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The Hard Truth

“Soft preaching makes hard people. You preach a soft message and you’ll have hard, selfish people. You preach the hard truth and it will break the hard hearts and you’ll have a soft people.”
-John MacArthur

MacArthur makes an incredibly true and bold statement here. The message of Christians is a difficult one. The gospel is a challenging message to understand. Paul even says in 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing…” Our message is literally a foolish message to the world. Also, think about John chapter 6 where Jesus teaches that only those who eat His flesh and drink His blood will live forever. It says in verse 60 that many of his disciples said “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” Then in verse 66 it says that many of his disciples no longer walked with Him.

Not only is it difficult to understand, but it is also a demanding message. Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, and Luke 9:23 record the same words of Jesus when He teaches that “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” The gift of salvation through Christ is a free gift that also requires the whole life of the recipient. We all know Romans 6:23 which says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The evidence of soft preaching is crusty, immoral, and spiritually-dead Christians. By soft preaching, I really mean not teaching the whole counsel of Scripture. This includes focusing only on God’s forgiveness without His justice, His love without His hatred of evil, and His mercy without the coming Day of Judgment. God has and will exhibit all of these things. When Christians aren’t exposed to all of it then they become indistinguishable from the world around them. And yet Christ has called His people to be a “light on a hill”, “holy and blameless”, and “pure.” He taught in Matthew 5:19 that whoever “relaxes” any of the commandments from the Law and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. What Christian could then go on justifying any type of immoral behavior? Yet it is all too common.

On the other hand, when the hard message is received the heart is ready to experience the overwhelming tenderness and compassion of God. Only when a sinner has come to that place of realizing how dreadfully they have sinned before God can they be forgiven. It is then that God abundantly pours out the riches of His grace in Jesus Christ on the repentant sinner. The need for forgiveness must be seen first, before a person will ever ask for it. And only when a person asks God for it, will they be forgiven. And only the Spirit of God can accomplish this work in people’s hearts, so let us pray to Him that He would work mightily.

Brothers and sisters, I pray that God would break our hard hearts down with His powerful Word! I pray that we would be humble before Him and submitted to Him. I pray that we would love Him with all that we are, and then that we would love our neighbor as ourselves. Let us be the people, the church that Christ has ordained us to be. Let us not settle for mediocrity, but be good stewards of the powerful message the Lord has entrusted us with. May we all magnify the glorious gospel with our lives!

God’s Glory in Our Lives

Hello there brothers and sisters!

Well let me start by saying that I’m sorry. I’ve dropped the ball on being faithful with getting these devotionals written. This is an avenue with which I really want to be able to serve everyone, and I’ve been slack about it. I am, however, going to get back up on the horse. That’s why I’m sharing this with you right now!

Secondly, those of us who got to attend the Resolved conference this last weekend had an incredible time! God ministered to us through our fellowship, the teachers, and the music. Being there was a great encouragement and allowed God to deal with me in a very convicting yet hopeful way. I expect that the Lord will produce fruit in the lives of all 4,000 people who showed up!

Well I would like to center my thoughts and attention in my writing today on Leviticus 10:1-3. If you don’t have your Bible handy then you can read the ESV version of those verses here.

The first question you may be asking upon reading this passage is: What on earth is unauthorized or profane fire? The simple answer is that the priests, Nadab and Abihu, were conducting what’s called a revification ritual. This was a pagan practice where priests of a certain god/goddess would “revive” or “wake up” their particular deity so that it could operate. The deity was dependent upon the priests to wake it up, otherwise it would be rendered useless. When Nadab and Abihu assumed that Almighty God was like all of these other gods they made a terrible mistake. They saw God as dependent upon them, which is simply not true. In response, God acted immediately and harshly by consuming them with fire from the Holy of Holies where His presence resided. This is a sobering passage, but one that leaves much to be learned.

Let’s focus in on verse 3. God tells Moses that among those who are near Him, He must be sanctified and glorified. The NASB translates the word sanctified as “treated as holy” and glorified could also be “honored.” This is the root of Nadab and Abihu’s sin. They didn’t treat God as set apart from all other gods! Instead, they reduced Him to a petty, insignificant god. Yet we are reminded of the proclamation of the twenty-four elders who worship God in heaven saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Rev. 4:11).

I tend to think that Nadab and Abihu’s intentions probably weren’t to dishonor God. Yet their limited view and understanding of Him caused them to sin terribly. We can commit similar sins when we don’t trust and believe in the sovereignty, power, might, and faithfulness of God. A small view of God will cause us to trust and find our relief in meaningless church rituals, people, and even ourselves.

Today, I exhort all of us to see the majesty of our great God. Read His Word, marvel at His beauty in creation, and allow yourself to be broken by His love displayed at the cross of Christ. Know God! It is our greatest purpose and calling because knowing the reality of God’s character pushes us to see Him as holy and to honor Him because of it! When we honor Him, His glory is manifest in our lives and becomes visible to the world around us. We, His children, are the vessels of His glory even in our weakness and sin. His forgiveness and redemption of His people, shows the world His grace and brings Him more glory.

