Restoring

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

DISCIPLINE VS. JUDGMENT

Galatians 6:1
Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness

Are there any occasions when Christians should confront each other on matters of behavior? Yes. We are required by God to confront and restore those who have clearly violated the boundaries of Scripture (Matthew 18:15, 16). But let me alert you to an important distinction in this area: Discipline is an issue of confronting observed behavior--that which you have personally witnessed (Galatians 6:1); judgment is an issue of character. We are instructed to confront others concerning sins we have observed, but we are not allowed to judge their character (Matthew 7:1; Romans 14:13). Disciplining is our responsibility; judging character is God's responsibility.

For example, imagine that you just caught your child telling a lie. "You're a liar," you say to him. That's judgment, an attack on his character. But if you say, "Son, you just told a lie," that's discipline. You're holding him accountable based on an observed behavior.

Or let's say that a Christian friend admits to you that he cheated on his income tax return. If you confront him as a thief, you are judging his character and that's not your responsibility. You can only confront him on the basis of what you see: "By cheating on your taxes, you are stealing from the government and that's wrong."

Much of what we call discipline is nothing less than character assassination. We say to our disobedient child: "You're a bad boy." We say to a failing Christian brother or sister: "You're not a good Christian." Such statements don't correct or edify; they tear down character and convey disapproval for the person as well as his problem. Your child is not a liar; he's a child of God who has told a lie. Your Christian friend is not a thief; he's a child of God who has taken something which doesn't belong to him. We must hold people accountable for their behavior, but we are never allowed to denigrate their character.

Prayer:

Forgive me, Father, for judging others. Enable me to discipline in love those I care about and for whom I am responsible.

Praise Him

And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed." And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,

"Give thanks to the LORD,
for his steadfast love endures forever."


2 Chronicles 20:20-21

Frame of Spirit

Mark Batterson post: While the Harpist was Playing

"While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha."

Have you ever noticed this prophetic idiosyncrasy? The Message version of II Kings 3:15 says: "When a minstrel played, the power of God came on Elisha." Is that a random connection? I think not. There are other instances in the Old Testament where music dramatically changes the emotional and spiritual climate. For that matter, it was the worship leaders who led Israel into war on occasion. Check out II Chronicles 20:21.

What am I getting at? As leaders we need to be intentional about creating atmospheres where people can hear God's voice. And musical worship is one of them. I had this revelation during worship a few weeks ago. Some things cannot be learned from a sermon. They can only be experienced in worship.

I'm not suggesting that you rent a harpist. But you better figure out how to hear His voice more clearly. Just as athletes have pre-game rituals that help them get in the right frame of mind for a game. I think we need spiritual rituals that help us get in the right frame of spirit. That is what musical worship does. It tunes us to God.

Whenever I open a service I try to put a frame around the experience. Here's how I did it this week. I simply reminded our congregation that we often feel unworthy to worship God but God is always worthy to be worshiped. We worship in that tension. And we have a saying around NCC: don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshiping what's right with God. Why? Because He's worthy!

Strength, Song, Salvation

The LORD is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Exodus 15:2 [Song of Moses]

Gospel Love

Jon Bloom post (Desiring God blog): I Have Not Always Obeyed This Command

"Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you" (Matthew 5:42).

I confess, I have not always obeyed this command.

I'm a veteran urban-dweller. Having lived in an inner city neighborhood for 18 years, I've encountered many beggers and borrowers. Some I discerned as cons I have called out or waved off. Some I have hired to do work. Others I've given to because I felt the conviction of this text.

I've thought a lot about this command of Jesus over the years. I've discussed it with many. I think I know all the major reasons why not to give when someone asks. You don't want to encourage deception. You don't want to feed a chemical addiction. You don't want to contribute to someone's cycle of poverty. And there are many others.

But still this text unnerves and convicts me.

The reason is that Jesus doesn't give this command in the context of addressing how I can best facilitate transformation in someone else. He is telling me how I should respond to those who are making demands on me, either from explicitly evil motives or just plain out of their difficult situation. He is telling me how I ought to respond even when being taken advantage of.

