Our Goal

This past Sunday I preached a message that was aimed at helping us think through why we are here in Fort Myers, FL. Obviously, we are the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not decide what that means in the ultimate sense, but I wanted to challenge our church to take seriously a few commands in Scripture. I set my message up around what I hope to be our mission: We exist by the grace of God to make disciples of all nations, through treasuring Christ above all things, for the glory of God at all times. If you're interested, you can hear the message here.

Thankful

I have much to be thankful for in my life. I am thankful for my wife, my kids, my family, my friends, and most importantly my Savior, Jesus Christ. However, I also want to say as clearly as possible that I am extremely thankful for my new church family. We have been here for almost 3 months now, and the Lord has been overly gracious to me.

Last night we had our Thanksgiving Dinner together. They have done this every year for many years. However, this was a first for my family. In fact, this is the first Thanksgiving that we've been too far away to make it back 'home' if we wanted. I found myself thinking through the importance of realizing that Cypress Lake Baptist Church is our family. By God's grace, these are my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. I am overjoyed at what the Lord is doing in my life and I am truly thankful to call this my family of faith.

Our Mission

I posted this on the blog for our church, but thought I'd post it here as well.

This past Sunday evening I mentioned that I have been talking with the deacons about a new mission statement for our church. From the beginning, however, I have stated that we do not NEED a mission statement. What I mean by that is that we already know the calling that we have and the commissioning that we have from Christ. The clearest 'mission' of the church is found in the Great Commission. It is our mission to make disciples of all nations. However, I also stated with both the deacons and this past Sunday night that a good mission statement will help us to remain true to what we believe Christ has called us to do. With that being said, this is what I am recommending we embrace as the mission of CLBC:

We exist to make disciples of all nations, through treasuring Christ above all things, for the glory of God at all times.

I hope we will see to be true to what the Lord has called us to do.

I Love Fort Myers!

Palm trees, warm weather, the beach, and a ton of other things would attract many people to Southwest Florida. In fact, I must confess I love those things. I also love the fact that there are thousands of luxuries all around. There are restaurants all over the place, there are thousands of activities to do, and, have a I mentioned this, it feels great!

However, that is not what makes me love this area. As I travel around this town I realize how many people there are in need of Christ. I realize that we have a great opportunity to reach people with the gospel. I love this city because I believe Christ is at work here and means to use His people to do great things. With that being said, it's not simply this city. I love the fact that God has providentially placed me in Fort Myers, FL, but I also long to see all of Lee County and all of SWFL reached for the glory of God. I have heard that around 93% of Lee County is unchurched! That was perhaps the greatest statistic that drew my heart to come here. God is at work in this place. He means to use His people to proclaim the good news of Christ. He means to draw many people unto Himself. And through this, I am able to be here. I love Fort Myers, FL!

It's His Church!

I have heard several times over the years people talk about the church as though we can pick and choose what/who makes up the church. For instance, this past week I overheard a conversation between two men. One of the men was white while the other was black. They were talking about the difference between preaching in a 'white' church and a 'black' church. The conversation was friendly and both agreed there is more excitement in the 'black' church. However, as I listened (they were quite loud so it was really just about impossible not to listen) I wondered if the definition of the church was a correct definition.

What I mean by this is that the church is the church. The church is the bride of Christ composed of those who believe from every tribe and language and people and nation. I think we do a great injustice to try to say anything different. Some say they're white church, others say their black churches. Some say they're traditional while others are contemporary. Some are old churches (as in their members) while others are young churches. The list can go on and on and on. In fact, often times church 'experts' will tell you that you need to have a 'target group' that you are trying to reach.

I have a huge problem with this because IT IS HIS CHURCH! The target group is pretty clear to me. We are to go and make disciples of all nations. We are to seek to see those from every tribe and tongue and language and nation become followers of Christ. I understand language barriers. I do not understand how we can justify having different churches based on color.

I heard of someone who once stated they didn't want to go to two services with one being contemporary in style and the other traditional because it says the world watching us that we are not really united. Our preference of music is enough to divide us. I wonder, are we not stating the same thing when we make excuses for not worshipping together based on the color of skin? Are we not saying something like this, "We believe in Jesus. Jesus has reconciled us to the Father and to one another. We are united by faith in Christ and the fact that the Holy Spirit now dwells in each of us. However, our color of skin is stronger than that unity in Christ!" Maybe I'm wrong, but that conversation has been in my mind for several days now.

Beloved, the gospel is more than enough to unite us together. Does our practice show that truth or hinder that truth?

Studying Colossians

I have found the book of Colossians to be a great book over the years to teach when coming to a church. Paul covers several important truths in this book (as he does in every book!) that help to lay a foundation for many things to follow. When coming to Cypress Lake I had no intention of teaching through this book right away. However, I wanted to lay an important foundation for the place of the gospel in the life of the church. In Colossians 1:6 Paul tells the church that the gospel “is bearing fruit and growing.” I wanted our church to see from the beginning that the way in which we would see the church of the Lord Jesus Christ grow was through the proclamation and application of the gospel. I still find that truth to be extremely important and foundational for the church.

