Bartolome Esteban Murillo's, The Return of the Prodigal Son

I stated “Five Truths About Forgiveness” last week.

This thought needs to be taken a step farther, though.  The issue of forgiveness can and should be brought to a more practical level.

The question must be asked, “What does forgiveness look like?

To answer that question I propose the following:

Seven Things Forgiveness Is and Does:

1. Resists revenge (Rom. 12:19)
2. Doesn’t return evil for evil (I Thess. 5:15)
3. Wish the person well (Luke 6:28)
4. Grieve at their tragedies (Prov. 24:17)
5. Pray for their welfare (Matt. 5:44)
6. Seek reconciliation from them so far as it depends on you (Rom. 12:18)
7. Come to their aid in distress (Ex. 23:4)

Anti-plagiarism safety net:

You need to know that I borrowed the ideas in this post from two others.  The content is not my own.

• John Piper’s sermon, “As We Forgive Our Debtors” is where I took most of this from.
• Chris Brauns offered helpful comments on this post.  Chris has written a book on forgiveness which you should most definitely check out—Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers to Complex Questions and Deep Wounds.

Make sure to do your part:

I’m sure there’s more application for this subject.  If I’ve missed anything, or you feel you can better articulate how to practically apply biblical forgiveness, by all means help us all out and leave a comment.

Steve Burchett, writing for the Christian Communicators blog, outlines 10 pieces of help for aspiring preachers.

1. Take advantage of less formal teaching opportunities.
2. Meditate on your text far longer than commentaries.
3. Teach one thing, not a bunch of things.
4. Amplify your comments with colorful words and helpful illustrations.
5. Practice out loud what you will say, as you will say it.
6. If you use notes, don’t constantly look at them.
7. Avoid imitating your favorite preacher’s style.
8. Care for the people you will teach before you teach them something.
9. Pray.
10. Try again.

It’s a helpful list.

Steve offers a paragraph or so of explanation under each piece of advice on this outline.  Make sure to head over his way and read the entire article—“First Sermon Jitters: Help for Aspiring Preachers”

One Last Thing:

If you’ve got any recommendations on the subject of preaching—be it links to online content,  printed  works, sermons, talks, etc.—I’d be interested to check them out.  Please help me out in the comments section.  Thanks.

This post is part of a series.  Make sure to check out each part for related content.

• How Not to Stink (Part 1)
• How Not to Stink (Part 2)
• How Not to Stink (Part 3)

I recently heard some music during Desiring God’s live stream of their 2010 Pastor’s Conference.  I did some investigating on Twitter and found out the name of the group was Page CXVI.

Confused by their name?  I was too.  I checked out the band’s site to find out that the name refers to page 116 in a particular version of C. S. Lewis’, The Magician’s Nephew.  There Lewis describes Aslan (the lion-king-savior-Jesus character) singing creation into existence from a dark nothing-filled void.  It’s definitely one of my favorite passages from the Narnian tales.

You should really check out Page CXVI’s new album, Hymns.  Songs included:

1. Come Thou Fount
2. In Christ Alone
3. My Jesus I Love Thee
4. When I Survey The Wonderful Cross
5. Nothing But the Blood
6. Solid Rock
7. Joy

Make sure to check out their website: Pagecxvi.com

Here’s one of their songs dubbed over a YouTube clip.  I really like the part at the end they repeat: “No guilt in life, no fear in death, from life’s first cry to final breath.”

One of the most recognizable passages of Scripture in many Christian bookstores is Prov. 3:5-6.  There are untold thousands of promotional/inspirational products boasting these verses.

From posters, to coffee mugs, to calendars, to pens, to t-shirts, to mouse pads, and really to anything that a) can be printed on and b) people will actually buy, there is no shortage of contemporary Christian merchandise that feature these verses.  (Want proof?  Click here and here.)

