adam feldman blog

sermon on the mount: the end of a preaching era

On January 16 of this year we started a journey through Matthew 5-7, Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount." Thirty weeks and twenty-four sermons later we finished the "Sermon" yesterday morning.

I can honestly say that this was the most trying, but rewarding sermon series that I have preached to date. Of course, that isn't saying too much since I haven't been preaching weekly but for just over two years now. The Sermon on the Mount challenged me weekly, brought me to my knees in repentance frequently, showed me regularly how much I really don't measure up to Jesus' standard of discipleship and challenged me to walk closer and deeper with the Lord.

The last two sermons in the series were by far the most difficult to preach because they deal with two wildly unpopular teachings: the exclusivity of the Christian faith (that spiritual life is found only in relationship to Jesus Christ and on His terms) and the pervasiveness of self-deception among those who call themselves "Christian" (that many are deceived and that we are to think deeply about what we are trusting in for salvation). Though they were difficult messages I felt a peace that I had proclaimed the full counsel of the Lord to our church, which is my solemn call and duty as a preacher.

This coming weekend we begin walking through the remainder of St. Matthew's Gospel and look more deeply at the ministry of Jesus the Messiah.

Should you be interested, the last two sermons can be found online (Podcast link available on the audio page of Metanoia's website):

• Narrow-Minded, Open Hearted (August 3, Matthew 7.13-14)
• Deception and Decision (August 10, Matthew 7.15-27)

baptism sunday

What a great Sunday!

Metanoia celebrated the baptisms of three of our friends as they publicly affirmed their faith in Jesus as Christ. It worked out that we could use the pool at the recreation center where we meet, which provided a relatively seamless worship gathering experience with the baptisms. I was especially touched to hear our community clap and cheer in celebration after each baptism.

frustrated and flabbergasted, yet "okay"

Here's the 411 on stuff that's happened to the Feldmans since Thursday of last week (five-and-a-half days):

• Someone microwaved a plastic lid for 19 minutes, thus fusing it to the glass plate which we subsequently had to trash. Now we need a new glass plate for the microwave.
• The hot water heater went out, needing a new thermocouple to get it up and running again. We started taking cold showers on Thursday night (my folks were in town from ATL as was Scott's fiance).
• The technician arrives on Saturday to fix the hot water heater and breaks another part. We have no hot water until last night (Tuesday) when another technician comes and repairs the first technician's damage.
• My truck overheats and I sit on the side of the road for an hour on Monday. Later that day I find out that I need to replace my water pump and finally get my truck back on Tuesday night.
• This morning our dryer conks out and I need to call someone to fix it.

All in all, I'm handling it rather well. Whenever stuff like this happens, Kim and I say "Hageland" or "Bethel" to remind us of our three day "weather permitting" stay in Bethel, Alaska in an aviation hanger with no running water. For instance, a few months ago when we flew down to New Orleans we got stuck in our plane on the tarmac for an hour-and-a-half while weather cleared. Later Kim told me that she was surprised  I wasn't "freaking out." I told her that I honestly didn't think anything of it after I had only breaded chicken and orange Fanta soda to drink for three days in Alaska.

But, is that really all there is to it? I mean, do I just have a stronger fortitude for circumstances that don't go my way?

I've been preaching through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount since January (a few breaks here and there), and I can tell you that with every little thing that goes "wrong" I am much more intentional about praying for Jesus' perspective on it. For example, when the technician busted the part, my initial gut reaction was to explode in anger toward him and press his company for a full refund, etc.. I made the call to report the incident, but I never asked his supervisor for the work to be comped. Was I being a doormat? Possibly. Then again, wasn't Jesus a "doormat" on the cross? Didn't I step all over him with my sin? Didn't he lovingly take it without complaint? Didn't he forgive me for it? Haven't I been forgiven for it? Yes.

Then I begin to think about the earthquake in China and the typhoon in Burma and all the millions of people affected by these disasters. Millions of people who have hopes and dreams like me. Millions of people who live their individual lives, love other people, go to work to provide for their families, have children. I think of their overwhelming loss and, well, quite frankly, who gives a crap about no hot water!?!

So, I've got to call someone to fix our dryer. Even though I am gaining perspective on all this "stuff" going on, I do hope that I learn whatever lesson it is that Jesus is trying to teach me before something else conks out in our house...

focusing on the grace of God

Resurgence held their annual conference in late February of this year. I was unable to attend, but watched the conference live via their free webcast of the event. At the time, C.J. Mahaney's message, "Pastoral Character & Loving People," impacted me, but I didn't realize how much until yesterday. It was one small part of his message that resonated in my head and bounced out in my life. He said (my paraphrase): "Stop looking at all that is not happening or that is going wrong in your church, and focus on the grace of God every day."

