Harvest Barrie

I know God’s will for me

There’s a ton of confusion over God’s revealed will versus his concealed will. I have a suspicion that if we paid closer attention to matters of his revealed will (what we already clearly know he requires of us), we would have far fewer issues with his concealed will (who should I marry? where should I live? what kind of shaving cream should I use?)

As Paul concludes his first letter to the Thessalonians, he fires off a bunch of final instructions to his readers saying, “This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” As our time in 1 Thessalonians concludes we’re intent on confirming that the people we prove to be are people who know God’s will for us and are living it out.

But lest anyone be disappointed because they don’t come away knowing who their future spouse is to be, this is about God’s clearly revealed will.  These are the things we ought to be doing no matter where we work, what school we attend or who we’re married to.

Take some time to read through 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 for Sunday and pray that God will indeed bring us to a greater place of obedience and blessing as we prove ourselves to truly be his followers.

See you Sunday,

Todd

Where’s a good plumber when you need one?

It's been a full week. Going into it I knew it was already a week with a full calendar. Then some family stuff came up, the car had an unexpected repair and the week was full, full, full.  And by “full” I mean busy though I’m not overly fond of that word. I was just running from here to there with little time for other things that I want my life to be about: time to pause, reflect…think. I know that’s a challenge for anyone, but most of you who are reading this expect me to have something coherent and impactful to say on Sunday morning. And so, I need my mental faculties to be flowing. And I find that such seasons of busyness that invariably come up from time to time can lead to a genuine brain clog. I just can’t think about anything other than the things I have done and have yet to do. I am preoccupied with the fifteen things I have to do today and tomorrow. There’s no time to think.

There’s a clog and I need a brain plumber. There’s so much stuff in my head, I can't think about other things…important things. Essential things.

I recently led our small group in a study of Chip Ingram’s book, Good to Great in God’s Eyes. One chapter was titled “Think Great Thoughts” and among the great thoughts we could possible think about is the one we’ll look at together this Sunday in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11…Jesus is coming again. And as much as that is an amazing and encouraging thought, I was simply having trouble getting my head around it this week.

So I took some time to get quiet and allow a particular song to push that clog out. It is one we’ll be singing this Sunday morning in worship and again at our concert of prayer in the evening.  It is a beautiful and amazing song based on Revelation 4 where the Apostle John wrote this account of his vision of heaven,

After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
                  And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
 
                  “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
                                    who was and is and is to come!”
 
                   And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
 
                  “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
                                    to receive glory and honor and power,
                  for you created all things,
                                    and by your will they existed and were created.”

 
Here's the song:

As I read this and hear the song, I begin to understand that there is no possibility of being distracted, clogged or whatever we would call it if we were actually in the presence of the Lord. There is no greater thought. No greater preoccupation for our lives. There is no one more awesome or more worthy of our attention. His name is Jesus Christ.  But I’m not there yet. I’m here facing all the struggles, distractions and busyness of life on planet earth.

So I must grasp for moments when I get it. I can choose to shut off the TV, close down the Internet, shut myself in a room. I can take some discretionary things off of my calendar and think these great thoughts instead…

Jesus Christ is the creator of all things. In him all things consist and hold together. It is this Jesus who came in human flesh and dwelt among us. It is Jesus who showed us the way, who made the way, who is the way to an abundant life here and eternal life hereafter. It is Jesus who provided us the perfect example that we should follow him.  It is Jesus who opened not his mouth in defense though he was falsely accused and brutally mistreated by those whom he loved and came to save. This Jesus submitted himself to a cruel death though he was perfect and sinless and more than powerful enough to stop it. He took on our guilt and shame and became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. This Jesus died and was buried. And he was gloriously resurrected to new life having conquered sin and death and thereby providing the means by which we can be reconciled to God. This Jesus is alive! He ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of the throne on high. And Jesus gave us the promised Holy Spirit as a guarantee of what is to come. The Spirit is our helper, our comforter, and the one who comes alongside us until the day Jesus comes again to take us with him and to be with him forever.   

It is that thought that must consume me. With everything I know about Jesus, the thought that he is coming back is the greatest of all because everything else in redemptive history drives to this magnificent conclusion…“and so we will ever be with the LORD!” Oh let me think that thought throughout today! Let me think of nothing else.  Let that thought alter everything about my day…my attitudes, my words, my actions.

Paul gave his readers in Thessalonica these words of encouragement and assurance as he spoke to them about the end of the age and the coming of the Lord, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.” 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 ESV.

