Dean Inserra

Krissie loves the Macy’s Parade. I would rather have teeth pulled. Maybe the worst thing in the history of tv. So, I am looking for things to do to pass time.

Tommy had 2 waffles, 4 pancakes, and a banana for breakfast. Thanksgiving dinner at MiMis here he comes!

Some honest thoughts about Thanksgiving:

First of all, I am going to spare you the classic Pastor talk of how we should celebrate Thanksgiving 365 days a year. Hope you are thankful that I won’t be Captain Predictable and do a whole post on that.

The only time I ever watch the Detroit Lions is on Thanksgiving Day. I wish there were college games on instead during the day.

Random, but honest question: (save the hate mail)

If someone is an atheist, agnostic, fatalist, or anything else that does not believe in a Creator…why would you celebrate Thanksgiving? Seriously…if you are thankful for what has been given (Thanks-Giving) doesn’t there have to be a giver?

The things people are thankful for is obvious…family, health, a job, a home, etc. My question is who/what is the recipient of that thanks?

Chance?

Luck?

Fate?

Being at the right place at the right time?

Is there really a point in giving thanks to those things?

I am not trying to be a punk, but those are the honest, tough questions that need to be asked. Of course, anyone can celebrate a Holiday who wants to. It is not my place to say who can and who cannot. That is just a question I have.

Families all over America have traveled many miles, taken time off work, and spent lots of money to be with their families for Thanksgiving. That is great. Enjoy the meal and time.

I just gotta ask…who is the giver you are thankful to? If there is no giver…does it really make any sense at all to be thankful to nothing?

As someone who believes in the Triune God as Creator and active Lord in our daily lives…today I am thankful. I am thankful for getting what I never should deserve in a million years.

I am thankful for Christ, his death on the cross in my place. I am also thankful for all that God has blessed me with.

On Thanksgiving I am thankful for the Giver.

“Our greatest fear as individuals and a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”
— Francis Chan

That was the quote I used Sunday night at the Well. I cannot get it out of my mind. It helped me gain some clarity on some frustrations I had earlier in ministry, and is driving me today.

What matters? I continue to ask myself that question.

-Reaching people who do not know Christ.
-Building Relationships.
-Not ducking or dodging the reality of Hell.
-Pushing believers to think heavenly.
-Clearly communicating the Gospel.
-Living our theology
-Being honest with people about what God’s Word says and not magnifying their “felt need.”
-Being people who give.
-Having marriages that honor Christ and reflect the Gospel.
-Empowering people to be hometown missionaries.

I want us to succeed at things that matter.

I don’t usually share these things, but yesterday I probably received the harshest email I have ever read (and I had my share as a Youth Pastor…believe me). I was basically told that I am a judgmental fanatic who is personally responsible for why people have a bad perception of Church in Tallahassee. That Tallahassee is not lost (recommended I move out of town since I think that), and that the Well just needs to accept that everyone does not have the same religion.

Well…

We aren’t moving (thanks for the suggestion)…Tallahassee needs Jesus…we will continue to preach Christ alone…and build relationships with people in town who need to hear the truth of Christ’s love. Even email girl who apparently thinks it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you have faith.

It matters.

We will pray for and support Churches that preach Christ and care about the souls of a city that is over-churched, but under-reached.

We will encourage people to pick a Gospel-preaching Church and connect/serve there.

We will continue to realize that we can do nothing on our own. It is by the grace of God that we even exist.

We are going to focus on what matters!

It is about deeds…not creeds.

Another very trendy and hip thing to say in Christian circles today. The truth is that both deeds and creeds matter. For the past 7 weeks at the Well we have been going through the book of James, which has the overall theme that one’s personal theology is useless if it is not accompanied by a lifestyle that matches those beliefs. Deeds matter a ton. They are evidence of one’s beliefs.

Recently, there has been a major movement in stating things such as “all that matters is that you love, doctrine divides, the Gospel message is following Christ’s example,” etc.

This is a myth that must be talked about again, and again.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

What you believe matters a whole heck of a lot.

A not very new, but popular belief today is to focus on Christ as a moral example.

Michael Horton had some great thoughts on this:

In writing about the popular Emergent book A Generous Orthodoxy, Horton states…In A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren explains, Anabaptists see the Christian faith primarily as a way of life,” interpreting Paul through the lens of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount rather than vice versa. The emphasis falls on discipleship rather than on doctrine, as if following Jesus’ example could be set against following his teaching.

What happens when the Sermon on the Mount is assimilated to a general ethic of love (i.e., pure morality), and doctrine (ecclesiastical faith) is made secondary? Christ himself becomes a mere example to help people become better non-Christians. In fact, McLaren writes, “I must add, though, that I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts.” “I don’t hope all Jews or Hindus will become members of the Christian religion. But I do hope all who feel so called will become Jewish or Hindu followers of Jesus.” It is no wonder, then, that McLaren can say concerning liberal Protestants, “I applaud their desire to live out the meaning of the miracle stores even when they don’t believe the stories really happened as written.” After all, it’s deeds, not creeds that matter. McLaren seems to suggest that following Jesus (pure religion) can exist with or without explicit faith in Christ.

