Interview with Pastor Tim Steward

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August 31, 2020

In today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist, Pastor Keith interviews Pastor Tim Steward of Counter Culture Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida.

00:02: Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:04: This program is dedicated to helping you better understand the Word of God and the doctrines of grace.
00:10: The Bible tells us, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who is no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
00:18: Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to study along.
00:22: Here's your host with today's lesson, Pastor Keith Foskey.
00:26: Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:28: My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
00:31: I'm coming to you again from the truck and today I have with me my very good friend and fellow pastor, Tim Stewart of Counter Culture Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida.
00:43: How are you doing today, Tim? I'm doing good, man.
00:45: Having a blast.
00:46: All right.
00:46: Well, we just came from doing what every pastor should know how to do and that is shoot a gun well.
00:52: We went out and did some shooting today and had a good time doing that and so now we're headed back to grab some lunch and I thought it might be interesting if Pastor Tim shared a little bit about his church, so I'm going to do a little impromptu interview, introducing you to him and to his ministry.
01:09: I know several of his church members and they're the sweetest people.
01:13: Some of them are part of our academy.
01:17: We have the Sovereign Grace Academy and the Derine Courts are ...
01:21: Elaine is a student at our school and I really enjoy him.
01:26: He's a very gifted young man.
01:28: I'm going to have to keep fixing this because the magnet's not holding as well as it should.
01:32: But Tim, I want to ask you a question.
01:34: How long have you been the pastor of the church and is it a church that you planted? I know the answer, but I want them to know.
01:40: Yeah, it's a church that we planted about 11 years ago.
01:46: It just came about just from me growing in my faith and just wanting to do things biblically.
01:57: Not that other people had it wrong.
01:58: I just started to see some things that I felt were inconsistent and so I just set out on the journey and next thing you know, we ended up planting a church starting from a little Bible study.
02:11: I think a lot of church plants start from where we have seen a lot of churches that veer and are unwilling to change.
02:19: Would you agree with that? I mean, I'm not trying to talk bad about anybody, I'm just saying, I think there's a lot of plants going on right now because there's a lot of older churches that don't have interest in going back to the scripture.
02:33: They're so locked into their traditions.
02:35: Yeah, I think we've sort of kind of embraced a seeker-friendly aspect of church and then you have churches who, you have this mixture of people who are serious about the things of God and people who see the church as just a place to come to be a member, sort of like a club or what have you.
02:57: And when you have that mixture, it can cause issues, family issues, and things of that nature.
03:02: So, I mean, like you said, we're not trying to talk about other people, it's just, you know, when you want it to grow, and I want it to grow in my faith, and so I just sought out people who were headed in the same direction that I was, and you're one of those people God put a place in my life as well that I could glean from, so I would agree, and that's usually how churches are planted.
03:25: And I enjoy gleaning from you too, and I really enjoy our friendship, and we have had some really good conversations over the years about some really deep subjects, like we talked about marriage and different things, there are different, maybe different perspectives that we might have on those things, but it's been good conversation, iron sharpens iron, and it challenged me, and I was very grateful for those times that we've had the opportunity to do that.
03:51: We go together, for those of you who don't know how we met, we go together to a pastor's forum, and Pastor Shane Waters of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church hosts a forum for pastors every month, and it's a blessing to me, I don't get to go every month, because I'm always busy, but I am always grateful when I do get to go, and get to hear the other guys' stories, and sometimes we share problems.
04:19: It's a good place to go for healing, for instruction, and it's not like a whack of the finger instruction, you become instructed from the word of God, and see how other people interact with those issues, and how God has saw them through it, and you're encouraged, so it is a great place for that.
04:39: And Shane has the heart of a teacher.
04:40: I was just going to say, he's like a, to me I would call him a pastor's pastor, and so it's good to have those in your life, and in your friendship.
04:51: Absolutely, absolutely.
04:52: He's been there for me, him and David Burke.
04:54: Oh man, Pastor Burke is a jewel.
04:58: Absolutely, and I remember years ago, I was going through a time of just spiritual down, I don't hate to call it depression, because I know what depression is, it was right on the cusp, where I was feeling that, and David just sat with me, and prayed with me, and talked to me like a father, and that's something you don't always get.
05:19: You know, some guys are so self-absorbed, they don't want to speak into your life, but not him.
05:23: Or they whack the finger.
05:24: Oh yeah.
05:25: And they try to take a high position, and look down upon you.
05:28: You know, when I was introduced, this time I was introduced to the Pastor's Forum through Pastor Burke's ministry, and I was dealing with something, the frustration of, sort of what we see going on now with all of the social issues.
