Sermon for July 31: "3 Portraits of Jesus: A Deliverer, a Healer, and a Preacher" (Luke 4:31-44)

Please be in prayer for our service Sunday as we consider a day in the life of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, the Son of God. We will see that this narrative in Luke 4:31-44 directly follows Jesus' sermon where he promises that he is ushering in the "year of the Lord's favor" (4:19). This is nothing less than the Day of Salvation promised by Isaiah (49:8).

What Jesus is doing is making all things new (Rev 21:5). Luke begins to evidence this by describing 3 aspects of Jesus' earthly ministry: he came as a deliverer, a healer, and a preacher of the kingdom.

Today as I write this, it has special significance for me because on this day, 34 years ago, Jesus made me new by forgiving me of my sins as I repented and believed in his finished work for my salvation. I was a 9 year old boy.

All of Jesus' miracles in the physical world reflect in their own way what will happen, not only cosmically, but also spiritually to a sinner when he/she repents and believes.

The miracles also signal a day when our mortal, dishonorable, natural, weak bodies will be raised from the grave by the power of the Spirit and Word of Christ; and these perishable bodies will "put on the imperishable" (15:35-54).

"Then shall come to pass the saying that is writeen: 'Death is swallowed up in victory."' 'O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?'" (15:54b-55).

In short: come Lord Jesus!

Don't Waste Your Life

A life is a horrible thing to throw away. To demonstrate this point, John Piper retells a story his evangelist father often told of a man who came to saving faith in Jesus Christ at an old age. Piper writes:

The church had prayed for this man for decades. He was hard and resistant. But this time, for some reason, he showed up when my father was preaching. At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone's amazement he came and took my father's hand. They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed. God opened his heart to the Gospel of Christ, and he was saved from his sins and given eternal life as he trusted in Jesus Christ's substitutionary payment for our sins at the cross. But that did not stop him from sobbing and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face--"I've wasted it! I've wasted it!" (Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, 12).

Let me say here, that even though there is a strong sense in which this man was correct; by God's mercy, even a life that is almost totally wasted away by temporal pursuits can still be redeemed. After all, our present lives are only a small blip on the radar of eternity. And because this is true, this man's life really wasn't wasted; it was only just beginning.

Having said that, why wait another moment? If you haven't repented of your sins and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, the sin-bearer, the scape-goat, do it now. You only have one life to live. Don't waste it by living for yourself when you can invest it instead for the glory of God in Christ.

31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor’s Wife

Many people don't realize that when pastors take hits in ministry, they feel the same hurt and pain that any normal human being would feel.

Furthermore, when a pastor takes a hit, his wife takes the same hit. A pastor’s wife is often in the shadow of the man who fills the pulpit every Sunday. Therefore, an important question is who will listen to, encourage, and pray for her needs?

This prayer guide with accompanying Scriptures from Revive Our Hearts Ministries offers some practical ways to pray for her.

Day 1Pray that your pastor’s wife will love God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength.Pray that God’s Spirit will work in her heart in power, and that she will value and follow biblical priorities. (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 6:33)

Day 2Pray that she will cultivate strong character and uncompromising integrity. Pray that her testimony will be genuine, and that she will guard her heart. (1 Tim. 1:5; 3:7; Prov. 4:23)

Day 3Pray for her personal walk with God—that her soul and spirit will be nourished and strengthened in her times with Him. Pray that she will spend more time in the Word of God than in reading Christian books and articles. (2 Tim. 2:15-16; Ps. 119:7).

Day 4Pray that your pastor’s wife will counsel and teach with discernment through the wise use of Scripture and faith in God’s power. (Ps. 119:99; James 1:5-6)

Day 5Ask God to protect her marriage and keep it strong as a model of the Church’s submission to Christ. Pray that she will respect and practice godly submission to her husband’s leadership, and that her husband will love and cherish her. (Eph. 5:23-33)

Day 6Pray that God will protect your pastor’s wife from discouragement and bitterness when she or her husband faces inevitable criticism. Pray that she will trust in the wisdom of the Word of God to answer her critics, and commit herself into the hands of God, who judges righteously. (Heb. 12:15; Ps. 119:42; Col. 4:6; Prov. 31:26; 1 Pet. 2:23).

Day 7Pray that your pastor’s wife will remember truth and practical principles from the Word of God during times of trial, and that the Scriptures will bring her comfort. Pray that the Word will become her delight and song when circumstances are tough. (Ps. 119:28, 52)

Day 8Ask God to protect your pastor’s wife from the evil plots of Satan. Pray that she will notbe corrupted as she rubs shoulders with the world. (John 17:15; Isa. 54:17; Ps. 91:9-11)

Day 9Pray that God will build a hedge of protection around her marriage, and that she and her husband will be aware of the potential for any improper relationships. Pray that their family time will be protected. (Matt. 19:6; Prov. 31:11a; 2 Cor. 10:4-5)

Day 10Pray that your pastor’s wife will be morally pure and that she will wear the armor of God so that she will not fall into sexual temptation. Ask God to guard her heart concerning the use of free time, and that she will be especially discerning in her use of emails, the Internet, television, and other media. (Rom. 13:14; Eph. 6:10-18)

Day 11Pray that God will bring godly friends and encouragers to your pastor’s wife and her family, to strengthen them for the ministry and to provide meaningful fellowship, accountability, and times of rest. (Ps. 55:14; 119:63)

Day 12Pray that she will be a woman of prayer and worship, and that she will lead by example—teaching women how to walk in a close relationship with the Father.(1 Thes. 5:17; Acts 1:14a; Mark 1:35; Matt. 4:10; Titus 2:4-5).

Day 13Your pastor’s wife is a busy woman. Pray that she will make wise lifestyle choices in
order to protect her health, especially in the areas of exercise, eating moderately, and getting sufficient rest. Pray for times of relaxation and renewal to balance the stress of ministry. (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 9:27; 6:19-20; 10:13; Prov. 31:17)

Day 14Pray that your pastor’s wife will focus on the Word of God and walk by faith in the fear of the Lord—rather than the fear of man. Pray that she will not seek acceptance from others or compare herself with them, but that she will discover true freedom in her position in Christ. (Prov. 19:23; 31:30; Heb. 11:6; 2 Tim. 2:15; Ps. 119:45; Eph. 1:3-12).

Day 15Pray that she will cooperate with her husband in providing godly leadership in their home, not based on fear of what others will think, but according to scriptural truth. (Eph.6:4; Col. 3:20-21) (If your pastor’s wife does not have children, pray that God will give her many “spiritual children” as she shares the truth of God’s Word.)

Day 16Pray that her children will be taught of the Lord and experience His peace. Pray that the pressures of the ministry will not discourage or embitter them. (Isa. 54:13).

Day 17Pray that your pastor’s wife will be an example of contentment, thankful for God’s supply. Pray that her sufficiency will be in God’s abounding grace. (1 Tim. 6:6, 8).

Day 18Ask God to provide for the financial needs of your pastor and his family. Pray that your pastor’s wife will be a wise steward in caring for her family and using funds entrusted to her care. Pray that her heart will be turned away from selfish gain and worthless things.(Phil. 4:19; Heb. 13:5; 1 Tim. 6:11; Ps. 37:25; 119:36-37).

Day 19Pray that your pastor’s wife will use time wisely, seek God’s perspective for her schedule and priorities, and guard against unnecessary interruptions. Pray that she will seek and obey God’s will, rather than trying to meet everyone else’s expectations.(Eph. 5:15-16; Col. 4:5; Ps. 90:12; Prov. 31:27)

Day 20Ask God to remind her of the hope and refuge God offers her each day. Pray that she will be encouraged in God, knowing that He is a firm, secure anchor for her soul.(Ps. 9:9-10; Ps. 42:5; 71:14; Heb. 6:19a).

Day 21Pray that your pastor’s wife will be wise in her conversations, choosing her words carefully to encourage respect for her husband and the church, and to edify her sisters in the Lord. Pray that she will know how to respond to gossip, and that she will always speak with kindness and compassion. (Prov. 21:23; 31:26; 1 Pet. 3:10; Prov. 11:13)

Day 22Pray that she will serve others with God’s agape love and encourage them with His wisdom and compassion. (Gal. 5:13b; Phil. 2:3-4; Prov. 31:20)

Day 23Pray for spiritual unity between the pastor’s wife and others in the church—especially other staff members’ wives. Pray that the enemy will not be allowed to create divisions,strife, or misunderstanding in any way. (Rom. 14:19; 1 Cor. 12:25)

Day 24Pray that your pastor’s wife will be clothed with strength and dignity. Pray that she willhave a gentle and gracious spirit, and represent the Lord well as His ambassador.(Prov. 31:25a; 2 Cor. 5:20a; 1 Pet. 3:4).

