Doctrine of the Day: Giving thanks for Surgery

What are you thankful for? Do you really understand what it means to be thankful? Are you sure? It is easy to say that until life collides with Ephesians 5:20…

Right now I am sitting in pre-op with Meredith waiting for the doctors to take her back into surgery… and I am trying to be thankful because Ephesians 5:20 says I should, “Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Notice that little bitty preposition that most of us take for granted: “for.” We are not supposed to merely be thankful IN all things (as in 1 Thessalonians 5:18), but we are to take that huge step forward in Christian maturity and be thankful FOR everything.

This is the same type of principle as “love your enemies.” In Matthew 5 Jesus says that even those who are not in Christ will love people who are loving to them first, but He says that his followers are to love even their enemies.

The point is that we are supposed to go beyond what is easy and expected of all people to do that which is difficult and expected by God of his children. This forces us to rely on Christ and not our own strength. Anyone can love the lovable. But it is only in Christ that we will love the unlovable.

The same is true with thankfulness. Anyone can be thankful for homes, families, jobs, and food. But only those who are in Christ can be thankful for homelessness, loss of a family member, unemployment, and hunger.

“Why should we be thankful for those things?” you ask. That is a great question. Here is hopefully a sufficient answer. It includes a few biblical principles of thankfulness.

1. Biblical thanksgiving is relational. That means that our gratitude is meant to be directed to a person. It is not merely a general feeling or expression of gratitude. Tomorrow people all over the US will say, “I am thankful for ______.” They are not thankful TO anyone. They are just happy that they have ________.

God commands us to recognize Him as the source of every blessing we have (James 1:17). It is not sufficient for a Christian ever say, “I am thankful for ______.” We are commanded to direct our thanks to the source of our joy… God. IF we are happy or thankful in anything we have, it is because God is good and has given us every blessing we have. So, we should ALWAYS direct our thanks to HIM and say, “I thank God for _______.”

2.Thanksgiving = Emotion + Expression. It is very easy to allow ourselves to think that thanksgiving is one or the other, but it is not biblical thanksgiving unless both are present.

For example, emotion without expression never explicitly honors the one to whom you are thankful. I may receive great joy from Meredith when she cooks me a red velvet cake. I may eat 3 pieces, make all sorts of approving noises (“Mmmm… Ohhhh yeah”), I may even say that it’s the best cake I have ever had, but if I never express my thanks to HER then she has not been honored. Similarly, when we love God’s gifts and enjoy health, monetary blessing, and family but never tell Him that we recognize Him as the Giver and our joy is toward Him, then we dishonor him.

Conversely, expression of thanks without the emotion of thanks leads to dry formalism. All of you with children know exactly what I am talking about. You can tell a child to say “Thank you” to grandma when she gives him a birthday gift, but when the gift is not what he expected, his “Thank you” falls flat because it is obvious that his is not truly grateful for his black socks when he had his heart set on an iPod.

True thanksgiving must be heartfelt and expressed explicitly.

3. Our level of true thankfulness depends on how much we value the giver… not the gift. In my previous point the little boy who is ungrateful for black socks, the real issue in his heart is not what he thinks about the socks, it is what he feels for his Grandma.

When I get more excited over a new computer than I do a new suit from Meredith, I am telling her that I love her more when she gives me something extravagant than I do when she gives me something mundane.

Why do I not go nuts over the suit but I do over the computer? Because I love the computer more than I love the suit. So how does that make Meredith feel? I can try to muster up some gratitude for the suit, but she can tell that I don’t really appreciate the suit.

The real gratitude that we are to express is supposed to be over the act of giving, not the specific nature of the gift.

4. Ephesians 5:20 tells us to be thankful FOR everything because we are supposed to believe that God does everything for our good and his glory. We should be thankful for every gift that God gives us. Every trial, every suffering He gives us is part of his plan to conform us to Christ. We should be thankful that He loves us to much to allow us to stay in our present state. He wants us to access more of Christ in our lives for his glory. I know it’s cliché but… no pain, no gain.

So, back to my situation. I now sitting in the surgery waiting room waiting for them to let me know how it all turned out. The question I am asking myself based on Ephesians 5:20 is, “Am I thankful to God for Meredith’s surgery?”

I want to be. LORD, thank you for your grace in Christ. Please help me to be thankful for all your work in my life. I know that you are working all things for my good. Give me the wisdom to accept your gifts with gratitude. Transform my cold heart into a blazing furnace, burning hot for your glory.

