Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Come to me all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. You shall find, if you're a Jesus church, you shall find rest unto your souls if Jesus is really the focal point.

Guest (Male): On today's word, Pastor Brett Meador says the church is to be a place where the believer is restored in their faith.

Brett Meador: But really the Lord is our great physician. Christ is our healer. I hope that the church is a place where you can come and be refreshed and restful.

Guest (Male): Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Jesus commanded his church just before his ascension. Yet it's in the writings of the Apostle Paul we find vital elements for steadfast faith in both ministry in the church and as a witness to the world. Pastor Brett Meador begins by reminding us of Habakkuk's vision for preachers in today's word.

Brett Meador: There in Habakkuk 2:2, and the Lord answered me and said, "Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." Write the vision and make it plain, or make it as clear as you can on tables. The idea is tables of stone. Chisel it in stone is the idea. Make it plain and readable and clear, immovable is kind of the idea. Tables of stone, that he, the person who reads it, may run with it.

We don't start running until we read it. That's the idea. Because there's so many things that just naturally pull us off course, and we have to fight to keep it on the right track. Our goal is to be, number one, a ministry of simplicity. The way we do that is to say we really want to be a Jesus-only church and the message of Jesus. And as it turns out, the Bible says of Jesus, "Lo, I come in the volume of the book; it is written of me."

For that reason, we read the whole Bible because the whole Bible is about Jesus. It all points back to Jesus, even the Old Testament. Because in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's what the Bible says of itself about Jesus. And when you're in the word, you're focusing on the person and the work of Jesus, the cross, and him crucified.

The Bible gives you and me as churchgoers everything we need to know about how to do church. And by the way, it's fairly simple, but at the same time, we have a lifetime of work to do with just what the Bible says. I don't need to add stuff. I've got enough to do with what the Bible says without adding goofy traditions of men.

So what does the Bible say about church behavior? Well, I love going to the very early church. The church did four things, really. Acts chapter 2, verse 42, it says, "And they, the church, after the saving of 3,000 people, all this stuff that happened," it says, "they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer."

Let's break these down. Apostles' doctrine, the word doctrine means teaching. And the apostles taught what Jesus taught them and also what the Old Testament scriptures, the Hebrew Bible, taught them, and they were able to instruct the church about truth. And that gives us what we have today. The apostles' doctrine is basically the epistles of the apostles.

The epistles are the letters the apostles wrote. We have First and Second Corinthians from Paul and Romans, and we have letters from Peter and James and John. They're all the apostles that write doctrine. The apostles' doctrine is teaching the Word of God. We do that, hopefully that's part of our thing.

The second word is fellowship, which is koinonia is the Greek word, which is a really neat word. If you look it up, it's not just that we're bros hanging out. It's more like we're circled around Jesus having rich time together in light of Christ and our relationship with him.

And then this one, the breaking of bread. Now, scholars debate, "Is this? Did they have meals together or did they do the communion table, the Lord's table, the Eucharist, the communion supper? Which one?" And my answer: yes.

As it turns out, we do have early in the church, one of the things they did is they called them love feasts, and they would get together and have meals together. And they would break bread. And that was in those days, even kind of today, we think the same way but not as overtly. But when you eat the same food that somebody else is eating, you become united. That's the way they viewed it in those days. So they had meals together.

Other scholars say, "No, no, no. It's not about actually having dinner with people. It's more about the communion table, that the church needs to be continuing steadfastly at the communion table." And I believe that's true as well. Jesus said, "Do this often in remembrance of me," and took the bread and the cup, and they remembered the cross of Jesus Christ.

And then of course, the fourth one is obvious, but we also need to be given to prayer, to pray regularly. Let me show you something. Paul says something that I think is pretty powerful when he's teaching his young protégé Timothy about ministry. First Timothy chapter one.

And there, Paul gives a compare and contrast: the true ministry versus the ugly ministry and the prideful ministry. He says, "This is the wrong way to do it," and then he says, "Here's how I do it." Paul says, "As I besought thee," First Timothy 1:3, "to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine."

Boy, there's a strong word right there. Timothy, charge them to teach no other doctrine. The word doctrine, we already talked about that, the teaching of the apostles. If there were people coming up with new stuff, charge them to stop teaching new stuff. No other doctrine than that which you've already been given. The old statement is true: if it's new, it's not true, and if it's true, it's not new.

