(no caption really needed to know what he's thinking)

How People Change--Part 3

There are two basic schools of thought about change. One focuses on the emotions and one on the will. The religious world focuses on the will most of the time. If you are down on yourself they say, “Buck up, be strong, grit your teeth and bear it, hang on you can get through it, tough it out, it will be ok.” They place all of the emphasis on the will, your ability change things. Your determination to not settle. And we even say these things, “I am not going to do this anymore. I am not going to keep sinning like this.” You see understanding that something is wrong and applying your determination will not bring lasting change. It does not work. Why? The second school of thought, which is often found in the secular world focuses on the emotions. They tell you that you are practicing self-defeating thinking. You need to change the way you think, you need to do something nice for yourself. They try to get you to feel better about yourself by focusing on your emotions. They try to bring real change by changing your thinking and for those of you who have suffered emotional stress, this may change you for a while, but you will relapse back into it again. Because real change has not occurred. Now, that’s a lot of stuff to think about. I have been thinking about this for several months and it is still a lot for me to grapple with. Don’t miss this right here. If you are totally confused about everything I have said this morning, make sure you get this. Read 2 Corinthians 3:15-18 again. Listen to this. This is the key to real, lasting change. “Beholding the glory of God brings real change.” Listen to me, do not miss this. Josh Martin was converted to Christ when he beheld the glory of God. Seeing that changes you. Here is what I mean. I had heard the gospel many times as a child and it did not change my heart. Why? I didn’t get it. I believed Jesus was God’s son. Of course I believed he died on the cross for sin. I believed he rose from the dead even. But it didn’t change me. Why? Because I knew the facts, but I was yet to behold his Glory. The eyes of my heart were veiled. But when I actually turned to the Lord in faith and repentance, not just knowledge, I could behold the glorious truth of who he is and what he had done and I was transformed. God removed the veil and I could see him in all of his glory and it changed me. When you see him as glorious it will change you. You will experience true repentance because you will turn from your sin in sorrow and to Christ in faith. You don’t want that anymore, you want Him. This is not just true of conversion, but it is true of all of life and it is true of all change. All real change occurs this same way. Let’s break down these verses for a second and see the truth of what is being said here. v.15 Moses was not glorious. The glory on Moses’ face will fade but the glory in the face of Christ will not. V16 You must turn to the Lord, not your determination, not your emotional fix but to the Lord V17,18 When the veil is removed we can see him and it will change us. And it doesn’t end with conversion. But from one degree of glory to another. In all of life. This is how we are sanctified in heart and body. Look at other places where Paul does this. 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 When Paul wants the Corinthians to be generous he doesn’t just scold them. He takes them to the Gospel. He explains how Christ tasted poverty so that we could be rich. When you see that, you will want to give. And you will do it without any pressure. It will indeed be of your own free will. Ephesians 5:22-27 Wives, Because Christ is your savior and you have submitted to him, and he holds your life and you following Him, submitting to your husband shouldn’t be an issue. Husbands, because you know the spousal love of Jesus Christ, when he could have left and probably should have left you, he stayed and gave you everything. Loving your wife this way shouldn’t be an issue. It always go back to the Gospel. The Gospel is what will change us. Seeing that glory will change us. I want to end today the way Paul ended this thought in 2 Corinthians 3:18“For this comes from the Lord who is Spirit.” I want us to acknowledge the glorious truth that this change only occurs because of the working of God. Let’s be sure that he gets the credit for this. Let’s be sure that he gets the glory so that others may see who we credit this work to and then they, with unveiled face, may behold this same glory and be changed. If there are any questions, feel free to ask. I can say, "I don't know" as well as anybody. But who knows, I may have an answer.

