Gospel Partnership by Dan Jackson

            Well, I guess this is farewell…. kind of.  By the time you read this I will no longer be the Director of Family Ministries at New Hope Church.  God has called my wife and I to plant another reformed Church in Green Bay, which will be named Jacob’s Well.  To be honest, Tricia and I are very excited and humbled to be used by God in this endeavor.  I realize not everyone shares our enthusiasm but regardless of our feelings and opinions, there is still a special relationship that exists between those at New Hope and those going to plant Jacob’s Well.  Paul puts it this way,  Philippians 1(3)  “I thank my God every time I remember you.  (4)  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy  (5)  because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

            According to Paul, if both churches are partakers and promoters of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then we are partners.  You can think of it as business partners, which don’t compete against each other, but rather work for the benefit of the same company and under the leadership of the same boss.  New Hope and Jacob’s Well are both working for the same Kingdom and under the leadership of the same King.    

            Paul continues this thought by writing, Philippians 1 “(7)  It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.  (8)  God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

            Paul is writing this letter to the Philippians from far away Rome, where he had gone to plant another church.  In these verses, Paul has uncovered the uncomfortable consequence of extending the Kingdom of God, which is the changing nature of church family relationships.  For the sake of God and the lost, Paul had to leave the Philippian church that he loved so that he could focus his efforts on the people who had not yet heard the good news of Jesus Christ. 

            Probably the hardest part of planting this church, for Tricia and I, is that we deeply love New Hope Church.  You have been our family since we moved to Green Bay and God can testify how we truly long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 

            While it is true that the nature of our relationship must change for the sake of the Gospel (as we refocus our time and efforts), we want you to know that the people of New Hope will always remain in our heart.  Thank you for your prayers, your support and your partnership in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Don’t be a Talebearer

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Dr. Ray Ortlund

What is gossip? It is not necessarily false information. Slander is false. Gossip might include true information, and maybe that’s why gossip doesn’t always feel sinful. What makes it sin is, first and foremost, that God says it’s sin. But gossip spreads what can include accurate information to diminish another person. That is not how people behave when they are living in the power of the grace of God.
Gossip is our dark moral fervor eagerly seeking gratification. Gossip makes us feel important and needed as we declare our judgments. It makes us feel included to know the inside scoop. It makes us feel powerful to cut someone else down to size, especially someone we are jealous of. It makes us feel righteous, even responsible, to pronounce someone else guilty. Gossip can feel good in multiple ways. But it is of the flesh, not of the Spirit. Adultery too is a serious sin, and one likely to be disciplined in a church. But I have never seen a church split over the sin of adultery. Gossip is a sin rarely disciplined but often more socially destructive than the sensational sins.
Gossip leaves a wide trail of devastation wherever and however it goes – word of mouth, email, blogging, YouTube. It erodes trust and destroys morale. It creates a social environment of suspicion where everyone must wonder what is being said behind their backs and whether appearances of friendship are sincere. It ruins hard-won reputations with cowardly but effective weapons of misrepresentation. It manipulates people into taking sides when no such action is necessary or beneficial. It unleashes the dark powers of psychological transference, doing violence to the gossiper, to the one receiving the gossip and to the person being spoken against. It makes the Body of Christ look like the Body of Antichrist – destroyers rather than healers. It exhausts the energies we would otherwise devote to positive witness. It robs our Lord of the Church he deserves. It exposes the hostility in our hearts and discredits the gospel in the eyes of the world. Then we wonder why we don’t see more conversions, why “the ground is so hard.”
What should we do when a conversation starts slipping into gossip? We should immediately challenge the sin: “Hey friend, sorry to interrupt, but this is gossip. So here’s the deal. This conversation is now on hold until you go get _____________, and then you can start over and say whatever you feel you must say right to his face. I am willing to be a witness to that conversation, but I will not participate in gossip. What do you choose to do?” Amy Carmichael established this rule at her mission station: “Never about, always to.”
“Let all things be done for building up” (1 Corinthians 14:26). Therefore, let’s always ask ourselves, “These words about to rise up out of my mouth or go out through my keyboard – do they build up? Am I being constructive? If the person I feel like discussing were here with me right now, how would his presence change what I feel like saying?”
“Do not be deceived: . . . revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people. Lev. 19:16, AV

