Be Yourself As a Preacher

Kevin DeYoung at the 9Marks blog:

One of the hardest things for any preacher to learn, especially young preachers, is to simply be yourself. Don’t put on someone else’s passion or humor or learning. And don’t take off your own personality because one of your heroes doesn’t share it exactly. Go ahead and learn from the best. But your congregation needs to hear you on Sunday, not an impression of the preacher you wish you were. Let your person constantly be refined by the Spirit of God, and let the truth of God’s word shine through your own personality. Preach as a dying man to dying men. And don’t forget to be your own man.

Read the entire, typically-Kevin (funny and insightful) post here.

Consecration

That's a word I don't hear much any more: "consecration." It's a great word, smooth to start then crunchy. Say it: "consecration."

When I was a new Christian, I used to hear talk of consecration a lot. That's probably because a lot of the people I knew then were Pentecostals, neo-Pentecostals, Bapticostals, charismatics, and the like. And to their credit, these people took holiness seriously. I don't mean they were narrow and legalistic, or that they had a superficial idea of holiness. I mean they genuinely wanted to be "laid aside" or "set apart" for God's use. They taught me to pray for and to seek to be consecrated unto the Lord. Looking back, I think this was really formative.

But over the years, to be honest, I don't know that I pray that as fervently any more or that I hear many people in my circles speak this way. Sometimes it's because some of my circle is "garden variety" evangelical. There's more talk about "engagement with the culture" and "culture wars" than there is talk about being "set apart." Some of my friends are just plain pragmatists; they want to "do something that works" and maybe aren't all that concerned about the interior life. Sometimes it's perhaps because some in my circle of friends have really great theology, and maybe they demur at less precise understandings of holiness. Maybe the idea of consecration suffers from its association with Pentecostalism because many people historically have held condescending and class-prejudiced views of Pentecostals.

I don't really know what the mix of reasons are. But I was struck fresh this morning when I read this: "David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites... and said to them, 'You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites. Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it." (1 Chr. 15:4, 12).

I heard that smooth and crunchy sounding word and thought, Consecrate yourself. Set yourself apart. Yes, you're set apart in Christ, and you're committed to the cause of the gospel ministry. But consecrate yourself. Renew your spirit toward the Lord and seek afresh to be wholly His. Present your body as a living sacrifice unto the Lord, holy and acceptable.

Then the Lord began to address me more directly by His word:

If then, Thabiti, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Thabiti, set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then, Thabiti, you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you [consecrate yourself]: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. Thabiti, in these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away [consecrate yourself]: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, Thabiti, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

And whatever you do, Thabiti, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:1-10, 12-15, 17)

That's for me this morning. Consecrate yourself afresh. Put off the old man, put on the new. Put to death whatever is earthly, set your mind on Christ above. Consecrate yourself.

Oh Lord, renew a right spirit within me. I need the renewing work of your Spirit today! Grant me this heavenly mindedness, the mortification of sin and earthly desire, the putting on of Christ, and the seeking after your glory!

How about you? Are you consecrated unto the Lord and His purposes today? Is your heart and mind and body fully set apart for Him?

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The Perfect Substitute

Love the Truth

We had a wonderful time in Bible study last night at church. I love our Wednesday night meetings; they're filled with such joy in the word and eager fellowship one with another. We've been working our way a couple verses at a time through 2 Thessalonians. In recent weeks we've been considering chapter two, with all its interesting and sometimes difficult discussion of apostasy, the "man of lawlessness," and "the one who now holds it back". Interesting, humbling, shocking, and energizing time.

Last night we considered verses 10b-12:

"They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness."

Just before these verses the text reads: "The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan and displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing" (v. 9-10a).

Consider the sweep of things detailed in this passage:

First comes Satanic power displayed in supernatural acts that deceive.
Second is the refusal of some to love the truth and be saved.
Finally God sends a "powerful delusion" that seals people in the lie they believe and condemns them eternally.

Satanic deception. Human self-deception. Divine delusion that dooms.

This scene is horrible! It's unimaginable for so many who fancy themselves "enlightened" and think of a passage like this as pre-scientific. And surely that's part of the deception and the refusal to love the truth that God will in His glorious righteousness judge with a powerful delusion, a continuing delusion, a condemning delusion.

But we must not lose sight of this: God is ruling throughout 2 Thessalonians 2. There is no evil--not even that of Satan himself--that goes unbounded by the power and judgment of God. And there is no evil in the history of the world that will not finally be "destroyed by the splendor of Jesus' coming" (v. 8). And there is no wickedness in men that will not be condemned (v. 12). And in it all, God will be exalted and glorified and praised for all eternity (Rev.).

And so, we don't merely "accept" the truth of 2 Thessalonians. We don't just acknowledge it and go on to more "pleasant" things. We don't look at these realities and grudgingly admit them to our understanding of the faith. No. We are to love the truth--all of it. We are to rejoice and exult in the truth of God's Son--crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended, returning, judging and reigning. All of it, and all of its implications, are to be loved... lest we in any way resemble those who "refused to love the truth" and who "believed the lie" and who "delighted in wickedness." For what our God does, He does well. What appears horrible to us (the strong delusion that condemns)--and is horrible--is also glorious and will be seen to be glorious when we more fully sympathize with God in His holiness and not with man in his sin.

"What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory--even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?" (Rom. 9:22-24).

If I might attempt a perhaps too simplistic reduction... "What if God prepared some for wrath and destruction so that those he prepared for mercy and glory would better know the riches of his glory?" What if God wants to show the riches of His glory by having an eternal contrast between those prepared for destruction and those prepared for glory? And what if some knowing more fully the riches of His glory justifies God's preparation of some as objects of His wrath?