As Mark Oestriecher, another Emergent church writer, relates, “My Buddhist cousin, except for her unfortunate inability to embrace Jesus, is a better ‘Christian’ (based on Jesus’ description of what a Christian does) than almost every Christian I know.

My friends, what you believe matters a whole heck of a lot.

Can you be a “good Christian” without knowing Christ? Due to my nature as a sinner I cannot do good a part from Christ. Sure, I can do some good by the world’s definition. I can love by the world’s description of love…but the last time I checked Romans chapter 3 still exists.

Why would I spend time writing about this? Man…I cannot think of anything more important than helping people resist the pull of the world by shrinking Christ down to some kind of inspirational example and throwing away His exclusive claims about himself and call to a radical denial of self.

He is God. The only way to the Father. Salvation is found in no other name. The grave could not hold Him. He will come back to judge the living and the dead.

We love because He has shown us what love means. He did not show us by teaching us a lesson about self-sacrifice that we can pass along to others. He loved us by coming to die in our place and receive the punishment that we deserved ourselves.

Deeds matter. I love the book of James that confronts the false easy-belief that only focuses one’s attention on the affirming of a few things and not having a lifestyle to support those affirmations. I believe that people are tired of hearing what Christians believe and actually wanna see us back it up. They are tired of our hypocrisy.

That absolutely does not place the moral teaching of Christ above “his exclusive claims, divisive rhetoric, and warning of judgment” (Horton).

Without his incarnation, life, death, and resurrection…trying our best to live and love would be meaningless.

Refuse to believe the myth that what you believe really doesn’t matter. Oh…it does.

Gal. 1:6-11
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.

Care about people enough to want them to know the truth.

This is so true…freaks me out

From Michael Horton:

What would things look like if Satan actually took over a city? The first frames in our imaginative slide show probably depict mayhem on a massive scale: Widespread violence, deviant sexualities, pornography in every vending machine, churches closed down and worshipers dragged off to City Hall. Over a half-century ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse, pastor of Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church, gave his CBS radio audience a different picture of what it would look like if Satan took control of a town in America. He said that all of the bars and pool halls would be closed, pornography banished, pristine streets and sidewalks would be occupied by tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The kids would answer “Yes, sir,” “No, ma’am,” and the churches would be full on Sunday … where Christ is not preached.

I am beginning a two part thanksgiving break series of thoughts on myths young people believe. I think these are important to get our hands around in a postmodern culture that is hostile to the Gospel.

1. Speaking out against something, for something, or confronting someone is judgmental…and that is not your place. Okay, judging is not the job of anyone. Let me be clear on that. In fact, many non-believers even have Matthew 7:1 memorized!

When Jesus is calling people hypocrites for being judgmental in Matthew chapter 7 (imagine that…Jesus confronting someone), a few verses later He says that the road to heaven is narrow! Nothing is considered more judgmental today then saying something like everyone doesn’t go to heaven. Was Jesus judging or truth telling?

It is very hip and trendy to make Christ some sort of hippie with a coexist bumper sticker on the back of his donkey. It is the Christians who are judgmental…not Jesus…you hear often. Well, people are right. Jesus was not judgmental. In fact, if He would have been it would have made him the opposite of who He is: our perfect, spotless, Savior.

Christ spoke the truth. People got upset with Him.

Judging is when you draw a conclusion before you know the story. It is forgetting the sin in your own heart while throwing stones at someone else. It is an attitude, an arrogance.

If you approach a Christian (people who are believers should act like they are) and talk to him about his porn watching habits out of concern for your friend living a sinful lifestyle…are you judging that person? I would say that answer depends on how it is approached.

If you believe that marriage is between one man and one woman does that make you judgmental?

If you sit down with your Christian roommate and tell her that you are concerned for her since she is coming home drunk every Friday night are you judging her?

Do we just neglect the many parts of Scripture that instruct us to confront, rebuke, and encourage each other? Does a waaaay too sensitive society negate scripture? Should the world define being judgmental for us or should scripture?

Proclaiming truths about the person and work of Christ, agreeing with Him that He is the only way to heaven, confronting sin, questioning unbiblical teaching, and asking hard questions to people is not synonymous with the words JUDGMENTAL, JUDGING, etc.

It is judging when we believe that somehow we are superior, or we approach people with hateful and condescending attitudes. That was the beef that Christ had with the Pharisees.

Do not buy this myth. Thankfully someone “judged” you enough to tell you your need for a Savior, the only Savior, Jesus Christ. Keep in mind that all of us are nothing with Christ, it is by His grace that we can even claim to know Him.