Here is the Cross Chart from last night's TFL class. Use the buttons at the bottom to zoom or go full screen.
Dr. Dan Allender, noted Christian psychologist and author says, “Growth never feels like maturity. If you think you’re mature, you’re not. If you think you’re not, you may be, but you’ll be the last one to know. Growth feels like death. Are you thirsty? Thirst will produce sanctification. The Pharisees were not thirsty; they had no needs. The Publican had nothing but need.”
Click on the image for a larger view.
What do I do when life feels overwhelming and out of control? How about stop trying to play Atlas, and start crying out, "Abba, Father." It's what a child does. And the Father loves for us to come to him in our need.
So let's review:
1. I can't bear the weight of the world, or even my own problems.
2. Jesus can.
3. So, cast your anxiety on him (1 Peter 5:7). The effort is in the casting— casting the burden off of self and onto him, whether sin or circumstance.
Will you do the hard work of casting with me today?
Fight Club ’09
Round 4 • Galatians 4:3-7 / “Adoption: From Slavery to Sonship”
3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (ESV)
II. How does human adoption work? How is this an analogy for spiritual adoption?
III. A Key Passage in the Bible- Galatians 4:3-7IV. Implications and Applications...
Each month I attend the North Georgia New Church Network, a group of church planters and church planting coaches who meet to consult with, pray for and equip each other as missionaries to our small part of the world. During our prayer time at our last meeting, we were challenged to confess a particular fear that robs us of joy, peace and hope. My confession was the fear of failure—the fear that the church plant I am about to lead will crash and burn. But my fear really is much deeper than failure, which actually is just a fruit of a deeper root issue. I really fear what will happen to my name. My reputation. However, the gospel teaches me that in light of the cross, my name is already mud. The cross says that I have failed far worse than I think! In fact, I'm such a mess that Jesus had to live and die for my failure.
But you know, I'm okay with being a failure in the past. But I don't like having to be helpless, weak and needy now. I want to move past my own present and complete need for a Savior-Sanctifier-Empowerer. But that is what the gospel gives me. Through the sheer grace of God in Jesus, I have been given a new reputation and identity that cannot be smeared: I am an extravagantly loved, forgiven, propitiated, justified, redeemed, adopted son of the King. Knowing that gives me a radical freedom. Freedom from the judgement and penalty of sin, and freedom to pursue wild adventures that can only succeed if God allows. And so, whether the church grows to maturity, or withers and dies, either way, by sheer grace, I am an extravagantly loved, forgiven, propitiated, justified, redeemed, adopted son of the King. That's what Paul says so clearly when he writes in Romans 8, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons..."
In the gospel, there is freedom to fail. So in these next weeks, months and years, I am pursuing the risky adventure of church planting, taking God up on his promise.
