Once we are done preaching through the odd and wonderful book of Esther, our intention is to jump back into the New Testament and preach through the feisty and wonderful letter that Jesus’ Apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia. You are going to love this … although we may need to have mouthpieces on hand for the sermons so that we’re ready for the haymakers this loving pastor throws when he sees that the truth of the gospel and the souls of his people are at stake.

Next Monday our Unified Preaching Team will be gathering to begin the prep process. If you have any questions about how the preaching is “done” at Seven Mile Road, please feel free to email me. And be praying that the Spirit illuminate the Word as we seek to stand under it together.

Here is the simple agenda I sent out to the Team:

Gameplan For Galatians Prep Night #1

1, we’ll read through the entire letter together. It’s a good exercise to do outloud in community.

2, we’ll talk through the following:

- context then (this is an occasional document, so we have to nail down what caused the letter to be written? what issue(s) were being spoken to? what was going on then? who are the main parties referred to in the letter?)

- text (what are the big ideas and themes and doctrines that are addressed here? what are the key phrases? what is the flow of the letter? what are the main parts (if discernible)? we need to talk through every and anything that the text has for us, all of it)

- tone (what is Jesus’ Apostle Paul’s tone? why? what do we learn from this?)

- context now (how does the big idea(s) of Galatians intersect specifically with the Bostonians we are preaching to, both believers and unbelievers?)

- potential sermons (not a final outline, just a notation of “here are some things that Galatians mandates we say and/or opens the door for us to deal with”)

- potential frame (I don’t know how we’ll beat Tullian’s “Jesus + Nothing = Everything” for this one, but we can bat some ideas around)

- creative ideas (whatever we can do to help our people engage and learn and believe and apply this text, let’s talk about it)

To be ready you should have:

• Familiarized yourself with the text of Galatians.
• Written down whatever notes come to mind and intersect with the bold line items above.
• Read some commentary on the background of the letter.
• Punched yourself in the mouth to put yourself in the right frame of mind to feel Paul’s feistiness.

Coming out of this meeting the Unified Preaching Team will go in depth in designing a helpful and thorough document for preaching Galatians.

We’ll then meet again over the Summer to move to a finished product together.

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Seven Mile Road, we’re super excited to have Schuyler Anderson doing a 10 week internship with Seven Mile Road this Summer. Below is a description of the internship itself and a ‘success profile’ of what a fruitful Summer would look like. As we pursue Our Next 10 Years Vision together, we’re working really hard to get better at planning and execution, so don’t mind all the details!

(Read more about A Seven Mile Middle School Summer)

Summer Internship

The aim of this position is to serve Seven Mile Road and its mission by providing short-term, high impact work in strategic areas of media, local awareness, and connections with middle school students. The Intern reports directly to the Melrose Lead Pastor, and in some cases the Executive Pastor, and is responsible for: evaluation and updating of Seven Mile Road media including print and web content; local publicity in Melrose; and piloting relational work with Melrose families with middle school students. The candidate must be able to function effectively and thrive in ever-changing environment, often with limited direction and supervision.

Qualifications

• Be a covenanted and functioning member of Seven Mile Road
• Strong communication abilities in writing and in person
• Excellent graphic and web design skills/experience, including Adobe Creative Suite
• Unquestionable integrity and trustworthiness with confidential and sensitive information
• Dependable, flexible, humble, and a sense of humor
• Anticipate and thrive in rapidly changing environment requiring frequent adjustment of job roles and duties
• Exhibit a “whatever it takes” attitude

Job Responsibilities

• Redesign and oversee outside printing of new Seven Mile Road print materials
• Produce new video and podcast material for sevenmileroad.org
• Design and pilot initiative towards serving Melrose families with middle school ages students
• Reorganize website, including the implementation of Series Finder for sermon content and redesign of Gospel Community section
• Create and execute a local awareness campaign in the city of Melrose
• Pilot program for serving Melrose families with middle schoolers

Funding

• All funding for this internship will come from Seven Mile Road Melrose Local Operations line

Internship Success Profile

MEDIA – 40%

• Complete redesign of print materials at Seven Mile Road, including:
- First-time Visitor Contact Cards
- “How do I survive the next 90 minutes?” Card
- Branded Notecards

• Produce ten “head and shoulders” videos for website
• Produce ten podcast interviews
• Recatalog all blog posts on sevenmileroad.org
• Implement Series Finder for sermon content
• Redesign Gospel Community section of website

