Help from Above (Zechariah 4:1-7)

August 9, 2024 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

One of my favorite Bible verses is Zechariah 4:6 – “Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” It tells of a conversation between an angel and the prophet Zechariah, promising that God will help Israel finish to rebuild the temple, and that they will gain success when they rely not on their own power, but God’s.

The obstacles in front of Israel were extraordinary. Internally, there was discouragement, conflict, past failure, and a lack of resolve. Externally, foreign nations pressed in and wanted to see the work stopped, threatening the very existence of Israel (sound familiar?) Ezra 4:4-5 says “the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build, and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose.” For 16 years this went on, and the temple remained incomplete. Then God raised up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to help Israel to finish what they had started.

None of us have been commanded to build a physical temple. The church is the temple of God! (1 Cor. 3:16-17). However, we too are called to follow God, to pursue holiness, and to be his dwelling place on this earth. And that is no small task.

Last Sunday, we studied the first half of Zechariah 4, and I challenged the church to trust the Lord, rely on his Spirit, and to not be intimidated by the “mountains” that stand in our way. If God is for us, who can be against us? You can listen or watch using the links below.

Audio – visit the Sermon Page on our church website or listen using this link:

Video – visit our church’s Youtube channel or watch the embedded video below.

Church

Find a Faithful Church

July 24, 2024 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

Today I was listening to an interview between Pastors Keith Fosky and Tom Ascol. Fosky asked Dr. Ascol, “What advice would you give to young men aspiring to pastoral ministry?” Ascol gave an answer that resonated with me. It describes perfectly the training I received at Placerita Baptist Church, and what I hope our church can provide for many young men at Calvary Church West Hills. Ascol said,

Well, I say to every Christian who asks me for this kind of general counsel is to find a healthy church and build your life around it. If that means move, then move. There’s nothing more significant on a practical day-in day-out basis than to do that.

So I would say something similar to a young man that desires ministry. Find a faithful church with faithful elders. Not perfect elders because they don’t exist. Not a perfect church because it doesn’t exist. But faithful elders. And go and submit yourself to them and serve in that congregation. Build your life around it. If you can, do some formal theological education. That’s wonderful to do that. But that will not replace what you can gain in a faithful church that’s been led by faithful elders. Just being a part of church, like breathing the air, seeing the rhythms of life, being a part of the relationships is formative and it’s very, very valuable.

So I would encourage every young man to attempt to do that. If you can do that in context where there’s a good opportunity for theological education, man, all the better. But don’t sacrifice a church for something that you think might prepare you better than a church to engage in pastoral ministry.

Here’s the full interview:

Prayer

A Prayer After Saturday’s Assassination Attempt

July 16, 2024 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

Like many other churches, we took a moment on Sunday to pray for our nation, in light of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. How did your church handle this historic moment? Here are the words I shared…

A Prayer for Our Nation
July 14, 2024
Calvary Church West Hills

Father, we thank you for the love we sung of this morning. We thank you that we dwell in that love, that your steadfast love endures forever, and that nothing can ever separate us from that great love. You are sovereign over us. We thank you for your covenant love, and that your mercies are new every morning.

Lord God, you already know what has happened, and what will happen in our country. We were so saddened by the news of an assassination attempt yesterday. These are dark and difficult days. We pray for healing as a nation. We pray there would be a people from every background, every political party, who would humble themselves before the living God.

Lord, let us be a nation that would delight in righteousness. Let us love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with the Lord. I pray that there would be a renewal of respect and kindness toward one another. It may seem impossible because the anger, hostility, and violence continue to escalate. But you bring a spirit of peace, and that unity begins in the church. It begins with the God of peace. Lord I pray we would model peace before a watching world. I pray we would treat even our enemies with the kind of love that you treated us.

Lord, I ask that people would not look to any particular party, or candidate, or election cycle for deliverance, but let people cry out to you as the great lover of our souls who can meet our need for eternal life. Whatever people are looking for, they’re not going to find it anywhere else. They’re going to find it in the God who made them. They’re going to find it in having a personal, saving relationship with our Creator, Redeemer, and Savior. People want paradise. What they want is heaven. They want perfection. They want a utopia. They want a place where things can be made right. And you’ve made that possible through your Son. I pray you would help us as a church to be loving and bold in sharing the gospel, knowing that is the true need people have.