We’ll take a run at hearing what God has for us as we gather as the church on Sunday morning. Have your Bibles and hearts open to receiving that, and be sure to get the clogs in your brain cleared so nothing gets in the way of us fully grasping that Jesus is coming again.
 
See you Sunday.
 
Todd

Death. Grief. Hope.

It was 1976. I was twelve years old and my Nanny had just died. She loved Jesus, though at the time, no one else in our extended family was the least bit interested in him. Her funeral service was unlike anything our family had seen or heard before. There was grief at her loss, but the people leading the service exuded love and found hope in Christ. My grandmother had been “promoted to glory” in the words of the Salvation Army officer who led the service. For these people of faith, death gave way to hope. What our family saw in these people was something they themselves did not know.

I didn’t actually get to go to the funeral. None of the grandkids did. Our family was steeped in sorrow and fear. Superstitions surrounding grief and who could handle it (evidently not the children) meant that we didn’t get to deal with the death in a proper way and bring closure to our relationship with Nanny. For some months afterward I had nightmares of her calling to me but always being just out of reach.

Looking back all these years later, two things are clear to me from that experience. First, it is possible to both grieve and to have hope. And second, most people don’t know this and have never experienced it.

In Genesis 2:17 God lets Adam and Eve know that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was off limits. He said to them, “In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” Of course, if they had stayed away from it, they would have enjoyed eternal life and been free of death and of grief.  After they sinned and ate from that tree, God cursed them. The most devastating and tragic consequence of their sinful choice was death.  God said to Adam words that are spoken at most funerals to this day, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return”.

The stories of the Bible are actually one story. From that opening scene in the Garden of Eden, the narrative takes us through all of the tragedies of life and the sin-filled realties we face to find redemption. The story is about reversing that curse. It is about eliminating death. In the final scene in the final book of the Bible we read this, “Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore” (Revelation 21:4).

Until that great day, we are here experiencing the effects of sin and death. For those who do not know Jesus Christ, the whole thing is about loss, mourning, crying, pain, heartache, sorrow. Attempts to paint death in a positive light are hollow at best. Despite assurances from well-meaning loved ones and misguided ministers, too many are left with doubts. They may talk of hope, but they don’t really have any.

Evidently the new believers in Thessalonica were struggling too, so Paul wrote some of the most comforting words in the entire New Testament to allay their fears and bring comfort in the midst of death. There’s no denial of the grief…we should grieve. But for the follower of Christ who looks forward to the day when, “death shall be no more” it is a different experience altogether. And like it was for our family all those years ago when my Nanny died, the way we handle grief should catch the attention of unbelievers who don’t have this hope.

The postscript to the story is salvation coming to our family. I didn’t go to that funeral, but of course, my mom did. Within mere months of that funeral service our family of four was in the midst of a major crisis. The turmoil had mom looking for help. She remembered the love, faith and hope that she found in the people who led that funeral.  And she went to where she knew she’d find the same kind of people. It wasn’t long after that our family heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and mom, dad and I all became Christ-followers.

The difference for us was that these people grieved, but “not as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

We’ll be taking a careful look at our understanding of death, grief and hope in this week’s message in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  Paul says, “Comfort one another with these words.” I hope to do just that for you.

See you Sunday.

Todd

The Forgotten Month

In some ways November is almost like the forgotten month for me. Not quite winter. The leaves are all gone so it is too late to really be fall. October has Thanksgiving. December has Christmas. November is just the month in between. In September we have the start of school, June marks the end of it and the start of summer.  July and August are amazing for sooooo many reasons. April and May mark the start of spring. March has the weeklong break. January is about a fresh start. And lonely little February is distinctive in its own way. But November? No one pays it much mind.

But I’m finding November to be quite full and eventful. First, there’s the Movember thing, which is simply fun and a great way to raise some awareness and some dough for prostate cancer research. If you haven’t yet made a donation or joined the team, check it out here.

And then there’s Remembrance Day. We closed our office for the morning on November 11 and, as a staff team, led a charge of more than two dozen who went into the crowd post-service to hand out $5 Timmies cards. We were met with tears of gratitude and many surprised looks.  One veteran who is scheduled for surgery next week even asked for prayer on the spot!  It was a great morning of expressing our love to our military personnel and veterans.

And that love is exactly what we want to be talking about and living out every single day of this month. November is great because it is the month we have right in front of us right now.  With October behind us and before the nonsense of December gets rocking, we have November!

What are you going to do with the 19 days of November that are left? How will you use them? One way, of course, is to spend a couple of them with the church hearing the Word and worshipping together. One of those days is coming up this Sunday.

