The Church

To Silence Satan’s Laugh

/ The Pastor

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.[John 17:11]

I listened to a sermon recently where the pastor talked about oneness as the Father and the Son are one; using the above text. But something he said really caught my attention. He said that when we, as a church, get caught up in disputes or controversies or anything that takes our eyes off of Christ, Satan laughs.

He laughs.

Why?

Satan laughs because he won as he managed to get the church to take their eyes off of Christ. And ultimately that is what Satan is trying to do with all people. For you see, sin is a turning inward to see yourself as god; trusting oneself over God almighty. And when we look inward, we see only our agenda and our will. And let me tell you, our agenda and our will is not God’s.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. [Isaiah 55:8-9]

And Satan knows this and thus tries get us to focus on ourselves. For if Satan can divert our attention away from Jesus, then the church is not going to be the church as God wants. In scripture, the relationship of Jesus and the Church is like that of a husband and a wife, but only better. But if a wife (the Church) is not focused on her husband (Jesus); or worse yet, looking for another, the marriage is in trouble. And therefore, as the Church, we need to be one with Christ. For it is only by looking to Christ that we see his purpose and will for our lives. And that purpose? Is to be one as the Father and the Son are one. And when we are in one accord with the Father, the Kingdom of God is advanced. We are called to glorify God through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ whereby letting the Holy Spirit add to “the numbers”.

But that won’t happen if the church is turned in upon itself. The Church MUST be Christ focused. The Church MUST humble itself before the throne of God. The Church MUST lay it’s burdens down and trust God to care for it’s needs. The Church MUST remain focused. The Church MUST be one as the Father and the Son (and the Holy Spirit) are one.

And so my prayer for the Church; the congregations I am leaving and the one I am heading to shortly, is that we are one; one in purpose. May our eyes remain fixed on Jesus, so much so, that we give no occasion for Satan to laugh.

All praise, honor, glory and worship be unto God our Father through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Pastor -|—

P.S. If you want to listen to the sermon I referenced at the beginning, follow the below link.

Sermon by Pastor Gary Jepsen, May 1

The Church being the Church

/ The Pastor

This pastor experienced a first yesterday, during worship, that reaffirmed how proud and thankful I am to be part of this ministry; watching the church be the church.

[I didn’t witness any of this but am relaying on second hand accounts]

During the scripture readings our back-up organist started not feeling well. Some guys in the balcony noticed that she laid her head on the organ a couple times and kept dabbing her forehead. That prompted those guys to get up and head downstairs to keep an eye on her; alerting the ushers. Eventually she got up from her organ bench and laid down on the floor up front. That’s when I heard some thundering foot steps come from behind me and a rush of people (including 3 nurses) running to help Linda. My wife was included in that group of nurses (who was also holding our 9 month old son). Kevin, who also responded, grabbed Malachi so Connie could help and then Kevin’s wife, Emily, came down from the balcony to watch our children. Someone then called 911 and helped arrived in minutes. Linda walked out of the sanctuary being escorted by her entourage and was eventually taken to the ER as a precaution.

(NOTE: Linda was later discharged and is now home, doing fine).

After the scripture reading, while people were still attending to Linda, I lead the congregation in prayer and then continued with the Gospel reading and then the sermon. We never missed a beat. Following the sermon, Sharon got up to play piano for the final couple songs.

I think those who were involved would say that they didn’t do anything usual but rather just responded to someone who needed help. As the pastor I was proud to see people jump into action and fill in the voids so that worship could continue and Linda could be cared for. A couple times I caught myself tearing up in concern for Linda but also in pride at watching the church be the church. People knew their parts. It didn’t seem that anyone had to question what to do or who should do what.

They just did it.

That’s the Church in action; responding in faith in such a way that it is as natural as breathing. And I never really questioned that people would respond in such a way, but it was nice to see it first hand, even though I could do without the ambulance visit.

Father God, I an thankful that You were watching out for Linda and that Your Spirit was in action through the Church to provide care in so many ways. May You continue to bring healing to Linda and may the Church continue to be the Church; all to Your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.