We thank you for your protection over former President Trump. We thank you so much for sparing his life. I thank you that all candidates, parties, and the media have denounced this terrible act of violence. And yet the rhetoric continues to be high. I pray people would calm down, and there would be a spirit of peace, a willingness to listen, a kindness and courtesy that would return to public discourse.

Lord, I pray for your churches all across the world, that they would remain faithful to the gospel. That the church would be a refuge and a safe place. Please keep us safe, and allow us to keep our arms wide open to welcome those who are desperately hurting, in need of a peace that only you can provide – a peace that passes understanding. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Theology

Bad Theology

July 11, 2024 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

In April 2014, the city of Flint Michigan began drawing their drinking water from the Flint River rather than the City of Detroit Water District. Almost immediately, something was wrong. Children began developing skin rashes. People started feeling sick. Water came out of some faucets yellow or brown, had a funny smell and a bad taste.

Time Magazine reported at the time: “Flint switched from Detroit’s water supply to the Flint River in 2014, in part to save money. But the city did not use corrosion control to prevent lead from entering the water. The river itself was also found to contain eight times more chloride than Detroit’s water, a chemical that is highly corrosive to metals. Most residents in Flint have decades-old lead service lines that connect their homes to the city’s main water pipes. When water from the river flowed through those pipes, it ate away at their insides, allowing lead to enter the supply…”

In total, over 27,000 cases of lead poisoning were reported. Ten people died, and millions of dollars were lost through litigation and costly repairs. It was an environmental disaster. How thankful we should be every time we turn on the faucet and get a clean glass of water!

There’s a spiritual lesson here as well. The problems we face today in our society start far upstream. The “sickness” of anxiety, depression, gender dysphoria, mid-life crisis, and so many other problems, start far upstream in the headwater of ideas. These things don’t happen in a vacuum. Current events in politics, education, arts and entertainment, and even in the church can usually be traced upstream to dangerous theories like evolution, critical theory, pragmatism, and relativism.

Ideas have consequences. Good ideas lead to good outcomes. Bad ideas can lead to very bad outcomes, like polluted drinking water. Last Sunday morning, we saw three ways Christ protects us from the pollution of bad theology. As we walk worthy of the gospel, let us choose the path of wisdom! You can listen or watch below…

Audio – visit the Sermon Page on our Calvary Church website

Video – visit our church’s Youtube channel or simply use the embedded file below. Thanks for watching!

Preaching

Proclaiming the Mystery of Christ

July 5, 2024 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

I loved reading the Hardy Boys as a kid. You were always in for an adventure as Frank and Joe Hardy strung together clues to solve the latest crime in Bayport. There was usually a muddy footprint, sinister shadow, or hidden staircase along the way to help solve the case.

When the Bible uses the word “mystery,” it’s not using the word in that way, like a spooky story or a crime to be solved. Rather, it’s talking about something previously hidden. A mystery is a truth concealed that has now been revealed.

Take 1 Corinthians 15:51–52 for example. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…

Paul was sharing a truth previously hidden. He was saying that not all people will experience death. Some will be instantly transformed from a mortal body into an immortal one. They will be raptured and glorified “in the twinkling of an eye.”

In the Book of Colossians, Paul shares another mystery.

The mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:26-27).

In chapter two, he adds, “being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ” (Colossians 2:2).

What was the mystery? The coming of Messiah was not a mystery. That’s something that had already been prophesied for thousands of years. What was a mystery, however, was that the Messiah would unite Jew and Gentile into one new people and body, so that Gentiles could enjoy all the privileges and rights of being children of God.

Norman Geisler writes, “The mystery was not that Gentiles would be saved but how they could be “fellow-heirs” (Eph. 3:6, KJV), on the same level with Jews, with no middle wall of partition between them (Eph. 2:12–14). In the Old Testament Gentiles who believed and became a part of Judaism were still considered lower than Jews. This special union in which there “is neither Jew nor Greek” (i.e., Gentile, Gal. 3:28) was nonexistent before Christ died and the Spirit descended to baptize all believers into this new body.” (Bible Knowledge Commentary)

Last Sunday, I preached on Colossians 1:24-29. I shared more about this mystery and how this particular passage has been a favorite of mine over the years, shaping my philosophy of pastoral ministry. You can listen or watch below.