As we gather this Sunday as the church, we will be in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 looking again at how to love each other. The people we prove to be are people who “love one another”.  This is pleasing in God’s sight and brings about amazing impact in those who do not yet know Jesus Christ.

Let’s make this November the greatest of all months. Let’s commit in an unusual and extraordinary way to genuinely love God, each other and all.

See you Sunday,

Todd

PG-13

I remember hearing my friend and fellow senior pastor Carey Nieuwhof over at Connexus Community Church identify a series of messages he preached as having a PG-13 rating.  They came with a “director’s warning” about the content so parents could appropriately prepare their children (or themselves) for what was going to be said on Sunday.

The topic, of course, was sexuality. I find it a bit hilarious that we would give these kinds of warnings out at church when many of our children surf the web without supervision, hear plenty of sexually charged talk at school and watch television and movies that are filled with sexual content. Seems it is okay to hear such talk anywhere but at church.

I’d rather it was opposite to that. Church is exactly where we should be talking about sexual matters. Let’s get God’s perspective on it rather than that of social workers, teenagers, politicians and Hollywood scriptwriters.

And for the record, God has quite a bit to say about it. The Bible is filled with teaching on sexuality…both positive and negative examples and instructions.

Some are intrigued enough about all this that they’re super-ready to be with the church on Sunday to hear what I’m going to say from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. Others, caught in their own web of sexual sin, are looking for a reason to be somewhere else.  All I would say to this latter group is, “where can I flee from your Spirit?” God's tracking with you no matter where you are, what you're looking at, what you're doing or who you're with.

So what you need to know about Sunday is this: the message is PG-13. I will be talking about sexuality and, if you are a parent and have children in the service with you, it may stir up some questions.  There will be no explicit talk (obviously), but the word sex will come up a lot.  For example: I will use words like heterosexuality, homosexuality, monogamy and such at various points in the message.  I will be talking about adultery, extra and pre-marital sex.  I will talk about God’s purpose for sex, which includes pleasure. That is to say, people who are in a heterosexual marriage ought be enjoying sex like no others.

Maybe it isn't about the kids but about you. Maybe, because of your background or tradition, you can't cope with talking about sex at church. Let me challenge you to consider the whole counsel of God. As we study verse by verse through 1 Thessalonians we come to these verses. God's Holy Spirit would have us study them as we have studied the whole book.  We can't skip anything. Agreed? 

Take a look at the passage and see that God’s will for us is that we be sanctified (set apart) from how the world views sexual matters. God would have us, “know how to control his own body in holiness and honour”.  This should make for some great preaching, don’t you think?

See you Sunday.

Todd

Harvest Dogs

There were a large number of spectators…let's call them fans…at our recent Thanksgiving Day Turkey Bowl including several furry ones.  I’m not sure how many people at Harvest have dogs (our family does not, by conviction), but there were at least half a dozen at the game that morning.  They are fine looking dogs. As I said, we’re not dog people at all in the Dugard household. We did have a Terrier/Spaniel cross through my teens and twenties…Scoobie (Doo-gard). He was a good dog. Low maintenance. Guarded the property and loved his masters. He was around for 15+ years before we took him for his last trip to the vet.

As an aside…because I don’t often write about dogs…with all due respect to each of these fine canines, the German Shepherd is by far the best looking breed. Total class.  Carries himself with confidence. I have always been an admirer though I’ve never owned one. But if I were to have a dog…

So here’s the thing about dogs: (a) they know a thing or two about loyalty; (b) they want to be in relationship with you; (c) they respond to the sound of your voice; (d) they want to please you; and (e) they love going for walks…get the right kind of dog and put a little time into him/her and he/she will walk right by your side the whole way.

And people can find tremendous encouragement in that, in having their dog come alongside them in these ways.

On Sunday we’ll be in 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13. The message is titled, “I live to encourage others”.  The key to understanding and living this out is in the word "encourage" which in the original language means "to come alongside".  The pressing issue is simply this, how can we do a better job of living out the love of Christ by encouraging one another…by coming alongside one another?

So give your pooch a pat on the head for me (if he’s actually a good dog) and take a look at that passage before we get together to look at it on Sunday morning.

See you then.

Todd

A familiar truth

This past week we had a friend over and decided to get a movie to watch. She recommended a certain title. We had heard of it before but had never watched it.  We had been discussing earlier that we might watch an old familiar flick that we have on DVD. It is a movie we watch a couple of times a year and we always laugh at all the jokes. We know it well enough that we often quote it as a family. It is always entertaining. But instead of watching that old stand-by, we took our friend's recommendation and watched the new movie...and it was a dud. Not funny at all really. One hour and forty-eight minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

We should have stuck to the old and familiar.

