵“Blessed are the meek (gentle), for they shall inherit the earth.

 ⁶“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

 ⁷“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

 ⁸“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

 ⁹“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

 ¹⁰“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Following is an overview and how one unfolds into the next…The first two are foundational to the Gospel blossoming in and through our lives…

1.  Blessed are the poor in spirit…

a.  “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.  With less of you there is more of God and his rule.” (MSG)
b.  Another translation renders this verse, “Happy are those who know their need for God.” (JBP)
c.  What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”?  A desperateness of soul that is weary of living in it’s own strength and longs for God’s mercy and grace to come and refresh the soul.  In a word, it is DESPERATION.
d.  Consider the Prodigal Sons (Lk 15)…

2.  Blessed are those who mourn…

a.  I have a river of sin in my life – with 3 primary tributaries…

#1 – Original sin (Adam & Eve traded the presence of God for the knowledge of God – and that’s been our core tendency ever since…

#2 – Family of origin issues

#3 – My own dumb choices.

b.  As we are honest about the sin that has infected us there will be a transforming grief and accompanying repentance, that surfaces – not only for our own lives, but also for the injustice, greed, lust, and suffering that grips our world.

c.  I want to own my sin everyday.[2]

d.  This is counter intuitive (paradox – seeming contradiction).  We go down to go up; death precedes resurrection; we get to joy by traveling through grief.  Our soul wants to find a way around grief, but God says, “No, you must travel through grief – and the good news is, He says, “I’ll go with you and we will do it in My strength and power.”

e.  The way of the Gospel is a death and resurrection cycle…

f.  The gospel has the greatest potential to captivate us when we understand that we are more depraved than we ever realized and simultaneously more loved that we ever dared to imagine.

g.  I don’t mind inviting you to question your own salvation today.  If our default mode is, “I’m basically a good person…” then we simply have not understood the gospel.

3.  Blessed are the meek…

a.  Rick Warren would say, “Meekness is not weakness, but the power of your potential under Christ’s control.”

b.  The concept of meekness describes a horse that has been broken.  We can either surrender to Christ and invite the breaking, or remain the undisciplined and wild stallion.

c.  Grieving over sin and suffering grows meekness in us and delivers us into a humble learning posture (disciple means learner).

4.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…Spiritual hunger and thirst is the growing desire to be empty of those things that don’t reflect God, and initiates a deep longing for wholeness in our lives.

5.  Blessed are the merciful…

a.  Mercy is entering into another persons feelings – attempting to see things from another person’s perspective – all with understanding AND acceptance…just like Jesus has done for us.

b.  As we receive God’s mercy we begin to give mercy – to ourselves and to others.

6.  Blessed are the pure in heart…

a.  Mercy cleanses our heart and restores purity to our lives.

b.  Did you know that your (spiritual and emotional) virginity CAN be restored?

^{2 Cor 11:2}For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.

7.  Blessed are the peacemakers…

a.  Purity gives way to a personal serenity and peacefulness.  Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the absence of anxiety in the midst of inevitable conflict – and when others encounter it, they want it too.

b.  Our Western concept of peace needs to be considered in the light of the ancient Hebrew concept of peace, which is SHALOM — and means more than our limited understanding of peace (i.e., the lack of conflict).

Biblical SHALOM speaks of a universal flourishing, wholeness and delight; a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied, natural gifts a fruitfully employed — all under the arc of God’s love. Shalom is the way things ought to be.

Neal Plantinga – “the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in equity, fulfillment, and delight.”

c.  There is a difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper.

To be a peacemaker does not mean peace at any cost.

Peacekeeping creates a false peace.

Many of us live out our lives with this false peace and say nothing or do nothing to change it—in churches, homes, work places, and our marriages.

Examples:

(i)  A family member makes a scene at a family gathering.  It embarrasses you, the rest of the family, but you say nothing.  You keep the peace because to go there would unearth a lot of stuff that you just aren’t willing to deal with.