Thank you in advance for your work in my heart. Thank you for Meredith’s surgery. You have taught me that my hope and peace is in you and your providence.

Thanksgiving warning

The following was written by Juan Sanchez. He is pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, TX. This was the message I needed to hear this week. I hope you will heed his warning also...

The Seduction of the World and the Jealousy of God

As we approach “Black Friday” (supposedly the largest shopping day of the year), it is important to be reminded of the biblical warning, “Beware of worldliness!” In no uncertain terms, the Bible repeatedly warns us against the seduction of this world. Consider these commands: “Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2)! “Do not love the world or the things in the world” (1 John 2:15)! Worldliness is dangerous because it exposes our true love; it exposes the fact that we are driven by the search to satisfy our passions with things other than God. James reminds us of this fact when he explains the source of sin, saying: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:14, ESV).

How serious is worldliness? Consider James’ rebuke: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4)? The Scriptures could not be more clear. Either you love the world and the things of this world or you love God, for “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24, ESV).

The Bible presents God as a loving, faithful God who takes a rejected and despised woman, beautifies her, showers her with fine clothing and jewelry and makes a vow (covenant) to be her husband (Ezekiel 16). Within this covenant marriage, God warns that His bride is to have no other Gods, make no idols and not bow down to any other gods, “for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:5-6).

In other words, God is a jealous husband who demands faithfulness. He promises to be all-satisfying, so when his bride seeks satisfaction in something or someone other than Him, He is provoked to jealousy, for His bride commits spiritual adultery. This covenant marriage relationship between God and His people is the basis for James’ calling the people in his congregation an adulterous people, for by their desire to find satisfaction in this world and the things of this world, they have turned away from God, their faithful husband.

This warning is necessary for the western church today. Worldliness is so rampant, so pervasive, that is has become the expected norm and has spawned the market-driven culture in which we now live. Beware of worldliness! I preach to myself and my family, and I appeal to you and your family: beware of worldliness!

How can we know if we are worldly? Here is a two part test — it is not a perfect test, but at least it is a beginning.

Part 1: Take some time out this week to write out your weekly schedule. Write down every activity, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you. Where are you investing your time?

Part 2: On another sheet of paper, write out your budget. Now, look at your check register, credit card and bank statements, cash flow. Where are you investing your money?

I think that this two part test will expose, at least in part, where our hearts are, for where you spend your time and money reveals what you treasure, and “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Beware of worldliness!

Sunday sermon review - Train up a child

There are two things that absolutely terrify me. First and foremost I fear and revere the LORD my God. When I contemplate his awesome holiness, my conviction of my own sin threatens to overwhelm me. Thanks be to God for sending his Son to take his righteous, divine wrath from me when I believed in his Son as my Savior and LORD.

My other greatest fear is that I will not raise my son well. Before Meredith and I were married I knew that I wanted to have children. They are cute as babies, fun as toddlers and keep you young as teenagers. The only problem with my thinking back then is that as much as I wanted to have children, I had no real concept or desire to BE a father. Those were two mutually exclusive ideas for me.

When God decided in his infinite wisdom to give Asher to us, reality set in: I am now responsible to raise this child, God’s child, in God’s ways. As excited as I was on that glorious day, December 5, 2006, I feared for my son’s future. Of course I trust that God is sovereign and that He ultimately guides my son’s path, but God had now given me the task of discipling this little boy. Even now, my heart still skips a beat.

But I need not remain in my fear. It is healthy to have a certain trepidation about the weighty things of God. I should feel the significance of what God is calling me to do as a father, but that does not mean that I should feel hopeless or helpless. For God is my Hope and my Help. He has gifted us through his Son to have the grace we need to fulfill his calling. In fact it is the very righteousness of Christ that God has already accepted in my stead. So now my responsibility is to display the righteousness of Christ for my son.

My job is to point him to Christ always. That means every day I must trust in Christ for my own sustenance and satisfaction. By modeling for my son what it means to be dependent on Him I am training him in God’s grace.

But a mere wordless example of following Christ is not enough. I must also teach Him about the LORD, my God. I must declare his mighty works. Asher needs to hear the lofty requirements of the Law. He needs Paul to explain to him that he is a sinner who cannot attain salvation by his own merits. He needs to hear Jesus proclaim clearly, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He needs to be taught that it is only by grace that we are saved through faith, and that we are to live by that same faith in God’s grace every day.

