Motive for Preaching

The Bible is enough.

Who is your real God?

"If you go to the Christian God, ask for forgiveness, and never feel forgiven, it means that the Christian God isn't your real God. And therefore, you have to go underneath and say, "There is something besides God who is your salvation"--and that thing won't forgive you. And the fact of the matter is, no god but God--the real God--will ever satisfy you if you get him or forgive you if you fail him. All other gods are wood and hay and stubble and idols--I mean, they're dumb. They're not alive. They can't do anything for you. [...] When someone says, "I can't forgive myself" it means that some standard, or condition, or person is more central to [their] identity than the grace of God. God is the only god who forgives. No other god will. So if you can't forgive yourself, it's because you've failed your real god. Your real righteousness is holding you captive. The moralists false God is usually holy and demanding but not gracious: the pharisee's god, a god of wrath who will not be propitiated. The pragmatists false god is usually some achievement or relationship that they are using as a substitute for God to get some sense of self-worth." (From Tim Keller's Westminster Lectures with Edmund Clowney, Session 8, Getting Down to Earth Part 1 available for free on iTunes U)

Time Management (vs Maker-agement)

This doesn't have a lot to do with the gospel directly. But if you are a pastor, who preaches the gospel to your people weekly, then this article on managing time is worth a gander. In summary, makers (and in this context, those who make sermons) need larger chunks of time (think half-days) whereas managers think in terms of hours. Knowing how to navigate the difference can mean more fruitful ministry.

Chapell and Keller on Christ-Centered Preaching

Here are two great seminars by Bryan Chapell on preaching Christ in every message. If the question of whether that is even necessary comes to mind, then all the more reason to listen to these.

A great quote from the second one as he contrasted Christ centered preaching with two other forms: (a) preaching to the will (Christian duty and obedience) and (b) preaching for increased knowledge (Christian doctrine):

"If what we are doing [in preaching] is not creating greater intimacy and obligation to the Savior out of love for Him, then no matter what science [of preaching] we have pursued, we have not got the goal accomplished that God intended from his Word."

1.  http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/The-Heart-of-Christ-Centered-Preaching

2.  http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/The-Hope-of-Christ-Centered-Preaching

Along these same lines, iTunes U has an entire seminar by Edmund Clowney and Tim Keller on this kind of preaching (free--along with other Westminster Seminary lectures. Likewise, Gordon-Conwell has a half-dozen messages too (for a well-worth-it price).

Two options for Training

Here are two options I have been mulling over that are (a) affordable and (b) sound and (c) rigorous.

Ligonier's Certificate Program.

CCEF's Training Program.

CCEF on Youtube

Smorgasbord.

Justin Taylor's 15 Powlison Q&As

Justin:

P&R gave me permission to republish a very helpful Q&A from David Powlison’s essay, “I Am Motivated When I Feel Desire,” included in his excellent book, Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture.

He asks and answers 15 questions. I’ll post two per day over the next week.

Here they are.

Rough Winds of Discipline--Spurgeon

From Spurgeon's Morning by Morning devotional, June 11:

“After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”
— 1 Peter 5:10

You have seen the arch of heaven as it spans the plain: glorious are its colours, and rare its hues. It is beautiful, but, alas, it passes away, and lo, it is not. The fair colours give way to the fleecy clouds, and the sky is no longer brilliant with the tints of heaven. It is not established. How can it be? A glorious show made up of transitory sun-beams and passing rain-drops, how can it abide? The graces of the Christian character must not resemble the rainbow in its transitory beauty, but, on the contrary, must be stablished, settled, abiding. Seek, O believer, that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be no “baseless fabric of a vision,” but may it be builded of material able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of earth shall never be able to remove you. But notice how this blessing of being “stablished in the faith” is gained. The apostle’s words point us to suffering as the means employed—“After that ye have suffered awhile.” It is of no use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no rough winds pass over us. Those old gnarlings on the root of the oak tree, and those strange twistings of the branches, all tell of the many storms that have swept over it, and they are also indicators of the depth into which the roots have forced their way. So the Christian is made strong, and firmly rooted by all the trials and storms of life. Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds of trial, but take comfort, believing that by their rough discipline God is fulfilling this benediction to you.

A great metaphor for conversion.

Thanks RP for this.

