Change! Yes, You Can!

In the forward to the the book "Total Church" Ian Coffey wrote these convicting words,

"As uncomfortable as it may sound, people form their views about Jesus by looking at those who wear his name as a badge. Hiding behind the defense 'Don't look at us--look at Jesus' just won't wash. Truth be told, judging by church attendance statistics in the United Kingdom, for example, they are looking at us, then choosing not to bother with Jesus."

Why is the church in America not making a bigger impact on our country and in the world? Why are attendance, giving, and conversions all down in American Christianity? What impressions do people arrive at about Jesus by watching me? Why do we expect others to consider Christ relative in their lives when he doesn't seem to be in our own lives? Why do we expect others to treasure Jesus above all things when our materialistic appetite is just as great as theirs? Why are most Christian conversions happening outside of America and why are those converts looking at American Christianity with disgust?

The biggest change needed in America today is not political, economical, or foreign affairs. The need of the hour is that the church change. The church needs to challenge those who profess the name of Christ to live a life worthy of that calling. The church needs to confront those who profess the name of Christ and constantly live in a way that degrades Christ and the church. And the church needs to celebrate with those who do live Christ glorifying lives. The church needs to disciple, discipline, and be devoted.

This hour of our existence screams for Christians to be salt and light and to do good works so that men may glorify the Father. May God grant us the grace to be the means of a soul becoming thirsty for Jesus. May God grant us the grace to shed the light on the dark path that points people to Christ. And may God grant us the grace to love Christ and love each other in such a way that only God can possibly get glory from it.

I pray God will raise up God fearing and God glorifying men who will lead their churches toward much needed change. And for sheep to follow their God appointed shepherds even in change!

A Prayer For Those Who Want To Know God

From A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God:

O God, I have tasted Your goodness,

and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.

I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace.

I am ashamed of my lack of desire.

O God, the Triune God,

I want to want You;

I long to be filled with longing;

I thirst to be made more thirsty still.

Show me Your glory, I pray,

so I may know You indeed.

Begin in mercy a new work of love within me…

Give me grace to rise and follow You up from this misty lowland

where I have wandered so long.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

http://theologica.blogspot.com/

Quote!

“If God does not exist, then nothing matters.

If God does exist, that is all that matters.”

--The words of an unnamed skeptic

Sunday's Sermon

Sunday morning's message centered on Mark 8:26-30 where Jesus' carefully leads His disciples toward the question of who they say that he is. At the conclusion of the sermon, to puncuate my point that the Messiahship of Jesus means that he not only is Prophet and Priest but that he must be the King of our lives, I used S.M Lockridge's "That's My King." Several wanted to see it again, so here it is.

Pastor's Conference Continues!

Tuesday began at 8:30am as Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church outside of Dallas, TX spoke from 1 Timothy 4 about the Greek imperatives in the text directed at pastors, imploring him to make sure the Gospel is presented and protected. It certainly was a great and challenging sermon.

Mark Dever was at 10:00 and he continued his thoughts on evangelism by offering five misunderstandings of evangelism. Evangelism is not manipulation, our personal testimony, social action, Apologetics, nor visible results. He also shared several things we can do that is evangelism. Again, an excellent sermon!

John Piper again supplied the pastor's with an biographical sketch--this year George Whitfield was the topic. It reminded me how little I knew about Whitfield. God mightily used Whitfield for 30 years to proclaim the Gospel and thousands of souls were saved and God was glorified on both sides of the ocean.

All sermons can be seen, watched, and/or read at http://www.desiringgod.org/

Why Do Evangelism?

Mark Dever, pastor of Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC and founder of 9 Marks began the 2009 Desiring God Pastor's Conference that is centering on the theme of Evangelism. Denver spent much of this initial sermon establishing a foundational and unified understanding of the Gospel. With much misunderstanding and further watering down of the Gospel, Dever worked systematically through this important truth. To summarize, the Gospel is God's redemptive work, for fallen humanity, through the substitutionary and voluntary atonement of Jesus Christ, obtained through repentance and faith of the the recipient.

Once establishing what the Gospel is, Dever shared three reasons why we need to share the Gospel. First, we share the Gospel because we want to obey the command of our Lord. Obedience to the Great Commission is essential in our motives for sharing Christ. Secondly, we share the Gospel because we love the lost. We understand that lack of purpose is not man's problem but the wrath of God, condemnation, eventual accountability to God and eternity in the torments of Hell ARE man's problems. A love for the lost evidences itself in telling them about Jesus Christ, who is the only answer to those problems. Thirdly, we share the Gospel because we desire to see God glorified. God does everything for his glory, especially the salvation of lost sinners and he uses the Gospel to bring glory to himself and we desire that more than anything.

It was a great beginning to what should be a challenging conference!

Don't Waste Your Recession!

John Piper had a good word this weekend at Bethlehem. He spoke from 2 Corinthians 1:1-12 concerning the God designed impact of the current economic recession. Piper continued his "Don't Waste," thoughts--Don't Waste your Life, Don't Waste your Cancer, and now Don't Waste your Recession.

As he unpacked five Godly purposes of the current recession, his first point centered upon the truth that God intends to expose hidden sins and bring us to repentance with this recession. In the midst of the application of this truth both individually and corporately, he emphasized that God brought Paul to his very depth to take him yet deeper. That thought overwhelmed me as I sat through the rest of the message.

In the text Paul says that he was so afflicted that he thought he was going to die. God took affliction and used it to bring Paul to the bottom of himself. But God was only bringing him there to take him even deeper in his relationship with Christ.

The truth is that it takes a recession to reveal to us our hidden sin of self-reliance. This awful sin lies on the bottom--never fully exposing itself but it is there nevertheless. But when a little recession comes into our lives, our reliance in our money, our jobs, our stocks, our retirement fund and a hundred other things is exposed. We see that our joy has been coming in the abundance of these things and not in God's grace.

May we not waste this recession. May it cause us to see our hidden sins and may we hate our sin and repent of it and may this recession take us to the bottom so that that we can go deeper with God. May God grant us the enlightenment to see this recession as a precious God anointed gift to his people to move them deeper with him.

Thank you, John Piper for the good word!