The Church at Cane Bay
This morning we dealt with the issue of depression and anxiety at The Church at Cane Bay. This is one of the most difficult sermons that I've ever had to preach. I asked for alot of prayer on this one. The reason is because I know it's an issue that harms so many of us and can cause us to lose our zeal for mission and joy for God's call to us.
I want to mention again the action points for us to take if we feel like we have lost control or lost hope in the middle of a difficult time -
If You are Struggling with Anxiety -
1. Change your focus - Start to think about others more. Serve others. Join a Missional Community and be active in loving others. You will find joy.
2. Find out where your faith is - the gospel or your feelings - Whichever one you place faith in will be the reality that you ‘feel’ from day to day.
3. Trust Jesus with your life - Anxiety is evidence of where our care lies. Place these things in his hands. Pray to him and literally give them to Him daily.
If You are Struggling with Depression - 1. Seek help - let someone know what you are struggling with. You don’t need to walk this alone. You need some outside perspective. Find me or a close friend that is walking with Jesus. If it’s an ongoing thing, then seek counseling.
2. Know God created you as you for a reason - Don’t desire to be someone else or in some other situation. God has you here for a reason. He designed you to be you. Trust Him.
3. Think hard about your beliefs - If you really believe the gospel, should you be depressed? What does your depression say about your belief? Everyone carries doubts from time to time, but if this is major and ongoing, you may need to consider how much you really trust God.
4. Get to the bottom of things - Again, I am not a doctor or psychiatrist, but you will never escape these feelings without dealing with the issue at hand. Antidepressants are not a cure for that. They only take care of symptoms. They will not fix you in the long run. You need to deal with the issue at hand.
Here are some resources that might be helpful for you -
Scripture -
Matthew 6: 25 - 33
Job
Philippians 4
Books -
Get Out of That Pit - Beth Moore
When the Darkness Will Not Lift - John Piper
If you need to see someone for counseling through these issues, here are two great local resources-
Lowcountry Biblical Counseling Center
Covenant Counseling Center
Of course, I hope you know that we are always here for you. Please feel free to email us if you are struggling through these issues -
Joel Ainsworth - ainsworth.joel@gmail.com
Charlie Swain - charlie.w.swain@gmail.com
Jennifer Kinney - jlkinney147@gmail.com
Prayers for all of us as we continue to allow Christ to overcome our struggles!
Read More
Bible,
Culture
The subject of marriage is a hot topic these days in the Christian community. The truth is that, again and again, statistics prove that Christians are essentially just as likely to divorce as non-Christians. The most recent study by Barna shows that while 33% of non-Christians that marry divorce at least once, the numbers for Christians are barely better at 32%. So, what is the real issue? Communication? Money? Intimacy? Why are Christians not able to stay together at a rate better than non-believers? I believe it is because Christians are living according to the same rules as non-Christians when it comes to the purpose of marriage. We often, like the world, believe that the point of marriage is to make us happy. That is not the point at all.
The truth is, most of us got married in the first place because it made us happy. Not many took the time to sit down and really think about what the whole point of this relationship really is. Believe me, happiness in marriage is not a bad thing. In fact, I believe that it is a beautiful result of a Christ-centered relationship that should be sought. That blessing, however, is not the point of marriage. It's not the reason that we marry.
I've had the joy of walking through pre-marital counseling with two couples these past few months, and it's given me the opportunity to really think through some things that I didn't really dig into the first time. There are many purposes of marriage that you find in the plethora of books out there on marriage, as well as in the pages of Scripture. Having kids, sanctification, companionship, and covenant are all good biblical purposes that we see of marriage in Scripture. There is one, however, that I believe stands out above the rest. It is also the one that is most often forgotten.
In Ephesians 5, Paul quotes a popular verse from Genesis 2:24 that deals specifically with marriage: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (ESV) This is the earliest picture that we see of marriage in Scripture. Paul says something about this verse in Ephesians 5:32 that really lays out the purpose of marriage: "This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." Paul uses the term mystery here to refer to the fact that the real purpose of marriage has been veiled through the Old Testament period, but is now being revealed. It is profound, and it points to Christ and the church. To put it simply, the purpose of marriage is to be a picture of Christ's relationship with the church. Even more simply, marriage is a picture of the gospel.
So why is understanding the purpose of marriage such an important thing? It changes the entire basis of the relationship. Ephesians 5:25 gives husbands the charge to "love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Christ was not seeking happiness, nor did he gain esteem or a home cooked meal every night. He constantly sacrificed Himself for a people that constantly turned their backs on Him. Husbands, we are to love in the same manner. Even when it costs us, even when it hurts, even when we aren't happy, we are to still love and sacrifice.
Notice the effect this should have on Christian marriages. If our marriages are a picture of the gospel, there should be no divorce. Truthfully, when our marriages do split up it displays a broken picture of the gospel to the world. Why should people believe that God would love them unconditionally when our marriages consistently display conditional 'love'? John Piper puts it this way in his book A Momentary Marriage: "Therefore, what makes divorce and remarriage so horrific in God's eyes is not merely that it involves covenant-breaking to the spouse, but that it involves misrepresenting Christ and His covenant."
Your marriage is part of your mission. In fact, it is the most important picture of the gospel in your life. As we display love, as Christ loved, to the best of our ability, people have the opportunity to see that a greater love exists. We have all made mistakes in the past that have cost us relationships, marriages, friendships, and even family. Please know that Christ pursues us even as we have turned our back on him. The question is for us now, do we understand that our marriage has a greater purpose than just a relationship between a husband and wife? It should display the gospel, make disciples, glorify God, encourage sanctification, and drive people to Jesus. It is the purpose of our life on earth to glorify God by sharing a message of hope in the midst of hopelessness, and it is the purpose of our marriage as well. It is bigger than you. It's about Him. Glorify God with your marriage.
