The War

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Everyday there is a battle raging around us. Satan, demons, and the powers of darkness are real and they are actively at work in our world. The question is do you know how to recognize them – and, if need be, go to combat against them?

When you talk about spiritual warfare there are two primary errors or trains of thought… they are: over-emphasis and under-emphasis. Some tend to blame every sin, every conflict, and every problem on demons that need to be cast out. Others completely ignore the spiritual realm and the fact that the Bible tells us our battle is against spiritual powers. They might be quoted as saying,

Yes, the Bible talks about Satan and demons, but you know, that was probably at another time, in another world, and I don’t really see that stuff playing out, in our day, in this way.

In fact Christian songwriter Keith Green summed up this mentality well when he wrote this,

I [Satan] used to have to sneak around. But now they just open their doors. No one’s looking for my tricks because no one believes in me any more.

Today I argue that the key to waging successful spiritual warfare is finding the Biblical balance. It is true that Jesus sometimes cast demons out of people. But…it is also true that other times He healed people with no mention of the demonic or casting out spirits, in fact, He healed them and saved them from themselves.

In Scripture we are told to wage war against the sin in ourselves. Romans 6:1-14 says,

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Then in Ephesians 6:10-18 we are told to oppose the schemes of the devil,

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

So, the Spiritual realm is real… and active! There is a war raging.

Eddie and Alice Smith once said,

When Adam and Eve fell, they relinquished rulership of the earth to Satan, a fallen angelic being. Spiritual warfare is the reversal of that procedure. It is the unseen power encounter between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Through prayer, fasting and exercising the authority of Christ and His cross, believers indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit are forcing angelic beings to relinquish rulership of the earth!

Wars by definition are large conflicts made up of smaller conflicts called battles. Like earthly battles, spiritual battles are often fought on multiple fronts. An enemy doesn’t always only attack by day, but sometimes they come at night. A wise enemy doesn’t limit all of their attacks to land… but they also mix it up by adding in water and air assaults. Our enemy is wise and attacks from all angles and sides with different schemes and tactics.

Like we discussed above it is important for us to differentiate and be able to identify on what front the battle is being waged. Is it a spiritual battle, a worldly battle, or a battle raging within us?

Below we will discuss the different battles being waged within this war.

The Spiritual Battle

We live in a physical realm and the natural tendency is to only pay attention to the things we can see and touch. The world tells us that unseen things can’t be proven or aren’t real.

So… how do we know that there is a spiritual realm?

If we cannot see it, should we believe in it? Some of us can’t get a grasp or handle on the things here in the physical so it almost seems overwhelming that there would be more right?

Has it ever made you laugh watching a child playing peek-a- boo or hide-and-go seek? With a kid all you have to do is cover something up and suddenly you have made it disappear! It is truly amazing right! But… unfortunately for us that is not reality. The lack of seeing something or someone does not mean that it or them is not there.

In Scripture we are given evidence of “spiritual” things that we cannot see. Pay attention to the bold and italicized words in the Scriptures below.

Nehemiah 9:6 says,

You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

Luke 2:13-15 gives us a glimpse of some spiritual beings. It says,

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Ephesians 6:12 says,

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Colossians 1:15-16 says,

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

Half the fight is recognizing the Spiritual realm. God gives us everything else we need to be victorious with the other half. We have all had that experience where we just had a “feeling” that there was more going on that we could see. Sometimes we heed to that “feeling” and others we dismiss it. But, whether we choose to believe in the existence of spiritual beings and places does not change the fact of their existence and their activities.

Take a second and think about what you believe as a Christian. You believe in a God that created all things out of nothing. You believe in an enemy that lured creation into sin. You believe in a trinity that consists of Father, Spirit, Son. You believe in a Son that manifested Himself as a human and died on a cross to take the repercussions of our sin. You believe that the Son then rose 3 days later and ascended into Heaven. You believe in eternal life.

You can’t see any of those things in the physical realm today. But does that make those things any less real or any less true?

But, Christians aren’t the only ones that believe things that can’t be physically seen in the here and now. Our history books are full of things that we can see the lasting effects of, but not necessarily the thing, place, or situation itself. Sound familiar? We see the lasting effects of Jesus each and every day in the same way that the world sees the lasting effects of the Revolutionary war or the dinosaurs.

The belief is necessary for the education. That is what faith is built on… belief.

The Bible is filled with references to the heavenly realm or a place that is invisible to our eyes physically today, yet very real in its existence. The Bible is also filled with references of spiritual fights, forces, demons, and evil that we also have to count as real. We cannot say we recognize the heavenly realm and not recognize the evil that has dominion over the earth here and now. We must have faith and believe with eyes that God has given us to see.

There have, however, been others who were able to see with their physical eyes into the spiritual realm. 2 Kings 6:11-17 tells us of one such man. It says,

This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.” “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

This is just one example that clearly demonstrates the workings of an invisible spiritual realm around us. The rumblings of an invisible war. The good news is that the Lord is with us and provides for us through His angels as He chooses. The Lord loves us and protects us physically as He works it out for us on the spiritual end.

The Worldly Battle

The next area we face battle is somewhere that we can see! As we begin to understand the spiritual realm we will begin to understand how the enemy moves against us in the physical realm.

You might be curious now as to how “demons” can interact in the physical realm but yet still stay hidden from the world. To clarify that let us reference the story of Job. In fact, Job is a perfect example of a spiritual conflict that was manifested in the physical form.

Tonilee Adamson says,

Job was a real human being living here on earth, but the Bible gives us a clear look at what was happening concerning Job’s life in the spiritual realm. God looked upon Job as a righteous man but, because Satan wanted to prove God wrong, Job became the victim of Satan’s attacks. Job’s family, finances and home were destroyed and his health and friends turned against him. Job experienced very real physical and circumstantial conflicts because of the conflict in the spiritual realm. Job also became the victor because of his faithfulness to God in words and actions throughout the trial. His victory was spiritual, physical and material…on earth as it is in heaven.

We live in the here and now, whereas God does not. He has always existed and always will. He doesn’t operate by our time and is not inhibited by it. God exists outside of our time and space. He is both infinite and timeless. One day we will join God in the spiritual realm (Heaven), but… that doesn’t change that we do live in a physical realm now.

Romans 12:12 says,

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

In John 17:14-16 Jesus said,

I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

So, we are called to live in the world but not be a part of the world, but the thing is… the world hates those who follow Jesus.

