Mosaic Boston

Dr. David Butler discusses the people skills needed in marriage, the most intimate relationship in our lives, focusing on the commands found in Philippians 2:1-11. The goal of marriage: showcasing the love of Christ to others.

This week we are kicking off a new series called “People Skills” and starting off with the topic of friendship. How do we make friends, or keep friends? For cynical Bostonians like us, is it even worth the effort? The good news is that it is worth it, and Scripture reveals both the wisdom and the power that are necessary for us to have amazing friendships no matter what life throws our way.

In the Gospel story, we find the worst news about us, and the best news for us – and why it matters.

We live in a world that is out of control and beyond our control. We work hard to create order out of the chaos of our lives, but even at the pinnacle of our powers, we can't control most of which sets the course of our lives. We are finite, dependent creatures, and we don't like it. This is why the idol of control is so powerful. It offers us power, control, influence, authority, and we're willing to sacrifice whatever this idol demands to get everything it offers. We conclude our Detox series by looking at Jesus' trial before Pilate.

One of the most dangerous toxins to our spiritual life and growth is the toxin of comfort. Comfort kills all growth, but especially spiritual growth. When we worship at the alter of the idol of comfort, by orienting our lives around becoming as comfortable as we possibly can, our souls are lulled to sleep and we are rendered ineffective. We lock ourselves in cages of comfort, and we becomes shells of our potential selves. We need a spiritual detox from the toxicity of comfort.

This week we will study the idol of Affection. This idol goes by many names: romance, intimacy, but most often, simply "Love." We are indoctrinated with the claim: Love is god. We are taught that without a romantic relationship, our lives are meaningless; without romantic love and affection, we are somehow incomplete. Like every idol, this one overpromises, under-delivers, and always breaks our heart. Perhaps the physically strongest person in all of Scripture, Sampson, was slain by the idol of affection.

A detox is a process by which a person aims to cleanse the body of toxins or unhealthy substances. In the same way that our bodies incrementally and imperceptibly accumulate toxins, our souls do the same. A little here, a little there, and without realizing it, we've found ourselves in a spiritual funk. During this year's season of Lent, we will spend 4 weeks going through a spiritual detox of sorts by analyzing the heart's deepest idols: significance, affection, comfort, and control.

What’s so amazing about the Gospel is how honest it is about our depravity, but also about God’s goodness. It tells us that we are so wicked that Christ had to die for us, and yet so loved us that He was willing to do it. It tells us that God owes us nothing, but He gave up everything so that through faith in Christ we can be saved. In Luke 4, we learn about how Jesus and the Gospel offend everyone, especially good, religious people.

One of the amazing things about Jesus's life on earth is that he was "one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). Immediately following Jesus's baptism, Satan musters all of his powers to wage spiritual warfare against Jesus through temptation. In Luke 4, we look at three ways that the devil tempts Jesus, and how we can fight sin and temptation in our own life.

One of the strongest desires of the human heart is to make our loved ones proud of us. We're born with this innate desire. The thing missing in many people's lives is the incredible, soul-satisfying feeling that your Heavenly Father is proud of you. We often settle for the fickle pleasure of people, but it's never enough. Deep down, we long to please our Creator. This desire, to be pleasing to God, is the mark of a Christian – it's proof of being a child of God. So, how do we please God?

John Lennon once said, "Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God almighty." This brilliant little nugget encapsulates our schizophrenic inferiority and superiority complex. Let's allow the Holy Scriptures to reintroduce Jesus to us, fully God, fully man, who came to save us from both our superiority complex (He is our Lord) and our inferiority complex (He is our Savior).

As Christians, we have been called out of darkness to live as citizens and ambassadors of God’s Kingdom. The prophet Jonah is a great example of how God uses people, despite our flaws, to accomplish his mission. Through this reluctant prophet God brought salvation to Nineveh, one of the most unlikely cities on Earth. In doing so, God showed that his plan of salvation would not end with Israel, but would extend to all the nations of the earth.

Scripture tells us that we belong to God. Human beings are made by God, for God, and have the distinction of being the only thing in all of creation that is made in “the image and likeness of God.” Because of this, every single person has innate dignity and worth that infinitely surpass all earthy treasures. What does it mean for citizens of God’s Kingdom to truly be pro-life in all of life?

We have a long way to go, till justice "rolls down like waters." If the issues surrounding racial division and the challenges of reconciliation don't drive us to our knees in prayer, then we have not even begun to understand how complex and daunting the issues are.

The ultimate test of a person's true spiritual condition is prayer. There is nothing that reveals the true state of our spiritual health so much as our prayer life. When you are alone before God, what do you have to say to Him? Similarly, the ultimate test of a church's spiritual condition is its prayer life. How's Mosaic doing? Well, how's our prayer life? This month, we are calling the church to not just pray for ourselves, or for our church. We will focus on praying for our city, our country, and the World.

I used to be the one who hated New Year's Day, being forced to make resolutions, fully knowing I wouldn’t be able to keep any of them for more than a few months. Why even bother with resolutions when I can’t fully keep them? I decided to see what Scripture has to say about resolutions and man was I surprised! One man in particular stands out at making resolutions and struggling to keep them, the Apostle Peter. We will look at 1 Peter 2:1-12 to see what he has to tell us from his experiences of both failures and success in resolutions.

As we’ve been walking through Luke’s record of the Christmas story, he wants us to ask, “What Child is This?” We know that Jesus is our Prince of Peace, but what does that mean in a world filled with sin, pain, injustice, and death? What kind of peace did Jesus come to bring? What kind of peace do we really need? And most of all, what will we do if the peace He offers isn’t what we expected?

Our culture's manufactured Christmas "joy" is a far cry from the very first Christmas. In the very first Christmas, Christ does bring true joy into the world, but it comes amidst suffering, shame, and scandal. Unwed teenager Mary gives birth in a barn, with only a scared Joseph to help deliver the baby. Once Jesus is swaddled, he is placed in a feed trough for animals, like an animal. God brings joy into the world, and it's swaddled in suffering.

In the second week of Advent, we look at God's love. Perhaps because it comes around every year, or perhaps we've just heard the message so often, we often take the Christmas reality of God's love for granted. This is unfortunate, because God's love is the most shocking fact in the universe. We should value the spiritual practice of growing in God's love, because if you live like you're loved (because you are), you become unstoppable.

Advent is a celebration of the first coming of Jesus and the anticipation of his second coming. For the next four Sundays, we will meditate on the liturgical Advent themes: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. In our first sermon, we'll look at the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth–two faithful, God-fearing and God-loving saints, who had devoted their whole lives to serving the Lord selflessly. However, despite all of their faithfulness and all of their prayers, they didn't have any children, though they desperately longed to. They begged God and begged God, but all they got in response was silence. The situation seemed utterly hopeless–until God showed up.