Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Escaping Futile Faith

futilityFutility and faith are not terms we readily associate with each other. Yet, futility and faith can be close companions. Remember the great judge Samson who lost his god-given-ability to protect God’s people because he wanted to impress a pretty girl (Judges 16:4-22). He spent a good portion of his life blind and in jail, protecting no one, expressing the futility of life.

He is not alone. Throughout the ages, countless men and women have been redeemed by God and have yet squandered years of their lives in spiritual wastelands because they turned their back on God for a brief or protracted moment.

In 2 Timothy 2:20-21, Paul address this very topic of useless or futile Christians.

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable,[d] he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

The great house is the kingdom of God. The kingdom is filled two kinds of vessels: honorable and dishonorable, those which hold food, jewelry and beauty and those which hold trash, garbage, and human waste. The analogy of the great house implies the kingdom of God. And Paul refers to the vessels usages and not their inherent qualities. The discussion concerns believers.

Paul mentions the analogy to remind us that simply being in Christendom does not guarantee success. Simply occupying a spot on a pew will not necessarily make us useful. Simply showing up to church does not guarantee spiritual growth, joy, and vitality.

If the believer allows pornography, greed, selfishness, pride, covetousness, or any of the countless manifestations of idolatry to dominate their life, they become a vessel of dishonor. They will not be an encouragement to the body. They will not be a spiritual blessing to their family. They are still very much saved, but they have been sideline.

Instead of glory, health, joy, and energy, they have fear, doubt, anxiety, and depression. They have voluntarily imprisoned themselves into futility far away from their calling, gifting, and identity. Like Sampson, they are simply pushing through life one miserable step at a time.

What do we do when we find ourselves overcome by sin?

We cleanse ourselves. We thoroughly clean all the dirt out. We repent of all our sin. We confess our greed to our wife showing her the receipts she already knew about and the ones from our private credit card. We remove the porn from our computer, our T.V. and our phone. We tell our teacher about the test we cheated on and about all the homework we did not do. We thoroughly repent. We find each and every manifestation of sin and repent of it. We cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable. And when we repent, we immediately become a vessel of honor.

Samson died a restored man, a cleansed vessel. He prays in Judges 16:28, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” God restores his strength. Samson then destroys the Temple of Dagon killing more people in day than he had in a lifetime of combat. He immediately was used by God to glorify God by judging the wicked.

I suspect few of us will be called to do something so dramatic and woeful. Yet, we too will experience the return of spiritual strength, joy, and power the moment we repent of our sins. James 4:8 wonderfully promises that if you will,

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Repent, turn, cleanse yourself from your sin, and you will become a vessel of honor.

Friends if your spiritual life is stunted, check your heart for sin.  The honorable vessel is the vessel that is set apart as holy that is sanctified. If you have not grown in your affections toward God and in your ability to express love to others, check for sin. You most like do not need another Bible study, evangelism program, or mentor. You need holiness. Repent. Cleanse yourself.

Do you feel useless? Do you feel that you have nothing to offer Christ? Do you fell that you have nothing to give to your church body? Check your heart.

In Ephesians 2:10 Christ promises all vessels that they have been saved for good works. We are saved to bear works keeping with repentance. We have been saved to glorify God and to serve the church. If we are not doing good works, if we are not useful for the kingdom, we must check our hearts? We must look into our souls and ask, “Is there any unconfessed sin in my heart?’ Is there anything I need to turn from? We should pray Psalm 139:23-24 and then confess the things God reveals.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Brothers and sisters, we are all in the house. But we being in Christ does not mean each and every moment is one of ease and obedience. We have to work out our faith with fear and trembling. We have to be active participants. We have to do more than occupy a spot on a pew once a week. We have to strive for holiness by the power of God. We need to be vessels of honor.

What kind of vessel are you?

If you would like to learn about true spiritual life and the Christian Faith, I invite to come worship at Amissville Baptist Church at 10:30AM this Sunday morning!

If you have more questions, please search around the blog, leave a comment, or contact me directly.

