Sunday, July 31, 2022

This Treasured Fellowship

 

Suffering 1

 

Philippians 3:7–14

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

          We are forward in time from the founding of the church at Philippi some twelve years. Paul has continued to travel, to plant churches, to write, and to train preachers. In an effort to reach out to the Jews he had (unwisely perhaps) traveled to Jerusalem to partake of some ceremonial observances. The ensuing riot required a Roman cohort to “rescue” him and keep him in custody until right/wrong could be ascertained. Finally, after years of waiting for a judgment, Paul appealed personally to Caesar Nero and was transferred to a prison in Rome.

          While in prison he is “counting”; he is weighing the sum and substance of his former life prior to Christ – the academic and professional success, the plaudits, perhaps a trainee member of the Sanhedrin, an esteemed Pharisee, a practically flawless follower of the Torah – against what he has now. What does he have now? He has a handful of churches started, a few preachers trained, and a couple of letters circulating among them. He is also experiencing the loss of all of his former glory, and his current predicament in a Roman prison.

          Think of a scale or a balance. One side contains his accomplishments prior to Christ. One side contains what he has now.

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

          As he counts it up, as he weighs it in the balance, he does not mind the loss of everything on the unsaved side of the scale. Why? Because on this side of the scale he has Christ.

          He is not, however, satisfied with merely having Christ. He wants more than just salvation. He wants to be drawn further into Christ. He wants to experience a growing, intimate relationship with the risen Lord.

          To this end, he lists four things he is currently pursuing, things he wants to add to this side of the scale. 1) That I may know him. 2) And the power of His resurrection. 3) And the fellowship of his sufferings. 4) That I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended.

          His final reckoning or counting tells him to move forward, to pursue growing in grace and knowledge and experience with Christ. (Philippians 3.13-14)

          I want to draw your attention to the third item Paul mentions on his list of things he is pursuing with his life: the fellowship of his sufferings.

          Jesus knew what it was like to suffer.

When we hear this, our mind always rushes first to Calvary, but Scripture tells us He suffered many things. (Matthew 16.21, Mark 8.31, 9.12, Luke 9.22, 17.25). He suffered the loss of Heaven. He suffered as all humans suffer, enduring the difficulties and struggles of life. He suffered being misunderstood by every single person he ever met, including those closest to Him. He suffered as only those who are superior suffer when they are forced to constantly put up with their inferiors. He suffered the constant presence of sin in the people around Him. He suffered criticism and attack even though He only ever did good. He suffered rejection at the hands of His own people. Most of all, yes, He suffered the cross – the emotional agony leading up to it, the physical torture of it, the familial shame of it, taking all our sin upon Himself, the loss of His Father’s fellowship, and through this all of our eternal hell.

Now, Paul says this is what he is pursuing. Not avoiding, pursuing, purposely seeking to add to his side of the scale.

As humans, we are instinctively dedicated to avoiding or at least minimizing suffering. We cushion all of our chairs, include built-in footrests with them, and use power buttons to position them for our maximum comfort. We rarely walk when we can drive or ride. The global mattress industry is worth $81 billion. Casual Fridays have become endemic to the entire week. In America, our system of higher education (and increasingly, of lower education) dedicates “safe spaces” where students can be theoretically free from anything that might trouble them. Medically, we have incorporated treatment not just of the disease or problem but of the pain that results from it. “On a scale of one to ten, how much pain are you experiencing?” This pain treatment is a $100 billion industry itself, and the opioid epidemic it has spun off is devasting hundreds of thousands of people.  

Paul had grown beyond this instinctive avoidance of anything unpleasant. He saw in Christ’s suffering something eminently beautiful and desirable. Nor was he alone in this as he grew in grace; Peter saw the same thing. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps (I Peter 2.21). We are called to it. In the original language called implies we have been summoned to accept the responsibilities of a particular task.

All of us suffer. It is a part, and a large part of life. In this blog series, I want to examine what the Bible says about that large part of our life. What is it, biblically? How should we view it? How should we react to it? Why should we still view God as good in spite of it? How does it impact our service for the Lord? How does it impact our sanctification? What is the right way to respond to it, personally? What are the wrong ways?

I have spent the last several years, on and off, preparing to write this series. I have examined every use of the word “suffer” in the Bible, both in English and in the original languages. For dozens of hours, I have studied the great books on suffering, I Peter and Job. I have read about 1,500 pages of other men’s studies on the subject. (see note below) And I have suffered, personally; I have experienced the subject like every person reading this has experienced it.

I have loved and lost. I have been criticized and misunderstood. I have struggled with poverty and failure. I have been lonely. I have buried a child. I have carried the burden of the pastorate for 1,300 consecutive weeks, twenty-five years exactly as of yesterday. I have endured a significant and worsening debilitating disease for twelve years. I have sinned, and been forced to live with the consequences, both of my own and of other’s sins. And most of you reading this have carried all that I have carried, if not more, in your own unique way.