Day 25Pray that your pastor’s wife will seek God for personal revival and revival in your church and community. Pray that she will quickly repent when she sins or strays from her Good Shepherd’s side, and that she learn the will and ways of God. (2 Chron. 7:14)

Day 26Pray that your pastor’s wife will think biblically—with the mind of Christ—and practice the expression of her faith with boldness in places of influence. (Ps. 119:46)

Day 27Pray that she will earnestly seek God’s will and be committed to instant and complete obedience—ready for God to work powerfully in and through her life and ministry.(1 Sam. 15:22; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Luke 9:23-24)

Day 28Pray that she will strive for personal excellence as a “Proverbs 31” woman, and will believe God to accomplish His will in her as a virtuous woman. (Prov. 31:10-31).

Day 29Pray that your pastor’s wife will be a woman of faith and passionate love for God, not giving in to worries, fears, or an uptight and anxious spirit. (1 John 4:18; Prov. 3:5-6)

Day 30Pray that the Word will be her counselor, and that she will serve the Lord with gladness,and encourage others to worship with a joyful, surrendered spirit. (Isa. 61:3; Ps. 119:24)

Day 31Pray that your pastor’s wife will be humble and authentic in her faith, not given to pride or hypocrisy. Pray that she will have pure motives and give God glory for every gain or Pvictory. (Mic. 6:8; Gal. 6:14; John 7:17-18; 1 Cor. 10:13)
Published by Revive Our Hearts © 2006.

As Was His Custom

Today in worship, we saw among other things that every Sabbath, Jesus "went to the synagogue," "as was his custom" (Luke 4:16).

If anyone had the right to think that he didn’t need to go to worship it was Jesus. Think how often he had to sit through subpar teaching. It would’ve been easy to say: “I don’t need to go to synagogue. I can commune better with the Father without the distraction of bad preaching and people I don't have a lot in common with."

Yet it was his custom. Weekly worship attendance is the fixed point for any life and any family that seeks to glorify God.

B.B. Warfield has some insightful words on Jesus' weekly discipline of corporate worship: If ever there was one who might justly plead that the common worship of the community had nothing to offer him it was the Lord Jesus Christ. But every Sabbath found him seated in his place among the worshipping people…. It is a reminder,” as Sir William Robertson Nicoll well insists, “of the truth which…we are apt to forget — that the holiest personal life can scarcely afford to dispense with stated forms of devotion, and that the regular public worship of the church, for all its local imperfections and dullness, is a divine provision for sustaining the individual soul.”“We cannot afford to be wiser than our Lord in this matter. If any one could have pled that his spiritual experience was so lofty that it did not require public worship, if any one might have felt that the consecration and communion of his personal life exempted him from what ordinary mortals needed, it was Jesus. But he made no such plea. Sabbath after Sabbath even he was found in the place of worship, side by side with God’s people…. Is it reasonable, then, that any of us should think we can safely afford to dispense with the pious custom of regular participation with the common worship of our locality? (Selected Shorter Writings, 1:421–422:).

All Things New

This past Wednesday both us in the youth house and those in the adult Bible study talked about the new heavens and the new earth. I came across this quote today and thought it went along with the subject we are thinking through together.

"The world into which we shall enter in the Parousia of Jesus Christ is therefore not another world; it is this world, this heaven, this earth; both, however, passed away and renewed. It is these forests, these fields, these cities, these streets, these people, that will be the scene of redemption. At present they are battlefields, full of the strife and sorrow of the not-yet-accomplished consummation; then they will be fields of victory, fields of harvest, where out of seed that was sown with tears the everlasting sheaves will be reaped and brought home" -Edward Thurneysen (Zwischen den Zeiten, 1931, p. 209).

Sermon for July 24: "Salvation: Only for the Poor, Captive, Blind, and Oppressed" (Luke 4:14-30)

Please be in prayer for our worship service as we consider this crucial and strategic passage on the sermon Jesus preaches in Nazareth, which comes off the heals of his successful victory over the devil in the wilderness.

What Luke wants us to see here is that until a sinner comes to terms with his/her sin condition, he/she isn't ready to respond rightly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, if truth be known, we are all poor, captive, blind, and oppressed due to the guilt and corruption of sin.

But in coming to terms with this, we see the glory and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who comes to liberate us through his life, death, and resurrection from the grave. His victory becomes our record, by repentance and faith.

A Thought on Living Life Not For God

In the class I was teaching today, one of the students shared his frustration that he and his wife have experienced in seeking to evangelize a young lady who is prospering in her job and life although she doesn't love or walk with God.

In essence, because she is so comfortable and successful, she sees no need for God.

This situation reminded me of a statement once made by David Powlison that I've never forgotten. The warning is perceptive and sobering: Something bad gets last say when whatever you live for is not God (David Powlison).

A Thought on Christianity

“Christianity if false is of no importance and if true of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important (C.S. Lewis).

The Evidences of Regeneration (the New Birth)

Jesus told the Pharisee named Nicodemus, that unless one is born again he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God (John 3:1-8). To be born again is to be "regenerated" (Titus 3:5). We must be made new in order for us to abide in the presence of a holy God. This is more than a mere "decision," "asking Jesus into your heart," or "praying the sinner's prayer." The new birth is radical in its orientation, affecting every aspect of our being.

To demonstrate the comprehensiveness of regeneration (or the new birth), John Piper helpfully gleans from 1 John to demonstrate how radical in nature regeneration really is.

Regeneration’s Evidences from 1 John— :

1st, Those who are born of God keep His commandments: By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; (1 John 2:3-4 NAU) The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:24 NAU)

2nd, Those who are born of God walk as Christ walked. but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. (1 John 2:5-6 NAU)

3rd, Those who are born of God don't hate other believers, but love them. The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. (1 John 2:9 NAU) We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. (1 John 3:14 NAU) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8 ESV)

4th, Those who are born of God don't love the world. Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15 NAU)

5th, Those who are born of God confess the Son and receive (have) Him. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. (1 John 2:23 NAU) Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (1 John 4:15 NAU) He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. (1 John 5:12 NAU).

6th, Those who are born of God practice righteousness. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. (1 John 2:29 ESV)

7th, Those who are born of God don't make a practice of sinning. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. (1 John 3:6 NAU) No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:9-10 ESV) We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18 ESV)

8th, Those who are born of God possess the Spirit of God. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:24 NAU) By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. (1 John 4:13 NAU)

9th, Those who are born of God listen submissively to the apostolic word. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:6 NAU)

10th, Those who are born of God believe that Jesus is the Christ. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (1 John 5:1 ESV)

11th, Those who are born of God overcome the world. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. (1 John 5:4 ESV)(J Piper, Finally Alive, 125-128)

But Now

I had the blessed opportunity today to hear the remarkable testimonies of God's saving grace in Jesus Christ of some godly people going through our church's new members class. In one of the testimonies,the person told me of her difficult childhood and in her words, "but God" saved her.

Her "but God" moment strongly reminded of the words of Martyn Lloyd Jones who suggested one way we can test whether or not we are a true Christian and can strengthen ourselves if we are:

When the devil attacks you and suggests to you that you are not a Christian and that you have never been a Christian because of what is still in your heart or because of what you are still doing or because of something you once did—when he comes and thus accuses you, what do you say to him? Do you agree with him? Or do you say to him: “Yes, that was true, but now . . .”? Do you hold up these words against him? Or when, perhaps, you feel condemned as you read the Scripture . . . and as you feel that you are undone, do you remain lying on the ground in hopelessness, or do you lift up your head and, “But now? Can you say those words? Can you say, “Once I was blind, but now I see? Once I was lost, but now I am found?

31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor

© Revive Our Hearts. Used with permission. Take the 31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor Challenge
Brothers, pray for us(1 Thess 5:25 ESV).