(ii) Your spouse makes insulting remarks to you or humiliates you publicly through critical tone of voice.  It grates on you.  But you keep silent because you want to keep the peace.

d.  We struggle with this false peace because the conventional wisdom of the day is that its better to keep the peace than to make the peace and there is a very real difference.

e.  Keeping this false peace insures that real issues, real concerns, and real problems are never dealt with.

f.  A façade, or veneer, of peace in that there is calm but the reality is the tension is still there.

g.  True peacemakers will challenge and disrupt the false peace.

h.  Jesus didn’t have a problem disrupting the false peace of his day.

i.  The whole history of redemption, climaxing in the death and resurrection of Jesus is God’s strategy to bring about a just and lasting peace between rebel man and himself and between man and man (Eph 2:14-22)

j.  Colossians 1:19-20 puts it like this,

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

k.  True peacemakers will give people the benefit of the doubt while graciously bringing up concerns

l.  But true peacemakers will deal with what is real.  FIRST IN THEIR OWN LIVES…

m.  True peacemakers will steward the conflict they find themselves in because God will often use conflict to develop things in our lives that are developed in no other way.

8.  Blessed are the persecuted… Living life from a kingdom of God perspective will place us in conflict with those that oppose it (often times it’s “religious” people!).

Without the knowledge of our extreme sin, the payment of the Cross seems trivial and does not electrify or transform.

But without the knowledge of Christ’s completely satisfying life and death, the knowledge of sin would crush us – or move us to deny and repress it. By walking the way of the Beatitudes we hold our depravity and the Cross in a healthy and dynamic tension that will lead to transformation and renewal.

I. INTRO

A.   One commentator said that Paul was addressing the Corinthians “party pride.”[1] Another describes Corinth as a “child-church.”[2]

B.    It’s interesting to contrast Paul’s letter to the Corinthians with his letter to the Galatians.  Basically 1 Corinthians deals with the abuses of liberty — while Galatians deals with the abuses of legalism.  Both are expressions of the soul and not the Spirit.

C.    My point for today: The antidote to both excessive liberty and excessive legalism is the Gospel.

D.   Our passage today is: 4:14-21 (NASB). It is Paul’s concluding remarks of this first section of the letter – the section is an admonition to put a stop to their divisiveness and strife in the church.  (In chaps 5-6 he address moral and ethical disorders in the church.)

¹⁴I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

¹⁵For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ,[3] yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus [an affectionate term describing is relationship with Jesus – as opposed to Paul’s more formal term: Jesus Christ: why??] I became your father through the gospel. [Gospel is our launch-pad.]

¹⁶Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.

¹⁷For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ just as I teach everywhere in every church. [He’s not saying he has it together, he’s saying his life is immersed in the gospel.]

¹⁸Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.

¹⁹But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power.

²⁰For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. [i.e., resurrection power.]

²¹What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

E.    Today I would like to take an extended look at the gospel: I believe that in the North American Church we have lost, or squandered, much of the power – and breadth of the Gospel.

F.    Pastor and author, Tim Keller reminds us the Gospel is not advice, it is news.  It is the ultimate Good News.  Sunday morning is not primary the place to give advice… Gospel-driven change is rooted in remembrance. We are to remind one another primarily of what Christ Jesus has done, not what we must do.

G.   We have tended to view the Gospel a message that many of us responded to many years ago – and then moved on from.  Yet the Gospel is more like an ocean.  It is deep, and wide, and vast.

H.   And the essence of Christian maturity is when the Gospel itself gets worked in – and through our lives.

I.      So, we are asking today: How is the Gospel the antidote to division and strife in the church?

J.     I would like to draw your attention to a theological concept that I believe helps to understand the Gospel in a more complete way.  We want to make sure we preach and teach a WHOLE, or COMPLETE Gospel.

1. Tri-Perspectivalism – A 10 cent theological word that means viewing something from different vantage points.  Think facets of a diamond…

a. Tri-Perspectivalism emanates out of the mystery of the Trinity

b.     The three persons, however, are not identical to one another. They are distinct in various ways – and yet they are one.

c.     We also see Perspectivalism in the 4 Gospels – Four perspectives of the same message.

2.     Tri-Perspectivalism teaches us about the Gospel by viewing it from 3 perspectives, or facets – one Gospel message with 3 aspects…

a.     The Kingdom of God.

b.     The Cross of Christ. 

c.     And the Grace of God.

3.     We often times run across churches, or whole denominations that emphasize one of these over-and-above the others.  And it creates an incomplete gospel.  What God has designated as whole has often times been divided and weakened.

4.     Without clarity and conviction regarding a whole gospel, there will be competition, confusion, and eventually compromise.

5.     So, I would like to define these perspectives – and then take a quick look back through the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians to see how Paul includes all three in his letter…

a.     The Kingdom of God – Quite simply is: The rule and reign of God.

