I finished up chapter four of 1st Timothy this past weekend with my church.  We’re doing a verse-by-verse study through this book and last Sunday I preached a sermon titled “Five Lessons on Pastoral Leadership” out of I Tim. 4:12-16.

Timothy was a young pastor serving in a church where many, even other leaders, were significantly older and possibly more experienced than him.  This undoubtedly proved difficult as Paul urged him to confront false teaching and wayward leaders.

I too am a young pastor.  I serve in a church where many, including all the deacons and lay-leaders, are older than me and have served in this particular church longer than I’ve been around.

How was Timothy to address these situations?  How am I to address the people God has called me to serve?  This sermon seeks to provide a biblical response to these and other related questions.

Here’s a brief outline and commentary of what I shared:

1. Lead by Example

(I Tim. 4:12)—Whatever the reasons people may have for not wanting to follow the leadership of a person younger than themselves, Paul here says to Timothy to live in such a way that those reasons cannot substantially be claimed.

2. Lead by the Word

(I Tim. 4:13)—The leadership of a pastor should be, first and foremost, directed from and manifested out of the authority of the Word of God.  Leaders lead per their devotion to the Scriptures and their delivery of the Scriptures.

3. Lead by Being Yourself

(I Tim. 4:14)—Timothy had been given a gift by God for leading God’s people.  The text doesn’t say, but maybe it was something like the gift of teaching, discernment, or prophecy.  Whatever it was, Paul urged Timothy to be the leader God had created, called, and gifted him to be.  No apologies necessary for being the person God made you to be!

4. Lead by Hard Work and Growth

(I Tim. 4:15)—Devote yourself completely to living out the Christian faith (i.e. ‘leading by example’), to preaching the Word (a la ‘leading by the Word’), and being comfortable in your own spiritual skin, so to speak (that is, ‘leading by being yourself’).  As you do this you will grow as a person and as a leader.  Let your followers see this progress!

5. Lead by Faithfulness

(I Tim. 4:16)—Paul sums up these instructions with the command to “persist in this”—that is, be faithful in carrying out and existing within all these things I’ve told you about.  People want a leader they can count on.  It’s very simple, though not very easy.

Here’s the sermon audio:

Part 1

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Part 2

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A small taste of what I’m listening to this morning…

Here’s John MacArthur preaching to what I think are a group of graduates from The Master’s Seminary.  He is speaking from I Tim. 4:6-16.  His address is titled, “12 Marks of Excellent Pastoral Ministry.”

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MacArthur describes this address as “a wonderful summary of what ministries should look like.”  At sermon’s end he asks the question, “So what does a pastor do?”  His answer?

“[A pastor] makes the following commitments:

1. I will warn my people of error.
2. I will devote myself to the study of Scripture.
3. I will avoid the influence of unholy teaching that sucks out my conviction.
4. I will discipline myself in godliness.
5. I will work hard.
6. I will teach with divine authority.
7. I will endeavor to be a model of spiritual virtue.
8. I will maintain a thoroughly Biblical ministry.
9. I will employ my spiritual gift and not neglect it.
10. I will be passionate about this privileged work.
11. I will let all see my growth in grace
12. [I will] persevere with endurance to complete the task that God gives me…”

Anyone else been listening to good sermons lately?  Do share in the comments below.

I preached out of 1 Tim. 4:1-3 this past weekend (sermon available here).  Its a passage where Paul warns Timothy about certain prevalent heresies which involved the forbidding of marriage and abstinence from certain types of foods.  Paul explains that these heresies had supernatural origins.  They were the deceptive and influential teachings of demons.

Among a few other things, this passage serves as an opportunity to address the ever-recurring problem of legalism within various religious sects.  A few examples:

• Hinduism—don’t eat meat
• Islam—don’t eat pork
• Jehovah’s Witnesses—don’t celebrate holidays
• Latter-Day Saints/Mormons—don’t consume caffeine

At this point everyone was nodding along in agreement.  Its easy to see the error of other people’s ways.  However, as Christians we certainly are not immune to this sort of extra-biblical ‘prohibitioning.’  We do the exact same thing, only in our own little Christian way.  So many Christian groups (including my own SBC) have this perfect picture of what a good Christian is supposed to look like:

• You can’t listen to rock, country, or rap music—only gospel music
• You can’t drink alcohol
• You can’t smoke cigarettes
• You can’t get any tattoos
• If you’re a man, you must have short hair
• If you’re a woman, you must have long hair
• Etc.

