One of the best sermons I’ve ever heard.

Check out this video of excepts from John Piper’s message at the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference:

John Piper – Recap from T4G 2008 from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

I remember sitting in that convention center with thousands of other men as Pastor John unpacked these passages from the book of Hebrews on radical sacrifice.  Everyone else in that huge room faded away, at times even Piper, and I knew God was speaking to me – building my faith, granting me repentance, quickening my spirit, pouring out his grace, rekindling my love, calling me to obedience, and enlightening my eyes to see more and more of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I can hardly wait to go back in April of 2010.

You can hear Piper’s whole 2008 T4G message here.  I highly recommend it.

New Undergraduate Program

If someone interested in a Christian degree program were coming to me asking for my recommendation, I would hands down point them to the new undergrad program at Bethlehem College and Seminary.  The program’s degree plan and curriculum truly looks wonderful, and the cost is unbelievably affordable when compared not just to other private Christian schools, but to public universities, as well.

Check out a blog post about the program here.

Jim Hamilton’s First Pastorate

Jim Hamilton, the man who took my hand in a Greek class five years ago and led me to cultivate a love for the Bible, recently wrote about his first pastorate at Baptist Church of the Redeemer in Missouri City, Texas.  You should read the whole thing by clicking here.  But this is my favorite part:

Do you want singles in their late 20s and early 30s confessing anxiety about finding a mate, asking you to pray for them to trust the Lord’s providence in their lives? Do you want guys confessing their struggles with pornography as they seek to join the church? Do you want people with real problems (homosexual urges and the fallout from past sexual sin, whether lingering STD’s or guilt from an abortion) joining the church and coming for counsel in their struggle against sin? Do you want guys coming to you because they’re afraid of the way they’ve been rough with their wives and they don’t want it to go any further, so they’re seeking accountability?

You don’t get this from wearing cool clothes, having a trendy name for your church or learning to preach from comedians. If it comes – and if the authenticity about “big” sins is accompanied by authenticity about “acceptable” sins – it will come by the power of the Spirit through the preaching of the Word. The Bible convinces us to quit playing games. The Bible shows us the beauty of holiness. The Bible convicts us of the worth of this treasure, and we sell all we have – or risk exposing our sin – to buy the field in which the treasure lies.

Proverbs 20:5

The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water,
but a man of understanding will draw it out.
- Proverbs 20:5

Confusion is normal.  Especially when life is chaotic, when things don’t feel right, when we face unmet expectations, experiencing some discombobulation in our hearts and minds is common.  We are complex beings who exist as integrated bodies and souls.  We are physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual, and each of these parts of who we are is tied to all the others.  Our minds affect our hearts.  Our bodies affect our minds.  To complicate things even more, our minds and hearts can be divided – we can believe contradictory things, or feel contradictory emotions.

All of this can make the process of making sense of our internal experience very difficult.  Human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, but marred by the effects of sin, are deep.  That’s part of what Proverbs 20:5 is saying.  The purpose of my heart is hard to know.  I can’t just reach down to the bottom to see what is underneath everything I think and feel.

But God has provided us with one another.  When we sit down with men and women “of understanding,” they can help us get to the bottom of our internal dialogue.  They know how to ask the right questions that force us to articulate those thoughts that have previously existed in only half-processed, jumbled form in our minds.  They provoke insight and discernment.  They “draw out” our feelings and beliefs.

And most importantly, these “men of understanding” who God has placed in my life can see in me what I can’t see.  We all have blind spots.  There are areas of my life, problems and sins and issues, that totally evade my sight.  They never make a blip on my radar because I cannot see them.  God created us like this on purpose, needing one another.  I can see things about you that you can’t see.  And you can see things about me that I can’t see.  We need each other.  No man is an island.

That’s not to say that we can’t do any of this “drawing out” process on our own.  Journaling – doing the hard work of making ourselves understand what we think and feel and forcing ourselves to articulate these beliefs and feelings in complete thought-units – is one way that we can, over time, better understand what is going on in the depths of our hearts.

So I would encourage you when you are confused to take some time to dig down as far as you can by journaling, then take that to a wise, godly friend or counselor.  Find someone who can draw out of you those things that you couldn’t find on your own.  Look for people who ask those questions that make you give answers you that leave you surprised at your own words.

