Ministry Plan

Vision:

Lovingly presenting the Gospel for the transformation of the people at East Lancaster in order to help them make those changes that God requires and accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40)

Mission:

We will work through Christian Evangelism and Biblical Counseling proclaiming the good news of our Lord to all people, proclaiming freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Luke 4:18-19)

Proposed Name:

Matthew 25:40

The King will reply: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." 

Soul Care 

Transforming lives through experiencing Christ in our Wilderness Journeys, forgiveness of sins, Repentance, Healing, Deliverance, and Overcoming Life's Challenges.    

Process:

1. The Calling:

    a. Building Relationship - we will continue to work with the people of East Lancaster and build                   relationship to establish trust.

    b. Equipping 

        1. Plan for Physical Location - Financial Budget 

        2. Training in Biblical Counselling Certification and Christian Counselling Degree     

        3. Develop connections and Administrative Logistics 

        4. Prayers 

    c. Stewardship:

        1. Stewardship of our Time (Time Management) 

        2. Stewardship of our Finance (Money management)

        3. Stewardship of our relationship (Plan to maintain productive relationships)

    d. Leadership 

        1. Are we called by the Holy Spirit? Continuously defining the calling 

        2. Following God's direction

        3. Committed to Servant Leadership 

2. Sent: 

    God calls us to Go somewhere. God calls us to serv someone. Are we equipped to fulfill His calling? 

     1 Corinthians 7:17 Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord       has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches  

      1 Peter 3:15 Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who askes you to give the reason            for hope that you have 

      Philippians 2:4 Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests        but each of you to the interests of others 

      Mark 16:15 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation 

     Isaiah 58:6-7 Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to Loose the chains of injustice and untie         the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food             with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked, to clothe             them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood. 

     Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the       Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded         you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. 

    The Bible has the answer for all of our problem: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by        God and useful for teaching, for conviction, for correction and for disciplined training in                        righteousness in order to fit and fully equip the man from God for every task.  

Biblical Counseling

 In counseling there are different levels to a counselee’s problem. The first level of his problem can be called the presentation level. The presentation level problem is the problem that the counselee initially presents to the counselor. It is also the level of problem identification in which most counselees are stuck. Examples of the presentation level problem in counseling can be phrases like, “I’m depressed,” “I am an alcoholic,” etcetera. The presentation level problem answers the question, “Why am I here?” The presentation is to the counselor what the symptom is to the doctor. It is a result or effect of something else happening in the body. 

The performance level problem is the “something else” of the above analogy. The performance level problem is the cause of the symptom (i.e. the presentation level). In other words, the performance level problem is to the counselee’s problems what the undiagnosed stomach cancer is to a patient’s severe and unexplained indigestion. 

Although performance level problems usually start coming out in the first couple of sessions, many times in biblical counseling the counselor will get a number of presentation issues before the counselee will divulge performance issues. This could be for several reasons. The counselee might not know that there is a deeper lever, the counselee does not yet trust the counselor, the counselee wants to see if the counselor is capable of handling smaller issues first, the counselee might be wrestling with admitting his sin, etc. The counselor should be careful to address even this auxiliary level of the core issue in order to be faithful stewards (Matt. 25:21, 23).

The counselor would be wise to expeditiously help with these issues, and treat them as important in order to help the counselee have hope and encouragement in which to solve larger issues (Prov. 13:12). The reason why it is so important to move behind the presentation level to the performance level is because counseling directed toward the presented problem is like giving the stomach cancer patient Tums for his indigestion. The symptom has been cured temporarily, that is, until the core issue (i.e., the cancer) gets worse. The core issue has been left to grow because the effect has had a band aide placed on it. The cancer patient’s behavior has been changed because he is taking the Tums, but he is still going to die due to undiagnosed cancer. An example of this principle can be seen in the case of Rob and Teri below:

Example: a couple that has been married for about 10 years came to you due to a failing marriage. Both had a multitude of presentation level problems. After some preliminary basic questioning about their marriage and the gospel it was ascertained that neither of them evidenced any fruit of salvation-not followers of Christ. Although you tried to address some presentation level problems in order to try and help put out a couple of raging fires, it would be foolish to continue with them for any long period of time in this fashion if they are not willing to accept Christ. 

Therefore, they would not and could not submit to the counsel of God’s Word (Rom. 8:7; Rom. 3:10-18). Addressing the presentation level alone would ignore the performance level issue –they were unsaved thus they acted like unsaved people (Matt. 12:34; 15:18-19; Gal. 5:19-21). Addressing the presented problems would deny them the life changing message of the gospel. the couple could indeed benefit from following principles in God’s Word. In this way they would have a better marriage, but then die and go to hell. We should get to the specific cancerous tumor which is the counselee’s problem. Their problem is their unconfessed, unrepented of, unforgiven sin. Thus, we dare not toss them a presentation level “Tums” to make them feel better. We give them the truth, in love, about their standing before God. They are in danger of judgment because they are false converts. Their bad marriage is simply an outworking of that fact.

