Flourishing Faith in the Face of Difficult Decisions

As Christians, we are faced with many difficult decisions. Decisions on how to lead our family, our business, and our church, decisions on how to best love our family and friends, decisions on what is the right thing to do at work or in our neighborhood, decisions on how to best fight the temptations of sins and decisions on how to effectively engage our neighbors and community with the gospel. Personally, it often depends where I am in my faith in God that will determine how I will face those decisions. It really comes down to believing the Gospel. If I am resting in Jesus’ love for me expressed in his life and work then I can face the hard decisions with confidence.

As we live our life, we can’t separate God’s grace and our faith. They are inseparably linked. The faith we have in Jesus is not available without God’s grace, and this grace can only be accessed through faith in Jesus. It is only through God’s merciful initiative and preserving grace that we are given the opportunity to walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), to flourish in our faith (Romans 1:17; Hebrews 10:38) and to please God by our faith (Hebrews 11:6).

Abram in Genesis 14, his faith did not flourish because he followed some set of principles but as he trusted the God of grace. His faith flourished because he believed that God was intimately involved in his daily life. He grew to experience that whatever he faced in life that God’s promise, presence, power and provision was his. This is true for us in Jesus Christ. We are able to flourish in our faith as we rest and believe Jesus love for us. Because of his work on our behalf, we too have his promise that affirms we are his forever children, we have his presence that provides us peace amidst life storms, we have his power that frees us to godly living amidst a self-saturated culture, and we have his provision that satisfies our deepest longings. The God of grace enables as to become and overcome by faith in Jesus.

To learn more on Genesis 14, check out the sermon, Flourishing Faith in the Face of Difficult Decisions, at our website www.cityofhopechurch.net.

How are we doing in gospel impact?

This afternoon I was in a meeting with some effective, compassionate and sincere local community leaders. We met to discuss a potential training for coaches to help them instill self-esteem and a higher self-image to their students. The creator of this training is passionate about changing the worldview of the current culture that impacts youth in very negative and destructive ways and offering a powerful and proven tool to change youth and communities for the better. I was there to represent the faith community. I am not really writing in regards to this but my recent wrestling with how to plant a multiracial church in this area. One the attendees after lunch confessed that she was somewhat concerned about the kind of influence a coach could have because recently a coach influenced a friend to “fundamentalism”. She admitted to me that she was a “liberal Christian” and didn’t like that her friend became a “fundamental Christian”. I didn’t have time to pursue the conversation more but I feel many in this community believe similarly.

I share this experience because in the community we are planting our church they put a very high value on tolerance. This planned community, Columbia, was founded on this value and is very proud to guard it. I am NOT saying that we shouldn’t respect one another and value the other person even if we hold different beliefs. I am saying this: As a Christian God calls us to share Jesus with love, compassion and respect. This is not an option for us. As well, the message we as Christians have received from Jesus is a message that encourages and challenges everybody to consider who He is, who we are in light of who He is and how we are to respond. Christians are always in that tension of sharing the truth in love. Sometimes we fail while other times God enables us to love well.

This brings me back to church planting. There is ton of research out there that says that planting churches is the most effective way to reach those who are not churched or not yet followers of Jesus. How do we plant a church where the very culture/community says, “don’t challenge or suggest that I should change my belief”? How do we hold the tension together- sharing the gracious message of Jesus and challenging the not yet follower of Jesus in a way that they sense we respect and value them? I believe as we look at the Gospels, Jesus did this well and yet many were still offended (mostly “the religious”). I am certain that this will be our experience too.

How are we, City of Hope Church, doing in engaging our community with the gospel? Are we having conversations with folks who hold to a different worldview? Are we developing friendships who don’t believe like we do? Are we showing them love? Are we giving them truth? Are we listening to their concerns and problems with Christianity and the church? Are we able to enter into their lives in such a way that they feel respected and valued but also challenged to consider Jesus and His message.

Church planting depends upon ALL of us as we depend upon the Holy Spirit to lead us in loving many with the gospel. Let us never forget our motive in engaging our community with the gospel: Jesus engaged and captured us when we didn’t care about Him or His ways. It is His enduring love for us as seen in his perfect life, sacrificial death and resurrection that motivates us to share His love with others. What do you think?

Warmly,

Jeff