“Let the thought sink deep into the heart of every church, that their minister will be such a minister as their prayers make him. . . . How perilous is the condition of that minister . . . whose heart is not encouraged, whose hands are not strengthened, and who is not upheld by the prayers of his people! . . .

It is at a fearful expense that ministers are ever allowed to enter the pulpit without being preceded, accompanied, and followed by the earnest prayers of the churches. It is no marvel that the pulpit is so powerless, and ministers so often disheartened when there are so few to hold up their hands. . . . When the churches cease to pray for ministers, ministers will no longer be a blessing to the churches.
Gardiner Spring (1785-1873)

There is no greater gift you can give your pastor and the spiritual leaders of your church than to pray for them. Pastors cannot win the battle alone; they need committed intercessors to lift them up in fervent, specific prayer. Imagine how the power of God might be released in our churches if we were to pray faithfully for our pastors.

Pastors are human—they face the same challenges that their people do, with some additional ones! They grow tired in ministry, are tempted to sin, and may find it difficult to balance their many roles and responsibilities. They need the encouragement and support of those they lead.

Prayer for your pastor is crucial to the spiritual health of your pastor, his family, and your church. God will reward your efforts to cover him in prayer.
If you want to encourage your spiritual leaders (and their wives!) let them know you are praying for them. Ask them periodically for any specific prayer requests and assure them you will pray accordingly. Use the following prayer guide with accompanying scriptures, to suggest practical ways to pray for those who provide spiritual leadership for the flock.

31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor
Day 1
Pray that your pastor will love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. Pray that
God’s Spirit will work in his heart in power and that he will value and follow biblical priorities. (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 6:33)
Day 2
Pray that your pastor will cultivate strong character and uncompromising integrity. Pray
that his testimony will be genuine, and that he will never do anything that he would need to hide from others. (1 Tim. 1:5, 3:7; Eph. 6:10-12)
Day 3
Pray for his personal walk with God—that his soul and spirit will be nourished
and strengthened in his quiet time with God, beyond his sermon preparation. Pray that he will spend more time in the Word of God than reading Christian books and articles. (Mark 1:35; 2 Tim. 2:15-16)
Day 4
Pray that your pastor will counsel and teach with discernment through the wise use of
Scripture and faith in God’s power to work. Pray that he will be protected from the effects of sinful or negative attitudes that he encounters as he counsels (Mal. 2:7; James 1:5-6; John 17:15).
Day 5
Ask God to protect your pastor’s marriage and keep it strong as a model of Christ’s
relationship with the Church. Pray that your pastor will tenderly cherish and lead his wife, and that she will respect and encourage her husband, submitting to his leadership. (Eph. 5:23-33) (If your pastor is not married, pray for his relationships with loved ones and those who are close to him.)
Day 6
Pray that God will protect your pastor’s wife from bitterness when her husband is
criticized. Pray that her prayer and devotional life will be consistent, and that she will guard her mind and heart. (Heb. 12:15; Prov. 4:23)
Day 7
Pray for your pastor’s children, and especially that the pressures of the ministry will not
discourage or embitter them. Pray that your pastor will provide godly leadership in the home, not based on fear of what others will think, but according to scriptural truth. (Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:20-21) (If your pastor does not have children, pray that God will give him many “spiritual children” as he shares the Gospel.)
Day 8
Ask God to protect your pastor from the evil plots of Satan. Pray that he will not be
corrupted as he rubs shoulders with the world in the course of ministry. (John 17:15; Is. 54:17; 2 Cor. 2:11; 1 Pet. 3:12; Ps. 9:9-10, 91:9-11)
© Revive Our Hearts. Used with permission. Take the 31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor Challenge
http://www.ReviveOurHearts.com
Info@ReviveOurHearts.com
Day 9
Pray that God will build a hedge of protection around your pastor’s marriage, and that he and his wife will be aware of the potential for any improper relationships. Pray that their family time will be protected. (Ezek. 22:30a; 2 Cor. 10:4-5; Matt. 19:6)
Day 10
Pray that your pastor will use discernment in use of e-mails, the Internet, and the media.
Ask God to guard his heart concerning the use of free time. Pray that he will be morally pure and that he will wear the armor of God so that he will not fall into sexual temptation. (Rom. 13:14; 1 Pet. 1:16; Eph. 6:10-18; 2 Cor. 10:4)
Day 11
Pray that God will bring godly friends and encouragers to your pastor and his family, to
strengthen them for the ministry and provide meaningful fellowship and times of rest. (Phil. 2:19-25)
Day 12
Pray that your pastor will be humble and authentic in his faith, not given to pride or
hypocrisy. Pray that he will have pure motives and give God glory for every gain or victory. (Micah 6:8; Gal. 6:14; John 7:17-18; 1 Cor. 10:13)
Day 13
Pray that your pastor will make wise lifestyle choices in order to protect his health,
especially in the areas of exercise, eating moderately, and getting sufficient rest. Pray for times of relaxation and renewal to balance the stress of ministry. (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 9:27, 10:13, 6:19-20; James 3:1-2)
Day 14
Pray that your pastor will focus on the Word of God and walk in the fear of the Lord—
rather than fear of man—as he prepares his messages. Pray that he will seek to please God rather than men, and pursue holiness rather than the praise of men. (Acts 6:4; Prov. 19:23; 2 Tim. 2:15; Heb. 11:6; 2 Tim. 4:1-2)
Day 15
Praise God for your pastor’s leadership and pray that he will make godly decisions. Pray
that he will lead with a shepherd’s heart, and that he will always speak the truth in love. (1 Kings 3:9; 1 Pet. 5:2; Rom. 12:6-8; Jer. 3:15)
Day 16
Pray that your pastor will be courageous in the pulpit in proclaiming Christ, and
confident in his use of the Word of God. Ask God to help him preach with insight, transparency and humility. (Col. 1:28, 4:3a; Eph. 6:19)
Day 17
Pray that your pastor will be a “Great Commission man”—committed to personal
evangelism and the equipping of the saints to seek the lost. Pray that he will have a heart to develop a thriving missions program in his church. (Rom. 10:15; Matt. 28:19-20; Luke 19:10)
Day 18
Pray that your pastor will be a man of prayer and worship, and that he will lead by
example—teaching the congregation how to walk in a close relationship with the Father. (1 Thess. 5:17; Acts 1:14a; Matt. 4:10; Mark 1:35; Luke 22:46)
Day 19
Pray that your pastor will use wise time management, and that he will seek God’s
perspective for his schedule, guarding his time against unnecessary interruptions. (Eph. 5:15-16; Col. 4:5; Ps. 90:12; John 9:4)
Day 20
Pray for a fresh divine anointing on your pastor’s ministry. Pray that God’s working will
be powerfully evident both in his personal life and the spiritual life of the congregation. (1 Cor. 9:27; 2 Tim. 1:7; Rom. 15:18-19a)
Day 21
Pray that your pastor will not give in to discouragement, but will deal with inevitable
criticism and conflict by committing himself into the hands of God, who judges righteously. (1Pet. 2:23)
Day 22
Pray that your pastor will practice servant leadership, edifying the congregation with
wisdom and serving with God’s “agape” love. (Gal. 5:13b; Eph. 6:7; Mark 10:43b-45, 9:23-24; John 13:5-9; Phil. 2:3-4)
Day 23
Pray for spiritual unity in the church staff and among the spiritual leadership of the
church (elders, deacons, etc.). Pray that the enemy will not be allowed to create divisions, strife, or misunderstanding among the church leaders. (Rom. 14:19; 1 Cor. 12:25)
Day 24
Pray that God will give your pastor a clear, biblical vision of what your church can be
and should be for His glory, and that he will communicate that vision clearly and confidently to the church. (Prov. 29:18; John 15:16, 17:17; 2 Tim. 3:5; Mal. 3:11)
Day 25
Pray that your pastor will seek God for personal revival, and revival in your church and
community. (2 Chron. 7:14; Ps. 69:32)
Day 26
Pray that your pastor will think biblically, with the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:16; Col. 2:6-
8; Eph. 4:17)
Day 27
Pray that he will earnestly seek God’s will and be committed to instant and complete
obedience—ready for God to work powerfully in and through his ministry. (2 Cor. 10:3-5; Luke 9:23-24)
Day 28
Pray that he will strive for personal excellence and will believe God for all He wants to
do in the congregation. (2 Pet. 1:3; Col. 3:23-24)
Day 29
Pray that your pastor will be a man of faith and passionate love for God, not giving in to
worries, fears, or an uptight and anxious spirit. (1 John 4:18; Prov. 3:5-6)
Day 30
Ask God to provide for the financial needs of your pastor and his family. Pray that he will
be a wise steward of both personal finances and church funds. (Phil. 4:19; Heb. 13:5; 1 Tim. 6:11; Ps. 37:25)
Day 31
Ask God to heal any hurts that your pastor has suffered in the ministry. Pray that he will
serve the Lord with gladness, and encourage the congregation to worship God with a joyful, surrendered spirit. (Isa. 61:3)

A Prayer to Start the Week: A Prayer about Christians Always Coming to Jesus

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 1 Pet 2:4-6

Heavenly Father, I used to think “coming to Jesus” was a phrase whose meaning was exhausted when we first trust your Son to be our Savior. For sure, that’s the most essential “come-to-Jesus-meeting” we’ll ever have. There’s no greater moment in our lives than when we first trust Jesus plus nothing for our salvation.