My prayers and love go to all of you. May we all grow in the knowledge of the richness of our Lord’s grace, beauty, and majesty!

Weekly Devotional - Evangelism

Hello brothers and sisters! I’m typing this from Lee’s Summit, Missouri which is right outside of Kansas City. I made it here safely with Kristin and we’ve had a great trip thus far and are anticipating a good week here! Anyway, I’d like to spend my devotional this week sharing some thoughts on evangelism. So let’s begin with Acts 17:22-31. Click on the link if you don’t have your Bible and would like to read it there.

I know that’s a sizable chunk of Scripture, but there are a couple insights I think we can take about evangelism from Paul’s approach here. These verses occur while Paul is in Athens waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him there. In verse 16 it says that his spirit was “provoked” within him because he saw so many idols in the city. He then goes around conversing with the educated population and ends up being invited to a council called the Areopagus, where the Greek scholars/philosophers would meet and exchange ideas. Once he is among them and has their attention he seizes his opportunity and presents the gospel as we see in the passage.

Firstly, notice how he takes their view or perception of God and goes about correcting it. He proclaims to them that the god which they don’t know is both the Creator and the Sovereign over the entire universe. Paul paints a very powerful and marvelous picture of the Almighty. That simple but extremely important statement can be a part of evangelism that we easily overlook. It’s the power, majesty, and magnitude of God that demands man’s humility in His presence. When witnessing about God put on display His glory and worth. Try not to talk about yourself, but instead explain the character and attributes of God. Make much of God because of who He is. If the person we’re witnessing to evaluates themselves in light of us, they probably won’t think they’re too bad. However, if you put them in a place where they evaluate themselves in light of a holy and awesome God, then repentance comes much more naturally!

The second thing I would like to point out is that Paul shows how personal God is. After explaining the loftiness of God, Paul shows His intimacy with humans. He states the purpose for which God made humankind “that they should seek God, in hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him…” This also contains an important lesson for us as we go about spreading the gospel of Christ. God created humans to “seek” Him, which denotes intimacy with Him. Once you’ve given a non-believer the view of God as powerful, then show them His nearness to us just as Paul did. As much as God is all-encompassing and reigning from His throne in heaven, He has also numbered the hairs on every person’s head. What an incredible truth to behold! After this Paul transitions to speaking of Christ being raised from the dead, which is where we obviously must go because it is a necessity. In the last part of his discourse Paul does mention the coming judgment, which should not be forgotten or glossed over.

Since I’m not very smart I have to keep things simple. So let me reiterate the 2 key things from what I’ve said here:

1. Magnify God’s glory, majesty, and power.

2. Contrast this with God’s intimacy and nearness to us.

A final note: we can’t just go through a list of Scripture verses with people when we witness. That may sound odd, but here me out. Rattling off Bible verses is not necessarily effective, and if you’ll notice Paul doesn’t do that here at all. We need to know God and the gospel of Christ so well that we can talk comfortably about Him without having to rely on memorization. We have to KNOW GOD, then we’ll be able to witness about who He is! Let’s devote ourselves to seeking Him personally and corporately so that we can be effective witnesses.

May our great God bless all of you as you go about magnifying His beautiful and powerful gospel!

Weekly Devotional - Prayer

The act of prayer can be very simple. There are different types, but in a sense it is communication from a person or group of people to God. There’s nothing too fancy about that. Yet, at the same time, it is an incredibly profound experience: dialogue with the Almighty, All-knowing, All-creating, and All-sustaining God of the Universe. The ability to pray is humbling in light of who God is. This direct communication with God is a benefit granted to us in our salvation by the precious blood of Christ. It’s easy to pray before dinner, pray when things aren’t going well, and pray when somebody asks you to. But how about praying because of what an amazing experience and opportunity it is? How about praying because it is our avenue to intimate interaction with our Lord God and our Savior? Why not pray since He has promised that He will hear His children and respond to their prayers? Prayer is not just some mundane tradition, and it never should be! Prayer is worship, it’s enriching, it’s motivating, it’s humbling, and it’s an absolute necessity in a healthy Christian life.

In the overall framework of the Bible, prayer is a gigantic topic. Prayer is used for intercession, praise, mediation, supplication, meditation, etc. It would be impossible to share with you, in this little devotional, all that the Bible has to say and to show about it. Instead I’m going to write about two important areas that prayer functions: 1) in the life of the individual and 2) in the life of the church.

