Author Archives: Stephen Rodgers

Peacemaker Chapter 6: Confession Brings Freedom

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Editor’s Note: You can listen to the class and download the handout.

He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)

When the Gospel gets a hold of our lives and changes us from the inside out, we start to grow less dependent on ourselves and more dependent on God, especially when it comes to relationships. Relationships are a launching pad for conflicts to flourish, if they aren’t grounded in the Gospel. However, when they are, it opens opportunities for the world to see a glimpse of how reconciliation really looks like, empowered by the Gospel and modeled in light of the Gospel. When it comes to resolving and restoring a broken relationship, it usually takes a process involving four steps: repentance, self-examination, confession, and personal change.

Repentance Is More Than a Feeling

To repent involves more than a sense of guilt, or a bad feeling. It requires a change of heart and a turn from the sin we commit to a new way of living. This involves a mind-change that goes from a love for our sin to a hatred of it, and a siding with God on how He views our sin. Peter, when he spoke to the people in Solomon’s portico, said: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19). To counter the idea that many professing believers have on repentance comes from Paul writing to the church in Corinth: “As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10). The temptation is to consider feeling bad as sufficient for repenting of our sin, while we continue to commit them, living as if we’re more concerned with how hurt we feel than how our sin grieves God. Repentance leads to a new look at our sin—one that shows it is a personal offense against God (2 Chronicles 6:37-39). Repentance is what Christ requires for us to follow Him (Mark 1:15)—and it also leads to a continual life of repentance (Matthew 3:8; Acts 26:20).

Examine Yourself

2 Corinthians 13:5 states: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” This we need to do in relation to how we view sin with respect to how it violates God’s law and attacks His character. Scripture calls sin to be disobedience against Him and an act of lawlessness (1 John 3:4), as well as not doing anything (James 4:17), especially when it comes to relationships and conflict.

When we find it hard to confess our sins, there are two things we can do:

  1. Pray to God that He would help you see your sin and repent of it, as well as study His Word and continually pray for Him to show you where you fall short of His standard.
  2. Ask a friend more spiritually mature than you to give counsel and correction.

There are many areas where we fail to examine what part we took in a conflict.

Using Your Tongue as a Weapon

Scripture makes it clear that our tongue typically leads us to conflict in many forms, such as:

  1. Reckless words (Proverbs 12:18)
  2. Grumbling and complaining (Phil. 2:14; James 5:9)
  3. Falsehood (Proverbs 24:28; 2 Corinthians 4:2)
  4. Gossip (Proverbs 16:28; 26:20; 2 Corinthians 12:20)
  5. Slander (Leviticus 19:16; Titus 2:3)
  6. Worthless talk (Ephesians 4:29; Matthew 12:36)

Controlling Others

When this aspect is what one struggles with, it is more likely than not that they will get into conflict with another. This shows in self-serving actions, like gaining something or becoming more influential at the expense of another. When selfish motives drive us to tell other people what to do, regardless of what they think, we have succumbed to this sin.

Failing to Respect Authority

When we recognize that the various positions of authority that exist have been providentially established by God, it becomes dangerous territory to outright reject their authority over your lives because those authorities do not have any inherent power, but delegated power. God does hold people in positions of authority accountable for how they exercise this given authority, but it is our responsibility to obey them, unless they call for a blatant act of sin to be committed (Acts 4:18-19; 5:29). We must do our part in following our leaders, and even if we’re uncomfortable with a certain task, we do it in service of the Lord and leave the results to Him, knowing He will hold all leaders accountable for how they led.

Forgetting the Golden Rule

Given in Matthew 7:12, to fall short of treating people the way you would like to be treated is a violation of this simple yet difficult command.