From Dr. Ray Ortland ~ Monday, May 18th, 2009
http://christisdeeperstill.blogspot.com/2009/05/gossip.html
submitted by Dan Jackson

Jacob’s Well
by Dan Jackson

Jesus and His disciples were midway through a long journey from Judea to Galilee.  The Savior was very tired and very thirsty.  The disciples went into town to buy food while Jesus sat at Jacob’s Well, waiting for someone to come along with a bucket and draw Him some water.  Then she came along.  The nameless woman at the well.  She came during the ‘off peak’ hours, possibly to avoid the shame and ridicule of other women.  She was the lowest of the low in the Israelite society.  First off she was a Samaritan, which the Jews despised.  Secondly, she was a woman, which the culture considered second class.  Thirdly, she was a tramp, which the world rejected.  She had already married five other men and was currently in an adulterous relationship. After being denied a cup of water, Jesus says to this woman at the well, “If you know the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water (Jn 4:10).”  In this one swift statement Jesus identifies her ignorance of who He is, the gift He offers, and her need of it,which He explains in the next several verses: He is the Messiah,  He offers eternal life, and she needs His gift because of her sin.  Then something wonderful and miraculous happens, something only God could do. The tramp believes!  Into this glorious celebration, the disciples return from the town.  Sadly, they missed the divineness of the moment and awkwardly looked at the Jesus and the woman and thought to themselves, “Why is Jesus talking with her?”  With their condescending stares, the woman gets up and returns to the town.
With the trampy Samaritan woman out of the way, the disciples offer Jesus some of the food that He sent them into town to buy.  Jesus rejects their food saying, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” Jesus goes on to rebuke the disciples, telling them that the will of the father is to “harvest the crop for eternal life.”  You may wonder as I have, “Why does Jesus speak so harshly to his disciples? They were just offering him the food that He told them to go buy!”   Here is why I think Jesus was so righteously angry.  The disciples had come and gone from the city with no harvesting, yet the women returned to the city, forgetting her shame and told everyone she could find about Jesus.  Then she invited them to come back with her to Jacob’s Well and meet Jesus so that they too might believe.  Because of her boldness, many there trusted in Jesus as their Savior.  You see, the disciples were not doing the will of the Father, but the tramp was.  I confess there are many days I live more like the devout disciples than the transformed tramp.  What about you?  Which are you?  Are you like the religious person who moves throughout the city, telling no one about Jesus and reaping no harvest at all?   Or are you like the tramp? Have you encountered Jesus today? Have you realized the desperation of your need as sinner, the majesty of Jesus identity as Messiah and the grace of Jesus’ gift as eternal life? Jesus says to us, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for the harvest.”  Go, reap the harvest, live not like the disciples, but like the transformed tramp.  Go, reap the harvest, because you are no longer a tramp, but the bride of Christ, precious, perfect and spotless in His blood.

The Perseverance of God by Dan Jackson

When I was in high school, I started hanging out with a ministry called Young Life.  One of the leaders was a college student named Brian.  I did not realize it at the time, but evidently every time I said hi to him I would punch him in the arm and every time I talked to him I would brag about my football achievements.  As you can imagine, I was probably a pretty annoying and draining guy to hang around.  Looking back, one thing amazes me…Brian never abandoned me.  Even though Brian probably had plenty of college friends to hang out with and even though I was a bothersome, insecure, big-headed high school kid, Brian still befriended me, still pursued me and still loved me.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to preach from Philippians 1:1-11.  If you can recall, we learned that at the cross our heavenly Father forsook His perfect friendship with His Son Jesus, so that we could once again be made friends with God.  I would like to think a little deeper on this issue with two questions. 