05:43: It was around that time, 2014-15, and man, I felt like a fish out of water.
05:51: Didn't know how to really deal with it, because I felt a lot of anger.
05:59: So, going to talk with him, and how to flesh that out, man, he really ministered to me, and really helped me through that, and I don't know if he knows this to this day, but that was a blessing.
06:13: It's amazing, the men who touch our lives and never know it, or don't know how much they do, and they might not know it this side of eternity, but praise the Lord.
06:23: There's a song, and I don't remember much of the theology of the person who sang it.
06:29: You're not going to bust out singing, are you? No, no, no, no, no.
06:34: This was back when I first got saved.
06:36: There was a song on the radio, it was a Christian song, it was called Thank You for Giving to the Lord, and it was about a guy who went to heaven, and as he was going through the celestial city, people would come to him and say, thank you, because it was your ministry that saved my life, or you preached the gospel to me and it saved my life.
06:57: It's just a song, it's called Thank You for Giving to the Lord, but I always think about how many people are touching us and how many people are we touching that we never know, and praise God for those, because it's not about us, it's about him, but it's a great, wonderful thing.
07:16: Amen.
07:16: So, tell me, your church, and I know some of the answers to these questions, but I want the people to know, is your church currently meeting, or is it COVID scared? No, well, you know, I try, we talked about it earlier, you don't want to hurt people's feelings, you don't want to do this, but man, when you are serving the Lord Jesus Christ, we all have a mission, we have to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves, so we're not saying we cast wisdom out of the window, but man, we're called together as a local body.
07:52: This isn't the first epidemic, and it doesn't even compare to the epidemics that we've been through, forget since this nation, but since the world.
08:01: Amen.
08:01: And Christ's church has always stood as a beacon of light and a beacon of hope to share the gospel, because one thing for sure, like Brother McArthur says, we're all going to leave this life.
08:12: And so, the most important thing for us to know and to have is a relationship rooted in Christ.
08:18: So we see the importance of that, obviously we want to obey those that God has placed in authority over us.
08:25: So we have a small community of believers, so our building is not that large, so what we did is we reached out to another church, and they were so gracious to let us use their facility.
08:39: Nice.
08:39: And it's a large facility, so now when we spread out, I feel like I'm, it's so large I can hear my voice echo, but it's been good for us, we haven't missed a beat, we're still preaching the gospel and fellowship and communing with each other as the people God's called to do.
08:57: Now your church, correct me if I'm wrong, but you guys are a full 1689 confessional church? Yes.
09:04: And for me, I truly believe that 1689, like others I'm sure, is our guard rails.
09:11: It is something, obviously we know we hold to the scripture, but men throughout the ages have sought to work through things and a lot of the issues that we're facing in the church today, I believe as a result of us doing away with some of the things that our forefathers and those that's come before us, we didn't understand why they did what they did, we just thought it was out of style, so we've done away with it.
09:36: So we use it as our guard rail and we've embraced those truths as they've outlined the scriptures in the scriptures for us, so we've embraced that, and I think it's good to have somewhere to stand.
09:50: What would you say to someone who says, we don't need the confession, we just need the Bible.
09:56: No creed but Christ.
09:57: Well that's the creed in and of itself.
10:00: And also, I would say, and again, you asked me what I would say.
10:06: Because I know some of our people that are listening may one day have someone say that to them.
10:11: See our church has a statement of faith, we have not adopted a confession, but I would say we are very close to the 1689, maybe a little closer to the 1644 confession, but as far as, if somebody were to say, what kind of church are you? We would say we are reformed, we are baptistic, we are evangelical, but you guys can say we're a 1689 confession, I like that.
10:36: I like that you have something that you can point to and say, this is who we are, read this.
10:44: But what would you say if somebody came up and said, you know what, confessions are unnecessary, we just need the Bible.
10:50: I think we need to be aware of this cloak that we wear to hide our fear of man.
11:00: A lot of people don't embrace confessions, in my humble opinion, because they don't want to offend the very people we've been sent to minister to, and they don't want to be locked in, as it were, to what they believe the scriptures have to say.
11:18: Not knowing that the world is going to lock us in anyway.
11:22: And so, and then also I would say that we need to look at the arrogance of an individual who thinks that three or four men with four years of seminary, seminary that is so far removed from what seminary used to be, can get together and come up with something that is greater than men who have wrestled through the centuries and through the years.
11:46: And I'm not saying that it is a conscious arrogance.