I must teach him the Bible. I must teach him the gospel. I must teach him the way of God’s grace.

God has given me the responsibility to train up my son in the way he should go. He has given that responsibility to all parents.

This Thanksgiving I thank God for my son. But more than that, I thank God for giving me the privilege of discipling my son. I am so unworthy, but by God’s grace I will obey His commands and trust in Him to see it through.

Doctrine of the Day: God's Providence

What are your plans for today? I am sure those are fine plans, but you do realize though that God is in control of what really happens today, right? Not just today but tomorrow as well… and the next, and the next, ad infinitum into eternity.

It is really easy for us to get caught up in the daily grind of our lives and forget that “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). We also forget Psalm 2:1-4 where the LORD laughs at people who rage and plot against Him thinking they can actually thwart God’s plans. God is sovereign over this world, his creation mind you. Nothing happens apart from his permission or his active decree.

There is a heresy that is gaining traction among many who would call themselves evangelicals today. This heresy is called open theism. It has actually been around for a while. Open theism basically states that the future is open to God or that He does not know with certainty what exactly WILL happen. He knows all the myriad possibilities but that the actual unfolding of the future is as unknown to Him as it is to us.

The rationale behind this heresy is that in order for us to truly have free will to make any decisions with the power of contrary choice (in other words our decisions are not acted on by any outside influence), then God CANNOT know the future because that would mean our choices were already set in stone.

So an open theist would say that God does not know what will happen tomorrow because I could decide to faithfully love my wife or I could decide to leave her and go to Antarctica, which is where I would have to go to escape her fury : ) The point is that God can’t know what I will decide because that would mean that I really didn’t have the ability to choose something different. If God knows that I will choose to leave my wife, then I really don’t have a choice in the matter and staying with her is not an option.

The problem with open theism is that it is foolish. It is foolish because it sets humanity up as having supreme importance and worth. In other words it makes man “Lord” instead of God.

Instead of starting with the Bible and searching it exhaustively to discover how God has revealed Himself and taking that revelation of God as absolute fact, open theism starts with a metaphysical presupposition, “I chose what I am wearing today, therefore I have free will” and concludes then that God cannot possibly be what He says He is, the sovereignly ruler over his creation because that kind of sovereignty would ruin my idea of my free will. God’s true character is subordinated to man’s nature.

This is a common error when trying to arrive at what theology we will adhere to. Starting with man and then working to understand God is getting it backwards. We start with God, seeking to know Him in his fullness from Scripture, THEN we can rightly understand who we are, created in his image, yet completely subservient to Him and his plans since He is LORD of all.

Now, back to divine providence.

God’s word is clear that God is sovereign over his creation and that He determines what is going to happen. There is no such thing as luck, fortune, chance or fate. There is God wisely governing and implementing his plan for his creation.

Isaiah 46:9-10

Remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, 'My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,'

There are three very obvious things here that should shape our understanding of God’s sovereign providence.

1. God is God, and there is none like Him. In some ways this sounds a little too obvious to us Christians. But this is very important to remember every day! Let me state this another way: You are NOT God. You are not omniscient, omnipotent, omni-anything!! We are to submit completely and happily to the LORDship of Jesus Christ. We trust Him for all things, even our decisions and plans. He is central, not us. We are to live so that He gets all the glory, not us. We need to stop trying to relate to God as if it is OUR will, OUR lives that are most important.

2. He has already declared the end from the beginning… deal with it. He knows exactly what is going to happen tomorrow in my life. Not because He is some kind of medium looking into his crystal ball or reading our palms or looking at tea leaves. He knows the future because He DECLARED it! This is his creation and He does with it exactly what He wants. He is not like some amazing supercomputer who is forced to calculate a bazillion computations on the fly based on our decisions just so He can know what He is supposed to do next. Before the foundation of the world He declared exactly what the “end” would be. Sin did not surprise Him. The death of his Son did not surprise Him.

3. God will win the day. “I will accomplish ALL my purpose.” This is a powerful statement of God’s providence intersecting his omnipotence. He has the authority to declare the end from the beginning, AND He has the power to make it happen. Whoa. That is a whole lotta theology in that one verse! God says that He WILL make sure that his plans succeed. There is nothing we can do to ultimately derail his plans.