Serving Sinful Desires

“[D]estructive conflict is usually caused by unmet desires that have gained control over our hearts” (p.125). These idols include:

  1. Improper desires for physical pleasure (1 John 2:15-17; cf. Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 4:19).
  2. Pride and the desire to always be right (Proverbs 8:13; 2 Corinthians 5:12; James 3:14; 1 John 2:15-17).
  3. Love of money or other material possessions (1 Timothy 6:10; Ephesians 5:5; Matthew 6:24; Luke 12:16-21; 27-31; Acts 5:1-3).
  4. Fear of man (Proverbs 29:25; Luke 12:4-5).
  5. Good things that we want too much.

The Seven A’s of Confession

The freedom we possess by God’s grace is the liberating power of confessing our sins primarily to God, and then to others. “If you really want to make peace, ask God to help you breathe grace by humbly and thoroughly admitting your wrongs” (p.126). This can be helped by making use of the seven A’s:

  1. Address Everyone Involved
  2. Avoid If, But, and Maybe
  3. Admit Specifically
  4. Acknowledge the Hurt
  5. Accept the Consequences
  6. Accept Your Behavior
  7. Ask for Forgiveness

You Can Change

  1. God is eager to help us to grow and change (Philippians 1:6, 2:13; Romans 8:28-29; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 2 Peter 1:4)
  2. Pray (Psalm 139:23-24; Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 1:9-12)
  3. Delight yourself in the Lord (Ezekiel 36:25-26; Psalm 37:4; Matthew 5:3-13)
  4. Study (Romans 8:6-8; 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; Ephesians 1:17-19; 4:22-24; Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 1:9-12)
  5. Practice (Philippians 4:9; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 2 Peter 1:4-8)

Proclaiming the Resurrection

by Pastor Patrick Cho

What is your testimony? Many times in our Christian walk we are given opportunities to represent our faith by sharing the gospel with others. It is always exciting when the Lord opens a door and presents an occasion to talk to someone about Jesus. But what is your testimony? When asked to share your testimony, is it basically just the story of your life? What does it mean to have a testimony or to serve as a witness? In a court of law, a witness is someone who takes the stand because they saw some event or possess knowledge or expertise in a particular area so that they can bear testimony concerning it. They can offer details and explanation about what happened at the scene of a crime. Translating this idea to your experience with the gospel, what is your testimony? What are you a witness of? As a Christian, you are a witness of the saving power of God through Christ in your life. You testify that through repentance from sin and faith in the Savior, God forgives your sin, removes your guilt, satisfies His wrath, changes your heart, grants you new life, and fills you with His Spirit. Your testimony is that salvation is necessary because sin is real and God hates sin.

In the early church, the testimony that the believers shared was very specific. They testified as witnesses that God raised Jesus from the dead (cf. Acts 2:32; 3:15; 5:30-32; 10:39-41; 13:30-31). It is interesting that this would be the primary aspect of their testimony. They certainly could have focused their testimony on Jesus’ proclamation of forgiveness from sins. They could have centralized their message on the amazing works Jesus performed to prove He was the Son of God. Certainly they did testify of these things, but their central message was the He came back from the dead. Why? Because this certainly verified and validated everything that Jesus said and did. If anyone had any question about who Jesus was – was He really God or was He just a good teacher – those questions would be removed if they understood He came back from the dead exactly as He said He would.

We as believers living today are not physical witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. We walk by faith, and not by sight (cf. John 20:25-29). But does this mean that the central focus of our testimony is any different? No! Our testimony remains that our hope in life rests on the truth that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He paid the penalty for sins on the cross, and He proclaimed victory over the curse of sin by coming back from the grave. He beat sin and death. If He did not come back from the dead, then death wins. This is still our testimony as believers. It must still be central to our presentation of the gospel. In Christ, we have died to ourselves because we identify with the cross. The only reason we can have new life in Christ is because we identify also with His resurrection.

This weekend is Resurrection Sunday. It is a great opportunity to take some time this week to meditate on the implications of Christ’s resurrection. But this week should also motivate you, if you are indeed in Christ, to proclaim His death and resurrection and the forgiveness of sins and the renewed life that comes to those who trust in Him. It is unfortunate that the typical “testimony” that people share today make no mention of the resurrection. We explain that Jesus went to the cross to pay for sin, but we neglect the importance of explaining His resurrection. Let us take time this week to draw attention to the glorious truth that Jesus came back from the dead.

