The Gospel is the work of God in our lives. Sounds great, doesn’t it? This is something that is often heard in churches around the world. What though does that look like in day to day life? Is it a journey of moral purity? Is it a political agenda of forcing the world to obey God’s law?

Galatians 5:18 reveals that those who believe the Gospel are led by the Spirit and are not to live a life under the law. How can we identify the work of the Spirit in our lives and be sure God is at work without the law as our measure?

A Gospel-centered life is one that is marked by freedom to live as God designed life. Tomorrow, we will seek to understand what kind of life God desires to produce, and how that is the way that the Gospel of Jesus will spread throughout our community and world.

Join us tomorrow at the Village @ 10 am @ Swift Creek Elementary

Remember, turn your clocks forward one hour tonight as Daylight Savings starts tomorrow! If you show up around 11 am thinking that it is 10 am, just come on in anyway… we won’t judge you

See you in the morning!

I have often heard the phrase, “God is a God of second chances.” Just the other day, I was driving down the road and I noticed a church sign that bore the exact phrase. We are a culture that loves second chances. Most of us would love the ability to have a second chance at something that we have failed at in life.

The question though must be asked, “Is God a God of second chances?” This desire for a second chance at life has bled over into our understanding of the Gospel, and muddied the way that we view the grace of God that is offered through Jesus. I understand our desire for a second chance, because we all fail and fail hard. We want to pick ourselves up and have another go at whatever we are doing, but is the Gospel about second chances?

What if we fail the second chance? Is God a God of third, fourth, and fifth chances? What happens if we never get it right? The core problem with viewing the Gospel as God’s way of giving us a second chance is that it leaves us in the driver’s seat to either fail or succeed. This goes to our very understanding of the Gospel. Forgiveness and grace do not work together to grant us another chance. If they did, then we would still be doomed. No matter how many chances are afforded to us, we will fail. Our desire to redeem ourselves will lead to nothing short of disaster.

A view of God as a chance-giver leads down a road that reveals God to be a cosmic Joker, because all our chances will lead to is constant stumbling. So is there hope? The Bible does not present God as someone who gives new opportunities for us to succeed, but rather He is a God who ensures success by His own works. This is especially true in the person and work of Jesus, who 2 Corinthians 1:20 presents as the absolute security of all the plans of God.

What does this mean about our failure though? It means that we must cease to view God as someone who enables us to succeed, and rather view God as our success. God does not promise a second chance. Instead, He promises an entirely new life through the hope of Jesus. Another chance implies the potential for more failure. This is not the Gospel.

We are transformed through the redemption that is delivered through Jesus. Redemption as well as the new life through it does not depend on our efforts. When God redeems, He redeems wholly, to a new life. Instead of another chance, we receive a new path in which God lays out the way in which to live, through His power and His Spirit. Will there be problems, hardships, suffering? Yes, but that is not a second chance coming to a close. It is a way for us to let the hope of the Gospel shine through our lives. Will we be disobedient and attempt to leave the path that God has made? Yes, but through that, we show our dependence on the Gospel for repentance and restoration.

I don’t need another chance from God. I need something that doesn’t depend on me. I need something sure, something that cannot fail. I need a redemption that only God can deliver. That is what we have in the Gospel of Jesus.

When disaster strikes on the magnitude of what is happening in Haiti right now, we want to respond in a meaningful way.  For a new church without a lot of resources, thinking of how to respond properly can become overwhelming.  But the truth is, there are a lot of great ministries and organizations with the infrastructure in place to get much needed relief to Haiti in the coming months and years. We as the church can each help a great deal by giving our resources to these efforts.

I’m sure everyone has seen various places to give to the relief efforts over the last week, as they have been hard to miss. Desiring God has a great list of charities to give to, and we’d also recommend the Baptist Global Response, which is a humanitarian relief organization of the SBC.

We’d like to call particular attention to Churches Helping Churches, a relatively new initiative by Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald. As the Church both local and universal, we are called to care for the broken and hurting of the world both physically and spiritually. Village Church believes that the Church is God’s plan A for being the hands and feet of Jesus and bringing the Gospel to the world. Bringing relief to Haiti should be a Gospel effort for the believer.

To that end, and realizing that various humanitarian relief is flowing to Haiti right now from many sources, we are especially burdened to help equip the Church of Haiti to spread the Gospel to their people. This means getting much needed supplies to the churches of Haiti, for their own help and so they can have the resources to be the hands and feet of Jesus to other Haitians. Many churches have been devastated in this disaster by the loss of leadership, facilities, and resources. Helping to equip and rebuild these churches will strengthen the infrastructure of Haiti as local churches provide vital and needed humanitarian services. At the same time, helping local churches is a way to support our brothers and sisters in Haiti and their Gospel mission. Click below to give:

How dependent are we on God?  When Scripture speaks of it, it often focuses on two aspects: redemption and hope.  These are really the two aspects of life that people spend their time searching for.  We all seek redemption in one-way or another, and are hoping for something.

