If you have ever been to a big conference or event, you know that they all have a certain air and feel to them. Conferences have a certain atmosphere that distinguishes them from the experience of reality. That is not to say that conferences are all fluff and contain no true substantive reality. However, it is easy to lose touch with reality when one is emersed in the excitement and buzz of a conference.

Think about it: hundreds or even thousands of people gathered for one main purpose, with powerful and energetic speakers, break out sessions, gifts, drawings, resources, ideas, excitement, ingenuity, innovation, energy lots of energy!

Then go home after the conference and BOOM! Stark contrast at home to what the conference was. And if one is not careful to realize that the conference atmosphere was not a true and accurate reflection of reality, one is left in utter discouragement, disappointment, and can easily lose hope and fail miserably due to unrealistic and exaggerated expectations.

Why aren’t things better? Why can’t they be like the conference? The conference was perfect. Yeah, but it was strategically planned that way. It was the best of the best. Filled with good things and true things; but not the most accurate reality to what awaits at home. At least not in every way.

And so I went in to this Worship God 2009 conference with my best attempt to be aware of the fog and smoke. I wanted to enjoy the fog and lights while I could; to learn from it, be changed by it and pass it to others. But also to sift through the fog to the clarity of what the air is really like. Otherwise when I hope and expect for this fog to follow me home, chances are I’ll be very upset.

Now I am also aware that there is cause to expect big because God is big! However like Bob Kauflin encouraged us, don’t go home now and jump in with both feet saying, “alright, everything’s gotta change, now”! But to take a few weeks to let the fog settle a bit, like the morning dew. Let the ground of our hearts be wet a bit till the Sun can dry it out and we can see what is really there. What is left. What remains. Then we can properly assess how to appropriate and filter and apply what we have learned and been changed by.

So while there is a very tempting and burning desire in me to take my conference “experience” and transformation and not only appropriate it all at home immediately, I must have wisdom and patience and humility and care enough to say, “just wait Jonathan, just wait”. Wait and see. See what and how God wants you to inform your home with what you have been given away. Trust in Him and His sovereign timing and working.

So I encourage all who can relate to this. Don’t have unrealistic expectations. Don’t have low unfaithful doubts in God’s supernatural nature either. Be balanced. Ask God and wait. Prepare and trust His Spirit.

The fog will settle; the smoke will clear; the air will clear. Then I can see clearly enough to assess where I am, what I have, where I have been, and thus where I can go and how I can get there. This gives me much joy and hope. This lifts me up and takes pressure off of me. This places my trust in God and His good wisdom and sovereignty.

I can’t wait to, well, wait!

One Word: Thabiti Anyabwile just socked one to Satan, Jesus style!

Pastor Thabiti, whom I’ve grown to love the last few years through his shared passions with Mark Dever and his blog Pure Church, brought it big time this morning!

Of course, like the rest of us, he was freshly renewed with joy after hearing Shai Linne do his beautiful lyrical theology. It was, uh, awesome! Who would’ve thought that one could enter into worship with hip-hop. Joshua was even raising his hands during the triune praise song.

Then Shai Linne helped lead worship with some weighty and classic hymns. He was humble and a joy to watch. It brought much grace seeing him step down from his gifts to humbly lead us.

Thanks Shai and Deejay Essence (josh) also for giving us 12 minutes of an interview. That was a huge blessing just hearing their heart in a more private, intimate setting. I will premier that to church in the ‘Boro first and then upload it to YouTube for enjoyment and edification.

* Anyway, back to Pastor Thabiti. He ripped us a new one this morning. Truly. I’ve never heard (that I’m aware of), apart from my pastor (Pastor Rob Wilkerson), anyone ever say that our salvation and status in Christ was to be primarily understood in the context of the local church. People have said things close to that, but never to that degree or exaltation. In other words, I cannot understand my relationship to Christ apart from my membership and involvement in the local church as an expression of the universal body of Christ.

Typically, people are so used to the independent terminology of “My savior and my Lord and My treasure” or “my sanctification, my gifts, my church, etc.”. But what I’ve seen these last several years and more with Pastor Rob (praise God for him) and now people like Pastor Thabiti, Mark Dever, and others is that my individual salvation is actually corporate. Yes, God elected me, Jesus redeemed me, and the Holy Spirit regenerates me. But I can’t forget too quickly that God elected a people, redeemed a people, and the Holy Spirit regenerates a people. They are called the church. The bride of Christ.