We are going to have conflicts with the world and its ways. Those conflicts are battles within the war that is spiritual warfare. In fact, it isn’t the physical world itself that we have a problem with. We know that when God created Adam and Eve and they dwelled together in the Garden in harmony with God that “it was good.” It wasn’t until the temptations and schemes of the evil one came in that the problems arose. So it isn’t the physical world itself that we have a problem with. After all, we aren’t battling trees, and animals, but rather it is the forces that control the world that are in conflict with. Again, I will repeat the quote by Eddie and Alice Smith,

When Adam and Eve fell, they relinquished rulership of the earth to Satan, a fallen angelic being. Spiritual warfare is the reversal of that procedure. It is the unseen power encounter between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Through prayer, fasting and exercising the authority of Christ and His cross, believers indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit are forcing angelic beings to relinquish rulership of the earth!

We, as Christians, are God’s children. Followers of Jesus. So, if the world is in conflict with God, the world is also in conflict with us.

Like any war, there are 2 opposing sides. In this particular conflict we have the side of Heaven and the side of the world and Hell. It is important to note that we have to pick one. A person cannot remain a neutral faction. By not picking the side of Jesus one is by default selecting the side of the world and will face demise along with the rest on that force.

I personally find it encouraging that Jesus Himself came in flesh and understood the temptations of the world. He knew that Satan would use every kind of enticement possible to lure man’s heart away from God. He uses circumstances, events, people, things, and even doubt to steal hearts back to his worldly and evil ways. These types of battles are fought in the world but involve the spiritual forces of darkness that exist in the invisible realm around us. The world promises instant satisfaction and pleasures that fulfill the desires of our flesh. We must stay on guard to ourselves and our own fallen nature, and be quick to pick the ways of the Lord and the transforming and renewing of our minds on a daily basis.

James 4:4 gives us a warning about our war with the world,

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

The Battle Within

From nearly the onset of this writing I wrote that Jesus did cast demons out of people, but also at times He healed people with no mention of the demonic or casting out spirits, in fact, He healed them and saved them from themselves. I believe that much of the battle we confuse with being in the ”spiritual realm” actually exists inside us as our human fallen nature rages war against the ways of God in us.

Like I previously stated, in Scripture we are told to wage war against the sin in ourselves. Romans 6:1-14 says,

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

I believe for myself that most of the hardest fought and intense battles are fought within me. Let’s face it, denying of oneself is not a pleasurable activity. Jesus told us in Luke 9:23 that,

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

What does that cross mean for you? What battle must you fight today?

There is a constant struggle between flesh and spirit, and we are constantly battling between what we want to do versus what we know the Lord wants us to do. In his letter to the Romans, Paul explains that we are saved by grace, not by observing the law, because Christ died for us. But, he goes on to say that this does not give us permission to sin, but rather, we should serve God by being slaves of righteousness.

Romans 7:14-20 says,

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Robert Deffinbaugh had this to say about that particular passage,

Paul describes in the Book of Romans a much deeper frustration—one with which only Christians can identify and one with which all Christians can identify. The Christian’s agony comes from realizing that our sinful flesh refuses to respond to the requirements of God’s Law. Those things which we as Christians despise we find ourselves doing. Those things which we as Christians desire we fail to accomplish. No matter how much we may wish to serve God in our minds, we find ourselves sinning in our bodies. As Paul describes his frustration in Romans 7, with his mind he desires to serve God. He agrees with the Law of God and rejoices in it. He wants to do what is right, but his body will not respond. He watches, almost as a third party, as sin sends a signal to his body, and as his body responds, “What would you like to do?” Paul finds, as we do, that while our fleshly bodies refuse to obey God and do that which we desire and which delights God, they quickly and eagerly respond to the impulses and desires aroused by sin…

Some of our most tender nerves are touched by Paul’s teaching in verses 14-25. For the truths taught here could be taken as the most depressing and hopeless realities of our lives. But Paul does not dwell on the weakness of our flesh in order to discourage us. Rather, Paul exposes the weakness of our flesh as the root problem which prevents Christians from living the kind of lives God requires and which we, as Christians, desire in our innermost being. Paul exposes the weakness of our flesh to prepare us for God’s provision for Godly living…

We as mortal beings have the complete inability to live righteously, in our own strength. We may want to… but we are unable.

Matthew 26:41 says,

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Galatians 5:17-17 says,

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

Genesis 4:7 says,

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

We can understand the circumstances and situations that the enemy uses to destroy us. We can accept the truth of how the world lures and tempts us. We can understand to some degree that the battle in the spiritual realm is ongoing and real, even though we cannot see it. But, to get a grasp on what is going on within our own hearts and minds can be the hardest, most exhausting, battle of them all. God’s ways are not natural to us. We constantly need to crucify our natural inclinations and desires to receive all that God has for us. Colossians 3:8-12 says,

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Romans 12:3 says that God has distributed faith to each of us for our good!

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

Jesus Christ came to earth in the flesh. He lived a life of much suffering as He denied the desires of His flesh and the temptations of the enemy. Our flesh will suffer just like Jesus but we can be victorious just like Jesus. The victory may not look the same as defined by the world, but nothing compares to a life that is victorious in the ways of God.

Romans 8:38-39 says,

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Next week we will continue this conversation by discussing “The Enemy and his Schemes.” Until then… watch your six!

What is Wisdom?

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

In today’s day and age it is easy to look around us at the world and at the choices that people make and ask: what is wisdom? As Christians we should have a desire to know what wisdom is in light of our salvation… is our wisdom the same as the worlds or is there more to it than that? Why is wisdom or being wise important? A better question is: how should wisdom apply to us as believers, and us as a “Kingdom of God” or church? Let’s think together about Christian Wisdom.

Some say wisdom increases with age and I would say that is mostly correct… but they definitely don’t go hand –in-hand. You can be old and unwise. Experience may increase with age, but wisdom may not!

Ruth Younts says that,

Christian wisdom is knowing and understanding the truth, obeying the truth, and making decisions based on the truth. Wisdom helps you be more like Jesus in your actions, thoughts and attitudes, by loving God and your neighbor.

I would go even farther and say that living wisely means receiving power from God to live and act as God designed us to live and act.

Believe it or not, we were all designed to live wisely. We need to understand that God has created an order, after understanding this we must recognize that created order, and live in a way that coincides with that created order. In other words, God created human beings to function in certain ways within the world He has created.

Wisdom is more than knowledge… it includes action as well.

Just to know what to do isn’t wise if you don’t do it! I think we see that a lot nowadays in our culture. Our practices get more and more unwise with what is popular or “cool.” Any individual could look at illegal drugs and say, “the decision to take or do that is stupid” but people still do it anyways. Sin ultimately is unwise, but for some reason after the fall we continue to do it and to take part in it willingly.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says,

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Being wise means honoring God with our actions.

