Rick Kirby

My holy, sovereign, transcendent Father, please honor your name in my life and through my life today as You cause Your kingdom rule and dominion to grow and expand until all the earth is filled with Your glory as the waters cover the sea. May my life be the vessel through which You continue Your work in creation to bring life on earth into ever increasing likeness to life as it is in heaven until finally in the day of Your return the two are reconciled and all things are made new.

Today would you provide for me the resources needed to represent You faithfully and help me to trust your definition of  “needed” and help me to be satisfied and overjoyed with what you chose to provide. Because I am forgiven and my debt against You has been cancelled may forgiveness flow through me to those who have and who may wrong me today.

And Father, the evil one will seek to ambush me today by using my own lusts and propensity to sin to fan the flames of my love for self-worship. Christ, intercede for me the way you did for Peter that I may not fall into temptation and after I have resisted in the power which You provide use me to encourage my brothers.

My King, enable my heavenly eyes to see beyond the counterfeit, deceptive treasures of the shadowland to behold Your unfolding glory in a world that aches for Your presence. Lift me higher than I am capable of desiring. Fill me fuller than I am capable of imagining. Come Lord in power and might. Vanquish the evil one along with all traces of his mutiny.

But until that day may the sweet aroma of Your life in me awaken the senses of dead men as You assemble Your glorious bodying and fit it for the new Eden.

Today, O Lord, may Your kingdom come and may Your will be done.

I have long been concerned (well “concern” may be a little pious on my part) or at least aware that many times our motives for mission may be a little suspect. Whether in the local church setting or in the context of the church’s international effort, Christians must constantly allow the light of God’s Word to expose the motives of our deceitful hearts and then be willing to have our thoughts brought into new submission to the Spirit of Christ. You will have to evaluate your own motives and even discover your own examples of such self-righteous display. I simply want to point you to a statement made by the Apostle Paul which serves as an ever-present sieve through which my own self-seeking motives are filtered. Paul identified the very purpose for which he had received “grace and apostleship” was that he might be used to “bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles.” That’s a blog in and of itself but I am struck by the next subtle phrase, “for His name’s sake” (Romans 1:5). Every beating that was endured, every church planted, every night without food, every bold message that was proclaimed was motivated by Paul’s love for Christ and the apostle’s unwavering allegiance to the Redeemer. Without question, Paul loved the people he sought to reach with the Gospel (1Thess. 2; Rom. 9). However, in the face of such rejection and persecution I doubt that Paul always found sufficient motivation in his love for those who so fervently opposed him. How often would Paul have reminded himself that the objective of bringing the Gentiles to humble obedience and submission to the Gospel was “for His name’s sake?” In Peter’s post-resurrection restoration, Jesus asked him, “Peter, do you love me?” After affirming his love for Christ, Jesus identified how Peter’s love would be demonstrated in the world with this simple command: “Tend my sheep” (John 21:17). Peter’s motivation for tending the sheep was to be his love for Christ, not his love for sheep. Now this is not to suggest that love for people is not a prerequisite for serving and reaching them with the Gospel. Certainly, we should love those who are groping in darkness, but that love must spring forth from the overflow of our love for Christ and it can never be reversed. The church’s missional effort and energy is “For His name’s sake” and for no other reason than for His glory. John Stott understood the need for proper mission motivation when he said, “The highest of all missionary motives is neither obedience to the great commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing, but rather zeal – burning and passionate zeal – for the glory of Jesus Christ.” Father, may my zeal for your glory drive me to be a living demonstration of Your grace for the world to see.

This day eerily has the same kind of feel as a day in which you are waiting for a sick friend to breathe he’s last breathe. Our beloved republic which was born on blood drenched fields and framed by men of conviction and service now hangs in the balance. The naive might charge me with being melodramatic but the nation of me
n like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ronald Reagan is even now only a faint memory and if the truth be known in the minds of most not even the memory exist anymore. We’ve become a nation that stands and cheers repugnant, vulgar entertainers but sits when our national anthem is played. Babies are murdered each day and legislators and justices make and redefine laws to protect those who participate in the slaughter. We are a nation that calls good evil and evil good. Those who have a mind to work are oppressively taxed while those who refuse to work enjoy government supplied cell phones and free lunches.

Even as I write this people are lining up in polling places around the country preparing to cast their lot for a person who will become the leader of the United States of America. I also will vote today because men for generations have shed their blood in order that I might cast a vote today.  But I must admit I have never been less optimistic than I am in this moment that there is any life remaining in our once great nation. Regardless of the outcome of this election today the very options before us are indicative of a society that has lost its way and like Israel we demand a king like us rather than submit to the authority of the God who gave us life.