The older I get, the more I want to stop fighting against it. I want, along with Paul and Peter and Job and Jesus, to accept it. Indeed, I want to learn to embrace it. I want to change the paradigm from enduring to treasuring. I want to see in it what God sees in it. I want to value it as God values it. I want to see God use it in my life to accomplish the advancement of the cause of Christ, the edification of the saints, and the glorification of His name.

I want, in short, to be like Jesus.

For the next seven or eight months on this blog we are going to explore this topic. Along the way, Lord willing, we will hear from some other people who have suffered deeply. We will learn how they responded to it, rightly or wrongly, and how the Lord used it in their lives. Some posts will be logical, some theological, some emotional, but hopefully all of them will be edifying.

I invite you to join me. Together, let us seek treasured fellowship. Indeed, I hope you invite others to join both of us along this journey. Lay down your boxing gloves. Stop fighting. Open your mind and your heart to what the Lord has. I will seek to minister to you and I trust you will seek to minister to someone else.        

          Stay tuned. We begin next week.




note: In preparation for this series I have found the following books particularly helpful. This does not mean I agree with everything in them, or with everything the author has ever said. It means I found them helpful in thinking my way through various aspects of this study, and in teaching it to others.
-Beyond Suffering, Layton Talbert
-If God is Good, Randy Alcorn
-When Shepherds Weep, Glenn Daman
-A Tale of Three Kings, Gene Edwards
-Between Pain and Grace, Gerald Peterman and Andrew Schmutzer


Saturday, July 23, 2022

Needs

 Note: My first attempts at writing were poems, mostly in high school and college. From time to time, generally between series, I like to bring one to this blog. Today's poem was written on July 4, 1990 at Mt. Salem Revival Grounds in West Virginia. It was the summer before my senior year of high school. I was traveling with Evangelist Joe Boyd. We had just come back to home base after three weeks on the road holding revivals. Even now, over three decades later, I am unable to share the context behind this, but it is real and raw to me still. After an intense prayer session, I sat on a leafy hillside with a notebook, and this poem poured out of me. Curiously enough, eight years later to the day, I met my wife on the same spot that I wrote this.

Stay tuned. A new blog series launches next week.

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Needs

I need to walk and cry.
I need to sit and weep.
I need to pace and sigh.
I need to hurt a heap.

I need to ache inside.
I need to burdened be.
I need a tear to stride
Down my face slowly.

I need a load to carry.
I need a pain to bear.
I need a hope to bury.
I need a grief to share.

I need a broken heart
I can leave with You.
I need the bitter part
To keep me close to You.




Sunday, July 17, 2022

An Open Offer of My Preaching

 Short post today...



     A lesser known branch of Brennan's Pen is Brennan's Pulpit. Several years ago, after I began writing, some of my readers began asking for access to my preaching. At first, we tried to email mp3 attachments of each message but that became problematic over time. So now we host them on a non-public page at my author website. The links play automatically on almost every phone.

Subscribers to Brennan's Pulpit receive an email several times a week with a link to a message preached the previous week or two. I do not pick and choose. Every sermon I preach in my own pulpit gets sent out this way, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Of course, you may pick and choose what you listen to, naturally. 

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Monday, July 11, 2022

A Plea for Church Planters

 Note: Today's post is by A. J. Potter. He pastors Pleasantville Baptist Church in Pleasantville, Iowa. He has organized a network of Iowa pastors to financially and spiritually support church planting here in our state. Knowing his burden and dedication in this area, I asked him to write a post about the need and opportunity here.

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What would you do if you had to drive one and a half hours one way to get to a solid Independent Baptist Church? If you are like me, you would pray that God would send someone to plant a church in your community. The above scenario is a scene that was played out at our church several months ago. A family looking for a church with specific convictions and standards would drive 90 miles one way to attend our church. This is not an unfamiliar weekly occasion in the state of Iowa. Every Sunday, families will get up early and plan to drive many miles to attend a church that will feed them spiritually and meet the needs of their family.

Only a few years ago, when I would have a conversation about church planting, my mind would go to the need of the western states or maybe to the void in the northeastern part of our country. After doing some research, I found that the state of Iowa, the state where I pastor a church, presented a great need for new churches as well.

There are approximately around 70 Independent Baptist churches in the state of Iowa. With a population of about 3 million people, this leaves many spiritual needs in our state and there are entire counties without an Independent Baptist presence. I am not insinuating that there is no gospel presence in some of these communities, because I am sure there is a gospel light in some cases, but the greater concern is for additional Independent Baptist churches to be established in the state of Iowa.

