As I sit at my desk praying and thinking about preaching at a church on this coming Sunday, my heart becomes more and more burdened. It is one thing to prepare a message, it is very different to let the Spirit burden my heart for the spiritual needs of those who will be present.
My mind went to Jeremiah 9:1; “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jeremiah 9:1). This dear prophet was very much like me; “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak.” To his feeling of inadequacy, God added the real condition of His people. They had forsaken the Lord for their own comforts and because of faithlessness, idolatry, they refused to repent. In a general sense, the Church is in the same state of heart as Israel was. That, plus my feeling of inadequacy puts me in a very difficult spot – except for my confidence in God. My tears will not effectuate change in those I preach to. I want my burden to prepare my own heart. There is only one thing that will both prepare the preacher and the people – the work of the Spirit, which could include tears. Paul shed many tears. He reminded the Ephesian elders that he served them “with all humility and with tears and with trials…for three years [he] did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears” (Acts 20:19, 31). This was true of other churches. “For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you” (2 Corinthians 2:4). Paul remembered young Timothy’s tears as he wrote his last letter (2 Timothy 1:4). The question I must ask everyone who claims to be a leader in the Church; where are your tears over the general spiritual conditions that prevail in the Church today? Academic training, good sermons, and well thought out programs are not enough. Our hearts must be fully engaged with the Spirit of Jesus to learn His heart for His bride. His work alone will bring about change.
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In the last four days, I have detailed the MISSION, VISION, STRATEGY, and AMBITION of New Foundations International. There is one more critical ingredient that must be added; PRAYER. In this element, we express our utter dependence on God for everything. Jesus said, “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5c). This cannot be simply a saying, but the actual attitude of our hearts and minds toward every aspect of this ministry.
It is not just our prayers that are needed to move training forward in various parts of the world, but we ask you to stand with us in prayer. Paul begged in 2 Thessalonians 3:1, “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you.” Notice that Paul is appealing for prayer from these believers based on how they had experienced “the Word of the Lord” working in them. This is what makes prayer so effective. When we have known God working in us, we then have reason to ask God to work in the same way in others. What about the speed we expect the “Word of the Lord” and work to move forward? If we take a quick look at how it moved in the book of Acts, we see that “the Word of God continued to increase” (6:7), “increased and multiplied” (12:24), “spread throughout the whole region” (13:49), and “continued to increase and prevail mightily” (19:20). All this activity is peppered with prayer throughout the Book of Acts, the Early New Testament Church. As they did, we recognize that nothing will ever be fruitful for God’s glory unless we express our total dependence in prayer. We humbly ask you again to join us in this. There is no doubt in our hearts that God will hear and we will see “a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (Habakkuk 1:5). AMBITION: “I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation” (Romans 15:20).
In the very beginning of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he says, “I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome” (Romans 1:15). In all of Paul’s letters, there are 65 references to preaching the gospel. If nothing else, this shows how central the gospel was to his ministry and it should be central to ours. The gospel permeated every aspect of Paul’s ministry, even in his last letter; “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel” (2 Timothy 2:8). This ministry, NEW FOUNDATIONS INTERNATIONAL, is bent on discipling believers and planting churches on the foundation of Jesus Christ through training indigenous leaders, not on the basis of anyone else’s works, any other organization, or the methods of men. Paul reminds us that “no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). Jesus pointed to this principle as laying “the foundation on the rock” (Luke 6:48). We desire that you build with us through the gospel by going through God’s Plan for His Church training. If this is not possible, you can build with us by praying for an open and effective door for the gospel in every unreached people group around the world. Pray for those we are training. You can send us notes and emails of encouragement to newfoundationsinternational@gmail.com or through support for training, translating or printing. Be ambitious in preaching the gospel! STRATEGY: To develop a ministry that is dependent on the authority and sufficiency of Scripture; not dependent on man or money.
What is the biblical foundation of this strategy? To answer this question, we must begin by looking at what the Bible says about itself and its authority. “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). This must be followed by, “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20–21). In these two references we see the personal hand of God in making sure that His Word, the Bible, was transmitted to us without human interference. Because of that, it carries God’s authority. What about the sufficiency of Scripture? Does it really provide all we need, or as some think, we must add something to it in order to meet our current culture and human conditions? Again, we turn to the Bible to answer this question. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). Scripture is enough! We are not saying that money, buildings, education and other things can’t be used by God in our lives and ministry, but we must be very clear and careful that none of these things are elevated in our minds and hearts to the level of authority or need that we have in God’s Word. I challenge you to examine your approach and attitude toward this principle. VISION: To see all people groups worshipping God.
“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.” (Psalm 22:27–28). “Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!” (Psalm 67:3). These are some verses, among many others, that drive our vision. Those in heaven who will join the eternal anthem, “Worthy is the Lamb” will be “ransomed…for God from every tribe and language, and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). I can’t think of a more exciting pursuit to work toward than God being worshipped for eternity by every people group around the world. John Piper reminds us in an article he wrote, God’s Call to Leave This American Mess, October 31, 2016, “God has far greater purposes for the worship of His Son, Jesus Christ, among the nations of this world that cannot be hindered by anything that happens in America.” In John 4, the disciples were concerned about material things such as food. “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). We should be greatly challenged by this statement when we think of all the ‘earthly’ pursuits that consume our energy, time and resources. I would risk saying that most of us need to change our focus. How do we do that? Jesus gave the answer; “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest” (4:35). When we change where are hearts are looking, we will want to do God’s will and finish His work so all people give Him worship. Some of you may not have seen our mission statement, so I have copied here.