You and I are not integrated, unified, whole persons.  Our hearts are multi-divided.  There is a board room in every heart.  Big table.  Leather chairs.   Coffee.  Bottled water.  Whiteboard.  A committee sits around the table.  There is the social self, the private self, the work self, the sexual self, the recreational self, the religious self, and others.  The committee is arguing and debating and voting.  Constantly agitated and upset.  Rarely can they come to a unanimous, wholehearted decision.  We tell ourselves we’re this way because we’re so busy with so many responsibilities.  The truth is, we’re just divided, unfocused, hesitant, unfree.
That kind of person can “accept Jesus” in either of two ways.   One way is to invite him onto the committee.  Give him a vote too.  But then he becomes just one more complication.  The other way to “accept Jesus” is to say to him, “My life isn’t working.  Please come in and fire my committee, every last one of them.  I hand myself over to you.  Please run my whole life for me.”   That is not complication; that is salvation.
“Accepting Jesus” is not just adding Jesus.   It is also subtracting the idols.

Resources for Parents

From the Children Desiring God blog.

The content contained in this booklet was summarized from two workshops delivered at the 2007 Children Desiring God Conference: Preparing Children to Hear the Gospel and Presenting the Gospel to Children. You can stream or download audio from both workshops in English and in Spanish.
If by now you are curious about the Ten Essential Truths of the Gospel presented in the booklet, here they are:

1. God is the sovereign Creator of all things.
2. God created people for His glory.
3. God is holy and righteous.
4. Man is sinful.
5. God is just and is right to punish sin.
6. God is merciful. He is kind to undeserving sinners.
7. Jesus is God’s holy and righteous Son.
8. God put the punishment of sinners on Jesus.
9. God offers the free gift of salvation to those who repent and believe in Jesus.
10. Those who trust in Jesus will live to please Him and will receive the promise of eternal life—enjoying God forever in heaven.

And related to the last post: ORDINARY pastors.

Especially funny but poignant is from 8:00 to 11:30.


T4G 2010 -- Session 9 -- C.J. Mahaney from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Competing with Famous Preachers

Given that this blog points to a lot of the very kinds of things that this blog article addresses, I post it here as a balance to the other posts. It is so true that a local pastor can have far deeper impact when he invests in his people than one of these famous preachers can when congregants listen to their sermons online. But you do have to do the shepherding work to accomplish this.

Gospel Math

Motivation and the gospel from Justin Taylor's blog.

What is the Gospel? (2)

An interview with Greg Gilbert of Capitol Hill Baptist Church and 9marks on the gospel and his new book.

And a memorable outline to explain it:
God
Man
Christ
Response

"Just Do Something" for those who don't like reading...

The book is great, but here is the topic addressed by the author himself. And a teaser quote (and there are more like it): "How many girlfriends does Jesus have to have?!" (@ 41:50 in the context of about 40:00 to 42:00)

New Books in the Good Reads Bin -->

On the right side of the screen there is a box you may not pay a lot of attention to. But as I listen to interviews at 9 Marks, I am constantly bombarded with book recommendations. So I write them down and plug them into the list there on the right. I recently added a few more. Categories? Two from RC Sproul that are kids books, and a few others on discipling kids. And then a bunch on church discipline and polity. Check them out.

Assurance: Ice Skating Metaphor

From a message by Kevin DeYoung in one of the sermons from a series on the Holy Spirit.  (beginning at 41:30)

"If the seal of the Spirit marks you out as belonging to God, that is true whether you have a deep assurance of that or not. If you get out and skate on the ice, it's not your faith in the ice that holds you up--it's the thickness of the ice. You may be wobbly. You may feel like "I'm gonna fall through any minute." But if the ice is two feet thick, even if your faith is weak, it is the object of your faith that holds you up. But the goal is to experience the freedom of skating around on the ice knowing that you have no possible way of falling through."

DG on Forgiveness

A crucial distinction between granting forgiveness to someone who repents and being ready to forgive those who don't repent. The more thorough treatment can be found at the link at the end of the article.

Gospel Motivation: Seeing Christ

I wish that I had the patience to transcribe from minute 21:00 to 23:15 from this sermon by Kevin DeYoung. [You may have technical diffficulties getting to it from here. If so, go to his sermon page and find "The Holy Spirit Equips and Promises" from January 24, 2010.]

If I could summarize it, he is essentially teaching the truth of 2 Cor 3:18:

"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."


We become like Christ (in, among other things, his obedience) by beholding the glory of the Lord. Look at how glorious Christ is. Meditate on it. Swim in it. Gaze upon Jesus in his word and in your past and in the work he is doing around us. When we do so rightly, we find ourselves wanting to be like him. Not merely following the rules because we are supposed to--but because we really want to. And this is precisely what the Holy Spirit does: "For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." He points our hearts to Christ and there we find joy to obey.

Kevin uses a great analogy of how when we marvel at someone truly talented at what they do (like a figure skater, or Michael Jordan in the 90s, or any other exceptional person we admire), we find in ourselves an amazement that pushes us in some degree to want to be like them. And so it is when we behold Christ.

