Pastor Chuck’s Blog

7-7-2022

This past Monday we celebrated the independence of the United States. I hope your celebration was meaningful and fun. Related to that, in the Old Testament book of Psalms we read this:

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…” (Psalm 33:12a, NIV)

God tells us that any nation, anywhere, whose God is the Lord will be blessed. In other words, when a nation puts God first, God’s blessings will follow. We’ve experienced that throughout the history of the United States of America. This isn’t an article about whether the United States is a Christian nation or not, but an article about how to continue the greatness and blessings we’ve experienced.

I think we can all agree that there is a lot of division right now and our nation desperately needs a recovery. It’s interesting that Jesus actually gave us a process whereby we can begin to bring unity instead of division. If we can get a grasp on what God has to say about this, we can be instrumental in bringing recovery to our nation. Where all of this begins to intersect with the Scripture is this simple principle you’ve heard a thousand times called reaping what we have sown. And here’s what happens in the principle of sowing and reaping: When you begin to reap what you have sown you start looking someone or something to blame. But mature people don’t look for someone to blame; mature people look for something to do. Here’s what Jesus had to say about this:

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, ‘Let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite…. (Matthew 7:3-5a, NIV)

Mind you, this is Jesus speaking. He says, “You” – and I’m part of you – He says, “you hypocrite”. And no one wants to be a hypocrite because we don’t even like hypocrites. By the way, do you know what a hypocrite is? A hypocrite is someone who expects something of someone else that they are unwilling to do themselves. Jesus says, “If you’re focused on the speck in somebody else’s eye and it’s really bothering you, chances are whatever you don’t like in them, there is some of that in you.” He goes on:

You hypocrite. First, take the plank out of your own eye. (Matthew 7:5b, NIV)

Here’s what He’s saying, in case you miss it. When something about you bothers me, I need to take a long, hard look at me before bothering you. That could change everything. And I know what you’re thinking. If you’re a Republican you think, “Democrats, would you just look in the mirror?” Democrats are going, “Yeah, Republicans, if you could just see you the way I see you.” And Jesus is going, “That’s a great idea. Let’s all turn off our televisions and let’s all go home and look in the mirror. Let’s all go home and say, ‘Hmm, that stuff that drives me crazy about them, is there any of that in me?'” And, of course, you don’t think there is, but this next part is so brilliant. Here’s what Jesus says:

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly. (Matthew 7:5, NIV)

This is a promise; this is a promise to you, your family, your company, your network of friends, our community and our nation. If you take the plank out of your own eye, here is the promise: Then you will see clearly.

This isn’t a Republican problem or a Democrat problem. This is a, “We the people” problem, and it’s going to take, “We the people” to get back on track. Can you imagine what would happen in our country if we began to take the planks out of our own eyes so that we can have productive conversations? We could get on the road to recovery. There would be much more unity and far less disunity. There would be so many positive things that would happen. Because this is an “us and we” thing, not a “they” thing.

So let’s do this. Jesus said, “If you’ll look in the mirror and if you will address the plank in your eye, I promise you will be able to see clearly to help the other people around you see clearly.” And if more and more people see clearly, we will make progress in our communities and progress in our nation once again. But it doesn’t begin with they, it begins with me and it begins with we. And with God’s help, we can get back on track to being a nation whose God is the Lord.

6-24-2022

Earlier today the Supreme Court of the United States released their landmark opinion overturning Roe v Wade, effectively ending recognition of a constitutional right to abortion and giving individual states the power to allow, limit, or ban the practice altogether. While this does not eliminate abortion in the United States, it puts the power in the hands of individual state instead of the federal government.

LifePoint has always been an advocate of choosing life and we applaud this decision. This is why we have partnered with Embrace Grace. We want to give women with unplanned pregnancies an alternative to abortion. We want to be the beacon of light in our community for these often frightened individuals in need of care, mercy, love, and help. We also want to advocate for foster care and adoption as options for those with unplanned pregnancies.

Doug Clay, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God said, “I’m thankful to God for this historic day…a day to celebrate life. Not to gloat, but to rejoice and give thanks to the Lord of life. To continue our efforts in creating a culture of life in the communities we serve.”

I agree. We are not gloating, but we are rejoicing because this ruling will reduce the number of abortions taking place in the US. But we know that there will also be challenges.