So, what does all this mean for us? Well, this means that whatever our understanding of free will is, it does NOT mean that we determine our own future. God has made it very clear that declaring the end is his job and He will make it come to pass.

That means that there is still a paradox of sorts for us in regard to our responsibility over our own sin. If God declared the end from the beginning, did God author sin? The short answer is NO. God did not author sin and we are still responsible for our sin. This is a topic for another day.

But the bottom line for us today is that we must live our lives submissive to the sovereign providence of God.

How do we make our plans? According to his revealed will in Scripture and under the guidance of his his Holy Spirit.

How do we face life’s tragedies? Fully acknowledging that God is providentially guiding those events for our good and his glory.

How do fully reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility? By submitting to the truth of Scripture and trusting that God is a big God that we will never fully comprehend because He is God.

The Gospel as Warning

Nahum 1:2-8

2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;

the LORD is avenging and wrathful;

the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries

and keeps wrath for his enemies.

3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,

and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;

he dries up all the rivers;

Bashan and Carmel wither;

the bloom of Lebanon withers.

5 The mountains quake before him;

the hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

the world and all who dwell in it.

6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

“God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” Hmmm… does He now? Yes, the LORD is good and is a stronghold in the day of trouble for whose who take refuge in Him, but what about those who do not take refuge in Him?… well, his plan for them does not seem so wonderful.

We must take care in how we present the gospel. God does love all people. God does want all people to repent. But we must be clear that God first and foremost is Holy and his wrath is already upon those who are not in Christ (John 3:36; Romans 2:5).

The gospel call is motivated by love; our love for the lost and certainly God’s love for the lost, but we must present God in his fullness. To speak only of his love to the lost is to diminish his hatred of sin.

Our message of hope in Christ IS hope because God offers salvation from his wrath if we will submit to Christ as LORD by repenting and receiving the grace of forgiveness. We cannot fully explain God’s love until we first explain why we are desperately in need of his forgiveness.

So, the gospel is good news, and it is a warning. “Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger?” The answer is no one. Even Christ, the Son of God, had to die in order to appease his wrath toward his chosen people. Jesus was able to take his life up again by his own authority (John 10:18), but God the Father still required that his wrath be appeased. It is not merely wiped away or forgotten.

God’s forgiveness of our sin means that He forgives US for committing the sin, and He is willing to reconcile us back to Himself, but the penalty for our sin must still be paid. And Christ endured God’s wrath for us on the cross.

Therefore, the gospel message we share must include a warning about God’s wrath, for that is why Jesus died: to take God’s wrath away from his children who believe in Him. So, God’s wrath will either be satisfied by Christ’s death on the cross for all whose who believe in Him OR it will remain on the unrepentant for eternity. We must warn people of God’s wrath.

The LORD is good! He offers refuge from his wrath. That Refuge is named Jesus Christ. By God’s lavish grace and mercy He promises to forgive us our sins and receive us into his family if we will repent and love Him.

Sunday sermon review - Discipling God-Worshipers

Deuteronomy 6:4-7

“4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.“

Quite frankly I never gave much thought to these verses until God gave me a son. I knew the Great Shema from verse 4 and that the Great Commandment was in verse 5, but verses 6 and 7 never really entered the realm of conscious thought.

However, now that I have a son, these verses take on a special significance for me. It is MY job to teach my son the commands of God. Whether sitting around the house or driving in the car, when we wake up and when we lie down, I am to teach him about our LORD.

Wow. That is going to take some work! Right now, our favorite thing to do in our house is play with our tractors and trains and read books about tractors and trains. When riding in the car we like to watch Nemo on the DVD player. As soon as we wake up it is play time. On the way to bed there IS always a story read… but only sometimes is it a story about Jesus.

I have a lot of work to do.

But then I ask myself, “What do I want my son to be when he grows up?” I don’t mean his profession, what he will do to earn a living. I mean what do I want him to BE? I want his to be a godly man who faithfully directs his family to Christ. Then it hits me… If that is what I want him to be two things need to happen: I need to train him to do that AND that means I have to be that kind of man myself.

So, I am making the commitment to the LORD to teach his commands diligently to me son. It will take work and sacrifice, but the work is not the difficult. It is the same effort I would invest in him anyway. The difference is what I invest in him. Instead of spending all of our time playing together, I will spend our time talking about our LORD from his word. As we eat dinner together, we will talk about God’s work and his glory instead of just staring at the horses in the neighbors yard.