As you can see we certainly have our own brands of legalism.  And taken to extremes I believe, along with the Apostle Paul (see 1 Tim. 4:1), these legalistic doctrines are the “teachings of demons” as they influence and trickle their way through parishes and congregations all over the world.

If you’ve got a church where someone is a liar and everyone knows about it and just sort of accepts it, but a woman who is addicted to smoking cigarettes walks in to your church and is looked down upon….you’ve got a problem.

If you’ve got a church where its unspoken and understood that a certain group of persons love to gossip and everyone just quietly sweeps that issue under the rug, but a guy walks into your worship service with long hair, tattoos up and down his arms, and he’s sporting a t-shirt with a big, bold Budweiser logo across the front—if the first thing you think is, “Well, we’ve got to either get this guy cleaned up so that he looks more like us or else we’ve got to get him out of here”…..then you’ve got a problem.

And the problem is legalism.  Consider what legalism accomplishes:

1. It robs the Bible of its authority
   →Instead, it says “Here, let our way of doing things tell you what to do.”
2. It steals the conscience of its purpose
   →And replaces it with “Well, I’ll tell you what is right and wrong.”
3. It denies the Holy Spirit of his life-changing power
   →In its place is the line, “If you were serious about your walk, you would force yourself to do this or not do that”
4. It strips the gospel of its message of salvation by grace
   →And instead argues subconsciously that “You can save yourself if you’ll dress a certain way, if you’ll learn to talk a certain way, if you”’ only listen to a certain type of music, only pay attention to these particular preachers, and only read from one particular version of the Bible, etc.”

Legalism is bad stuff.  And I’m afraid that its everywhere.  What else would you say legalism accomplishes? I’m sure there’s more.  I’ve only listed four things.

I’ve been preaching through 1st Timothy with my church for a few months now.  Recently I’ve been sensing a weariness with the series—both on my part as well as on the part of my parishioners.

Here’s what we’ve covered so far:

1. An Introduction to 1st Timothy (Various passages)
2. The Test of Sound Doctrine—Part 1 (I Tim. 1:1-11)
3. The Test of Sound Doctrine—Part 2 (I Tim. 1:3-11)
4. Paul’s Personal Testimony (I Tim. 1:12-17)
5. Holding Faith and a Good Conscience (I Tim. 1:18-20)
6. Evangelistic Prayer in the Church (I Tim. 2:1-7)
7. How to Behave in the House of God (I Tim. 2:8-15)
8. The Man and the Ministry—Part 1 (I Tim. 3:1-7)
9. The Man and the Ministry—Part 2 (I Tim. 3:1-7)
10. The Man and the Ministry—Part 3 (I Tim. 3:1-7)
11. The Ministry of Deacons—Part 1 (I Tim. 3:8-13)
12. The Ministry of Deacons—Part 2 (I Tim. 3:8-13)
13. Paul’s Reminder to Timothy (I Tim. 3:14-16)

You can see from the references that we’ve just finished chapter 3.  That’s exactly halfway through the letter.  Because we’re halfway (and b/c of the weariness I mentioned), we’re going to take a brief halftime.

This past Lord’s Day I began what should be a three week hiatus from our series.  I plan on resuming and diving head first into I Tim. 4 on May 16th, the Sunday after Mother’s Day.

In the meantime we’re going to do a few different things with our sermons.  Yesterday we preached through Jesus’ series of teachings that centered upon the parable of the sower in Mark 4:1-32.

Here’s the audio for those two messages:

• The Parable of the Sower—Part 1 (Mark 4:1-20)
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• The Parable of the Sower—Part 2 (Mark 4:21-32)
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Howard Pyle illustration of pirates burying treasure, from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates.