A number of organizations have put plans into motion to attack Catholic Churches (and others), along with pro-life centers with violence. I suspect there will be substantial rioting by those who are pro-abortion.

So I’m asking you to pray with me for churches and individuals across our country in the coming days and weeks ahead. Pray for their safety and for God’s protection whatever may come.

Further, while there are those who feel as though we’re somewhat “insulated” from this in south-central Iowa, we are raising the alert level for our safety team this weekend and in the weeks ahead in order to assure a safe place to worship. Our safety team will also be in place for our Community Patriotic Worship Service on the square on July 3. I have also communicated with our Network Youth Director regarding security at camp in the coming weeks and he has assured me that plans are in place to assure a safe camping experience for all of our students and counselors.

Most importantly, let’s pray that those who are far from God will come into relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ!

6-22-2022

Storms are a part of life. Sometimes we get into storms and, if we’re honest with ourselves, we can figure out why. But other times, we find ourselves in a storm even when we’ve been doing all the right things. We wonder, “Lord, where are you? What did I do to deserve this? Why am I in this storm?” In Mark’s Gospel we read this:

“That day, when evening came, [Jesus] said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?'” (Mark 4:35-38, NIV)

Are you ready for this? The disciples were in the storm because of their obedience. Don’t let yourself believe that storms only come because we’ve done something wrong. Sometimes it’s because we’ve been obedient. And never forget this:

Jesus doesn’t promise to keep me out of storms, but He does promise to get me through them.

Mark goes on: “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!'” (Mark 4:39-41, NIV)

Even though it may be hard to see at first, God is there with you, and there is a purpose to the storm. We find this purpose by asking the right question and avoiding the wrong one. When we find ourselves in a storm, ask God “why,” not “what.” Ask, “What do you want me to learn?”, because there’s a lesson in every storm.

I love you, church!

Chuck

6-15-2022

As promised, here is the information we talked about last Sunday on how to make disciples. Two things:

1) This is not an option for Jesus followers. This is a command from Jesus, and so very necessary in our world.

2) Why wouldn’t we want to do this? Connecting people to God and to church is easy, and with the environments you’ve created here at LifePoint, people will want to be part of what God is doing.

So here’s the info……..

The strategy:

1) Invest and invite.

You love your neighbors. You love your friends. You love the people you work with and when the time is right you invite them to church. You invest in the relationship, then you invite them to church. When the time is right you tell your story and include the Jesus part, then invite them to church.

2) Invite strangers.

Whenever you hear the three nots”, you’re just going to invite them to church. You hear someone mention one of the nots and you just say, “Oh, you should come to my church.” You’re sitting in a booth having lunch with someone and you hear someone in the next booth mention one of the three nots, you turn around and get up on your knees in the booth and lean over and say, “Hey, you should come to my church.” For real! Here are the three nots. Whenever you hear:

Not in church
Not going well
Not prepared for

“We’re not really church people.”
“Oh, you should come to my church.”
“Wow, we moved to southern Iowa and we weren’t prepared for all of the changes.”
“Hey, you should come to my church.”
“Things aren’t going well in our marriage.”
“You know, you should come to my church.”

LifePoint isn’t the answer for everything, but God is. All three of these nots are cries for help, and LifePoint Church is a place where people can find help. Here’s your specific invitation:

Come sit with me.

Come sit with me makes it personal. And if they push back on your invitation, here’s the elevator pitch – not a sales pitch, because we’re not selling anything, but the elevator pitch:

We all know that life is complicated and I know you want to get it right. We just want to help.

That’s it. You can tailor that to the “not” they use. This is a big deal and the reason it’s a big deal is because this is what Jesus instructed us to do. There are people who are looking for answers to life’s complications and Jesus has all of the answers. And we just want to help facilitate them finding those answers.

I had the opportunity to use this very strategy last night at Tuesday in the Park here in Osceola. Someone asked me about LifePoint and I was able to invite them to church. Part of their response was, “Well, we’re not real hard core church goers, but a few times a year……” And I said, “I get it, but we’ve learned that life is complicated and I know you want to get it right. We just want to help.” When I said that it was like a light bulb went on in this gentleman’s mind and he said, “We’ll check it out.”

I hope they do……and I pray we will all do everything we can to help people know Jesus. He’s the answer they’re looking for……and church, I know you can do this and follow Jesus’ instruction to make disciples!