If you’re unable to recall from memory what this couplet of verses actually says, or perhaps are but just don’t remember the reference, here it is in the Amplified Bible’s rendering:

“Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.  In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.”

I preached on this passage last night at my church.  My goal was to challenge the status quo of modern church culture which often only gives these verses value of an inspirational nature—that is, that it should inspire us or encourage us.

Instead, I made the point that the writer confronts us in no uncertain terms to consider our lives and to know that we have a very present and pressing choice to make: either we will place our trust in God (”trust in the Lord with all your heart”), or will we place our trust in ourselves (”rely…on our own understanding.”)

I listed several reasons why we should place our trust in God and several reasons why we should not place it in ourselves.

Why God?

• God is all-knowing.
• God is all-powerful.
• God is all-present.
• God is all-loving.
• And in all of these things…God is completely faithful and trustworthy.

Why Not Ourselves?

• We’re not all-knowing.
• We’re not all-powerful.
• We’re not all-present.
• We’re not all-loving.
• We’re not completely faithful and trustworthy.

It’s easy to see the difference:

• God is such that He is perfectly suited to be trusted in.

• We are such that we are perfectly suited to place our trust elsewhere other than ourselves.

We’ll continue this study later by addressing the following mindset which should follow from what we’ve learned already:

“Okay, so you’ve convinced me.  I agree that my trust should be in God, not myself.  So what?  What does that look like?  How do I do that?“

I’m interested  to hear other perspectives addressing this question.  Why should we trust in God?  What do you say?

Dr. Richard Mayhue contributed an excellent little chapter called “The Pastor’s Home”  in the book, Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry, edited by John MacArthur.

He writes that,

“Without the strength of my home, I would never have made it through twenty years of ministry.  My marriage and my family provide me a home where I can:

1. retreat—get away from the pressures
2. relax—enjoy a different environment
3. recharge—gain a new supply of energy
4. relate—enjoy my wife and children
5. rehabilitate—heal the wounds
6. reach out—to neighbors, friends, and flock
7. research—uninterrupted study/writing
8. raise a family—children and grandchildren
9. ripen—grow in God’s grace
10. rejoice—praise the Lord
11. reflect—quiet moments to contemplate
12. reinvest—in my grandchildren
13. regain perspective—in prayer and Scripture”

Mayhue closes this section by saying that,

“When I leave the fair haven nof my home for ministry, I depart in strength, not weakness.”

What a wonderful description and goal for all of us who minister.  Can you think of any other things that a godly, peaceful home can supply and accomplish in a pastor’s life?

The great Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson was but a young student when he wrote the following words in a ‘conservatives’ religious magazine’ in the year 1810.

“How do Christians discharge the trust committed to them? … They let three fourths of the world sleep the sleep of death, ignorant of the simple truth that a Savior had died for them.  Content if they can be useful in the little circle of their acquaintances, they quietly sit and see whole nations perish for lack of knowledge.”  —(From Courtney Anderson’s, To the Golden Shore)

His feet had never touched foreign soil.  They would, but that time had not yet come.  He and his fellow mission-minded friends were ever seeking new and better ways to promote their project while they went through the long and tedious process of securing support for their gospel journey to Asia.

His words sink deep into my life.  We are all called, as believers, to share in his passion and urgency to get the truth of God’s message of redemption to the world.

Related links:

• Wikipedia’s entry on Judson
• Wholesome Words’ bio-database on Judson
• John Piper’s conference message on Judson

Rembrandt's, The Return of the Prodigal Son

Last night I shared “Truths About Forgiveness” with my church.  It was a topical sermon wrapped up in the words and teachings of Christ.  Who better to teach us about forgiveness than He who is the Master of it.

I remember reading John Piper’s thoughts on this subject and he said that, “We do more dishonor to God in one day than everyone does to us in a lifetime.”  (Sorry, but I can’t remember the source.)