SC 2011 – Reflections #2

by John Lim and Breck Yoo

Editor’s Note: Pastor Patrick wanted to do a series here on the Beacon that encouraged the attendees of the Shepherds Conference to share their thoughts with the church. This is the second part in that series.  And if you are interesting in listening to the messages, you can download them all for free.

From an overall evaluation, what was at least one thing that was encouraging to you from the Shepherds Conference?

I am always moved by the hospitality of our host families who house us during the shepherd’s conference.  The host family that I had the pleasure of staying with even invited the whole LBC SD and SJ group for a “snack” fellowship!  It is obvious that they truly enjoy serving God through serving the extended family through their hospitality and encourages me to be more generous in this way as I see how much of a blessing it is to us. (John Lim)

Chris Hamilton, an elder at Grace, gave a session entitled “The Ministry of Godly Leadership.” What profoundly impacted me was that he made me aware of my own acute desire to be a godly man. He wanted us to get discipled and to disciple younger faithful man of God. 1 Tim 3:4-5: “he must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to mange his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” (Breck Yoo)

What was at least one thing from the messages that was particularly helpful or challenging for you?

Rick Holland’s message about being an under-shepherd was particularly helpful to me.  He challenged those who shepherd a flock to take Christ’s perfect example of being a shepherd while at the same time, knowing that we are only under shepherds to the great Shepherd who is Christ.  We need to be humble as we lead knowing that we are just another “mentally challenged” sheep like those we shepherd. (John Lim)

The scripture speaks of patience as one the fruits of the spirits. We are to consider patience from where we are, but to consider where the others are. We are all at a different levels of sanctification. By truly having patience with love and understanding I can come along by their side to encourage in their walk. (Breck Yoo)

What was at least one lesson that challenged you in regards to your service at LBC? How will you take this and apply it to ministry here in San Diego?

Although I am not a leader in the church, I am shepherding those around me as God provides ministry opportunities as well as my family.  I need to remember to be gentle, willing to exhort and rebuke, and humble in shepherding others. (John Lim)

A couple of months back Pat had asked the parents to consider serving in the Sonlight ministry. My response was not, “why not, my son is part of Sonlight.” Chris Hamilton’s lecture reminded me of my intention. Do I want to serve for serving sake or to truly Glorify God by loving and serving the children? After praying and serious consideration I truly want to Glorify God in serving in the Sonlight. (Breck Yoo)

I Will Mention the Lovingkindnesses of the Lord…

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Isaiah 63:7

And canst thou not do this? Are there no mercies which thou hast experienced? What though thou art gloomy now, canst thou forget that blessed hour when Jesus met thee, and said, ‘Come unto me’? Canst thou not remember that rapturous moment when He snapped thy fetters, dashed thy chains to the earth, and said, ‘I came to break thy bonds and set thee free’? Or if the love of thine espousals be forgotten, there must surely be some precious milestone along the road of life not quite grown over with moss, on which thou canst read a happy memorial of His mercy towards thee? What, didst thou never have a sickness like that which thou art suffering now, and did He not restore thee? Wert thou never poor before, and did He not supply thy wants? Wast thou never in straits before, and did He not deliver thee? Arise, go to the river of thine experience, and pull up a few bulrushes, and plait them into an ark, wherein thine infant-faith may float safely on the stream.

Forget not what thy God has done for thee; turn over the book of thy remembrance, and consider the days of old. Canst thou not remember the hill Mizar? Did the Lord never meet with thee at Hermon? Hast thou never climbed the Delectable Mountains? Hast thou never been helped in time of need? Nay, I know thou hast. Go back, then, a little way to the choice mercies of yesterday, and though all may be dark now, light up the lamps of the past, they shall glitter through the darkness, and thou shalt trust in the Lord till the day break and the shadows flee away. ‘Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses, for they have been ever of old.’