We hope our short time considering the presentation and performance levels in biblical counseling was helpful. It is critical that we move from the presentation to performance level in order to address the core issue(s). 

Next Level: We will consider the “preconditioning level.”  What is it and what do we do with it? Until then may our Lord bless you and keep you.

https://gracecentralchurchsc.com/posts/foundations-of-biblical-counseling-presentation-and-performance-levels/

Where is our wilderness in Joseph’s Story?

Union Gospel 

1/20/2024

Where is our wilderness in Joseph’s Story?

Genesis 37

Joseph's story shows & teaches us many character’s lessons, it teaches us how a young man stays faithful throughout life difficulties and throughout the wilderness of his life. This is a story that tells us a true wilderness: The reason why I said that this is a true wilderness is because majority of the painful situations that Joseph encountered in life were inflicted on him by evil acts of others.

 

Joseph

1.      Favored of his Father Jacob

2.      plotted to be killed by his Brothers

3.      thrown into the empty well (cistern)

4.      sold to Ishmaelite (uncle) name Potiphar

5.      slave of Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

6.      falsely accused by Potiphar wife for sexual assault

7.      spent time in prison for a crime that he did not committed

8.      interpreted dreams in prison

9.      pharaoh’s heard about him

10.  rose to the #2 most powerful nation in the world at that time

11.  save the lineage of Jacob and brother Juda

12.  Jesus

 

Thus, when we read about Joseph, it taught us that, when we fix our gaze on God and choose to rely on him, even the heaviest situations can be made lighter, even the most dire situation, even at near death situation, God can see us through. Remember that “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28).

 

Joseph teaches us how to be faithful. If we just keep our faith fix on the lord, He will eventually come through.

 

 

37 Jacob lived in the land where his father (Issac) had stayed, the land of Canaan.

 

² This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

 

This is not a story about Joseph, it is about Jacob’s and how the family lineage was preserved.

 

Joseph just happens to play a very important part on preserving the lineage. Joseph was an instrument of God on preserving the lineage of Christ.

 

Started with a very dysfunctional family: imagine, 4 wives and they were cousins. But when we look at the family tree, we a told by the Bible how dysfunctional were some of his ancestors.

 

Abraham -> Ishmail & Isaac ->Essau & Jacob -> 12 tribes: Judah..etc  (Rachel mother of Joseph and Benjiman)

 

Abraham and Selah, could not wait on God’s timing so they thought, lets help God out, Sarah allow her servant to have Abraham child (Ishmail). It turned out, in their old age, Sarah finally had Isaac

 

2 Peter 3:8

⁸ But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

 

Isaac and his wife Rebeccah had 2 children: Essau & Jacob, Jacob tricked his father to get the blessing  

 

Jacob had twelve sons through four women, his wives (and cousins), Leah and Rachel, and his concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah, who were, in order of their birth, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin, all of whom became the heads of their own family groups, later known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel. He also had a daughter named Dinah.^[3] According to Genesis, Jacob displayed favoritism among his wives and children, preferring Rachel and her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, causing tension within the family—culminating in Joseph's older brothers selling him into slavery.

 

What is our picture of the normal family?

1.      Parents that love each other

2.      Mom put here career on hold so she can raise the kids

3.      Plenty of resources ensure they live comfortably

4.      Kids never heard the parent fight

5.      Kids loved one another

6.      Kids had no school drama

7.      Parents had no work drama

8.      Kids with no boy/girl friend’s drama

9.      They wen to the best colleges

10.  They got married just in time

11.  Wonderful grandkids just in time

12.  Comfortable retirement

a.      Who’s in here that matches all of those images?

 

Family is messy, we are all affect by the first sin and fall short of the glory Roman 3:23-24 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

 

The perfect family is not what we find in our text today. We find a family, not only in their ancestral struggle with raising family but Joseph current situation was very difficult.

 

In fact, the normality of this life, we find ourselves in Jacob’s dysfunctionality. All of in here can see this type of drama seep into our own families.

1.      Sibling fighting each other.

2.      Parent with multiple partners

3.      Brother or sister plotting to kill one another

4.      Favoritism

5.      Cheating each other in order to gain something

 

What can you do in order for your siblings to hate you: Tell on them, he was arrogant, and it was proven by how his father had treated him: not only your mother is my favored, her children Joseph and Benjiman are also my Favored

 

Remember at the beginning of this sermon series: In our wilderness, God is willing to come.

 

³ Now Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate^[a] robe (many colors robe) for him. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

 

If you are walking around in your house as a kid, and father told you and make sure that you understand that you are not my favored, your little brother or sister is his favored. It is literally like telling you that I hate you. This is some of the roots of the dysfunctions. Imagin what the other wives felt. My favored wife is Rachel, NOT Leah, Bilhah, nor Zilpah. So the plot started: the brothers hate him and the only thing that will satisfy this hate was to kill him.