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Why Churches Need Church Discipine: This is Church 101

church-discipline.jpgChurch discipline. These two words seem to be an oxyomoron. Church and discipline belong together just as much as hot goes ice or happy with grief. Christians should love sinners, extend grace, and shower out love. Discipline, rebuke, and excommunication appear to be terms reserved for the religous dark ages when knights lived in candle-lit castles and bathed twice a year. As early as 1900, evangelicals had began to distance themselves from this ungracious practice. They said,  “[Church discipline] sounds punitive. Its savors of transgression, conflict and punishment.” Give us Jesus, love, and mercy. No discipline! Fastforward 115 years. Little has changed. Most churches never discuss or practice discipline. And those congregations that do occassionaly execumicate people often discipline those who recieved 25 year prison terms. Church discipline continues to be an evangelical oxyomoron.

But church and discipline do go together. The Greek word “παιδεία, discipline” is credited with producing righteousness in believers (Heb. 12:11; 2 Tim 3:16). To grow in Christ, believers must discipline themsselves. They must form their hearts into the image of Christ by studying the Word, by submitting to sound preaching, by attending Sunday school classes, and by joining a local church. As believers seeks after the things of God with the people of God, their minds will be filled with knowledge of God. This knowledge will shape their thoughts and desires which in turn will determine theirs actions, resulting in increased godliness and biblical living. The positive nature of church discipline could also be labeled formative discipline or discipleship.

But the process does not stop with instruction. As Jay Adams helpfully notes, Church discipline is, “education with teeth…that sees to it that the job gets done.” Discipleship, sanctification, and spiritual growth cannot happen apart from meaningful accountability… apart from discipline.

If the Christian who faithfully attends church and who regularly repents of sin is treated by his church in the same manner as the Christian who never attends church and who regularly gets drunk, the church indirectly promotes sinful living. Hiscox rightfully warns:

Let the school be controlled by strict, yet wise and kindly discipline, or the pupils will learn more of evil than of good.

Many churches are unmotivated, apathetic, and filled with vices because they neglect church discipline. They refuse to confront sin. They actually boast in their ability to tolerate sin as did the church in Corinthian. They claim that their failure to deal with the divorces in their congregation is a sign of wisdom. After all, who has the time or ability to discern who is right and wrong? These churches do not want to get sidetracked from the gospel, from evangelism, and from their growing kids ministry. We are so spiritual we ignore sin to pursue God. Talk about non-sensical thinking.

Yet the opposite is true. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:6,

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

When we turn a blind eye to sin, the sin does not go away and the church does not grow in holines. Unconfront and unaddressed sin makes nest and  gives birth to new generations of sin, anguish, and controversy. If the church leadership winks at one divorce, more will come. If one example of greed is excused, the sin will grow and deplete the church’s budget. If the pastor refuses to address the members known gambling addiction and allows the man to gain influence in the church, to teach a Sunday schoo class, and to serve as a deacon, that gambler will sway the church towards error and foolish decisions. Unconfessed, unconfronted, and unrepented of sin destroys the local church.

Though church discipline seems counterintuitive to our human natures, the practice is needed.  J.L. Dagg has prophetically warned:

When discipline leaves the church, Christ goes with it.

How Do We Do It?

If we see that a brother is sinning or has sinned, we go to him privately and encourage him to repent. If he repents or clears up the misunderstanding, all is good. The brother has been restored and won back. Our relationship is no longer broken. The rebuked brother has grown in his faith by putting off his sin and embracing righteousness afresh. If we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we will confront them in love, seeking their spiritual well being.

But if he both admits to his sin and refuses to repent of it, we take another friend and go back to to the brother. We repeat the confrontation. If that confrontation does not bear the fruit of repentance, we take the matter to the church. Then the whole church should seek out the man and call him to repentance. If that does not work, then he is to be kicked out of the church. We expell the man desring him to  come to grips with and repent of his sin. Leviticus 19:17 says,

You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.

Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ? Go confront them!

Hopefully, most confrontation never moves beyond the first step of church discipline. The loving rebuke of a brother or sister should suffice a majority of the time. But when more actions is needed, the church must take it. The church must move forward with discipline.

