"WE'VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY"

Ava is in her first year of dance, and a few months ago I got to take her because Leslie was unable, and it was a lot of fun to see what she does each and every week.  The week I went they were working on a number that they are doing for their Spring Recital.  It is a cute routine they perform to the song, “Hey Hey we’re the Monkees.” 

Well, the other morning that song was stuck in my head and I was just mumbling the lyrics almost unconsciously to myself, and I came to a line in the song that stuck out to me for the first time and it is the line where they say,  “We're the young generation, and we've got something to say.”  

When I thought about that line in the song, I thought to myself, “Really…The Monkees?  They had something to say?  They had a message for their generation?”  I just remember them being a bunch of goofy guys with a goofy TV show.  Yet they are saying, “We’ve got something to say—we have an important message that we are trying to communicate.”  So with that in mind, I began to listen to some of their other songs to see what this message was—to see what it was that they were trying to say and here is what I found. 

In their song “Hey Hey We’re the Monkees” they make it clear that “People say they Monkey around, but that there too busy singing to put anybody down.”  They also had a popular song about not missing a train to Clarksville, a song about a love story between a daydream believer and a homecoming queen.  There is a song entitled “I’m a Believer,” but it is just a song about becoming a believer in love at first sight.  I found that most of their songs were about love and breakups and being nice to people and playing music and enjoying life and monkeying around.  That’s about it—that’s pretty much the message of The Monkees.

Now though it is not a bad thing to sing songs about being nice to people and settling down with someone you love and enjoying life, be honest, is that a message that is going to impact a generation?  Or, is that a message that we will only learn from listening to The Monkees?  

Truth is there are many today who believe that they have something significant to say—many who believe that they have something to bring to the table and often their message ends up being as common and as insignificant as the message of The Monkees.  That is not to be true of us believers.  We do have something to say.  We do have a message that has transformed cultures for good—a message that has bettered our world as a whole and has transformed wicked people and has restored wayward individuals.  We have a lifesaving—a life changing message.

For more on this life changing message, click HERE and listen to the sermon entitled, KNOWING JESUS AS SAVIOR.

"Quote" of the Week

"The gospel is the life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth." -C.J. Mahaney

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE WORLD?"

If you go into any major bookstore, usually the largest number of books that you find are Self-Help or Self-Improvement books.  Most bookstore owners will tell you that this section is one of the most if not THE most popular sections in their store and that these books fly off the shelf. 

I recently browsed through the Self-Improvement section of books at both Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million and here were a few of the titles of popular Self-Help books I found… 

Overcoming Childhood Trauma

Prozac Nation:  Young and Depressed in America

How to Stay Sane

Healing Your Emotional Self: A Powerful Program to Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem, Quiet Your Inner Critic, and Overcome Your Shame

Stopping the Pain: A Workbook for Teens Who Cut and Self Injure

Grief Therapy

The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook

Healing Thoughts for Troubled Hearts

Now what should this tell us?  What do we learn from the titles of these best-selling books?  We learn that the majority of people in our world today, whether they want to admit it or not, know deep down that something is not right with us and with the world around us.  That is why books like Prozac Nation and How to Stay Sane are best sellers. 

People know, deep down that something is off—something is not right with us and with the world around us.  People know that there is something ruined and wrecked in our world and even in us that needs fixing.  Well, God provides answers for us in His word—he tells us why things are not right with us and with the world around us and He also gives us the solution.  First we learn from His word that we live in a broken world and that we as people are broken as well, but we also learn that a solution has been provided in the person of Jesus.      

"Quote" of the Week

“As long as there are spots on the moon, it is vain to expect anything spotless under it.” -Thomas Fuller

THE GOSPEL:  A SINGLE MESSAGE WITH A SINGLE PURPOSE

Though there are four Gospel books in Scripture, each written with different perspectives and intended for different audiences—each tell of one story.  There are not four separate Gospels.  The story of the person and work of Christ—the good news of the Lord Jesus is a singular message and each writer writes for the same reason. 

Their reason for writing is not to give a biographical account of Jesus’ life.  In fact, as one reads through these books they find that each of the writers leave out a great deal from Christ’s life.  Though we have accounts of His birth in two of the four books and one mention of his childhood in Luke, each writer spends the majority of their time giving details of Jesus ’earthly ministry in his 30s, just a few years before His death.  Why?  Because these books are written for redemptive reasons.  

Each of these books gives us a detailed account of the extraordinary lengths God has gone to save sinners.  They discuss Jesus’ incarnation, his earthly life, his mighty acts and his suffering, death and resurrection to give readers a saving knowledge of God.  

"Quote" of the Week

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Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.  1 Corinthians 15:1-4

GOD IS A MISSIONAL GOD

For the longest time, when I thought about missions, I thought about a work that takes place overseas in the middle of nowhere—somewhere in the middle of Africa or in Asia or in the Middle East.  And when I thought about missions, I also thought about missionaries and pictured Indiana Jones type stuff.   I pictured people living out in the middle of nowhere in grass huts fighting off deadly poisonous snakes and eating bugs—something completely foreign to me. 

It wasn’t until I went on my first mission trip after graduating college that I got to see first-hand the fact that GOD IS A MISSIONAL GOD.  I remember sitting in a small, hole-in-the-wall church in a village outside of Mexico City and watching those in the church worshiping God together.  I remember it dawned on me right then and there that God is just as much at work in this village as he is anywhere else in the world. 

God opened my eyes on that trip to the fact that he is all about being known and worshiped everywhere—HE IS A MISSIONAL GOD.   He wants to be known and worshiped where he is not known and worshiped.  

Over the years, I’ve not just learned that truth through my experiences in ministry and by doing mission work, but have learned it by studying His Word.  The Bible goes to great lengths to stress the fact that God is a missional God.  Ralph Winter once said, “The Bible is not the basis of missions; missions is the basis of the Bible."  

To hear more of God’s heart for the nations click HERE and listen to, “JONAH IS ABOUT A MISSIONAL GOD.”.

"Quote" of the Week

"God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose."  John Piper