maturity - Jeremiah's Vow

Lent 2022 | Day 39: Friend

In Jesus’s final gathering with his disciples, he offered them a word of encouragement I believe we too can participate in. Jesus told the disciples that he no longer considered them servants.

We are now days away from celebrating the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. This single event defines the fullness of our faith. Without the resurrection, we are left with no hope for what lies beyond the grave. But in the resurrection, we find a reason to endure the trials of this life and look forward to the promise to be fulfilled.

In Jesus’s final gathering with his disciples, he offered them a word of encouragement I believe we too can participate in. Jesus told the disciples that he no longer considered them servants. After all of their time together he had shared with them and talked with them about all that the Father had given to him. Now, as a result, they were ready to transition from those who were receiving to those who could give to others.

How do we know this is true? Jesus tells them he no longer called them servants but that he now considered them to be friends.

There is a big difference between a servant and a friend. The biggest of the differences is a servant does not have the same kind of access that a friend does. Servants cannot call upon their master and seek the same kind of comfort that a friend offers to a friend.

The reality this is describing is that at the end of our journey with Jesus we should be able to consider him our friend. In this case, what I mean by the journey is the journey of discipleship. That time where there is intentional and specific training, instruction, and encouragement to live out what is being learned. But there comes a moment we stop being students and we must begin to live for ourselves. Not ignoring what we have learned but according to what we have learned.

It has become my practice whenever I enter into a discipleship relationship to tell them from the beginning, “At the end of this discipleship process, however long the Lord gives us, if we are not better friends I will have failed to have discipled you properly.”

This mindset comes from what Jesus told his disciples. At the beginning, there was a great deal of transfer of information and correction from Jesus to the disciples. But as they matured they became more than just receptors of information and truth. Whether or not the disciples truly understood this does not change the fact that Jesus said this was his desire and his intention.

Whether or not we have ever felt like this about those who have discipled us in the past does not matter for how we should move forward. When we realize what Jesus was trying to do in and through us we become accountable for that.

And so as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the fulfillment of God’s great promise of salvation we should give thanks to Jesus Christ who is that friend that sticks closer to us than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Jesus is the greatest friend we will ever have. Let us learn from him and be good friends with those whom we journey within this life. Even if it is only for a short time.

Personal Responsibility

⁶So 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. ⁷Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
⁸And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:6-13

Introduction

The story of the Fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden is the opening scene in the story of God’s work of redemption. That may seem an odd way of saying it. But, if you stop and think about it, it’s true. If God had decided that he was going to start again, we would not have the story!

The fact we do have this retelling of what happened is evidence that God had a greater purpose in mind. He was not dismayed or discouraged by what happened. I would even say God was prepared for it.

In light of God’s grace to continue working with the human race, we can ask some questions about what does it look like to be held responsible for our mistakes? In particular, I wonder how we make sense of what God said and did when he confronted the first couple?

As we consider these questions, I am sure others will come up. And as they do, feel free to write them down and let me know. I would be interested in considering them as well.

The subject of personal responsibility can be difficult to address. Not because we don’t all have an instinctive sense of what should happen. It is difficult because we are not always eager to apply the same standard to ourselves!

If we are ever going to mature as people; to grow in wisdom we have to do our best to not pass off the consequences of our choices to others. We have to accept that our actions were the catalyst for what ended up happening.

With this in mind, I think the story of the Fall provides us with an excellent backdrop for a conversation about Personal Responsibility.

I. Who was responsible for what happened in the Garden of Eden?

Who is the one that is most often blamed for what happened in the garden?
The one responsible was Adam.
- It was to Adam to whom God had given the authority to care and tend for the garden and everything in it. This responsibility included Eve, his wife.
This story is less about who is to blame and more about what happens when we as individuals fail to take our responsibilities seriously.
The story of the fall has to do with fulfilling the responsibility or responsibilities God has given to each one of us.

II. What is responsibility?

In short, it is the ability to respond to what is presented to me.
- Example 1: If I see a car approaching someone who does not see it, I have a responsibility to warn the person in danger.
- Example 2: If I see a car approaching someone who does not see it, but I am at home and don’t see the car, then I can’t be responsible for warning the person in danger. I don’t have the ability to respond to a danger I am not aware of.
We should begin to look around at the different areas of our lives to see where I have the ability to respond, and then take the necessary steps to change what needs to be changed.
When we assume responsibility for something completely out of our control, we also feel guilt for something we had no power to change, or even influence.