Enter, Thabiti!

———————————-Sermon Notes————————————-

August 7th

Thabiti Anyabwile

The Church of Worship

Common misconceptions of the church:

• Divisive
• a club

Some emphasize one aspect of the church:

• local church —> visible
• universal church —> invisible

Question: Does local church membership/involvement matter to you? If not, why?

Do you see any connection between your spiritual life and your local assembly?

*Definitions

church = gathering of a called out, covenant community of people

worship = all of life

Thabiti’s Thesis: The local church and our involvement is essential to our growth.

Local church involvement is essential/critical for two reasons:

1. souls prosper individually
2. churches prosper corporately

*Negative way to state it: If membership in a local church is NOT central/essential to your spiritual life, then you may be starving imperceptibly!

Why should we love the church?

I.  We should love the church because it is God’s workmanship.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

It is God who composes the church.

The Trinitarian composition of the church:

1. Jesus – vs. 12
2. the Spirit – vs.13
3. God the Father – vs. 18,24

The word “member” is an inherently Christological word. The church owns it. Culture has stolen it and used it for the Lion’s club. We need to claim and reclaim it. It is uniquely Christian.

Indictments on God’s Church:

The evidences of our own fall come as indictments against God.

Similarly, in Christian counterpart, we often have a negative view of the church.

What does the world say when it sees the church? What will they say?

Ephesians 3:6-10 “manifold wisdom”

II.  We need to love the church because we need the church.

Why build your life around the covenant people of a local church?

Answer: Because we need to be cared for. 1 Corinthians 12:24

*Danger: those who think they can stand independent of the church.

Preferences are a danger as well. Christian love must go over the bounds of natural affinity.

*Is it our personal goal as members to show equal care/concern for members? We need an entire church to care for us, for our souls.

III.  We love the church because we need to be equipped and mature in the local church.

Ephesians 4:1-16

Paul’s emphasis: vs. 11&12 focus on the equipping nature of the church for the work of ministry

World: build oneself up alone

Church: build up by another, by one another

*One CANNOT mature in Christ apart or separate from the local church; it’s impossible!

decapitated – separating the head from the body

decorpulated (as per DeYoung and Kluck) – separating the body from the head; cutting off the body from the head

The local church must remain attached to its head.

IV.  We love the church because we need God’s grace.

1 Peter 4:10 administering God’s grace to others

*If we worship regularly, we won’t depent so much on Sundays to fill up our soul with the body.

We must be cultivating relationships of care to continually impart grace, throughout the week.

V.  We love the church because we need God’s love.

1 John 4:19-21

John 13:34-35

Final quote:

*”To reject the church is spiritual suicide, to take your own spiritual life” – Thabiti Anyabwile

One Word: I’m not sure who Jeff Purswell is, but that little guy packs a punch of powerful providential proofs of our pronounced and precious Priest and of our parched and pathetic panting hearts!

Jeff started with a very sensitive appeal of empathy for those worship leaders (me) who come to big conferences like this with big worship, big names, big preachers, big buildings, big everything and have the reality of small to go home too.

Whew, thank God for Jeff’s timely encouragement. I was feeling very weary this whole trip until Jeff opened his mouth. His love, and kindness, and prophetic encouragement to those of us who feel that way was refreshing, liberating, and inspiring to say the least.

Jeff’s message was based out of Hebrews 10:19-26. He spent his time persuading us on the theology of worship, why we worship, and what happens during worship.

———————————————-Sermon Notes—————————————

August 6th

Jeff Purswell

The Leaders of Worship

Text: Hebrews 10:19-26

Theology always precedes methodology; doctrine always informs practice.

Hebrews 10:26 – Assumes that the body of Christ will gather corporately.

Three Reasons Why We Gather

• We gather to encounter God.  Hebrews 10:19-26

The local church is one authentic manifestation of the entire church of God. This is the reality of New Covenant worship.

Worship leaders: what are you more aware of on Sunday mornings? Your participation and role in worship or the presence of God?