MISSION: To glorify God by partnering with indigenous key leaders to establish biblical churches that are self-sustaining and reproducing among all people groups. To understand the biblical foundation for this statement, let’s look at the following Scriptures: · “All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,” (Numbers 14:21). · “May the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!” (Psalm 72:19). · “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14). · “So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:12). · “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27). There is nothing greater we could live for or work for. The world is full of pursuits and goals, but if their ultimate purpose is not to fill the earth with the glory of God, it is an aimless and temporary pursuit. We are looking for key leaders who have the same goal we have – the glory of God. If they do, we will give them biblical principles that glorify God through self-sustaining and reproducing church plants or through renewing existing churches. We trust this is your pursuit so we can work together for this great end. The question has been asked, "how can we measure our success? This is a great question as it pertains to the Christian life. I think we must be very careful how we measure success because God's ways are certainly much different than the ways of the world or human thinking. We have mentioned often that the world measures a church's success based on the size of the membership and buildings. But God is not concerned about how many we can get on our membership roll or in our buildings, but how many faithful men and women can we disciple and establish, and then send them out into God’s mission field? How many can we reproduce into faithful followers of Jesus.
Since we desire to follow Paul as he followed Christ, we should look at the end of their lives to get an idea of how their lives were measured when it was all over. First of all, since we are planting the Seed of the Word of God, we may NEVER see the harvest or results because much of the growth is in secret. We can only plant and water... “but God gave the increase [growth]” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Missionaries who have gone before us gave their lives and never saw much fruit, yet today we are seeing the fruit of their labors like in China, Burma, India, Vietnam and many other places. Paul never saw us but he kept on even when Demas and many others left him (2 Timothy 4:10). In fact, like Jesus, all deserted Paul who were in Asia (1:15; John 6:66). I suppose the best way to measure our lives and ministry is to be able to say on the day of our departure as Paul said, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (4:7). That is my prayer for all of us on that day! God has the perfect measuring tools! Jesus explained in Matthew 7:24-27 that there are two types of people in the world; those who are wise and the foolish. He likens “a wise man who built his house on the rock” to “everyone who hears these words of mine and does them” (7:24). There is another part of Jesus’ teaching that is equally important to hearing His Word and putting them into practice. The storms or the test will come to see if we mix what we have heard with faith that motivates obedience. If the Word is not combined with faith, it will not be put into practice. Hebrews illustrates this by using Israel; “For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened” (Hebrews 4:2).
More than ever before, the tests are coming to all of us and they are revealing whether we truly believe in the authority of Scripture or we obey only as far as we want to. After Jesus gave this simple childlike teaching, the Bible says that “He was teaching them as One who had authority, and not as their scribes” (7:29). This is one of the problems today all over the world. Often, we teach the Word, but those who hear want to make allowance or expectation for not applying or putting the Word into practice. The Word is not mixed with faith. James is very clear on this point. “Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (James 1:22–24). It is possible that we have grown into the habit of thinking we are obedient to the Word when in fact we make excuses for not, or simply forgetting so quickly what the Word said to us. This happens because we really do not believe the authority in the Word. The other reference in the New Testament we must look at is 1 Corinthians 10:14-22. In this section, Paul addresses the question as to whether believers should participate in feasts conducted in idol temples and also partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The word “participation or communion” means to have “close association, mutual relations or involvement”.
While the meat offered to an idol in and of itself is nothing (10:19), but the spiritual significance of the bread and cup in the Lord’s Supper pictured a “communion or close association” with Christ for which we must jealously protect. Paul makes it clear, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons” (10:21). Why do I point to this passage? As Paul was jealous over the spiritual maturity and growth of the Corinthians, we should also be jealous over our relationship with the Lord Jesus. If we find ourselves surrendering our loyalty and affections to any ideology that minimizes or detracts from who Jesus is and our “close association” with Him, we may be in danger of committing idolatry. This issue is about guarding our heart’s affections for Christ. He is jealous about this! “Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?” (10:22). Are you guarding your heart? Our natural reaction to the idea of jealousy is to think of it as envious of what others have which we do not have. But, there is a very different kind of jealousy that is part of God’s nature. God refers to Himself as a “jealous God” (Exodus 20:5; 34:10-17; Deuteronomy 4:23-24). Of the five references in the N.T. to the word “jealous”, there is one I wish to draw your attention to. It is in the epistle to the Corinthians which reminds us of Paul’s strong and pointed ministry to this church. He had invested his life in them and suffered unjust criticism, misunderstanding, and false accusations. Despite all that, he still loved them intensely and never gave up on them. He took on the responsibility of their spiritual growth. He worked with them that they might put off their pride and lack of moral back-bone and become mature in Christ. “I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:1–2). Paul says that he has “divine (godly) jealousy” for their spiritual growth and protection from deception. It was not self-serving, self-motivated jealousy. His purpose in nurturing this church was for one thing -- that they should be the bride of Christ -- for nothing and for no one else. This kind of concern for the spiritual maturity of those we serve and fellowship with needs to be much more real and intense as we disciple others. As with the Corinthians, there are forces at work in our churches that work against maturity or derail their growth by human programs and outright false teaching. Paul is very specific about why he carried this concern; “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (11:3). Is this our concern for others? The issue is not denominational forms or tradition. It’s what belongs to Christ and brings Him glory and praise. |
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