It is scary.  It takes trust.  It takes humility.  But it is worth it to know our hearts so that we can devote them wholly to Christ.

Proverbs 18:1

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire;
he breaks out against all sound judgment.
- Proverbs 18:1

God created us to be in community.  If you think back to the story of the beginning, the first thing God said was not good was that “man was alone.”  When God said that He would create man in His image, He used the first person plural:  “Let us create man in our image…” (Gen. 1:26).  Just as God is relational (He’s three Persons in one Being), so He created us to be in relationships with others.

Christians are born again into the family of God.  We have brothers and sisters who we are to walk through life with.  We are to love them and be loved by them.  God uses our relationships to keep us healthy and growing in Christlikeness.

Isolation is dangerous.  When we hide ourselves from others and don’t really allow ourselves to be known, we are rejecting one of God’s ordained means of grace in our lives.  We were never meant to walk through life alone, so when we do we will find that life is less than abundant and blessed.  Alone and in the darkness, we are more likely to follow the sinful desires of our flesh.  We have blind spots.  We talk ourselves into making wrong choices.  No one is wise by himself.  We need the counsel of others to enjoy wisdom.

Make sure you have someone (or two or three) who really knows you.  And keep a close watch on your life, making sure you do not become an island unto yourself.  Stay connected to the family of God.  Know and be known.  The reward is worth the risk.

Today I turn 15.

On this day 15 years ago, I was born again.  It was a Thursday night at Lake Tomahawk. All week long the preacher had been quoting to us Proverbs 14:12, which is repeated in Proverbs 16:25.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

“If God says something once, you need to listen,” the preacher said.  “But if God repeats Himself – if He says something twice – you’d really better sit up and pay attention.”

It had been a very fun week at camp.  I remember hanging out at the picnic tables down near the lake, gabbing and being goofy with my friends.  I can remember family group time being fun that year.  The week had really been great.  A real positive experience.

But Thursday night during a time of worship after the preaching, as we sang about God as our Fountain and King, something happened to me.  Suddenly I was overcome with a sense of awe at this God about whom we had been singing all week, about whom I had been singing my whole life.  The very same words that I had heard describe Christ for years sounded completely different:

There is a Fountain,
Who is the King,
Victorious Warrior,
And Lord of everything.

My Rock, my Shelter,
My very own
Blessed Redeemer,
Who reigns upon the throne.

My eyes were opened.  My hears finally heard.  The majesty of our God overwhelmed me.  I cried.  I was unable to speak.  I sunk down in my chair, devastated.

One of the teen counselors came to me and pulled me outside the open-air tabernacle.  We sat together on a bench crying for a while.  Then he asked me, “Do you know you’re a sinner.”  I nodded my head.  “And do you believe Jesus died to pay for your sins and rose again.”  Again, I nodded yes.  I was saved.  I believed.  I had faith.  I trusted Christ.  Totally overcome with God’s beauty and power, I simply gave up whatever pride it was I had at that tender age of 12 and bowed my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection Jesus Christ from the dead…  1 Peter 1:3

Sermon Upload: Psalm 1 – The Fruit of Righteousness

Here’s last Sunday’s sermon.  This might be the most personally meaningful sermon I’ve ever preached.  May the Lord add His blessing to the preaching of His Word.

The Fruit of Righteousness – Psalm 1

Upcoming Sermon Series: Living Songs

I haven’t finished my series on anxiety, but I am having to take a step back from working on it in order to get ready for the new sermon series that will begin this week at FBCMB.  This sermon prep is taking more time that usual.

We are going to spend four weeks in the psalms, the hymn book of ancient Israel.  I’m calling the series “Living Songs” for a couple of reasons.  First, these psalms are the Word of God, which is living and active.  These are not merely historical documents.  They are the words of life, speaking to hearts and souls today with the same power and authority as when God first inspired them.

But also, the psalms are about living.  They deal with life.  They instruct us on how we are supposed to respond to everything from joy and blessing and abundance to lack and distress and adversity.  They are God’s inspired words of men to God.  They are the expressions of men to God – men in pain, sorrow, grief, love, awe, fear, delight, and more – inspired by the Holy Spirit.