We should come to intimately know that we are before the presence of God, with the heavens rejoicing in awe and saints of old worshipping every Sunday!

This leads to a higher view of Sunday, not as the most holiest day, but as a day where something miraculous may take place.

• We gather to respond to God.

All true worship is a response to God revealing Himself, by His intiative.

There is no signficance independent of God.

Preaching is the center of our worship on Sundays because it is when we hear from God.

*Preaching is God speaking to us; worship is our reaction to His word.

Understanding that worship is a response to God protects us from:

Formalism = obsession with the manner of worship

Emotionalism = obsession with the experience of worship

You know what you are doing when you begin to focus on the experience and feelings of worship over God?

*You worship worship! (ouch, that hurts Jeff!)

Legalism = obsession with the desire to obtain favor with God through our worship

Don’t substitute worship for Christ! (Worship is not the Gospel, God is! Worship is a response to hearing the Gospel!)

Worship is not entering the presence of God, Jesus is! Worship is a response to the cross of Christ!

Worship leaders can create worship by expanding the people’s perception of God’s greatness and glory.

• We gather to strengthen each other for the glory of God.

Hebrews 10:24-25

Worship must edify!

Appeal to worship leaders and pastors:

*Be more aware of the God you worship than your participation in corporate worship!

One Word: Don Whitney is a breath of fresh air; or shall I say a cup of fresh water?

Don Whitney is a professor of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Society, so he comes with a rich tradition of reformed history. And he is perhaps best known for his work done on the spiritual disciplines.

http://biblicalspirituality.com/

Don’s topic,  Do You Thirst for God, is taken from his popular book “Ten Questions to Diagnose your Spiritual Health”. I highly recommend getting this book. I bought a copy for myself/church and have already paroused the chapters. It will be a refreshing and piercing encouragement and assessment of my spiritual growth. Am I stagnant like the Dead Sea? Or am I raging like the white rapids of Chattahoochee River?

You can read the whole chapter, Do You Thirst for God, online and get notes from there. But I will also post my notes and thoughts below to aid anything Don said.

Bottom line: In our thirsting for God, we are satisfied and therefore long and thirst for more of God. This is good proof that our souls are indeed growing toward holy love for Jesus Christ.

————————–Favorites————————————–

Three Kinds of Spiritual Thirst:

1. The Thirst of the Empty Soul – the natural man who is devoid of God
2. The Thirst of the Dry Soul – the one who has tasted God and knows of its satisfaction but has felt a loss of His presence.
3. Why is the sould arrid? a) Too much drink from the wrong rivers, b) God’s deserts and withdraws a conscientious sense of His presence, however this is only a perceived withdrawal, c) Physical fatigue leads to spiritual fatigue.
4. The Thirst of the Satisfied Soul – thirsts because He is satisfied and therefore craves more; satisfied in Christ, thirsty still!

“A constant thirsting of God is a sign of soul growth; a sense of His withdrawal is good spiritual discernment for God’s sanctifying work.”

“How good is God to make man’s end the happiness in God’s being happy in God” – Jonathan Edwards

My Reaction (My sermon notes of Piper below)

One Word: If God arrested my heart last night with a tough Piper cuff, then this morning He threw me in a deep, radiant cell and imprisoned me in the bondage of a love for His self-exalting glory!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist again.

Piper left us, or me rather, hanging on the edge of a theological, problematic cliff: Is God’s passionate pursuit of His self-exaltation and glory unloving? And is our own pursuit of personal joy and exultation in God’s self-exaltation selfish?

Piper’s answer last night: NO!

This morning, he took us farther down the rabbit hole, revealing to us in his typical Piperesque-way that indeed this is true. In fact, he accurately explained how not only is this seemingly paradoxical truth logical and biblical, but it is glorious and necessary and a demand and right of God and a need of man.

Piper not only answered my questions from last night, but enlightened the darkness of my confusion over this seeming paradox, applied it to my heart and led me to deep worship and embrace of it.

For that I am eternally grateful for John Piper and must say, glory to God!

———————————————-Sermon Notes———————————————-

August 6th, General Session 2

John Piper, The Heart of Worship

Texts: John 17, 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, Matthew 15:8, Philippians 1:19-21 and 3:7-8

I.  Recap from last night

God’s self-exaltation is love!