Well, Pastor Brett, what does the good ministry look like? Well, that's where Paul, he gives his credentials and why he's counted worthy to be accepted into the ministry. And what does his resume look like? Well, let me, before I read this, Paul could have put together an impressive resume in worldly terms. Remember Gamaliel, Pharisee of all Pharisees, Saul was intellectual, and he was one of the smartest guys in the room.

He could have blown them away. And by the way, he actually did talk to the Corinthians about that credential when he called it all dung. But listen to what he says to Timothy when it comes to the true ministry. That was the false ministry.

But verse 12 is where he says his sort of resume. In verse 12, he says, "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry," who was, here it is, his list of qualifications: "who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."

And he said, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Howbeit, verse 16, "for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long-suffering or patience for a pattern or an example to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting."

In other words, Paul says, "Man, you want to know my qualifications? I was a blaspheming, persecuting, ignorant, injurious person. But I obtained mercy. God was merciful to a horrible sinner." And he said, "I, Paul," he didn't say, "I was the chief of sinners." He said, "This is a faithful saying worthy of everybody accepting it, that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am the chiefest of them."

I am the chiefest of sinners. He's saying, "I'm the worst sinner ever." That's what he said, chiefest. And he said, "The reason I'm qualified is because Christ saved me." And it's almost like he's saying, "If God can save me, then guess what? He can definitely save you."

Don't you love Paul's approach better than, "Look at my genealogy and who I'm related to, and listen to how smart I am, and look at what I got to say even though it sounds a little like vain jangling. Still, blah, blah, blah." But instead, Paul says, "You want to know my credentials? Man, I was a horrible sinner. I persecuted the church, but I obtained mercy and grace, and Jesus saved me, the chiefest of sinners."

Can I just say that's my qualifications? I would argue with Paul, except he says we have to accept it, worthy of all acceptation, that he is the chiefest of sinners. But I say, "No, I think I am, Paul." You see, that's my qualifications as well. If people can look at me and say, not, "Wow, what an impressive person," but if people can say, "Wow, if the Lord can save Brett, then there's hope for me."

That's the truth. We're all saved by God's grace through faith, which really demands that we remember who we are and have a ministry of humility. It's not all about me and what is God going to do through me? In some of these churches almost borderline on cultism when it's almost like, "Yeah, Jesus is great, but you're going to do greater things than Jesus." And it's more about you doing great things and less about Jesus. That's where I'd say you start dabbling in real dangerous territory.

Athe Creek wants to be a ministry of simplicity, all about Jesus, but also a ministry of humility realizing that we're a bunch of sinners who might argue with Paul about who's actually worse. But good news, we were saved by God's grace through faith. A ministry of true humility.

Number three, a ministry of sincerity. Sincerity, it's an interesting thing because Paul even said that we need to have that faith unfeigned there in verse five, by the way. Not fake faith. Christians, we get pretty good at being fake. And I'll tell you what happens, this is horrible thing that happens to church people: is we want to sort of present ourselves as sort of this pristine stained-glass person that comes into church. I am a Jesus person. I believe in God and the Bible, and I alone am pretty amazing and got it all dialed in.

And man, God forbid somebody find out that you cussed last week and that you're actually a sinner. And you're just sure that you'll be found out. If somebody realizes, "Wow, you sinned last week?" Guess what? We've all sinned last week. Every single one of us sinned last week. Speak for yourself. If you know what the Bible's definition of sin is, you'll know you sinned last week.

We all sin, and we're full of sin. And this church, we make this plastic Christian like, "I'm really good," and man, God forbid we let people know that our marriage is struggling, because then they'll think we're sinners. No, we know you're a sinner. And guess what? Join the crowd. Marriage is hard, and people struggle in marriage.

And yet sad to say, the church has become this place where whatever you do, don't let them know you're struggling because they might think you're a sinner. It's to me exactly the same, and I've used this illustration before, but like going up to the oncology center, cancer treatment center, and going in, "I can't believe there's cancer patients here. There's sick people here." You're like, "It's a cancer treatment place."

That's what the church is. A place for sinners to be treated. How should they be treated? Shot? No. We should be treated with love and compassion and kindness and not judgmental. And we should all know we're in this together. We all struggle and we all fall short. But it's this fake Christianity that gets us really messed up and we got to watch out for that.

I love what Hebrews, when talking about gathering in the church together, which we're not supposed to forsake. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 22 says, "Let us draw near with," and notice this, "a true heart." And the word there could be sincerity, that we gather and draw near to the Lord and the church with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And then check this out: "Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works." Man, we're to come sincerely and then come alongside of each other and try to nudge each other in the direction of love and good works. Not hammer each other, not judge each other into love and good works, but to just provoke.