There is too much at stake in my son’s life for me not to take the initiative in his discipleship. It is not the church’s responsibility to teach my son the LROD’s commands, and it certainly is not the public school’s responsibility to teach him! It is my job and my wife’s job to teach him.

By God’s grace we are going to teach him.

Doctrine of the Day: Just War

First of all let me say, Happy Veterans Day and thank you to all who have served our country in the military. We have so many freedoms and blessings that are certainly by God’s grace, but He used our armed forces to deliver these blessings to us.

On a personal note, “Thank you, Dad, for serving in the Navy. I appreciate your willingness to serve our country especially during the trying times of the Vietnam war. Besides, I probably wouldn’t be here today if you and mom had not been in Pensacola in 1973.” : )

In honor of our veterans I give you the following from Al Mohler, President of Southeern Seminary. This was written in 2004 when our country was again entering a conflict that many questioned. We are still involved in that conflict today. Many asked the questions then and still ask them today, “Is this a just war? Is any war just for that matter?”

Here is Dr. Mohler’s response entitled 'Is War Ever Justified? A Reality Check'…

The words of Jesus are unambiguous: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." [Matt. 5:9] These familiar words from the Sermon on the Mount form the basis of any Christian understanding of war and its morality. For the Christian, the standard is already set and the goal is absolutely clear--we are to seek the peace.

The hard part comes in understanding how peace--even the partial and temporary cessation of war we call peace--can be achieved and established. Is war sometimes necessary for the making of peace?

Christians have struggled with this throughout the long span of Christian history. Some Christians have been willing to die but unwilling to kill--whatever the cause. Other Christians mounted crusades to reclaim territory and establish a Christian order by military force. The majority of Christians have struggled with the question in an attempt to be faithful in wars understood to be necessary as well as tragic.

The most thoughtful Christian tradition of moral reasoning on the question of lethal violence is customarily described as the Just War tradition. This pattern of careful thinking goes back to the earliest centuries of the church, when the armies of Rome defended the empire against aggression. When can a state lawfully go to war? What are the conditions necessary for risking and taking life? How is a war to be fought with ethical concern?

Based on biblical reasoning, the Just War tradition insists that war must be the last resort, after all reasonable alternatives have failed. A lawful authority must authorize the military action, and that authority must be driven by an intention to establish a righteous peace--not to gain territory or claim the goods of another lawful nation. Furthermore, any military action must be proportionate to the good that can be gained. No military action is justified that is not absolutely required. There must also be a very real hope of success.

In the final analysis, the only justifiable war is defensive rather than offensive--it is undertaken to right a wrong, not to gain an advantage.

Once military action is necessary and justified, commanders must take care to protect civilians to the greatest extent possible, and must avoid using certain weapons and forms of violence such as chemical and biological weapons, and torture.

These principles have guided Christian moral thought for at least 1,500 years, even as each generation has faced and answered new questions. Now, a new generation of American Christians face the challenge of thinking as Christians about the war in Iraq, the war on terror, and the use of deadly force. Now, with the war over a year old, and with the stark reality of continued warfare before us, these questions deserve our most careful thinking.

Pacifists claim that war can never be justified, whatever the cause or conditions. The moral failure of pacifism is found in its deadly naivete, not in its abhorrence of violence. In reality, the world is a violent place where humans with evil intent will make war on others. In such a world, respect for human life sometimes requires the taking of human life. That tragic fact is as clearly revealed in history as any other, and far more than most. Pacifism fails to keep the peace against those who would take it.

The moral agent of war is the sovereign state--not individuals or international organizations. In the final analysis, nations go to war one by one, and individually they will be judged. At the onset of hostilities in Iraq, President Bush stated his war aim as the removal of Saddam Hussein as a murderous tyrant against his own people and a dangerous aggressor against peaceful nations.

Further, the President claimed that all reasonable alternatives to war had been tried, and had failed. The United States pledged that the purpose of the war is to liberate the Iraqi people, not to subjugate them. The United States declaims any ambition to gain territory or resources from the nation of Iraq, and promises to rebuild the nation, feed its people, and establish a representative government accountable to Iraq's citizens. Is that enough?

