Missed Opportunities

Posted on by kevinjandt

worship

The church is alive and well in this country. At least there are a lot of people that attend church in this country, and specifically it seems as though there are many people that attend large churches. This seems to be a trend in much of the evangelical churches of today for many people. I don’t have a lot of statistics to support my statement, but this article isn’t really about backing up that claim with statistics. I can look around my hometown and see several large churches that have a big attendance.

I recently attended a home-school conference and the conference was held at a church facility that was quite incredible. They had a very large auditorium, they had a sprawling campus, they had nearly every program that one could imagine to appeal to nearly every segment of every possible audience. I mean they had it all. Youth facilities, that looked to have a rockin’ band, multiple languages, cafe, coffee shop, book store, gymnasium, and on and on, even a jungle room for the tots. If you wanted something for your family and you wanted to go to church this would be the place.

I can imagine the “pull” a place like this has on the people around it. It’s the hip place to go to church. I’ll bet they can sing Amazing Grace like no other place in town. Whether that be a traditional version, or a new modern version, I’d be pretty certain this place can deliver…

It was while attending this conference that something really struck me. We were sitting in the auditorium, and Voddie Baucham was the keynote speaker. He had many sessions over the days we were in attendance and Voddie was very kind and stuck around after his sessions answering questions. A man and his wife sitting a row below us to our right said they were considering home-schooling their children, but the kids were a little older and they were rebelling against the idea. He asked Voddie if they should insist, or allow the kids to have their way. The answer was quite remarkable and probably the opposite of what most people would think. He told them they need to pull them in tight to their bosom and hold them their as long as they can.

In other words, don’t you dare let them go, and don’t you dare allow them to determine their course.   I was blessed by Voddie’s compassion for this couple and I was struck by the pain this couple seemed to be in over this decision, that they were struggling to make.

After the session I was walking outside the auditorium and I saw the man that asked the question and I approached him. I said that I was touched by his question, and had a compassion for his situation. Then I asked him if his church would assist him in shepherding him through this, and helping him make a decision about the home-schooling. It was at this point that I was grateful for what the Lord has done in my life and bringing me to the point that I continue to have more clarity as what the church is for.

He said to me, “well I don’t think they’d care either way… the church is very big and I’m not sure they’d have an opinion…” I guess I’m not surprised, but I’m surprised… this man didn’t go to the church where this conference was being held, but he described it as big, and I can imagine that it was similar. And among the “bigness” of their ministry they have missed their opportunities. They have missed their primary calling as the church. They have blown it… They are so full of the fact that they need to reach more people with Jesus, that they didn’t notice that the people that need Jesus the most are their own attendees.

Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. – Acts 20:28-29

These “shepherds” are so busy, they have no time to shepherd the flock. They’ve built such great kingdoms that they have no idea what’s going on at the grass roots level. It is actually tragic, and I fear for these leaders. They have no idea the condition of their flock. I’m sure they think they are doing good work, because they have lots in attendance, but are they really building the church?

I’m not against all manner of large churches, I know of some very good ones, that have figured out how to take care of their people even though they are big. They have available resources, but even in the best of these churches, if you desire to be lost in the crowd, you can certainly do that. I don’t mean to claim my church has it all figured out, because we don’t, but I highly esteem the leadership in our church because of how much they care, and they invest in the lives of the people God has entrusted them.

If you consider what a true shepherd does, and you consider today that most church leaders are nothing more than religious CEO’s it’s a big difference. A shepherd guarded the holding pen at night with his very life. He laid across the doorway that nothing could enter without him knowing about it. The shepherd closely inspected his sheep everyday to see if they had infections. I can’t cast a blanket upon every large church, just as I can’t say that every small church shepherd’s the flock well.

What I desire to have people consider in this article is what is the condition of your flock if you are a church leader. If you are not a church leader and you attend a church, how are they doing shepherding your soul? If you were considering home-school, would they guide you through that process? Or would they be too busy to concern themselves with such a trivial matter?