How People Change--Part 2

Now that we have established that even those whose hearts are hardened toward God are hardened by something, what motivates us to change? Let’s look at some motivators that do not bring lasting change. Real change happens on the inside and is evident on the outside. Outward change is often a sign of inward change but not proof of inward change. I can have a change of actions without having a change of heart. We often ask what would Jesus do? This helps us conform our actions but you would be surprised what you could do with a hard heart. This was the main problem with the Pharisees and much of the problem with the religious world today. We honor Christ with our lips, but our heart is far from him. We have cleaned the outside of the cup without having touched the inside of the cup. Why do we do that? Why did the Pharisees do that? Why do we so often conform our actions without conforming our heart? Motivators Guilt is a motivator. And guilt will change the way you act but it will not change your heart. Because the change that you make in your actions almost never removes feelings of guilt. If they are removed, they come back and you find yourself in this vicious cycle of never being freed from that guilt. It changes your actions but it does not change you. Whole change must occur or it is not real change, it is a cheap imposter. Fear is a motivator. This is probably the greatest motivator for change that never brings real change. It too will change your actions but it will not change your heart. I do not teach the youth to not have pre-marital sex by scaring them into thinking about the consequences of an STD. This tactic may change their actions but it does not change their heart and the heart must be right or the actions don’t mean a thing. Jesus told the Pharisees I want you to follow the law but follow it with both heart and actions. This fear motivation will not lead you to real change. This is true of my own conversion. I didn’t come to Christ because I was scared of Hell. I was just as scared of Heaven. Hell hurt and Heaven was boring and I didn’t want to go to either. Heaven is not the goal of the Christian life, Christ is the goal of the Christian life. Being with love ones in heaven is not the goal, being with Christ in heaven is the goal. You cannot scare me into a relationship with Christ anymore than you can please me into a relationship with Christ. This talk of heaven leads me to the next motivator I want to talk about. Pleasure is a motivator. This is true for everyone in here. We are motivated by pleasure. We change our jobs so that we can make more money to have more pleasure. We change the way we relate to each other so that we can find pleasure in each other’s company. If you can go on a cruise to the Bahamas for the same price as a weekend at the lake, you will change your plans from the lake to the cruise because it brings you more pleasure. Do you see this? Do you see how pleasure motivates you? Pleasure changes the way you do almost everything but it can never satisfy the need for more pleasure which means it does not bring real lasting change. You will need to change something tomorrow to feel more pleasure so it is never a real change but many endless changes. These are just three of many motivators that will not bring real, lasting, Godly change. There are too many of these to list to put into one sermon but these are the most common I believe. I will post what I believe the Bible teaches about change on Monday.

How People Change--Part 1

There will be seveal posts on here in the next week that I am taking from a sermon I preached a few weeks ago about change. With New Year's right around the corner, people will soon be talking about their New Year's resolutions. Sadly, most of our resolutions fall through the floor. But I think it is helpful to get a biblical perspective on change. From conversion to true sanctification, not just moral conformity. Here goes. Read 2 Corinthians 3:15-18 We all have things in our life or about us that we would like to change. And we would do anything in the world change them. Some things we want to change are things that we should want to change because they are bad or unbecoming of us. In particular these things are mostly sin that we struggle with. We want to change some things because we just don’t like them. They are not bringing any harm to us or anyone else but we want to change them because we simply don’t like them. I have things like that. One thing in particular is my voice. I hate to hear myself recorded. When the JMB produces a new CD, I never listen to it after it’s finished. The last time I purposefully listen to it is in the studio for the final mix. Once it’s done, I’m done. I don’t want to hear it because I don’t like to hear my voice. But I continue to sing despite my voice, because I want people to hear the truth in the lyrics. I don’t have to sing as well as Mac Powell of Third Day, I just want to write music like King David. It is not my first priority to sound like Steven Curtis Chapman, but to write music that is as solid as his. I would change my voice if I could but it’s really not that important and it doesn’t keep me from doing what I feel the Lord has called me to do. Some of you have the same issue here. Some things you want to change don’t really matter that much. But some things do. And that is what I want us to look at today. How do people change? But not just for a little while, how do we change for good? It is really silly that people think that Christians are the only ones trying to convert people. The following is an article from the New York Times written by Mark Lilla. He starts off the article talking about how he had a "conversion experience" as a child but now totally denounces all claims to be a Christian. He goes to a Billy Graham Crusade in queens to write about it for the paper and talks with a young man who had gone forward and surrendered his life to Christ. Here is what he had to say: “I found it hard to conceal my bafflement, since Billy had not said much at all. You must be born again - that was it. I felt a professorial lecture welling up in my throat about the history and psychology of religion. I wanted to expose him to the pastiche of the biblical text, the syncretic nature of Christian doctrine, the church's ambiguous role as incubator and stifler of human knowledge, the theological idiosyncrasy of American evangelicalism. I wanted to warn him against the anti-intellectualism of American religion today and the political abuses to which it is subject. I wanted to cast doubt on the step he was about to take, to help him see there are other ways to live, other ways to seek knowledge, love, perhaps even self-transformation. I wanted to convince him that his dignity depended on maintaining a free, skeptical attitude toward doctrine. I wanted. . .to save him. I thought I was out of that business, but maybe not. It took years to acquire the education I missed as a young man, an education not only in books but in a certain comportment toward myself and the world around me. Doubt, like faith, has to be learned. It is a skill. But the curious thing about skepticism is that its adherents, ancient and modern, have so often been proselytizers. In reading them, I've often wanted to ask, "Why do you care?" Their skepticism offers no good answer to that question. And I don't have one for myself.” (emphasis mine) You will be converted by something. The writer says that we should stay skeptical of all doctrine.....all doctrine but his doctrine! All beliefs but his beliefs! Everyone has a set of beliefs and everyone has been converted by something. Even the most post-modern of the post-modernists have a set of beliefs that they, deep down, believe you should conform to. How silly it is to think that Christians are the only ones concerned with converting people. So, the question is not "will you be converted?" The question is, "What set of beliefs will have it's way with you?" I will continue with more of the sermon on Friday.