With the 2004 presidential race shaping the political debate, President Bush's doctrine of preemptive war is on the agenda. Is preemptive military action ever justified? Admittedly, this is a hard question. But the answer must be yes, if the threat is real and the response is proportionate. President Franklin Roosevelt understood this when in one of his famous "Fireside Chats" he argued, "when you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him."

This simple logic is lost on those who would demand that a nation wait until it has been attacked in full force. A decision to wait is in this case a decision to allow lives to be lost when the warnings were clear. Without doubt, a doctrine of preemptive war can be misused. Statecraft must be humble as well as courageous, and the judgment for preemptive military action must be justified by overwhelming evidence of deadly ability and intention.

War is sometimes required by a motive to protect human life within another nation, when genocide or ethnic conflict threaten the innocent. As with preemptive military action, the evidence must be clear, the motivation for action must be honorable, and the goal must be nothing beyond the establishment of a just peace and respect for human life.

Augustine, the greatest theologian of the early church, gave the question of war one of its most faithful considerations. In summary, he argued that "true religion looks upon those wars that are waged, not for motives of aggrandizement or cruelty, but with the object of securing peace, of punishing evil-doers, and of uplifting the good."

The Christian conscience should struggle with the awful question of war. We know that every human life is sacred--and we know why. Christians must never grow to love war, nor to seek battle, yet those who righteously fight for life serve with honor. Those who fight for life and liberty deserve our gratitude, our support, and our prayer. We must pray for our troops and for their families. The terrors and heartbreaks of war are known most fully by those whose lives and loved ones are in the line of fire.

War is a demonstration of the utter sinfulness of sin. In the name of the Prince of Peace, Christians must seek to establish and maintain our faltering and transient efforts at peacemaking until our Lord comes to establish the only peace that endures. In this fallen world, we must honestly acknowledge that peacemaking will sometimes lead to war. In the final analysis, war is the worst option imaginable, until it is the only option left.

We need joyful, enthusiastic leaders

"The joy of the Lord is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10

Mark Driscoll articulates an important leadership lesson here. It is so obvious, so biblical, so often disregarded.

Every church's leadership culture must have the boldness in Christ to look people straight in the eye and say forthrightly, "Hey, c'mon guys. This is for the Lord. Let's go for it!" Enthusiasm reaches for high standards, excellence, accomplishment. Enthusiasm demands of itself the best for the sake of a higher call. Enthusiasm crucifies the too-easily-wounded, silken Self for the sake of Christ. Enthusiasm cheerfully refuses to be held hostage by negative people. Another word for this kind of leadership is humility.

Self-focused leaders worry too much about offending people. Christ-focused leaders risk offense for his sake. Some people will be unable to join in the enthusiasm. Let them go. Let the joy of the Lord triumph. This happy reverence is your strength.

Sunday sermon review - Multigenerational Faithfulness

"Multigenerational faithfulness"

29 Letters...

10 syllables...

2 words...

1 goal for the church

What is multigenerational faithfulness? It means that our responsibility in the church is to make sure that each generation that comes after us has been given the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It means that my job is not only to make sure that my generation hears the gospel and glorifies God, but it also means that the generation behind me is equipped and prepared to preach the gospel to all nations as well.

It is a phrase I picked up from Voddie Baucham. You can learn all about him here.

One of the glaring problems in the church today is fewer and fewer young people are staying in the church as they grow up. There are beaucoups of statistics out there and bazillions of reports about this, but all one really needs to do is look around your average church to see the dearth of young people who are maturing, contributing Christian members.

The idea of multigenerational faithfulness is found all through the Bible, but the passage that sticks out the most to me is Psalm 145…

1 I will extol you, my God and King,

and bless your name forever and ever.

2 Every day I will bless you

and praise your name forever and ever.

3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,

and his greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8 The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The LORD is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.

10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
and all your saints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

[The LORD is faithful in all his words
and kind in all his works.]
14 The LORD upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18 The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
20 The LORD preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

The idea of reaching another generation with the gospel for the glory of Christ is not new or all that shocking. But there is another dimension of multigenerational faithfulness that has been severely lacking in the church (at least in the SBC churches that I know). And that is the teaching that it is the primary job of the family to carry on multigenerational faithfulness… NOT the children and youth programs of the church.

Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

It is the father’s job, as the leader of his home, to see that his children grow up in the instruction of the LORD. The church comes along side him to help him and support him, but not to abdicate him from that responsibility.