Kevin

Persevere O’ Man of God

Posted on by kevinjandt

paulwritinghisepistlesinprison

…when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also… – 2 Timothy 1:5-7

Today I’m going to begin an exegetical journey through 2 Timothy 1:5-14. I believe it will take three posts to do this section any justice but I’m confident it will bless you and encourage you as we look at the life of Timothy and the Apostle Paul’s charge to his son in the faith. I’m hopeful it will show us a difference between those that hold to sound doctrine and faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Background

The Apostle Paul has been imprisoned in Rome for the second time, and this time he is no longer in the same position he was under his first imprisonment. In the past he had some freedom, and Paul reports it actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel (Philippians 1:12), this time it would appear he is in a cold and damp cell, with little hope for release. Paul seems to understand this as later in this letter he writes that he has finished his race (4:7) and his departure is at hand (4:6). He desires for Timothy to come to him and see him one last time. Paul has clearly been abandoned by most and in this letter he desires to strengthen and encourage Timothy. Perhaps young Timothy is weakening, as the daily duties of Pastoring a church have worn him down. He’s still a young man and he needs some fatherly wisdom to help him. Haven’t we all been there in our faith? That we need those men that have mentored us to build us up and encourage us?

We also see the important role that Paul has played in Timothy’s life. Paul had met Timothy as a very young man and had taken him under his wing, so to speak. He had identified that this young man had “potential”, he had been raised in a home that taught the Scriptures, and when the gospel was preached to Timothy, his mother and grandmother, they believed. How important and how obviously we see, that practically, as parents to feed our children the truth of God’s Word.

The Charge

Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. – 2 Timothy 1:6-7

Was Paul bothered by what was going on in Timothy’s life and leadership? This seems to be the case, as he was calling him to action. This word anazōpyreō means to rekindle a flame, to stir up the coals, or to take a bellows and blow into the fire. One of my favorite things is to sit beside a campfire and I love just poking and prodding at the logs and the coals. This is the imagery that we have of Paul challenging Timothy, not to lose his fire for the Lord.

Paul was reminding Timothy of these things, it was important enough to challenge Timothy that something was starting to slip, and Paul had invested a lot of time and energy in building a team, if you will, to continue what the Lord Jesus had started. This was worthy of another letter. It is worthy for us today to be reminded of the solemn charge, that when God laid His Sovereign Hand upon us that we are to continue in faith, and in sound words that bring glory to His Name, whether we are in ministry in an official capacity or simply out in the world proclaiming Christ to those dead in their sins and trespasses.

We all need a little encouragement. In fact we need a lot of encouragement, because ministry is hard work. Satan attacks those that are on the front lines. He hates those that fight for the King, and if you are little under attack, I would ask are you doing little work?

Fear, Power, Love & Sound Mind

We will finish this section with a challenge to those of us that call ourselves Christians. The word “fear” in this verse actually means timid. Are you timid about your faith, if you are timid about your faith, who is that about? Do you really believe that the gospel must be preached for people to be saved? Do you really believe people will die in their sins and trespasses?

Then it’s time to get over your love of self! Your timidity…

Turn your love to those that need it the most, the lost. Those are the ones you need to love, and that type of love will be unpopular in many if not most instances. This love is “agapē” the kind that does not seek its own, it seeks the benefit of others; it is the sacrificial love that Christ displayed on the cross.

I really love what Charles Spurgeon said about the desire of men’s souls and I think it really helps us focus on the problem. The problem being we are self protectors, we don’t care much for conflict.

“If you really long to save men’s souls, you must tell them a great deal of disagreeable truth.” – C.H. Spurgeon

That really sums it up doesn’t it? Men must hear things about themselves they don’t want to hear, and that requires someone to tell them such things, an unpopular message at best. Have you been reviled for this message?

Finally a sound mind is required. This requires self control, sober thinking, lack of silliness, and an attitude of solemnity. We must not think too highly of ourselves, we must be gentle and under control, but we must tell men a great deal of disagreeable truth in order to save their souls. Of course we know God saves their souls, but we are like the mail man delivering an unpopular message. We didn’t write the mail, but we must place it in their hands. (This is a loose translation of a thought by Voddie Baucham).