Psalm 6 is David’s plea for both of these things.  When we begin reading this Psalm he is begging God to redeem him from the wrath of God.  He finds himself under God’s hand and is struck with a trembling fear realizing his need desperate need for redemption.  Rather than seeking it somewhere else, he finds it in the hands of the one whose wrath He faces, God.  His hope of redemption is God.

There is also another part of this Psalm that finds David seeking redemption and hope in a tangible way in this life.  Notice though, that he finds that in God as well.  Where do we find our redemption?  What about our hope?  No matter what circumstance we are in, it is only found in God’s hands.  God seeks our dependency.

In preparing for my community group this week, I came across this paragraph in John Piper’s Desiring God that was quite troubling to me:

“In Paul’s radically different viewpoint I saw an almost unbelievable indictment of Western Christianity.  Am I overstating this? Judge for yourself. How many Christians do you know who could say, “The lifestyle I have chosen as a Christian would be utterly foolish and pitiable if there is no resurrection”? How many Christians are there who could say, “The suffering I have freely chosen to embrace for the cause of Christ would be a pitiable life if there is no resurrection”? As I see it, these are shocking questions.”

In this quote, he is referencing I Corinthians 15:12-28, part of which reads: “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” In this passage, Paul is not questioning the resurrection, as is seen in the closing verses of that section, rather, he is establishing that our faith is based solidly on the resurrection of Jesus.  Without this, there is no hope for the follower of Christ, and no point in the life of the believer.

In the above quote though, Piper is not questioning the resurrection either.  He is rather, questioning the effect of the resurrection on the lives of those who claim to believe in it.  The reason that the resurrection, and what Paul has to say about it throughout the New Testament is such an indictment on Western Christianity (especially inside of the construct of what is seen as the American Dream) is because of the lifestyle of those within Western Christianity. The question is, why are we to be pitied if the resurrection is not true?  Does believing in the risen Christ have such an effect on us that it causes us to live a lifestyle that would make no sense otherwise?

I can almost imagine that countless people would hear such a question in a sermon and nod in agreement.  But do you have any idea as to what you are agreeing too?  If you agree with such a statement, then you agree that to the one who does not believe in the resurrection, the life you live and the choices that you make would not make any sense to that person.  The fact is though, that for most of the church, our lifestyle looks no different than those who do not believe.  Therefore, if the resurrection were not true, then life would not be a pity.

If we truly believe in the resurrection, then our life should mirror that reality.  That should cause us all to be troubled by this paragraph, and to spend a great deal of time meditating on the reality of I Corinthians 15.

The Apostle Paul described his life once as “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” I think that this was an honest and real way to look at life. As Christians, we should be sorrowful at the results of sin and how it has fractured us and the world that we live in. We should be aware of our fragile and desperate state. We should also be ever rejoicing because Jesus has come to set us free, to give us life and to guide our lives into something meaningful.

If you are constantly sad, complaining, bitter, and depressed, be encouraged that there is hope in Jesus. If you have placed your trust in him there is reason to rejoice.

If you are overly happy, forcing a smile, and covering disappointment then allow yourself to grieve sometimes. It’s ok to admit something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

I believe this is why Paul could say “I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content.”

When people find out we’re starting a new church, their most common question in one form or another is, “What kind of church are you?” This is a tough question because there is so much I want to try to explain. But the truth is, though I could talk about this for hours, people really just want to know why it should matter to them.

One of the best ways to get at this to remember the language of joy. As a church, we’re about passionately pursing the joy that God intends for his creation to have. We do this by realigning our lives with Jesus’ mission, through the reconciliation with God that only he can bring.

John Piper popularized this idea by talking about what he calls Christian Hedonism. He says that, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” The only way we can really find joy is when we are living how we were always intended to live, connected to and in rhythm with our Creator. That often means living life differently than the world around us, because we are passionate about what God is passionate about. But in living that way we are no longer burdened by trivial matters. Our souls are free to experience real joy.

We need to remember the language of joy when we’re talking to people about what life following Jesus looks like. I heard a prominent pastor say that when people ask what he does, he tells them he is a teacher. When they ask what kind, he says “I teach hedonism” and then explains a life pursing joy by following Jesus. I like that.

We’ve launched the Village Church Blog for a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, this will be a great place for us to keep everyone up-to-date on the happenings at Village Church. I hope what you see here encourages you to get involved in what God will be doing here in Midlothian.

This will also be a place where you can read the thoughts of some of the Village Church leadership on Jesus, his church, and lots of other things that will hopefully be relevent to your life.

So here goes.