PUBLICITY – 40%

• Make 10,000 contacts with Melrose residents through:
- Residential drop off of print materials
- Strategic high volume handout of print materials
- Attendance of 10 local events

• See 50 new visitors either on a Sunday or to a Gospel Community result from publicity efforts

MIDDLE SCHOOLERS – 20%

• Serve 12-20 middle school students through Seven Mile “Middle School Summer”
• Build relationships with 3-4 middle schoolers and their families that will continue into Fall
• Document research, strategy, and results for future missional work

I want to make sure everyone is aware of an exciting trend that’s been evident recently at Seven Mile Road.

But first, a little history.

Just about everyone who was a part of our church plant (then called Edgeworth) in the early years were locals. Most lived in Malden, many within walking distance of the church. Other lived in faraway places … like Everett, Medford, Revere, Melrose and (gasp) Lynnfield. We weren’t healthy yet, we weren’t sustainable yet, we weren’t doing life together well in community yet, we hadn’t worked out our theological convictions or missional strategies yet, but we were Bostonians.

Then came a 3-5 year stretch where we not only became more regional (people coming from Lynn, Manchester, Newbury, Southie, Winthrop, Watertown and (gasp) Dover, N.H.) but way more non-local as we connected with “new Bostonians” from places like Florida, Illinois, Oregon, New York, Minnesota, Ohio and (gasp) Texas. This was great, and these folks brought tons of energy and contributed big-time to the health and mission of the church. The problem was that they also tended to leave after about 3 years or so, and some even sooner. There were lots of reasons: the stupidly high cost of living to stay, 4 months of frigid weather, a popular culture overtly antagonistic to all things Christian, homesickness, awesome gospel opportunities in other places, etc. Whatever the case, we were saying goodbye a lot.

This reality tends to take a certain toll on the folks who are not leaving. “Are we really going to be the church that stays the same size just with 70% new people rotating through?” That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. But it would be nice to also see people choosing to stay with us for the long-term. To give themselves to this work, here, seeing it through.

That’s what has been happening more and more.

One anecdote is that our 4 pastors now live within a mile of each other. 3 of us are in homes. This is huge for stability in our relationships and our ability to serve the church and advance the mission. Once upon a time I thought that our pastoral team was going to be Matthew Kruse, a revolving door of young leaders and lots of postcards coming in the mail. I am overjoyed that that is not the case anymore.

Another is that my back now hurts from moving people into houses, not apartments. For a stretch there, it was apartments only. Yes, some of this is because we are getting older as a congregation. But some of it is because people are buying houses and not just renting apartments.

Another is that a growing number of Seven Milers have eschewed the opportunity to live elsewhere and said “this community, this church, this mission, we’re in.” For many of these folks it has meant not buying a house that they would be able to elsewhere. That is big. Gospel big.

Another is that, while our growth pace is not where we are praying it gets to, our base is more stable than ever and we’re more ready than ever to make disciples.

My prayer is that we become the best of friends around gospel, community and mission and that the people of the cities of Malden and Melrose and beyond can’t go 10 feet without running into someone who has received grace and believed the gospel at Seven Mile Road and stayed around to see what Jesus by His Spirit might do.

By God’s grace, there are lots of Seven Milers who are either:

brand new to really believing the gospel

-or-

brand new to actually making some money.

Note: these are both really good things!

And taken together they mean that we need to keep encouraging each other on what it looks like for a Christian to give.

Here are 7 quick hits that I hope will help move you to happy and generous giving to the work of the gospel being done here:

1: Money exists to show off the surpassing worth of the Son of God.

Money gets a lot of good things done for us, but none is better than enabling us to shout to the world the greatness of Jesus. By giving lots of our money to Him and His work, we are making a statement that, by grace, we have come to see that only Christ satisfies, and that He does so ultimately, perfectly, amazingly.

2: Your money is not yours; it’s God’s.

The Spirit says it beautifully and succinctly: “You are not your own. You are bought with a price.” This includes your body, your mind, your capacities, your opportunities and your earnings.

3: Tithing is the beautiful benchmark for how a believer gives.

100% of our lives and money belong to Jesus, and we get to show that off by giving at least the first 10% of our earnings back to Him. For some of us, we can and should give more away. But that first 10% is His in a unique way.