Upon investigating and verification of the unrepentant sin, the church must be willing to excommunicate the former member, breaking off all familial, social contact with him. Paul tells the Corinthian believers to, “not even eat with such a one” (1 Cor. 5:11). God has already declared the believer to be worth of judgement. The church must follow suit and treat the unrepentant sinner as a sinner.

If she does not take actions, she allows the brother to wrongly believe that sin is tolerated in God’s eyes and acceptable in his kingdom. She encourages her other members to abandon the hard work of righteousness. And she proclaims to the world that redemption is a fraud, unnecessary, and unneeded. If believers never repent of sin, why should unbelievers?

The God of the Bible and of the church is a Holy God. He commands us, his people, to “Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God (Lev 20:7).” The true local church will strive for holiness and execomunicate all who love their sin more than Christ. Dr. Albert Mohler correctly concluded,

A church lacking these essential qualities, is biblically defined, not a true church.

Is your church a true church? Does it practice meaningful church discipline?

If you wish to explore the topic of Church Discipline more, I encourage you to grab copies of one of the books below:

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Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Marks of A Good Pastor (Part 4: Don’t Babble)

mark-4The faithful pastor should do good and should be defined by his actions. But he should also be defined by what he doesn’t do…by his inaction.

The faithful pastor should remind his congregation of the gospel, he should charge his congregation to avoid quarrelsome words, and he should seek to be an approved worker who rightly handles the word of truth. But then he must avoid something. He must avoid babble. Paul says it this way in 2 Timothy 2:16-18

But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.

Avoid nonsense that is irreverent, worldly, and easily accessible. Paul warns Timothy to stay away from goofy things that do not edify. He avoids easy things that appeal to his audience’s natural disposition. He avoids filling his sermon with goofy videos. He also does not fill his sermon with nice but meaningless stories that make people feel good. He does not welcome people into his church by having the praise team play Beyoncé or Beatle songs. No, he avoids the profane things of the world. He clings to the Scriptures and the Scriptures alone. Hebrews 2:12 says:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

If you want to reach people, if you want to help people overcome sin, and if you want to direct people to joy, bring the Word of God to bear on their lives. Expose the people in your church to the Word of God. Avoid the babble of the world. The men in women in our church have ready access to the world’s ideas via the radio, social media, and Netflix. They do not need their pastor to expose them again to meaningless words.

The faithful pastor most avoid silly conversations devoted to discovering where Cain and Able got their wives. He must avoid the temptation to talk about blood moons, eclipse, and the exact return of Christ. Our Savior already told us in Matthew 24:36: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

And he most avoid the temptation to embrace popular-culture psychology. For years people have championed the stages of grief: grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Today, most psychologist have abandoned the stages of grief, viewing them to be too rigid and inaccurate. Greif expert Megan Devine who has authored a book on the subject wrote on the following words in her Huffington Post Blog:

“The truth is, grief is as individual as love: every life, every path, is unique. There is no predictable pattern, and no linear progression. Despite what many “experts” say, there are no stages of grief.”

Pastors will be tempted to embrace the babble of the world. Popular philosophy, popular music, and popular humor will appeal to the pastor’s worldly appetites. His congregation may even welcome babble into the service. But the pastor must avoid his inclination to abandon truth for babble.

If the pastor embraces babble, the church will be undone. Paul says it will go into more and more ungodliness. The pastor who preaches funny sermons that lack Scriptural power, the pastor who focus on meaningless trivialities, and the pastor who embrace babble undermine the very health of the church. They destroy the church. Their talk will spread like gangrene. It appears as a small and barely noticeable sore. But then it grows and grows and until every inch of the body is covered in sores and the body dies.

Hymenaeus and Philetus did this very thing. They embraced babble and ended the day denying the resurrection. They ended up denying the very essence of the faith.

Brothers and sisters do not tolerate babble. Do not encourage your pastor to entertain you at the expense of the gospel. Encourage you pastor to avoid babble and to cling to the Truth.

Is this true of your pastor or is he a babbler?