The word provoke is a good word. It's not like poking someone with a stick. It's more like trying to gently, lovingly nudge them in the right direction, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

So we need a sincere church: sincere in our love for each other, sincere in caring for one another, sincere in worshipping the Lord. Worship can be one of the fakest times of church practice where we put on sort of a fake demeanor. But really we need to come truly and sincerely in worship. Man, that's something we at Athe Creek really want to try to do.

Some people, "Brett, where are the smoke and the lights? We need smoke and lights to really worship the Lord." Why do we need smoke and lights? To sing songs of praise and encourage you to sing along kind of in a living room type setting, that's what we're really wanting to do here at Athe because that's kind of what the Lord has called us to do, and we want to have a sincerity that's real.

Number four, a ministry of serenity. Serenity. The word serenity helps me keep my alliteration going here, or assonance as it's called. Serenity is the idea of peace. I hope that the church is a place where you can come and be refreshed and encouraged, a place where you are almost like a hospital.

Because a lot of you are out there all week long getting hammered, beat up by the world. Some of you guys have jobs where you have people just railing on you as a Christian. We want you to come and just be able to just say, "Oh, this isn't hostile territory. Coming to church, I could sit down and just be refreshed and encouraged, built up in faith, and then I can go back out there and get back in the trenches."

That's our goal as a hospital. "Well, Brett, what are you, the doctor at the hospital?" Nope. I'm one of the patients too, and I've just been in the hospital longer than some of you guys. I know where the Jell-O is, I know where the bathrooms are, and I'll point people in the right direction.

But really the Lord is our great physician, Christ is our healer. It's really what Jesus said, that classic passage Matthew 11, "Come to me all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. You shall find, if you're a Jesus church, you shall find rest unto your souls if Jesus is really the focal point. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." A place of refreshment.

But there's one more, and this is the big one as we conclude with the fifth. We got, first a ministry of simplicity, then a ministry of humility, then a ministry of sincerity, and then serenity. The last one: charity, a ministry of charity. "Oh, is this where you talk about giving?" No.

I'm not talking about charity like give to the poor. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about charity in the context of love. We need to be a church of love. And I'm going to say it as strong as I know how: any church that has a lot of great things but if it doesn't have love, pack it up and turn it into a bowling alley.

The Bible doesn't pull any punches on this one. Love is so important. Jesus said in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you." And how does he love us? Unconditionally and sacrificially. So he loves us, and we're to love each other, that you love one another.

By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, if you have an amazing church with lots of people in it? Nope. Bigger churches, just because a church is big doesn't mean it's right. Just because there's cars in the parking lot doesn't mean really anything.

The real test that Jesus says is if you have love one for another. And that's the question: our leadership, our staff, how can we be better at loving? Now, this is where it gets tricky. Remember he starts off this whole message from Paul to Timothy about, "Man, call out those guys. Charge them that they're teaching other doctrines."

And so there is a time and place. And see, here's the problem that I have. Would you guys agree that truth is on the chopping block right now in these days we're living? It's totally in danger of extinction: truth. So when I preach up here, there's a lot of prickly topics that I have, and some of them don't sound so loving. And I have to be careful. I try my hardest to be loving.

But here's the thing: love sometimes is a little prickly. Just ask Jesus when he turned the tables in the temple. Or what about when Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Whitewashed tombs, vipers?" He was hard on them, but was Jesus loving? Of course he was.

So here's the problem: I'm trying to champion truth and challenge truth, but I try to fight that love and truth balance. But here's what we have to be careful of, and there's a lot of pastors they're like porcupines: many fine points but not very huggable. I don't want to be that pastor.

But at the same time, I'm going to speak the truth and sometimes that hurts. But here's the thing: truth and love is the perfect balance. Jesus modeled that. Jesus was loving, but he also spoke the truth even when it hurt. But here's the thing: if you're going to mess up, maybe we should mess up on being just a little too loving.

I'd rather mess up on being too loving than being too truthful. "Brett, that doesn't sound very good." Well, let me put it this way: Paul the apostle in First Corinthians 13 almost brought it to a crazy level. But it's not crazy because it's inspired by God to say these words.

He says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love, charity, I have become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." It's like you speak with tongues. "Well, that's a spiritual thing." Yeah, but whatever, if you don't have love, you're like a gong show.

