Gospel Centered Motivation

             If you’re anything like me, often times you’re on your own back. “Get this done… Okay, now you need to do this… Alright next, I need to go get that done… Oo, I forgot about that, but I need to go knock that out right quick,” and so on. This inner dialogue is, in one way, just a simple part of life. We need to do things. But when I say “on your own back” I mean something past this initial inner self talk. If you pressed me further in articulating what’s going on in my mind, you would hear things more like, “Oo, that isn’t good enough, I’ll come fix it later. Yikes, I need to do more here. Ahh darn, that is not a good enough job there. Common Jon, you haven’t done this yet,” and on it goes. This inner voice/conscious perception/psyche/self talk, is what I want to share a word on. 

In everyday life, we’ve all developed, whether we know it or not, a normal pattern for how this inner voice works. As I mentioned above, if you’re anything like me, this pattern is more analytical, critical, and negative in its tone. Although in certain life situations, we need to just get the job done (think sports, getting taxes done, taking out the trash), this critical and negative tone are the exact opposite of what we need in the Christian life. “Just get it done because it’s the Christian thing to do,” is not an appropriate mentality for the Christian. In other words, performance based sanctification does not work. Right behavior results only from understanding who we already are!

The New Testament letters affirm what I’m saying by giving examples which directly contradict my normal, or default, pattern of self talk. For example in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he spends the first 3 chapters explaining what God is doing, and how the Ephesians believer are apart of this work. He does this before he ever begins to exhort them and provide directions on how to act (chapters 4-6). Peter in his 1st letter, similarly leads his readers first to an understanding of who they are and where their home land is. He explains how they are traveling aliens down here on earth, yet because of God’s great power and redemption they’re citizens up there. This is again stated before he gives them marching orders. Christ also in the gospels, keeps his mission quiet, and prepares the disciples with exhortations for the future, because he hasn’t completed the redemptive task yet. He prepares them for their future ministry (after they understand what he has done.) This is because he’ll only send them after they understand who they are because of what he has done.

So next time you’re thinking you need to be better because God is watching, or that you need to do better spiritually because it’s the right thing to do, stop and challenge those thoughts. Challenge them with Gospel perspective. Understand that the whole point of the Gospel is that you’re NOT “good enough”, able to “do more”, able to “fix” it, and that is the whole reason why Christ came; to save sinners! Submitting and relying on Christ and HIS work, is what makes us Christians. Take a deep breath, think of a perfect and holy God hanging on a crucifixion cross, to pay for your sin, and tell yourself, “that, is why I’m free! He is why I’m worth something! He is the one who did the work!” Then you can appropriately say, “how do I live in light of His glorious grace, and abundant mercy, and remarkable kindness?” Performance based sanctification does not work. Right behavior results only from understanding who we already are!

 As I write this, My wife Shannon and I are in week 7 after the birth of our third child (and third daughter). Now as we embark on bringing her up to Love God and Love People, this 3rd round is not a repeat. What I mean is this, although we have had two daughters already, and we’re getting comfortable with having girls, we’re not even close to done with the heavy lifting and intentional effort needed to bring up our newest member of the family. My oldest is at a phase now completely different from where we were 2 years ago. My middle daughter is just now changing phases from a difficult figuring out the world isn’t all about “me” phase, to one of the more joyous phases in my option of child rearing: exploration, vocabulary exponentially increasing, and random bursting into songs spontaneously. My newest addition will have needs entirely separate as a newborn than she will even at 9 months. This requires us to be alert. Why? Because a we want to be present in easy phase. A phase is a timeframe in a kid’s life when you can leverage distinctive opportunities to influence their future.

     In each phase of each of our kid’s lives they have 3 big categories that we can engage and use to better understand and influence them. Each phase has 1) Significant relationships, 2) Present Realities, and 3) Distinctive Opportunities. Now here is the kicker, in each phase these relationships, realities, and opportunities change. Now they don’t change spontaneously and without predictability; you can work to know where your child is at; but the point is, as phases change so should our methods of influencing them. Accordingly, if you identify the significant relationships of your 2nd grader you can be sure that they are not the same relationships when they’re in the 6th grade. Correspondingly, your 9th grader has present realities very different from the ones he or she had in 5th grade. To give an example, “Because I said so” is not going to work on my girls when in the 10th grade. Although the once enormously helpful phrase, which brought relief to a tired parent and a satisfactory answer to your question filled 3 year old, it no longer works on your underclassman. Unless you present the boundary in a manner that is in tune with their present realities and beliefs, they are not likely to stay within it. 

