This first psalm provides a challenging introduction to the book. We, the readers, are presented with two paths – the path of the righteous and the path of the wicked. We see that the way of the righteous is under the watchful eye of the Lord and is prosperous and fruitful. Conversely, the way of the wicked leads to judgment and perishing. Here, this first psalm requires a decision of the reader that will set the stage for the psalms to come: will I follow the path of the righteous or the path of the wicked.

I read a psalm like this and it seems so obvious. Just look at the words and pictures used to describe each. The way of the righteous is full of delight. Trees planted by streams of water. Yielding of fruit in season. Leaves that do not wither. Contrast that with the descriptions of the way of the wicked. Chaff blown away in the wind. Judgment. Sinners. Perish.

Like I said, it seems so obvious. Why would I ever choose the way of the wicked? Yet I know the depth of my own sin. I know the vileness of my own heart. I prefer the counsel of the wicked to the delight of God’s law. I choose dried up chaff to fresh fruits growing on the stream’s side. Like Israel to whom this was originally written, I choose to walk in the counsel of the wicked, worshipping the gods of the land and the people’s around me rather than walking in righteousness serving the one true God that has delivered me from slavery and to whom I confess as my King.

God I pray that as I begin this journey through the Psalms that the affections of my heart would truly be for You and that I will delight in Your law. Amen.

A few years ago, I had a pastor tell me that I had a (and I quote) “reductionist view of ecclesiology”.  I’m not even really sure what he meant by that or why he said it.  But I do that one of the things that has most changed in my heart over the last couple of years if my love for the church.  It is the body of Christ.  It is the bride of Christ.  It is the family of God.  It is the people of God for whom He died.  People have asked me if I have considered going back on staff with Young Life after I finish seminary.  While I have not ruled it out necessarily, the reason I don’t doubt that I will is not that I don’t like Young Life (because I do) but rather that I LOVE the church.

So, without further ado, here are a few ways that each of us can love the Church.  These thoughts are taken from my sermon from this past weekend on Ephesians 4:1-16.

We can love the church by seeking its unity.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (4:3-6).  I’m convinced that few things grieve the heart of God like disunity in the church.  But we create inter-church rivalries where we bad mouth and demean other churches and even in individual local churches, pride, gossip, and hidden agendas rip the people apart rather than drawing them together.  I think that it is especially noteworthy that just before he was arrested, Jesus was on his knees praying.  And what was he praying for?  The unity of the church (John 17:20-23).  Let us learn to love the church by seeking its unity that we may be one, not divided.

We can love the church by serving it.
“So Christ gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service” (4:11-12a).  That list really could be expanded to include all the gifts and abilities God has given his people.  Those gifts are not for your own personal benefit.  They were given that you might use them to serve the church.  They were given TO you, not FOR you.  Some of you who read this will feel like your gifts are not important and necessary.  Because you don’t have the “up-front” gifts, you feel unneeded.  In the body of Christ, you feel like a pinky toe.  But you know what happens to a person without a pinky toe?  They are unbalanced and have trouble walking.  That pinky toe, though small, is really crucial.  Likewise, you may wish you could speak like your pastor or play guitar like the worship leader, but God has gifted you in just such a way to benefit the whole body of Christ.  The body needs you.  And, on behalf of your church that may forget to say it sometimes, thank you for using your gifts.  Without you, your church would be missing out on the full range of God’s gifts.  I pray that you would take whatever your gift is and find a way to serve the body of Christ with it that through your service your would love the church.

We can love the church by seeking its maturity.
“so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (4:12b-13).  My friend Eric, whose baby Hannah recently turned one, said to me, “I know it sounds trite, but it’s amazing how much she has grown.”  It’s not trite at all.  Babies are supposed to do that.  They aren’t supposed to stay infants.  They are supposed to grow up.  Likewise, the church is not supposed to stay like an infant.  The church is supposed to grow up.  Can you look back over the last year and see how your whole church has grown in maturity?  If not, why not?  We should be laboring to see our whole church body become mature in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God.  We must love the church by seeking its maturity.

Saint Augustine once said, “I love the church.  She’s a whore, but she’s my mother.”  Yes, the church is full of sinful people.  The church is screwed up.  Christians are all too often the most prideful, self-righteous people in town.  And our churches reflect that attitude.  But that doesn’t mean we should write off the church.  No, rather, we, like Augustine, must recognize that for all its flaws, the church is God’s ordained institution to reach the nations.  Bill Hybels says that “the local church is the hope of the world”.  If the church is the hope of the world, we must fall in love with it by seeking its unity, serving it and by seeking its maturity.