Here are five truths about forgiveness:

1. If anyone should be a pro at forgiveness it should be the Christian (Matt. 6:12).
2. An unforgiving attitude will absolutely devastate the spiritual life of a Christian (Matt. 6:14-15).
3. There is a very close relationship between judging someone and being unforgiving (Matt. 7:1-2).
4. There is no limit to how forgiving we should be (Matt. 18:21-22).
5. Great punishment awaits those who are unforgiving (Matt. 18:23-35).

As believers, these truths should move us.  They should prick our hearts at each and every point where we have an unforgiving attitude and they should cause us to bleed both conviction and repentance.

Can you think of any other truths about forgiveness that would be helpful to add to this list?

If you’re not familiar with the term, “church-hopping” refers to folks who bounce around from church-to-church looking for the latest and greatest that any given community has to offer.

At its worst, it represents the idea of God and the church serving the individual instead of the individual serving God and His Church.

• Jon Acuff wrote about it at his wildly popular ‘Stuff Christians Like” blog.
• Naked Pastor drew it perfectly in the picture displayed to the right.
• On a more serious note, both Josh Harris and the Kevin DeYoung—Ted Kluck tag team duo have tackled this subject as well.  For the former see the book, Stop Dating the Church.  And the latter, Why We Love the Church.

A pastor is an individual who, by virtue of what the word “pastor” means, behaves toward his parishioners in a way very similar to how a shepherd behaves toward his flock of sheep.

A shepherd in the Near Eastern world of the Scriptures was responsible for protecting, nurturing, feeding and keeping up with his sheep.  Likewise, pastors of local churches are responsible for all of these same things in a spiritual sense.

The Greek word from which most English translations get the word “pastor” is most frequently translated as “shepherd.”   In fact, of the 18 times the NT uses this Greek word, only once is it translated as “pastor.”  The other 17 times it is simply “shepherd.”

See for yourself.

The Apostle Paul uses this word to refer to pastors in Eph. 4:11.  Jesus uses it of Himself John 10:14.  There he says, “I am the Good Shepherd.”

As a pastor it’s important for me that I am a “shepherd” of the members of my church.  BUT…its also important for me to remember that I am also a sheep.  I think all pastors would do well to be reminded of and to remember that we too are sheep.  Our shepherd is Christ Himself.

For pastors to remember that they too are sheep is helpful in several ways.  It helps us to:

1. Fight against pride in our lives.
2. Cultivate humility in our ministries.
3. Engender trust in Christ who is our Shepherd.
4. Relate better to our fellow sheep.

Can you think of any other reasons why its beneficial for pastors/”shepherds” to remember that they are also sheep?

My wife and I spent a good part of our long holiday weekend tweaking our church’s website.  You should check it out and let us know what you think in the comments section.

Here’s Martin Luther King, Jr, singing his famous, “I have a dream…” speech.  C/o The Gregory Brothers.  Pretty cool.

Enjoy.

[Embedded video may not display correctly in RSS, Facebook, or Email subscription feeds.  If that's the case click through to the original post on my site to see the video displayed properly.]

I added four new sermons this week to the Sermon page.

We (”we” being me and the church I pastor, Eastwood Baptist Church) did a topical Christmas sermon based on a few character traits of faith observed in the lives of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus:

• “Thoughtful, Humble Obedience in the Christmas Story”

We also finished up our church’s verse-by-verse study through the Letter of James.  I added three new sermons there:

• “Fighting in the Church” (James 4:1-10)
• “The Serious Sin of ‘Speaking Evil’” (James 4:11-12)
• “James’ Closing Admonitions” (James 5:1-12)

Enjoy and be blessed.

Over the last month or two I’ve come across several blog entries featuring the advice of Tim Keller on preaching.  Keller is the Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Manhattan, NY.

He’s offered some very practical, down-to-earth ways to become a better preacher.  The following eight tips are given with further commentary over at a site called Theonomy.