Small Crowd/Large Crowd

Have you ever noticed that when attendance is up at church, the leaders spirits are up? And when attendance is down, the leaders spirits are down. The same thing is true for us, not just pastors. Sadly, this is even true for me when it comes to music. As I look back at this year and contemplate the different concerts that we have done, it seems that our better concerts have been with larger crowds and that leads me to ask the question "why"? Why are the concerts with larger crowds better than the ones with smaller crowds? We have had our share of both. There were a few concerts that if we hadn't brought our families, we wouldn't have been singing but to a handful of people. Other concerts had people scanning the room for a place to sit because it was so full. The big shows were better than the small ones. Why? I think this is true for everyone no matter what the venue. I am not necessarily talking about attendance but whatever it is that brings this kind of behavior. I hope this doesn't get too long but I am going to elaborate on that for a second. I am a youth pastor as well as the lead singer of the Josh Martin Band. When a lot of kids are coming to youth, I'm excited. When attendance is small, I get depressed. Most pastors are the same way. I once worked as a manager at a Winn-Dixie Marketplace. When sales where up, everyone was in a good mood. When sales where averagre or a little below..........not so much. I hope you can apply this to whatever it is that you do. Whether you are a factory worker, pastor, blue collar, white collar, career woman, or stay at home mom. All of us go to the end of our day with something that we fall back on. We all have something that, even if everything else falls through the floor, we rest confident in it every night when we lay down our head. It could be the way you manage your family. You may say, "Whatever else happens in my day, it doesn't matter, I am still a good parent." We all have something that we are using to justify ourselves everyday. Tim Keller calls these "functional saviors". We all have something that at the end of the day will be our savior. A little confession of my own here......I have found that one of my functional saviors has become knowledge. I am very eager to learn anything that i can to grow closer to God. My top ten books of the year can be seen at my other blog www.reformationundergoud.blogspot.com . I love learning things. I traveled as a missionary after high school and was not able to go to college or seminary. I would love to do both but I am finding that reading has been almost a supplement for those things. But as I began to grow in knowledge, so did my pride. Knowledge had become my functional savior. This is how you can see your functional savoir. Functional saviors are really idols. You may think that you don't have any idols in your life, but trust me, you do. You say, "I am a Christian and Christ is my idol. I am obediently following him and not looking to anything else." Well, that's a nice thought but it's not completely true. All of us have idols but the problem is that we can't see them until we learn how to spot them. This is true of everyone, believers and non-believers. Here is how you spot them; I will borrow a little from Tim Keller here. Idols are simply good things that have become ultimate things. This can be anything from knowledge, family, food, your job, your social class, etc. Even ministry can become and idol. You know that these things are idols by seeing your reactions when they are tampered with. If a good thing is lost, you get upset and cry. If an ultimate thing is lost, you want to jump off a bridge. If a good thing is blocked from you, you get mad or angry. When an ultimate thing is blocked, you get bitter, you can't sleep. Do you see why you act the way you do? The things that you overreact to tend to be the idols in your life. If knowledge is my idol, and you disagree with what I think, I get bitter at you because you are questioning my funcitonal savoir. You are drawing into question the thing that I am banking on. If my family is my idol, when they die, I am devastated at the loss and I sink into deep depression. I have lost what I am banking on. This is how you spot them. How do you get rid of them? Your heart can never go without an idol. So idols are not removed, they are replaced. God has designed your heart to hold something dear. To have an object of affection. That object of affection is to be Christ. So now that you know Christ is to be your idol, you will fix it, right? It will never happen if you are planning on just changing it. You have this idol because you find something glorious about it. There is something about it that you feel you cannot do without. When something else becomes more glorious than your idol, you exchange it for that new thing. May I present a solution? The Gospel is the center of the Christian life. The gospel is not just what we preach to non-believers, it is something we must preach to other christians. We need to hear the gospel continually. Why? The gospel changes us. It continually reminds us of the ultimately glorious thing and that is Christ. Look at the examples in the bible that Paul has given us. In Ephesians 5 he tells husbands and wives how they are to treat each other but he doesn't just say, "Wives, submit to your husbands because I say so!" or "Husbands don't you dare cheat on your wives!" Keep reading what Paul says. He takes them to the gospel so that they can see the glorious truth of Christ and that is what changes them. Seeing Christ changes us (2 Corinthians 3:15-18). Christ will be our idol when we see him as glorious. This is getting really long. I will stop for now. If you anyone has any interest in me expounding more of this please leave a comment saying so and I will do it. But I hope that you see this truth so that attendance and sales are not what are justifying you at the end of the day. I hope you will be identified with Christ and not any lesser thing.