• Do not resist the evil person, he says. Let him slap you twice. (v. 39)
• Give him more than he is suing you for. (v. 40)
• Do more than he is forcing you to do. (v. 41)
• Give to those who ask. (v. 42)
• Love your enemy. (v. 44)

Jesus is telling me to actively show kindness and radical generosity toward those who hate me or who are seeking to take advantage of me.

Really, Jesus? Isn't that rewarding sinful, or at least unhealthy, behavior?

Of course, I can think of Biblical examples that illustrate when it seems right to resist or flee an evil person in situations of theft, deception, abuse, persecution, war, etc. So when the Word speaks, I must listen carefully, and I must weigh all of his words.

But from the words Jesus speaks here, I think it applies more often and more broadly than I want it to. He does not let me off the hook easily. He tests my heart with such radical love. And in my heart I see my selfish, unloving impulses that do not want to part with my money, possessions, time, or convenience for needy or evil people. And I have a ready arsenal of noble-sounding rationales that conceal my sin, almost from myself.

What Jesus is calling me to is gospel love. It's the love that drove him to die for me with when I was still a weak, ungodly, sinful enemy of his (Romans 5:6-10). There is something about such over-the-top, radically generous love that is so different from the way the world loves that it reflects the Father's love for sinners. It's why Jesus calls us also to costly love. It is both an expression and picture of the gospel.

Pray for me. I have an opportunity in my life right now to obey this command, which is why I'm wrestling with this text again. Pray that I will love the way I have been loved.

No Other

⁵ I am the LORD, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
⁶ that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.

Isaiah 45

Catch Your Breath

Excerpt from Perry Noble post: Seven Ways to Catch Your Breath

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#1 – You’ve GOT To Rest…and Make No Apologies For Doing So!

First of all…the LONGEST command (the one God spent the most time explaining) in the ten commandments is the one having to do with rest. God said take a Sabbath…to not do so is a sin!

(AND…you REALLY need to read this post by Clayton as to WHY rest is SO important…SERIOUSLY!!!) (Especially if you are a senior pastor!)

#2 – Find A Hobby!

I am still in the process of doing this…and I know it is necessary. You’ve got to find something you love to do at least a couple of times per week that relaxes your mind. (Watching television is NOT a hobby!) So…hit the golf course, ride a motorcycle or a jeep, play tennis…SOMETHING…but you’ve GOT to find a way to focus on something fun from time to time.

#3 – Get A Journal!

One of the things I do now ANYTIME I am traveling is carry my journal with me…that way when I have a great idea I can write it down (along with all of the thoughts that come with it) and after doing so KNOW that the thought has been captured…then I can proceed to enjoy time with my family because I not trying to remember the idea.

(Let me be clear…I don’t try to DEVELOP the idea…I just write it down…the time for development of it will come later.)

#4 – Have A Date Night With Your Spouse WITHOUT The Telephone!

Let me be clear…no calls, no text messages, no twitters…ANYTHING! Just you and her…in a restaurant (that doesn’t have a value menu) talking about whats going on in your life.

Let me take this a step further…spend time with your family WITHOUT having to have the computer on! The online world will survive without you!

#5 – Take A Season Of Rest Every Year.

Every single year I take at least three weeks in a row off from speaking. (I haven’t always done this…but since I have it has been awesome!) Trust me…it will recharge you like never before. (When you take just one week off you never really shut it down or disconnect…at LEAST try two!)

#6 – Focus on God’s Sovereingty And Not Your Ability.

He loves the church more than you! He said that HE would build the church…which means you don’t have to. AND…if you think you are SO essential to your church that it could not survive without you for a few weeks…then you either suck as a leader OR are struggling with pride!

#7 – Have Someone You Can Spill Your Guts Out To…Other Than Your Spouse!

You need someone you can be honest with…very honest, DANGEROUSLY honest…you can scream, cry, throw things…you get the picture. AND…it should not be your wife. Find a dude…someone in the ministry who you trust…and be real with them. One of the problems that I see that church leaders have is that many of us live as if our crap doesn’t stink…that we don’t have any problems…that our lives are perfect…and that just ISN’T the case!

