God is in the Camp

The last several months at TJC have been unbelievable. We have experienced remarkable growth. In just four months we have witness attendance shoot up from 400 to 600. We are moving from 2 services to the 3 services, beginning March 22nd (8/9:30/11). We anticipate 750-800 people to visit on Easter (April 5th). We are witnessing salvations, baptisms, people signing up to serve, people joining Gospel Communities, folks becoming covenant members, and endless stories of people inviting, serving, and meeting the needs of others. It has been incredible. 

If I am being honest with you, all of these incredible things excites me beyond all belief, but it is also scares me. It scares me because I do not want us (the church and me personally) to do anything that hinders what God is doing. It is evident that God's presence is with us and is moving in our midst. So I keep humbly praying, "Oh God, thank you for making Your presence very real to us and showing Yourself to us, please don't let us blow it." While you may think I'm playing, I'm not. 

As I was thinking about this phenomena we are experiencing and my own heart's yearning to not mess it up, the phrase, "God is in the camp" came to mind. As I google searched the phrase - as all pastors do when they are trying to remember where that verse they vaguely remember is - I came across a passage. 

Deuteronomy 23:14 - Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

Moses is giving a vital reminder to Israel, the people of God. He sets their minds on the reality that God is with them. His presence dwells with them. God walks in the midst of the camp. This leads Moses to declare to them that they must be holy. Because God is with them, they should strive for holiness so He does not turn away from them. If they want to dwell in His presence, and if they want Him to continue to remain in the camp, they must be careful to walk in obedience. 


Oh friends, this is the tug my heart was experiencing. I cherish God's presence in our "camp" and what He has being doing in our midst. I've visited and experienced many churches, and I can tell you, not all of them have God in the camp. I want Him to remain with us and do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), but we must walk in humble obedience to Him. We must submit our lives willingly to Him. 

With humble and hungry hearts, we cry, "God is in the camp! Let us walk in His ways." 

Holiness: Possible and the Key to Being Used by God

The Bible tells us in Leviticus 11:44 that God says, "⁴⁴For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy." The command is one that we almost passively read through because at the end of the day we know that we won't be holy as God is holy. We know far to well that we are sinners. We are not just people who sin, we are sinners. It is a part of our nature. Yet, this does not excuse us from God's command to be holy.

R.C. Sproul, a great theologian, lays out in his book Chosen by God that we are born with a sin nature. The reason for this sin nature is that we are under the curse of Original Sin from our first parents Adam and Eve. Before the Fall of Adam and Eve, man was able to sin, but he was also able to not sin. He has the choice between obedience and disobedience. After the Fall of Adam and Eve, the nature of humanity changed. We were now able to sin, and unable not to sin. In other words, we were free to sin with our choices, and at the same time, our freedom is restricted in the sense that we are unable not to sin. We will sin as a result of the Fall of Man. The beauty of the gospel and being a person set free in Christ is that we are no longer obligated to sin. Whoever the Son has set free, he is free indeed. When we are born-again we now go back to our pre-Fall nature: we can sin and we can not sin. The process of holiness is trusting and leaning on Christ more and more to be able to choose not to sin when sin is before us. If we are in Christ, we curse him if we continue to say that you sin because you can't do otherwise. Not so if you are in Christ. Will we still sin? Yes. But make no mistake, we no longer have to sin. Before our rebirth in Christ, we are unable not to sin because of our corrupt hearts, minds, and nature. In heaven, when we finally are glorified and redeemed fully, we will be able not to sin and be unable to sin. So we will not only have the ability to not sin, we will lack the ability to sin. Praise God for that!!

Back to the issue of holiness. Holiness is possible. If you are reborn in Christ, you can be holy, you can choose not to sin. People often talk about how they want God to use them. I hear people ask me all the time, "just pray that God would use me." I don't have a problem praying for that, but here's the deal: God will use you if you are 1. reborn in Christ and 2. living a life of holiness. If you are not doing those things, no need for me to pray. In fact, look at the passage from 2 Timothy 3:20-21

²⁰Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. ²¹Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work."

The passage shows us that it doesn't matter what kind of vessel it is, as long as the vessel is clean it can be ready for honorable use. If it is clean, it can be set apart, useful to the master, ready for every good work. Paul is saying this: it doesn't matter what your spiritual gift is, your background, your age, etc. what matters in the issue of being used by God is holiness. We must be holy because God is holy. We must quit excusing our sin on our nature when in the rebirth we were given the ability not to sin. We must seek to be holy if we want to be used by God. We should quit praying for God to use us and instead focus on holiness. When we do that, God will wear us out.