III. Most of what we get ourselves into is our fault.

Take more initiative in ordering your life by God’s ways and commands rather than your own. (Ps. 37:23-24)
The first place to look when something begins to go in a way we didn’t want or plan is to look at ourselves. We must then decide if we are following the will of God in it or not.
Until we make this assessment, we will do our own thing, and the blame God for it.

Originally Delivered on Sunday, January 14, 2007. It has been edited and expanded.

The Challenge of Being a Pastor…

The reality of the full-time ministry is this, it can breed many of the opposite characteristics than are needed, dare I say, required of those whom God has called to serve in leadership.

… is remembering that it’s not about you!

I read R. C. Sproul, Jr.’s, article today, written for Desiring God 2013 Conference for Pastors coming up on February 4–6, 2013. The theme of the conference revolves around recapturing and re-centering pastoral ministry around the reality and power of the Holy Spirit to work through pastors. This is an amazingly refreshing theme and I wish that I could attend.

Over the last few weeks various articles have been written to gear up attendees for what will be presented during the conference. Sproul’s article was particularly poignant because it fires back against a general misconception within the church. There are many who believe that more information, more knowledge, will help to stem the tide of nominal Christianity. This notion simply does not hold water. It may never have. However, we followed the trend and now we are reaping the results of an intellectualized religion.

In the article, Sproul argues that this is not the case. We do not need to find more subjects to study, books to collect or workshops to attend. The root of the problem is found in trying to educate ourselves into faith. Here is the fundamental reality that we, as church leaders should learn, “It is more important to us and our sheep that we would learn to believe more, than that we would find more to believe.” As a self-professed bookaholic I completely understand how easy it is to fall into this trap. More learning is not what we need. We need more living. Living out the convictions that we have felt as we have been confronted by God’s word. Living out the love that we have experienced in community and in communion with God. Living out the truths that we have seen as we have tried and failed, or succeeded.

The piece is not very long, but there is a section that really grabbed my heart as I considered my calling and God’s desire for his people.

We are not to give our wisdom, our insights, the fruits of our scholarship. Rather, like Paul before us, we serve up our weakness, our frailty, our need. That’s how the Word breaks through, where the power comes from.

Brothers, your flock may need some more information. What they need more, however, is someone to lead them, to show them the Way. They need to see you repenting. They need to see you wrestling with your sins. They need to see you preaching the gospel to yourself, not because you like the sound of your voice, but because you hate the sin that yet remains, and you need grace. They need to see you rejoicing in the fullness of His promises, and mourning both sin and its fruit, the last enemy, death.

“Professional Christians” is a phrase I coined a couple of years ago, but I find opportunities to use it more and more to describe the pitfalls of vocational ministry. As a professional Christian, I have found the transparent life more difficult to achieve. There are so many reasons to promote a facade of transparency rather than genuine vulnerability.

“I don’t know how long I’ll actually be here!”
“What if they betray my confidence, my ministry would be over.”
“How is anyone going to take me seriously if I share this?”
“They just won’t understand what I’m talking about, so why bother?”

These and other thoughts like them are the reason that many in church ministry hide behind the sacred desk, the pulpit, and retreat into their ivory tower of Greek, Hebrew, exegetical rigor, homiletical precision, hermeneutical accuracy, blah, blah, blah. Please don’t misunderstand. I am one of them, one of us. This is me at my worst. But, what my youth need (I am a youth pastor), what our churches need is not another authority, what they need are leaders that are unaffected. Leaders that will hold their ground biblically against the persistent effects of wave after wave of cultural ambiguity and moral atrophy.

The reality of full-time ministry is this, it can breed many contradictory characteristics than those needed, dare I say, required of those whom God has called to serve in leadership. I am praying to get better. To move away from a ministry life impinged by preservation, to a servant’s life defined by freedom. I may be naive. It may well be true.

However, if that is the case, then leave me to my dreams.