So much of the Bible teaches us propositional truths.  Paul’s letters come to mind.  He has such refined arguments, one statement built on another.  Beautiful, wonderful, glorious statements of TRUTH upon which we can stand and build our lives.  But the Bible, particularly the psalms, also addresses our emotions.  We are not only commanded to believe certain truths, but we are also commanded to feel certain affections:  love God, fear the Lord, hate sin.  And we are also given help for those emotions that rob us of our peace with God:  fear of man, distress, turmoil, shame.

So in our series on “Living Songs,” I hope that the Lord will teach us more about our hearts, the emotional capacity that He has created in each of us for His glory, and how we can truly love Him with all of our being – heart, mind, soul, and strength.  I hope that we will learn how to deal with our emotions when they are not God-centered and how to fight for faith in dark days.

This is a stretch for me as a preacher.  These are not my preferred texts.  Give me the epistles with all their logical reasoning, and I’ll go to town unfolding the argument.  But songs are sticky.  People write songs because words alone won’t satisfy, because they need to communicate something more than a propositional truth.  And though we are without the original melodies and harmonies, these lyrics we have in the book of Psalms remain rich, meaty, living, breathing instruction for our whole being.

So, here’s the plan, Lord willing:

• August 2 – Living Songs:  The Fruit of Righteousness – Psalm 1
• August 9 – Living Songs:  The Reign of the King – Psalm 2
• August 16 – Living Songs:  The Song of the Sorrowful – Psalm 13
• August 23 – Living Songs:  The Cry for Justice – Psalm 17

Let’s all prepare our hearts to be shaped by God’s songs over the coming month.  Please pray for my preparation and study.  Pray that Christ will be both exalted in our lives and formed in our hearts.

Dealing With Anxiety – Part 4

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
- Psalm 116:5-7

In my first post on dealing with anxiety, I wrote that anxiety is produced when one is faced with an upcoming event surrounded uncertainty and social pressure without an ability to cope with being unable to control life.  Anxiety is, at its root, very much based on a sense of powerlessness that leads to anticipation of impending doom.  The fear of anxiety comes from our inability to significantly secure an outcome we believe is essential to our own happiness.

This is a two-fold issue:  (1) We must accept our powerlessness, and (2) we must let go of our belief that our happiness is bound up in that uncertain outcome we desire.  Let’s say someone is anxious about a big deal he is brokering for his business.  He’s done all he can do – worked hard, prepared carefully, done his homework, etc.  If he (1) still believes there is more he can do to secure the deal (even after he’s done all he can) and (2) believes that his own future is completely tied to the outcome of this business proposal, then he will find himself stuck in anxiety.

We believe these lies about our own ability to control our lives and the necessity of determining our own future, and they bring more stress and worry and comfort.  Great pressure comes with being the master of your own destiny, captain of your own fate.

The reality is that having a God who is, as the psalmist says in Psalm 116:5, gracious, righteous, and merciful, a God who preserves His children, is the greatest relief our burdened souls can know.  As the first answer in the Heidelberg Catechism states, my greatest comfort in life and in death is knowing that I am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.  We all know there are things in this world beyond our control.  We are powerless against weather, storms, other people’s actions and attitudes, markets, and so on.  But nothing is beyond the control of our gracious, righteous, merciful God.

The psalmist calls his soul to return to rest based on the past ways in which the Lord has dealt bountifully with him (Psalm 116:7-8).  Remembering how God has in the past redeemed that which we thought was lost and ruined is a powerful tool to get us through the pain of anxiety.  I look back in my own life at all the plans I’ve made at various times, and I am so thankful that my plans fell aside and God’s plans have stood.

Trusting that God is not only sovereign but also good helps us to let go of the belief that our happiness is bound up in a particular outcome or situation.  Just because we cannot see how our lives could be blessed and happy and full apart from that for which we are longing in the midst of anxiety does not mean that is sitting back with the same concerns.  No, God is in control, and He is good.  He promises us that He withhold “no good thing” from His people (Psalm 84:11).

Faith in God’s sovereign reign over our lives and His unending love for us allows us to not only cope with our powerlessness, but to rejoice in it.  He knows better than I do.  He is stronger than I am.

Does this faith immediately relieve the turmoil and stress of anxiety?  No, it doesn’t.  But without faith, we cannot find that relief at all.