Next time we will dig into the heart of the matter, and expose the missed opportunity and downright falsity of those claiming to be leaders in the modern day church. We will see just how challenging this bit of bad news really is, before one can understand and receive the good news. We will see that it requires men in leadership that are godly, not little boys standing behind pulpits delivering pep talks.

Kevin

Vision

Posted on by kevinjandt

vision

The battle for truth is a serious battle. It’s not a pillow fight, or a name calling contest. It’s the kind of battle where people live and die. It’s estimated that every day over 150,000 people die. Most of them die unexpectedly.

Some saw it coming, but the one thing they all have in common is that it ended too soon. We get on average 75 years or so on this earth. That’s not very long. In fact it’s described as a vapor, here for a little while and then gone. Case in point, how well do you remember your grandfather? How about your great grandfather? Mine died in the early 1970’s and I scarcely remember him.

Most people will leave very little legacy and therefore how important is it for you father’s to have a multi-generational vision for your families?

Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

This commandment will tell you a lot about your view of God and your view of yourself. Does God really give multi-generational curses and multi-generational blessings? The answer is a clear yes.

For unbeliever’s this causes them to hate God even more. It’s unfair they say, yet they are unwilling to turn from their evil ways. They won’t believe God, but judge Him as unjust and unloving, yet continue to live in willful disobedience, thumbing their noses at Him as though their opinion is all that matters, even though God has been crystal clear. Obey, be blessed. Disobey, be cursed.

For Believers this is a delight. We desire to walk in truth and we desire to seek to obey God’s laws. If not we should examine ourselves.

Today, I’m thinking about something that 90% of professing Christians willingly disobey. They send their children off to government schools to be educated. Is this something that is going to send them to hell? That’s really a big question isn’t it, and may seem somewhat judgmental on my part?

And when I ask that question who am I talking about? Will the parents be condemned, or will the children be condemned? You will object that I’m probably being a little extreme. I want you to consider today, where is the line? How far and how deep will you decide to expose your children to the world and all the diseases that can be caught and still hope everything will be okay? Is this something you are willing to risk?  I use disease here metaphorically for sin.

Can your children stand against the world? Are they strong enough? Are you sure they are even in the faith, and how do you know?

I want to grow and nurture my children in my own home, where I know the exhortation and teaching they are getting is gospel saturated. I’m so intensely convinced of this that I will go so far as to say if the only thing my children know how to do is read the word of God that is good enough.

If they can’t perform high level math, or even low level algebra I’m convinced God will reward my diligence to teach them about Him, beyond my desire to have what most consider a “superior” education. Although the facts bear out that home educated children perform far better on average in all standardized testing. That does not matter to me.

When I consider a multi-generational vision for my family that begins at the house of the Lord. It begins with the salvation of my children. It begins with me educating them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. It begins with me teaching them when they lie down, when they rise up, when we walk by the way. In short it means all the time. How can I do that if I commit them to 15,000 hours of time with others that are most likely unregenerate? Will not a student be like his teacher?

If you are objecting to this and you are a Believer I’ll encourage you to search the scriptures for the book, chapter or verse that tells you to turn your children over to others to be educated, you will not find it. You will however find the scripture has plenty to say about how you will educate your children.

Alas, if our children lose the crown of life, it will be but a small consolation that they have won the laurels of literature or art. —Charles Spurgeon

Here is a sermon you may wish to consider from Pastor Voddie Baucham called Whoever Controls the Schools Controls the World.

Kevin

Holy Land – Jerusalem

Posted on by kevinjandt

We spent the final three days of our Israel journey in the city of Jerusalem which means “City of Peace”, and as we consider the tremendous turmoil and fighting that has taken place in this area I really have to consider what it means to have peace.  True peace can only occur when we are in right relationship with God, not peace in the terms that so many think (Matthew 10:34-39).  There will be peace someday, but that will only occur once Jesus returns.

Jerusalem sits atop a mountain, and in the Old Testament it is said to be the place where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22:2), we know this to be accurate as we look at 2 Chronicles 3:1 and we see Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.  This really gives context to our reading when Jesus tells His disciples they are going “up” to Jerusalem when they are actually north of Jerusalem in the region of Judea after having come out of Galilee (Matthew 19:1).  In our modern vernacular we generally refer to up and down by the direction of north or south.

