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

Haiti

The earthquake of last January was devastating to the island nation of Haiti. Yet it is really just the latest blow to a country that has faced perpetual instability and poverty.  Since the earthquake, a hurricane, a cholera outbreak and post-election political tension have added to the misery and hardship.

Yet God is at work and there are many of his people in Haiti who are seeking day by day to continue to live for him amidst the nationwide struggle.

After the earthquake, a wave of relief efforts swung into action. As a fellowship of churches, we partnered with the Acts29 Network churches, raising $1.6 million for an effort that would be known as “Churches Helping Churches”. The idea is that while NGO’s, governments, and the U.N. will help rebuild streets, sewers, hospitals and such, there would be no one helping rebuild the churches that were destroyed.

And we, as the church, wanted to be involved in rebuilding churches as well as helping pastors lead those churches in the wake of the disaster.

When we announced the project, you responded in an amazing way, giving close to $20,000 to help churches in Haiti. A portion of that offering was given to two orphanages founded by Dave Lock, a Toronto businessman and member of Harvest Bible Chapel York Region.

On Sunday, December 5, Dave MacDonald and I will have the privilege of travelling to Haiti for five days to survey the work of Churches Helping Churches and the Freedom House orphan homes. In addition, Pastor Paul Whittingstall from HBC York Region, who will also be travelling in the group, and I will be preaching at the “Churches Helping Pastors” conference on Ile de la Gonave off the coast of Haiti on Thursday, December 9.

We are looking forward to serving the people of Haiti in Jesus’ name and on your behalf. Pray for us as we travel, observe, minister, preach and encourage the faithful servants of Christ who are persevering for him in Haiti.

Dave and I look forward to reporting back to the church here in Barrie on Sunday, December 12.

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

Movember

Having a little fun over here at the office this month.

Perhaps you have noticed some sweet moustaches on the faces of your pastoral team. Mike, Roger and I are all doing what we can to promote the cause of prostate cancer awareness and research.  The rest of our staff team are not growing mo’s but only because they are women.

Our mo-tivation is that two good friends of ours who are fellow pastors have successfully battled prostate cancer in recent years, and we’re growing the Mo for them. 

Check out the website and search “Harvest Pastors” to join the team or to simply make a donation. If you are joining the team, you can do so whether you’re a guy with a mo or a woman with no mo who can join our team as a Mo-Sista. When you join, be sure to promote the cause and our group on your Facebook and Twitter pages.

Even if you don’t officially join, you can still make that donation. Make sure you credit our team (“Harvest Pastors”) with your donation. 
THANKS!

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

Prayer and Fasting

It has been a good week as many have been setting aside time to pray while fasting in various ways.  The primary focus of the fast, as Pastor Roger explained on Sunday, was to give attention to the selection and affirmation of new elders.

It is the pattern we see in the Bible in such passages as Acts 14:19-23…

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

We had set aside Sunday through Wednesday for this time of fasting and prayer. Some are continuing beyond that time frame.  I will be concluding my fast on Friday with a time of prayer at 7:30 a.m.  at the office (112 Caplan Avenue).  Anyone is invited to join me for that.

Let’s continue to pray that God would show us his will and that we will be found to be obedient to him in all things.

Todd

We are loved

I’m supposed to write a bit of a teaser here for this coming Sunday’s message, but I am compelled to write about something else.  It still relates to what we’re seeing in 1 Thessalonians, and, in fact, is a bit of a teaser for a message a few weeks from now.

This post is about you…our beloved Harvest family here in Barrie.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:6-10 Paul writes,

But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

Paul and Timothy’s situation was slightly different than our life circumstances here, but the sentiment that I have highlighted in bold communicates exactly how Cheryl and I are feeling right now.  Timothy reported about the faith and love of the believers at Thessalonica. That’s what we see in you.  That’s what we have experienced this week.

An amazing gift was put into our hands a couple of days ago. A professionally bound book filled with letters from you, our friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. There are photos of many of you who wrote these notes of encouragement and blessing. Your love for us flowed from the life-giving words we read.

When I unwrapped the gift and realized what had been placed on my desk at the office, I went home immediately and sat with Cheryl as we read through it together. We were simply overwhelmed.

Many of you have said to me over the years (in fact, some of you mentioned this in the notes we read) that I have often preached the exact words you needed to hear on any given Sunday. I thank God for that because his Spirit knows what each of us needs to hear.

And Cheryl and I were in that same place. This very week we needed a word from God, and if you could have heard our conversation the night before, you would know the depth of our need. And God used you to deliver that word.  You have been a conduit of his grace. And to answer the question that many of you raised indirectly in your notes, yes, we know we are loved…by God and by you.

Paul’s words are our own as we think about you, “For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God…?”

Have a blessed Thanksgiving Weekend. And, oh yeah, we’re in 1 Thessalonians 2:9-16 this week. The message is titled, “I Walk Worthy of God”.

See you Sunday,

Todd and Cheryl

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