Worship leaders/pastors: Appeal to your people to glory in God’s God-centeredness!

A.  John 17 – The High Priestly Prayer

B.  Assumption: John 17 prayer is an act of love from Jesus.

vs. 1 – “Father, glorify your son”

C.  Question: Isn’t this an odd way to begin a prayer for saints? This is a prayer that is toward the care and unity of His sheep, and He begins the first 5 verses with a desire to be glorified by His Father.

1st 5 verses are a prayer for His own glory.

D.  The heart and essence of His love for us is His own glory being exalted.

Why? Verse 24 explains: “…so that they may see my glory”.

*Worship has the potential to expose people for what they were made for.

E.  2 Corinthians 4:4-6

1.  What does Satan not want us to see here?

2 Corinthians 4:4 “the light of the Gospel of the glory of God, who is the image of God.”

2.  What does God, with divine engagement, enable us to see?

2 Corinthians 4:6 “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”

3.  Together, vs. 4 & 6 show how God enables our hearts to see spiritual light.

II.  Heart of Worship

* We must join God in the magnification of His glory.

III.  Question: What experience of the heart magnifies the greatness of God, and produces acts to display God’s value?

A.  Precursor to this Question: Why ask this question Piper?

B.  Answer

1.  Matthew 15:8 (crucial passage for worship leaders/pastors)

honor me with their lips

hearts are far from me

therefore: vanity, emptiness

2.  The New Testament  is stunningly silent about forms of worship. The Old Testament is very loud and detailed on forms of worship.

The Old Testament use of the word worship is very common however the New Testament use of it is nearly absent altogether.

3.  Why is it nearly gone in the New Testament?

Because in the OT God is worshipped in certain places; in the NT Jesus is worshipped at His feet and after His ascension He is worshipped anywhere anytime!

IV.  Answer to the Question of what experience: Being satisfied with God/Christ/all that God is for us in Christ.

The experience of satisfaction of all that God is for us in Christ.

V.  Biblical Support

1.  Philippians 1:19-21 [Piper's favorite place to defend this]

How will Paul honor/magnify Christ in His body?

The word “for” tells us:

vs. 21 “for to live is Christ, to die is gain”

life (vs. 20) : live (vs. 21) as death (vs. 20) : die (vs. 21)

All for Paul equals one thing: GAIN

At the moment of experiencing gain at death, Christ is magnified.

Christian Hedonism is typically out of our control. This is why most people (atheists, religious people, spiritual people) want a religion they can manage. Christian Hedonism requires too little work and more reliance on another.

2.  To live is Christ. What does this mean?

Philippians 3:7-8

vs. 7 counted all gain as loss for the sake of Christ

vs. 8 everything as rubbish, lose all to gain Christ

Paul simultaneously couts all his gain as loss for Christ, and counts everything as rubbish to gain Christ.

Gain  = loss for Christ

lose all = gain Christ

It’s all for Christ!

V.  Application

Four Implications of Christian Hedonism

1.  If God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him, then the pursuit of joy is not an option but a mandate!

We are duty-bound to pursue our own joy.

A popular philosophy exists today: pursuing some type of benefit from a good act corrupts the act. (held usually by Immanuel Kant)

Piper: This is a deadly opiate to corporate worship and preaches to the people that the pursuit of their joy is defective and wrong.

*Problem: Pastors/leaders who scold their people to stop coming to worship to gain and get but rather to give because getting and gaining is very selfish.

BIG WHOOPS TO ME ON THIS ONE! I’M GUILTY!

Piper: Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! You can’t give enough to God. Come on Sunday completely empty cause you don’t have much to offer, but a lot to gain:

joy, satisfaction, faith, love, truth, glory, etc.

*Plea* Get out of their minds the duty of serving and substitute it with the joy of pursuing joy in God!

Psalm 42 – “as the deer pants for the water…”; Piper: The deer offers nothing to the stream, nothing. It’s all gain from the stream!

*Pursuing satisfaction in Him is an obligation, not a threat to one’s ethics.

2.  This is the core of worship, and makes it radically God-centered!

It appears very me-centered: pursue my glory, my joy, get my happiness, my satisfaction, my, my my, me, me, me!