1.25a

LBC Weekly SPARK! – April 15, 2011

by Pastor Patrick Cho

Dear LBC Family and Friends,

I hope you are doing well and walking in the Lord. I wanted to pick up on our review of The Trellis and the Vine, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. Last time, we looked at chapter 2, entitled “Ministry Mind Shifts.” Chapter 3 is entitled “What in the World Is God Doing?” The focus of this chapter is to survey the Bible to examine God’s plan to redeem sinners through “Spirit-backed gospel preaching leading to the salvation of souls.” It also takes a look at the means by which God accomplishes growth in His people. This growth is not tied to churches’ financial security or numbers in attendance. It all comes down to the spiritual outworking of the life change that takes place when people are saved. In order for lives to come into conformity with God’s will and to grow, God’s truth must be proclaimed. This is the only way gospel growth is going to take place. This is the kind of growth we particularly see in the book of Acts and is the particular fulfillment of Christ’s promise when He said He would build His church (Matt. 16:18).

There are three particular implications that result when you think about gospel growth in this way.

  1. First, if we understand what God is accomplishing in the world and how He intends to bring about gospel growth in His people, we need to “say goodbye to our small and self-oriented ambitions, and to abandon ourselves to the cause of Christ and His gospel.” There is nothing else in the world that is a greater thing to be a part of!
  2. Second, we need to adjust our thinking to remember that the growth God accomplishes is in His people. It is people growth, not program growth, not church numbers, not stable budgets. The success of a church is not measured by the number of paid staff it has, the existence of a radio ministry, or how many books the pastor has written. It certainly is not measured by the number of members it has or how much the annual budget is.
  3. Third, we need to remember that God accomplishes this growth when His truth comes to bear on people’s hearts through the working of the Holy Spirit. This is the way people are brought to faith in Christ, and this is the way people will continue to grow in respect to their salvation. You speak God’s truth to someone and pray that God would bring about life change, spiritual fruit, and gospel growth.

This is what is meant by tending to the vine. Everything else is trellis work.

In His grace,

Pastor Patrick

Here are the announcements for this week:

  1. Friday Night Bible Studies. Don’t forget that the youth, college, and singles Bible studies meet tonight at 7:00pm. The youth and singles meet at the church, and the collegians meet on-campus at UCSD. Visit the church website for more information regarding our affinity groups or for more information about Bible studies.
  2. End Times Bible Study. The final End Times Bible study will be this Sunday evening, from 6:00-8:00pm, at the church. Come out and learn more about what the Bible says concerning future things.
  3. Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Next Friday, April 22, we will be having a special Good Friday communion service at the church at 6:30pm. Please come out and invite your family and friends to observe Good Friday and remember the cross of Christ. On Sunday, April 24, we will be having a breakfast fellowship at 7:30am at the church to celebrate Resurrection Sunday. This is a terrific weekend to invite anyone who does not know Christ as Lord and Savior to hear the gospel message.
  4. Women’s Seminar. The next Women’s Ministry Seminar will be on Saturday, April 30, from 9:00am-12:30pm. The cost is free to attend, but you still need to register with Christine Cho in order to come. Breakfast will be served. For more information, please talk to Christine Cho.
  5. TMS Graduation. For those who want to attend The Master’s Seminary commencement service on Sunday, May 15 to support Pastor J. R. Cuevas as he graduates, please RSVP with Pastor Patrick or Ryan Short. The ceremony begins at 6:00pm at Grace Community Church. A small refreshments reception will take place afterwards.
  6. LBC Banquet. Signups for this year’s banquet will be taken after service on Sunday in the foyer by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz. The banquet will be on Sunday, May 22, at 4:45pm, at the church. The cost is only $35/adult (children 0-12 are free!). Don’t miss this opportunity to reflect corporately on the faithfulness of God to LBC.
  7. Vacation Bible School. VBS will be from June 20-24 this year, from 9:00am-5:00pm each day. The theme for this year is “God Always Wins!” Registration forms are available from Josh Liu.
  8. VBS Staff. If you are applying for VBS staff, please remember that applications are due this Sunday, April 17.
  9. Summer Missions. If you are applying to either the Czech or Argentina summer missions trip, please remember that applications (with references) are due by this Sunday. Argentina applications should be submitted to Pastor Patrick. Czech applications should be emailed to Pastor John Kim at LBC San Jose. If you have any questions, please contact Pastor Patrick.