It's That Time Again

Howdy folks. Long time no blog. Well, at least here at the JMB blog. I've blogged a lot on my personal blog. But, that's beside the point.



It's that time again! JMB will be playing at Centerfield's Cowboy Church this Friday, and at Brandenburg's Country Church on Saturday. My first-ever gig with JMB was at Cowboy Church a couple of years ago (even though I didn't become a member of the band until our live recording). We played Brandenburg for the first time last year, and I really enjoyed that show. That room sounds great! We're looking to see whoever may be there Friday Saturday....

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You gotta see this....too funny

Me and Andrew at the Desiring God Conference
To see how I dealt with Andrew at the DG Conferece just push play.

Did you Vote?

I hope that you guys that are of voting age went to vote yesterday. Voting is a priviledge that we have in this country that many people in other countries don't have. I use to not really care if I voted or not. I thought, "My one vote won't make a difference anyway". But I have since realized the importance of supporting candidates who share the same values as myself. Here is my only beef with election time: So many people say, "You should vote because people have died so that you could!" I have heard more Christians say that than I have heard them say, "Christ died so that you could be reconciled to God!" I guess my beef is not with election time as much as it is with the degrading of the cross. Voting is extemely important but it will always stand in the shadows of the cross. If you must tell someone that a person has died for their benefit, I pray that you will tell them of Christ, not just christian soldiers.

New Song

I have written a new song this week called, "Clumsy Believer". I got the idea from the Bebo Norman concert that I was fortunate enough to attend. He was talking about how he is so clumsy with his faith. I feel the same way. You'll have to come to a concert to get the full story. Hope to see you there!

Please Read This

This is a great article about which understanding where lines are drawn when it come to doctrines that so often divide. Please read this. http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2005-07-12

What's going on folks?!

Been a while since we have seen some of you guys. So, how are things going? Anything going on in your lives that you would like to share, good or bad?

Oh yeah, life goes on

For those who never venture over into my own little world that I call my blog, I'll bring my next post over here. Hello all. How are things? Let me tell me, things are great over here. I'm still at good ol' U of K and loving it. Midterms are upon us so I'm a little swamped, but nothing too bad. My honor's class is definitely my least favorite class at the moment and I am very ready to be finished with it. I'm not really enjoying the reading or the papers that I have to write but I'm dealing with it. I've got all of my work turned in and I'm passing so I guess there's no real complaints. Life with Mary Beth is good. We've been together for 1 month now (as of Monday) and things are still going great. We don't get many chances to see each other besides weekends but we are managing. God has blessed us so much and any amount of extra work and travel that we have to do is well worth it. I'm missing JMB and music together, but it's always like this around this time of year. I'm really looking forward to our two gigs at the end of November. Hopefully we'll get some practice time in before we have to travel and maybe work up some of those new songs (hint, hint). Well, I'm really just typing this so I have an excuse to not finish my homework but now I'm starting to feel bad about my procrastination tactics so I guess this is good bye. I'll see you when I see you.