• Jesus established the Kingdom at his first coming and will consummate the Kingdom at his second coming. Jesus reaches into eternity and pulls it into the present – and stakes it into the ground with the Cross.  “We live in the presence of the future.”  “The already and the not yet.” 
• As we live in the presence of the future there is paradox (seeming contradiction).  We are saved, but working out our salvation; we are sanctified, yet being sanctified; we are healed yet being healed.  We are filled with the Holy Spirit, but we leak.  It’s both present and future…
• One of the most dynamic aspects of the present reality of the KOG, is that within it is the power that raised Jesus from the dead is made available to us.  The Greek word is dunamis – the same word we get “dynamite” from. 
• The demands of the Kingdom are that we repent; we are to place God first, and follow him at any cast. 
• Residing in the kingdom of God leads us to the Cross…

b.     The Cross – Speaks of the Atoning Work of Jesus Christ –

• This is shorthand for the “5-Fold Christ Event”: 1) Virgin Birth, 2) Miraculous Ministry, 3) Degrading Death, 4) Victorious Resurrection, 5) Missional Ascension of Jesus Christ.
• Apart from the atoning work of Christ, we would be forever guilty, ashamed, and condemned before God.
• The way of God is suffering – and then glory.  This is what baptism is supposed to be about – I will die to my previous life and come alive to God – and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

c.     Grace – The unmerited favor of God.  Acceptance is given to us freely at God’s expense.

• It’s important that we understand there is common grace and saving grace happens when we take up residence within the KOG.  When we realize that our sin killed Jesus.
• Definition: All that God is, lavishly poured into you. 
• Jonathan Edwards speaks of grace as, “the very Holy Ghost dwelling in the soul and acting there as a vital principle.”[4]
• We have made grace too cheap.  As we surrender, as we die to ourselves and come alive to Christ — The grace of God comes to do in us and through us what we could never do on our own.
• The ushering in of God’s grace announces the end of religion.

(i) Religion says, “I’m basically a good person…”

(ii) The person who is beginning to understand the Gospel of grace, moves toward total surrender admitting, “I can’t get there from here…”

K.   The essence of the Gospel:

1.     “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

2.     Martin Luther calls it, “the great exchange.”  My sin for his righteousness.

3.     **The gospel has the greatest potential to captivate us when we understand that we are more depraved than we ever realized and simultaneously more loved that we ever dared to imagine.

4.     I believe in total depravity… this doesn’t mean people are as bad as they can be. It means that (original sin) sin lurks/resides in every part of our being, including the spirit and the soul, so that we cannot save ourselves. “The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it” (Jer 17:9).[5]

5.     This is where the Church is most at odds with our culture.  And this is where, in my opinion, the Church often wimps out and lowers the bar.  (We don’t know how to speak the truth in love.)

6.     Do we want a revival?  Do we really? “To the church, a revival means humiliation, a bitter knowledge of unworthiness and an open humiliating confession of sin on the part of her [pastors] and people.  It is not the easy and glorious thing many think it to be, who imagines it filled the pews and reinstated the church in power and authority.  It comes to scorch before it heals; it comes to [convict] people for their unfaithful witness, for their selfish living, for their neglect of the cross, and to call them to daily renunciation and to a deep and daily consecration.  That is why a revival has ever been unpopular with large numbers within the church.  Because it says nothing to them of power, or of ease, or of success; it accuses them of sin; it tells them they are dead; it calls them to awake, to renounce the world [system] and to follow Christ.”[6]

7.     Is it that we tell others about the cross without really having experienced it for ourselves??

L.    The whole of this epistle is an explanation and unfolding of the Gospel that culminates in Chap 15 (Chap 16 is mostly concerned with administrative matters – although it contains one of the most potent passages for men in all of the Bible.)

1 Cor 15:1-4 — In what is certainly the climax of his letter, there is a brilliant and succinct rendition of the gospel…

Now I would remind you, brethren, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received [past], in which you stand [present], ² and by which you are being saved [future], if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

II. BODY

A.   In our remaining moments I’d like to quickly trace these Gospel concepts back through the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians.  Paul constructs his message in and with the Gospel…

1.     Paul is saying, your divisions (or divisiveness) are caused by immaturity, and you are stuck in your immaturity because you don’t really understand the Gospel.

a.     Paul speaks the same message to the Galatians – even though they’re stuck on the other side of the continuum.

b.     The letter is really a literary masterpiece.  It is filled with equal parts of hope, promise, affirmation, and rebuke – with a little sarcasm thrown in.