Personal Prayer

When examining Jesus’ habits of personal prayer, He would regularly distance Himself from His disciples to go and pray alone (see Matthew 14:23, Luke 9:18). He was the very Son of God, the manifestation of God in human form and He would get away from people to pray alone to God. Regularly Jesus talked about His complete dependence and reliance on the Father. We should follow the model He has set for us. A more direct teaching on personal prayer comes from Jesus right before He lays out the very familiar ‘Lord’s Prayer’ in Matthew 6. He says in verse 6 of that chapter “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” This instruction by Christ is in the context of not praying long, wordy prayers in public to be noticed by others. We are not to put our righteousness on display by appearing religious in front of others, but are to devote ourselves to personal interaction with the Father. This intimate interaction with God forges a stronger relationship between us and Him. As I said earlier, who wouldn’t want to intimately interact with the Almighty God of the entire Universe?

Community Prayer

A favorite verse of mine dealing with prayer in the church comes from Acts 12:1-5:

“1About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.”

The church devoted themselves to “earnest prayer” for Peter while there was persecution of Christians and probably fear of Peter being martyred. Prayer seems to be the natural response of the church to the imprisonment of Peter. Today, we have plenty of brothers and sisters in Christ being imprisoned and martyred for their faith in Christ. I want to see us tap into the power God has given us in prayer and to pray for them. Here’s what I’d like to ask. Visit the Voice of the Martyrs website: www.persecution.com. Look through the Top Stories and start praying. Pick one, two, five, however many you want and commit to praying for them daily. Then tell us about it on Sunday. Tell us about what’s going on with those brothers and sisters, as well as the benefit you’ve experienced while praying for their situation! Let’s intercede for the church in other areas of the world that is experiencing extreme trials for their faith!

Blessings to you all as we continue steadfastly in prayer!

-Dustin Smetona

Weekly Devotional - Worship

Well since I’m the “Worship Leader” of our church, I thought it would be appropriate to start off this weekly devotional by talking about the area which I’m allegedly in charge of: worship. Now, in our minds the “worship” aspect of church is typically connected to the musical part of our services. However, worship is much more dynamic than just singing praises (although that is a very significant avenue). Worship ranges from the sorrowful repentance of sins all the way to the joyful exaltation of God’s love. There are times when we gather together where people cry before the Lord asking for forgiveness, and there are times when people are rejoicing. All this can be categorized as worship.

I’d like to point out that worship typically refers to actions. Singing, praying, asking for forgiveness, fellowshipping with one another, and evangelizing are all acts of worship. We do them out of obedience to God because we love Him, trust Him, and desire to please Him. Yet actions are always motivated by what is contained in a person’s heart. This is the principle which Jesus taught in Matthew 12:35 when He said that, “The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.”

In light of that truth, I think an incredible verse to focus on for worship is one that most of us are probably familiar with: Deuteronomy 6:5. It reads, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” This verse is written in a basically poetic fashion by Moses. The ancient Israelites would understand that all your “heart, soul, and mind” simply meant your whole being. If a person loves God with everything that they are, their actions will reflect it.

Brothers and sisters, ask God this week to remind you of the many reasons you have to love Him and to devote yourself to Him. Ask Him to cultivate a heart of worship within you, that you would desire to worship Him in every aspect of life. Enjoy the ways in which He loves you, and respond to Him in submission. Worship Him with your whole being, everything that you are! It is in Him that you will find satisfaction and relief.

I want to end this with three practical ways to worship. Do all three of these intentionally before Sunday:

1. Repent (James 5:16, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”)

- In the areas which you haven’t devoted to God, turn back to Him. This is not necessarily just an individual act, do it in community!

2. Revere (Psalm 96:8, “Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts.”)

- Recognize how amazing and worthy God is of worship and praise!

3. Rejoice (Psalm 27:8, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”)

- Take joy in the many ways that God has acted so good to you, His precious child.

Blessings to you all this week as we pursue God together!

Dustin Smetona

The True Builder

Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church.”  This passage has been a recent encouragement to me as we embark on this new church plant - Vintage Life Church.  I am extremely glad that Jesus didn’t say, “you will build your church and I will judge you based on your success.”  It sounds ridiculous, but I have had thoughts along those lines in the past.  The grace of God through His Holy Spirit has comforted and corrected me in recent weeks.  Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 speaks directly to the subject of church planting.

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.  (ESV)

It is an amazing thing when God teaches us lessons and imparts bite-sized nuggets of wisdom into our hearts.  Most of the time He uses other people to point these things out to us.  With me, it has been through the preaching of my favorite pastor -  Jeff Evans.  We have been studying this idea of God giving us our wages, or rewards, according to our labor and not our results.  In this passage, Paul plainly explains that we do not control the growth of what was planted, God does.  We simply do our labor, planting and watering, and God does the rest.  We trust in Him to accomplish His sovereign will, never forgetting that we are to continue in faithfulness with the work He has prepared for us.

Paul’s summary that we are “God’s fellow workers” absolutely blows me away.

Think about it:  God rescues us from a torturous eternal existence apart from Him, allows us to work with Him, uses us for His great purposes, causes our success, and then rewards us for our faithfulness - the faithfulness He Himself imparted and cultivated in us!

I can’t help but join the Psalmist in asking:

Who is like the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth?  (Psalm 113:5-6, NASB)

May The True Builder continue to use us for His glory.

Jeff