Run a marathon. Start a blog. Lose some weight. Read through the Bible. These are just a few examples of some of the many New Year’s resolutions many of us make each New Year. And wherever you are on your New Year’s resolution journey, whether you have made resolutions or not, whether you will keep your resolutions or not, I’d like to point your attention to six awesome things that God has already done for you in Christ. I don’t want you to start the New Year thinking there is a small god desperate for you to do big things for him. I want you to see and savor the big God who has done great things for you in Christ—things more significant than anything anyone will accomplish this year.

God Chose Us in Christ – Ephesians 1:4 says, “For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight.” Paul wanted us to know that God wasn’t stuck with us. We weren’t on the clearance rack. The language of being chosen is meant to make the Ephesians and other Christians feel special, prized, and precious. Like the love that drives a young man looking for an engagement ring, God’s gracious love led him to choose us. This is even more amazing in light of the fact that Paul tells us just how unworthy we were to be chosen (Eph 2:1ff). Yet, in his grace he chose us.

God Adopted Us in Christ – Ephesians 1:5 says, “He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will.” He predestined us to be adopted in Christ. Although we’re a culture that loves talk about pursuing our destiny, we don’t like someone else controlling it. But God is saying he has a destiny in place for us before we were born—like a parent getting the room, clothes, and plans ready for their soon to be adopted daughter or son. In Christ, we are adopted.

God Redeemed Us in Christ – Ephesians 1:7 says “We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” We have been redeemed in Christ. Just as God redeemed Israel from the oppressive slavery of Egypt, he has redeemed us from the oppressive slavery to sin. When we come to Jesus an emancipation proclamation is made over our life purchased by the blood of Christ. We are free men and women in Christ.

That makes 3 of the 6 things Ephesians 1 tells us God’s done for us in Christ. I’ll post the other three next…

What would you do to gain access to messages that could save a lot of lives? Would you set aside a few things for it? Maybe even Facebook for a period of time, if needed? In our best moments, we’d probably say that we’d be willing to do whatever we needed to do—no matter the cost.

During World War 2, the Allies found themselves in exactly this kind of situation. And they exerted a ton of energy in the area of cryptology to get access to messages that would save a lot of lives. While there were many code and cipher system success stories, some mark out the Allies decryption of the German “Enigma” Cipher, as the most important success. It enabled the Allies to understand enemy messages that helped position them to save what would have been a lot of lost lives. Understanding the right message makes a massive difference.

I admire the creativity, intelligence, and perseverance that it took to create such systems—to acquire these messages. Their efforts are truly amazing. But could you imagine, after all of this fine work was done and the messages were acquired, the Allies ignoring them? How loud would the outcry be amongst the Allied nations if their citizens were to learn that they neglected such important messages?

This, of course, wouldn’t happen. Even with fallible human beings, a failure of this magnitude seems hardly conceivable.

And yet, we see something like this happen year after year amongst us Christians. In the Western world, we don’t have to achieve some super human feat in order to gain access to God’s eternally significant message. We are surrounded by it. In fact, for most of us, we probably have quite a few copies gathering up dust in our homes.

While we affirm the difference God’s Word makes in eternal life and death, we neglect it. We are unfamiliar with it. We are unsure of how to handle it. Sure, we have a lot to do. But so did the Allied forces. Like it would be for them, neglecting the message would be inexcusable. Can we really find tasks that we’d say should replace prioritized time in God’s Word?

As we start the New Year, let’s be a people of the Book. Recent history says that we won’t. We’ll a people of everything but the Book. But let’s not let recent history determine our near future. Let’s draw from the endless, life-transforming, new habit-making grace of Christ, and make the message of Christ the priority for us and our loved ones this year.

Let’s hang Colossians 3:16 over 2014 and be a people who “Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.” It’s simple. It’s strategic. Eternal life and death hang in the balance.

As I’ve made my way through Peter Scazzero’s Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash A Revolution In Your LIfe In Christ, I found these quotes from chapter 4 particularly helpful to me. So I thought I’d share them with y’all. Hope they help you too:

“The vast majority of us go to our graves without knowing who we are. We unconsciously live someone else’s life, or at least someone else’s expectations for us. This does violence to ourselves, our relationships with God, and ultimately to others…”(66)

“I have spent years meditating on Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness (see Luke:1-13). They outline the three false identities or masks that Satan offers each one of us. And they show us the choices we, too, must make to remain faithful to our God-given unique life and identity…”(74)

Temptation One: I Am What I Do (Performance)

“The devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matthew 4:3). Jesus had apparently done nothing for thirty years. He had not yet begun his ministry. He seemed like a loser. Nobody believed in him. He was hungry. What contribution had he made to the world?