Weekly Links (4/15/2011)

The difference between a Christian and non-Christian: When a non-Christian is convicted of sin, he sides with his sin. When a Christian is convicted of sin, he sides with God, against himself. (Mark Dever. HT: Desiring God)

by Stephen Rodgers

Welcome to Friday!  A few people have mentioned that they greatly prefer the slimmed-down version of the WL that I’ve been doing lately…so we’ll continue on that theme for now.

  • We’re halfway into April, and thus far I neglected to mention to you that christianaudio.com has a new free book!  This month, the free giveaway is Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place. You can hit the link for your free copy. (AUDIO)
  • Piggybacking on Cesar’s most recent post, which in turn was a summary of a message I preached, I thought I’d pass along this article from Jared Wilson (actually quoting David Powlison), on “How to Identify Your Idols,” (which I used in preparing for the message).  How’s that for coming full circle? (WEB)
  • Remember how I told you that John Piper is preaching through his seminal work, Desiring God?  Last week, I pointed out the link for chapters 1 and 2; this week, I’m pointing out the link for chapters 3 and 4. You don’t want to miss this. (VIDEO)
  • And in keeping with our recent focus on peacemaking, over at the Resurgence they’ve formatted and packaged a great article by Tim Keller entitled “Serving Each Other Through Forgiveness and Reconciliation.” It’s a 10-page PDF, but well worth your time.  So hit the link, print it out, and carry it around with you until you get an opportunity to read it carefully…and try to do it soon. (PDF)

That’s it for this week folks.  See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

Interview with John Yang (Youth)

by Grace Wu

Note: This week, the Youth affinity group brings us an interview with one of their staff members: John Yang. John has attended LBC since his freshman year of college, and has stayed at LBC even after graduating from UCSD. He is currently engaged to LBC member Melody Yu. In addition to preparing for marriage, he is also involved in an ongoing effort to get into medical school.

How long have you been on youth staff? What drew you to joining youth ministry?

Since March 2009 (~2 years). The simple answer as to why I joined youth ministry was because I became convicted that I needed to be willing to serve the church body and thought the youth ministry was a good place to cultivate this love for the church. I joined youth because I trusted JR, who was the youth pastor at the time, and knew he would encourage and help nurture this love for the body, and because I have always had an interest in investing in young men.

Now the long story: I came to LBC with a lot of jadedness and misinformation about Christianity. I hated church and I hated church ministry. I distrusted church leaders, and believed that leadership was rotten with corruption. With solid teaching and time (and grace and divine intervention), in 2007, I came to realize that Christianity and Christ are true. Not all Christians were phony, and certain members are even genuinely loving and trustworthy. Nevertheless, I refused to trust church as a whole, and was exceedingly distrustful and judgmental of the church. Throughout 2008, JR challenged me to love the church, not as a perfect entity, but as the object of Christ’s love and by His mandate, the proper recipient of my love as well. With much patience on his part, I was eventually convinced of the errors of my unbiblical and emotional way of thinking, and thus began to consider a more official ministry to serve the body in 2009. It was at this point that I decided to join the youth. I joined the youth because I struggled with loving church leadership, and saw serving the church in some leadership capacity as the most appropriate way to combat this sin. I joined youth because I trusted JR as a suitable overseer who would be mindful and understanding of my weakness in this area. It was a blessing that I loved the youth anyway, but I would be lying if I said it was because of them exclusively that I joined the ministry.