In Scripture we see a story of “wisdom” gathered from the wrong places. Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba who became king of Israel after David died. Solomon asked God for wisdom and was given it in 1 Kings 3 and he built a temple and dedicated it to God. However, his many foreign wives and perhaps his great wealth and public acclaim turned his heart away from God. To many Solomon would look wise and like he had it all… but he was not wise according to God’s standards. Ultimately, for Solomon, being wise in the ways of the world turned out to be a spiritual handicap. The lesson we get from Solomon, especially in Ecclesiastes 1 & 2, is this: all human wisdom is in vain. Without God, “all is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

Ecclesiastes 1:12 -18 says,

I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

We can even say that wisdom comes down to vision. Our wisdom can be defined by seeing life horizontally. This means looking to God instead of ourselves, and I think Solomon would agree! We know that God holds the answers to all things. Instead, often we try to lean on ourselves and our own knowledge or experiences and that is very unwise. It would be like a high school basketball player looking to their washed up dad for 3 point shooting advice while Steph Curry stood on the sideline. It makes no sense!

Everyday faith is wisdom. Wisdom is knowing the LORD. God can use wisdom as a way of maturing and sanctifying us, and when we go against wisdom we go against God because He is all wisdom. The source of wisdom is God. Wisdom leads us to God through Christ Jesus. We can be wise by trusting in God even when we don’t see or recognize His work, because we know that faith is more than just living by the things that we see. In the end, wisdom looks like Christ because He is the wisdom of God.

Why Study the Old Testament?

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Have you ever been watching a movie and felt completely lost?

I have.

I once made the mistake of allowing a friend of mine convince me to watch the second “Matrix” movie with him without having seen the first. He responded to my countless questions graciously… but in the end, I was completely lost with no hope of ever fully grasping what was going on due to missing context and foreknowledge of the plot. I would never understand until seeing the first movie in the series.

Don’t get me wrong… I did enjoy the movie and had basic knowledge of what I had seen in the context that I had seen it. But, I had no idea as to how what I ad observed and understood fit into the larger puzzle that was the “Matrix” series.

It seems as if one of the recent trends within the church is creating this exact issue for us as Believers. Many churches, denominations, congregations, pastors, and theologians have placed an emphasis on the New Testament alone.

Why is that?

I have heard things ranging from, “We are under the New Testament after the death of Christ” to, “the Old Testament is just too boring to read.” Both of these statements actually catch me off guard when thinking about them, but I have to admit that I am probably guilty of placing the New Testament in front of the Old Testament in importance as well. So why should we study the Old Testament as modern believers?

While it is Biblically accurate to distinguish between the testaments and between salvation by law (OT) and salvation by grace (NT), it does not in our wildest dreams mean that the first three-fourths of the Bible should be dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant for the “modern” Christian. In fact, if we read the New Testament fully and carefully we will see how closely tied it is to the Old Testament and how important the Old Testament was and is to the New Testament church. So… why should “New Testament Christians” read the Old Testament? Let’s think together.

  • It is God’s Word.

The first answer to our question is that the Old Testament is important simply because it’s God’s Word.

End of story. Isn’t that enough?

God’s word is eternal. God is a never changing God and in order to understand love and mercy we have to see both testaments for what they are. Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that,

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

In the times of Christ the Old Testament was all they had and that seemed to be enough for them and they deemed it worthy to read and dedicate to heart and mind. In fact, the Old Testament was the Bible of Jesus. He read from it, quoted it, interpreted it, and declared Himself to be the fulfillment of many of its promises. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

The fact that the Old Testament is God’s Word, the same as the New Testament, should be enough to cause us to want to read it and hold it as important! If not, then surely the fact that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ deemed it as important should cause us to view it in a refreshed light. If we truly desire to be like Christ then we better get familiar with the Old Testament.

  • It helps us learn the character of God.

The Old Testament also helps us to learn the character of God. Scriptures found within the Old Testament do well to point us to Christ. I have found that the Old Testament reveals to us the nature of our hearts in comparison to what they should be, and tells us what our BIG problem is.

In a counseling session I was involved in recently the individual I was ministering to just kept repeating that he didn’t know how he had gotten the way that he is, and that he couldn’t understand what his problem was. He had no comprehension of the Old Testament or the curse of Adam that fell upon all mankind in Genesis. Ultimately, he had no context for individual sin and it caused him to repeatedly become frustrated.

The good thing about the Bible is that not only does it tell us our problem, but it also explains to us how we got this way. After giving us a pretense and context the Old Testament also helps to explain to us why God had to do what He did to redeem us! The Old Testament provides us context and allows us to know what God did and accomplished throughout all of Scripture including both the Old and New Testaments.

The story of redemptive history that culminates in Jesus Christ has its origins in the Old Testament. The Bible may have two individual testaments, but it tells one essential comprehensive story!

  • It is the first half.

Just like I struggled to understand the sequel to the first Matrix movie without context of the plot and characters we might find ourselves enlightened more if we read the Old Testament just like I was when I finally watched that first movie.

Did you know that there are more than 300 direct quotations of the Old Testament to be found throughout the New Testament? I actually read that if one counts partial quotations or allusions, the number jumps to more than 2,000, and that material accounts for about 10 percent of the New Testament, or about the same amount devoted to the recorded words of Jesus! Incredible.

The Old Testament lays the foundation for the teachings and events found in the New Testament. The Bible is a progressive revelation even if we don’t always view it in that way. If you skip the first half of any good book or movie and try to finish it, you will have a hard time understanding the characters, the plot, and the ending. In the same way, the New Testament is only completely understood when we see its foundation of the events, characters, laws, sacrificial system, covenants, and promises of the Old Testament.

It is clear that the authors of the New Testament believed the Old Testament to be the word of God. Acts 1:15-20 says,

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “‘Let another take his office.’

The writers of the New Testament used the Old Testament in their histories, sermons, letters, and even their prayers. They used it to prove that Jesus was the Messiah, to offer instruction, and to argue or defend theological points. In that time the Old Testament was the primary authority they cited in their declaration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the end, the New Testament is prefaced upon the Old Testament and without an understanding or grasping of the ideals and content of the Old Testament then the New Testament can’t be grasped or understood fully for what it is and means. The Old Testament is informative and is used to inform us on the ways and things of God, lots of passages in Old Testament speak to things that haven’t occurred yet and can be seen as prophetic and can even provide hope and reinforcement for believers in the context of the New Testament.

  • It deepens understanding.

Lastly, my favorite point is the fact that an understanding of the Old Testament helps us to ward off heresies. Many heresies begin like this, “Did God really say…(fill in the blank)?” We would be quicker to spot false teachings and prophecies with an understanding of both Testaments rather than only understanding one or the other.

Any informed follower or student would work to know all of the teachings and all of the material. When preparing for a comprehensive exam one doesn’t only study the latest material… you would fail. When preparing a legal defense a lawyer doesn’t just view the latest evidence… a full understanding of the case is necessary for receiving the desired results. When in boot camp one doesn’t just learn how to bandage and treat wounds… One learns how to fight and prevent them too. If we want to be prepared and fully equipped Christians then we should have a desire to know ALL of God’s Word. We are called to be faithful, and insight into the Old Testament helps in that endeavor.

