Lamplighter The July 2015 Volume 8 Issue 7 Highlights Note from the Pastor p. 1 Note from Landon p. 2 Calendar p. 3 Facts & Figures P. 4 Extended Session p. 4 Birthdays p. 4 Anniversaries p. 4 Our Church Staff Gary Burden Senior Pastor 919-631-6789 Landon Orr Assoc. Pastor of Discipleship & Evangelism 919-229-9379 Chastity Comeau Administrative Assistant Continued on pg. 2 Rendering Unto Caesar Russell Moore, president of our Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, was spot on when he recently said: “As Christians, we will render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but the preaching of the church of God does not belong to Caesar and we will not hand it over, not now, not ever.” And it’s not just the “preaching”—it’s the living of the Gospel in everyday life by everyday Christians every day of our lives. Too many of our Baptist forefathers fought, bled, and died for this hallmark right in our country—freedom of religion, not merely freedom of worship. To those conditioned by political correctness—even in many of our churches—these discussions are unfashionable, unnecessarily polarizing, not cool, and perhaps a form of “hate speech.” No emotionally balanced sane person relishes subject matter that appears only negative. But failure to speak out is tacit approval by our silence. Not to speak is in actuality to loudly speak. Moore emphasized that Southern Baptists are not ministers of condemnation, but are ministers of reconciliation. “We will speak a word that calls to repentance, but we will not end at repentance. We will not end at a call that says, ‘Look at your sin.’ We will continue until we say, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’” History has proven that when a nation legalizes sin, that same nation eventually criminalizes Christianity. It has to. The Gospel message then becomes an impediment to the guilt-free sin choices people wish to make. The “Gospel conscience “ of society just has to go. Gospel-speech then becomes hate speech in such an inverted society. (Even though the most horrid, unbridled hateful speech tends to come from those who lash out to the purveyors of truth.) “If you Christians want to get along in our world, then you’re going to have to go along.” But that’s exactly what we cannot do—cannot do and be faithful to our Lord and His clear Word. All this is not new. It’s just new to us. The Old Testament saints were warned of yielding to cultural influences that called good evil and evil good. The early church saints set the tone for all of our storied history within the ebbs and flows of persecution that dogged their heels. Today is no exception—we just think it is. Again from Moore: “Baptist Christianity just doesn’t do well as a water carrier for anybody’s civil religion. Ours is a jailhouse religion, carried to us by heroes who were often outlaws: Paul of Tarsus, Thomas Helwys, Roger Williams, Isaac Backus, John Leland, Martin Luther King, Jr..” And we cannot sit idly by while multitudes of our brothers and sisters in other countries are being led to the slaughter. “Truth is not up for sale and the Gospel doesn’t bend to the highest bidder, and faithful Christians do not stow away their convictions in a blind trust when they enter the public square,” said Moore. 2015
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Lamplighter The
July 2015 Volume 8 Issue 7
Highlights
Note from the Pastor p. 1
Note from Landon p. 2
Calendar p. 3
Facts & Figures P. 4
Extended Session p. 4
Birthdays p. 4
Anniversaries p. 4
Our Church Staff
Gary Burden Senior Pastor
919-631-6789
Landon Orr Assoc. Pastor of
Discipleship & Evangelism
919-229-9379
Chastity Comeau Administrative Assistant
Continued on pg. 2
Rendering Unto Caesar
Russell Moore, president of our Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious
Liberty Commission, was spot on when he recently said: “As
Christians, we will render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but the
preaching of the church of God does not belong to Caesar and we will
not hand it over, not now, not ever.” And it’s not just the
“preaching”—it’s the living of the Gospel in everyday life by everyday Christians every
day of our lives. Too many of our Baptist forefathers fought, bled, and died for this
hallmark right in our country—freedom of religion, not merely freedom of worship.
To those conditioned by political correctness—even in many of our churches—these
discussions are unfashionable, unnecessarily polarizing, not cool, and perhaps a form of
“hate speech.” No emotionally balanced sane person relishes subject matter that
appears only negative. But failure to speak out is tacit approval by our silence. Not to
speak is in actuality to loudly speak. Moore emphasized that Southern Baptists are not
ministers of condemnation, but are ministers of reconciliation. “We will speak a word
that calls to repentance, but we will not end at repentance. We will not end at a call that
says, ‘Look at your sin.’ We will continue until we say, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world.’”
History has proven that when a nation legalizes sin, that same nation eventually
criminalizes Christianity. It has to. The Gospel message then becomes an impediment to
the guilt-free sin choices people wish to make. The “Gospel conscience “ of society just
has to go. Gospel-speech then becomes hate speech in such an inverted society. (Even
though the most horrid, unbridled hateful speech tends to come from those who lash
out to the purveyors of truth.) “If you Christians want to get along in our world, then
you’re going to have to go along.” But that’s exactly what we cannot do—cannot do and
be faithful to our Lord and His clear Word.
