Mosaic Boston

The sin of self-righteousness is everyone's blind spot, and the longer you're a Christian, and the more successful you are at growing in personal righteousness, the greater your unwitting bent toward self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is the self-satisfaction of being "better than." We aren't just moral creatures, we're moralistic creatures, and self-righteousness is the default setting of the human heart. We all need to learn to repent of our righteousness, through which we attempt to earn or sustain our standing before God and others.

In Luke 9:1-17, the disciples plea for Jesus send the 10,000+ crowd of people home because they were hungry. In response, Jesus commands "You give them something to eat." Then Jesus proceeds to fulfill His own commandment, through the disciples' feeble, fraught, and faithless obedience. Apart from God's grace, applied to our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are helpless to do what God commands us to do.

Western cultures tend to be "monochronic" in that they view time as linear, with a definitive beginning and end. Time is viewed as limited, so we structure our lives by milestones, deadlines, and hard schedules. Polychronic cultures like Southern Europe, Latin American countries and the Middle East view time as cyclical and endless. Doing things right and maintaining harmony is more important than getting things done “on time.” If there are such stark contrasts in understanding time between cultures, how much more so between people and God? God is never late.

Healthy habits are important. But moral habits are as well. Gossip, lust, greed, lying, envy, fits of anger, passivity, vanity, drunkenness, etc. There are things we do, that we wish we didn’t do, and have maybe even promised countless times to never do again. But they keep coming back to haunt us. It might leave us wondering if change is even possible. It’s no wonder Scripture often talks about sin as self-inflicted slavery.

It’s been said that there are 365 “Fear nots” in the Bible — one “Fear not” for every day of the year! In Luke 8:22-25, Jesus leads the disciples into the middle of the most terrifying storm of their lives, takes a nap while they panic, then calms the storm and their raging fear. Then, as He typically does, leaves them with the mystifying question: "Where is your faith?"

From day one, God invades the darkness. Let there be light. Boom. There was light. When God sent his Son into the world, He sent His light to enlighten and illuminate our hearts. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Join us tomorrow as we continue our series in Luke, by studying Luke 8:16-21.

To listen well, we need to muster significant energy. Listening takes work. Passively hearing is easy. Actively listening is exhausting. Skip the speech, just give me the soundbites. However, soundbites are superficial. The Lord wants His Word to shoot deep roots in the humble, tender, soil of hearts, to produce a miraculous harvest of 30, 60, even a hundredfold.

When people usually think of the word "blessing," they think of "prosperity" in terms of material things like health and wealth. The word for "blessing" in the New Testament is makarios, which actually means "the highest level of happiness." Therefore, God's greatest blessings are not material, but spiritual. God longs to give us makarios --inexpressible joy. One of the clearest paths to experiencing more makarios is generosity. Therefore, the way we experience a more blessed life isn't getting more, but giving more.

The question isn’t whether we are going to be worshipers. Rather, it is, what are we going to worship? To worship anyone or anything less than the all-powerful, all-knowing God, we sell ourselves short. But what does true worship look like in our daily discipline? Mosaic Boston Jamaica Plain Pastor Ivey Rhodes brings us the message this week to discuss a true life rhythm of worship.

When Scripture talks about community, it doesn't talk about a social club of peers or a Meetup interest group. Godly community is Gospel-centered community on mission with God, for His glory! The early church committed (devoted) itself to gathering together corporately, and in small groups in homes for studying the Scriptures, prayer, and fellowship.

God hard-wired humans to both work and rest, in a healthy rhythm. If we stop doing either, we stop living full, flourishing lives. This is why God actually commands us to rest physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and this is meant to be a blessing, not a burden. In fact, regular rest is so important that God put it in the Ten Commandments, right up there with "Don't commit adultery" and "Don't murder." Thus, resting every seventh day isn't just a nice suggestion, but actually morally binding. If we break this commandment, it breaks us.

When every day becomes a feast, no day truly is. We've lost the rhythm of feasting (celebrating God's bounty and kindness), because we've lost the rhythm of fasting (celebrating God). We don't fast to fast, but fast to pray--and we don't pray to pray, but pray to fellowship with Our Heavenly, our greatest need, even greater than that for food. By looking at the spiritual rhythm of fasting, we can feast on fellowship with God.

In the same way that God has designed our bodies to function optimally when aligned with circadian rhythms, He has designed our souls to function optimally when aligned with spiritual rhythms. For the next six Sundays, we are devoting our attention to the spiritual rhythms the Lord has prescribed for us in Scripture as a means of grace for spiritual flourishing: Scripture, Prayer & Fasting, Sabbath, Community, Worship, and Generosity. Once these rhythms are a natural part of your life, you will be on your way to a successful 2019 (and beyond)!

In Isaiah 9, Jesus is prophecies to be the "Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore." Despite the lack of Shalom in the world, we can still experience Shalom in our hearts, as "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

Even in the most ecstatic moments of happiness, there's always a caveat or asterisk–there's always a catch. There's always the deep awareness that this delicious moment will come to an end, and we're sad about it. We're sad about our happiness ending, because it isn't happiness that we're after; we're after everlasting joy. Do you have this elusive everlasting joy?

The best part about the Christmas season is the Christmas spirit. The Christmas spirit infuses the air with generosity, grace, and love. Everyone seems to be a little nicer–even in Boston. People don't push quite as forcefully on the T. They don't lay on the horn quite as long. They don't tailgate quite as closely. Why? What is it about the Christmas Spirit that changes people? And why can't we live like this year-round?

What is that thing that if you lost it, would make your life no longer worth living? We all put our hope in something––whether it's the God of the Bible or something else. This week, we investigate God's method of providing hope to all people as we kick off our four-week long Advent series.

When God grants authority, it is always for the blessing and protection of those under authority and never for the selfish advantage of the one in authority. The conclusion of Colossians examines godly authority in the family, marketplace, and church.

In last week's text in Colossians, the Apostle Paul said that asceticism and legalism are impotent in stopping the "indulgence of the flesh," meaning external changes won't stop the raging fire of sin within. We need something else. We need to fight the internal fire with fire, by fighting desire with desire.

The number one spiritual growth secret: do not focus on growing your own faith; focus on helping someone else grow theirs.