We should have a longing to hear from Him and understand all of His Words. That longing will cause us to read all of what He has given us.

In summary, the Old Testament allows us to learn how to love and serve God, and it reveals more about God’s character. It shows through repeatedly fulfilled prophecy why the Bible is unique among holy books, and it alone is able to demonstrate that it is what it claims to be: the inspired Word of God.

Rejection: It hurts!

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

On February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York, a young man named Michael was born. His family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was very young and he was one of 5 siblings. His father worked as a General Electric plant supervisor, and his mother worked at a bank. Young Michael, like many young men, loved sports but despite his attempts he failed to make his high school basketball team as a sophomore because of a “lack of skill.” Not swayed long by the rejection he continued to practice as if his very life depended on it and he made the team the next year.

His determination and resilience paid off. The same young man who “lacked the skill” to play 10th grade basketball not only finished out an impressive high school basketball career, but he also accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina, where he played under head coach Dean Smith and became the ACC Rookie of the Year in 1982.

Obviously the Michael we are referring to is now acclaimed as the “best basketball player to have ever played.” He is Michael Jordan. He left North Carolina after his junior year and was selected by the Chicago Bulls as the third pick of the 1984 NBA draft. Before joining the Bulls, Jordan was a member of the Summer 1984 United States Olympic basketball team that won the gold medal in Los Angeles, California. Michael Jordan would play 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association and win various titles and awards.

A man that could have let his rejection define him is now known as one of the most clutch and iconic basketball players ever. He turned his rejection and disappointment into determination and later success.

There are numerous stories that unravel just like this!

  • TV personality Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a reporter because she was “unfit for TV.” She later became the host of her own program “The Oprah Winfrey show” which aired 25 sessions before launching her own TV Network. Oprah Winfrey Network.
  • Author JK Rowling was sacked as a secretary because she was a “day dreamer.” 12 publishers then rejected her after writing her first “Harry Potter” novel. That very novel would later make her a billionaire.
  • Director Steven Spielberg was turned down 3 times by the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television. Undeterred he carried on and earned his BA and became one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema with Academy Awards for Best Director for “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.” He also achieved Box Office records for “Jaws, E.T, and Jurassic Park.”
  • Musical icon Elvis Presley was told by the Grand Ole Opry manager, Jimmy Denny, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck.” Yet Elvis became an American singer and is now referred to as “the King of Rock and Roll.”
  • Lastly, composer Ludwig van Beethoven was referred to as “hopeless” in his early life by his music teacher. Beethoven would later become one of the most famous and influential of all composers whose best-known compositions included 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 32 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets.

The point of all of those stories is to point out that we all experience rejection, and nobody is exempt or immune to it’s countless forms. I personally believe at the core of all rejection is a desire to feel valued. We can’t feel rejection unless we first want something that we feel like we don’t already have whether it is attention, success, achievement, praise, perceived worth, confidence, to feel connected, etc… At the core of our desires is a longing for a sense of stability or feeling of importance. Rejection keeps us from what we want. We can turn rejection is the enemy, or that obstacle we can’t move past. We can allow rejection to define us.

Rejection wants us to give up… and if we do then rejection has won. It has defined us.

I found it interesting that in a recent University of Michigan study they found that physical pain and intense feelings of rejection “hurt” in the same way. The study demonstrates that the same regions of the brain that become active in response to painful sensory experiences are activated during intense experiences of social rejection. This study went on to show that higher levels of rejection in a person’s life result in “more negative self-feelings and reductions of self-esteem.” Repeated rejection can literally change our brains. When we face rejection one too many times, our brain learns to protect us. How many of us have experienced this? We’re rejected and suddenly we’re afraid of trying again.

Everyone encounters rejection in this fallen world, and as painful as rejection can be, it doesn’t have to work against us. Rejection can actually work for us if we use the experience as a positive opportunity to create a new season of success in your life or allow God to speak to us through it. Our rejection, like our pain, is not meaningless. (You can find a previous blog on this topic here: https://tannerroyalty.com/2015/12/02/damascus/)

John Piper said this in a message on pain, but I believe it can be said about rejection as well. He said,

Not only is all your affliction momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there. But all of it is totally meaningful. Every millisecond of your pain, from the fallen nature or fallen man, every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience is producing a peculiar glory you will get because of that. I don’t care if it was cancer or criticism. I don’t care if it was slander or sickness. It wasn’t meaningless. It’s doing something! It’s not meaningless. Of course you can’t see what it’s doing. Don’t look to what is seen. When your mom dies, when your kid dies, when you’ve got cancer at forty, when a car careens into the sidewalk and takes her out, don’t say, “That’s meaningless!” It’s not. It’s working for you an eternal weight of glory. Therefore, therefore, do not lose heart. But take these truths and day by day focus on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get alone with God and preach his word into your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and cared for.

So… as leaders, church members, and believers in general we are guaranteed to experience rejection in one form or another. Rejection isn’t always easy to deal with, here’s a few quick ways we can respond when we experience rejection. Let’s think together.

  • Ask the right questions.

Most of us are well-acquainted with disappointment. All of us, at some point, will battle feelings of disappointment when life goes wrong. I think it is almost natural for us to believe deep down that because of our faith and salvation we should have a special immunity against trouble.

We see an example of a version of this thinking in Mark 10:23-31 where it says says,

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Peter tried to remind Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you.” Peter was asking the wrong question.

After all, it’s hard to ask the right question when you’re feeling disappointed! It’s hard to ask “what now?” or “what else?” when your dreams have been shattered or your heart hurts from pain, disappointment, or rejection. But I believe that our lives will begin to change when we start asking God, “What would you have me do now?” when we come up short or something doesn’t come through like we feel it was supposed to. Now obviously the correct question or response doesn’t and won’t take the pain away, but typically we will find that God is eager to show is what He wants us to do next.

Sometimes we need to stop talking and just listen and obey.

If you are like me, my natural tendency is to complain when I feel disappointed or rejected. But unfortunately for me, complaining to other people never helps solve the issue… typically it just makes it worse and intensifies the pain. But, in His grace, God asks us to take our heartaches to him.

Matthew 11:28-29 says,

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Psalm 55:22 says,

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Philippians 4:6 says,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Casting our burdens on God is wise because He’s capable of doing something about it, while we are not. God has the power to change us, our situation, or both. He knows all the facts, He knows the future, and He has the perspective that we lack. When we learn to respond correctly and ask the right questions when rejected or disappointed we will begin to have answers revealed to us.

  • Don’t allow rejection and discouragement to define you.