11:50: And then also...
11:51: That's a good, you know, I've never thought about what you just said, but to say that your council of elders, which may be five men or three men...
12:00: Sometimes one man.
12:01: But me, I was the one who planned it.
12:03: Yep.
12:04: Is able to create a statement of faith that would rival something that had, like the Westminster Divines.
12:10: Right.
12:11: That produced, and of course we know the 1689 drew heavily from the Westminster.
12:16: And so...
12:18: Yeah, we were 1644.
12:19: Well, no, no, no, no.
12:21: I was just messing with you.
12:22: No, you're not.
12:23: And that's why, what I mean is there's a lot of thought.
12:28: There's a lot of depth.
12:29: When you read the London Confession, there's no word in it that is misplaced or not thought through.
12:37: Right.
12:38: And so, but continue.
12:39: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.
12:40: But no, and I'm still, but on that point, I'm still learning that.
12:44: A lot of the truths that I've seen in the 1689, I love them because that was the thinking in my mind, but they pinned it.
12:51: You know what I'm saying? And it was so thought out, and it's the voice of many men through many generations.
13:00: And so, I'm still even learning, and Pastor Shane has really been helpful in this, why they did what they did in some of those things.
13:08: And so, and when you get to that and see the motive, it's to exalt the person of Christ and to protect the bride, the church.
13:16: So, yeah.
13:19: That's awesome.
13:20: That's great.
13:22: With that in mind, so you planted a church, but when you planted it, it wasn't, you didn't plant it as a confessional church.
13:30: You've become a confessional church.
13:31: Explain that, how that worked out.
13:33: Well, I planted the church with the mind of, and here's the crazy part.
13:40: I didn't even know.
13:42: Now, I was a quote unquote minister, licensed to preach.
13:46: I did receive training.
13:48: We had like a Logos College that you had to go through to sit through, what did you say? Kind of like our academy, it's in church class.
13:58: Right, right.
13:59: And Logos College was meeting at the church.
14:02: And so, we had that, and we had a guy who really, man, I love to this day, my former pastor, he was big into men, being men of God.
14:15: So, that really blessed me.
14:18: But when I started this church, I wanted to be able to preach the Bible verse by verse.
14:25: I come to find out later, that's a form of preaching called expositional preaching.
14:29: Yeah, yeah.
14:29: But for me, it was the commands that Paul gave to Timothy, is to preach the word.
14:36: And so, I think we've gotten away from preaching the whole counsel of the word.
14:40: So, that was my aim.
14:42: But I had to be told I was reformed, but let's put it that way.
14:45: And so, a lot of things that I was doing, people were saying, well, you're reformed.
14:50: And I didn't know what, you know.
14:53: That's a great way to be.
14:54: Yeah, I was saved from loving the Lord, man.
14:56: To have somebody say, you're right, and you don't even know how right you are.
14:59: Yeah, you know what I'm like, oh, okay.
15:01: So, even with that, man, I love the doctrines, and I love reading about them.
15:04: But man, my greatest love is loving people, loving the people of God, and loving the word of God.
15:12: And whatever else you want to call me, glory be to God.
15:16: I tell you what, that's awesome.
15:20: I mean, your people have a blessing in you.
15:22: And I know how much you do love your people.
15:24: We've talked over the years about the struggles of ministry, and loving people in their most difficult times.
15:31: And we've both been through times where people have made ministry difficult.
15:36: Not necessarily because they tried to, but just because of life circumstances and things.
15:40: And I admire your love for your people.
15:44: I know you're very invested in their lives, and I've seen you be invested in people.
15:50: And that really means a lot.
15:53: Not to interrupt you, but that goes back to what we were saying, these creeds and these confessions, these things.
15:59: I think, like you say, people don't mean to make ministry difficult, but they don't even know what it means to be members of a local church.
16:07: Because we've done away with those things.
16:09: They don't understand the importance of loving their shepherds.
16:12: Making sure that their shepherds are taken care of, so that they can be consumed with the work of ministry.
16:21: And so, the people don't have a clue about that.
16:25: And it is up to us.
16:26: How could they know, unless someone preaches to them? So, that's part of being a pastor and a shepherd, is to do that.
16:35: And you have to do it careful, because people, you know how it is.
16:38: It's easy for you to say, but no, I'm saying it because it's in the text.
16:44: Absolutely, absolutely.
16:47: Well brother, normally we make these about 20 minutes.
16:50: We're right at the 17 minute mark.
16:52: What I'd like for you to do, if you don't mind, I'd love to learn more about you and have our people learn more about you.
