Think Biblically, live intentionally believing the gospel matters.  Not just for a few hours on Sunday, not just during a ten minute quiet time in the morning, and not just for our “philanthropic” activities.  When we trust Christ for our salvation, He becomes Lord over all of our lives and His gospel becomes the lens through which we see everything.  the Apostle Paul puts it this way, “Let everything be done in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  Too often we have limited this “everything” to exclude where we spend the majority of our time- our work.  This, however, does not have to be the case.  We believe that Christ is Lord over every second of our reality, enabling us to live integrated lives of faith and work and empowering us to have gospel influence in our culture.

Building on this conviction, the Young Pros, EQUIP, and Cru City will host the Gospel and Work Forums.  These forums exist to encourage gospel application in the workplace through vocational specific world view trainint (thinking Christianly about your specific vocation) and workplace peer support in profession specific issues (living intentionally with excellence and uprightness in your specific vocation).

Join us on June 14, 21, and 28 at 7:00pm at the Brier Creek Campus.  The evening will consist of a 20-25 minute keynote followed by an hour break out where a seasoned professional will lead vocational specific discussion (including group introductions, dialogue, Q and A, and prayer).  Topics and speakers include:

1. June 14- Keynote Bruce Ashford- Working Distinctly: Thinking Christianly about your vocation

2. June 21- Panel discussion- Working Accountably: Ethics, Burnout, Relationships, and other Practicalities

3. June 28- Henry Kaestner -Working Excellently: “Doing well a thing that is well worth doing.”

No matter what vocation you are in, you will find like-minded professionals in similar stages of your career to challenge and grow with.  These events will be the start of a great conversation for you and the other Christian professionals that you know.

Christ is better hebrews 3,4 LG

Christ is better hebrews 3,4 MG

This post is meant to offer guidance to common “What now?” questions that could emerge from Pastor J.D.’s sermon on Hebrews 4 preached at The Summit Church Saturday/Sunday May 19-20, 2012.

What is one of the least emphasized descriptions of Hell? I think it comes from Hebrews 4 when it twice quotes Psalm 95:11, “They shall not enter my rest.” I’m not sure that is how I have thought of eternal torment, but I am also not sure I can think of anything more painful.

Imagine always striving but never arriving. Put yourself in the position of always being measured, but never accepted. Picture aiming at a perpetually moving target as if your life depended upon it. I don’t think it is that hard for most of us to let our imaginations go there, because this is how most of us live.

God offers a solution for this – Sabbath (Heb. 4:9-10). But too often we think of Sabbath as a legalistic obligation rather than a gracious gift. We want to know what we can’t do instead of resting in what Christ has already done to purchase our rest.

In order to understand the significance of Sabbath I think we need to look at the fourth of the Ten Commandments where God said, “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy… You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath (Deut. 5: 12 and 15).”

God was making a direct connection between being delivered from slavery and keeping the Sabbath. Next to freedom, what does a slave want most? Rest. A slave is driven by his/her master. A slave is a commodity who is owned and his/her worth is measured by productivity. A slave is expendable. These realities mean a slave is beaten for or threatened against resting.

God is saying that His deliverance from slavery (whether that be from Egypt, sin at salvation, or idolatry in our sanctification) changes our identity from slave to son. What is one of the chief privileges of a son? Rest. A son is loved by his father. A son is an image bearer who carries the family name. A son is irreplaceable. These facets of identity allow a son to rest.

This rest is more than a vacation or a day off. When the son of a good father works he is not looking over his shoulder to see if his work is “good enough.” The son of a good father works to perpetuate the good name he has been given. The son of a good father is not defined by his work. The son of a good father finds his security in the love he receives on his best and worst days.

This is why our hope is not in rest, but in the God who purchased our rest at the cost of His Son. We are not refreshed by a day of restricted labor. We are enlivened by the love of a God who commands rest so that we do not forget what He has done for us. Our rest is a celebration of Christ’s work.

How does this change the way we approach Sabbath?

We recognize Sabbath as a gift not a restriction.

We engage Sabbath as a celebration of the gospel.

We allow Sabbath (sonship) to invade even our “work days.”

We recognize fear and insecurity as more anti-Sabbath than activity.

We view our stillness as an act of faith in God’s being a loving, good Father.

We recognize our driven-ness is mistaking Hell for Heaven.

The first couple of sermons have been excellent and the staff will continue to put out study material to coincide.  Here is the week two small group study guide, which includes some thoughts for personal study as well.