How has being on the youth staff helped you grow?

My love for the church has grown immensely since I joined 2 years ago. Certainly it was not exclusively the result of serving on staff, but where I previously would quite vocally express my distrust and hatred towards the church and its leadership, I now actively strive to love both the church and its leaders, endeavoring to kill the sin in me that judges them based on merit rather than grace. A lot of it involves learning humility. It is much harder to condemn the leaders when I realize how difficult it is to lead even in the simple responsibilities that I have been entrusted to. In summation, serving on staff has helped me to grow in humility and love especially towards our leaders.

What are some of your responsibilities in youth ministry?

Currently, my regular responsibilities are hosting and sharing a short devotional at the youth study hall on Wednesday nights. As for Friday nights, I am currently Zach’s small group leader and I try to be mindful of ways that I can continue to pray for and exhort him to godly living and worship.

Since you’re on youth staff, you have to be with them during Bible studies on Friday nights, which takes away time from being part of the Singles Ministry. How do you manage your time between youth ministry and Singles?

Certainly it is more difficult not having that default face time with the Singles by being there on Friday nights, but we manage. I live with 4 other LBC singles, I am part of a small group, and I try to mingle with them after youth Bible study and over lunch on Sundays. I also make it a priority to attend Singles events. Additionally, the Singles are diligent in reaching out, which makes it a lot easier for us. In terms of how I manage, I try to be purposeful in the scheduled times we do have with the youth, and I try to be intentional about being available for the unscheduled hangout opportunities with the Singles.

What is your encouragement to someone who is thinking about joining youth staff?

Pray. So long as your heart is set upon glorifying God and you believe joining the Youth ministry will serve that purpose, go for it. (Of course, this is assuming you love kids and are willing to serve the youth).

Peacemaker Chapter 5 – Conflict Starts in the Heart

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Editor’s Note: You can listen to the class and download the handout.

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1) (NIV)

Dealing with conflict biblically will never happen apart from heart-talk. What Jesus speaks about in Matthew 15:19 should give us pause as to where our evil desires and actions come from: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” What Ken Sande argues for and demonstrates in this chapter is that our hearts are the source and root cause of our conflicts (p.102). Because of this, there is a progression that can lead to an idolatrous life, not made out of wood, but out of our unmet desires.

The Progression of an Idol

I Desire

Every conflict has some kind of desire involved, whether good or bad. When one person does not meet your desires, there’s two roads you can take: trust God and ask for help in growing to be mature regardless of how the other person gets (James 1:2-4), as well as loving them and continue to pray for further opportunities to progress in your conflict resolution, or you can try and have your desire met, knowing that if it isn’t, you will start to become bitter towards that person which affects your relationship with them and dishonors God. The second option spirals down into what follows next.

I Demand

“Unmet desires have the potential of working themselves deeper and deeper into our hearts. This is especially true when we come to see a desire as something we need or deserve and therefore must have in order to be happy or fulfilled” (p.103). Easily, having an unmet desire (“I wish I had this”) could lead to an attitude of demand (“I must have this!”), which is the sign of idolatry.

The typical notion of an idol is a figure made out of wood that people sacrifice and bow down and worship, which most Americans do not see on a normal basis, hence thinking they do not have idols. However, the Bible has a different take on what an idol is:

An idol is anything apart from God that we depend on to be happy, fulfilled, or secure. In biblical terms, it is something other than God that we set our heart on (Luke 12:29; 1 Cor. 10:19), that motivates us (1 Cor. 4:5), that masters and rules us (Ps. 119:133; Eph. 5:5), or that we trust, fear, or serve (Isa. 42:17; Matt. 6:24; Luke 12:4-5). In short, it is something we love and pursue more than God (see Phil. 3:19). (p.104)

Every follower of Christ still has their sinful nature within them, and so will continue to battle within themselves for their desires to be met, and once it moves to becoming a demand, we have created an idol. What this should not lead to is a mindset of succumbing to our demands simply for the fact that we do so on a regular basis. It does not please God, and leads further downwards.