   So what? Why does this matter? It matters because frankly, parenting is a massive endeavor and we all need to remind each other to keep up the effort! Just because I’m on daughter number 3, doesn’t mean I can hit auto-pilot. And neither can any of us even if some of us have 12 kids and are living cheaper by the dozen! As parents, teachers, grandparents, counselors, and leaders we need to pay attention! We have to do our homework! We have show up consistently! And we need to rally one another as members of the church to know that kids matter at every phase. Let’s do the work to utilize each phase for each child God has placed in our influence. A phase is a timeframe in a kid’s life when you can leverage distinctive opportunities to influence their future.

     God give us the grace, patience, and gusto, as we run the marathon of bringing up children to love You, and love people. Allow us to encourage one another in our divinely appointed positions as parents, teachers, grandparents, counselors, and leaders. We need YOU through every phase in our children’s lives! Amen.

(These terms and concepts are not original to Pastor Jon. They are directly taken from a highly recommended book by the reThink Group: Joiner, Reggie and Ivy, Kristen. It’s Just a Phase So Don’t Miss It. Cumming, GA: Orange, 2016.)

My name is Jonathan Stewart and I wanted to introduce myself for this first article and I pray you’ll be encouraged by it. Gower has already been a welcoming place, and my wife and I are very thankful to be here. It’s a joy and a massive privilege to be a minister of the Gospel and serve alongside Pastor Seth as we shepherd the flock God has entrusted to us. This task is significant and is not taken lightly. We aim to Love God, Share the Gospel, and Make Disciples. Here is a brief story for my life thus far.

God placed me as the fourth child, in a family of eight children: five brothers and two sisters. My family grew up in Kansas City, MO, and we all graduated from Truman High School. During my Jr. High years I met a young couple named Jake and Megan Gibler and they challenged me about genuinely treasuring Jesus.

After I was baptized, I began working with the youth under Jake, and became highly invested in my high school. It was through this time that my ambitions changed from being a pilot or engineer, to a pastor. I enrolled at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary pursing a Bachelor’s. After five years of working part-time, learning life skills to operate well, and doing school, Shannon and I married in May of 2016, two weeks after she graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a degree in Biblical Studies.

Immediately following our wedding, we moved to Colorado Springs for a youth pastor position. I completed an internship lasting just over a year and was then hired on as the full-time youth pastor in June, 2017. Through my marriage, internship, employment, and birth of our daughter, I continued school and graduated in December of 2017. We moved back to Kansas City, and after a couple of years

have recently moved here. We now have three girls: almost 4, almost 2, and a newborn.

My favorite places to be definitely involve woods, a clear night sky, a lookout, or anything that brings out the “nature” side of things. I can’t choose one favorite movie but some favorites range from Pixar’s “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles”, “Remember the Titans”, to “The Prestige”, and to “Warrior”. My favorite hobbies are interacting with friends, playing sports, and organizing random

stuff.

As the second pastor here at FBG, my aim is to continue investing in the work already occurring directing us all toward submission and reliance on Christ and his work. Through all the life changes, I have been continuing to see the absolute necessity of keeping the Gospel message of Christ at the center of all I do. This means having the Gospel even affect my ambitions to work to be a "good" Christian. I've had to be humbled in many areas (and will be in many more I'm sure), respectively assertive in others, completely broken in still other difficult situations, and yet confident in my action plans for even other separate circumstances. In all these situations, I've had superb brothers demonstrate and teach me how the Gospel affects all of these different situations.

I'm continuing to learn how to rely on Christ for my identity, and I want to serve him by loving Him, and loving people. God teaches that life is crazy, difficult, and nonstop, yet also exciting, fun, and always new. Through all times of life, God is loving, patient, and willing to give hope, endurance, and peace to those who have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.