But it’s not. Why?

Example from Piper:

Piper buys roses for his wife’s anniversary. She opens the door and says, “Oh John, you shouldn’t have. Why did you?”.

Scenario 1: “Because it’s my duty as your husband, here.”

Scenario 2: “I couldn’t help myself. Nothing makes me happier than loving you.”

The difference is one is duty and obligation, the other is an irresistable pursuit of joy in exulting in another.

3.  Protects worship as an end in itself rather than a means to another end.

Too often worship leaders/pastors use worship for…

evangelism, parenting, teaching, etc.

When the delight goes from end to means it’s not real anymore. It’s not genuine.

Christ is magnified in our worship as an end, not a means.

4.  Explains/gives rise to how all of life and corporate gathering of saints are both worship.

Matthew 5:16 & Romans 12:1-2

good deeds            body as a living sacrifice

so that God                     as a spiritual act of worship

gets the glory

Matthew 5:11-16

vs. 12 – Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great…

*Worship is not vain and love is real when God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him!

My Intro Thoughts (My sermon notes after)

One word: God just pierced me deep in the heart with a sharp Piper stick!

John Piper that is. Sorry, one word couldn’t quite cut it this time.

All you critics and fans alike of John Piper can both be satisfied tonight, for Pastor John laid out for us what he lays out best: our ultimate happiness in God’s being God!

It was as if I’d never heard it a thousand times and now heard it for the first time. You know, that Piper lingo that is the passionate cry of Desiring God and Bethlehem Baptist Church: that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him! This time it was different. This time, it was more personal. This time, Piper’s words rang like a loud, noisy gong in my ear saying, “embrace this, love this, worship this, know it and believe it for this is what you were made to love!”

Of course I am speaking of just that: that my ultimate exultation must be an exulting in God’s exaltation of Himself. In other words, I exult in exalting God’s exaltation of Himself!

The worship time through music? Whoa!

When we sang Devon Kauflin’s “Hallelujah, Jesus is all I have”, I felt like Paul being lifted up to the third heaven. It was incredibly powerful and very God-distracting.

—————————-Sermon Notes————————————–

August 5th

Session 1: John Piper, The God of Worship

Psalm 145 “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised…”

Secular mindset = begins and ends with man; my rights and expectations are the measure of all things in this world

The secular mindset is referred to in scripture as “the mind of the flesh” (Rom 8:6) and also the “natural man”, “carnal man”, and every child and person born is by nature hostile to God.

A transformed mindset is what fundamentally happens in the new birth, regeneration.

There are still fragments of this secular mindset left in the child of God. Meaning that both mindsets now compete and are at war with each other.

Biblical Mindset = begins and ends with God; His rights and goals; He is the center, the ground, the starting place; everything is measured and defined by Him.

We need to pause and reflect more often on things like the existence of God: He is there and absolute, He simply is (I am).

Jonathan Edwards, in “The Nature of Virtue”, said that embracing all things without God makes one infinitely parochial. God is infinitely massive.

The world and biblical mindsets define problems differently.

*Key Question: What is the basic riddle of the universe?

Answer 1: Is it to solve man’s problem of losing his right to self-determination or suffering need?

Answer 2: Is it so that God can display His glorious and majestic perfection?

*The collision between the secular and biblical mindset is most clearly seen at WORSHIP!

Example: Michael Prowse, London Times asked how God could require worship and how He could demand adoration without being arrogant and a megalomaniac?

Piper’s Response: What if God were the most admirable being in the universe, and then sent His son to die for us? Is that not worthy of adoration? Is that not loving?

Answering this riddle is determined by one’s view of the cross: Is your view of the cross that God was making much of us or that God was making much of Himself, His glory and righteousness?

Text: Romans 3:25-27

Both the secular and biblical mindset battle around the God-centeredness of God at the cross.

1. What is the basic problem God is solving in Romans 3:25-27?

Rom 3:25 – “to show His righteousness”; to vindicate Himself

Did Christ die for us or for God?

a) If He is to die for us He…

b) must die for Himself

2.  What created this problem (that His righteousness needed to be shown)?

Rom 3:25 – “passed over former sins”

The world cares not that God is forgiving.