But it’s clear to me now that the whole Christian life is about coming to Jesus. No time in our lives is to be called “after I came to Jesus.” We need Jesus this day just as much as the first day. In fact, we’ll never exhaust our need for what Jesus alone can give and we’ll forever discover more reasons to praise and adore him.

Indeed, Lord Jesus, you are the life-giving living Stone for your beloved people; the precious cornerstone of the living temple, called the Body of Christ; the Rock of refuge that’s higher than I am (Psalm 61); the Rock from which God gave water in the wilderness in Moses’ day (1 Cor. 10:1-4); the Honey-ed Rock of whom Asaph spoke (Psalm 81:16); Daniel’s stone, cut from a mountain by the hands of God, which will become an everlasting kingdom of redemption and restoration (Daniel 2:36-45). If we’re not coming to you, where are we going?

Lord Jesus, we exalt you, we boast in you, we delight in you. The more precious you become to us, the more we watch our shame melt away. The more we see you for you really are, the more we see all other currencies as “fool’s gold.” The more we come to you, the more we realize that it’s you who are always coming to us first, always.

We come to you right now—we come bringing our emptiness to the fountain of your fullness. We bring our brokenness to the storehouse of your kindness. We bring our weakness in the great assurance of your endless mercies. We come to you anticipating gospel-manna and living water more-than-sufficient for the demands of this day. Free us to be a people to the praise and glory of your grace all day long. So very Amen we pray, in your precious and shame-freeing name (Scotty Smith).

Why the Church Can Be a Dangerous Place

One of the reasons I require a class on the Gospel before I am open to baptizing a child or young person is that I want to make sure, as the pastor/shepherd of a local church, that the child clearly understands and professes faith in the Gospel. Of course, the young person's parents also need to bear witness that the child bears the fruit of "new life." But on my part, one of the most dangerous things I can do is to baptize someone who has not shown they understand the Gospel. The deadly consequence of this, among other things, is that it could lead to false security.

In this regard, hear the sobering words of Martyn Lloyd Jones:

There is a sense in which it is true to say that the church is a very much more dangerous place than the world for the unbeliever….The church has been far too anxious to put people into church membership…

Church membership, unless it is based upon a true and definite belief in and experience of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can be exceedingly dangerous and can even be the cause of damning a soul (a sermon on John 6:66, April 23, 1933 in D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years: 1899-1939 by Iain Murray, 213).

Do You Have a List of Names?

I have two lists of names in my prayers, those for whose conversion I pray and those for whose conversion I give thanks. The little trickle of transferences from List A to List B is a great comfort (C.S. Lewis, Letter to Dom Bede Griffiths, June 27, 1949).

Mt Sinai Precedes Mt. Calvary

Earlier in the week, I referred to a sermon preached by Charles H. Spurgeon on the "new birth."

I wanted today to mention another sermon by Spurgeon, preached in 1883 that I think reveals a problem in many contemporary evangelistic efforts today. That is, until a person understands, embraces, and believes the "bad news" that we are condemned and guilty before a holy God, he/she will never understand and embrace the "good news" of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hear it better from Spurgeon: In the beginning, the preacher's business is not to convert men, but the very reverse. It is idle to attempt to heal those who are not wounded, to attempt to clothe those who have never been stripped, and to make those rich who have never realized their poverty (The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 44, p. 421).

In other words, a person has to be brought to Mt. Sinai before he/she can be brought to Mt. Calvary. Sinai represents the law that condemns us as law breakers. This is the picture of the Prodigal Son who was brought to know "that he was a sinner, that his very nature was vile and filthy."

Indeed, to add to this thought, Martyn Lloyd Jones asserts until you experience that, you know nothing; that is the first thing a man or woman can ever really "know." What is more, unless you have experienced that, unless you have known that, you are not a Christian, you do not believe in Christ as your personal Saviour. Until you realize that, you cannot possibly have felt the need of Christ; you may have felt the need of help and advice and comfort, but until you awake to the face that your nature itself is evil, until you realize that your trouble is not that you do this and that which is wrong, but that you yourself are wrong, and that your whole nature is wrong, until you realize that, you will never have felt the need of a Savior. Christ cannot help or advise or comfort you until He has first of all saved you, until He has changed your nature. Oh, my friends, have you yet felt this? God have mercy upon you if you haven't. You need not be a rotter or a scamp to be a sinner. It makes no difference who you are or what you are, it makes no difference how good you may appear to be or how much good work you may do. You may have been inside the church all your life and actively engaged in its work, but still I say that unless you have at some time or other felt that your nature itself is sinful, that you are..."dead in sins", then you have never known Jesus Christ as a Saviour, and if you do not know Him as a Saviour you do not know Him at all (Sermon on Luke 15, preached June 19, 1927; cited in D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939, by Iain Murray, p. 208-09).

Sermon for July 17: “The Son of God: Tempted and Tried ‘For Us’” (Luke 4:1-13)

Please be in prayer for our service Sunday as we consider the temptations of Jesus. The immediate result of Jesus' reception of the Spirit (3:22) was that he was sent into the desert to face on his own the attacks of the devil.

Keep in mind, Luke has traced Jesus' lineage back to Adam (3:38). In other words, the wilderness temptations are depicted as a rerun of the Garden. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into this wilderness. In that sense, Jesus does not simply suffer temptation, he marches into temptation. He frontally attacks it. As one 16th century writer asserts: He appears in the wilderness as a divine champion; entering into enemy occupied territory under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

It is nothing short than a declaration of war; an attack on one who claims to be the ruler of the world. Rather than overcome Jesus, Satan is defeated and dismissed by his conqueror.

This is the first step in binding the Strong Man in order that Jesus may spoil him of his goods. It is a foreshadow of what Christ came to do.

This isn’t the devil coming to Jesus. It’s the King coming into the enemy occupied territory ready to do battle with the evil one (1 Jn 3:8). Its an act of advancement on the kingdom of darkness.

So, the temptations aren't simply a narrative showing us how to overcome temptation. That's a secondary application, to be sure. These temptations are "one of a kind." Our covenant representative, Jesus Christ, is coming to crush the serpent's head and deliver a people from the serpent's dominion.

One of the issues that arises in the discussion of Jesus' temptations is whether Jesus could have really sinned. I will not address that issue in the sermon but I would like to discuss it here a moment.

There are two views in regards to this question: (a) Impeccability of Christ, i.e. Jesus was not able to sin; (b) Peccability of Christ, i.e. in order for Jesus’ temptations to have been real, it must have been possible for Jesus to sin, even though he did not sin.

Its a tough issue, but here are the biblical givens:
(1) Christ never actually sinned.
(2) Jesus was tempted & they were real temptations (Luke 4:2; Heb 4:15).
(3) Scripture says that God cannot be tempted with evil (James 1:13).

Here we are encountering one of the great mysteries of the faith, Jesus’ two natures. However, it is important to assert that while he could have sinned, it was certain that he would not. There were genuine struggles and temptations, but the outcome was always certain.