Today my children will say the pledge of allegiance and then they will accompany me to a voting booth where I will vote for a person who I have no confidence in to lead a nation I deeply love. But don’t mistake my pessimism for hopelessness. I am a patriot who would give my life for my country but the Bible offers perspective that must be heeded by every follower of Christ. I am a resident of the United States of America and my red, white and blue roots run deep. But I am citizen of a “better country.” I am living as an “alien” in a “foreign land” that becomes more foreign to me by the day. And like Abraham I am “looking for the city whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10). The same city which Abraham saw by faith, I still long for today. He desired “a better country” and so do I. Not just any country but “a heavenly one” which speaks to the quality of the land not to its location. The Apostle John caught a glimpse of this city as he peered into the future and “saw the holy city coming down out of heaven” (Revelation 21:2). Neither of the candidates on the ballet today will create anything more or less than a man-centered regime in which they become the power brokers for a brief moment in history.

The only election in my true country was held before the world was made and the only ballet cast was submitted by the Maker of the world when He chose a people to represent Him in His creation. Presently, He is “making all things new” and one day He will come to dwell among His chosen people in the world He created for His own glory and in that day Obama, Clinton, Trump and all of humanity will bow down before Him. And finally it will come to pass that “His glory will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14). I will cast a vote today but the one that matters most has already been cast. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus.

On October 29, 2016 we will host a men’s soccer tournament at the Anderson Civic Center in Anderson, SC. This will be a 7 on 7 tournament playing double elimination to determine winner. The winning team will take home $1000 in cash prize. There will be a $250 entry fee per team and the deadline for registering is October 26 by 5pm. This tournament is limited to the first 8 teams to register so please don’t delay.

Entry fee checks should be made out to New City and can be dropped off to Phil at Dillard’s Sporting Goods or contact Nathanael Kirby at 803.524.5495 to make arrangements.

In addition to the tournament there will be bouncy houses for the kids, live Spanish music and food for purchase between 11-2pm. This will be a fun time for the whole family so make your plans to attend today.

For months now our church family has been looking together at what it means to be the church based on the biblical model rather than the mandates of our culture. Sadly, what the church has become in many places around the globe, not only the Western culture, does not resemble the church in the New Testament. But in order to get a thorough understanding of what it means to be the people of God, one must look at more than just the New Testament. In Exodus 19:4-6 we have a very important image of God’s purpose for His people.  [4] ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. [5] Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; [6] and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” (Exodus 19:4-6 ESV)

This reference to God’s people as “my treasured possession among all peoples” is very important and key to understanding God’s purpose for His church on earth in our generation. If you had been alive in the day of Moses and Hebrew was your language, you would have had a choice of words to use when referring to a personal possession. If you were to speak of a possession which was “movable” (donkey, plow, chair, etc.) you would use one Hebrew word. But if you were to speak of  an “immovable” possession (land) you would use another word. Here in Ex. 19:4 Moses uses the word to describe God’s people as a “movable” possession “among all peoples.” God’s people were to represent their Creator to all the other nations and as “priests” their lives were to serve a mediatory purpose as they lived and spoke in such a way to point other nations to God.

Tragically, the church in our culture has become little more than an immovable building filled with programs and events. We might use the right language, but our actions clearly indicate that many churches have little understanding of the gospel, God’s mission or the responsibility of God’s people to be a light piercing the darkness to all nations. We hunker down in our state of the art, million dollar music halls and we invite the lost and wayward to come. We call this “going to church.” The problem is this does not reflect the biblical movement of God’s people. The people of God are the ones moving and going to where the people are. We are the ones who must engage our communities and impact our culture by participating in it as God instructed the exiles to do in Babylon (Jeremiah 29).

For too long Christians have sought to create exclusive Christian societies where we don’t have to come in contact with the bad, sinful people around us. We create “Christian” clubs, “Christian” coffee shops, “Christian” sports leagues because we desire to surround ourselves with those who believe, think and live as we do. The nations will be drawn to God only as they see His glory in our marriages, homes, and communities, but they will never see and know if we do not truly move into the communities where we’ve already resided for years in order that the nations might know our God.

Where will God move you today? Do you see yourself and your family as missionary ambassadors who live, speak and act on behalf of your God? We are citizens of another country, but for now we, ourselves, are exiles in a land that desperately needs to be impacted by the people of God. This will only happen as God daily “moves” us deeply into a dying world to rescue those who will never be drawn to our Sunday performances.

It seems like all the talk these days is about how the church is in decline and some say, dying, and if that is an overstatement then at the very least the church seems to be quickly losing its influence in our culture. Things are certainly changing at an alarming rate and though I won’t take the time and space required to flesh out this opinion, I want to say that I believe neither of these things are true. May I remind you that the church is the very body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27) and by virtue of who he is, the resurrected, reigning King of Glory who has defeated death, his body can neither decline nor weaken. If this is true, and of course, I believe it is, then it begs the question, “Why does there seem to be such a vast gulf between the impact of the early church on its culture and the impact of the 21st century church on our post-Christian culture?”  I will offer two possibilities but will develop and support only one of these suggestions.