I am convinced that as forgetful human beings, we really just need to hear the same messages over and over again. We don’t need a new word, a fresh message, or an innovative or clever thought. We need the same ancient truths spelled out for us over and over again.

Why? Speaking for myself, it's because I forget and because the influences around me are continually trying to convince me of other things.  And I fail…I fall back and only God’s truth lifts me up and restores me to a good place.

This coming Sunday we have just such a word. It is one we’ve heard again and again over the past few months…and one that this Sunday we’re going to hear again.  It may be that God has decided that we have not yet learned these truths and need to hear them again.  Maybe someone (maybe lots of someones) needs to hear this truth this week because of what’s going on in their life.

What God seems to be saying to us is, “Hey, remember this…remember what I said?  It may be a familiar truth in some ways, but you’re still not getting it perfectly right.  Seems you’ve forgotten part of it or all of it so I’m here to remind you again. I’m going to tell you the whole thing one more time.”

The familiar truth this week comes to us from 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:5. Paul begins a narrative section of his letter to his beloved friends outlining his deep affection for them as he wrestles with the trial of not being able to be there with them. It was a trial Paul, Timothy and Silas had to navigate through. How they handled it provides a model for us that will, if we hear it, contribute to the proof that we are truly God’s own. The critical question: Are we Christ-followers who conquer affliction by faith?

We have certainly talked a lot about trials over the past months, but God has it in front of us yet again this week. Have we forgotten? Have we slipped back into old habits and lost perspective on what God’s doing?

Many in our church family are facing deep waters in various ways. Physical challenges are afflicting many, several marriages are teetering or toppling, the wayward are breaking the hearts of their loved ones, and huge financial setbacks are hammering away at others. The comforting and challenging truths of how Paul and his friends coped with their trial will bring hope to all of us. We need the reminder.

When we gather on Sunday to hear the message of this passage, we’ll also be having an extended time to respond in worship and with prayer. An invitation to come to the front will be given following the teaching time. Some of our small group leaders in addition to our pastors and elders will be waiting to pray for you as you respond to this Word.

I’m looking forward to our time together.  Praying that God does a powerful work in our lives.

See you Sunday.

Todd

I’m Down On People-Pleasing

“There’s just no pleasing you!”

In the heat of the moment, that’s the kind of comeback that expresses extreme exasperation between two people who disagree about something in their relationship.  Most of us have likely been in such a conversation at some point in our lives.  We think we’ve done all we can to love, to serve, to put out for someone and they just never show any appreciation or acknowledge what you’ve done for them, and the frustration reaches its end when these words are spoken, “There’s just no pleasing you.”

If we think hard about it, most of us are pretty insatiable when it comes to being pleased in life.  We’ll take all we can get and still it won’t be enough.  Few of us live the satisfied life. There’s just no pleasing us. It is a basic truism. 

So let’s just stop trying.  And not because the whole thing is futile but because God never designed us to please one another in a way that would fully satisfy.  That is God’s place alone.  He is to be our sufficiency in all things.  He is to be our provider.  He is our only hope and salvation.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 we see what the Apostle Paul had to say to his friends about pleasing God rather than each other.  He wrote to them, “Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts” (v.4).

We’ll break down the full passage on Sunday morning and see four principles that will send us in the right direction when it comes to pleasing God rather than man. Take a look at the passage and pray through it before we get together.  Ask God what it takes to be pleasing to him alone.

See you Sunday,

Todd

 

Worth Imitating

“And you became imitators of us and of the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 1:6a

From the time I trusted Christ as my Lord and Saviour and began following him as a teenager, I have had some amazing people in my life. They are people that I have been imitating.  I want to briefly tell you about some of them.

Among the first were a senior couple who stood up in every testimony service at our small church and spoke of God’s grace and love toward them. Jim and Ann’s testimonies were never long and drawn out, and I never tired of seeing them stand or hearing them acknowledge their deep gratitude to their Saviour. Ann was among a handful who first taught me and discipled me in my walk with Christ. They have been with the Lord now for several years. I’m grateful to God for their imprint on my life.

Stan, a good friend to this day, was a Youth for Christ worker who took the time to meet with me after school, on Saturdays, evenings, lunch times…whenever, to simply open his big, well-used, New American Standard Bible and teach me whatever he happened to be learning himself that week. He still does that today in fact, although our times together are far fewer. 