4: Tithing should be seen as a grace-driven response, not a legalistic burden.

Scripture doesn’t come with an Excel spreadsheet where we can punch in our numbers and see the exact amount we should be giving. Do I tithe off gross or net? What about earnings on retirement savings? Credit card points? The 50-50 raffle I won that the Little League game last night? These and many, many other practical questions abound. Each of them is an opportunity (through prayer, in community, by faith) to make holy decisions with our money. And if you find yourself doing the math in a way that ends up with you giving as little as possible, go back to point 1.

5: The last part of a man to get saved is his wallet.

A friend said that to me, and it’s true, for men and women. All your enemies – the world, the flesh, and the devil – are going to tell you it’s crazy to tithe. Reasonable excuses will abound. “You can’t give thousands of dollars to church! You need that money for yourself! It’s expensive living in Bostonia!” Don’t believe the lies. It is better to give than to receive. You cannot out-give God. There is way more joy in living on 90% (or less) of what you make and giving the difference away for the good of others than in keeping 100% for yourself.

6: Scripture is helpful here.

The Spirit works through the Word. If you are hesitant to trust God and begin giving rightly, spend some time in Word and prayer. Be reminded of the salvation that Jesus has worked for you. Be awed by the imperishable inheritance that is yours in Christ. Realize that you don’t give to earn God’s favor but you give because He has already favored you. Memorize some of the many texts about trusting God with your bank. The back end of 2 Corinthians 9 is a good place to start.

7: Repent of sin, believe the gospel, and start giving now.

Whether you want to give online or by writing checks, whether you want to give once a week or once a month, whether your are tithing off gross or net, whether you are making $120,000 a year or $10 an hour, start. You will look back at this time in your life later and say “Why did it take me so long to get there? There is so much freedom and joy in writing big checks to Jesus.”

This week’s sermon from Esther 2 addressed the sexual assault faced by Esther and others in the empire. This is a difficult topic that brings a number of questions, one of which is addressed here.

Since moving to Boston seven years ago, Jesus has given me friendships with a number of men who were sexually abused by priests as children. It has been absolutely horrifying to see the effects of sexual assault on these men, their marriages, and their lives. Each of these men live with daily pain, frustration, and shame over the assault committed against them.

Because of the nature and timing of the sexual assault towards them, these men also suffer frustration with their inability to confront those that sinned so significantly against them. The pedophile responsible for their pain is now dead, because the acts took place so long ago. This is even more frustrating because these men want to respond like strong, whole masculine men to situations to these situations. They could not at the time because:

• Culture was against them (“How dare you say that about Father ____!”)
• They were boys physically unable to protect themselves against these godless acts
• They were scared to death (“If you tell anyone, God will kill your parents.”)

Now these assaulted boys have grown up and want justice. It may not fix what is broken in them, but justice needs to happen. They want those that hurt them to feel pain. They want the reality of assault to be known by the perpetrator. They want to shake and hit them, but they can not because these pedophiles are in graves. The ones that so desperately need to be confronted and brought to justice can not be brought to justice. This adds to their disgrace. “You ruined my life through unspeakable acts and got away with it.”

As I have sat with these men and heard, through tears, how their lives are destroyed and their hope is gone, it is clear that their last hope, justice, has been torn away and they are left with nothing but pain.

If you involve the God of the Gospel, however, the whole situation shifts and justice is not only possible, but guaranteed. Because the gospel is true, justice will be carried out by God. His holiness demands it for every rebellion of man against him. Sexual assault of any type is most certainly rebellion against God, his commands, and one of his created beings bearing his image. That means that there are only two scenarios for the pedophile, rapist, and sex offender. Both end with justice:

1. The sinner is punished eternally. “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6–9 ESV).
2. Christ was punished on the Cross on the sinner’s behalf. “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5 ESV)

Either of those scenarios leaves one thing for sure: justice either has been or is being carried out. And it is being carried far more righteously, effectively, and compentently than you or I could ever make happen. This is not a man swinging wildly and shouting angrily in vengeance until he punches himself out. This is the God of the Universe, the righteous One who loves his children perfectly, has all resources at his disposal, and is himself infinitely angry and burning at this offense executing perfect justice.