Our culture asks the same question. What have you achieved? How have you demonstrated your usefulness? What do you do? Most of us consider ourselves worthwhile if we have scored sufficient successes—in work, family, school, church, relationships. When we don’t, we may move harder and faster, go inward into depression out of shame, or perhaps blame others for our predicaments…”(75)

Temptation Two: I Am What I Have (Possession)

“Jesus was taken to see all the magnificence and power of the earth. The devil basically said to him, “Look around you at what everyone else has. You don’t have anything. How can you think you are somebody? How will you survive? You’re a nobody?” The devil played on profound issues of fear and the source of his security.

Our culture measures our success by what we own. Marketers now spend over fifteen billion dollars each year seducing children and adolescents to believe they have to have certain toys, clothes, iPods, CDs, etc. Their very identities depend on it. As adults we measure ourselves through comparisons: Who has the most money? The most beautiful body? The most comfortable life? Often our sense of worth is tied to our positions at work—the money and perks. Who has the best education from what school, the most talents and awards, more degrees on their resume? Who has the most attentive, handsome boyfriend or husband? The best-looking girl or wife?…”(76)

Temptation Three: I Am What Others Think (Popularity)

“Some of us are addicted to what others think.

Satan invited Jesus to throw himself down from the highest spot of the temple that people might believe in him. At this point people did not think anything of Jesus. He was, in effect, invisible. How could he think he had worth and value?

Most of us place a higher premium on what other people think than we realize. What will I say or not say in a conversation? What school will my child attend? Who will I date? Do I tell that person he or she hurt me? What kind of career will I pursue? Our self-image soars with a compliment and is devastated by a criticism…”(77)

Conclusion

“At times our false self has become such a part of who we are that we don’t even realize it. The consequences—fear, self-protection, possessiveness, manipulation, self-destructive tendencies, self-promotion, self-indulgence, and a need to distinguish ourselves from others—are harder to hide.

Living your God-given life involves remaining faithful to your true self. It entails distinguishing your true self from the demands and voices around you and discerning the unique vision, calling, and mission the Father has given to you. It requires listening to God from within yourself and understanding how he has uniquely made you. Knowing your personality, temperament, likes and dislikes, thoughts, and feelings all contribute to your discovery…”(80)

Which do you struggle with most?

Charles Spurgeon once told this great story:

“Once upon a time there was a king who ruled over everything in a land. One day there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. He took it to his king and said, “My lord, this is the greatest carrot I’ve ever grown or ever will grow; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” The king was touched and discerned the man’s heart, so as he turned to go, the king said, “Wait! You are clearly a good steward of the earth. I want to give a plot of land to you freely as a gift, so you can garden it all.” The gardener was amazed and delighted and went home rejoicing. But there was a nobleman at the king’s court who overheard all this, and he said, “My! If that is what you get for a carrot, what if you gave the king something better?” The next day the nobleman came before the king, and he was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low and said, “My lord, I breed horses, and this is the greatest horse I’ve ever bred or ever will; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” But the king discerned his heart and said, “Thank you,” and took the horse and simply dismissed him. The nobleman was perplexed, so the king said, “Let me explain. That gardener was giving me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse.”

Motives matter.

 

The Purple Heart, the Distinguished Service Cross Medal, the Defense Distinguished Service Medals, and the Silver Star are all significant medals given to our military personal for unusual acts of courage and sacrifice in the line of duty. But the most prestigious of them all is the Medal of Honor, which is awarded for “personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.” There only have been 3,468 Medals of Honor awarded to the nation’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and coast guardsmen since the decoration’s creation in 1861.

If New Testament churches were to receive such awards, the Philippian church would probably get the highest honor, the Medal of Honor. As the first church in Europe, it played a key role in the advance of the Great Commission. The Philippian church supported the Apostle Paul, even when no one else would. Unlike all of the Apostle Paul’s other epistles, he doesn’t give the Philippian church a sharp rebuke. The Apostle Paul had a special love for this church.

We want Redemption City Church to play a meaningful role in the mission of Christ like the Philippian church. And one of the ways we hope to do this is by uniting in the gospel like the Philippian church.

Unite in the Gospel 

The Apostle Paul opens up his letter to the Philippian church by pointing their attention towards their unity in the gospel. Verse 1:1 says that he is writing to those that are “in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi.” Although we typically skim right past these words like they’re the book’s copyright information, this simple language is significant. In Christ, they are unified. In Philippi, they are divided. The gospel brings them together. Their preferences divide them. They are unified in Christ because their identify, their past, their present, and their future had become HIS identity, past, present, and future. They were one with Christ and with each other as his body.

