I'm going to be on TV

I don't normally write blogs about what's going on in my life, but this is an interesting thing that has recently happened to me. We have someone in our church who works at TBN, (yes you read that right), and has asked Chuck (our youth minister) and myself if we'd be willing to be interviewed. We both said yes. But what I am finding difficult is what I want to talk about.

This blog is based on the fact that I have the message of God burning within and I can't hold it or I will explode. These interviews that we are to do will be on the one "non-religious" programming that the FCC (not florida christian college) requires TBN to carry. Therefore, we are not allowed to talk at length about Jesus, the church, or things of a spiritual nature. My topic is to discuss family. So my concern is, how do I talk about family without talking about Jesus?

This is not an easy thing for me. I believe that Jesus is at the core of the family unit. I believe that without a proper understanding of God and His plan of creation and redemption, then we can not properly understand the dynamics of a family. I guess I did not realize how difficult the task would be when I agreed.

What I plan on doing is focusing my efforts on the externals of a family, how sin has caused the break down of the family (won't use the word sin of course) and what a proper family would look like. Please pray for Chuck and myself as we try to figure out how to be true to God in this task.

Who's Writing Our Sermons?

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." I Corinthians 1:21-25

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." I Corinthians 2:12-13

Paul was very clear on this matter. He did not author this message of Christ and Christ crucified. Not Paul, nor any Jew, nor any Gentile had authored this message which Paul preached. It's too crazy to the world! How ridiculous does it seem to us that God, the master and creator of the universe would be willing to die for a creation that had rejected Him? How many husbands would naturally be inclined to welcome back a wife who had cheated on him multiple times and had never shown much affection for him? Better yet, what if your friend kept taking back a wife who had cheated on him multiple times? What kind of words would you use to describe that friend? Most of the words would have derived from one, "foolish."

Paul's message was so crazy, that it had to have come from God. Paul takes no credit for the message he preached. How can preachers learn from this? By asking the question, "who writes my sermons?" I am finding that far too often there is a tendency for preachers today to fill their sermons with the wisdom of this world. We begin with a need we see in the world and then search for that scripture which helps us to alleviate the pain of that need. We then get caught up in "writing" sermons, chocked full of ideas, stories, and advice.

But preaching is not a religious advice talk. It is not just another form of communication. It is the means by which God has ordained for the truth of the Gospel to be spread. It is by hearing that sinners are saved, it is by the power of the Word that the dead are brought to life. Life is inherent in the words of Christ and if that life is to be had, then it is the words of Christ that must be spoken in our sermons. We need to be sold out on the fact that God is the author of our sermons. He does the writing, we do the preaching. That's how it worked for Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, Peter, Luther, Spurgeon, and all other faithful ministers of the Word. Where God spoke, they spoke.

So who writes our sermons? Do we spend more time digging for truth in the text or more time thinking of a creative way to explain the text? Is our energy in understanding and applying God's word to our own lives or in figuring out how to captivate people's attention? Are the sermons we preach full of scripture and the power of the cross or are they full of quotations and the power of the laugh? Who is writing your sermons?

Striped Candy Worship

It is now common practice in most evangelical churches to offer the people, especially the young people, a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction. It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God's professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games, and refreshments.

This has influenced the whole pattern of church life, and even brought into being a new type of church architecture designed to house the golden calf.

So we have the strange anomaly of orthodoxy in creed and heterodoxy in practice. The striped candy technique has been so fully integrated into our present religious thinking that it is simply taken for granted. Its victims never dream that it is not a part of the teachings of Christ and His apostles.

Any objections to the carryings-on of our present golden calf Christianity is met with the triumphant reply, "But we are winning them!" And winning them to what? To true discipleship? To cross carrying? To self denial? To separation from the world? To crucifixion of the flesh? To holy living? To nobility of character? To a despising of the world's treasures? To hard self-discipline? To love for God? To total commital to Christ? Of course, the answer to all these questions is "no."

Quote from "Man: The Dwelling Place of God." by A.W. Tozer

When were these words written? Take a guess. I can't be exactly sure, but sometime during the 50's or early 60's when A.W. Tozer was editor of The Alliance. I'm sure the talk about striped candy tipped you off that they may have been written a while ago, but the part about how the church looks sounds eerily familiar.

I especially am drawn to the response of some when we confront them with talk of "golden calf Christianity." "But we are winning them," they say. And Tozer replies winning them to what? If anything makes my heart burn it is this. What are our churches winning people to? We see baptisms and memberships, but are these things our mission? Is that what we are here for?

Lately I've been listening to John Piper's sermon series on John. A thought from John, (the Gospel, not Piper) is pounding in my head. That there were a group of people who believed in the signs and wonders of Jesus, but Jesus would not entrust Himself to them. What is that all about? People were showing up in crowds and really believed that He could do miracles, but He was rejecting them. Why? Doesn't Jesus want everybody? Why would He reject those who come believing?

Because, it says in John 3, He knew their hearts. He knew that they were coming for the striped candy, for the miracles. And Jesus is no candy man. He is not a peddler of sweet satisfaction, but the Savior of sinners. We love to quote II Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." We focus on the wishing part and not the repentance. But what does Peter go on to say?

II Peter 3:10-11, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!"

We are not attracting people with striped candy. Our worship is not for them. Our small groups are not for them. Our churches are not for them. Our worship is backwards because our theology is backwards, and our theology is backwards because our worship is backwards. It begins, is sustained, and ends with the glory of God. Let us stop making our striped candy and start proclaiming the saving power and riches of Jesus Christ!

What Think Ye Of Christ?

"Ordained into the Church of England ministry in 1842, he (Reverend William Haslam) served conscientiously in a parish of North Cornwall. He was a Tractarian clergyman with a hearty dislike for dissenters, and an authority in things antiquarian and architectural. But he was not satisfied, having no spring of living water within him. Then in 1851, nine years after his ordination, while preaching the gospel of the day on the text, 'What think ye of Christ?', the Holy Spirit (in answer no doubt to many prayers) opened his eyes to see the Christ of whom he was speaking, and his heart to believe in him. The change which came over him was so obvious that a local preacher, who happened to be in church, jumped up and shouted, 'The parson is converted! Hallelujah!', at which hi svoice was drowned by the praises of 300 or 400 of the congregation. As for Haslam himself, he 'joined in the outburst of praise, and, to make it more orderly... gave out the Doxology... and the people sang it with heart and voice, over and over again.' The news spread like wildfire 'that the parson was converted, and that by his own sermon, in his own pulpit!' His conversion was the beginning of a great revival in his parish, which lasted for nearly three years, with a vivid sense of God's presence, and conversions almost daily, while in later years God called him into the most unusual ministry of leading many of his fellow clergy to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ." (Stott Between Two Worlds pg 263)

Thought this was an interesting story of how the Holy Spirit can work in spite of the preacher... the exception rather than the rule, but interesting nonetheless.