Yesterday God cleared the clouds and revealed to me multiple ways his grace is at work in our church. I had grown frustrated over the past month looking for God in a way that he just wasn't working, but he was/is still here and working mightily. So, I sat in the Hollow and journaled the evidence of God's grace all around me. It was quite the encouraging moment.

Resurgence has the video of C.J. Mahaney's sermon online for free.

best tasting sermon illustration ever

Metanoia started walking through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) in January of this year. The past two weeks were spent discussing being "salt and light." When Jesus said his disciples are "salt," he referred to us as preservation agents in a world decaying from sin. True, salt is a spice used for flavoring, but in the context Jesus originally spoke the vast majority of the people could not afford such a luxury. Salt was pragmatic--it preserved meat from decomposing.

At the end of the sermon I pulled out a raw steak and physically rubbed course Mediterranean Sea salt into it. The point being (well, several points): raw meat is disgusting and so is sin (are we sickened by sin?), salt rubbed into meat gets dirty and so ought Christians as they engage the world, salt prepares the way for preservation and Christians prepare the way for the Gospel to preserve our world, salt in a salt shaker ain't no good (you get the idea here)...

Later that afternoon, Scott broiled the steak and we partook of my sermon illustration (pictured). I must say it was really good and also the saltiest piece of meat that I have ever eaten! We were drinking water the rest of the afternoon and evening. Lesson: rinse your sermon illustration before eating it.

• "Salt sermon" mp3 - Become: Influential
• "Light sermon" mp3 - Become: Transformational

rounding off the week

I may as well post today since I have put something up every day this week. Feast or famine, man!

I am putting the finishing touches on my sermon for this weekend. For the past several weeks Metanoia has been going through the Beatitudes one-by-one. This week we hit Matthew 5:6 - "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Last week's beatitude (on meekness) was by far the hardest one that I have preached, yet. I am looking forward to this week's message because it is essentially salvation by grace alone condensed into one sentence. Nice. Only God can do that.

You can download and listen to the series via Metanoia's podcast feed.

what we're about

Around Metanoia we try to keep two things in front of folks. The first has to do with our purpose/reason for existence as a church. We say: "Metanoia Church is a spiritual community moving toward Jesus Christ." It took Matt, Scott and I close to three months to land on those 10 words. Seriously. We prayed, we wrote rough drafts, prayed some more and then finally had peace about it. I like this statement for several reasons:

• It was written after much prayer and patiently waiting on the Lord.
• It was written in community (i.e. not by me alone) and in unity.
• It reflects the nature of the name of our church. "Metanoia" is a Greek word that reflects a conscious movement away from brokenness and sin toward wholeness and life in Jesus Christ. In English translations it is rendered "repent." Our statement uses the words "moving" and "towards"--the actions of repentance.
• It defines us in the two planes of existence we all live in paradoxically: spiritual and physical humanity (community).
• Most importantly, the statement directs attention not to a person or even to our church, but to Jesus Christ.

The second thing we try to keep in front of people are Jesus' priorities, which are our priorities as His disciples. These three priorities are also the three purposes of His church, or to put it another way, His marching orders. They are:

• Communion: Engaging Truth personally in Jesus Christ and responding joyfully in obedient submission to Him.
• Community: Experiencing healing from sin and all sorts of brokenness firsthand as well as the transformation of lives as Jesus dwells among us.
• Commission: Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and living it missionally wherever we may be.

We get these three purposes straight from Jesus' words in Matthew 22:34-40 and 28:16-20 where He tells us what His priorities are:

• Communion: "Love the Lord your God..."
• Community: "Love one another..."
• Commission: "Go therefore into all nations..."

We take both the exaltation of Jesus Christ and His three priorities, placing our individual faith journeys, our families and our church across them. This is how we evaluate success. Not by removing bad behavior in our lives or adding good habits, not by recording how many people attend our worship gathering or programs and not by our religious activity. Sure, those things are great and are indicative of discipleship to Christ to a degree, but true success comes in evaluating our lives by the standards Christ sets for us.

At the end of our worship gathering yesterday we handed out a small piece of paper with four questions that come straight from those two passages in Matthew. We asked folks to spend time in silent reflection and prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to help them evaluate their faith journey according to Jesus' standards and His idea of success. Then we broke up into groups of 2-4 people to pray together.

Here are the questions:

1. Do I (do we) love Jesus more today than I (we) did this time last year?
2. Am I (are we) growing in obedience to His commandments and teaching others to obey them?
3. Am I (are we) baptizing new believers?
4. Am I (are we) extending the love, the forgiveness and the mercy of Jesus Christ to others?

As we step into this new year, may we press deeper and harder into the One we know is the Son of God. Amen.

the golden compass: the truth behind the story

I heard recently that the children's book (soon to be a movie released in theaters), The Golden Compass, was written by an atheist in reaction to C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and with aims at convincing children not to believe in God.