The Pastor -|—

Our First Love

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

I commend these words of Scripture to you and the following prayer:

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
[Revelation 2:1-5]

Lord visit our church. We have heard Thy message to the churches at Ephesus (see text above); it is a message to us also. Oh! do not let any of us lose our first love. Let not our church grow cold and dead. We are not, we fear, what once we were. Lord revive us! All our help must come from Thee. Give back to the church its love, its confidence, its holy daring, its consecration, its liberality, its holiness. Give back all it ever had and give it much more. Take every member and wash his feet, Sweet Lord, most tenderly, and set us with clean feet in a clean road, with a clean heart to guide them, and do Thou bless us unto your glory. [Charles Spurgeon]

I read this prayer and then went to re-familiarize myself with the letter to the Church in Ephesus in Revelation 2 and I was struck by the words: you have abandoned the love you had at first. And I can’t help but wonder if this is still the message to the Church today.

Have we abandoned our “first love”?
Have we grown weary of bearing up the name of the Lord?
Have we lost patience in the midst of persecution?
Do we toil for the Gospel?
Do we test the spirits and those who say they preach in the name of Jesus?

Have we abandoned the love we had at first in order to cling to this world?

I read these words of Scripture over and over again and then went back to the prayer of Charles Spurgeon and found myself praying for the Church; pleading to God on behalf of the Church; appealing to God to send His Spirit. I found myself praying for
revival,
renewal,
Gospel boldness,
a renewed sense of passion for Jesus,
courage and strength to resist the tides of change,
faith to be transformed and not to conform.

I found myself wondering why God has put up with the Church so long; why not just dump us. Then I was quickly reminded that Jesus, the bridegroom, will never ever leave his bride, the Church. Jesus died and rose that we may be made holy and sanctified and Jesus is not going to quit until the job is finished. In the mean time there is much to be done.

For you?

Pray for the Church (which includes you). Pray that we return to our first love (Jesus) and proclaim this Good New to a shifting culture. Pray for the Spirit to revive His people and pray for the Spirit to raise up passionate, God-fearing, Jesus-loving disciples. Pray for this nation. Pray for leaders. Pray for peace.

There is indeed much to do. There are many who need THE Good News of Jesus Christ. And there is no time to waste, so let’s get started and…

Let’s pray…

The Pastor -|—

Youth ministry vision

/ The Pastor / 10 Comments

For a couple months now, myself and a couple other people here in Jackson have been talking about the future of youth ministry in Jackson County.  At present, there is only one church in Jackson County that has a youth director (1st Baptist in Jackson) and that person is only part time.  We see a huge mission field that needs to be tapped.

Right now the vision we have been playing with and praying about is to have a ministry set up with a full time person running the ministry.  This ministry would be run and supported by a board of directors (representative of all the churches).  We believe this ministry needs to be located outside of our church buildings and in a neutral location (possibly an old store front downtown).  We have toured other community youth ministry programs to get an idea of what we might be able to do.  We visited The Connection in Canby, MN and the Youth For Christ center in Fairmont, MN.  In the Dawson, MN area there is a rural youth ministry network that just started this past fall called Route 212.  They don’t have a building, but that is something they are praying about.  And I know there is a community youth ministry program/building in Olivia, MN.

Is Jackson next?

The main thing for us (and the other ministries we have looked at) is that this ministry needs to be a Bible based, Christian ministry.  We recognize that our different denominations have various beliefs and practices, but when it comes right down to it, we believe that Jesus Christ is our salvation.  There are many things we can agree upon and we want to celebrate that.

This vision started with Salem and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches talking about sharing a youth director…now it has grown to this.  So today at 1pm a bunch of us are getting together to pray.  We know that if this is God directed and ordained then we can not fail…but we need to be faithful and listen to God’s voice.  So we are committed to praying about this and listening.  We don’t know how this ministry will look or if we are even called to do this, but one thing I do know…there is a lot of excitement about this among our small group.  Our hope is that, if this is ordained by God, this vision will catch on with others.

So my questions for you are these: Is there anyone out there that has a community youth ministry program in their area?  How is it set up?  What is your experience with it?

Like I said, I don’t know where this will go and there are a lot of questions to be asked and answered, but where ever it does go, it will be all for the glory of God.

Praise be to God!

-edh-