However, the following week I wanted to make sure that our people knew that not only does the gospel bear fruit and grow, but it is the responsibility of followers of Christ to as well. In Colossians 1:10, as Paul talks about his prayer for the church, he prays that they would “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” We, as the church, are also called to bear fruit and increase. This happens as we seek the Lord and seek to be His church. Christ has promised to build His church, and He has promised to lead His people. I hope that we will grow in grace and increase in our knowledge of God as the gospel goes forth bearing fruiting and growing.

With those two things being said and taught on Wednesday evenings, I decided I may as well go ahead and work through the book of Colossians. So far we have made it through Colossians 2:15. If you are in the area, we would love to have you come and grow in grace with us as we seek to work through this precious book on Wednesday nights together.

New Blog for CLBC

This blog is my personal blog. It may or may not reflect things about my church. With that being said, I have started a new blog for Cypress Lake Baptist Church. You can find it here.

A Book Recommendation

A while back I posted about a good friend of mine, Wil Owens. I have known Wil for many years now and can say with confidence that he's a man who pursues Christ and wants to see Christ's name exalted among the nations. You can check his blog out here. Also, I am very glad to point you to a book of his that has just been published. Wil is a great expositor of the Word, and this book is a collection of his sermons through Philippians. I haven't read it, but I've read a couple of other books by him, I've heard him preach many times (we've been overseas together and served together for 18 months with a church plant), so I can have confidence in recommending this book to you.

Minister of Mercy: The New Testament Deacon

This Sunday I plan to preach on the office of deacon in both my morning and evening sermons. The morning sermon will be out of Acts 6:1-7 while the evening sermon will actually be a call for all of us to follow Christ's example of serving others by laying down HIs life in Mark 10:42-45. We are coming up on recommending new deacons for the church, and I have this opportunity to look at this office from a Biblical perspective.

Having just arrived at Cypress Lake, I must say I already have enjoyed getting to know my deacons and spending time with them. I look forward to growing together with them for many years to come. I alos want to make sure I am helping to prepare our deacons to honor Christ with this office. I just ordered all of us the book, Minister of Mercy: The New Testament Deacon by Alexander Strauch. I've heard good things about this book, but I've never read it. I hope to learn much, and to be challenged with the deacons to serve our church well.

Grieving the Loss; Rejoicing in Christ

As I type this, we have just recently received good news, and then bad news. The good news came last Thursday night. My wife took a test at home that told us we were having our third child. This was a complete surprise to us. We hadn't planned on having a child at this time. However, we were overjoyed that the Lord had seen fit to grant us this blessing. However, on Monday morning that good news turned bad as I took my wife to the ER. We were soon told what we already knew, which was that the baby was gone. There were many emotions going on through that time, but I want to get to that in just a moment.

In the meantime, between the good and the bad news, I began preaching through the book of James with my church. The first sermon was James 1:1-4. In that text James says something that sounds good, but is very difficult to do. In verse two he writes, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds." I would love to say that when I meet trials of various kinds (some simple, everyday trials, others extremely difficult trials) that I do so joyfully. That is simply not the case often times. As I preached this sermon, however, I stated that trials were coming and we ought to prepare now for how we will face those trials. Little did I know that we were going to face a very difficult trial in less than 24 hours.

As I preached this text, I found myself thinking deeply about how I reacted through a tough trial a few years ago. It wasn't the loss of a baby, but it was still difficult. When I look back I do not think I counted it as joy. I do not think I was able to see the hand of God working through that trial at the time. I had friends who tried to point me to Christ through that time, but I do not think I listened well at all. This time I wanted it to be different. Based on my evening sermon from James 1:5-8 I prayed that the Lord would grant me wisdom through the trials that were to come. I believe He answered that prayer. However, back to the morning text, I stated in my sermon that the way in which we may face trials with joy is based on verses 3-4, "for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Perhaps my main emphasis from this was that God is not unaware of your trials. He is very aware and is still true to His promise that He will never leave nor forsake those who are His. And not only is He aware, and with those who are His, but He means to accomplish something through each and every trial. He means to complete something in our lives that will enable us to be more like Christ. He means to draw us to Him through the trials. So I stated that the only way we can face trials of various kinds joyfully is to know and truly believe that He is accomplishing something for our good and for His glory through every trial.

When 3:00 Monday morning came around, I was about to take my wife to the ER. I was afraid for my wife. I was afraid for my baby. But at the same time the Holy Spirit was gracious and brought to my mind what I had just preached the day before. I began immediately meditating on this text and the truth of what was said. When the news came that we had lost the baby, I began to grieve. I never knew what thousands of women/couples had gone through with a miscarriage. It's not easy. It's heart breaking. It's devastating. However, God is faithful.

Through the trial of that morning, and the few days that have come since, I have found myself at times crying in grief over the loss of my child. I have found myself extremely concerned for the health of my wife. But I've also been overjoyed in the midst of grief that the Lord has been with us. He is accomplishing something great through this trial. He is drawing my wife and I ever closer to Him. He is truly good and turns all things for good for those who belong to Him. I think, perhaps, I've finally felt what Paul did when he wrote that he was sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. We grieve the loss, but we rejoice in Christ.

Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. The Lord is faithful and good.