All this is not new. It’s just new to us. The Old Testament saints were warned of yielding
to cultural influences that called good evil and evil good. The early church saints set the
tone for all of our storied history within the ebbs and flows of persecution that dogged
their heels. Today is no exception—we just think it is. Again from Moore: “Baptist
Christianity just doesn’t do well as a water carrier for anybody’s civil religion. Ours is a
jailhouse religion, carried to us by heroes who were often outlaws: Paul of Tarsus,
Thomas Helwys, Roger Williams, Isaac Backus, John Leland, Martin Luther King, Jr..”
And we cannot sit idly by while multitudes of our brothers and sisters in other countries
are being led to the slaughter.
“Truth is not up for sale and the Gospel doesn’t bend to the highest bidder, and faithful
Christians do not stow away their convictions in a blind trust when they enter the public
square,” said Moore.
2015
Page 2 The Lamplighter
“12 For though by this time you ought to be
teachers, you need someone to teach you
again the basic principles of the oracles of
God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for
everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the
word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food
is for the mature, for those who have their powers of
discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good
from evil.” Hebrews 5:12-14
Recently, while teaching the Agape Sunday School Class
(what a privilege!), I talked about how parenting has really
shed more light on the verse above. The process of eating is
something that we take for granted. Until you have to teach
a child how to eat, you don’t really understand how difficult
it can be to move from milk to solid foods. It isn’t as simple
as just putting the food in a mouth. A child has to learn how
to use their tongue, how to chew, how to not choke on
everything. They also have to develop their coordination so
that they can actually put the food in their mouth. What a
struggle.
After having that discussion in class my son added another
element to the Apostle Paul’s metaphor. Sara sent a picture
one morning of my son crying with tears of frustration with
a very full mouth. Was he choking? No. Was she forcing
him to eat something he didn’t want? No, nothing like
that. See, Judah had decided he wanted more food in his
mouth. He was so frustrated that he couldn’t put more in he
was reduced to tears. All I could do was laugh.
How often do we do the same thing though when it comes to
maturing in our walk with Christ. Convicted by a passage
like the one above, we strive to fill ourselves with something
other than milk. We often get frustrated because even
though we are trying our best to be mature, we just don’t
seem to be progressing as fast as we would like. I will give
the same advice I give my son. Chew what’s in your mouth
before you take the next bite. Also, even though you really
like that biscuit, putting the whole thing in your mouth at one
time doesn’t really make for an enjoyable eating
experience. As we mature in Christ we need to have fair
expectations for ourselves. Yes, we need to continue to
pursue growth, but challenging ourselves beyond reason
often leads to frustration and failure. We will never attain
Christian perfection on this side of Christ’s return, rather, we
should strive to be transformed more into Christ’s image
little by little each day.
Landon Orr
Yes, we live in a peculiar age in our country. As Adrian
Rogers used to say, “The sin that used to slink down the
back alley now struts down the main street.” What used to
be called the carnival “Side Show” or “Freak
Show” (admittedly, highly politically incorrect statement) has
now moved to the center stage, and we all are to embrace
it—like it or not. Those who do dare speak against it are now
labeled the fringe, oddball, freakish, kooks, even haters. We
are the ones who are being relegated to the “back alleys” of
accepted society. Now that they are fully out of the closet,
the closet (our little church buildings) is our assigned and
confined space. (That’s freedom of worship vs. freedom of
religion. And that’s the extent of toleration in their intolerable
thinking.) “Do your little church thing—just not too loud,
and definitely not outside in the public square.”
Another observation: when these advocates of genuinely
twisted behaviors (read “sinful”) use their inculcated code
language like “my reality” or “my truth” they are easily
tipping their hand—a handed down worldview that rejects all
notions of absolute, objective truth, because it has rejected
the one true God of all truth. (Reread Romans 1.) Such a
secular, anti-God worldview is the starting point. And if
you’re wrong here, everything that follows will be skewed.
So what’s a true Christian to do? After Jesus called us the
salt and light of the world—yes even a world that crucified
Him—He quickly issued a caution: “If the salt has lost its
savor [effectiveness], it is good for nothing but to be cast on
the ground and trodden under foot of men.” The inverse
implication of that caution is that if we, the salt, are being
trampled under the feet of those who advocate for “their
truth and their reality,” then maybe it’s at least somewhat
because we haven’t been faithfully advocating for the One
Who is “The Way, The Truth, and The Life”—not just with
our words, but by our own lifestyle choices. Know the Truth
and live the Truth!
Yes, even the purest of the pure, and the noblest of the noble
will still face resistance in a sinful, fallen world. Look no
farther than the Cross. But as we celebrate another national
birthday this July, let’s at least make sure that our “rendering
to Caesar” doesn’t negate the other side of that coin—
“rendering unto God what is God’s.” And what is God’s? Is it
not our undying, unwavering devotion to Him no matter the
outcome? It is, with both conviction and compassion, saying
“yes” to Gospel Truth—“yes” with our lips and our lives. “If
not us, who? If not now, when?”
Gary Burden
From the
Associate
Pastor
Can you believe the Awana year is just around the corner?!?! I’m pleased to share that lead
teachers for each group have already volunteered, but we still need your help. More volunteers
are needed from nursery to teens, and even in games. Please pray about where God can best
use you to reach more families for Christ in the coming year.
Training is scheduled for August 1st (9am-3pm) and Awana will resume on September 2nd.