Jesus taught this great and sobering principle in his Sermon on the Mount (see especially Matt. 6:19-21).  His point is as simple as it is profound—that the things we value reveal the people we truly are.  The guy who values his wife and kids can rightly be described as a family-man.  The person who values his money and toys can rightly be described as a selfish man.  You see how this works.

Regarding a professing Christian’s giving record to a local church or donations to gospel-sharing missions organizations (e.g the IMB or GFA), this same principle can also be applied—whether and how much percent we give reveals the persons we truly are in relation to our Savior’s mandate to go and tell the world the gospel.

If you turn Jesus’ statement in Matt. 6:21 upside down it really adds valuable perspective.  Not only is it true that ‘where our treasure is, there are hearts will be also,’ but its also equally true that ‘where are treasure is not, there are hearts will also fail to be.’

If you’re not giving to the cause of sharing God’s good news of salvation through Jesus Christ then your heart is not where God’s heart is.  And friends, that’s not a good place to be.

Giving can take many shapes.  It’s not only shaped like a dollar sign.  It can take the shape of your time, effort, care, prayers, and many other wonderful and worthy-to-be-treasured forms.  I’m here to tell you, though, if your giving doesn’t also include the shape of a dollar sign, then something’s wrong.

(This post discusses one point out of five that I preached to my church in a sermon titled, “Living Distraction-Free for the Glory of God.”  That sermon can be listened to or downloaded here.)

I had heard of Bryan Chapell before, and I have had his book, Christ-Centered Preaching, recommended to me before—but I had never heard him preach.  I was not disappointed.  He has quickly become one of my favorites!

Does anyone know where I can find more sermons by him?

There are certainly more reasons than this.  Given that these students were following a schedule and soon had to be in another class I had to keep my comments brief.  So help me out.

What are some other reasons that we should ‘love our enemies?’

I’ve been preaching through the book of 1st Timothy now for just over two months.  This past weekend I finished a mini-series of three sermons on the qualifications for ministry.  I’ve titled these messages, “The Man and the Ministry.”

“The Man and the Ministry—Part 1″

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“The Man and the Ministry—Part 2″

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“The Man and the Ministry—Part 3″

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Last night I preached on the stand of faith taken by Joshua and Caleb in Numbers 13 & 14.  Perhaps you’re familiar with the story.

Directed by God’s leadership, Moses sends 12 spies into the Promised Land on a reconnaissance mission—to check out the land and the people.

The spies do that and return.  Their report is that the land is good but that the people there and their cities are too strong to be successfully conquered.  All of them felt this way except for two: Joshua and Caleb (more about them in a moment).

This report upsets the people of Israel greatly, so much so that instead of advancing forward into the land God had promised them they would rather go back into Egypt and be slaves.

At the heart of my sermon was a comparison between the “evil report” of the spies and and the stand of faith taken by Joshua and Caleb.

5 Observations Concerning Those Who Fell Prey to the ‘Evil Report’:

• They took their eyes off of the purposes and power of God and placed them on the problems they saw in front of them.
• They placed their faith in themselves instead of in the Lord.
• They grew content in a ‘backslidden’ state.
• They were afraid to take risks for the kingdom of God.
• The murmured and complained themselves into misery.

5 Observations Concerning the Faith of Joshua and Caleb:

• They experienced great grief over sin among God’s people (Num. 14:6)
• They knew that what God promises is both good and desirable (Num. 14:7)
• They trusted God more than anyone or anything else (Num. 14:8)
• They submitted to God’s leadership and were not afraid to advance into enemy territory (Num. 14:9)
• They did all of these things even though it wasn’t the popular thing to do (Num. 14:10)

Sermon Audio:

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• (Download link on this page)

Ananias restoring the sight of Saint Paul, by Pietro da Cortona

(Note: this is a follow-up post to “Learning from the Apostle Paul: Sharing Your Testimony”)

I’m continuing to preach my way verse-by-verse through Paul’s 1st Letter to Timothy with my church.  Lord willing, we should wrap up the first chapter this Lord’s Day.

A couple of weeks ago I preached a sermon on “Paul’s Personal Testimony” out of I Tim. 1:12-17.  I’ve already posted some thoughts from that sermon.  This post seeks to draw seven practical conclusions from Paul’s salvation story.