 

Jacob has made him a coat of many colors – what’s important about this, not only it made him stands out like loyalty because of the many colors but also suggesting that the word could mean a "long garment" which reaches the hands and feet and when someone wear a coat of many color, it means that he is someone of a higher status.

 

⁵ Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves (wheat bundles) of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

 

Joseph here is blinded by his pride. A bit egotistical and arrogant and rather disrespectful. He had not idea that his brothers hated him already or either that, he knew but I am going to tell you anyway because I am my Father favored and there’s nothing you can do about it.  

 

⁸ His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

⁹ Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

 

¹⁰ When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” ¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Can a Christian Lose Salvation?

 Can a Christian Lose Salvation?

It’s a crucially important question. Perhaps the best way to answer it is to examine what the Bible says occurs at salvation and to study what losing salvation would entail.

First, the term Christian must be defined. A “Christian” is not a person who has said a prayer or walked down an aisle or been raised in a Christian family. While each of these things can be a part of the Christian experience, they are not what makes a Christian. A Christian is a person who has fully trusted in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and therefore possesses the Holy Spirit (John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8–9).

So, with this definition in mind, can a Christian lose salvation? It’s a crucially important question. Perhaps the best way to answer it is to examine what the Bible says occurs at salvation and to study what losing salvation would entail:

A Christian is a new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). A Christian is not simply an “improved” version of a person; a Christian is an entirely new creature. He is “in Christ.” For a Christian to lose salvation, the new creation would have to be destroyed.

A Christian is redeemed. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18–19). The word redeemed refers to a purchase being made, a price being paid. We were purchased at the cost of Christ’s death. For a Christian to lose salvation, God Himself would have to revoke His purchase of the individual for whom He paid with the precious blood of Christ.

A Christian is justified. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). To justify is to declare righteous. All those who receive Jesus as Savior are “declared righteous” by God. For a Christian to lose salvation, God would have to go back on His Word and “un-declare” what He had previously declared. Those absolved of guilt would have to be tried again and found guilty. God would have to reverse the sentence handed down from the divine bench.

A Christian is promised eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Eternal life is the promise of spending forever in heaven with God. God promises, “Believe and you will have eternal life.” For a Christian to lose salvation, eternal life would have to be redefined. The Christian is promised to live forever. Does eternal not mean “eternal”?

A Christian is marked by God and sealed by the Spirit. “You also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13–14). At the moment of faith, the new Christian is marked and sealed with the Spirit, who was promised to act as a deposit to guarantee the heavenly inheritance. The end result is that God’s glory is praised. For a Christian to lose salvation, God would have to erase the mark, withdraw the Spirit, cancel the deposit, break His promise, revoke the guarantee, keep the inheritance, forego the praise, and lessen His glory.

A Christian is guaranteed glorification. “Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). According to Romans 5:1, justification is ours at the moment of faith. According to Romans 8:30, glorification comes with justification. All those whom God justifies are promised to be glorified. This promise will be fulfilled when Christians receive their perfect resurrection bodies in heaven. If a Christian can lose salvation, then Romans 8:30 is in error, because God could not guarantee glorification for all those whom He predestines, calls, and justifies.

A Christian cannot lose salvation. Most, if not all, of what the Bible says happens to us when we receive Christ would be invalidated if salvation could be lost. Salvation is the gift of God, and God’s gifts are “irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). A Christian cannot be un-newly created. The redeemed cannot be unpurchased. Eternal life cannot be temporary. God cannot renege on His Word. Scripture says that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).

Two common objections to the belief that a Christian cannot lose salvation concern these experiential issues: 1) What about Christians who live in a sinful, unrepentant lifestyle? 2) What about Christians who reject the faith and deny Christ? The problem with these objections is the assumption that everyone who calls himself a “Christian” has actually been born again. The Bible declares that a true Christian will not live a state of continual, unrepentant sin (1 John 3:6). The Bible also says that anyone who departs the faith is demonstrating that he was never truly a Christian (1 John 2:19). He may have been religious, he may have put on a good show, but he was never born again by the power of God. “By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:16). The redeemed of God belong “to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).

Nothing can separate a child of God from the Father’s love (Romans 8:38–39). Nothing can remove a Christian from God’s hand (John 10:28–29). God guarantees eternal life and maintains the salvation He has given us. The Good Shepherd searches for the lost sheep, and, “when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home” (Luke 15:5–6). The lamb is found, and the Shepherd gladly bears the burden; our Lord takes full responsibility for bringing the lost one safely home.

Jude 24–25 further emphasizes the goodness and faithfulness of our Savior: “To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”

tsken from: 

https://mwtb.org/blogs/seeklife/can-a-christians-lose-salvation