Life is a journey. In the same way many of our ideas, goals, and relationships are journeys as well. Rarely do we end up where we saw ourselves being twenty years ago. The problem with long-term goals is that they can change.

Many things take a process to get it to where they need to be… us included! If you had asked me 10 years ago if I ever envisioned myself working for a church I would’ve answered with a bold “no!” Having an idea turned down, a vision rejected, or a goal changed doesn’t mean we have failed. Ultimately it means that we have received feedback, guidance, or correction and we now can adapt and overcome by approaching in a different way.

We mustn’t allow ourselves to be sensitive when we get rejected. We must learn to not place your identity in what you create, or goals, dreams, or visions and whether or not they turn out or happen according to plan. Here is an exerpt from a previous blog of mine (you can find it here: https://tannerroyalty.com/2015/05/13/who-are-you/),

Too often, people base their identities on what they do or in the acceptance of others, and the perceived expectations that come along with that acceptance… whether it is a job, hobby, relationship, or even positive or negative remarks from peers.

Traditionally, we’ve been taught to find the answer in one place…we are what we do. If I write, then I’m a writer. If I play music, then I am a musician. If I play a sport, then I’m an athlete. The world creates easy definitions of people and we look to those definitions far too often. We like to define ourselves based upon what we do. Somehow we have been deceived and allowed the things that, for the most part, we have dominion and control over to define us as people. We are allowing our identity and self worth to be found amongst the things of the world.

Are you being controlled or limited by the things that you allow to define you?

The truth is that God intends for all people to find their identity in Him alone. Our effectiveness as pastors and worship pastors is hinged upon us becoming comfortable with the people God has created us to be. Our identity is found and secured in Christ alone when we begin to follow him… we must simply accept that identity and pursue it wholeheartedly.

Ultimately, rejection is part of the process that we all go through in this thing called life. Don’t be discouraged when it happens. Understand that it’s not an attack on you personally, but use it as an opportunity to grow and develop. Allow God to guide and shape you. Don’t allow the things you control to define you. Take time to stop talking and listen to what He has to say.

How to Fight Spectator Worship

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Lights. Camera. Action.

We have all experienced the hair on the backs of our necks stand up from a good show or experience. Maybe the atmosphere was just right or the speaker or musicians were well rehearsed and the performance nearly moved us to tears. We have all also probably been in a scenario where all we could do was grimace and mumble (in our best southern voice) “bless his/her heart.”

When thinking back to either of these experiences did either take place at church?

As ministers we must think about what types of experiences, memories, moments, and performances we putting on each and every week within our houses of worship? Let me ask you: What is memorable? The atmosphere? The quality of performance? That soloist who had the voice of an angel? Or the congregational worship in response to the Spirit of God?

I hope it is the latter. If it’s called a worship service, should there not be more worship going on? This week we are going to discuss maintaining well-balanced worship, and fighting the talent show spectator sport mentality that we often unintentionally instill within or people. Sure, the spectator mentality may not be created intentionally, but it is happening, nonetheless.

Let’s start at the beginning… the diagnosis of the problem.

In “worship,” are we supposed to be participants or spectators?

We all know the answer… participants.

So if we all know the correct answer how does spectator worship still happen? We all can be guilty at times. No style of music or church setting is exempt. Often, contemporary churches create a concert atmosphere. From the style of the music and the way it is presented, to the layout of the “worship center,” there is a feel that is remarkably similar to a concert or a theater experience. For obvious reasons that can get confusing for our congregations, because in theaters and concerts, the audience is not required to participate in way, form, or fashion. Their sole responsibility is to set back, stay awake, and enjoy the show in a consumer-like fashion. But… the “trendy” contemporary churches aren’t the only ones to blame! In fact, many traditional services have beloved hymns that have been sung in the same way for years that take absolutely no thought or “worship engagement” to get through. We have created zombies that can sing melodies! Many traditional services also incorporate choirs that sing songs while the attendees listen or put on special shows that are “concert-like.” Other times, there is “special music” by a soloist or ensemble. The best part, of course, is the “offertory” where a talented musician plays his or her instrument during the passing of the plate and everyone listens to the performance.

So, what’s the problem with “spectator” worship?

Worship is not the same thing as entertainment. Groundbreaking thought I know… unfortunately, the whole approach of much of our “worship services” is nothing more than entertainment with a Christian title. Does a “better” atmosphere mean “better” worship? Does the skill of the soloist, or the intonation of a choir really constitute a better worship experience? Does it truly bring more honor and glory to God if you “jaw-drop” the audience with your guitar solo or piano finesse? But… by breeding a spectator mentality we tend to also breed an entertainment mentality.

Spectators also tend to be prone to the consumer mentality that plagues our American culture. In an age of American Idol, America’s Got Talent, and America’s Next Top Model our culture is filled with “expert” judges and consumers with little knowledge or experience in whatever area they are judging. How many times have we attended a movie or show and immediately walked out giving our thoughts on what was well done and what wasn’t. I have… but the fact is I know absolutely nothing about making a movie. I can give my opinion… but that is all it really is: an opinion. Sometimes we unintentionally drag this consumer or critiquing mindset into church. We leave right after a service and judge the worship based off the quality of the music or even better… the musical selection, and the preaching based off of whether or not we liked the message or the Pastor kept us engaged enough.

These problems undermine true worship, and what we have done by breeding these issues (spectator worship) and not teaching against them has now come to bite us in the rear! You know, recently I was shown an interesting statistic. It is well believed that the average goldfish has a 9 second attention span, and we often joke around with people and say, “You have the attention span of a goldfish.” But… actually a recent study says that an average human attention span is now 8 seconds! You heard me right… 1 second less than that of a goldfish. So the question is… if we allow spectator worship to shape and form our church’s worship can we entertain the people enough? Absolutely not.

So… how do we engage people in authentic God-honoring worship? Let’s think together.

  • Sing songs that people can sing.

It may seem obvious… but we have to start by singing songs that people are capable of singing. As a member of the congregation if I have to watch the “show” more than half the time then we as leaders have missed the point!

The fact of the matter is that too often we are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing. There are lots of great, new worship songs today, but in the vast pool of new songs, many are not suitable for congregational singing because of a multitude of reasons like key, rhythm, melody, etc. But, the truth is though, there are many hymns that aren’t great for our current singing as well because of rhythm, melody, and a language barrier between “old-time” speech and how we talk today.

What I try to keep in mind when selecting songs is that in order for people to sing the songs in any given worship service, the songs have to have a sing-able melody (that doesn’t take a master’s degree in music or 8 hours of practice) and be placed in keys that the common person can sing. You see, we as leaders might think a song is easy, but the reality is that we have been listening and practicing it all week and our congregations only have once on Sunday to sing along. Also, if songs are placed in keys that are too high, many people just stop singing because it hurts to sing high, or they are embarrassed to hear their voice at a raised level when they are trying to reach out and strain to get that note you have asked them to sing.