Read More
Culture,
Music
Christian music does not exist. I said it, and frankly, I'm a little glad to get that one off of my chest. Some might be wondering how that can be the case when they listen to Christian radio every day. Guess what, Christian radio doesn't exist either. Music, radio, art, books, movies, and websites can't be Christian. Only fallen people redeemed by a gracious God can be. Some might argue that this is only an issue of semantics, but I think it's a good, biblical understanding of what makes someone (not something) Christian. If we still don't agree on that point, let me make this one - 'Christian music' (I'll be using quotes for this term now) isn't nearly Christian enough.
The Christian should be ultimately captivated by two things: Loving God and Loving People. The first is hopefully a given for 'Christian music'. The second is where I believe a huge gaping void exists in what it means to be Christian. Christians are defined by our mission. This concept of loving people is best summarized by Jesus in the Great Commission - "As you are going, make disciples of all nations." This is the problem with 'Christian music'. It is completely internally focused. 95% of 'Christian artists' do nothing more than play 'Christian shows', sell their music in 'Christian music' sections, and have their music played on 'Christian radio'. This will not make disciples in a lost world. Especially since most of 'Christian music' is bad art. It is the same failing strategy that the church started using in the 1990's of trying to make church 'cool' enough so that lost people would flood through the doors. The problem is that lost people don't come through the doors, so they will never have the opportunity to see how 'cool' our church is. We must go to them.
If 'Christian music' is going to be Christian, then it must be about mission. Pockets of our churches have discovered that the church needs to be out in the harvest, among lost people, if those people are ever going to see the gospel. Jesus understood this, and the religious people of His day thought He was crazy for hanging out with sinners. But if sinners are ever going to know this good news, we have to take it to them. 'Christian music' is doing little good for the Kingdom. Christians making music among people far from God would do great things for the Kingdom. Sadly, when bands decide to step out and do this, they are often called sellouts by the 'Christian bubble', and get treated like Jesus was by the religious in His day. This needs to change.
So what is the hesitation? I think it boils down to money and success. That's sad to say, but I have personally been in a band that made a whole lot more money and saw much more success inside the walls of the church than we did when we decided to step out and become salt and light. I have personally had this discussion with 'Christian bands' who stay inside the bubble because it's easy and the money is good. These are the wrong reasons. Never mind the fact that all our major 'Christian labels' are now subsidiaries of major secular labels, and many of them are run by non believers with the bottom line being the only bottom line.
All of this to say that it's time for some musicians that are believers to be serious about making good art to step outside and carry out the mission. There are many that need to hear of the love of God that will not unless we fill up the smoky bars of America with Christians living out the gospel as they make music. Let's make music that's serious about God's glory and His mission. Christians, let's support this instead of ridiculing it. Burst the Christian bubble. Decide what's best for your kids to listen to by listening to it with them and having a frank discussion rather than just trusting it because it was bought at a 'Christian bookstore'. Applaud artists like Switchfoot, Sufjan Stevens, Owl City, and Underoath because they are at least outside of the walls of the church telling people about the love of Christ.
Please believe that I'm not at all saying that songs for the church to sing don't need to be written. I believe strongly in the power of music to teach Scripture and the gospel as we sing glory to God together. I just don't think that 95% of music made by Christians should have this goal. God is glorified just as much, if not more, in our singing the gospel to the lost than to those already redeemed.
'Christian music' doesn't exist. It doesn't need to. More Christians need to exist because we are serious about God's mission, and are willing to get a little uncomfortable to see the gospel proclaimed. As we are going, singing, writing songs, and playing, let's make disciples.
Read More
Theology
Ephesians 2: 8 - 10 (ESV) - "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
For the past several years, the slogan on my facebook page has said one thing: "Love is Liberty not Law." Oddly enough, no one really asked me for any sort of explanation about this. I understand that it seems really warm and fuzzy, but I wanted to take a little time to dig into my thoughts behind this. First off, I want to be clear that I'm not sharing the message that some guys I met in seminary liked to rant about. They always went on and on about the fact that they were "Free in Christ," so they could do whatever they wanted. After all, Christ already died on the cross, so their sins were already forgiven. Any sin that happened in their life just made them a greater consumer of God's grace. So why should we be that concerned with trying to follow any kind of law or rules we see in Scripture? Shouldn't we just want to enjoy the grace of God?
These kind of ideas are a poor interpretation of Scripture. Paul deals with this issue in Romans 6: 1 - 2 (ESV) - "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" Paul is pretty clear that we don't sin just to experience God's grace abounding. His grace has already gone far beyond we could ever imagine in bringing us from death to life. We are already chief consumers of His grace. So, this is not the kind of liberty that just allows us to do whatever we want. It must be some other kind of freedom.
In Ephesians 2, Paul speaks about God's grace saving us through faith. It isn't because of anything that we do (Law), but we are given Liberty because of the Love that God has for us. The interesting thing about this Liberty from God's Love is that, according to Paul, it should lead us to Law. According to Paul here, we aren't saved by our works, but we are saved for our works. As God's workmanship, we are created to do good works that God has set for us to do. We are set free so that we can serve. God's love rescues us so that we can live in obedience to Him. That is freedom. Not that we are free to be who we want, but that we are free to be who we were created to be. We are free to live according to God's desire for us. Nothing else could bring us more joy. Love is Liberty not Law, but it leads to obedience.
Read More