Christ is better hebrews 2 LG

Christ is better hebrews 2 MG

And in case you missed it, here is week one:

Christ is better hebrews 1 LG

Christ is better hebrews 1 MG

In our day, we have defined the meaning of life as “getting to know yourself.”  But in many ways, that is like trying to understand poetry without knowing the author.  You can take a lot of guesses and reach some cool conclusions that seem profound, but you would have missed the meaning.

Meaning belongs to the author and we are not the author of our own life.  We can say, “Your life is what you make it,” but that makes life as fickle as your mood and as volatile as your health.  When “life is what you make it” then death rewrites everything (2:15) and we know it … even if we live ingoring it.

But Hebrews 2 gives us the author’s intent for life.  We come to know the Author who invaded His own story to free His creation that He loved like brothers and sisters (2:10-11).  As we come to know Him, we learn who we are in response to who He is.  Hebrews 2 gives us four images of Christ.

1.  A King who Got Involved (2:9)-  You are created to be a part of a kingdom greater than yourself.  Therefore you will never find meaning in your life alone. You were born of the royal lineage of the King of kings and abdicated your position to do your own thing. This was a crime of high treason. Yet the benevolent King of kings stepped in and graciously took your penalty to restore your place as an heir of His kingdom. Every lie you were prone to believe that led you to mutiny has been proven false and you are now the subject-son/daughter of the One who made you, bought you, loves you, and is ever with you.

2.  A Champion Who Saves (2:10, 14-15)-  You face an enemy greater than your ability. When you look for meaning in your life alone, the meaning is “defeated.” Sin and suffering both are more than we can conquer – both result in death and death wins. Or, at least that was the story until our Champion entered the story. Our doom becomes foreshadowing that enhances the glory of the Hero. We become a part of the emancipated masses. Our story is one of freedom won at great price by a Great Warrior. Our role is to celebrate and retell the story.

3.  A Brother Who is Not Ashamed (2:13)-  Your deficiencies are greater than you can cover. There is no putting a “good face” on the human condition. We are all the relative that we hope no one learns about. We are the awkward kid in the lunch room. But our All-World Brother walks in and sits with us; not out of pity, but from love and genuine interest. He covers our shame with His confidence. We become who He sees us to be. His opinion of us (His gift righteousness) becomes truer of us than our own opinion. We lose ourselves and find ourselves at the same moment in Him.

4.  A Priest Who Helps (2:18) -You don’t know what to say for yourself. You are at a loss for words because there is nothing that could be said. Eloquence cannot make darkness into light. You search for a way to meaningfully represent yourself to God, but your desperate silence is interpreted to God (Rom. 8:26). You find that you are understood better than you know yourself and as you hear your High Priest plead your case you learned what you groped to find in yourself. You stop trying to define “your life” and you learn that Christ is life and that He wants to express Himself through the unique way that He made you.

These four images in Hebrews 2 do not exhaust who Christ is. But hopefully these reflections have helped to establish a pattern of thought and Bible study for you.

First, learn who Christ is. Nothing else makes sense until you know the author of life.

Second, learn who you are in light of who Christ is.

Third, find areas of your life that bring an aspect of Christ’s actions/role to life in your struggles.

Fourth, worship Christ as you lose yourself and find yourself at the same time.

If you have been involved in raising up leaders, discipling others, or you’ve taken up the call from the April’s Forum (click on the bottom right video clip) to pour yourselves into others, then you’ll want to hear Spence’s talk.  Small group leaders, we would love to have you there to hear and interact with vision from your pastor in the first and second sessions of the evening.

The Main Session will be shorter, but action packed with great teaching and some vital summer opportunities to present.  The cohort time will pick up from there to give extra time to the discipleship that happens during the second hour of the Forums.  Cohorts include:  Church Planting, Preparing for Marriage, Worship and the Arts, and Small Groups.

We won’t have another EQUIP: Leadership Forum this Summer, so it’s your last chance, for a while, to hear vision from Summit pastors and connect with other leaders in the church.  If you need childcare for the event, please let us know by Sunday night.  We look forward to seeing everyone there!

In the sermon this weekend, J.D. talks about the importance of having a quiet time.  He also offered this as a potential structure for a fruitful devotional time:

15 minutes of reading the Bible
15 minutes of prayer
15 minutes of edifying reading

Below are some suggestions and helps to make each of these times fruitful.