1. Prepare the preacher before preparing the sermon.
2. Read magazines across the spectrum.
3. Read book reviews rather than books.
4. Read church history.
5. Listen to shed loads of sermons.
6. Movies, plays, and novels are windows into our culture.
7. Don’t write people off just because you don’t agree with them on everything.
8. Read rapidly through the Bible.

Elsewhere on the web as of late, Keller has said that, “Preacher-Onlys Aren’t Good Preachers,” that it takes preaching roughly 200 sermons to get good at preaching, and that every seminarian should consider solo-pastoring a small country church in order to best grow in skill and wisdom as a pastor.

Related Posts:

• Some Preaching Advice: How Not to Stink (Part 1)
• Some Preaching Advice: How Not to Stink (Part 2)

Over the course of his thirty years as pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, John Piper has had plenty of opportunities to observe the end of one year dissolve into the beginning of another.

Often he has used this occasion to address his church with a sort of ‘New Year’s Eve Meditation.

Here are a few of those meditations.

• Dec. 28, 1980—“I Have Kept the Faith”
  

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Dec. 29, 1985—“God Glorified in Good Resolves”
  

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Dec. 31, 1989—“All the Promises of God are Yes in Christ”
  

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Dec. 27, 1992—“A Year-End Look at Jesus Christ”
  

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Dec. 31, 2008—“A New Year’s Eve Meditation”
  

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[A friendly reminder to any viewing this post through an email subscription or on Facebook: you may need to click through to my site in order for all of the media to be properly displayed.]

J. Oswald Sanders’ book on leadership is a classic in my line of work. Its titled, Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer.  I was given a copy a few weeks ago as an ordination gift.

At about 60 pages in I’m finding it to be a very beneficial and humbling read.

Here are a few nuggets of wisdom he offers (or cites) on the subject of…well, of wisdom.  So its wisdom concerning wisdom.

“If knowledge is the accumulation of facts and intelligence the development of reason, wisdom is heavenly discernment.  It is insight into the heart of things.  Wisdom involves knowing God and the subtleties of the human heart.  More than knowledge, it is the right application of knowledge in moral and spiritual matters, in handling dilemmas, in negotiating complex relationships.”

“‘Wisdom is nine-tenths a matter of being wise in time,’ said Theodore Roosevelt.  Most of us are ‘too often wise after the event.’”

“Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much,
Wisdom is humble, that he knows no more.”

“D. E. Hoste knew the importance of wisdom for leaders:

‘When a person in authority demands obedience of another, irrespective of the latter’s reason and conscience, this is tyranny.  On the other hand, when, by the exercise of tact and sympathy, prayer, spiritual power and sound wisdom, one is able to influence and enlighten another, so that a life course is changed, that is spiritual leadership.’”

Get your own copy of this great work through the link below.



(For email, RSS, or Facebook readers you may need to click through to the original post on my site in order to view all the links.)

I’m not entirely sure why I was so amused by this…but I was. Maybe it was the song. Maybe it was the station-wagon. I hope you’re amused as well.

[If you're viewing this through an email or on Facebook you may need to view this post on my website to see the attached video.  Enjoy. ]

[HT: Today's Big Thing]

In his book, Why Johnny Can’t Preach, T. David Gordon asks the question,

“How has the movement from language-based media to image-based and electronic media altered our sensibilities, and how, in turn, has this change in sensibility shaped today’s preachers?” (p. 16)

His answer is rather direct and gives no reason for celebration.  He confesses that,

“Less than 30 percent of those who are ordained to the Christian ministry can preach an even mediocre sermon.” (p. 11)

Gordon offers help by way of reference.  He points his readers to Robert Lewis Dabney’s book on homiletics, Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric.  There Dabney constructs “The Seven Cardinal Requisites of Preaching.”

For the purpose of brevity I’ll only list the seven requisites with Gordon’s test questions.  The questions are to be asked for the sake of determining whether a given sermon contains that requisite.  Very helpful stuff.