When I realized the lack of churches in our state, I automatically assumed I knew the answer to the dilemma. I wrongly thought that the reason there were not more Independent Baptist Churches in our state was because of the many smaller towns out in the rural communities. In my mind, I pictured little towns scattered all over the state with only a few hundred people in each community. This had to be the answer, there was no population base to support more churches in the rural communities.

It was only when I and a few others in our church started researching my theory that I found something that shocked me. I found that there were communities, towns, and cities in the state of Iowa that numbered in the thousands for population that had no Independent Baptist Church. Through research we have identified over 20 communities ranging in size from a low of 3,400 to a high of 9,800 in population that have no Independent Baptist Church. This knowledge created a burden in my heart for these communities without the presence of an Independent Baptist Church.

Let me give you some quick statistics about the state of Iowa. The state of Iowa is split up by two main interstates: I-80 running east and west and I-35 which runs north and south.  About 50 miles north and running parallel east and west with I-80 is Hwy 20. North of Hwy 20 is approximately 1/3 of the state of Iowa with a population of just over 770,000 people.

There are three main cities that are located right on the Hwy 20 corridor, Sioux City in the west with a population of 170,000, Waterloo toward the east with a population of 170,000 and Dubuque on the east border with a population of 96,000.  This leaves a population of over 334,000 outside these large cities in the top third of the state of Iowa.

The distance from the border from east to west is about 300 miles and from Hwy 20 to the north border of Iowa is about 70 miles.  In this entire area there are only a small number of Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches.

The area to the west of I-35 in the state of Iowa is also an area with a small scattering of Independent Baptist Churches.

We need laborers in the state of Iowa to come and start churches in these communities which have a need, not only for a gospel witness, but a strong witness for truth without compromise. 

There is also a great opportunity in the population centers of our state for more churches.  The Des Moines metro has around 700,000 people with about 5 IFB churches to reach them.  Statistics tell us by percentage, Greater Des Moines is growing faster than several large Midwest cities, including Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. (businessrecord.com)

There are 258,000 in the Cedar Rapids metro with only 4-5 IFB churches.  There are 150,000 + in the Iowa City metro with only 3 churches.  Davenport has over 100,000 in population with only a couple churches and there are close to 400,000 in the Quad Cities metro area with just a handful of churches.  Ames has a metro population of 90,000 with one known IFB church.

As you can see, there is a great need in the midwestern state of Iowa for church planters to come and establish Independent Baptist Churches. Thousands of souls without a true gospel witness are waiting for a preacher of the gospel to come to their community with this life saving message.

After seeing some of these surprising statistics, the result became a burden to see more churches planted in the state of Iowa. The formation of the Iowa Independent Baptist Church Planters was the answer to this burden for our state.

With the help of many other established Independent Baptist Churches our goal is to:

·       Establish

o   Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches in the state of Iowa 

·       Equip

o   Supply the resources needed to let the community know about the church plant

§  Mailers

§  Brochures

§  Flyers

§  Door Hangers

·       Enable

o   Help church planters shorten deputation by assisting to schedule meetings with Iowa churches

o   Introducing church planters to Iowa pastors looking to support church planting efforts

o   Sending regional churches to help canvass and door knock for new church plants 

·       Encourage

o   Two year church planter training course available

o   Church planters get practical training on how to plant a church

o   Church planters get involved in a local church to serve

o   Iowa pastors available to help mentor church planters

I am encouraged that there are churches excited about getting involved in the church planting process in Iowa, but there is a definite need for men and families to surrender to the call to start a church in this midwestern state.

In sharing this burden with others, I often use the example of a man named Cornelius found in Acts 10. This was a man searching for God through religious activity. God intervenes in his life through a vision first to Cornelius and then to the Apostle Peter. God sends Peter to give the gospel to Cornelius. We are told in Acts 10:24 that Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. I believe that there are many Cornelius’ that are waiting for someone to come to their community and share the gospel. They are searching for God, they are hungry for truth, and they may even be crying out to God for someone to come meet their need.

This was the case for a city in the suburbs of Des Moines called Waukee. There was a three generation family that began to pray for God to send someone to start an Independent Baptist Church in their community. They were driving to the opposite side of Des Moines to attend church. When they began to pray, God began to call. It was about the same time that they began to pray for a church planter that God called a young man and his wife from our church to start a church in that same city of Waukee. Through God’s providence, three years later, Grace Baptist Church began, and that praying three generation family became charter members of that church.

Someone has a Cornelius to meet in an Iowa community. Someone is waiting for them to answer the call of God to become a church planter in our state. I am excited about several church plants in progress or to be started this year in our state. The need is still great, will you join us in praying for God to send more church planters to our state to meet this great need? Will you consider asking the Lord if Iowa is your calling?

If you would like more information about the need for churches in the state of Iowa, please contact Pastor AJ Potter. Cell #: 641-226-0490. Email: pleasantvillebaptist@gmail.com.