What we seem to have forgotten is that the average singer has a medium range, and many worship leaders, myself included, have high voices and want to pitch the songs in keys in which they sound the best for us to lead them in. But, we must remember that worship is not about impressing the congregation with our awesome vocal skills. Instead it is about enabling the people to worship, and facilitating that response through our direction (guided by the Spirit of course).

  • Sing songs that people can follow.

Nobody likes going to a concert where you don’t know a single song and have no clue what is going on. Have you ever been to a church service like that? I have… and to be honest my worship through song really suffered.

Many of us Worship Leaders and Pastors love singing new music and are completely wrapped up in that world all week. But to be honest most of our congregation isn’t. They might not be in tune with the newest song or the latest and greatest group. Often the only Christian music they hear is at church! So… sometimes when we don’t balance out our set lists that allow for easy following a congregation ceases its participatory worship in order to learn the new songs or turn totally to spectator mode and treat the song as a “special music” portion of the service.

So… first of all, should we sing new songs in worship? I believe the Bible is clear in that regard. Psalm 33:3 says,

Sing unto Him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.

Psalm 40:3 says,

He put a new song in my mouth.

Psalm 96:1 says,

Sing to the LORD a new song.

Psalm 144:9 says,

I will sing a new song to you, O God.

Psalm 149: 1 says,

Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song.

I could go on and on. Singing new songs is beneficial because they keep us out of a rut, bring us a new sense of freshness and enthusiasm, force us to think about what we are singing, expand our worship vocabulary, and help us capture what God is saying to the body at the time. Newer, contemporary songs generally will connect to today’s culture in a language they understand better than songs several decades or centuries old. Our songs are a vital part of our worship vocabulary. As long as we are singing songs we know, we are able to worship without the hindrance of learning new melodies and rhythms. But, when we place a new song in our times of corporate worship, we can interrupt the flow of worship. When new songs are first introduced, the people have to take their eyes off the Lord and concentrate on the task of learning the new tune. With this in mind, I believe new songs can kill our worship or they can greatly enhance our worship depending on how we balance them and utilize them in our services.

So how do we balance the problem of creating spectators with all the great reasons to include new songs in our worship? The key is how we introduce the songs and the frequency of new song introduction. We must make sure the songs are first sing-able and then gauge our church based off of their ability to pick up on newer songs. The results will vary depending on the average age of your congregation, what types of songs you are playing, and the context you are in.

One thing I would like to clarify is that we don’t need to mistake “unwilling” to learn new songs for “unable.” Sometimes we have a tendency as humans to like things they way they are, and always have been, and we are content in our comfort. We must fulfill the Biblical mandate to sing new songs… so we have to do our job to facilitate that as painlessly as possible.

  • Be ready to teach.

As worship leaders, we often get so involved in our professional production and understanding of worship that we fail to be authentic, invite the congregation into the experience and act of worship, and then do all we can to facilitate that response. Sometimes it is far too easy to lose sight of our purpose of helping the congregation to voice their worship, and letting them know that they have a reason to sing.

Sometimes the “spectator worshipper” mentality just comes from a lack of understanding or education on the subject. We need to take a step back a realize that not everyone is as deeply immersed in worship as we are (I mean it is our job). We must be willing and ready to teach words, teach songs, and most importantly teach each methods, reasons, and purposes of worship.

A functioning understanding often goes a long way.

So how are you fighting the fight against “spectator worship?”

An Invitation

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

We have all received an invitation to something in our lifetimes. Sometimes we are delighted to receive them in the mail… and other times a sense of dread or obligation comes along with an invitation.

One time interestingly enough I received an invitation for a black tie event for business professionals in the nearest major city to me. Needless to say I was confused and felt very unqualified. I made every excuse to not attend… and I didn’t. Today I wonder what the mix up was, but also what opportunities or connections would have come from that banquet.

John 3:16-17 says,

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

We see in the above passages out of John an invitation to believe and be saved offered by Jesus and the sacrifice He paid. How many of us treat the invitation offered by Jesus in the same way that I treated the black tie event? Maybe we feel unqualified, inadequate, or we are just full of excuses?

Maybe the expectations have been placed too high? Or we’ve been hurt or let down before and we are timid to put ourselves in that position again? Maybe we feel like we aren’t there yet… like we are too much of a project? Maybe you are like me and you feel inadequate or not qualified enough to “mix it up” with the “professionals?”

One of my favorite writers, C.S. Lewis, said,

God doesn’t want something from us, He simply wants us.

There is no mistake. The invitation is yours.

That invitation may be to approach Jesus for the first time… or maybe you are already a Believer and the invitation for you is to take the “next step” and allow Jesus to not only be your savior, but also to be the Lord of your life.

Let’s think together.

Come as you Are

Revelation 22:17 says,

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

We have an open invitation: “Come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” In these and other verses in Scripture, the clear implication is that, even though we are sinners, God desires us to come to Him as we are, so that He can cleanse us.

In one of my Matt Maher songs he says this,

For all the thirsty in need of the river

For all the sleeping hearts waking from their slumber

For everyone still standing at the shoreline, come

 

For all the hurting souls running from their healer

For all the skeptics running from an answer

Let everyone who hears these words say come

 

For the Spirit and the Bride say come

 

For all the Pharisees, empty on the inside

For all the lovers who spent their love on a lie

For the forgotten, the Father’s heart says come

 

For all the fatherless looking for approval

For all the daughters who’ve never heard they’re beautiful

Let everyone who hears these words say come

 

For the Spirit and the Bride say come

In Joel 2:32a says

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.

God’s offer of deliverance is open to “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.” If we go to the examples of how Jesus dealt with the sinners He encountered we realize that there is no mistake… the invitation is ours and it is genuine!

You know, sometimes we receive those invitations with “fine print.” Maybe we are expected to bring something… a gift, food, etc. Those invitations come with requirements or obligations.

Sometimes us “well-meaning Christians” do that exact same thing. We tell people that they have to “clean up their lives” before God will accept them, but that is not what we see in Scripture. We can come as we are! The invitation has no fine print!

John 8:1-11 says,

They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

When the woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, He told her, “Go, and sin no more.” The sin was never excused or ignored, but forgiveness was offered to anyone who recognized his sin and was willing to confess and forsake it. God certainly expects us to leave our sin, but that comes as a part of our salvation, not as a prerequisite. We are not able to clean ourselves up without God’s help.

John 6:37 says,

Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away.

You’ve met the Prerequisites

The worst part about college was figuring out what order I had to take all of the classes in order to fit them into a four-year schedule and complete my degree(s) on time. It seems simple… but in reality some classes are only offered at certain times and rotate yearly, other classes have requirements that have to be completed before you are allowed to enroll in them, they are called prerequisites.