1. Textual Fidelity
   Test: Does the significant point of the sermon arise out of the significant point of the text?
2. Unity
   Test: If ten people are asked after the sermon what the sermon was about, will at least eight of them give the same (or a similar) answer?
3. Evangelical Tone
   Test: Does the sermon press the hearer to consider the hopelessness of his condition apart from Christ, and the utter competence of Christ to rescue the penitent sinner?
4. Instructiveness
   Test: Does the sermon significantly engage the mind, or  is the sermon full of commonplace cliches, slogans, and general truths?
5. Movement
   Test: Do the earlier parts of the sermon  contribute to the latter parts’ full effect?
6. Point
   Test: Is the effect of the sermon, on those who believe it, similar?
7. Order
   Test: Could the hearers compare notes and reproduce the outline of the sermon?

All of us preachers would do well to strive to contain each of these elements in our every sermon.  Gordon’s book was excellent.  I recommend every preacher get their own copy.  You can do so for only $10 or less through the link below.

Most of us are familiar with the little phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”  In my experience that has not proven to be true.  I suggest that the person who came up with it probably didn’t have a very balanced view of things. Either they never had anything negative said about them at all, or they had so many hurtful things said about them that they went into some sort of state of denial.

Compare the meaning of that phrase with what the wisdom writer of Proverbs had to say about the power of words: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21).

As part of our ongoing series through the Letter of James I preached out of James 3:1-12 this weekend at my church.  Perhaps more than any other passage in the Bible these 12 verses describe the devastating power of the sinful words and ways in which we speak.  My message was titled, “The Power of the Tongue.”  Give it a listen.

• Here’s the sermon audio for this message.  Just click the ‘Play’ button (the little triangle pointing right) to listen now.

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Or you can download the sermon and listen to it later via mp3 player or burnt CD by visiting my Sermon Download Page, finding the word “Download,” right-clicking on it, and choosing the ‘Save As’ option.

Unfortunately I was not able to record the second half of this sermon.  Due to time constraints it was broken into two parts and the second half took place during our Sunday PM worship service which is not recorded.

In case anyone’s interested, here’s the outline I preached from.  I’m always interested to see how others put their thoughts together.

The First Thanksgiving, by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris

While perusing the Scriptures and putting together some thoughts for a Thanksgiving sermon, it struck me that there are certain sinful attitudes that just can’t get along with thankfulness.

If we could know what these are and be aware of their tendency toward zapping the gratefulness out of our lives, then perhaps we’d be set on our way to more thankful living.

Here are the three ‘Thanksgiving-zapping’ attitudes:

• Pride

The proud individual does not give thanks.  He presumes to be above it.  The act of thanksgiving is essentially an exercise in humility.

• Self-Centeredness

The self-centered individual either fails to take notice of that for which he should be thankful or thinks that he deserved it anyways.  Either way, there’s no thanks.

• Unhappiness

The unhappy individual is not thankful, else their spirit would be lifted.  Think about it.  Have you ever been really thankful and really unhappy simultaneously.  I seriously doubt it.

This all fits rather well with a quote from John Piper in his book, Future Grace.  There he defines gratitude as,

“…a humble, happy response to the good will of someone who has done or tried to do you a favor.”

You can see the backbone of my post in Piper’s words: “humble, happy response.”

• The humble man is not proud.
• The happy man is obviously not unhappy.
• Somewhat less obvious, but still relevant, is that the self-centered man is not responsive.  Instead, he’s in his own little world.

[HT: had a little help from this post from this guy]

I preached Part 2 of the message, “Faith without Works Is Dead” this weekend.  Part 1 covered James’ explanation of the relationship between faith and works by way of looking at his two examples of a faith that doesn’t work.  Part 2 seeks to explain faith and works in light of his two examples of a faith that does work.

• Here’s the sermon audio for this message.  Just click the ‘Play’ button (the little triangle pointing right) to listen now.