I’ve had some good men who have pastored me over these past thirty years…Ted, Marvin and Bill poured themselves into me. Each provided a godly example of what a pastor can and should be. Each was very different.  All were faithful to teach God’s Word and live it out.

In Bible college and seminary I was impacted by David, Michael, Gerry, Richard, Doug, Glenn. These men taught me well and each has stood the test of time…they’ve endured and demonstrated the veracity of their classroom claims.

And along the way, some friends…the best kind of friends. Some older than me. Some, a bit surprisingly are younger, and more than a few peers. Arthur, Verne, John and Terry stand out among the ‘older’ ones. I absorb their wisdom, seek to learn from their experiences and cherish any time of prayer I can get with them. The list of peers whose lives I watch is longer. I am a blessed man. Mike, Rick, James, Joel, Ron, Paul, Norm, Roger, Jon stand out in the crowd as amazing friends whose manner of living challenges me. And still others come to mind as I write this.

No one listed here, of course, is perfect. They all have parts of their lives that are, as yet, unchanged. They have, as it were, “clay feet”. Sin still rears its ugly head in their lives from time to time. But they love Jesus.  They cherish God’s Word. They walk with him in a consistent way.  They serve readily, often and with passion in the church and outside of it. They are humble and real. And for me, their lives are worthy of watching and of imitation.

This Sunday, I’ll be taking us into 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 as we continue in our series, “The People We Proved to Be”.  Such people, we’ll learn, set a godly example for others. It is, I’ll admit, a daunting prospect. Thankfully, God has done all the work for us to get there and he’s the one who provides what we need to stay there.  I’m eager to spend the time with you looking at the passage together on Sunday.

If you have to miss our time of worship and the Word, or you don’t live in the Barrie/Simcoe County area, check out the message online. It will be uploaded by Sunday evening at the latest. Message notes are also available online so you can follow along.

Also, plan to join your heart and voice with the church as we gather for a concert of prayer this Sunday evening at 7 p.m. in our worship centre.  We’ll have Chad leading us in some worship and then we’ll gather in groups for prayer around those three priorities that we learned from the Apostle Paul over the past couple of weeks: gratitude for the steadfast hope we have in our salvation, for the work of faith that allows us to walk with him day by day no matter what comes our way, and the labour of love we demonstrate as we work for Christ and serve one another and this world. These are always amazing times of prayer for the church.  Don’t miss it.

And one final thing. Pastor Greg Laurie is in Chicago this weekend for his Harvest Crusade. More than 200 Chicago area churches have come together for this evangelistic event at the Allstate Arena, just a few miles east of the Harvest Bible Chapel Rolling Meadows campus.  We have the privilege of taking in these special crusade services on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings via live streaming video. If you’re on Facebook and Twitter, why not link to the event and invite friends and family to participate in the crusade meetings?  And pray that God brings in a great Harvest in Chicago and beyond!

See you Sunday,

Todd

The People We Proved to Be - The message of 1 Thessalonians

This Sunday, as we gather together, we will be heading into the first series for this new ministry year, from I Thessalonians.

We need to grow, to learn, to become more than we are right now.  The follower of Christ must reflect his glory, have his joy, be increasing in faith, loving deeply and rooted in hope.  More of all these things today than I had yesterday.  So we ask: what kind of people are we today?  What kind of people will we be tomorrow? 

Even as we think about this change, it is easy to get down on ourselves about where we are at now.  And there are plenty of people who would remind you of how little progress you are making. These well-intentioned souls are negative, pessimistic, critical, no-faced, glass-half-empty people who never fail to point out how far you have yet to go.  How much better to get around those who are positive, optimistic, affirming, yes-faced, let-me-fill-your-glass-up-for-you people who see the progress that has been made while yet pointing you forward?  With so much pervasive negativity in the world, with so many only too eager to tell you what’s wrong with you, it is nice to be around those who see what’s right and good.

In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle writes to affirm his readers, seeing what they had become in Christ and the great things that were happening around them as a result. At the same time, he does not shrink back from challenging them to greater faith, hope and love.  The message is clear: even when there are things in our lives that need to be called out (and there always will be!), we can still be lifted up, encouraged and blessed in our walk with him today.

As we study 1 Thessalonians we will see that there is much that is praiseworthy in our lives if we will only look, and if we each make that one critical decision to live as we “ought to live” having the gospel of Jesus Christ come to us, "in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." It is then that we will show the world the kind of people we proved to be.

As I encouraged you earlier this week, take a few minutes to read through the whole book of 1 Thessalonians before Sunday and come prepared to worship and hear from God's Word. 

Todd