B.    1:1-9: Salutation and Benefits of Answering God’s Call

a.     Notice the use of the words, “called,” “calling,” or “call” used 3 times in the first 2 verses…

b.     Definition of the Church (1:2) – “Those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours.”

c.     You’d think Paul wouldn’t “lead” with grace if they were abusing it…  Maybe they didn’t really understand grace?

2.     Benefits of answering God’s call (1:4-9).  In the next 6 verses we see a grace-fueled ecclesiology with redeeming grace is given for the past, present, and future…

a.     Grace for the PAST – 1:4-6

• (v.4) “grace was given” – in Christ Jesus (Christ Event)
• (v.5) “in everything you were enriched” – in speech and knowledge
• (v.6) “testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you”

b.     Grace for the PRESENT – 1:7 “you are not lacking in any gift – awaiting the revelation [revealing] of Jesus”

c.     Grace for the FUTURE – 1:8 – “who shall also confirm you in the end, blameless on that day…”

3.     1:10 is a transitional, or thesis statement: division is overcome with spiritual maturity.

4.     (vs.10-16) Paul lays out the “what” of their division problem: They were “Choosing up Sides.”

5.     And he brings it back to the Gospel…in verses 17-18: ^2:17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. ¹⁸For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

C.    From 1:19 through the end of chapter 2 (v.16) Paul addresses the “why” of their division problem:  Idolatry.  Their idol was what Paul refers to as “the wisdom of the world” (1:20).  See also v.19 – “wisdom of the wise” – a quote from Isaiah 29.  The words “wise” or “wisdom” are used 24 times from here through the end of chapter 3.

D.   Within the depravity of the human heart there is a need, a hunger to idolize.

1.     Idolatry

a.     Tim Keller, in his recent book, Counterfeit Gods, explains that idolatry quietly and subtly slips into our lives when we allow good things to become ultimate things.^[7]

b.     Another way to understand idolatry is to think of it in terms of defining where we obtain our hope.  At the heart of every culture lays its main “Hope.”  Any dominant cultural “Hope” that is not God himself is an idol.^[8]

2.     In 1 Cor we find the dominant cultural hope of both Jews and Greeks in1:22: “Jews ask for signs [attesting miracles], and Greeks search for wisdom.” [Think Greek Mythology].  The words “wisdom,” or “wise” are used 24 times from 1:19 through 3:20.

3.     Paul is saying that both the Jews and Greeks are getting caught-up in soulish expressions of their faith, not Spiritual.

a.     For the Jews, it’s their emotions – want to continually see signs and wonders.  (Paul addresses the appropriate use of charismatic gifts in chapters 12-14.)

b.     For the Greeks, it’s their intellect – wanting wisdom; but Paul is saying their wisdom is worldly and not “born of the Spirit of God” (see 2:10).

c.     Much of their wisdom was contained in Greek Mythology, which is certainly worth reading as a collection, or body, of literature – but when it becomes a source of life for wisdom and practice, it is severely lacking.  It is polytheistic and there seems to be constant confusion between erotic love and sacrificial love – what we would call agape love.  (“When we lust, we cannot love.”) Chapters 5 and 6 of 1 Cor address moral and ethical disorders in the church.

d.     Notice 3:16: “Do you not notice that you are the temple of God…” Again, Paul is confronting and addressing their idolatry.

E.    There is a sub-theme inserted from 3:4-4:5:  The Corinthians have a wrong perception of Christian ministry (vs.3:5-4:5). Notice the “Therefore…” It’s an admonition to wait on the Lord – for insight/Godly wisdom and discernment regarding motives.

F.    From here Paul (with sarcasm) moves toward a summary statement for this section on:  division instigated by a shallow (or immature) understanding of the gospel while being bound-up in a cultural “hope” that was idolatrous.

III. CONCLUSION

A.   As we move toward communion this morning.  I would like you to ponder 2 things…

1.     Has the gospel – through the coming of the kingdom, the Cross, and the free and total work of grace saved you?

The great reformer Martin Luther rightly said that, as sinners, we are prone to pursue a relationship with God in one of two ways. The first is religion/spirituality and the second is the gospel. The two are antithetical in every way.

2.     Where is idolatry in your life?

From C.S. Lewis in “The Weight of Glory” Chapter 1, Paragraph 1:
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion…is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

The title of my message is The Gospel As The Antidote To Division and Strife.