1) Why did God have to forsake His friendship with Jesus? The Bible tells us that God’s standard for friendship with anyone is their perfect obedience to His Word.  Needless to say, we have all failed at this, especially in the area of friendship.  If you are like me, your selfishness has kept you from being a good friend to ‘difficult’ and/or ‘unbeneficial’ people.  It is so much easier to care for people that encourage you or that somehow assist you in achieving your goals.  God had to forsake Jesus because Jesus took on our selfishness and he took on our friendlessness.  Not only that, because of us, Jesus then incurred the most horrible punishment ever, separation from the Father.

2) Why should we persevere in one sided friendships (like Brian did)? In Philippians 1:6 Paul says that he is “confident of this, that (God) who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   Paul was confident that the Holy God of the Universe, who forsook His most treasured possession to unilaterally begin a friendship with us, would also unilaterally perfect this friendship in us.   That He would not only befriend selfish, friendless, difficult and unbeneficial people, but He would also never give up on selfish, friendless, difficult and unbeneficial people.  The reason why Brian persevered in friendship with me, was because he understood that God had persevered in friendship with him. 

So here is the challenge.  Befriend and persevere with a stubborn, exhausting and difficult person, not because it is what God commands, but because it is what God did and is doing with you.

As many of you know, I am an avid Missouri football fan.  This was elevated by my sophomore year of college when I attended a Missouri - Nebraska contest that was voted the college football game of the year.  At the time, Nebraska had an 8-0 record, was ranked #1 in the country and had won the national championship 2 out of the past 3 years.  Missouri on the other hand, had a 6-3 record and was unranked.  With 7 seconds left in the game, Missouri was up 38-31 and Nebraska had one last chance to tie it from the 12 yard line.  As time expired, the quarterback threw the ball into the end zone and as the ball reached the receiver, he was immediately hit by the Missouri defense and the ball shot down toward the ground.  As you can imagine, the reaction of 70,000 fans was elation and joy.  We began to rush the field to celebrate the most amazing win in Missouri history.  However, our joy was short lived, the game was not over.  Evidently, as the receiver was being tackled to the ground, he kicked the ball into the air (which for the record should have been a penalty) and another Nebraska receiver caught the ‘flea kicker’ to tie the game.  In overtime, Missouri fought hard but ultimately lost the game.  Needless to say, I saw a swing of emotions.  What had been joy moments ago was now disappointment, anger and bitterness.  In fact, I was so pathetic that I even entered into a mini depression and even now as I recall this story I have to remind myself that it was only a game.
Why did I lose joy after that football game? Because win or lose, it was a temporary joy, based on a changing circumstance.  Now to a certain extent, it is healthy and honest to be disappointed.  But there is another type of joy: an eternal joy, a deep-seated joy based on the unchanging circumstances of God.  This joy is no secret and it is offered freely to all because it was purchased for you and for me at the cross.  It is the joy in knowing that our deepest needs in life are met, forever.  This unchanging joy floods our hearts as we realize our need for a Savior, and trust that, because of the cross, we have been forgiven of our sins, accepted as righteous, adopted as children of God, and given relationship with Jesus Christ.  According to Galatians 5:22, this joy from Christ is given to all who have surrendered their lives to Jesus, without exception and without change.
So how about you?  Would people describe you as a “joyful” person?  If so, why?  If not, why not?  How do we, in the changing circumstances of life, nurture the joy given to us by Christ?  It is not by trying to become more joyful or by the power of positive thinking.  The answer is even simpler than that.  To nurture your joy you must prize Jesus above all else!  You see, if we prize Christ above all else, then we not only cherish the One who makes us most joyful, but we cherish the One who is unchanging.  We cherish the One who will never leave us or forsake us.
So how about you? What are the treasures competing for your heart?  Look at your planner and your checkbook.  Is your treasure money, sports, peace, recreation, a lake house, morality, success, food, rest?  What is it?  Whatever it is, it is temporary and subject to change.  They are all changing and temporary, except for Jesus.  So surrender your treasure to Jesus and make Him your treasure and your joy, because you first were His.

1 John 4:19:  We love because He first loved us.