But in order to understand how significant it is that the Philippians are united Christ, you have to understand who the Philippians are. In order to get a glimpse into who the Philippians are, you have to look at Acts 16. In Acts 16 we see the beginning of the church of Philippi. And like any other major metropolitan city, the population was diverse. And in Acts 16 we see three very different types of people become Christians and form the Philippian church. We meet Lydia in verses 14-15, the slave girl in verses 16-19, and the jailer in verses 23-34. These people are different racially, socio-economically, and vocationally. These people didn’t ever cross paths, much less hang out. They valued different things, talked differently, spent money differently, did family life differently, spent time differently.

Their preferences didn’t unite them, only Jesus did. And the same is and will be true for us. Let’s lay down our preferences and hold fast to Christ. Let’s unite in the gospel like the Philippian church. 

 

 

I’m not a professional cook, but I’m pretty close to being a professional eater.  And I can tell the difference between a steak that has been sitting in some kind of marinade and one that hasn’t. I can tell the difference between a steak that has been soaking in teriyaki sauce or dale’s sauce for a while, and one that hasn’t. In order for the flavor of the steak to change, the steak has to spend some time sitting in that marinade.

And in a similar way, for the flavor of our lives to glorify Christ and do good in the world, our hearts and minds need to marinate in the truth, grace, and beauty of the gospel.

As we marinate in God’s mercy, we are changed by God’s mercy.

As we marinate in God’s kindness to us even though we don’t deserve it, we will be kind to others even though they don’t deserve it.

As we marinate in God’s patience toward us even though we don’t deserve it, we will become patient with people who don’t deserve it.

As we marinate in God’s purposes that caused him to proactively love us in practical ways even though we didn’t deserve it, we will proactively love others in practical ways even though they don’t deserve it.

Let’s marinate. Marinate in the gospel daily and let the flavor of your life glorify Christ and help the world. 

 

You thought you were in control. You had everything running just like you wanted it. Sure, you weren’t ahead or anything crazy like that. But you weren’t behind, either. All of your projects—whatever they happened to be—were moving along nicely. You were meeting the millions of deadlines threatening to overtake you. The work was hard, but you were getting things done.

And then it happened.

You took one terrifying, stress producing, step beyond your capacity. Perhaps it was one project too many at work, too many things went wrong at home, or the combination of any number of good or bad things. Regardless of its nature, at some point, you realize a terrifying, anxiety-producing, stress-building, burnout track, truth:

You don’t control your work, it controls you.

Ever been here?

The question isn’t whether or not you’ll find yourself in this situation; it’s when. When it happens, how will you respond? Some people retreat from their responsibilities, in order to recover a sense of peace, joy, control, and meaning. These folks escape to “worlds” where their sense of comfort, control, power, approval, or whatever, is re-established and not threatened. Others, on the other hand, respond to overwhelming pressure by simply trying harder. These overachievers will accomplish their responsibilities, whether it costs them their relationships or their health. Far from easing your difficult situation, these responses make it worse.

While I have committed both of these errors over the years, I’ve found that three things have helped me more than anything else:

Identify the god behind the work – If someone were to ask you why you were so stressed, frustrated, worried, or uneasy, you would list a task or person. But in order to understand why your work controls your stress level, you need to identify the god behind the work. Behind every project, whether you are religious or not, is a god. Sure, you probably don’t call it that. But your god, as Tim Keller has so nicely put, is simply “whatever is most important to you.” It may be human approval, control, comfort, security, or some other good thing. It’s what you need in order to be happy, at peace, and to feel meaningful. These gods lay behind everything you do, motivating you every step of the way, although they are often undetected. If your god is human approval, then the reason (among many others) you work is to get recognized, appreciated, and celebrated. If your god is power, then the reason you work is to gain more power. The work is a means to an end. And these gods control your emotions and stress level. If you have a god of human approval, you are excited when you think that you will complete your project in a way that gets you recognition and celebrated. But when you don’t think you’re work will acquire approval and appreciation, you will be worried and anxious. And so it is with every other type of god. In order to find freedom in your work, you need to identify the god behind your work.

Expose the lie of the god – Once you’ve identified the god behind your work—the god who controls you—you need to expose the lie of the god. In short, the lie that you currently believe is that you have to have people’s approval, be in control, etc. in order to “be somebody”, to be happy, be satisfied, be safe, etc. It seems convincing in your head, especially since the world says that and lives like it is true. But it is false. The fact is, and you know this on your better days, whenever you get your god (human approval, more control, etc.), you never get the lasting joy, satisfaction, and meaning that you thought you would. These gods never deliver. These gods are liars. They promise to give you life, as they lead you down the path of discontent, meaningless, smallness, and death. Take the control of your meaning, joy, and life out of the hands of these impotent, lying gods, so you can find what you’re looking for. In order to do this, you need to expose the lie of your particular god.