I Judge

If we are not careful, our demands for what we want from others, if left unfulfilled, can draw us to become critical and condemning of others, with our words but primarily in our hearts. A biblical character that sounds like that is Satan (James 3:15; 4:7), who in his own mind considered himself greater than God, and seeing himself as a god of his own. This is the same attitude one possesses when he begins to judge others in this way: with a superiority complex, with indignation, bitterness or resentment. What is woefully lacking is having genuine love for the other and real concern for them throughout a conflict.

“The closer we are to others, the more we expect of them, and the more likely we are to judge them when they fail to meet our expectations” (p.107). That is a scary thing to see about our human nature.

I Punish

Idols always demand sacrifices. When someone fails to satisfy our demands and expectations, our idol demands that he should suffer. Whether deliberately or unconsciously, we will find ways to hurt or punish people so that they will give in to our desires. (p.108)

We either express it outwardly in our verbal attacks on others, or we do it more subtly, in order to get others to do what we want them to, regardless of their interests. When we act in this way, this is a clear sign that we are not living under the lordship of Christ; an idol has become our lord.

The Cure for an Idolatrous Heart

Any idol we have, we love, fear and trust—which are words that are used for worship. We worship our idols, instead of the true and living God (Matt. 22:37; Luke 12:4-5; John 14:1). We are not commanded by God to obey them at any time. How do we escape this?

Deliverance from Judgment

We must look to God alone, who has delivered his people in the past: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:2-3, NIV). Our freedom is found in Jesus Christ, God’s only provision for our sinful state. We need to look to Christ and put our complete trust in Him. When that happens, God not only delivers us, but He makes us His children, joint heirs of the grace of life, and makes us able to live a godly life this side of heaven (Gal. 4:4-7). We need to believe in the Gospel and repent.

Deliverance from Specific Idols

God knows our hearts, and knows we will still be marred with sin, and knows our struggles and battles with certain sins individually, and so wants to also deliver us from the idols that control us on a day-to-day basis. We need to identify them and confess them as sin, trusting in His provisions (His Word, His Spirit, and His church) to root it out of our lives. These three are God’s means of grace in a believers’ life, and His way of removing our idols to worship and live for Him.

Replace Idol Worship with Worship of the True God

“If we are not fulfilled and secure in God, we will inevitably seek other sources of happiness and security” (p.112). If you truly want to have the idols that control your heart completely removed, you need to pursue God more than anything else this world or your own heart may have to offer. To do that, we must:

  1. Repent before God
  2. Fear God
  3. Love God
  4. Trust God
  5. Delight in God

“God has designed a wonderful cycle for those who want to worship him above all things. As you love, praise, give thanks, and delight yourself in God, he will fulfill your desires with the best gift: more of himself. And as you learn to delight more and more in him, you will feel less need to find happiness, fulfillment, and security in things of this world” (p.114).

If your response to God’s best gift is, “That’s all?” the one you worship is not God, but yourself, and you are in dangerous territory. Your heart is bowing down before a lesser god, which is no god, but an idol, and the life you live will be one of utter sin and condemnation before a holy God. You will never find true peace in any of your conflicts until you have found the Prince of Peace. Look to Him today to deliver you and draw you to Himself.

Gray Issues Part 1 – Introduction

by Elder Peter Lim

Perhaps no subject stirs up more controversy within the church than the topic of “gray issues” or Christian liberties. I’m certain that I don’t know all there is to know about this topic. However, I must continue with my life and so must you so let’s deal with this. In my search through scripture, I’ve been somewhat frustrated by the lack of clarity and definitive answers to my questions. I’m sure that the fault of this lack of clarity is mine alone. Certainly the bible has been written by God the way He meant to communicate to people and He’s perfect and therefore His word is perfect. Issues are only gray in our own mind. God is able to search our hearts and know its condition accurately. We are not. Therefore, our task will be to try to look at ourselves from His perspective.