What would make such an action by God "defensible" or even "worth it"? It must be that the "riches of His glory" are so indescribably "worth it," and the expression of that glory not only defensible but the highest possible good, that God is right to act in this way. Seeing and savoring the glory of God must be so ineffably splendid and wonderful that God determines that even the horrible contrast between the eternal state of the wicked and the righteous would be a good and right way of making that glory known to the universe.

Can you imagine a God so wonderful in glory that even the just damnation of sinners makes His glory to shine forth even more?!

Behold your God--awesome and terrible in all His ways. Behold Him, love Him, fear Him, and worship Him.

Five Things I Need to Remember as a Pastor Today

"Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen" (Heb. 13:20-21).

1. I need to remember the resurrection of our Lord.

God the Father raised His Son from the dead just as He planned. And that changes everything. Life triumphs over death, eternity trumps time, glory follows suffering. It was "the God of peace" who purchased peace for us through the sacrifice of Jesus (Eph. 2:14). "By the blood of an eternal covenant" my Father in Heaven purposed that I, too, should share in resurrected life with Jesus. Whatever affliction awaits in the ministry, whatever suffering and hardships come, even if I should despair of life and feel crushed to death, I'm being taught to "rely not on myself but on God who raises the dead" (2 Cor. 1:8-9). The hope of the resurrection teaches me to abandon myself and trust more fully in my Father, and it teaches me that this life does not have the last say-so. The Life to come does.

2. I need to remember that Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep at FBC.

What good news that is! I'm going to experience countless limitations and failures today. I'm going to see people who need real and deep help. I'm going to encounter people undergoing tremendous suffering, receiving wounds and scars sometimes the length of their souls. I'm going to have to put aside a hundred good tasks, in order to do the more essential. That will be the correct decision, but I'll still agonize over the 100 other good things. There will be sheep I can't find today. There will be sheep who feed on brown, worthless fields rather than the lush green fields of our Lord's fold. There will be sheep who look and act like goats. There will be sheep entangled in the thicket of sin and worldliness. And I won't be the shepherd they need. I won't get it all done. I'll finish the day with a good exhaustion from trying. But it won't be enough. So how wonderful that the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd says, "I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak...." (Ezek. 34:14-16; read all of Ezekiel 34 and John 10). The Great Shepherd uses us under-shepherds, but He is providing for all the Sheep himself without fail. So I can rest after an imperfect day, sleep through the night, and rise tomorrow to again joyfully face pastoral limitations and failures with zeal.

3. I need to remember that God equips me with everything I need to do His will.

"His divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature..." (2 Pet. 1:3-4a). In His word I find sufficient equipment for all the tasks of pastoral ministry. "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). He equips me with His Spirit, His word, His promises, and everything else needed for competence in every good work. I don't need my own equipment or ideas or strategies; I simply need to reach into the toolbox the Lord supplies and withdraw the equipment He provides.

4. I need to remember that I not only want to please God but He is the one working in me so that I will please Him through Christ.

How amazing is that? The power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us who believe. That power is "working in us that which is pleasing in His sight." I'm not only created unto good works (Eph. 2:10) "out there," but God is at work in me to will and to do His good pleasure. The Lord is producing in me the things that He finds lovely and commendable. I'm not producing it by sheer grit and determination, or by genius and cultured habit. If there is anything good in me, it's because the Lord God is working it in me through Jesus Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ. It is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). Oh, how I need to remember this today in pastoral ministry and the Christian life!

5. I need to remember God gets all the glory.

To Jesus Christ be all the glory forever and ever, Amen! "Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory because of your love and faithfulness" (Ps. 115:1). He lived in perfect righteousness for me, He died brutally for me, He swallowed the cup of God's wrath for me, He rose from the grave for me, ascended to the right hand of the Father for me, and He's coming again for me. So to HIM be all the glory forever and ever, Amen! He was resurrected, He shepherds, He it is who equips, He works in men. To HIM be all the glory and honor and praise forever!

I so desperately need to hold onto this divine benediction today: "Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

What about you?

Who Makes You Laugh on Tuesdays?

There are Friday Funnies at GirlTalk.

Kevin DeYoung devotes Mondays to starting with a laugh.

But who makes you laugh on Tuesdays?

Today, it's comedian Michael, Jr. for me. Check him out...

Jesus' lil' brother



Father Abraham




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Mohler at UofL

Here's audio of Al Mohler speaking at the University of Louisville about his book, Atheism Remix. Mohler comments on the event itself here.

Celebrity and Riches Don't Have to Destroy You

Mockingbird has interesting and encouraging short post about a somewhat unusual species... an athlete, singer, movie star, politician who lives to give away all that he earns to those in need. He's the modern-day opposite of the rich young ruler... and of professing Christians who love the world and wealth.

Oh, how I pray the Lord would raise up more Manny Pacquiaos, and that He would make me one as well!

Bruh Ripped It Up!

Was thrilled to have a front row seat for this one!



See JT (HT) for the lyrics.

Edwards on Pride

Quoted at Christ Is Deeper Still:

"There is no sin so much like the devil as this for secrecy and subtlety and appearing in a great many shapes undiscerned and unsuspected, even appearing as an angel of light. It takes occasion to arise from everything, it perverts and abuses everything, even the exercises of real grace and real humility. It is a sin that has, as it were, many lives. If you kill it, it will live still. If you suppress it in one shape, it rises in another. If you think it is all gone, it is there still. Like the coats of an onion, if you pull one form of it off, there is another underneath. We need therefore to have the greatest watch imaginable over our hearts and to cry most earnestly to the great Searcher of hearts for his help. He that trusts his own heart is a fool."

Jonathan Edwards, Thoughts on the New England Revival, page 155, edited slightly

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