I share Joe's concerns that the evangelical Christian community might be overreacting a bit to the film with a blatant boycott statement. However, I also agree with the community to a degree that parents ought to carefully consider whether or not they will expose their children to a story with such an insidious agenda. (BTW, it doesn't have to be agenda driven! It could be horrific images. For instance, I remember a friend of mine taking his second grade aged boy to see Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, and he was horrified at the images of Gollum!)

Ideally, parents should read the book (or see the movie) first before making a decision, but that is not always practical due to work schedules and the immediacy of the film's release. Therefore, it helps to talk with someone who has read the book and/or seen the movie--someone who you respect and are willing to take their word for it.

For these reasons...

Bruce Hopler, pastor of Cornerstone Church (one of the churches that helped start Metanoia) and also a founding member of the missional network called Ecclesia Network, did the research and wrote an intelligent response to the hype on his blog. I know Bruce personally and have a deep respect for him. You can find it here: The Children's Movie The Golden Compass Is Cause For Great Concern.

spiritual discipline tuesday: celebration

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday series

The following bloggers have posted about celebration (click the name to see the post): Paul del Signore.

Archive list of the disciplines (with links) and the bloggers involved in this series available via my series introduction post.

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday series

The following bloggers have posted about celebration (click the name to see the post): Paul del Signore.

Archive list of the disciplines (with links) and the bloggers involved in this series available via my series introduction post.

rain delay +2.5 days & spiritual discipline tuesday: guidance

It figures that on the day when I would write about the spiritual discipline of guidance, I should be the one to practically engage it. To talk about guidance, I will give you a story of how I unwittingly sought it today...

I'll be the first to admit that my frustration with our baby being 2 days late has been an irritation--and until about two hours ago the last to admit how silly it is to be frustrated about a baby being "late" when in reality the baby is quite on time. More about that later. Anyway, I have blogged about it and you have counseled me through it (thank you!). I did not realize, however, how deep this irritation went into my soul until the two women I love most--the one who gave birth to me and the one who is giving birth to my child--confronted me about it today.

Kim's Guidance. I enjoy our afternoon walks. Actually, I am going to miss them for the few weeks that we can't get out together and hold each other's hands whilst we walk around the neighborhood. As we were walking today I confessed to Kim that part of my irritation has to do with feeling unproductive and the fact that for a brief period of time our income will drop (we have prepared for this by saving over the past nine months). In doing so, she put words to my angst and reminded me that life isn't about being productive, but just "being." Something I say a lot, but needed to be reminded of.

I realized that I have "conformed to the pattern of this world" (Romans 12:1-2) in my thinking and attitude. Kim again put words to this and reminded me that we live in a society saturated with an attitude of entitlement, demanding rights and instant gratification. I should be rejoicing that my wife will have the next few days "off" and can simply "be" Kimberly.

Mom's Guidance. Don't you hate it when your parents continually remind you that they still have two-and-a-half more decades of life experience under their belt? Mom set me straight over the phone today. She essentially told me (Adam's paraphrase): "Get over it. This is not about you." Ouch. Zinger! But, in all honesty, the "truth in love" that I needed to hear. It crushed my pride, and I repented before the Lord Jesus confessing to Him my sinful arrogance at thinking I knew better than He. (Dang.)

She reminded me of two truths: First, this is not an isolated event, but merely the beginning of a life that I will progressively be lived for someone else more and more. Again my own paraphrase: "This is a small lesson that your children will not accommodate your plans most of the time!" Secondly, she reminded me of the beautiful truth in Psalm 139:13-16 that the birth of our child is actually not about the birth of our child, but is about Jesus Christ choosing to give our child his/her first day outside of the womb. Our baby is first of all Christ's child--the life and breath he/she will breath is not our own, but a gift from Christ. Again, how arrogant of me to think that I know the best circumstances and times for our child to be born. In this light, our child is not "late," but radically "on time."

A note to well meaning friends: I know I blasted you in my post earlier today. Please understand, it does irritate me to hear the same question over and over again--its like a broken record--but I really do appreciate your care and concern. Heck, I'm glad you even care enough to keep a pulse on my life!! I love you, too.

A final word on guidance

If there is anything that should be said beyond my personal experience with guidance it would be the following few truths:

• Guidance is a step toward wisdom and a step away from arrogance.
• Guidance is a 101 level course in Jesus' Humility Training School.
• Guidance honors relationships.
• Guidance that honors Jesus and matures the disciple always leads the disciple into deeper dependence upon Him and His Word.

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday series

The following bloggers have posted about guidance (click the name to see the post): Paul Del Signore.

Archive list of the disciplines (with links) and the bloggers involved in this series available via my series introduction post.