With the rise of quality children’s and youth ministries we have also seen a decline in parents’ initiative in training their children in our faith.

It is my prayer that we will be committed to multigenerational faithfulness. We need to be obedient to the commands of Scripture. We need parents discipling their children. If not, then we will see “another generation after (us) who does not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). Those generations who forgot the LORD’s work during the time of the Judges were ruled by evil rulers… themselves. “In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Let us not forget the work of our LORD Jesus Christ. Let us teach each generation that there is a King who rules his creation. Let us teach them to obey Him through his word.

Doctrine of the Day: Learning and Reading

I don’t know if any theologian or Christian thinker has ever articulated a Doctrine of Learning (Google certainly didn’t think so). I suppose you could say that sanctification includes learning. It IS difficult to transform your spirit and mind (Romans 12:2) without learning a thing or two. Even though it seems that learning is implicit in sanctification, it seems that the general way of thinking in the church today is that sanctification and learning are two separate ideas, and that learning is really less important that our sanctification. Well, now that I think about it, right now sanctification doesn’t really seem to be that big of a priority either. Anyway...

I think the modern church is kind of “anti-learning.” And that anti-learning mindset is stalling our sanctification.

Here’s what I mean.

Ask any Christian, “Does God want you to grow in godliness?” and he would probably say, “Yes.”

Ask the same dude, “By what process does He want you to grow?” and you will probably get some quizzical looks and requests for clarification or maybe even a request that you take your crazy self somewhere else.

Those brave enough to answer might say something like, going to church, going to Sunday school, reading the Bible, praying, etc. Those are all good things, but that answer leaves out something really important that the Bible makes a priority: LEARNING.

Most people, whether they articulate it or not, think that they LEARNED all the information they needed while they were in school (whether high school or vacation Bible school). “Yes, I know the story of Elijah and the widow, and Namaan, and Simon the magician. I got it.”

Now they are just applying what they learned. “I’m just trying to get through the day.”

Well, this is not what God intended for us. We are to always be learning and arriving at truth. We are supposed to be readers. We don’t read anymore. Our excuses are that we don’t have the attention span for it. We don’t have time for it. And besides, I don’t need to read.

But we do need to read. Not People magazine. Not the newspaper. Not James Patterson novels. Not Facebook statuses. Not pointless blogs. We don't need to read these.

We need to read the Bible. And not just the Bible. Read Christian biography. Read theology books. Read Christian classics. Read things that point us to God and explicitly help to worship Him.

Why do we need to read these things? Simple. Because the process God wants you to use in order to grow in godliness uses your mind and heart. It is impossible to transform your heart into Christlikeness apart from your mind being transformed also. Romans 12:2, Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:2 and many other passages point to our sanctification being accomplished as our minds are filled with truth and filter that truth into our hearts.

In Philippians 3 Paul describes his goal in this life: to know God fully by pursuing Him every day. Once God has saved you and brought your heart back from death to life, your desires change. God places within you this desire to know Him fully, never to be satisfied with any thing less than having more of Him.

So, it says something about our sanctification, that it is being short-circuited, when we don’t want to learn more about God so that we can know Him better and worship Him more fully.

Near the end of Paul’s life he writes to Timothy and asks him to bring a few things to him (2 Timothy 4:13)

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

Paul is about to go be with the Lord, and yet he still wants his books and parchments. He wants to READ. He wants to know God fully. He wants to LEARN. Even to his last day He wants to fill his mind and heart with thoughts and meditations on Christ and Him crucified.

I encourage you, dear reader, never to be satisfied with what you presently know of God. Read the Bible first. Study it. Know your God. Know the gospel. Be transformed by it.

But also read books, articles, blogs, anything you find or is recommended to you that will help you learn and grow in godliness. This is God’s plan for us.

Overcoming Guilt

My continuing struggle in the Christian life is feeling the accusations from the Evil One over my sin. I feel guilt almost every day. The following quote is very helpful to me in guiding me back to the work of Christ on the cross as the foundation of my faith and position in Christ.

“…when the devil comes and says, ‘You have no standing, you are condemned, you are finished’, you must say, ‘No! my position did not depend upon what I was doing, or not doing; it is always dependant upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Turn to the devil and tell him, ‘My relationship to God is not a variable one. The case is not that I am a child of God, and then again not a child of God. That is not the basis of my standing, that is not the position. When God had mercy upon me, He made me His child, and I remain his child. A very sinful, and a very unworthy one, perhaps, but still his child!