Matthew 20:17-19 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify, And the third day He will rise again.”

imageJerusalem is an incredibly busy and thriving city.  It is a mix of Jewish, Muslim, Christian and pagan all living together in a hodge podge of interesting interaction.  You would never know this by the news accounts.  As we traveled from one section to another the contrast is stark.  It’s pretty easy to identify the Muslim neighborhoods.  To put it plainly they are trashy.  They do not believe or care about keeping their neighborhoods clean.  There is trash everywhere you look.  I’m not saying this to be critical, even though the Jewish neighborhoods might be cleaner; they are both worshipping a false god, but to our minds we somehow want to equate external cleanliness with internal cleanliness.  We know the Lord didn’t see it that way.

Matthew 23:25-26 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.”

There is so much to say about Jerusalem and all of the false worship that occurs in this city, and as the Jewish people rejected Christ as the Messiah they became idolaters.

Where Jesus laid
Where Jesus laid

Jesus’ words are so incredibly true and clear, when He said the road was narrow and that very few will find life, He meant it (Matthew 7:13-14)  It’s overwhelming to me to see so many have missed the Savior and have invented a religion that attempts to gain favor with God by their own hands.

I was humbled to be able to pray where Jesus prayed as He knew what was before Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then to stand on the stones where the Roman guards cast lots for His clothing and see the road He would have bled.  That precious blood that has washed away my sin is almost too much for me to consider.  As Pastor’s Tim, Mike and Voddie prayed in that location there was not a dry eye as we considered the horrible price He paid to redeem His people.  Then as we had an opportunity to see Golgotha and the spot He was crucified and the Garden Tomb where He laid, what else can I possibly say?  His plan is perfect and we must submit to this God, the One True God.  Satan can distract us so easily with shiny things and with religious systems that are really close to the truth, but are not the complete truth.

Golgotha
Golgotha

It was an amazing experience to see the Bible come to life and to see the incredible accuracy which the writers of the Scriptures have written.  These were not simplistic and less sophisticated people, as so many want you to believe, but inspired men of God that wrote as the Holy Spirit inspired them (2 Peter 1:19-21).

I walk away from Israel with a desire to share the news of the One that came to earth and humbled Himself to His Father’s plan.  I must share the Good News, because it’s “news” and it’s “good”.  I must tell people that their sin separates them from a Holy God and that separation produces death, but God has provided a way for those that will place their trust in Him.

That is the Gospel.  And that is what I learned in Israel.

Kevin

Holy Land – Day 1 – I have no control…

Posted on by kevinjandt

In the past 24 hours I’ve been reminded, how little I control in my life.  Although I sometimes think I have control, I realized what a mirage that is for me.  I’ve faced the reality I have no control over the weather, I have no control over where I’m going to go when I go through an airport, and I certainly realize I can’t control a car service to pickup us up on our schedule.

As we flew across the Atlantic yesterday and I had time to think about how massive this planet is, and yet it is not even a pin drop in comparison to the magnitude of God’s awesome power and control.   As much as I sometimes enjoy the charade I play with my mind, it’s really not my call.

James 4:13-14 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

This is fresh for me today as I consider I’m very small.  Yet God is very big and for those of us that have an intimate relationship with Him, through Jesus Christ, we matter to Him.  He desires that we enjoy the good gifts He provides and sometimes those gifts come through the realization, we are just little bitty creatures that have no control.

He has provided us an opportunity to visit the land He chose to walk as the God/Man.  Of the entire place on this earth, this is the place where our Lord chose to be born, to live, to minister, to suffer, to die and to rise again.  What an awesome reality.   How humbling that is.

So today, when you think you have control or you feel out of control; consider that if you are in Christ, no matter what the outcome it’s all in God’s plan.

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.

I hope to keep you updated as best I can with short little posts and pictures from this beautiful country of Israel.  Please feel free to follow me on Facebook for photos and posts.

Shalom

Kevin