A Laymen's Guide to Desiring God

We made the decision, a tad over a year ago, to use the Masterwork series with several of the educational groups here at Ridgecrest. I must admit that the folks at Masterwork/Lifeway have caused me to sweat more than once. The most recent sweat came from their adaptation of pastor Ralph Douglas West’s interpretation of Ruth 3. I posted my response to this and have since moved on.

Though I have moved on, that moment caused me to enter into a new discipline as a part of my pastoral leadership, that is the discipline of seriously reading educational literature before anyone else does. This has caused me a few more hours of work away from sermon preparation, but at this time I feel it extremely necessary. I feel it extremely necessary because the philosophy behind the Masterworks series (which I think I understand and at this time endorse) is a good one, but it is far less safe for lay teachers. In adapting material written from a wide range of authors, from a wide range of convictions and doctrinal persuasions, lay teachers and students will be confronted by ideas that they may otherwise have never encountered if they do not make a habit of reading broadly. Most pastors read broadly, and as a by-product develop a good sense of discernment. In doing so they are able to be encountered by ideas, appreciate them, reject them, or assimilate them; turn to the next page of the book and move forward. No sweat. Discernment helps a Baptist appreciate the contributions of the Max Lucados, Jim Cymbalas, and N.T. Wrights of the theological world by tossing a few ideas here and there, but overall enjoying their work. Discernment helps a pastor say that just because someone is Church of Christ doesn’t mean they are going to Hell. Discernment (along with a fair amount of theological maturity, grace, and tact) helps Al Mohler and Paige Patterson become presidents of seminaries funded by the same denomination. Most laymen have not developed such a sense of discernment simply because they do not own the same library as most pastors. I own a few books. Therefore, I enter the fray. Maybe I can be a good shepherd and help.

I have said all of that to say this, “I feel another sweat coming on.” Beginning Easter Sunday the Masterwork series from Lifeway will begin a series of lessons adapted from Pastor John Piper’s book Desiring God, Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. To help this process along I will do two things. 1) I have started a discussion board available ONLY to our CLG leaders. There I preview the lessons several weeks in advance and post teaching tips that I hope will help them along, not only in teaching, but also in discernment. 2) With this post I will also begin a broader and more public conversation with John Piper’s book, Desiring God, not in its adapted Masterwork form, but with the book in its entirety. Hopefully this will provide fair context for discernment.

I read Desiring God several years ago. At the time it hit me as it will hit most freshmen to the thought of Christian Hedonism, this is radical stuff. Since getting over the initial shock I have been truly edified by Dr. Piper’s teaching and preaching. As with most books, I appreciated it, thought about it, was impacted by it, and moved on. I probably did not think about it as deeply as I will in this series of posts, so hopefully this will be a good exercise for me personally as well. Yet before I begin, I want to share these thoughts that seem to keep me in balance as I read books:

1. All of us believe something strongly.

2. None of us completely agree with one another in what we strongly believe.

3. No one is ever completely right.

4. No one is ever completely wrong.

5. People who disagree and get things right and wrong will end up in the same Heaven with the same God because they have been saved by the same Jesus and indwelt by the same Holy Spirit.

6. I have been wrong and will be wrong again.

7. People who write books have been wrong and will be wrong again.

8. I can believe something today, admit I am wrong, and believe something differently tomorrow.

9. That same sort of thing probably happens to people who write books.

10. There are lots of books in this world. None of them replace the Bible.

11. There are lots of books in this world. We should read them.

12. There are lots of books in this world. Yet, we should, in the end major on the Bible, not on books.

So now, in the days ahead, may we sweat together in love, with balance and with discernment.

The Gospel of the Oscars

If you are an Oscar/Movie buff you may want to check out the panel discussion held at Southern Seminary: “Eden, Avatar, and the Kingdom of Christ: Just What are We to do With Popular Culture.” This is a very interesting discussion about the current themes in movies, in particular those found in Avatar. It is amazing how we celebrate creativity and originality in Hollywood, but if we were to pull back the curtain we would see that most of it is just rehashing many of the same themes found in Scripture – creation, fall, redemption, and renewal. These are the cravings of the human soul. We desperately long for them to be ultimately true and we express these desires in film. Yet, when we turn to Scripture we see ultimate reality, the true meta-narrative: creation, fall, redemption, and renewal in history and prophecy. Hollywood has written nothing new, yet film reveals that our souls are on a desperate quest. God has a plan. Our cravings can only be satisfied in Him.