VACATION TIME IS HERE AGAIN

VACATION TIME IS HERE AGAIN Current mood: excited It's the night before the big day! We head off again on another cruise tomorrow morning. We are so excited that my mom is able to come along on this one with us along with Ericcia's dad and step-mom and her brother and sister in law. It has been eighteen years since mom has been on a cruise, so I am anxious to see her reaction when she sees how much bigger the boats are these days. We will be getting up way to early in the a.m. to head to the Lexington airport. We don't take off till 8:30 but Ricci (Ericcia's dad) wants to get an early start just in case we have vehicle problems so they are going to be here at 6 a.m. I don't leave that early to be at work at 7:30....lol I understand though. The boat will be leaving from Tampa FL. and we will be visiting Costa Maya, Belize, Grand Cayman, and the Cayman Islands (I think). I plan on gaining about 5 pounds while I am gone and really do not plan on doing a whole lot other than eat. Anyhow, please keep us all in your prayers as we head out tomorrow and I will try and update as often as I can. Kelly

LiveBlog: JMB @ Vincinnes Retreat - Day 3

“Here Comes the Sun,” and “On the Road Again” are the theme songs for today. The sun finally showed itself this morning, and we’re preparing for the trip home. Just a short closing session and worship set remains. For the Morning Show, we performed our rendition of “My Girl” titled “Sunshine.” We’ve recorded the entire weekend, and plan to post some of the performances on the audio section of our site. Look for these soon! We had a great time learning and growing with the VU campus ministry folks. We look forward to joining them at next year’s retreat.

LiveBlog: JMB @ Vincinnes Retreat - Day 2

Today has been an eventful day. The band opened the Morning Show with our own rendition of “Smokey Mountain Rain” titled “Illinois Rain.” Our weather forecast from yesterday was dead on – it’s still raining. We opened the morning worship with some more upbeat stuff to get the kids moving. This afternoon, we discovered a few things: • Not all Bibles include all 66 books of the Bible (Andrew’s new NASB left out Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah and all but two chapters of Job). • Derek can, occasionally, have a striking resemblance to a Smurf • When we actually rehearse songs, we can sound fairly good. During the free time, we decided to have a rehearsal. Feeling the need to add more worship songs to our sets, we learned “Grace Like Rain” by Todd Agnew and “Sometimes by Step” by Rich Mullins. We debuted both songs in the evening worship set. Look out for these new worship songs at a gig near you (we have also recently added “God of Wonders” to our catalog). After the evening worship, the Late Nite Live game was “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” The band and Matt Walton formed the Kentucky Headhunters team. We rocked the competition, but unfortunately, the partial judges gave the victory to a student team. Our reference to aliens listening to bluegrass was quoted several times by other teams, and our party skit was the “funniest things I’ve seen in years,” according to Mike Cabell. Nevertheless, we finished third in the competition. Thus concludes Day #2.

LiveBlog: JMB @ Vincinnes Retreat - Day 1

We're just wrapping up the first day of the Vincinnes University campus ministries retreat at Oil Belt Christian Service Camp in Flora, Illinois. The big story here is rain - and lots of it. Some storms have rolled through, but nothing too severe. Word is that it will rain most of the weekend, which puts a "damper" on the situation. Rumor has it, Noah's ark was seen floating in the distance earlier this evening. Never fear! We're still having a great time. Approximately 60 students made the retreat. Matt Walton is this weekend's speaker. We heard an introduction tonight, and we're all looking forward to what God has laid on his heart for the weekend. The full band wasn't able to make last year's trip, but we're in full effect this year. Doug, Bert, and Kelly weren't with us last year, so they're getting the VU experience for the first time. We're also playing with our snappy new soundboard for the first time this weekend. It makes us feel like a real band having a nice, new, very large soundboard. More to come!

Coming soon..........

Bert and myself attend church at Harvest Community Church. I just wanted to let you guys know that on or church's website in the next few weeks there we will be putting up our weekly sermons and a "Learning Biblical Theology" class that Pastor Kevin and myself are teaching on monday nights this fall. You don't have to have a seminary education to understand what we are talking about (I'm teaching, it can't be too hard to understand!). You will be able to check this out in the next week or so. You can access the site by clicking on the link for Harvest Community Church on our links page. Later.

"A Year With the Parents"

I had discussed briefly on the message board a few months ago about putting together some resources for Youth Workers. In November I will be making the first of these resources available for anyone who wants them. The first series will be titled, "A Year with the Parents". This will be a monthly Bible Study starting in January that youth workers can send to the parents of their youth. It will stress the importance of parent's knowing and being involved in their child's spiritual growth. These bible studies will hopefully encourage and edify parents as well as shaking up some of the apathetic ones. Be watching for this series in November. You will be able to download it right from our website completely free. If you are a parent of a youth or if you are a youth worker, I strongly encourage you to do this. God Bless!

Good Luck Derek!

Just wanted to publicly wish Derek good luck on his Freshman year of college. We are praying for you homey!