I think writer Wayne Grudem offers some convincing insight to this discussion:

A. If Jesus’ human nature had existed by itself, independent of his divine nature, then it would have been a human nature just like that which God gave Adam & Eve. It would have been free from sin but nevertheless able to sin.
B. However, Jesus’ human nature never existed apart from union with his divine nature. From the moment of his conception, he existed as truly God and truly man as well. Both his human and divine natures existed united in one person.
C. Although there were some things that Jesus experienced in his human nature alone and were not experienced in his divine nature, nevertheless, an act of sin would have been a moral act that would have apparently involved the whole person of Christ. Hence, if he had sinned, it would have involved both his human and divine natures.
D. However if Jesus as a person sinned, involving both his human and divine natures in sin, then God himself would have sinned, and he would have ceased to be God. That is impossible because of the infinite holiness of God’s nature.
E. Hence, it seems that we must conclude that it was not possible for Jesus to have sinned. The union of his natures in one person prevented it.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon on the "New Heart"

This morning I came across an old research paper I wrote in seminary on the 19th century Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon's view of "regeneration." I wanted to post this so that we could see an example of just how doctrinal our Baptist forefathers were with regard to our human plight and God's sovereignty and mercy to meet that plight.

For example, in 1858, Spurgeon preaching from Ezekiel 36 on “The New Heart” begins his message on the importance of the promise from God that he will give a new heart. He argues, God does not promise to us that he will improve our nature . . . Human nature is too far gone ever to be mended . . .

To drive this assertion home he argues, The nature that can feed on the garbage of sin, and devour the carrion of iniquity, is not the nature that ever can sing the praises of God and rejoice in his holy name. The raven yonder has been feeding on the most loathsome food, do you expect that she shall have all the kindliness of the dove . . . No; there must be a change.

With this idea in mind, Spurgeon expounds on humankind's fallen nature with candid imagery. He states, The very beasts are better than man, for man has all the worst attributes of the beasts and none of their best. He has the fierceness of the lion without its nobility; he has the stubbornness of an ass without is patience; he has all the devouring gluttony of the wolf, without the wisdom which bids it avoid the trap.

Spurgeon continues on this thought with his conviction that the worst aspect of man’s depravity is his pride. He asserts, It is a wild, strange thing to think that man should be proud, when he has nothing to be proud of. A living, animated lump of clay—defiled and filthy, a living hell, and yet proud.

In typical fashion, Spurgeon, having established the hopelessness of the human condition, expounds on the futility of man’s own ability to change. He states, A man trying to improve human nature is like trying to change the position of a weathercock, by turning it round to the east when the wind is blowing west; he has but to take his hand off and it will be back again to its place.

Therefore, man’s only hope is God who provides, not reformation, but renovation by giving a new heart. This regenerating work of God is his from first to last.

Furthermore, it is by God’s sovereign initiative because no unregenerate man cries for a new heart. Man revolts against his Maker and his Saviour; but where God determines to save, save he will. God will have the sinner, if he designs to have him. God never was thwarted yet in any one of his purposes.

When I think about Spurgeon's sermon, it reminds me a great deal of Ephesians 1:3-14, where 3 times Paul says that God saves us, "to the praise of his glorious grace" (Eph 1:6, 12, 14).

Clothed in Garments Provided by the LORD God

I'm studying Genesis 3:14-24 this week in order to prepare for Sunday evening's message. Of course, one of the remarkable verses in the entire Bible is found in that passage-Genesis 3:21, where the LORD God, in response to the first couple's sin, shame, and nakedness (which I believe to be the loss of original righteousness)made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Of course, for there to be garments of skins, there had to be animals that had been sacrificed. Listen to what Marcus Dods, the 19th century Scottish preacher/theologian has to say about God's action:
The clothing which God provides was in itself different from what man had thought of. Adam took leaves from an inanimate, unfeeling tree; God deprived an animal of life, that the shame of His creature might be relieved. This was the last thing Adam would have thought of doing. To us life is cheap and death familiar, but Adam recognized death as the punishment of sin. Death was to early man a sign of God’s anger. And he had to learn that sin could be covered not by bunch of leaves snatched from a bush as he passed by…but only by pain and blood. Sin cannot be atoned for by any mechanical action nor without expenditure of feeling. Suffering must ever follow wrongdoing. From the first sin to the last, the track of the sinner is marked with blood….It was made apparent that sin was a real and deep evil, and that by no easy and cheap process could the sinner be restored….Men have found that their sin reaches beyond their own life and person, that it inflicts injury and involves disturbance and distress, that it changes utterly our relation to life and to God, and that we cannot rise above its consequences save by the intervention of God Himself, by an intervention which tells us of the sorrow He suffers on our account (The Book of Genesis, 24-25).

A Prayer for Spiritual Revitalization

I don't know about you, but often when I'm in need of spiritual revitalization, the ironic thing is that I feel too weak to agonize and persevere in prayer for it. That's why, in those dry and weak times, I like to turn to prayers offered by others that communicate the sentiments, desires, and longings of my heart.

I came across this prayer C. John Miller prays at the end of an article he wrote called "Prayer and Evangelism." This prayer could be a good place to start if you are in need of spiritual refreshing.

Heavenly Father, we really don't know much about praying. We're good at talking. We're good at gossiping. We're not good at praising, and we're not very good at witnessing. We want to be honest, and we want to have You deal with us where we really are. We also have many lusts and ambitions. And we are often fools for our own sakes. But we want to be different. We want to get rid of this. We want to become fools for Christ's sake. We ask you for mercy. We are not talking about someone else; we're talking about ourselves. We need to have Your compassion over us. We ask You to pity us with Your fatherly heart and eye and send Your Spirit to cleanse us and to give us a new joy, a new fellowship with You, a new eye to see that You are our Father, a new glorying in Christ, a new glorying in You, a new freedom in the Spirit, a new setting aside of anxieties, a deep awareness that there is nothing You are not sovereign over. We pray Father, that You would bring us the comfort of knowing we are wonderfully loved by our God, that we might in wonder and trembling joy take the pardon of our God, the pardon for crimes of deepest dye, a pardon bought with Jesus' blood.
Lord, give us the gift of the Spirit to pray. Revive us, change us, make us different: that we might forgive our enemies, and bless them, that we might love our friends, that we might be tender to those nearest us, that we might be the vehicles of Your ministry in our age. Open our eyes to see evangelistic opportunities. May we have a heart to see, a mind to see; may we love people. May we realize that John 3:16 is applicable wherever we are, that men are under Your wrath and Your curse, but You also offer them a beautiful redemption in Jesus Christ. Redemption brings life and not death. Cause us, then, to proclaim the realities of this new life. Awaken us to the peril of men; help us to see that they are lost, that they are dying without Christ. When they go to hell, that door shuts; it will never be reopened. Lord, give us the knowledge of Your truth. Cause us to live, and then, Lord, as we go forward, daily teach us to pray. Daily teach us to love and to reach out....Amen (C. John Miller).

Jesus and the Old Testament Sacrifices

Alec Motyer in an article, "Preaching From the Old Testament" imagines a conversation between a typical Old Testament believer and his son. The believer has been to the altar of God with his sin offering, and has come home.
His son asks, "Where have you been?"
"I've been to the tabernacle."
"What did you do?"
"I brought a sin offering."
"What did you do with it?"
"I laid my hand on the head of the beast."
"Why did you do that?"
"Because that is the way that you appoint a substitute."
"What did you do then?"
"I plunged the knife into it and the blood was caught by the priest."
"Why?"
"It is symbolic of a life laid down in payment for my sin."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that God has accepted the animal in my place and my sins have been forgiven."
"How do you know that your sins have been forgiven?"
"Because that is what the Lord has promised."

Motyer argues, rightly I believe, that this imaginary conversation accurately represents Old Testament thought regarding salvation. The people of the Old Covenant, like the people of the New Covenant (Us), were justified by faith, resting on the promises of God as those promises were expressed to them.

Now, keep in mind, when they offered sacrifices they probably weren't looking forward, as if saying to themselves, "This is a picture or shadow of the true; the perfect sacrifice is yet to come." That is, God's promises were given to them in relation to the sacrifices they were told to offer (Lev 1:4; 4:20, 26, 31, 35).

However, in the course of time, a prophet named Isaiah was inspired by God to see that ultimately only a Person could fully substitute for persons (Isa 52:13-53:12)--because only a person brings to the transaction a consenting will, matching the defiled will (Isa 53:7-9; Heb 10:5-10).