Above we discussed the open call or invitation that is offered to us through Christ, and how we didn’t have to “meet” any sort of requirement in order to respond accordingly. In fact, through Jesus we have already met the “prerequisites.” We are all sinners in need of grace. Grace that only faith in Jesus can offer.

In Isaiah 1:18 it says,

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

God offers the invitation to come, bring your sins and burdens and lay them at the foot of the cross. No matter how far you gone or how broken you are.

There is a story in John 4 that goes like this,

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria.  So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”  Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Jesus didn’t and still doesn’t flee from the imperfect… instead He sits beside them and offers “living water” out of love. You know… I often wonder how Jesus loved some of the most unlovable characters. John 3:16 makes it sound easy, when in fact, loving the world wasn’t easy at all! Another story in John 4:46-53 goes like this,

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”  Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.  As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.

In this passage we find Jesus interacting with a father who longs for his son to be healed. The only problem is that this father is also an official in Herod’s court. The same Herod who kills John the Baptist, and who is a direct threat to Jesus! But again, Jesus loves the unlovable. He truly “loves His enemies as Himself.”

What do we have to lose? Maybe some pain and guilt?

If you are already a believer what are you withholding from the Lord. Let Him take it.

Leave Something and Take Something

As a kid the best part about attending a birthday party was the “goodie bags” typically offered at the end. The best part about an invitation from Jesus is that we don’t leave the party “empty-handed.”

Matthew 11:28 says,

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

We all bring our own baggage to the party, but the “take home bag” is the same. We can come and bring our junk, lay it down, and take up an inheritance.

Come as you are and allow God to change who you are.

In all of this I am not saying that it is okay to remain in rebellion, but I am saying that true faith in Christ alone will change your life. Come as you are, but you won’t stay as you are because God is working in true believers.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says,

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Galatians 2:20 says,

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I will close with these often sung words from David Crowder,

Come out of sadness from wherever you’ve been

Come broken hearted let rescue begin

Come find your mercy oh sinner come kneel

Earth has no sorrow that heaven can’t heal

 

So lay down your burdens, lay down your shame

All who are broken lift up your face

Oh wanderer come home, you’re not too far

So lay down your hurt, lay down your heart

Come as you are

 

There’s hope for the hopeless and all those who’ve strayed

Come sit at the table, come taste the grace

There’s rest for the weary, rest that endures

Earth has no sorrow that heaven can’t cure

Leading with Presence… with or without Position

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Are you a leader?

How and when do you lead? Let me rephrase that question… do you only lead when you have the position or are the focus of others?

Is your leadership dependent on position or place or are you a leader “on” and “off” the field?

Dave Jorn, Arkansas pitching coach, says,

A lot of your success and failure is going on in the locker room. Your leaders are key to managing the locker room.

“Locker Room Leaders” serve as the developers, models, and defendants of your “teams” culture. Through their words and deeds, on a daily basis, this type of leader can make or break a program. They can inspire others to achieve more or can deteriorate and undermine the team atmosphere. Effective “Locker Room Leaders” take pride in your program’s culture and do everything they can to enhance, protect, and preserve it. If someone acts in a way that is outside of what is considered appropriate, they will step in and set the person straight. They willingly and quickly confront those who do not act in a way that is aligned with your program’s vision, values, and standards. Often, effective “Locker Room Leaders” contribute more to your program’s success with their leadership than they do with their individual physical talent.

For example, just recently I was reading an article about the Philadelphia Eagles and their leaders. The coaches and players were polled about who they view as their leaders. Surprisingly enough, Carson Wentz their Quarterback and leader on the field was not who everyone viewed as their team leader. Instead, the safety Malcolm Jenkins was viewed as the most influential leader within the Eagles organization.

So let me ask you a previous question again in a different way… is your Christian leadership dependent on position, place, or ministry title or are you a leader at all times through word and deed?

In my particular area of ministry we can too easily have a mindset that if we are not the rostered “worship leader,” we can rest a bit and just quietly do our thing, and leave the “leadership” and “leading” to the worship leader position only. But… I think that problem exists across the board in churches. Think about it! How many times do we shrug off an opportunity to serve or to lead with the excuse that someone else will do it, or that it is the Pastor’s job?

What I typically tell my teams is that “everyone is a worship leader” and we lead from our presence instead of from our position.

I encourage my whole team, no matter what position they are serving from, to consider themselves as helping to lead the church in worship. The responsibility of leading worship isn’t limited to a rostered position; the responsibility is actually carried by the entire team. The same can be said about whatever area you serve in! The same can also be said about all of us and the way we live for Christ daily. We can lead others to Him and point to His goodness by leading “on” and “off” the field, “in” and “out” of the spotlight.

Every time you step into the world you have the privilege and opportunity to encourage and lead others to worship God, so use everything you have to point people to Jesus… whether that is a “high” exalted position or the lowest of the low. The Senior Pastor I serve under, Herb Williams, has always told me that if revival breaks out he wants to be a part of it… not necessarily serving in leadership, but he is okay with cleaning the toilets if that is what it takes to point people to Jesus. That should be our mindset.

Romans 12:1 says,

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship.

You may not have a microphone to sing, but you have a voice. You might not have the position, but you have your presence.

In light of this, there are some things to keep in mind. Let’s think together!

  • Lead from wherever you are.

It is not solely up to the worship leader to lead the congregation, and it’s not just up to a Pastor to live like Jesus in the community! Each of us as believers have a responsibility to be leaders wherever we are, and from whatever position or ministry that we find ourselves serving from.

1 Corinthians 10:31 says,

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Maybe your gifting is musical and you find yourself on stage leading others, maybe you are serving behind the scenes with media or sound, maybe you are teaching a class or just helping someone supervise and chaperone children. In all things our first and foremost goal should be to bring God the glory and to serve excellently.

Just a side note for all my musical folks: We are all leaders. If we craft and perfect beautiful songs and compelling setlists, but fail to help carry and engage the church alongside the worship leader, we have missed the mark. You aren’t on stage because of your excellence… you are on stage to lead people into the presence of God.

  • Set the standard.

Being a leader is not limited to a schedule or place. True leaders step into that role and maintain it until they die. A good leader knows when to lead and when to follow, when to speak and when to listen. We set the standard for those around us. For me, that might mean leading passionately and genuinely from stage. For others, that might mean leading the congregation in response to my leading from stage.

As a leader you set the standard. We should have the same level of passion “on” and “off” the field! If we are only able to demonstrate leadership when we are in the front then we have missed the point. The leadership demonstrated in the spotlight should be a mere overflow of the leadership and passion for Christ that we demonstrate everyday. The standard should always remain the same.