In my previous post I mentioned that I fight the struggle between seeking God’s kingdom and seeking my own safety, security and pleasure.  But it goes much deeper than just a personal struggle.  It is the very battle of the American church…and it’s a battle we are losing.

We’ve sold out.  The church in America has sold out to the gods of safety, security and pleasure.  And yet we are shocked that the church has lost all its influence in the US.  “If the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?”  Salt adds flavor and preserves.  But if we are no different than the world, we can’t expect to change it.

Safety.  I don’t even know where to start here.  In John 11, Jesus gets word that his good friend Lazarus is sick.  When he is about to set off for Bethany, Thomas asks him, “Are you sure you want to do that Jesus?  Last time you went to Judea they tried to kill you!”  Yet Jesus, out of love for Lazarus and his sisters, walked into places of danger.  That same call has been placed on us.  “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing with his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:10-11).  Being a dangerous disciple of Christ will result in risking our lives.  “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20).  But there is no risk of losing our lives in the American church because we are not dangerous.  We have sold out to our own safety, preferring to keep the life we will lose than to gain the life we will never lose.

Security.  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:19-21).  It doesn’t get much clearer than this.  We are called to invest in the heavenly economy, not in the earthly one.  It’s not wrong to want practical needs met.  In fact, in Joshua 21, the Levites approached Joshua saying, “The Lord commanded through Moses that you give us towns to live in, with pasturelands for our livestock” (vs 2).  Though they asked for some land to live in, they had no inheritance in the land.  God himself was their inheritance.  And that is the problem with the church in America today.  Our security comes from big buildings and big budgets, not from having God himself as our inheritance.  I know of several large churches that have talked about planting churches.  But I don’t they these particular churches ever will do so.  Why?  Because they have big budgets to meet and big buildings to maintain.  Church planting (which is, incidentally, the number 1 way to reach the unchurched in the US) requires the mother church to give staff, money, resources and people to the plant.  But doing that risks meeting budgets.  As the church sold out to the god of safety, we have sold out to the god of security.

Pleasure.  C.S. Lewis argued that one of the greatest dangers people face is we are too easily amused.  We are easily entertained.  A half hour with “Everybody Loves Raymond” is all it takes to put Americans into a stupor.  The church is not exempt from this.  Rather than seeking true joy and the joy-giver, we seek ways to be happy and amused.  But their is an important distinction between happiness and joy.  Happiness is a fleeting emotion based on external circumstances.  Joy is an internal state, often in spite of external circumstances.  Happiness occurs when life is going well.  Joy comes from knowing Him to whom we belong and knowing that the heartache and pain of this life will not last forever.  The Biblical warning against pleasure is clear.  “I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?” (Ecc 2:1-2).  The church has sold out to entertainment; to feeling good and pursuing that same stupor that comes from watching a sitcom.  The church has sold out to safety, security, and pleasure.

What then?  Is it really that bad?  Yes, it is.  Not every church has sold out.  There are churches that are doing some incredible things: giving their money, resources and very lives for the sake of the nations coming to Christ.  But overall, the church has sold out.  We’re more concerned with protecting and padding this life than we are in declaring the gospel of Christ.

Looking at the church around the world highlights the urgency of these matters for us.  The church is South Korea is exploding to the point where they send out the 2nd most number of foreign missionaries to the US.  But South Korea is 1/6 the size!  Christians are dying daily in China for professing Christ and yet the house churches in China can’t be stopped.  Throughout the Muslim world the gospel is making major inroads as Christians boldly proclaim that Jesus is Lord.  The center of the Church has moved south and east.  No longer are Europe and North America the center of the Church in the world.  South America, Asia and Africa have become the hotspots for Christiantiy.  Why?  Because Christians there live daily with the reality of what it means to take up their cross and follow Christ.  To hold so loosely to this life that they are eagerly awaiting the next one.  That they can, with Paul, declare that “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).  While the church in the US has adopted safety, security and pleasure as core values, believers in Africa and Asia especially know no such things.  Their lives are on the line everyday.  And, not coincidentally, they are the places where the church can not be contained.

The Church is the body of Christ.  At its very institution, Jesus promised that not even the gates of hell will overcome the church.  The church will prevail.  But that does not obligate God to bless the church in America.  When the Israelites abandoned the God of their forefathers, they came under the curse of the covenant and were exiled from the land.  God was faithful and preserved a remnant even in exile, but make no mistake about it – they had come under judgment from God.  Like the Israelites, we have broken our covenant with God and will come under his judgment.  But if we will repent and, in faithful, dangerous obedience, find our safety in the arms of God, our security in the treasures of heaven and our pleasure in the smile of God, then the church in America will, once again, draw the nations before the throne of Christ declaring the glory of our God.