Chad Lewis' Blog

Spiritual Friendships

2008-11-16T20:15:40Z

Many of us grew up in a church culture that rarely saw real life, messy, redemptive relationships in action. I’m sure that there are many reasons for this. Some people wanted to be left alone so they left them alone. Others just assumed that everything was going great in other people’s lives until they spoke up or tragedy happened. Many others felt inadequate to give counsel on tough life problems so they just left the messy stuff for the trained professionals.

However, as we look at the Scriptures, we see that our calling is to be intentionally intrusive in each others lives.

Galatians 6:1-6 is just one passage that teaches this idea. Paul writes, “1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5for each one should carry his own load. 6Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.”

I have a dream about our body of believers growing together in what it means to live in a gospel-saturated way. This will look messy. This will be hard. But at the end of the day, I want people seeing me everyday, probing my heart and challenging me to look to Christ. Without this, I know that I will be spiritually lazy. Without this, I know I will be prone to believe lies. Without this, I am at risk of seeking pleasure in some lesser love and missing out on the wonders of walking in an intimate relationship with Christ.

What would this look like for you?

Our Daily Bread

2008-11-11T13:24:54Z

As our body gathered again for our monthly prayer service, our focus this morning was on the section of the Lord’s Prayer, “give us today our daily bread.” One of my fellow pastors, Robert Cheong, led us with the following thoughts this morning.

First, Robert reminded us that we depend on God for physical provisions. He said, “We take for granted so many aspects of our daily routine - the air we breathe, going to bed and waking up in the morning, walking, eating, and as a result, we forget to ask the Lord for the most basic physical provisions.” Even though God knows what we need before we ask Him, He delights in us realizing our need and bringing it before Him. This is another act of daily dependence upon Him and it reminds us that we are not only dependent in physical matter but also spiritual matters. As Jesus said in John 15, ” “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Do we really believe this truth? Our lives will show it if we do.

Secondly, Robert reminded all of us this morning that we need to depend on God for all of life. He said, “So we must not only ask the Lord for our daily physical bread, but we must also ask, ‘Give us today Christ and His gospel!’”

To close, Robert gave us the following to meditate on. It is a way to use “give us today our daily bread” within the entire Lord’s prayer. Let this be your prayer today.
**Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name-Lord, give us this day the grace to believe You are good, great, gracious, and glorious.
**Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven-Lord, give us this day the grace to seek Your kingdom and righteousness, as we believe that our basic needs will be given to us as well.
**Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors-Lord, give us this day the grace to forgive and love others as Christ has forgiven and loved us.
**And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one-Lord, give us this day the grace of your presence and power to fight this fight of faith as we battle unbelief.

One Anothering

2008-10-31T13:08:44Z

I had the privilege of preaching and doing some training at Sojourn Huntsville in Alabama last weekend. Like Sojourn in Louisville, KY, they are an Acts 29 church plant. They are seeking to reach out to the city through living lives that are impacted by the gospel. The sermon that you see above is based on four “one another” passages. As we really do life together, the world should see something that is amazing and puzzling - a group of people who have been so captured by the love of God that they love each other, reconcile with each other, serve each other, and fight for faith together. As the world sees this, they will be drawn to the God who makes these things possible.

Your Will Be Done

2008-10-16T20:06:13Z

As I continue to meditate on the Lord’s Prayer and use it as a structure for my prayer life, my heart continues to be awakened to the awesome privilege it is to have the God of the Universe capture my heart and give me nourishment for each day to live.

“Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven”

We long for the day when we will be able to live in the fullest expression of God’s kingdom when Jesus comes again, but what do we do in the mean time? Many helpful books have been written on this subject. If you are a reader, Russell Moore’s book The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective might be one that you want to pick up. But what can you pick up from God’s Word yourself?

A few of our pastors and staff were able to hang out with Harold Best this week. He defined prayer as “getting in God’s face with His Word.” We all thought this was a beautiful definition.

Do you think Paul prayed for things that were within God’s will? That would be a definite “yes.” If you look at Colossians 1:9-14, we see Paul praying for the following things for the Christians at Colossae.
–That God would give them complete knowledge of His will
–And to give them spiritual wisdom and understanding.
–The result would be that they would live in a way that would always honor and please the Lord
–Producing every kind of good fruit
–All the while, that they would grow as they learned to know God better and better.
–That they would be strengthened with all God’s glorious power (so that…)
–They would have all the endurance and patience they need.
–That they would be filled with joy…
–Always thanking the Father.
The remaining part of the passage reminds them what they have to be thankful for.

So if you are having problems praying God’s will for yourself and others, just pull out one of Paul’s prayers and maybe focus on one or two thoughts. In doing this, you will know that you are praying God’s will for yourself and others.