16:58: And we're going to have you back on soon, because you and I talked earlier about wanting to talk about some more cultural issues in the church, and some cultural Christianity things, and some things that go on that you want to address.
17:09: So, we're going to set up a time to do that.
17:11: But to finish out today's episode, would you please take just a few minutes and share the gospel with the people that are listening.
17:19: Imagine that you're talking to somebody who doesn't know Jesus, because there may be somebody listening who doesn't know Jesus.
17:25: And would you tell, just for a few minutes, just tell them, how would you tell somebody about Jesus if you...
17:31: And I don't mean to put you on the spot.
17:32: Well, I mean, even piggybacking on what we were talking about earlier, I think it's important for us to know that we are one race.
17:40: Yep.
17:41: We're all created in the image of God.
17:43: And that image was marred by sin.
17:47: Amen.
17:48: And God did not give up on his creation.
17:52: He loved us so, the Bible says, he so loved the world that he gave.
17:56: And the gift that he gave is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
18:00: And so, we've done many things with Christ throughout the centuries.
18:05: But the greatest thing that we can do is to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, to acknowledge that we are marred.
18:14: And right now, we're living in a time to where people, they want this utopia, and they're trying to get it apart from a relationship with Jesus.
18:24: So I would say to anyone that is listening, to understand that we are all created in the image of God, and we're all marred, and we all have prejudice, and we all have these things that we have to overcome.
18:36: But the only way to overcome them is through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
18:42: And so, I would say that if you do not know Jesus, first and foremost, you don't have to wait until Sunday.
18:50: Find your Bible.
18:52: Read the book of John.
18:54: He introduces Jesus to you.
18:58: Read it over and over again.
19:00: Find you a church.
19:01: Find a faithful Christian, and have them sit down and go through those truths with you.
19:07: Let the Word of God penetrate your heart, and cry out for mercy.
19:14: And we will be praying that you would do that, and that God will hear your cry for mercy, and pray that he will give you grace to bring about salvation.
19:23: There's nothing good in us.
19:25: So, leave everything there.
19:28: Don't go to the text and ask Jesus to do something for you.
19:33: He's already done something for you.
19:35: So, that would be my plea to people, is to set aside your ethnicity, your sex, whether you're gay, whether you're straight, whether you're black or white, and cry out for mercy.
19:48: And go to the Scriptures, and let the Lord lead you into repentance.
19:54: Amen.
19:55: Amen.
19:55: Thank you for that.
19:57: Well, thank you, Pastor Tim.
19:59: And thank you for listening.
20:01: Again, you've been on another truck ride with Pastor Keith.
20:04: This is one of the ways we do our podcast, and it works out all right.
20:08: But again, thank you for listening today to Coffee with Two Calvins.
20:13: And I want to remind you that if you're on the north side of Jacksonville, Florida, and you do not have a church home, that we would love to have you come and be with us at Sovereign Grace Family Church.
20:26: We're in the Ocean Way area.
20:29: SGFCJacks.org Also, if you're looking for a daily Bible reading, we have a daily Bible reading available on our website.
20:36: And I'm not sure what today's is, because I'm recording this without being near my computer.
20:41: But I'll make sure I put it in the comments below, so that you'll know what today's Scripture is for reading.
20:46: And if you are on the west side of Jacksonville, Florida, and you are interested in visiting Pastor Tim's church, Pastor Tim, do you have a website so people can find you? Yes, it's CCMJacks.org Okay, CCM? CCM.
21:01: CCM.
21:02: Counterculture Ministries.
21:03: Yes, yes.
21:04: CCMJacks.org And if you have any questions for Pastor Tim or want to visit their church, they'd love to have you.
21:10: And again, we'd love to have you if you're on the north side.
21:12: But if you're not in the Jacksonville area, you know you can always listen to us online at SGFCJacks.org Find yourself a local church where people will love you.
21:20: Don't use the internet as your only way of learning about God.
21:23: You need to be in a church with people who love you and love the Word of God.
21:27: And I appreciate you for listening.
21:28: Thank you for being with us today for Coffee with a Calvinist.
21:31: My name is Keith Vosky, and I've been your Calvinist.
21:37: Thank you for joining in for today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist.
21:42: Keep in mind, we have a new lesson available every weekday morning at 6.30am on YouTube and Facebook.
21:48: If you enjoyed this lesson, please take a moment to respond by hitting the like button, leaving a comment, and subscribing to the channel.
21:56: On behalf of Pastor Vosky, thank you for listening.
22:01: May God bless you.