The incident that prompted me to write this article is that some male and female college students were said to have shared a hotel room during a trip during Spring break in order to save some money. Should we as a church ignore this? Should we speak out against or in support of it? Is this issue even worth mentioning at all? I believe that the day-to-day dilemma of most Christians is related to this issue. We are constantly making decisions that deal with wrestling through gray issues. For example, when was the last time you struggled with whether you should commit murder or not? Hopefully never. But when was the last time you looked at someone with hatred? (1 John 3:15) Now was it really hatred of a brother (which would be sin) or was it merely being upset at him? (which would be gray whether it was sin or not) How upset does one have to be before it’s considered hate? The process of thinking through gray issues is something that I believe most people have not really thought through biblically.

As an elder in the church, I have the responsibility of making sure that our church supports biblical principles. If our people are advocating a lifestyle that is inconsistent with the bible, I have the responsibility of steering people toward the bible and propagating a biblical lifestyle through our church environment. This means that at some point in time, people in our church who disagree with the elders on the attitudes propagated through our church culture have to make the difficult choice whether to submit to our views (without necessarily agreeing with them wholeheartedly) or leaving a church that they love otherwise in their stand for their opinions on gray issues. In the coming months, I hope to shed some biblical light as it applies to these everyday situations.

SC 2011 – Reflections #1

by Hansol An and Eugene Park

Editor’s Note: Pastor Patrick wanted to do a series here on the Beacon that encouraged the attendees of the Shepherds Conference to share their thoughts with the church. This is the first part in that series.  And if you are interesting in listening to the messages, you can download them all for free.

From an overall evaluation, what was at least one thing that was encouraging to you from the Shepherds Conference?

Being with pastors and leaders from all around the world is always an encouragement. It is a blessing to hear about how God is using faithful men to carry out His work among different people in various places. There is so much division in the world, and even among those that call themselves Christians it can be difficult to find unity. But those that attend Shepherds’ Conference are of a common mind. There is unity. There is an understanding that the call to lead is a great honor and great responsibility. There is empathy. It comes with many challenges too numerous to name to which few can relate. There is encouragement. (Hansol An)

I really enjoy spending 3-4 days straight with people from church. Just being able to hang out, talk about different things in ministry, and seeing how excited these guys are to apply what they’ve learned from the conference encourages me so much. I also enjoy being able to see people I know from other churches attending the conference. (Eugene Park)

What was at least one thing from the messages that was particularly helpful or challenging for you?

Rick Holland shared a message called Shepherdology. In it he outlined what it means to be a shepherd. He summed it up with, “Shepherding is not something you do; it’s something you are.” This year all the messages had a more poignant impact than in previous years, particularly this one. I’ve been on College Life staff for many years now, but this is the first year taking the lead. This expanded responsibility brought a greater appreciation for what Pastor Holland was sharing and what all pastors and elders do. It was also a sobering reminder that brought a fuller understanding that God has placed me in that role. (Hansol An)

Tom Pennington said in his message that the greatest danger to our ministry is our own pride. And as he talked about those manifestations of pride, I could see myself in a lot of them. (Eugene Park)

What was at least one lesson that challenged you in regards to your service at LBC? How will you take this and apply it to ministry here in San Diego?

Today’s churches stress relevance and people want to have their ears tickled. Not much has changed in 2,000 years. The cure for ears that want to be tickled is the preaching of the Gospel. My goal is to do whatever it takes to teach and live out the Gospel. (Hansol An)

Every year I attend Clayton Erb’s seminar on music even though he pretty much says the same thing each year. But I keep attending because I enjoy listening during the Q&A to the issues other people have at their churches in regards to the music ministry. And hearing those issues helps me to appreciate the many volunteers involved with the music ministry at LBC. (Eugene Park)