Kevin is also making the point that becoming like one of these "greats" requires effort--but it is not an effort of loathesome burden, but of joy from inspiration.

This song is one means of so meditating on the character and value of Christ. Enjoy

Keeping the Gospel in View While Preaching

How important is it for a preacher to preach Christ from every text of Scripture? 
 
It's an ambiguous question. Let's see if I can give the two ways I'm hearing it.

It's important that every sermon from a Christian preacher be a Christian sermon, that is, a sermon that, if a Jewish or Muslim person heard it, they wouldn't like. If they like it, something is wrong with it, because they reject Christ as Messiah and crucified and risen as the forgiver of the sins of the world.
And since they reject it, if they hear a sermon that they're totally OK with, then something is missing. The sermon should somehow communicate that this is all based on and aiming toward the work of Christ and the glory of Christ.

However, I don't think there's any particular way that that needs to be made explicit. In other words, when you preach on Proverbs, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise," you want to preach what's there and show that there are moral lessons to be learned from God's providence in the world.
But you will somehow connect that with what makes you a Christian. You're not a Christian because you look at ants and feel them to be especially helpful morally in setting a good example of discipline. That doesn't make anybody a Christian.

So if you just preach, "Let's all be more diligent because ants are, and God says to," that's not a Christian sermon. Somehow it's got to be connected to the bigger redemptive-historical thing that God is doing that saves sinners and strengthens sinners.

What makes that sermon finish is that what you want in preaching discipline is Christian discipline, discipline that is dependent on the Holy Spirit, discipline that is not earning your salvation, discipline that is the fruit and not the root of your acceptance with God. And all of that takes you to the cross.

So preachers, wherever they're preaching in the Bible, must somehow make it plain that this is a Christian sermon. It has Christian roots and the glory of Christ is at stake. And I think there are hundreds of ways to do that.

Praying for the Sick in a Hospital

A friend sent me this via email. This will put another item on the blog roll for sure.

Pastor Dad

Good stuff for Dads on being shepherds at home. Download the free ebook at the end.

Thanks RP.

Ben Patterson on Prayer: Several Messages

Ben spoke at the Magnify Conference at Kevin DeYoung's church. Here are some motivating and insightful messages on prayer. I first heard of Ben Patterson through an article (well, two actually) in Leadership Journal that revolutionized the way we led our worship team in prayer. An exemplary model and messenger on the subject.

Session 1 Why we Must Pray
Session 2 Why we Don't Pray
Session 3 Why we May Pray
Session 4 A Concert of Prayer
Session 5 Q&A with Ben and Loretta Patterson
Bonus: Ben Preaching Sunday Morning

Sinners don't go to hell because they don't know Jesus

From Ray Comfort's blog:

An Inuit hunter asked the local missionary priest: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" "No," said the priest, "not if you did not know." "Then why," asked the Inuit earnestly, "did you tell me?" -ANNIE DILLARD. Abe

The priest wasn’t telling the truth. I have used the same scenario in The Evidence Bible to show the foolishness of such a thought. God would be unjust to send anyone to Hell for not knowing something:

"No one will go to hell because they haven’t heard of Jesus Christ. The heathen will go to hell for murder, rape, adultery, lust, theft, lying, etc. Sin is not failing to hear the gospel. Rather, "sin is the transgression of the Law" (1 John 3:4). If we really care about the lost, we will become missionaries and take the good news of God’s forgiveness in Christ to them."

The confusion comes from misinterpreting the meaning of John 16:9: "Why will sinners go to Hell? Much damage has been done to the cause of the gospel by telling the world that they will go to hell 'because they don’t believe in Jesus.' This makes no sense to the ungodly. It seems unreasonable that God would eternally damn them for not believing something.

"However, the verse can be explained this way: If a man jumps out of a plane without a parachute, he will perish because of the results of gravity. Had he put on a parachute, he would have been saved. In one sense, he perished because he didn’t put on the parachute. But the primary reason he died was because of the effects of unforgiving gravitational pull.

"If a sinner refuses to trust in Jesus Christ when he passes through the door of death, he will perish. This isn’t because he refused to trust the Savior, but because he transgressed the Law of God. Had he 'put on the Lord Jesus Christ' (see Romans 13:14), he would have been saved; but because he refused to repent, he will suffer the full consequences of his sin. Sin is not 'failing to believe in Jesus.' Sin is ‘transgression of the Law’ (see 1 John 3:4)." From,The Evidence Bible.

Research on Parenting from Pediatricians

While this site (below) isn't about the gospel, apologetically and practically, it has some good resources on parenting from the American College of Pediatricians. Based on, from what I can tell, sound research methodology. Spanking: does it teach kids to be violent? Homosexuality: innate? And dozens of other topics.