And now, when I fall into sin, I have not sinned against the law, I have sinned against love. Like the prodigal, I will go back to my Father and I will tell Him, “Father, I am not worthy to be called your son.” But He will embrace me, and He will say, “Do not talk nonsense, you are My child,” and He will shower his love upon me! That is the meaning of putting on the breastplate of righteousness! Never allow the devil to get you into a state of condemnation. Never allow a particular sin to call into question your standing before God. That question has been settled.”

Martyn Lloyd Jones, The Christian Soldier, p. 255

Sunday sermon review - Divorce and remarriage

Yesterday’s sermon was really difficult for me. Divorce is such a painful thing, and preaching about it is painful as well. The very public nature of divorce only adds to the shame and suffering as everyone around you is able to see the fruit of your marital problems.

We in the church are sometimes not very helpful either. We can be just as gossipy and nosy as the rest of the world. Nothing creates headlines in the news like a celebrity divorce, and nothing becomes the talk of the church faster than a couple who marriage is falling apart.

There certainly two ways for us in the church to approach this issue of divorce. One, we need to do a better job of ministering to those who have been affected by divorce, not only the formerly married couple, but also their children, friends and other family members. Two, we need to regain a solid biblical understanding of divorce and what exactly is prohibited and permitted by Scripture.

With all of our enlightenment and cultural development, in the church we still love to brand people with a scarlet letter like Hester Prynne. The stigma of divorce seems to short circuit our conduit of grace for some reason. It is not like we go out of our way to avoid those who have suffered through a divorce, but we don’t know how to relate to them in constructive, helpful ways.

The church is supposed to be a place where recovering sinners saved by God’s grace are nurtured and cared for as the Spirit heals their spiritual wounds. But we are often times like a hospital whose doctors and nurses refuse to treat their patients. Instead we enter their rooms and talk about the weather, our hobbies, etc. and never once pick up their chart, talk to them about what hurts, and prescribe the life-giving balm of Scripture. Oh sure we will carry our Bibles to church on Sundays but we rarely open them or use them to minister to people elsewhere.

We pastors are no better. It is easy to proclaim truth from a pulpit. It is much harder to sit face to face with someone and truly minister to them. That takes time, energy, and drains you emotionally. I need to spend more time actually ministering to people 1-on-1.

What all of this means is that the church needs to cultivate a biblical sense of community. I don’t mean ‘community’ in the popular, emergent sense of the word where we all just sit around and have a conversation about life that does not lead us to the cross of Christ. I mean that we need to regain a biblical understanding of our connectedness in Christ as the children of God.

I just can’t get away from the straightforward, simple commands of Galatians 6:1-2

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

There are two commands given. One, restore those who are caught in sin. The condition, of course, is that we must take care of our own spirit first, but the command still stands. We are supposed to help people who are caught in sin to get out and return to Christ. The modern day notion of tolerance and/or privacy do not apply to the Christian. We do not ‘tolerate’ sin. Nor do we stay out of other people’s business. God calls us to hold each other accountable for sin and to restore each other when we do son. “Just mind your own business” does not belong in the people of God. Those who seek to restore a brother caught in sin MUST do this gently and lovingly, but do this they must.

The second command is a little vague, and I think that is by design. “Bear one another’s burdens.” What burdens? Does that mean helping your neighbor with a project around the house? Does that mean counseling a troubled teen? Yes to both. This is a broad command designed to call us to community. To help one another with whatever we need help with. And frankly, we need help with a lot! Specifically to this blog post, we need to help those whose lives have been torn apart by divorce to be healed. Only Christ can do this, so that means that we must bear one another up into the presence of Christ. Like the four friends who lowered their lame companion through the roof into a crowded room so that Jesus could heal him, so too should we come alongside our hurting church members and bring them to Jesus.

God’s grace is rich, and He lavishes it upon us. He forgives ALL our sins. He restores us fully to himself. The church should continue to facilitate that restoration for all sinners saved by grace. This should not be an afterthought or something that happens by accident. We need to be very intentional about administering God’s grace in its varied forms for the purpose of growing God’s children into mature Christlikeness.

I hope you will join me in praying for our churches, and more specifically, I hope you will join me in being an instrument of righteousness in your church.