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Fragrance

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

2 Cor 2:14

Missons

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post: Five Reasons Missional Churches Don't Do Global Missions -- and How to Fix It

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All this provokes me to ask, "Why are so many missional Christians uninvolved in God's global mission?" As the missional conversation continues and deepens, what has occurred that has led to our blindness to the lost world around us?

There are five reasons I think this has happened:

1) In rediscovering God's mission, many have only discovered its personal dimensions.

I don't mean they have somehow localized mission into their interior, "private" life-- that would make little sense. Rather, the encouragement for each person to be on mission (to be "missional") has trended toward a personal obligation to personal settings, rather than toward a global obligation to advance God's kingdom among all the nations.

"Missional" has merged with privatized Christianity to serve as the reason for personal projects carried out in personal spheres. This is not bad, necessarily. But when the missional impulse is not expanded to include God's global mission, it results in believers moved only to minister in their own Jerusalems with no mind toward their Judeas, Samarias, and uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).

2) In responding to God's mission, many have wanted to be more mission-shaped and have therefore made everything "mission."

Missions historian Stephen Neil, responding to a similar surge in mission interest (the missio dei movement of the 1950s and following), explained it this way: "If everything is mission then nothing is mission." Neil's fear was that the focus would shift from global evangelization (often called "missions") to societal transformation (often called "mission"). He was right.

Recently John Piper echoed these same concerns, differentiating between evangelism and missions. He reminded us that when "Every Christian is a missionary" equals "missional," then we have diluted the need for and specialness of missionaries to foreign lands. (Although I would want to nuance John's language a bit, I agree with his point.)

One American church's website recently identified their ministry as missional, which they proceeded to define as "reaching out to the community to invite them to come" see what is happening in the church. Another's young adult community service project consisted of landscaping the church grounds. Inviting people to church and cleaning up the church are noble endeavors, but passing them for "missional" and "service" is ministerial naïveté at best. It demonstrates the fuzziness that creeps in when labels become catch-alls. And as the outer edges of the missional label gets fuzzy so does mission to the outer edges of the world.

3) In relating God's mission, the message increasingly includes the hurting but less frequently includes the global lost.

One only needs to watch the videos to see the emphases: global orphan projects, eradicating AIDS, Christmas shoeboxes, etc. All of these causes now have advocacy groups, and rightly so, as they are important. However, their vocabulary and frames of reference do not frequently make room for evangelizing the very people they touch. The message of world evangelism, actually, seems more common in legacy/traditional churches than in missional churches. Missional churches seem to speak more of unserved peoples rather than unreached peoples. As we engage to deliver justice, we must also deliver the gospel regardless of anyone's status in a culture.

4) In refocusing on God's mission, many are focusing on being good news rather than telling good news.

St. Francis allegedly said,"Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words." Interestingly enough, Francis never actually said this, nor would he have done so due to his membership in a preaching order. But it is a pithy quote tossed into mission statements and vision sermons in missional churches all around my country. Why? It seems that many in the missional conversation place a higher value on serving the global hurting rather than evangelizing the global lost. Or perhaps it is just easier.

I am not urging a dichotomy here, only noting that one already exists. It is ironic, though, that as many missional Christians have sought to "embody" the gospel, they have chosen to forsake one member of Christ's body; the mouth.

5) In reiterating God's mission, many lose the context of the church's global mission and needed global presence.

For whatever reason-- the admirable one of commitment to the local church or the ignoble one of commitment to personalized consumeristic Christianity-- we have lost the grand scope of the entire family of God. While Christ calls people from all tongues, tribes, and nations, we have become content with our own tongue, tribe, and nation. Many churches are wonderfully embracing the missional imperative, but as they seek to "own" the mission by adapting their church into a missional movement in their local community, some inadvertently localize God's mission itself and lose the vital connection all believers share together. A hyper-focus on our own community results in a, have lost vision for the communion of the saints.