The church seems to be on the receiving end of the world’s influence rather than being “salt and light” in our culture, and one of the reasons is because many churc
h members have no apparent relationship with Jesus Christ. Don’t get excited. I’m moving on from this one soon. Remember the “wheat and the tares” thing in Matthew 13:24-30. There you go. This may be one of the few examples in which the “walk like a duck, quack like a duck” principle doesn’t apply. Daily I encounter church members who cannot articulate the gospel even in the most basic form and who have no evidence of a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. On the authority of the Word of God, this person is not a follower of Christ, no matter how many gallons of water have been used to baptize him and no righteous fruit will ever hang from the limbs of this tree until it is engrafted into Christ, the true vine. Our society has been deceived into believing that gathering goats and making disciples are the same thing, but of course that’s not the case. The church has opted for worldly success rather than gospel advancement, and we employ whatever method that enables the church to effectively compete with other markets. What we end up with is a religious entertainment product that we disguise as church. Much more needs to be said about this but this is not the focus of this post..

The masquerading of unbelievers as children of God is nothing new, but there is a more significant reason why there is such a divergent quality between the contemporary church and its pioneer counterpart. We suffer from spiritual near-sightedness. The future is a blur to those who are truly born again, and because our vision of our glorious future is dim, it neither drives us nor shapes our present perspectives.

If you knew that by simply associating with a particular group of people you would risk the certain plunder and seizure of your homes and property, what would you do? What if that group of people were in prison and they depended on you for food and care, would you risk your livelihood and ability to care for your children to serve them? What if this group of people happened to be brothers and sisters in Christ who were imprisoned merely because of their faith in Jesus Christ? Would you go to them to care for them if you knew that to do so would mean deep loss and possibly greater suffering for you? The first recipients of this Hebrew sermon which is The Book of Hebrews faced such a quandary and they did not hesitate. The Bible says they “endured great conflict of sufferings” and “became sharers with those who were prisoners…” and “joyfully accepted the seizure of their property” because of their care for the imprisoned believers. Can you imagine having everything you’ve worked so hard for seized by the government just because you lived out your Christian faith in a radically public manner? What would cause a person to hold so loosely to the material possessions of this world and place such little value on the very things so many people treasure. The answer is very simple. Those who live this way possess something which they value more than the tangible things they hold in their hands. Listen closely to this. “You accepted joyfully the seizure of your property KNOWING that you have a BETTER POSSESSION and a LASTING one” (Heb.10:34). It appears that many people who fill our church buildings week after week are not convinced that there is a better possession and a greater reward than the one they seek to create on their own. And for those who claim to possess the same “better possession” as the Hebrew believers, I would challenge them to describe that possession and hope. How can my love, joy and passion be shaped by something that I know so little about?

The Bible explicitly shows us that the early followers of Christ and even the Old Testament patriarchs were driven by a reality that is foreign in our advanced society. Abraham was willing to live “as a alien in the land of promise dwelling in tents…for he was looking for a city (see Rev. 21:2) which has foundations (physical, not mythical city) whose architect and builder is God” (11:10). Also, Moses is said to have “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ GREATER RICHES than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward” (11:25-26). Hebrews 11 concludes with the pronouncement that many followers of Christ experienced mocking, scourging, chains, prison, stoning, some were sawn in two, etc. And we are left asking, “What would cause such radical, reckless abandonment of health, safety, family and possessions?” There can be only one explanation. They had laid up their treasures in heaven.  Their hearts cherished the promise and reality of a renewed heaven and earth where death would be abolished and Christ our Savior would reign and rule over all creation and his glory would illumine the entire cosmos. This is our better possession.

In a culture that values size over substance, performance over power and technique over truth, the church must reorient its vision to the “living hope” of our inheritance which is “imperishable, and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven” (1 Peter 1:4). Don’t misunderstand Peter and the other biblical authors. The reward is not heaven. The great reward is Christ Himself and the creation-wide redemption that He as secured by His own blood. When this becomes the target in our sights, our lives will be radically different and they must be different. The world does not salivate for what we have because what the church holds up as its great reward looks suspiciously like the American dream, and our Western culture has obtained that already. Where are the people transformed by the power of the gospel and who are daily being shaped by its truth who will live lives of sacrifice and humility, driven daily by a crystal clear vision of a redeemed world no longer ruled by the curse of sin?

With the Apostle Paul, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…” (Ephesians 1:18).