Other Prayers of Paul:
Philippians 1:9-11
Ephesians 1:15-23
Ephesians 3:14-21
Romans 15:14-33

Another recommended book is D.A. Carson’s A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers. I am currently being blessed in a big way by this book.

Hallowed Be Your Name

2008-09-17T20:08:11Z

As I continue to reflect on the Lord’s Prayer, I would like to take a look at the second phrase of the prayer, “Hallowed Be Your Name.”

Before we ever ask for anything from God, it is a helpful practice to remember who we are talking to. We must remember that this is our Father who adopted us. He rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into His family.

Then we set His Name apart and remember Who He is and this brings about worship. This also brings about confidence. Names were a big deal back in Bible times. God often changed people’s names when He was doing a new work in their lives. Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Cephas to Peter. When you know someone’s Name, you know something about them. When we look at the Names of God, we know more about Who He is and what He does.

Knowing who God is informs our prayers. Knowing Who God is gives us greater confidence and faith in our asking and it sets our hearts to make much of God.

I imagine it is like we have our requests in our hands directly in front of our eyes. If we begin our prayers in this posture, our requests seem huge and overwhelming because they are all that we see. But, if we spend some time remembering Who God is and what He has done and what He promises to do, we have a better perspective on reality.

If you hold a coin up to your eye, it will look huge. But if you set it on the ground, you will see how big it really is in relation to other things. Our concerns, though they may be overwhelming, are nothing compared to the size and strength of our God.

So what are some Names of God that you need to meditate on today? Provider, Healer, Savior, Emanuel “God is with us”, Shalom “God our peace”, Creator, Savior, and the list goes on and on.

So, after we remember God is our Father, and after we adore Him for aspects of Who He is, we can seek to center ourselves on His Kingdom and His will and pray for that to come. All the while, remembering Who He is. Then we come with boldness and confidence asking for our needs to be taken care of and we pray for others in need. After all of this, we remember how we have wronged God and remember that we must forgive. Then we pray to be kept safe from temptation and the evil one.

I will seek to go deeper into the other aspects of this prayer in the weeks ahead. Spend some time today remembering, “He is the Lord. He is to be honored, obeyed and worshiped before all and in all we do. Ponder who He is and adore His majesty, holiness, sovereignty, goodness and beauty.”

Baptism: A Sacred Symbol

2008-09-05T17:40:24Z

‘Baptism: Sacred Symbol’ - Chad Lewis from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.

I look forward to writing more on the Lord’s Prayer in the weeks to come, but I felt led to throw up the above sermon that I preached at Sojourn a few weeks ago. Tons of confusion exists about baptism. In this sermon, I attempted to answer 2 questions. What does the Bible teach about baptism? What does this mean for us as individuals and as a community? This sermon focuses mainly on what baptism symbolizes. If we are Christians, we have passed through the waters of judgment, we have died and been raised with Christ, our sins have been washed away, and we have been baptized into one body. If you would like to download the sermon so you can listen on the go, you can go to this link, scroll down to “Baptism: A Sacred Symbol” and click download. I pray that you will be blessed as you remember these amazing truths of what God has done. This is the good news of the gospel!

Our Father…

2008-08-27T13:17:19Z

As we gathered last week in the early hours to pray as a family of believers, we heard one of our pastors teach for 10 minutes on the Lord’s Prayer. As pastors, we took between 10 and 15 people each and led our groups through the movements of the Lord’s prayer.

As I led my group, my heart was moved by the beauty of how this prayer proceeds and how Jesus in His graciousness gave it as an example. The thing is, I’ve used this model many times before, but something new was impressed on my heart. I would like to spend the next several weeks walking through the progression of the prayer in this blog.

The first statement in the prayer is, “Our Father in heaven…” What struck me anew was the thought that we are to remember before we ever come to God with our needs. God does command that we bring our concerns before Him, but before we do that, isn’t it needed that we remember who we are praying to?

So we say, “Our Father” and we remember who it is that we are praying to. We remember that we once were not a people and now we are a people of God’s own possession (1 Peter 2:9). We once were members of the domain of darkness and now God has not only rescued us, He has made us beloved children! He is our Father and He cares for us more than we could ever dream or imagine. He has plans for His children and He is always good and He always knows what is best.

As we enter our times of prayer, we need to remember who God is and what He has done. He is the caring Father and He calls us to boldly come into His presence (Hebrews 4:14-16). The rest of our prayer will flow from the realization that God is our Father and that He hears our prayers.