Verse 2: "Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so I could remove mountains." Well, pause for a second to think about that dude we just read about. Have you ever met someone who has the gift of prophecy in the New Testament? That's to speak words of edification and comfort.

And he also has understanding of all mysteries, all the mysteries of the Bible. He's got it all figured out. And he has all knowledge. Do you know somebody who truly knows everything? This guy does. He knows everything, he understands mysteries, got the gift of prophecy, and he has the faith so much that he can point to Mount Hood and say, "Mountain, be moved," and he moves it over to the coast.

Would you say that's a pretty impressive guy? But he says if you do all that, but if you don't have charity, I am nothing. Do you see the radical compare and contrast Paul is talking to the Corinthian church? You can have all those fancy spiritual things, but if you don't have love: nothing.

Verse 3: "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor." There's the social justice. Look at how good we are giving food out. But even that which seems like a loving thing, it doesn't necessarily mean it is a loving thing. And so he says, "Even though I feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned," that is to be martyred for the faith. It doesn't get more radical than that. But if you have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

Do you see the precedent that's being set here about loving one another? Now, the apostle John, not much is known about John after he was boiled in oil and he didn't die, so they throw him on an island. That's where he received the revelation of Jesus Christ.

But after that, we know that John's the only of the apostles who grew old. He grew up to over 90 years old. But the one thing church history, and like I said, we can learn stuff about church history, but the one thing we know about John the apostle is that when he was a little old man, he would travel around to the various churches, who by now those churches were 50, 60, 70 years old.

And so John would walk in and they'd put him up on the platform, and he would preach a very small, short sermon. And it was word for word this: he'd say, "Little children, love one another." And then he would walk off, and that was it. Can you imagine if John the apostle just showed up and he said, "Okay, I was the friend of Jesus, I was the one who leaned on him at the table of Last Supper, I was called the friend of Jesus, the one whom Jesus loved," and he's going to address Athe Creek this morning? What does he say?

I think he'd say the same thing. Love one another. Because if we don't have love one for another, you got nothing. Total waste of time. But the Pharisees and the scribes, they came to Jesus and said, "Okay, of all these laws, which one's the most important?"

And Jesus said, "Well, the first one is this: Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the second one is like unto it: Love thy neighbor as thyself." And then he said, "Upon these two hangs all of the law and the prophet." The whole thing is love: love God and love people.

So now that you've got that memorized, I've got a more simplified version. This is the one I've memorized: Love. Love God and love each other. That's what it all boils down to. That's what Jesus said, and that's what the church is to be about: love. If you have no love: total waste of time.

These are the things the Lord's called us, and our leadership has prayed through these five things: simplicity, humility, sincerity, serenity, and charity. This is what we want to be. Because we feel like if we can run with these things and get better at these things, then there's no stopping what the Lord can do through a church like this.

And we want to reach as many people as we possibly can with the gospel and with teaching of the scriptures. And we want to do it with these methods. So the question is: are you willing to reach out and love people in a way that maybe I haven't before? Am I going to help fight for simplicity and humility?

We're going to talk about what Jesus is doing and the great things he has done in our lives by his grace through faith. That's the question: are you willing? Again, our verse of the day is so powerful: "Write the vision, make it plain upon the tables, that he or she, I might add, may run that readeth it." We feel very firmly that that's what the Lord has called us to do. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador with a helpful breakdown of the vital elements of ministry for the church that honors God in today's word. And Pastor Brett will conclude our time together in prayer in just a moment. But first, today's word is the radio ministry of Athe Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area, where Pastor Brett Meador's the senior pastor.

We invite you to find out more about Pastor Brett and Athe Creek Church by going to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athe Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville. For more information, just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." Well, with our final moments, once again, here's Pastor Brett Meador.

Brett Meador: Let's pray together. Lord, how thankful we are for your word and the direction your word gives us. Lord, there's so much in your word here that gives us stuff to do, plenty for the rest of our lives. We don't need to try to add to it or figure out new things, but we get to stick with the old truths of your scriptures, Lord.

Help us to keep it simple. Lord, remind us to be humble. I pray that there'd be a sincerity that's real, real Christians really caring for each other. I pray that it'd be a place of peace and serenity where people come and are refreshed and encouraged in the midst of this dark and trying world. To have people know that you love them and that we can love one another. Show us how to better do that, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time here on today's word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett Meador will continue another verse-by-verse study from the book of Habakkuk. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athe Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.