Consequently, when the Lord Jesus offered the one sacrifice for sins for ever (Heb 10:12), he was bringing the reality of the sacrifices to their full reality.

Christ's Abiding Presence in Grief

I asked Whitney, my wife, permission to post something she wrote this week to encourage a friend she has been counseling. Hope it encourages you as it did me:


I have a friend who has experienced the recent estrangement brought about by her sibling's rebellion and rejection of the Gospel. I can only hope and pray alongside my friend that their relationship is one day mended, that her sibling is made aware of how great God is, and that that common bond can bring them together. In the fallen world we live in, it is not uncommon for us to experience the heartbreak that comes from loved ones who don't know Christ or who have abandoned us or have not been the loving and caring mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers that they were created to be.
But this is how great God is: even in our own broken relationships God teaches us something. When Jesus is talking to his disciples about the cost of discipleship, he says, "Anyone who loves his father of mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me..." (Mat. 10: 37-38). And, then later:" Someone told him, 'Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.' He replied to him, 'Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?' Pointing to his disciples, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother'" (Mat. 12:46-49).
My friend's ordeal reminds her that God has sacrificed even more than she. Following Christ means that we cannot seek our salvation, our identity, or our security in any relationship other than our relationship with God through Jesus Christ! This news ought to make us rejoice and be thankful and wonder with the hymnist, "Lord, why was I a guest?"
I do not mean to be critical of the pain and grief that estrangement brings. While I may not be able to understand or grieve alongside my friend perfectly, I do know that our God can. Jesus experienced every kind of temptation and suffered imaginably greater than any suffering we ever will. Sometimes our grief feels so unbearable that we cannot even find the words to express it. And, yet, our God is sovereign and knows our troubles. Romans 8:26 says, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."
I think we experience this grief so deeply because we know what it means to be estranged from God, and his family. Right before that verse encouraging us about our intercessor, Paul says, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:22-23). We understand not only the joy of being welcomed into the family of God as we experience justification, but also we anxiously await our arrival in God's presence as we go about our sanctification.
While we may never experience family unity or family relationships in a perfect way here on earth, Proverbs 18:24 says that "there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother:" Christ, our perfect brother who makes it possible for us to called "sons of God" (1 John 3:1). And, even we, saved though we are, are anticipating a day when Jesus will say "Here is my brother and sister!" to us when we greet Him for eternity.

12 Ways to Glorify God at Work

As we begin our work week, I think these words by Josh Etter would be helpful to you as you enter your work place as an ambassador for Christ.

How might we glorify God at work? This list is not exhaustive, but here's at least 12 ways —
1. Believe that all legitimate work is holy or unholy before God based on our faith, not the nature of the work itself. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23).

2. Be just and honest in all your dealings with money.A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight (Proverbs 11:1).

3. Be prayerfully dependent upon God, pouring contempt on self-sufficiency.
Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain (Psalms 127:1).

4. Use the wages earned by your work to provide for and bless others. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1Timothy 5:8). Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need (Ephesians 4:28).

5. Grow in your skill-set, work hard, and strive for excellence.Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men (Proverbs 22:29).In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty (Proverbs 14:23). In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

6. Exemplify love for your neighbor in how you interact with your colleagues.Let all that you do be done in love (1 Corinthians 16:14).

7. Plan ahead and sincerely preface future tasks with "if God wills."Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house (Proverbs 24:27). Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that" (James 4:13-15).

8. Speak the gospel to your colleagues.Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).

9. Work as unto the Lord and as unto men. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:23-24).Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust (1 Peter 2:18 ).

10. Focus on the work you've been given. Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty (Proverbs 28:19).

11. Speak words of grace. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29).

12. Rest in your justification by faith alone in Christ alone.Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16).

That We Might Become Sons of God

We looked at “Christ, the ‘well pleasing’ Substitute” today in our sermon. There is only one in whom it has ever been said by the Father: "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased (Luke 3:22).

Did you get that? Only one-and its not you or me. Jesus is the well pleasing Son and if we want to be well pleasing to the Father, we must be in Christ. That can only happen by repentant faith.

Indeed, by faith, we receive the same benediction Jesus received at his baptism. That is, we become "welling-pleasing" sons and daughters of God by Christ's work of redemption.

Another way to think about it: Christ the Son of God became a son of Adam that we sons of Adam might become sons of God.

This can only be achieved by Jesus' obedience, even to the point of death, the death of the Cross.

How can this reality not lead us to worship and adoration?

A Thought on Humility

A sign you're growing in grace: Given the choice, you'd rather God use you anonymously than friends celebrate you publicly (Scotty Smith).

Sermon for July 10: "Jesus Our ‘Well Pleasing’ Substitute” (Luke 3:22-38)

Please be in prayer for our worship service Sunday as we consider the glorious truth of Jesus, the Son of God, who descends to us "for us and our salvation."

In this section Luke is reaffirming the description of Jesus given in 1:31-35; 2:11. To Mary, Gabriel said 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the LORD God will give to him the throne of his father David. 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end. 34 and Mary said to the angel, “How will be this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

Later in Luke's narrative, the angel appeared to the shepherds in the field: 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

For the rest of the Gospel of Luke, Dr. Luke will take great pains to demonstrate that Christ our Lord will save a people via substitution.

In our passage for Sunday, Luke shows this in 2 ways: 1st, by Jesus' baptism where he comes in solidarity with sinners (3:21-22); 2nd, by Jesus' genealogy where he is traced back to Adam, "the Son of God" (3:23-38).

Scripture is Sufficient

This articles was posted yesterday through the Baptist Press and is an important reminder that our faith as Christians is based on Scripture. Wrongly our culture seeks sign after sign of the proof of Christianity outside of the Scriptures. The more we read and study and hear biblical preaching from Scripture the more we come to know Christ because Scripture is the means that God has given for us to know him.

FIRST-PERSON: Yes, heaven is for real, but . . .

By Greg Thornbury

Jul 7, 2011

JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past couple of months, someone has likely told you about the most recent evangelical publishing phenomenon: "Heaven is for Real." Authored by Todd Burpo, a pastor from Nebraska, and writer Lynn Vincent, the book tells the story of a four-year old boy who claims to have been near death, gone to heaven, and come back to tell his story.

The boy, Colton, was rushed to the hospital with a burst appendix -- a scenario to which I can relate since I went to the hospital at age four under exactly the same circumstances. But while I woke up wanting to talk to my Grandpa Taylor about Evel Knievel, Colton came back saying that while he was in surgery, he went to heaven and had experiences with various biblical figures and yes, Jesus Himself.

Initially, Colton's stories about his time in heaven were met with caution by his parents, but the detail with which he described the events baffled Todd and Sonja, his father and mother. While Colton was only "there" in heaven for about three minutes, he purportedly: sat on Jesus' lap, heard about a coming battle with Satan at the end of the world, reported that Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father, realized that God is a Trinity of persons, and learned that no one grows old in heaven, among other things.

Thomas Nelson picked up the book produced from Colton's episodes. To say that it went gangbusters would be the publishing understatement of the decade. It had sold well over 1.5 million copies, prompting The New York Times to cover the story since the title had raced to the No. 1 position on its paperback nonfiction list. The phenomenon got so big it even caught the attention of Oprah. Boom.

When a book becomes that popular, it should expect criticism -- which Heaven is for Real has gotten. But I am not really interested in criticizing the boy, the book or even his experiences -- whatever they were. People have been reporting near-death experiences for as long as anybody can remember, and the subject has become fodder for academic research, beginning with psychiatrist Raymond Moody's Life After Life, first published in 1975.

What disturbs me are the reports I am hearing anecdotally from people about how Heaven is for Real is regarded as "powerful evidence" for biblical Christianity. One of my friends called me to say that he received a copy of the book from his in-laws as a gift for Father's Day as a way of helping him bolster his faith. His father-in-law has bought dozens and dozens of copies of the book and is using it as a kind of alternative apologetics book.

Aside from the fact that, as Bill Hybels once wisely pointed out, you don't lead with your best "weird God story" when you're trying to evangelize someone, I am more bothered by the high regard and sheer enthusiasm many well-intentioned lay evangelicals are affording to the book.

Nor am I embarrassed by the discussion of evidence for the afterlife, having written about it previously, and commending Dinesh D'Souza's fine book about the subject along the way.