Rest in the God who works – The joy, meaning, and peace, that you have been working so hard for is found in one place—one person. In Christ, you can have the satisfaction, meaning, and peace that you always hoped existed, but never found. While your joy, meaning, and peace used to depend on your work and your circumstances, when you rest in Jesus, all of these great things are yours, apart from your work and circumstances. Rather than work hard for lazy, lying gods, Jesus invites you to rest in the God who works for you. You can rest because Jesus completed the most important work—the work that secured your eternal joy, happiness, and meaning—on the cross, without your help. This joy, happiness, and contentment isn’t earned by your hard work, it is received by faith in Christ’s sufficient work. You don’t have to work perfectly (perfect parent, worker, etc.) in order to have the happiness, meaning, joy, peace you always hoped existed. You don’t have to have perfect circumstances (easy work load, easy kids, etc.) in order to have the happiness, meaning, joy, peace you always dreamed was possible. As you rest in the God who works, you receive the power to work through his Spirit and the priorities of work through his Word. Rather than worry about being something you can’t be at work, rest in the God who made, redeemed, and empowered you to work for his glory. Instead of dying under your work, let Jesus’ work-which cost him his life-free you to work with passion and joy.

Music City, Songwriting capitol of the world, Athens of the south. All these labels describe the types of work our city does well—the types of work that cause people to move to Nashville. But when you talk to people about why they want to stay in Nashville, you don’t usually hear them talk about their type of work. Instead, you hear them talk about the type of people in Nashville. They describe the area as friendly, warm, fun, etc. Music may bring them here, but the people make them want to stay.

There will inevitably be a wide range of reasons why people come to Redemption City. But we understand that one of the key reasons they’ll want to stay (or not) has to do with the type of people we are. We believe that the type of community Jesus is calling us to be is seen in the book of Acts. This Redemptive Community is marked by both Depth and Growth. In Acts 2:41-47, we see the early church doing life with each other at a relational depth that we all long for, yet, frankly, probably think is impossible. They know each other and are known by each other. BUT their relational depth did not stunt numerical growth. Their community didn’t turn into a relational cul-de-sac. Instead, we see a community experiencing explosive growth, as God multiplied their community greatly. Their community was marked by both Depth and Growth.

We are praying that Redemption City Church will be marked by both Depth and Growth as well. And in order to do this, we think that we have to be a people marked by four key things:

Intentional People – Creating a community marked by both Depth and Growth won’t happen on accident. With overcommitted schedules, the Facebook and twitter illusion of friends, and other factors, it can be difficult to create a community like this. We have to be intentional about engaging people at a deeper level relationally WHILE reaching out to the people Jesus has placed all around us. Let’s live life on purpose.

Flexible People – One of the prayers for Redemption City is that our church look like our community. And our community is made up everything from white collar, blue collar, and no collar folks. We have everything from artists to rednecks. We have introverts and extroverts. We have Cardinals fans (sadly) and Cubs fans:). Each group of people have their own unique views on parenting, marriage, lifestyle, etc. When you put all those different types of people in a home group, church, etc., it will be messy. It was messy for the early church and it will be messy for us. But the community that we all long for only exists in that mess. In order to thrive in the mess, we have to be a flexible people.

Prayerful People – We won’t have the Depth or Growth that we want apart from Jesus’ help. This, of course, is why we have to be a prayerful people. In prayer, we are acknowledging that we can’t create this and asking God to do it for his glory. Without the prayer in Acts 1, we probably wouldn’t have the power displayed in Acts 2. Let’s ask Jesus to do the impossible as we pursue the path to which he’s called us.

Gospel People – Redemptive Community has the gospel at the center. It creates a community marked by Depth and Growth. It has Depth because the gospel removes the need to pretend like we have it all together. If we did, then there would be no need for the cross. The good news of the gospel can only be heard in contrast to the bad news of our situation. In groups then, we don’t have to pretend like everything is okay. And when we stop pretending, we become a people of depth. Also, the Gospel cause Growth. In short, it is the best news in the world. If we truly understand the gospel, we will want to share it. We all tell people about our favorite restaurants, movies, etc. It’s silly to think that we wouldn’t share the best news in the world. As a gospel people we will be marked by both Depth and Growth.

At Redemption City, we hope that our community will be marked by both Depth and Growth. It marked the early church and meets many of the needs for which our community longs. We’d love for you to consider helping us build this kind of community as we build his city in our city.

The Vision for Redemption City Church