It’s here that the gospel offers healing. At this point, culture, friends, and family need not validate your pain or offer cold comfort. In the gospel, the victim can find assurance that the life-wrecking sin committed against them has been punished and punished perfectly. Either eternal judgement is being carried out by God or God himself took that eternal judgement on the Cross. Either way, know that you need not shake, hit, or scream at the one who violated you. You could not say anything more profoundly about the sin than what God will make known to that person. You could not say anything more profoundly about sin than what God said on the Cross.

It will not be ignored. It will not be pushed away. It will be dealt with and dealt with decisively.

God is for you. God is for your healing. God will not let the sin committed against you go unpunished. Believe that.

Programming note! This Sunday we are going to join with Acts 29 churches nationwide and prayerfully give our attention to the church planting efforts that are happening through Seven Mile Road and through Acts 29 as a whole.

We’ll be employing 2 different kinds of media in the service:

1, we’ll be reading updates by letter from our church planters in Wakefield, Philadelphia, East Africa and Tanzania.

2, we’ll be sitting under the preaching by video of Matt Chandler, Pastor of an Acts 29 church called The Village. *

We’ll also be handing out the attached prayer guide to propel us into a week of committed prayer for the Spirit to show up in grace and power in the lives and ministries of our church planters.

See you there!

* We’ve never used video in a service in this way at Seven Mile Road before, but we think it will be fruitful. In the book of Acts we see that church leaders like Paul would at times write letters of communication to churches that were connected together in ministry and when those local churches would gather on a Sunday morning the media would be read aloud in the presence of all. I bet Paul wishes he had a hig-def video camera on hand! Anyway, while we are strongly committed to having local, live preaching as the normal rhythm of the life of Seven Mile Road, this weekend gives us a unique opportunity to hear about the church planting movement we are a small part of from a brother at the center of what’s happening. Should be great.

Quick Preview of “Church Planting Sunday” from Seven Mile Road on Vimeo.

As we have been preaching through Esther as a church family, I want to write about some of the insights that have come up in gospel community conversations during the week.

When we gathered for worship on May 5, we read Psalm 62 together.

‘Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God.’

In these early Esther sermons I have been continually reminded of the power of God over against the earthly powers.

Consider what we know about King Ahasuerus:

• The King rules over a vast empire from India to Ethiopia (Esther 1:1)
• He hosts as six month war council to display his military might (1:4)
• He uses this massive party as an opportunity to unveil his latest plans for world domination.
• The King continually issues irrevocable edicts and decrees (1:8, 1:19-22, 3:12, 8:8)
• The King’s empire is so enormous it appears that he is not even aware of the existence of the Jewish people (3:8)
• The King’s name is mentioned approximately 175 times throughout the book.

And yet, we know:

• The King’s empire disappears
• His plans to impress the gathered war council turn into embarrassment when Vashti refuses him.
• His plans to invade Greece fail.
• His irrevocable edicts and decrees are overwritten.
• The unknown people of God triumph over their enemies.
• The unmentioned God is sovereignly orchestrating every event that takes place.

All of this underscores the reality of Psalm 62 – ‘power belongs to God.’  This is the God that we serve – the God of infinite power.

So I’m getting ready to head to Toah Nipi for the final overnight of this year’s Ox Track. This is the one where we invite our wives and sons and daughters to join us for the 24 hours. (Yeah, it gets a little crazy.) Attached is the agenda for our time together if you are praying, or if you wanted to see what we’re up to, or both!

One of the things I’ve been thinking on how is how all this work that we put into vetting and shaping and loving potential pastoral leaders in the life of the church/movement is done in love for you, the people of Seven Mile Road.

Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.”

This goes for kings, presidents, congressmen, mayors, superintendents, coaches, teachers, board members, fathers, mothers ……. and pastors. When those in authority are righteous, holy, qualified, well-trained, healthy, strong, held accountable, etc., those under their care rejoice, flourish, thrive, breathe, dance. When the wicked rule, those under their care groan, suffer and basically just wish it would all end, fast.

I love the people of Seven Mile Road with all my heart. That’s one of the reasons I am so motivated to make sure that those who lead us are called, gifted, qualified… and healthy. I want our people rejoicing. I want all those who Jesus has given to me hitting heaven so thankful that Seven Mile Road was their church, glad that righteousness marked the way they were led.

That’s one thing that these Ox Tracks, and all our other tracks, are about.

Overnight 3 Agenda

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This past Sunday we preached a sermon from the book of Esther called “Tyranny.”