Our testimonies should make Jesus look good.

• Notice how in I Tim. 1:12 it’s all about Jesus—Paul says he’s thankful to Christ, strengthened by Christ, counted faithful by Christ, and placed in ministry by Christ.  There’s a whole lot of Christ there…and that’s definitely to be a lesson for us.

Our testimonies should stir our hearts with affection and praise toward God.

• After Paul has finished sharing the details of his testimony its as if he just can’t help it but to burst forth into praise.  See in I Tim. 1:17 how he all of a sudden jumps into a word or adoration to his God.

God’s grace is enough.

• It didn’t matter that Paul was said to be the “foremost” of all sinners (I Tim. 1:15), when God’s grace “overflowed” in his life it was more than enough to to save and transform him forever (I Tim. 1:14).

The message of Christ is not simply about getting better, it’s about getting saved.

• I love how in these verses Paul gives a sort of Jesus-statement-manifesto (I Tim. 1:15).  He says unapologetically that the reason Jesus came into the world was to save sinners.  It wasn’t merely to help us become better people.  It wasn’t to help us figure out who we are.  Those things are good and do come with it, but the reason Jesus came was to save us.

It is possible to be very religious and yet not be saved at all.

• We know from another passage of Scripture (Phil. 3:4-6) that the ‘pre-Christian’ Paul was a super-religious guy.  And yet here we learn that he was the worst sinner of them all.  It just goes to show you that being a good person and playing by all the religious rules won’t get you anywhere with God.  He’s got to save you.  Apart from that we’re without hope.

No one is good enough to be saved.

• This is very similar to the point above.  Simply put: no one can earn there way into a right relationship with God.  I don’t care what good deeds you do or how long you’ve been doing them, God’s Word says that even if we only break one of God’s rules, its as if we’re guilty of them all (James 2:10)

No one is bad enough that they can’t be saved.

• Paul was the worst—he said so himself (I Tim. 1:15).  And yet God saved him.  That gives hope to even those who think themselves the most lost of all causes.  God can save you.

What else can we learn from Paul’s testimony?  I know there’s more.  Help me out.

Archangel Michael fighting Satan on the Coat of Arms of Arkhangelsk, Russia.

I’m not one who typically gets into material on spiritual warfare—demons, Satanic influence, doing battle in invisible realms, etc.  I certainly believe in all of that, but I think that many who speak and teach on it are WAY too confident in their assertions and are dabbling arrogantly in things that they shouldn’t be.

That being said, I stumbled upon an excellent treatment of the subject by John MacArthur.  No surprise there—MacArthur is a master at sifting through troves of information and presenting the best of it in a clear and compelling manner.

I’ve been listening through his series on 1st Timothy (to see how’s its done!)—because I am currently preaching through 1st Timothy.  He does a two-part deal on I Tim. 1:18-19, a passage where Paul charges Timothy to “wage the good warfare.”

MacArthur uses the first part of this sermon to spread out and explain as much biblical data as he can on the subject of spiritual warfare.  He begins with the fall of Satan and works his way all through to making the point that, as Christians, we are indeed in a war.  Therefore, we should live like it.

Click here to read the sermon’s manuscript over at the Grace to You site.  Or listen below in the media player (which may not be functioning properly if you’re reading this in an email subscription or on Facebook).  If you can’t see the player below you’ll need to click-through to my site and view the original post.

• John MacArthur’s, “Fighting the Noble War—Part 1″

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Would you lend a hand (or book)?

Any good, solid resources related to this subject that you’d be willing to recommend?  I’m all ears.

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

Enjoy.

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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 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”
  

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

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

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

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

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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.

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• 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.

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.

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• 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).

Ever preached a sermon that you were super proud of?  You know the one.  You finish and you’re satisfied the way it turned out.  You hope that the sound guys got it recorded because you’ll want to keep a copy of it.  You just nailed it?  Well, this one’s definitely not one of those.

Not that that is at all the type of attitude we preachers should have.  However, I’d imagine any of you other pastors would agree that sometimes what comes out during a sermon doesn’t come out as well as we planned and would have liked for it to.  This sermon is one of those for me.