For Paul: Forgiveness of sins and passing over sins was the biggest problem in the universe! Huge!

Paul had the order right:

First God must be vindicated. Second, this vindication necessarily leads to the rescue of sinners.

Example of Passing over sins: White House, terrorist plot to kill President and cabinet, fails, go to court, they apologize, judge lets them go.

Example of Passing over sins: 2 Samuel 12:9 David committs adultery (Bathsheba) and murder (Uriah). Nathan confronts him, David confesses and repents, Nathan declares David forgiven and clean.

What? We wouldn’t say Yes or Amen to that. Uriah’s dad and Bathsheba’s mom would not have said “Yes!”. No! They would have screamed in outrage, “No, No Nathan! You can’t say that. You can’t say He is forgiven. How can he be forgiven?”

But the world hasn”t a clue. They never charge God with injustice at forgiving sinners and letting them go. Never.

3.  Why is passing over sins a problem? What is the real issue?

Rom 3:23 – “all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.”

*”All sin is an exchange of God for images or prefering anything above the glory of God” – Piper

4.  Problem: Passing over sins calls God’s righteousness into question.

Because now it appears that God agrees with a low value of His glory – making Him unrighteous.

5.  Solution: to be both just and the justifier by the death of His son on the cross.

Nobody is ever wronged by God, nobody, ever!

He chose to do it this way, to crush His only Son!

People know the benefits of the cross, but do they know the cause and ground of those benefits? The vindication of God’s glory?

6.  Can God’s design to exalt Himself, magnify His glory….be love?

Secular mindset and christian thinkers alike say “No, that is not loving!”

God’s self-exaltation doesn’t sound loving at all!

NPR Interview with Eric Reese on “An American Gospel” – He charges Jesus as a egomaniac for wanting worship.

* Question: Why is Jesus not a megalomaniac?

* Answer (Piper): This is love because the only eternal happiness for man is a happiness focused on the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).

We must exalt God and exult in God.

*Worship happens when exalting God results in my exultation in God.

Examination time: What is your starting point of worship?

We morph the cross into boosting our self-esteem.

The question is, is the cross about making much of me or making much of God?

Piper’s Appeal:

I want you to be freed from futile, foolish, suicidal, secular mindset of this world that begins with man.

“When God’s exaltation of God at the cross is your joy, it will never fail!” – Piper

Okay so my pastor talked me into live blogging the Sovereign Grace Worship God conference this year.

Here’s how I’ll do it in typical Timmy Brister-like fashion: I will post the latest happenings, sermon notes, outlines and heart reactions from all the sessions with John Piper, Thabiti Anyabwile, C.J. Mahaney, Jeff Purswell, and Bob Kauflin, notes from all of the breakout sessions that I attend, and my personal observations and heart’s reflections of the conference.

First post will be tomorrow night. I look forward to serving you guys and letting you experience this with me. Especially my brothers and sisters in Christ (and my beautiful wife allie and daugther grace) back home in Statesboro, Georgia. Mad props (is that right?) to church in the ‘Boro!

Ladies and gentlemen, the I’s have it.

I was reading an article on “How to Prevent A Church Split, Part 1″ and was brought to specific attention to two of the warning signs of church splits:

• Low concern for the church qua church. We live in a Christian era that stresses the individual like no era before it. Most people think Christianity is about me and “my personal relationship with Jesus.” That littly phrase, “my personal,” acting as a kind of double possessive, is deadly to the body. And it’s often compounded by the next warning signal.

• Self-interests dominate group interests. If life is all about “my personal relationship” then I’m likely to be quite self-seeking. I want to be stimulated. I want to be served. I want my preferences met. I… I… I… till there is no “we” left. And where that exists, there will be little concern–certainly not ultimate concern–for the needs and mission of the larger group, the church.

I couldn’t agree more. I have noticed this trend more in the last 2 years of my life than ever before. Even in pockets where revival has broken out and a spirit of self-denial and fervent love for the saints has broken in, a subtle cloud of selfishness and indepence still looms like a poisonous mushroom cloud.

So I would ride on the back of the above author’s points and simply say this: to kill the chance of a church flee,

kill the I’s and resurrect the We!