One of Esther’s mega-themes (we are trying to preach on them all!) is the sinful, reckless, tyrannical way that Persian King Ahasuerus rules. He fancies himself divine, the great Lord and Savior of the kingdom. And so, without hesitation, he makes decrees and edicts and laws all story long. These royal orders are always rooted in his self-interest, and often they flout the law of God, like when he divorces his wife or when he orders a genocide of the Jews in the kingdom. This ruler has veered way outside the land of his God-given authority; his reign is a picture of tyranny.

As you read all this, you realize that it would have been easy for a godly people living under his rule to despair that ultimate authority resided in a pompous, petulant, self-interested, unjust governor like Ahasuerus.

But the author of Esther won’t allow that response. This book is about how a happy feast got established after all! And so throughout the book he is parodying the Persian powers and trying to get you to laugh at them, too.

For example, he makes certain to emphasis the supposed “irrevocability” of Persian decrees, mentioning several times how Persian law “cannot be repealed.” And yet at the end of the book the King’s genocidal decree gets reversed (revoked, you might say) through the providence of God.

Hmm. That’s funny.

Yes. It’s supposed to be.

As Psalm 2 says, when the kings and rulers of this world set themselves in opposition to God, he laughs.

And that laughter is rooted in the gospel.

Once the Lord is done chuckling up at the pretense of the powers, Psalm 2 continues. We see that His laughter flows because He has set His King on Zion. This, ultimately, is Messianic, gospel stuff. In Jesus’ ascension, all authority was given to the Son by the Father, fulfilling Psalm 2, and giving all Christian of all ages the confident freedom to laugh when their liberties are threatened by tyrannical earthly governments.

So far, so good, right?

Well, rather than just preach that (moving from King Ahasuerus directly to Christ), I included a section in the middle of the sermon to connect the dots for our people and show that we, too, in these United States, right now, are dealing with a government (at every level, but especially the federal one) that tends to swerve wildly out of its God-given lane put itself forward as Lord and Savior.

So I moved from Persia to us before getting to Christ.

I know, I know. The safe thing to do would have been to skip over any specifics like that and just let people connect any potential dots themselves. I mean, what kind of a masochist would question the politics of big government from a pulpit located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?

Our kind.

All series long we are trying to not merely preach in the theoretical but in the actual. To not just talk about back then, but also about how right now is a lot like back then.

This makes for sermons which much sharper edges.

And that’s ok. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit, after all.

A good pastor does not speak in generalities, but in particulars. Generalities can be sidestepped, but particulars pin you down. Generalities leave room for thinking, “well, maybe he’s not talking to me.” Particulars leave no doubt. That’s what we are going for.

Our willingness to take the risk and preach this way is rooted in two places.

First is a fear of God. We have to give account to God for how we handled the ministry of the Word in the life of this church. We want to be able to say, like Paul, “we did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable.” We are not going to be cowards. (At least that’s what we say in our more lucid moments.)

Second is a really high esteem of the maturity of our congregation. No pastor preaches perfectly. In His wisdom, God has chosen sinners to be the instrument through which His gospel is proclaimed. We’re trusting that our people love God, love His Word, love the pastors that He has given them, and long for the preaching of he Word to drive them to repentance. We’re also trusting that they are not demanding perfection from the pulpit (who could handle that pressure?!), but that they are serious about sound doctrine and will lovingly keep pushing our pastors to faithful exposition. If we veer of course in the pulpit, we’re trusting the congregation to helpfully bring us more in line with the Word. Nothing would bring us more joy.

Father, by the Spirit, please keep maturing the ministry of the Word here for the good of your people and the glory of Jesus. You know the intense topics to come in this series. Be gracious to us.

Each Sunday as we sing the Doxology, we are doing two final things together, praising God AND kicking over idols. As I have been reading Mike Cosper’s book, Rhythms of Grace, I immediately loved this quotation (which is actually from John D. Witvliet):

Everytime we sing praise to the triune God, we are asserting our opposition to anything that would attempt to stand in God’s place. Every hymn of praise is a little anti-idolatry campaign … When we sing “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,” we are also saying “Down with the gods from whom no blessings flow.

When we sing the doxology, know that you are praising God AND participating in gloriously holy and joyous rebellion against the false idols of this world. It’s the right kind of rebellion to get caught up in and the kind of rebellion God would have you participate in.