So how do we fully embrace missional without losing the mission? The Mission Exchange (formerly the Evangelical Foreign Mission Society) asked me to talk to their global leaders on the topic "How to Put 'Missions' Back into Missional." In my talk, I proposed four principles we needed to consider:

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Freedom

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

2 Cor 3: 17

Foundation

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

IF YOUR FAITH IS OFF

2 Corinthians 5:7
We walk by faith, not by sight

When my son Karl was about eight years old, I introduced him to the game of golf. I gave him a little starter set of clubs and took him out to the course with me. Karl would tee up his ball and whale away at it with his mightiest swing. Usually he sprayed the ball all over the place. But since he could only hit it 60 or 70 yards at best, his direction could be off by 20 degrees and his ball would still be in the fairway.

As he grew up and got a bigger set of clubs, Karl was able to drive the ball off the tee 150 yards and farther. But if his drive was still 20 degrees off target, his ball no longer stayed in the fairway; it usually went into the rough. Accuracy is even more important for golfers who can blast a golf ball 200 to 250 yards off the tee. The same 20-degree deviation which allowed little Karl's short drive to remain in the fairway will send a longer drive soaring out of bounds.

This simple illustration pictures an important aspect of the life of faith: Your Christian walk is the direct result of what you believe about God and yourself. If your faith is off, your walk will be off. If your walk is off, you can be sure it's because your faith is off. As a new Christian, you needed some time to learn how to "hit the ball straight" in your belief system. You could be off 20 degrees in what you believed and still be on the fairway because you were still growing and had a lot to learn. But the longer you persist in a faulty belief system, the less fulfilling and productive your daily walk of faith will be. As you grow older you will find yourself stumbling through the rough or out of bounds spiritually if the course you have set for your life doesn't agree with Scripture.

For many adults, a mid-life crisis is the result of basing their concept of success and fulfillment on the world instead of on the Word of God. Tragically, many of our children and teenagers are heading for the same fall because their beliefs are not founded on Scripture. As a result, their lives are often bankrupt before they leave high school.

Prayer:

Lord, Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Teach me Your truth today that I may walk in it.

Say Continually

But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, "Great is the LORD!"

Psalm 40: 16

With You

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42:5-6a


God says to us in our anguish ...

"Hold on. I love you. I know you don't understand but I am with you. I hurt with you. I weep with you."

- - Dee Brestin, The God of All Comfort

Our Sufficiency

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

2 Corinthians 3: 4-5

Success

Mark Batterson post: The Definition of Success

Thought I'd share a few of my personal definitions of success. It's important to define success in biblical and personal ways. You need to know what you're aiming at or you will succeed at the wrong thing.

First of all, success is maximizing your God given potential. Success is synonymous with stewardship.

A second definition is this: doing the best you can with what you have where you are. Success is not circumstantial. Some of the most successful people are those in the worst of circumstances, but they make the most of them. That's success.

Here's a third definition: the people who know you the best respect you the most. We care way too much about what strangers think of us, but they won't be the ones at our graveside. I want my wife and my kids to respect me the most.

Here's a fourth and newest definition: success is trying until the day you die. I think most of us give up on our dreams way too easily and way too quickly. We stop trying. But if you're still trying you're succeeding!

One key to success is not worrying about the outcome. Winning or losing isn't the issue. Trying is winning! That is what I told Parker when he decided to run for class president. That is the lesson I learned at our triathlon this weekend. That is what I've learned as a church planter. The measure of success is this: how hard did you try?

If you pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you you cannot fail.

A Superior Satisfaction

Desiring God blog post: The Love of Human Praise as the Root of Unbelief

This week's sermon: "The Love of Human Praise as the Root of Unbelief"

Jesus' refrain in John 5:30-47 is "not me, but God." He baffles the expectations and confronts the comforts of fallen humanity by being a Messiah who comes not in his own name, seeking his own praise, but by coming in his Father's name and pursuing his Father's praise.

In verses 37-47, Jesus issues a seemingly relentless string of indictments against self-seeking humans:

• Verse 38: You don't have God's word in you. You don't believe the one whom he has sent.
• Verse 40: You don't want to come to me.
• Verse 42: You don't have the love of God in you.
• Verse 43: You don't believe me.
• Verse 44: You cannot believe.
• Verse 45: You don't believe Moses, and you don't believe me.