I have made these same mistakes — and found Ms. Kirby’s descriptions to be succinct and illuminating. Enjoy…

The abrupt departure of Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin after less than six months on the job has the media world buzzing. Now, to be sure, the media world likes nothing better than talking about itself, so the story is probably getting more play than it would if he’d been ousted from a job in the, say, cement business. But that’s just as well, because in it is a cautionary tale for new leaders in any industry.

[The change agent,] that’s become a common label, especially in an era when so many traditional business models need rethinking, but run a Google search on it and you will begin to appreciate the special challenges it creates. What immediately becomes clear is how it raises hackles in an organization; the term is quoted with irony, or upon someone’s departure, more often than not. It would appear that nothing guarantees more schadenfreude on your departure than having arrived as an agent of change.

So if you yourself are a change agent, or considering becoming one, here are some lessons to take away from the very short story of Jack Griffin’s Time Inc. career:

1. Avoid the term “change agent.” The strange thing about Griffin’s case is that he appears to have applied this “kick me” sign to himself. In most cases, it’s the board that puts the word on the street that a change agent is coming. Try to keep that from happening. It’s not as though the organization won’t hear the news, and it’s insulting. It casts veteran managers as part of the problem, not forces for positive change themselves. As one Time Inc. veteran complained to me, “it’s not as though all of us had just been sitting on our thumbs.” That is a classic, and predictable, response.
2. Gauge the internal hunger for change. It’s one thing to be the agent of change in an organization that realizes it needs it; it’s quite another when you’re the only one in the room convinced of that. A big problem at Time, at least as far as Griffin was concerned, was that there was no such sense of a burning platform. People, therefore, would perceive any change as being done to them, not for them. It’s not impossible to take a comfortable organization and get it excited about a quest, but it definitely affects how you should frame the mission.
3. Arrive without a vision. Reportedly, Griffin showed up on day one of his new job with a manifesto in hand. When I heard this, I couldn’t help but recall some great advice from leadership gurus Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. “Somehow, through all the talk over the years about the importance of vision,” they observed, “many leaders have reached the unfortunate conclusion that they as individuals must be visionaries.” They spell out for less incisive thinkers what the future holds and therefore how the enterprise must be transformed. “Bad idea!” say Kouzes and Posner. “Yes, leaders must ask, “What’s new? What’s next? What’s better?” — but they can’t present answers that are only theirs. Constituents want visions of the future that reflect their own aspirations.”
4. Go directly to “us”. As leadership expert Steve Reicher and his colleagues convincingly argue, great leadership involves tapping into the psychology of “us” versus “them.” This means that job #1 for a leader is to go native, immediately taking the side of the organization, uniting it against a common enemy, and building consensus on what “we” should do. From this perspective, it’s clear how the work of anyone fighting the status quo is fraught with the potential to be misread. Ask yourself honestly whose side you are on — and if it’s not your organization’s, don’t blame them for hating you.
5. Act as catalyst not cattle prod. Chances are, there is change energy to be tapped in the organization at some level. To get at it, think first of what might be holding it back, and address those things. As in chemistry, a catalyst lowers a barrier to effect a transformation — it doesn’t apply a shock.
6. Surround yourself with new friends. Of all the new-manager missteps Griffin is accused of, probably the worst is his decision to surround himself with cronies. It’s an understandable temptation, when you don’t yet know your new colleagues well enough to say who’s brilliant and trustworthy, to just recruit some folks you already know to have those qualities from past experience working with them. But nothing — nothing — is more alienating to your inherited team than to suddenly be on the outside of the inner circle looking in. It doesn’t help that, in Griffin’s case, the cronies were also perceived to be carbon copies of himself.

There is none righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10). All are guilty before God because of union with Adam in his first sin (5:12-14). And we all become our “own little Adams” when our depravity meets the Law of God and overflows in specific acts of transgression (5:16, 20). Therefore, there is no getting right with God – no justification – on the basis of deeds done by us in righteousness (3:20). Instead there is one and only one hope for sinners: a second Adam, Jesus Christ, has come into the world and provided both blood (5:9) and righteousness (5:18). Blood to cover all our sins, and righteousness so that our account is not empty but filled with perfect obedience – the obedience of Jesus (5:19). Therefore, it is by faith and by faith alone that we receive this grace of justification (3:28; 5:17) and obtain eternal life – the hope of glory.

What are some strategic implications?