All truth is God’s truth.  Sometimes we can find wisdom in the strangest of places.  A few days ago someone shared with me this quote from page 417 of the Blue Book of Alcoholics Anonymous:

And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation—some fact of my life—unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake.

I couldn’t agree more.

Dealing With Anxiety – Part 3

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
- Psalm 116:5-7

Yesterday, I wrote that dealing with anxiety begins by letting God into the experience of fear, turmoil, and apprehension – not just asking Him to pull you from it.  We must not wait for God to remove us from every trial and tribulation, but instead we have to “walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 116:9).  Here, in this world – full of pain and sorrow and sickness AND love and beauty and joys – we must recognize, appreciate and enjoy God’s presence with us.

But in the midst of anxiety, it is fair to say that your relationship with God can become somewhat strained.  I know the truth of God’s word, all the promises of hope and security and my ultimate good.  But when my stomach is in knots and my thoughts have spun out of control, obviously a disconnect exists between my head and my heart.  My brain can recall the promises, but my heart will not be quieted.  When my heart is racing and my body is tense and worry is overwhelming my internal dialogue, I can’t help but notice that my experience is not conforming to my expectations of a Christ-centered peace.

So I have a choice to make.  There are a few ways believers can handle this.  Some believes do the whole “word of confession” thing.  They say to “confess” your health and happiness and holiness, even if what you see and hear and feel and think does not match.  They name their preferred state of existence, then claim it.  They deny their emotional state and press on in faith.  I don’t think this matches the example we’ve been given in the scripture.

Others run the opposite way.  Rather than expressing faith in faith, they let their faith slowly collapse around them.  They begin to doubt the promises of God.  “Maybe God doesn’t love me like I thought…”  Rather than denying the reality of their experience and making confessions of faith, these people let their experience overshadow the truths about God they once believed with certainty.

A better way is shown by the psalmist.  He cries out:

I believed, even when I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”
- Psalm 116:10-11

He invites God into his experience and then denies neither his pains and fear or his trust in God’s goodness.  He simultaneous believes and complains.  God is not afraid of our complaints.  It is perfectly safe to go there with God; we just cannot stay there.  God knew the psalmist’s afflictions anyway, so the psalmist takes them before the Lord.  He comes to God just as he is.

Honesty with God is essential in dealing with anxiety.  Obviously, this is for our sake and not His.  The process of expressing all our fears and troubles to Him can take some time, but through this the Lord leads us to a better understanding of what we dread.  Confessing the reality of our experience is not informative to God but to us.  Journal your thoughts.  Put them on paper.  Talk to another, asking God to guide your conversation.  Do whatever you have to do to get the jumbled words and feeling in your head out, processed, cleared, and articulated.

But don’t over-think it.  Verse 6 says, “The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, He saved me.”  We do not need to be strong; the Lord is our strength.  We do not need to be wise; Christ is our wisdom.  We do not need to be creative; our Father is the Creator.  We need to be simple.  We need to honest about where we are.  In anxiety, we have been brought low.

Yet in the midst of this venting to our heavenly Father, all that we think and say must be tempered by that reminder of faith.  “I believed, even when I spoke…”  As we invite God into our experience and begin to share with Him the truth of our fears and worry, we need to keep the Gospel in focus.  When God looked down at fallen humanity, brought low by sin, He did not rescue us by throwing down a rope.  He entered into the pit with us.  The Son took on flesh:

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
- Hebrews 2:14-15

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
- Hebrews 4:15-16

Christ suffered, too.  He cried out to the Father, too.  He experienced what I am experiencing.  Inviting God into the pain and being honest with Him about how I feel should serve as a reminder of the depth of His willingness to save me.  God saved man by becoming a man.  He knows, not just because He is God, but because He lived it.  This Gospel truth gives me hope.  My suffering is not an indication that the Father has abandoned me.  My suffering is not something Jesus does not understand.  And my suffering – which I know is so small compared to the suffering of Jesus – is not beyond being redeemed for glory.  In fact, suffering is as it should be for me.  “We suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17).

The Lord, the righteous God, in His mercy entered into the lowly state in which we all have lived to save us.  He came near.  He did not do it from afar.  He came into our reality and lived it with us so that we might be set free from fear and, looking to Him as our Leader in this world of sorrow, find confidence to be honest about our pains and ask for help in time of need.

I cannot leave God out of my anxiety.  The truth is that He is already here.