How did Jesus' kinsmen, who knew their Scriptures so well, not believe in their Messiah? Almost at bottom is that they did not want to. They had other desires. But the bottom-line answer is that they were seeking human approval. Their craving for human praise was so strong that it closed their hearts to pursuing divine praise and closed their eyes to such a Messiah.

Love of human approval is at odds with faith because…

1. …true faith in Jesus gives all glory to God and none to ourselves (Romans 4:20), and…
2. …true faith is a drinking of living water for the satisfaction of our souls—and the well of that water is the glory of Christ.

When we are satisfied in Jesus, the enslaving power of the craving for human glory is broken. Broken by the power of a superior satisfaction.

Nevertheless

Words of Life Devotional| LifeToday

The Nevertheless of Comfort and Community
by Dr. Mark Rutland

"Nevertheless..." (II Corinthians 7:6)

There is a remarkable menagerie of words expressing pain of every kind in Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth; words like affliction, anguish, beatings, distresses, fastings, fightings, labors, perils, persecutions, sorrows, stripes, sufferings, tears, tumults, weak, and weakness. They snap and snarl at the reader ferociously, in such obviously inconsolable anguish that comfort is unimaginable.

“When we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings and within were fears.” (II Cor. 7:5)

Yet even in the midst of the most pain-filled epistle in the New Testament there is...Nevertheless.

“Nevertheless God, who comforteth those that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only, but by the consolation herewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me, so that I rejoiced the more.” (II Cor. 7:6-7)

To be sure, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, but Spirit-filled persons in community comfort one another. A friend having sent his little daughter up to bed heard her whimpering and went to check on her.

“What’s the matter, darling?”

“Daddy, I’m scared in here alone.”

“But you’re not alone,” he explained. “Jesus is right here with you.”

“I know,” she wailed. “But I want somebody with skin on his face.”

We all do. The scripture says that God inhabits the praises of His people. He also inhabits the comfort of His people. Beaten, afflicted, persecuted, suffering and weak, Paul the Apostle found the comfort of God—in Titus and in his report of the love and concern of the Christians at Corinth. Was it God who comforted Paul? Or was it Titus? The answer is “yes.”

The community of faith does not scold the grieving widow for her grief or dismiss it lightly. The people of God dare not tell the hurting in their midst that they do not hurt, do not have a right to hurt. Even so, we are not wordless in the face of their pain. We do have one thing to say.

Nevertheless, we are here.

Like Titus, we are here. God in us, God as us can be with you and comfort you just as God comforted the great apostle through Titus.

Paul wrote in II Cor. 7:6 that God “comforts those that are cast down.” If, as many seem to think, God is peevish with the downcast and irritated at their lack of faith, He would upbraid them, not comfort them. We, the community of faith, like our God, must comfort the downcast who long for a word, a touch, a face with skin on it.

The nevertheless of Paul was a very human Titus. We, likewise, can be there for someone else, just on the other side of nevertheless from their deepest anguish.

John Wesley said, “I know of no holiness save social holiness.” He meant that we do not live out our piety in relationship with God alone but in community with others. The downside of community is that no one can test your sanctification like your brother-in-law, the antichrist. The upside is that just when you are ready to collapse under the unbearable weight of grief and suffering, Titus shows up with love letters from Corinth.

Some believers tend to so over-spiritualize their faith that the relational aspect gets lost in the glow. Jesus painfully peeled away the soft spiritual goo to reveal the hard core realities of relational holiness as no other teacher ever has. Probably, that was a large part of what got Him killed.

The golden thematic thread that runs through the entire tapestry of the Sermon on the Mount is relational holiness. In that great teaching, theology (spiritual theory) was not Jesus’ point. It was human application (spiritual practices). He was teaching, not about what we ought to believe, but about how we should act, love, live, and forgive. You want to get folks angry enough to kill you, just leave the theoretical realm and deal with horizontal, relational reality. Preach on love and win medals. Talk to a man about how he treats his mother-in-law and wind up nailed to the wall.