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Or you can download the sermon and listen to it later via mp3 player or burnt CD by visiting my Sermon Download Page, finding the word “Download,” right-clicking on it, and choosing the ‘Save As’ option.

The two examples James gives of a faith that does work are the OT saints Abraham and Rahab.  There’s was faith that believed God to be bigger than any problem the world can present and better than any solution it can offer.

My two concluding observations on the relationship between faith and works:

1. Faith saves all by itself, but it never stays all by itself.
2. Good works can never earn salvation, but they are the necessary evidence of salvation.

I also sought to distill my thoughts on what may seem to be a contradiction between James who says that Abraham was justified by works (James 2:21-24) and Paul who says that Abraham was justified completely without works (Rom. 4:1-5).*

My conclusions on this point were basically that Paul and James are not talking about exactly the same thing.

• Paul is addressing the question of how one is saved.
• James is addressing the question of if one is saved.
• Paul is talking Gen. 15.
• James is talking Gen. 22.
• Paul is talking initial faith apart from works.
• James is talking continued faith demonstrated by works.

What we find, though, is that both perspectives are absolutely necessary and taken together they form the basis for an orthodox understanding of salvation.

• W/o Paul we’d be left open to the heresy which says, “I’m saved by my good works.”
• W/o James we’d be left to the heresy which says, “I’m saved by faith alone…in such a manner that works are now not essential or necessary to my life as a saved individual.”
• But taken together we get this holy tension that, in my mind at least, produces the beautiful effect that is the totally free, completely life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ.

*Concerning this seeming “contradiction” b/t James and Paul I was helped tremendously by John Piper’s sermon, “Does James Contradict Paul?” (manuscript link | audio link).

A prayer to remember this morning as we go to the house of the Lord:

We are going to the house of prayer

pour upon us the spirit of grace and supplication;

We are going to the house of praise,

awaken in us every grateful and cheerful emotion;

We are going to the house of instruction,

give testimony to the Word preached,

and glorify it in the hearts of all who hear;

may it enlighten the ignorant,

awaken the careless, reclaim the wandering,

establish the weak, comfort the feeble-minded,

make ready a people for their Lord.

—Taken from the, “First Day Morning: Worship” in The Valley of Vision

Back in June I wrote up a few tips on how to get out of the doghouse.  It was inspired by a JCPenney’s advertising campaign.  Here’s JCPenney’s latest installment in this series.  Funny.

I was ordained by my church  last weekend.  I was given a gift to spend on books/supplies/whatever would help me in my ministry of preaching.  Needless to say for anyone who knows me, I spent every dime of it on books!

I do hope to post about what a wonderful, sobering, and worshipful experience it was being ordained, but for now I’ll share how I spent the ordination gift money.  I considered using it to buy a set of NT commentaries, but I’ve already got several complete sets that are great (Calvin, Expositor’s, MacArthur, Henry, Barnes, et al).  Instead I went through and worked on my Amazon Wish List.  With the monies given I was able to buy twenty different titles and still manage to have a few bucks leftover.  Yes!

Here are the books that are in the mail and on their way to my house right now. If you’re tantalized by any of these works, feel free to click through the links and buy your own copy. None of them were too expensive, and they all came highly recommend to me through various friends, acquaintances, or other related books.

(If you’re viewing this post through an email or Facebook note, you may need to visit my site in order for it to be displayed correctly.)

(If you’re viewing this in an email or on Facebook the video may not be displayed below. If that’s the case, click-though here to watch it on my site)



[HT: Rev Kev]

The church I pastor just launched a new site: eastwoodbaptistonline.com.  Go check it out!

Writing for the IX Marks’ Church Matters blog, Kevin DeYoung articulates a view toward ministers learning to be themselves when they speak.

He writes,

“One of the hardest things for any preacher to learn, especially young preachers, is to simply be yourself….But your congregation needs to hear you on Sunday, not an impression of the preacher you wish you were.”

These are needed words.  Read the rest of his post here.