If I Were to Die at 40…

2008-08-15T01:44:30Z

Suffering with a 103.1 fever, I contemplated the brevity of life this week. Though the fever has passed and I am recovering, it is easy to be reminded how short life is and how weak we truly are. One of my spiritual heroes is Oswald Chambers. Though I differ with a few of his theological views, his writings and life have been an inspiration to me. Oswald lived a full life and died suddenly in his early 40’s from a ruptured appendix.

As I laid in bed, I thought about my life. What if I only lived until I was 40. The reality is, I am not guaranteed my next breath. James 4:13-16 says that we are a mist that appears for a little while and vanishes.

But, if I had but five and a half years to live, I wonder what I would do differently today? It doesn’t matter what I would do tomorrow, because my gift of procrastination allows me to always see tomorrow as a day away. So what would I do today?

Some things I wouldn’t change. I would still hug Ginger and Thomas everyday after work. I would still help out with the house chores and work on my house. I would still seek to know people and do my job well.

But some things would change. Slight as they might be, some things would change and I’m seeking to change them today.

I would pray a little more. I would print out some prayer requests and at down times, I would pray instead of catching a witty video on youtube. I would be more missionally minded concerning my neighborhood and what that will look like as we begin a missional community at our home next week. I would be more mindful of the brevity of life and seek God’s face with more fervency knowing that anything of eternal significance must come from His hand. I would be sad to leave my family, but I would begin longing for home a little more each day - my eternal home with my Savior and King.

All of these things have been slight changes for me today. I’m hoping to stay disciplined, by God’s grace, and see some of these stick with me for the long haul. What would change for you?

We are Family

2008-08-07T13:28:14Z

Woven throughout the New Testament is the beautiful reality that those who are in Christ now have a new identity. We don’t “do” things to earn anything or to make us anything. Who we are drives what we do and this is the amazing reality of the Gospel.

One of our new identities is that we have been adopted into a family. You might read that statement and say, “Yeah, I’ve known that since I was a kid.” But knowing something and living in the reality of it are two different things.

An Acts 29 pastor, Jeff Vanderstelt, writes, “We are God’s family and this means that we are His children who are adopted and fully accepted and loved. We don’t do good works to be justified. We do them because we ARE justified.”

So what does this mean for your life? As you enter this week, how might you love better if you began to view the Christians in your midst as your family?

I know for me, I gladly sacrifice with joy for my wife and son, but it is a different story when I step out of the context of my “immediate” family. When we begin to live in the reality that our family is much larger than we can imagine and that our family is for eternity, we might have a shift in focus.

Families eat together, play together, share financial burdens, surround each other with love, and the list goes on and on. As we do this, the world will see our love for one another. Francis Schaeffer writes, “…without true Christians loving one another, Christ says the world cannot be expected to listen, even when we give proper answers.” He goes on to write that we should work hard to give honest and helpful answers, but he concludes this thought by saying, “But after we have done our best to communicate to a lost world, still we must never forget that the final apologetic which Jesus gives is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians.”

Read John 1:12-13 and Ephesians 4:11-32 and ask God to reveal to you how you have neglected building up your family in love and what you need to do in order to better love and sacrifice for your family.

The Bible: A Means to an End

2008-07-23T22:26:47Z

“The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.”

A.W. Tozer wrote this in the preface of The Pursuit of God. As I reflect this afternoon, I am convicted of my inability to stay centered on the fact that the main goal of my life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I can only enjoy God if I know Him. How do we get to know Him? God reveals Himself to us in His Word. How often do I approach the Scriptures as something to be understood so I can teach them to others instead of seeking to grow in intimacy with the Father? How often do I open the Bible in order to check off the list of “to dos” for the day? Sadly enough, this is how I can easily operate.

After such realizations in the past, I would beat myself up and just try harder, but I don’t feel like this is the proper route to go. My motivation to seek God must come from something greater than some mustered up self-will. I need to repent and confess my sin before God and others. I need to ask God to help me because I am in desperate need. Then I need to preach the Gospel to myself.

How can preaching the Gospel to myself help me seek God? I must remember who God is, what He’s done, and who I am. God is holy. He is good, perfect and always right. I am a sinner and I am deserving of Hell because of my rebellion against God. God has brought me from the domain of darkness and death and adopted me to be part of His family. With such great love that I cannot imagine, God has wiped my slate clean and given me a new heart. I no longer try to earn anything because, plain and simple, I can earn nothing but death. He lavishes His grace on me and calls me to seek Him. Even typing this is an awesome reminder to me of what Rich Mullins writes, “the reckless, raging fury that we call the love of God”. My motivation is delight and not duty.

Times do exist when we will walk through the valley where we will have to continue the disciplines, but our goal in all of this time is to brought near to God and know Him more. May we be like Moses and plead with God that we might see His glory and not settle for the things of this world that are mere dung in comparison to knowing our Amazing God!