In order to do this, your theological foundation, especially your view of the church, needs to be set right. In sum, your view of salvation can’t be primarily one of individualistic and personal, but rather that of corporate and shared.

Jesus Christ died for “sinners”, not a sinner. He layed down His life for “the sheep”, not a sheep. He was a “a friend of sinners” not just one. Christ gave His life for the church, not one man. He was willing to suffer and die so that out of every tribe, tongue and nation peoples would come to know Him and He could have a people to call His own; not a person.

Yes He saves us individually, but also to place us in a larger body of people. We are saved into the church. We are rescued into a body of people. We are brought from the dead with other dead into life with other alive people.

Our theology of salvation must be primarily viewed as a part of the body of Christ, Christ being the head. It’s not about one member, but about the body representing the head. Christ died to purchase for Himself a body, not one arm or a leg. A head couldn’t make it with just a foot or an ear. It needs the whole body.

So the sooner a local church murders the “I” terminology and the “my personal Savior” and “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” and instead adopts the “We, Us, Our, Let’s” terminology and the “church, body”, the sooner it can begin to head towards lasting unity.

Believing Jesus is your personal Savior is not wrong; only when viewed as primary and forget that He has saved you as part of a bigger body of people. Also personal revival is key too. I am not suggesting that any sense of individualism in our relationship to Jesus Christ is unbiblical or ungodly even. Rather, we must find our personal relationship to Christ primarily as viewed through our position in the local body and the universal body of Jesus Christ, the church!

John the Baptist and Jesus both sought out seclusion on many occasions to seek the Lord in prayer, fasting, and the Word. Seeking out the wilderness is often key in being sanctified. But if the wilderness is left at the expense of the town, something is seriously awry.

The greatest display on earth of an individual’s redemption must be shown in the context of a local body of believers. No such thing as hermit-Christianity. The church is a community of believers. No cavern dwelling, bottom dwellers. Only for a season. But the year must be lived in and around others.

This means confessing sins, worship, fellowship, care, evangelism, prayer, bible study, fasting, and more are to be done together, as a body. The body can’t repent for the individual, but I would go so far as to argue that without a primary focus on the body as our role in Christ, the individual can’t repent successfully.

Our sanctification comes individually only as much as we live and breathe corporately in the church.

Your Savior died for sinners. Don’t be selfish with your redemption.

Visit the wilderness often, but make your home the church. Dwell there. For in the church is where you will truly find your head, Jesus Christ!

Who would ever claim that the yoke Jesus wore was easy or that the burdens He carried were light? Surely the world can even see, historically and humanly, that Jesus suffered greatly, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

So how is it that Jesus can offer true rest in Matthew 11:29:

“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”.

Uh, wait a minute, take YOUR yoke upon myself? Your yoke Jesus? You mean the one that you carried? The yoke of self-denial, temptation fighting, sin-killing, disciple making, persecution, rejection, mocking and death? How is that rest? How is that going to relieve the toil from carrying my own burdens and weariness?

To which Jesus responds: “learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart”. Scripture says that Jesus “did not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering flax”. That He was the most humble man. That He was very meek. How could one with a yoke that heavy be so gentle? Probably because the weight of it humbled Him under His Father. He is God, and He carried the weight of the universe on His shoulders. Yet He was lowly in heart.

Again, how can we live up to that high standard of lowliness? First He offers us rest. Then He says that in order to get that rest, is to come to Him and take His yoke upon our own shoulders. To learn from Him and become gentle and lowly like He is. So to receive rest for our souls and relief from our burdens, we must come to Jesus, place His heavy yoke upon us, then become as gentle as He is.

Whoa! How can this be rest? Sounds like a lot of work.

Thankfully, Jesus tells us. “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”.

This means we can not only rest assure that He has accomplished the work for us needed to experience the Father’s love and grace, but also that we can stop our vain labor which causes heavy burdens in exchange for true rest. A rest that requires Christ-like work toward humility, gentleness, cross-bearing, and day after day of grace upon grace to fulfill the mission He has called us to.

Are you burdened, heavy laden, and weary? Come to Jesus. You can stop laboring in vain and start laboring for a purpose. You can rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross by resting in Him and living like Him and for Him.