  • Make the most of every opportunity.

Our posture is either inviting or distancing people. Whether we like to admit it or not, when we are labeled as “leaders” or as “Christians” people begin to watch us and take notice of even the things we may not be aware of.

In a blog by Autumn Hardman from Hillsong church she says this,

Our body language says more than we think it does. If we have our heads down, solemn faces, rigid bodies, while the worship leader is doing their best to engage and lift the congregation — there is disparity in our message. It’s all of our responsibility to be in unity in leading and encouraging the congregation through whatever position we are serving in.

There is no job too big or too small and we need to make the most of every opportunity placed before us.

Philippians 2:4 says,

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

All of us are actually leaders both “on” and “off” platform and “in” and “out” of the spotlight, and it’s our job to collectively be leading people into the presence of Jesus. All of us have something to bring to the table. Everyone matters. Everyone leads from wherever they are.

Proverbs 11:14 says,

Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

How are you leading?

It’s Family Time!

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

When we gather together as a church “family” is that really what it looks like? From an outsiders perspective what do our Sunday morning experiences exhibit or demonstrate? Do we look and act like a family? Do we operate in unity towards accomplishing the same purpose or goal? Or… are we a bunch of individuals gathered in the same place doing roughly the same thing?

What are our corporate gatherings supposed to look like? What about our corporate worship?

Dr. Ed Steele once said,

Congregational worship is more than just a group of individuals having quiet times in the same place. It is the Body of Christ gathered together in unity and diversity centering adoration on the King of kings and Lord of lords and responding in obedience to Him. The emphasis is not on “my personal experience,” but “our obedient response” to His revealed nature and character.

Ralph Martin further drives home that same thought when saying,

The thought that the Church at worship is an accidental convergence in one place of a number of isolated individuals who practice, in hermetically sealed compartments, their own private devotional exercises, is foreign to the New Testament picture.

In a culture that is completely wrapped up “self,” corporate worship is the black sheep. It isn’t meant to be done alone. Personally I believe that it’s important to remember that worship songs are intended to be sung with others!

When speaking of corporate worship Eric Benoy said,

We gather together for corporate worship, a group of people to do something in one accord. If that is the case, then why do some worship leaders today want to make corporate worship a personal experience? It is oxymoronic in a way. If we have gathered intentionally for corporate worship, then should we not then be striving for a corporate offering of praise, adoration, et al and hear from God as a body of believers? We have come together specifically to be the church gathered; to worship and become equipped to be the church scattered.

If our worship isn’t a time for ourselves… then what is it a time for? Obviously it is a time for praising and worshipping our God, but what purposes does it serve for the body of Christ? Let’s think together below.

  • It’s time to teach.

As humans we are observant people. Often I can learn more from watching a situation or experience unfold than from being told about it after the fact. Think about it… would you rather read the directions or watch the task being done in order to learn how to take part in it or do it?

What would you say if I told you that your worship isn’t just for you and God?

I would dare to say that while your worship is for God, others also can gain from it. The people who worship alongside you can learn in the same way that you can from merely being around each other while you worship. It is a powerful and natural teaching method!

1 Corinthians 14:26 says,

What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

Colossians 3:16 says,

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

What I find encouraging in these passages is that nobody comes to the table with nothing to give!

1 Corinthians clearly says that each person has something to offer and those offerings will by used for teaching and admonishing each other as we are told in Colossians. Continue to seek God in your worship and you will naturally teach and instruct those around you while doing so… even if you don’t feel like you are adequate to instruct or lead.

  • It’s time to learn.

Theodore Roosevelt once said,

You may worship God anywhere, at any time, but the chances are that you will not do so unless you have first learned to worship Him somewhere in some particular place, at some particular time.

As you were growing from childhood to adulthood how did you learn how to handle yourself or behave in public? You observed people all around you doing it… and you were instructed. The same thing can be said about our worship… just like we teach each other (talked about above), we also should be continually learning from each other.

For me it’s not necessarily learning the aesthetics of worship… but rather the heart of worship. By worshipping alongside people you know you learn from their experiences and you share in those things together.

I love the idea that as worshippers we are never not adequate enough to teach through our actions… but also never “advanced” enough to stop learning. Our corporate worship is a give-and-take amongst a community or “body” of believers. We are all learning and all teaching. We are strengthening, up-building, and guiding each other. You worship isn’t just for you, but rather, it serves many purposes.

  • It’s time to encourage.

Have you ever just sat back and watched your local congregation worship?

It’s amazing.

What is amazing isn’t the “professionalism” of the sound… perfect 4 part harmonies with great pitch and tone. It is amazing that worship breaks down the barriers that this world and culture so easily build. People of all races, skin colors, economic classes, social statuses, and backgrounds all come together in the same way before God… unworthy but loved.

If that doesn’t encourage you in your faith then you might want to check your vital signs!

I am encouraged on a weekly basis by the people worshipping around me. I know their stories… their hardships and their victories, and when I see those people humbling themselves before God and crying out in praise to Him I am reminded of how fleeting this life is and how eternal our Savior is. God is bigger than any situation or barrier and congregational worship draws us together to be encouraged by each other in recognizing just how big and great our God truly is.

Don’t deny yourself the opportunity to be encouraged weekly!

  • It’s time to fellowship.

Acts 2:42-47 says,

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

What this passage out of Acts shows me is that corporate worship can help us avoid the “me and mine” mentality and can help us see ourselves as Christ sees us. Being mindful that we are part of the Body can also help us avoid delusions of our own importance before God. Stephen Miller said,

We exchange the glory of the Creator for the created and eventually replace God with ourselves. And as we become the object of our own worship, these subtleties start to creep into our worship services. They creep into our songs and the way we interpret and preach Scripture. They creep in as a consumer mentality that says we must bend over backwards to please the consumer Christians who are attending.

By seeing ourselves as the Body of Christ we are not demeaning our personal experience, but rather we are guarding ourselves against an unintentional shift in focus to “our” personal experience rather than on who Christ is and what He as done. If we are not careful the desire to achieve a “personal” worship experience becomes a goal and we miss the object for which the worship should have been directed.

A consumer mentality in our worship can cause us to desire the “experience” more than the “Savior.”  

Our worship teaches us our place in the Kingdom of God… as the body and the bride. We come together congregationally to live out those designations as the body and to fellowship in that mutual calling and purpose.

We can even see an example of this “fellowship” and unity in the body of Christ in Matthew 6:9-13 where we are given the “model prayer” or the “Lord’s Prayer.” Look below and take note of the congregational wording where I have added emphasis.

This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive usour debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Worship is personal… but it is also meant to be shared with others in the body.

Ephesians 5:18b-21 lays it out simply by saying,

Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Don’t neglect your church family or congregational worship… but rather delight in it and see it for all that it truly is!