What bothers me about the reception of Heaven is for Real is what it says about the relatively low view of the sufficiency of Scripture among evangelicals today. In other words, it's not good enough for us to hear about heaven from the holy apostles. No, we need a little boy sitting on Jesus' lap to tell us that instead. Then we will believe it. And that phenomenon ultimately bodes ill for everyone who really does love the Bible: pastors, teachers, parents, and yes, even children.

--30--

This column first appeared at the blog of BibleMesh.com. Greg Thornbury, is dean of the school of theology & missions, and professor of Christian thought & tradition at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. He also served as theological editor for BibleMesh.com and a senior fellow for KairosJournal.org.

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Seeing the Face of God

I'm reading the two-volume biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a man many consider the greatest preacher of the 20th century. Therefore, there will probably be several citations in the next few days from this great man of God. I shared one last night. Here is another:

If you have once seen the face of God, there is nothing else worth seeing...other things merely obscure the vision, therefore they must be swept away....If anything interferes with the worshipping of God it must be destroyed (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, 100).

Descend to Reascend

"In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still...down to the very roots and seabed of the Nature He has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the whole mass incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders. Or one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and old decay; then up again, back to colour and light, his lungs almost bursting, till suddenly he breaks surface again, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. He and it are both coloured now that they have come up into the light: down below, where it lay colourless in the dark, he lost his colour too." -C.S. Lewis, Miracles

The Christian Prejudice

I spoke to a friend tonight on the phone who is struggling with some people in his life who have, let's just say, a less than Christian Worldview. His struggle reminds me of a statement made by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in a speech he gave in 1925 (when he was only 25 yrs old himself). Here are LLoyd-Jones insightful words:

The business of preaching is to give us a new prejudice, in fact the only prejudice that counts--the Christian prejudice....If we do not start with the same prejudice, discussion is quite impossible, because virtually we shall be talking different languages. To a man who has the Christian prejudice all other prejudices are worse than useless, they spell damnation; to the man who possesses those other prejudices the Christian prejudice appears to be madness. Lunatics, as you know, generally think that all other people are mad (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939 by Iain Murray, 67-68).

Here's the issue with my friend. He has what Lloyd Jones calls a "Christian prejudice." Hence, the "lunatics" in his life think he is "mad." We shouldn't be surprised by this. They called Jesus a glutton and a drunkard. There is nothing new under the sun.

God Chooses the Foolish, the Weak, the Low, and the Despised

Here is an interesting post by Stephen Altrogge on how God does things so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor 1:29).

If Leonardo DiCaprio Got Saved

Permit me to dream for a moment. Imagine if Leonardo DiCaprio got saved. Then he could star in a Christian remake of the movie “Titanic”, and when he stood at the front of the boat and said, “I’m the king of the world!”, Rose would say, “No you’re not, Jesus is.” Then he would repent of sins right there on the Titanic and start an on-boat evangelistic ministry called “Big Boat, Bigger God”. Then, when he died at the end of the movie it wouldn’t be nearly as sad, because he would be in heaven.

Millions would probably see the movie, especially if it was in 3D, leading to a worldwide revival and the spread of the gospel. Maybe DiCaprio and Kirk Cameron would team up to make a couple of movies. Maybe Steven Spielberg would get saved through DiCaprio’s influence. Who knows.

Do you ever wonder why stuff like this doesn’t happen more often? Why don’t more celebrities and shakers and movers get saved? 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 gives us some insight into this:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
God doesn’t gravitate toward the people that the world gravitates toward. He gravitates toward the weak, the lowly, the ordinary, and the unimpressive. He calls those whom the world ignores. If God primarily saved rich, powerful, and beautiful people, those people might have some reason to boast before God. But God saves unimpressive, weak people, so that there might not be any boasting in his presence. And when God saves these people and uses them to spread the gospel, it demonstrates the power of God, not the power of the people.

D.A. Carson described the Corinthian church as, “…a low class operation with a few sophisticated exceptions.” I find that quote to be very encouraging, because it pretty much describes my church too. We are a low class church, with me at the head of the pack. Sure, we have a few exceptions. We have couple doctors, a few professors, and a few folks with lots of money. But not many. Our worship team is not overly impressive either. No one is going to think that they accidentally walked into a U2 concert when they come to our church. Our preaching isn’t anything to boast about either. We strive to do our best, but we’re not like Piper or Driscoll.

But God likes to work through ordinary, unimpressive people. God likes to use worship teams that occasionally train wreck and miss transitions. God likes to use ordinary preachers. God loves to use ordinary church members to do extraordinary things.

So I love my ordinary, low-class church. We’re just a bunch of weak people that love Jesus, and I love seeing God work through us. When we succeed as a church, it certainly won’t be because of our brilliance or influence. It will be because we serve a mighty God who does great things through weak people.

Is Prayer a Duty? Or, Is it More?

In his own unique way, John Piper argues that prayer may be a duty we have as Christians, but its more:

Is it true…that intentional, regular, disciplined, earnest, Christ-dependent, God-glorifying, joyful prayer is a duty...? You can call it that. It’s a duty the way it’s the duty of a scuba diver to put on his air tank before he goes under water. It’s a duty the way that pilots have to listen to air traffic controllers. It’s a duty the way that soldiers in combat have to clean their rifles and load their guns. It’s a duty the way that hungry people have to eat food. It’s a duty that first these people have to drink water. It’s a duty the way a deaf man has to put in his hearing aid. It’s a duty the way a diabetic has to take insulin. It’s a duty the way that Pooh-bear looks for honey. It’s a duty the way that pirates look for gold.

I hate the devil and the way that he’s killing some of you is by persuading you that it is legalistic to be regular in your prayers as you are in your eating and sleeping and using the internet. Do you not see what a sucker he’s making out of you? He’s laughing up his sleeve at how easy it is to deceive Christians about the importance of prayer. God has given us means of grace. If we do not use them to our fullest advantage, then our complaints against him will not stick. If we don’t eat, we’ll starve. If we don’t drink, we’ll get dehydrated. If we don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies. If we don’t breathe, we suffocate. And just as there are physical means of life, so there are spiritual means of grace, and prayer is one of them. You need it as much as you need to breathe. Is it your duty to breathe?”

On Our Nation's Birthday, Let's Honor our Forefathers but Glorify our God in Christ

The American experiment is 235 years old today. Our birthday as a country is July 4, 1776. Those who signed that monumental and historic statement of liberty knew they were putting their lives on the line knowing that Britain would see them as traitors.

David McCullough speaking at Hillsdale College (2005) made this observation about the Revolution: Keep in mind that when we were founded by those people in the late 18th cent, none of them had had any prior experience in either revolutions or nation-making. They were…winging it. And they were idealistic & they were young. We see their faces in the old paintings done later in their lives or looking at us from the money in our wallets & we see the awkward teeth & the powdered hair & we think of them as elder statesmen. But George Washington, when he took command of the continental army…in 1775, was 43 yrs old & he was the oldest of them. Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. John Adams was 40. Benjamin Rush – was 30 yrs old when he signed the Declaration. They were young people. They were feeling their way improvising, trying to do what would work. They had no money, no navy, no real army.

As most every American knows, the first part of the Declaration establishes the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, you could say in a real sense that Patriotism simply means love of country and calls for great sacrifices and courage to establish these rights. As Benjamin Rush said, his fellow signers knew they were signing their own “death warrants.”

One of the most famous speeches of the era was Patrick Henry’s Give Me liberty or Give me Death. The church was packed, windows open to allow more people to hear and when he finished, his colleagues like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington sat in awed silence.

In the speech Henry famously said: Gentleman many cry, peace, peace—but there is no peace. . . Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains & slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God—I know not what course others may take; but as for me give me liberty, or give me death.

To be sure, we in the free-church tradition are heirs to the sacrifice of our forefathers so that we may indeed enjoy the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So we are beholden to them for more ways than we could ever know.

Now there are two realities that I want us to consider today on our country’s birthday: First, Our forefathers’ actions demonstrate that human beings as the image of God were not created to be under man’s tyranny or any governmental structure. We were created ultimately as God’s servants though we do serve him by serving our country and fellow men.

Second, the one thing these men couldn’t do even in their sacrificial activity is offer true life, liberty, happiness, blessedness. Because the ultimate tyranny stems from being enslaved to sin, the flesh, and the devil.