• Our right (or legal) standing with God is based on who God is and what he has done, not on who we are or what we have done – or, not done.
• God credits to us his own righteousness in Christ through our faith in his righteousness.
• For hundreds of years theologians have used the phrase “imputed righteousness.” This simply means that God imputes, or attributes, or deposits his righteousness to your account through faith because of Jesus Christ’s obedience.
• This is a HUGE concept – to see that what we have access to is Christ’s righteousness. It doesn’t get better when our faith is strong. It doesn’t get worse when our faith is weak. It is perfect, because he is perfect.
• Our faith is not our righteousness. Our faith unites us to Christ so that God’s righteousness in Christ is credited to us.

For Martin Luther and John Bunyan the discovery of the imputed righteousness of Christ was the greatest life-changing experience they ever had. Luther said it was like entering a paradise of peace with God. For Bunyan it was the end of years of spiritual torture and uncertainty.

What Luther and Bunyan discovered was the Gospel message in its entirety. They discovered that the good news was, not only the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross as payment for their sins (which is certainly great news), but they also discovered that Christ’s perfect life of responsive obedience to his Father was imputed to their account.

One final thought…the word “gospel” simply means “good news” and this concept, or doctrine, of imputed righteousness is a key ingredient (see Rom 1:16-17).

Today’s post was inspired by The 8 Stupidest Management Fads of All Time and The 5  Dumbest Management Concepts of All Time by Geoffrey James.  I would respectfully disagree with some on his lists but I did enjoy his provocative perspectives.  Geoffrey’s articles got me thinking about the most dim-witted leadership strategies that continue to linger in today’s business community.  The good news is that there is growing momentum in our appreciation for transparency and we are finally starting to embrace the power of mass collaboration.  Let’s agree to abolish these 5 useless and more often dooming leadership strategies.

#1 Command and Control
Command and control leaders might as well put a blindfold on along with some earplugs.  Typically these leaders rationalize their methods emphasizing the negative outcomes of consensus based strategies.  Consensus based strategies, while polar in nature, are as dysfunctional.  Both strategies are negligent and like most things in life the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.  Decision makers are crucial, as are collective buy-in and the voice of the team broadly.  We need more leaders that have the confidence to act and the humility to listen.

#2 Bottom Line Be All End All
Leaders that put the bottom line above all else will eventually find themselves at the bottom without the line.  And assuming they defy the odds and sustain this risky strategy, they will not be maximizing their potential.  They are simply gaining more than they are losing.  I’m not suggesting the bottom line is not important, it is without question a key performance indicator, but it is no more significant than customer experience or employee experience and arguably less important.  A healthy bottom line can be a goal, but it is not a strategy.  Once again, it’s about balance, we need more leaders with the courage to focus beyond the all mighty dollar.

#3 Tradition and Prescription

While tradition might provide comfort, familiarity, and even bind groups of people, it can also inhibit and even sabotage meaningful change.  I’m not suggesting all traditions be tossed, but they do need to be examined mindfully and they should never be maintained blindly.  Similarly prescriptive leadership may provide consistency and reduce complexity but the reality is we do not live in a one size fits all world.  It stifles creativity and fosters inflexibility.  The effort required to develop a universal solution is enormous and commonly fraught with compromise on behalf of the customer.  That said, highly regulated industries often require a more prescriptive approach, such as Health Care.  The key is to examine all practices through the lens of your customer; it is possible to both meet regulatory demands and remain creative.  Bottom line, we need more creative leaders that embrace and celebrate change.

#4 The Black Hole

Every company has a black hole, that is where all the wasted money, energy and talents fall when the are misused, misunderstood or worse unnoticed.  I would bet that we could feed an entire continent, if not the world, if we could monetize this waste collectively.  Every company needs a ‘waste master’, chances are they would be your most profitable investment.  Leaders are often aware of some waste and blind to even more, we need leaders that have the courage and foresight to eliminate waste and in so doing maximize their potentiality.

#5 The Lone Ranger

This is the “I need to do it myself if it is going to get done right” leader.  News flash, you are NOT a leader if you are doing everything and deciding everything.  Being a leader is about empowering others, motivating them to act like an owner.  A lone ranger may feel like a rock star but nothing could be farther from the truth.  This leadership approach will chase away the talent on your team, it clearly does not scale, it is not sustainable, and it puts your business at massive risk.  We need leaders that cultivate positive results from others; a smart leader surrounds themselves with those smarter then they are.

What does your top 5 dim-witted leadership strategies list look like?  And what does your top 5 smartest leadership strategies list look like?

1. The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate.
2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented.
3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life.
4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating.
5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.
6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.

The detailed list can be found on the Barna Group’s website.