Jesus taught that everything, even, or perhaps especially, offerings to God, must be seen in the light of human relationships. “If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” (Matt. 5:23-24)

The Bible never envisioned our being reconciled to God apart from our being reconciled to each other. No amount of spiritual language can change that. Nevertheless beautifully bridges the gap between the spiritual and the pragmatic.

This Week
Be that Nevertheless for someone by focusing on the relationships God has placed in your life.

Prayer
"Lord, allow me to comfort someone in my community just by being in the right place at the right time, so I can share your love with them."

My Strength and My Salvation

I love you, O LORD, my strength.

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18: 1-2

Third Place

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post about Matthew's Table

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to visit Java Joe's / Matthew's Table in Lebanon, TN. (The church gathers for worship in a coffee shop they own and operate.)

Part of the design is that they are trying to create a "third place" community. From Wikipedia:

The third place is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1989, 1991) argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.

Oldenburg calls one's "first place" the home and those that one lives with. The "second place" is the workplace -- where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in modern times is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to current societal needs. Oldenburg suggests these hallmarks of a true "third place": free or inexpensive; food and drink, while not essential, are important; highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance); involve regulars - those who habitually congregate there; welcoming and comfortable; both new friends and old should be found there.

They describe their church on their website.

Matthew's Table is a church stripped of its formality. At every Sunday gathering we prepare food and all eat freely. During the meal we engage in a simple liturgy that we call a Weekly Rhythm:

BLESSING - The word "blessing" means "to empower to strength." We seek God's blessing and pass that blessing on to others. As we gather we intentionally speak words of blessing and affirmation over each other.

EATING - Sharing food has always been central to a shared life of community. We want to place worship and communion back where it began: as a delight in the middle of the shared table. We eat and drink in remembrance of Christ - looking back to the cross and forward to his return.

LISTENING - We believe that God is capable of speaking to us. We do not confine him to any particular medium, but we try to be attentive to his voice, wherever and whenever it speaks. We provide a period for reflection, meditation and listening to the voice of God.

LEARNING - We desire to take on the image of God and to participate in his plan. We seek out knowledge about God to help us to do this. We gather around the Scriptures and learn together, discussing issues that confront our world.

SENDING - We are ambassadors who bear God's image in the world. We remind ourselves regularly that we are sent to participate in God's activity in both our local and global cultures.

I thought is might be helpful to share some of the setting with you. Instead of a church starting a coffee shop, this is a coffee shop with a church.

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(go to original post for pictures and more details)

Fueling Good Works

Excerpt from How the Hope of the Resurrection Leads to Good Works | Desiring God blog

Piper also discusses the resurrection—and the renewal of all creation—in chapter 30 of Future Grace. At the beginning of that chapter, there is a helpful discussion of how the hope of the resurrection fuels good works:

The faith that grows in the ground of God's promises takes away fear and fills us instead with hope and confidence. And when fear goes, and hope in God overflows, we live differently. Our lives show that our treasure in God is more precious than the fleeting attractions of sin.

When we rely on God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9), and revel in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2), we don't yield to the sinful pleasures of the moment. We are not suckered in by advertising that says the one with the most toys wins. We don't devote our best energies to laying up treasures on earth. We don't dream our most exciting dreams about accomplishments and relationships that perish. We don't fret over what this life fails to give us (marriage, wealth, health, fame).

Instead we savor the wonder that the Owner and Ruler of the universe loves us, and has destined us for the enjoyment of his glory, and is working infallibly to bring us to his eternal kingdom.

So we live to meet the needs of others, because God is living to meet our needs (Isaiah 64:4; 41:10; 2 Chronicles 16:9; Psalm 23:6). We love our enemies, and do good, and bless those who curse us and pray for those who despise us, because we are not enslaved to the fleeting, petty pleasures that come from returning evil for evil, and we know that our reward is great in heaven (Luke 6:35; Matthew 5:45; 1 Peter 3:9).

All this flows from a growing hope in future grace. When you know the truth about what happens to you after you die, and you believe it, and you are satisfied with all that God will be for you in the ages to come, that truth makes you free indeed. Free from the short, shallow, suicidal pleasures of sin, and free for the sacrifices of mission and ministry that cause people to give glory to our Father in heaven.