To be sure, these men through their victory offer us in America the free opportunity to worship as we choose; yet, the true victory consists in entering the victory of Christ. That is, true liberty comes through death, the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, as we remember and honor those who have gone before us whom God has graciously used to procure and maintain our freedom, let’s glorify the one God used to achieve our ultimate and eschatological freedom.

So to take off on Henry’s speech: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, the glory of the Gospel is that, ironically, true liberty comes through death, the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 3:21-25).

5 Reasons Christians Should Be Patriotic

Thom Rainer, the president of LifeWay offers five reasons Christans should be patriotic. I thought this was an insightful post from him:

Perhaps my view is a bit biased. After all, my family includes many veterans who sacrificed much for their county. My uncle, Charles Spurgeon Keller, gave his life in World War II when he stepped on a landmine at age nineteen. My father, Sam Rainer, was likewise a World War II hero with a number of medals, including the Purple Heart.

The bias may be there, but I believe that Christians should be loyal to their country, that patriotism should be the default for those who follow Jesus. I know that God is always first, even over country. And I know that our own nation was founded in the bloody resistance against our home country at the time. Still, there are a number of reasons that Christians should be patriotic. Allow me to share five of those.

The Five Reasons

My list is not exhaustive. But perhaps it can be a beginning point when we begin to think of our lives as both citizens of our country and citizens of the Kingdom of God.

1. God uses the government for His good (Romans 13:4). The government is often God’s instrument for carrying out His purpose. We are to subject ourselves to that government out of obedience and deference to God (see all of Romans 13:1-6).

2. We should have an attitude of gratitude. We are commanded in Scripture to rejoice in all things (Philippians 4:4). We have so much for which to be thankful, and many of our blessings come from living in this great nation. Though America is not perfect, we have more to celebrate than to bemoan.

3. We should understand the issue of sacrifice better than anyone. Christianity is the one true faith. It is the only belief system where God dies for the sins of others. Christ’s death on the cross appeased the wrath of God. It provided forgiveness to a fallen people. The sacrificial death of Christ was bloody, horrendous, and totally self-giving. Though the deaths of mere mortals in no way compare to the death of Christ, we should have a humbling appreciation for those who gave their lives for our country. The men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice should never be forgotten.

4. The heart of our nation is God-centered. Though historical revisionists would like us to believe otherwise, the heartbeat of the founding our nation was God-centered. It is impossible to look at any number of our founding documents and believe otherwise. We are truly “one nation under God.”

5. We are called to be on mission where we are. The missional message we have been given is to make disciples from our backyard to the nations on the other side of the globe (Acts 1:8). We cannot reach out to those we do not first love. America is our home and our mission field. We therefore must love this place and her people.

God Bless America

I wish I had listen more to my dad before he died. His exploits in the Army Air Corps were incredible and heroic. I find myself trying to find out more about him in the years since he died. I should have taken the opportunities to ask more when he was alive.

But my father was but one of thousands who loved his country so much that he was willing to die for her. I cannot forget his sacrifice. I cannot forget the sacrifice of so many.

On this Independence Day I am reminded again how blessed I am to be in a nation like the United States. Though not perfect, this country has given me every opportunity a person could ask.

Happy birthday America. Thank you for being the wonderful land that you are. And more than anything, may you continue to be a land of the one true living God.

God bless America.

You are the land that I love.

Western Sensibilities and the Dismissal of Divine Judgment

Pastor Tim Keller tells of a woman coming to him after a service and telling him that the very idea of a judging God was offensive. Keller said, Why aren’t you offended by the idea of a forgiving God? She looked confused. Keller continued: I respectfully urge you to consider your cultural location when you find the Christian teaching about hell offensive.

He went on to explain that Westerners get upset by the doctrine of hell, but they find the teaching about turning the other cheek and forgiving enemies appealing. But in other cultures (more traditional societies), the teaching about turning the other cheek makes NO sense. For them the doctrine of a God of judgment, however, is no problem at all.

Keller concluded his conversation with the lady with the question as to why Western cultural sensibilities be the final court in which to judge the validity of Christian truth.

Keller’s conclusion on the matter: For the sake of argument, let’s imagine that Christianity is not the product of any one culture but is actually the transcultural truth of God. If that were the case we would expect that it would contradict and offend every human culture at some point, because human cultures are ever-changing and imperfect. If Christianity were the truth it would have to be offending and correcting your thinking at some place. Maybe this is the place, the Christian doctrine of divine judgment (The Reason for God, 74-75).

The Tender-hearted Savior and His View of Hell

We looked at a difficult doctrine today: eternal judgment. To be sure, there have been mean-spirited preachers though the centuries who preached this doctrine in an angry, gospel-less manner. But on the flip side, if the Scripture teaches it, and it clearly does, the meanest, most dangerous thing for a preacher to do is to ignore the doctrine.

And to be sure, the kindest, most gracious man to ever walk the earth, Jesus, certainly did not ignore the doctrine. Hear the remarkable words of the great 19th century preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon on this issue:

You must confess, my dear hearers, that Jesus Christ was the most tender-hearted of men. Never was there one with so sympathetic a disposition. But for all that, not all the prophets put together, though some of them be stern as Elijah, can equal in thunderbolt the sound of that still voice of him, who albeit he did not cry or lift up his voice in the streets, spoke more of hell and the wrath to come than any that preceded him (Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermons, No. 344, “Tender Words of Terrible Apprehension,” delivered, Nov. 4, 1860 at Exeter Hall, London).

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

The stirring verses of the old hymn, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, reveal Charles Wesley’s response of love to Christ’s gracious love. It seems that within the hymn there is a a progression in the verses, which mirror a Christian’s growth in Christ. Verse three reflects the walk of a maturing Christian who desires intimate communion and oneness with Christ:

Thou, O Christ, art all I want; more than all in thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, Heal the sick, and lead the blind
Just and holy is Thy name; I am all unrighteousness,
False and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace.

My desire for our church, corporately and individually with our members, is that we reflect this desire.

Please pray that my preaching and pastoral leadership will aid in fostering this.

Sermon for July 3: "The Winnowing Fork" (Luke 3:15-20)

Please be in prayer for our service on Sunday as we consider the difficult doctrine of eternal judgment. To be sure, our culture dislikes being motivated by fear. After all, fear seems too instinctual to be a reasonable guide. It opens the door to being manipulated.

Having said that, we've known from the beginning of time that fear is useful. Even Aesop's fables warned of the fates of those who were lazy. And parents use fear tactics with their children in warning them: "don't do 'this' or 'that' because it will hurt you."

To be sure, it's good to teach our children not to be scared of certain things: shadows, for instance.

But what if fear is a divinely given motivation for avoiding certain potential realities? What if our actions do have consequences and not all of these consequences end up being good?

Consider the fact that Jesus, himself, knew there was something to fear: eternal hell (Mark 9:43-48; Luke 12:4-5). Jesus warns us to fear hell, the day of judgment (Matt 11:24; 25:31-46), spoke of condemnation (Matt 12:37; John 3:18), and portrayed hell in shocking terms (Matt 13:49-50; 18:9; Luke 16:24). And so does his forerunner, John the Baptist (Luke 3:1-18).

In other words, the doctrine of hell is crucial for faithful Christian witness. As Kevin DeYoung and others have written, the belief that there is something worse than death is the "ballast for our ministry boats."

As DeYoung argues, Hell is not our guiding light; it doesn't set the direction for everything in the Christian faith. No, the gospel of Jesus Christ does. Neither is hell the faith-wheel which steers the ship, nor the wind that powers us along, nor the sails that captures the Spirit's breeze. However, hell isn't unimportant to this vessel called the church. Its our ballast (weights, usually put underneath in the middle of the boat, which are used to keep the ship stable in the water). Without ballast, the boat will not sit correctly. It will veer off course or be tossed from side to side. Ballast keeps the boat balanced.

So if we lose the doctrine of hell (through neglect, shame, or unbelief), we can count on this: the ship (church) will drift. The cross will be stripped of propitiation, our preaching will lose its urgency, and our evangelism to the world will no longer center on calling people to repentance and faith.

No wonder John the Baptist was so urgent in warning the multitudes and Herod of the one who would come with the "winnowing fork" in his hand. Eternity hangs in the balance. Are we chaff or wheat?