Tooling up with Convictions: By Tim Kernan

(Special Announcement about upcoming visit of Kip and Elena below!)

Why do we have specific ministries such as Married, Singles, and Campus? by Tim Kernan on the 1st Feb 2009
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Tallinn Workshop Sunday Sermon: Making Every Effort to Survive by Tim Kernan
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Ephesians 4:1-12 (Abridged) “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 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… It was He who gave some to apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare Gods people for works of service.”

In the passage above Paul who is incarcerated for his faith is writing to the church in Ephesus which may have been led by Timothy at the time. Paul, knowing all to well how fast difficult times can come lays out a model for the believers. We must be “completely humble and gentle” and patient with one another as we “prepare Gods people for works of service”. Its an incredible passage really that shows us that our work as Christians needs to be centred on building strong biblical convictions in one another. Its a staggering passage in its simplicity and focus. Paul understood clearly the trouble that the church would suffer, and was already suffering, from within and without. He was giving them solid food which “…is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5: 14)

Why did Paul put such a high premium on teaching convictions and principles? Lets remind ourselves of the fierce spiritual battlefield of the first century church. The church had been savagely divided by the Judaisers who taught that Jesus had just come for the the Jews and that one had to be a Jew to be a true disciple. Consequently in the minds of the Judaisers these small and poor churches of gentiles established by Paul were not “real churches” (Acts 10). It might surprise us to think that such a simple issue would divide the church! We know however that the very word “church” comes from the Greek “ekklesia” which simply means “those have been called out by God”. For the Judaisers to say they were not a church was to say they had not been called out by God. Jesus warns the Judaisers directly in Revelations 3:9. It was at least two decades (although some scholars say three decades) before the council of Jerusalem settled the matter in a resolute way in Acts 15. In the first century so many churches were plagued with false teachers such as the “gnostics” (Colossians 2: 8-10) who denied that Christ was fully man and fully God, and the “libertines” of whom Peter said “(they)…caroused in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes revelling in their pleasures while they feast with you”. (2 Peter 2: 13) Indeed these false teachers were never really part of the church, which is only made up of committed disciples but they were masquerading as disciples to hurt the church. So its clear, when we remember the trouble these guys were experiencing, why Paul was focused on humbly and gently teaching convictions and preparing the saints to meet the challenges of the future.

Today disciples can act out of conviction or people pleasing. Without taking the time to build proper convictions they can end up totally out of their depth when faced with the unexpected or with difficult situations. These instructions to the Ephesian church are equally important to us. As Jesus said:

Matthew 7: 24-27 “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash.”

This winter and spring we have had, and are planning, a ton of conviction building events. First of all we naturally want to thank the incredible Tallinn church for their wonderful workshop this January. It was an amazing time of convicting sermons and great fellowship. Argo and Anu’s 16 years of dedicated ministry experience prepared us in London and Kiev for great work back in our respective cities. Thank you guys so much again and thank you to all the sold out disciples in Tallinn! It was also incredible to see the amazing hearts of the truly sold out Kiev church who spent a massive sum to get on a bus and travel 20 plus hours to get to the workshop. Spending time with Maxim and Natasha was, as always, a great pleasure. The London disciples fell totally in love with their Kiev brothers and sisters and the facebooking has been intense as they all continue to get to know one another.

The weekend after we returned from Tallinn the London church had our own Congregational workshop at a camp ground in Kent! It was just the start we needed after we had all been separated visiting our families over the Christmas holidays and attending the Tallinn workshop. All the leaders preached sermonettes and lead us through fun activities outdoors to illustrate the spiritual convictions they were teaching. Just being together as a family and getting oodles of face time with everyone was pure bliss.

We have a slew of encouraging events coming up! On Saturday March 21st we are heading out to play paint ball as a family! It will be bible talk vs. bible talk, marrieds vs. singles, sisters vs. brothers and any other encouraging combo we can think of (except everyone against me!) April 12th we have our “bring your neighbour day” Easter service! On the 17th of April we have our Kiev workshop where about 14 London disciples already have their flights booked and are so looking forward to spending time with their brothers and sisters in Kiev. Lianne and I can’t wait to spend the weekend with the everyone but especially Maxim & Natasha, DJ & Kacie from NY and Lianne & I in Kiev for the weekend! Oh baby!

An extra special announcement we would like to make is the upcoming visit of Kip & Elena on April 24th weekend! The sisters are so grateful that Elena will be leading the Woman’s Day that Saturday at a lovely location down town that they have arranged! Lianne and I owe our salvation, without a doubt, to the ministry of Kip and Elena. We can’t wait to introduce all the new disciples to them. I can’t wait for Kip to give Tim Jr a blessing; a moment that will be very special to Lianne and I.

As we move into this exciting late winter/spring calendar we are excited by the 2 baptisms in 7 days last week! We are blessed by a wonderful new brother and sister! We also had our largest regular service yet last week. Not only that but the disciples pledged an incredible 7400 gbp for the special collect this July. The fact that the disciples are willing to invest so generously shows that they are seeing God move with just under 100% growth in the last 12 months and so much development in terms of our family and spiritual maturity as well. I just want to thank the church for their generosity and we are all praying to God and working hard to create a spiritual harvest from our monetary sacrifice.

I want to personally thank Jacques, Jeanette, Niyi, Ola, Phil, Megan and Trista for their tireless service on the London Church leadership team. Your humble and gentle hearts and your dedication to the Word of God is preparing the saints for an amazing year ahead of us! Thank you from Lianne and I from the bottom of our hearts. You lift our arms so that we can lift high the cross of Christ.

Enough article writing! Lets get on with the week!

Your bro,

Tim