For Bible Reading, we will be posting devotional material on the EQUIP blog and website (coming soon) throughout the series.  The first few will come along with the small group study guide.  Here it is for this week:  Hebrews 1:1-2:4 study guide.  We’ve also put together this helpful tool to provide some structure for your bible reading time:  devotional guide.  We will be in this series until mid-August (with a couple of short breaks).  By that time you should be able to finish Hebrews several times through, or you can move on to other books.  Here’s an outline for how to break up the reading:

1 –  Hebrews 1
2 – Hebrews 2:1-13
3 – Hebrews 2:14-3:6
4 – Hebrews 3:7-19
5 – Hebrews 4:1-13
6 – Hebrews 4:14-5:10
7 – Hebrews 5:11-6:12
8 – Hebrews 6:13-7:28
9 – Hebrews 8
10 – Hebrews 9:1-10
11 – Hebrews 9:11-28
12 – Hebrews 10
13 – Hebrews 11
14 – Hebrews 12:1-17
15 – Hebrews 12:18-13:25

And, of course, you want the discipline to continue beyond this series.  There are daily Bible reading plans in lots of places on the internet, such as www.oneyearbibleonline.com, www.onlinebible.net, or www.biblegateway.com.

For Prayer, we offer just a few important suggestions.  Spend time speaking to God.  Much of this just be praising him and thanking him for what he’s done for you.  Also, make requests to him and interact with him about what you’re reading and how you’re living.  Be specific with your requests and ask him for direction.  This will make it easier for you to see how he’s working in your life.  Finally, spend some time just listening in your prayer time.

For Edifying Reading, you have a myriad of good options.  Some favorites include Knowing God (Packer), Desiring God (Piper), Gospel (J.D.), Prodigal God (Keller) and many others.  Write in, ask a pastor, or ask your small group leader for more suggestions (we are ALWAYS happy to help on that front).  If you really want to enhance your bible reading, you can pick up a commentary on what you’re reading in Scripture.  We recommend starting with a more devotionally written commentary to start with (such as the “NIV Application” series or the “For Everyone” series by N.T. Wright).

Happy reading, please send in any questions you may have that will help you get started!

This teaching is vital for developing a Christian worldview, and for seeing how all aspects of our lives are encompassed by God’s story.  Bruce focused for this night on how our vocation fits into God’s mission.  Be sure to pass this on to others:

And here is the power point that accompanies his teaching:  True Story of Whole World_PPT Presentation (1)

In this passage, we see the body of Christ feeding one another and building each other up.  This includes getting some great knowledge and wisdom from the older generation.  Well, older at the Summit might mean 32, but we have some exceptionally wise and faithful teachers coming to fulfill Titus 2 tomorrow night at EQUIP.  Register here to take advantage of this great evening.

Plus, there is just something great about connecting and networking with the men of Summit, and the women of Summit.  Tomorrow night will be a great opportunity for that.  Here are the details:  6:30-8:30 at Brier Creek, with the men starting in BC North and the women starting in BC South.

Men, you don’t want to miss some challenging speakers.  We’ve brought in Johnny Evans, who is a local legend.  He quarterbacked for NC State in the 70s and then went onto the NFL.  Now, he is a regional direction for FCA  and he leads a local men’s bible study that reaches more than 1,000 men across the Triangle weekly.  Dr. Bruce Ashford and Brad Hambrick, professors from Southeastern Seminary will lead breakouts, as will our topnotch church planting team.

Women, you don’t want to miss a chance to catch up with some of our wonderful women of faith.  Amber Lehman, Latoya King, Lauren Ashford, Cas Monaco, and Alicia Miller have all poured themselves out for this Church over the years.  These are women who led by the Lord and who have great discipleship to offer the younger women of Summit.  The testimony and teaching in store for you on this evening will be God-ordained and inspiring.  Women are also welcome to join our Church Planting cohort as your second breakout session.

www.summitrdu.com/leadership

The Men will start in BC North at 6:30 for a challenging time with FCA regional direction, and former NFL quarterback, Johnny Evans.  At 7:30, the men will have three choices:  counseling pastor Brad Hambrick will talk about Purity;  Seminary theologian and Summit Elder Dr. Bruce Ashford will give an overview of all of Scripture; and the Church Planting team is meeting for it’s regularly scheduled discussions on God’s Mission, international planting, and North American church planting.

The Women will start in BC South (6:30) for a lively time of worship and an interview testimony with Amber Lehman.  After that, 4 godly women from our congregation will offer the following discipleship topics:  Latoya King will teach on intercession, Cas Monaco on women discipling women; Alicia Miller will cover do a talk called “Daily Belief for life in the trenches;” and Lauren Ashford will give “the Whole Bible for the Whole Woman.”  The women can choose two of these, or one from these and one from the Church Planting cohort.

Childcare will be at a premium for this night.  We have capped the registration, so be sure to register for it early!  If you are able to make alternative plans, please do so.

More information and registration for this great evening can be found at www.summitrdu.com/leadership.