Mo Wins the Butterfly!

Mo had her first swim meet today. It was a bronze level meet in Trussville. She won the butterfly and the breaststroke. She took second in the freestyle and the backstroke.

Adrian Rogers

If you are reading this blog then you should dedicate some bandwidth to another website, www.lwf.org. LWF is Love Worth Finding, the archived ministry of the late pastor Adrian Rogers. Adrian Rogers’ ministry has made a great impact on me and my wife. Anytime we hear his voice on the radio we tune in. His voice alone is a showstopper. God gave Adrian Rodgers great preaching pipes! His sermons were simply stated and laced with profound truths. He was a pastoral wordsmythe and had a way of phrasing truth in a way that it immediately stuck to your soul. “Truth that is not tested, cannot be trusted!”

If you are a reader, your library should contain something of Dr. Rodgers. If you are a pastor his biography, Love Worth Finding is a must. Shannon read the entire book to me aloud while we were driving home from the Southern Baptist Convention a few years ago. My chronology may be off a bit, but I believe it was the same convention in which he preached his final sermon before the SBC. Not many months later God called him home. For Shannon and I, it was like watching Moses deliver Deuteronomy. He spoke, scaled the mountain, and he was gone.

For encouragement, edification, wisdom, and nourishment for the Christian soul, spend some time with Dr. Adrian Rogers. Here are some relevant links:

Love Worth Finding – the hub of Adrian Rogers’ archives

OnePlace.com – archived media from Adrian Rogers

iTunes podcast – if you have iTunes it will automatically update when new material is posted

Really? (sermon audio: Sunday a.m.)

Our new series, “The Resurrection of Faith,” challenges us to evaluate what we really believe about Jesus Christ and our salvation. While at points in our lives, emotions and circumstances can affect our view of the resurrection, we must evaluate whether we are in doubt or denial. This message reveals that the greatest evidence for the resurrection is not the empty tomb, but the risen Christ. These events were witnessed by hundreds and then recorded within one generation of the resurrection. However, despite all evidences, the power of Christ working through the lives of His people everyday is the greatest witness of all. Too often we profess our faith in a living Christ and yet live as though He is still dead.

Listen to Audio

The Gospel Is

Paul summarizes the gospel message in three simple phrases:

· Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures

· He was buried

· He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

Scholars believe that Paul’s choice of wording here was borrowed from an early church creed; a creed that is believed to have been widely circulated within 20 years of the resurrection of Jesus. This means that in the early church, people who expressed faith in the gospel affirmed doctrinal truth.

In sharing the gospel in our community I have begun to increasingly encounter people whom I would say had some sort of ethereal/spiritual encounter with God that resulted in their belief that they have eternal life. The encounter usually entails me sharing the doctrinal precepts of the gospel such as: man as a sinner, Jesus as the substitute who died for sinful man, His resurrection, and the proper response of man to the gospel; repentance and faith. Throughout this portion of the presentation the people with whom I am sharing seem somewhat unfamiliar with these truths. Yet when I ask them some sort of question as to whether or not they have been “born again”, “saved”, or have “eternal life” they respond with certainty. At this point I ask them to share the story of their conversion.

These ethereal conversion stories usually entail a dream, a vision, or a “feeling of peace” that suddenly comes over them during a traumatic experience or a prayer during such experience. Their conversion story is usually void of any affirmation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God or the meaning of His death and resurrection. Most of them have much to say about their perceptions of God, but very little to say about His Son. I do not doubt that people have dreams that result in making a profound change in one’s life. I do not doubt that people can experience an unusual amount of peace during a trauma or while praying through trauma. Yet while I do not doubt those experiences, such things in and of themselves do not result in regeneration of the depraved human soul. A person may have a profound experience, but a person must also affirm certain truths in order to be truly born again. Having a dream or a feeling that changes one’s life does not necessarily result in Biblical salvation.

In order to be born again a person must connect with the risen Christ in something less ethereal or spiritual, and something more doctrinal, objective, and absolute. Let us not forget that Paul, the author of 1 Corinthians 15 had an incredible “vision” of Jesus. Something certainly ethereal (I use the term loosely here), supernatural, and life changing (Acts 9). Yet in the expression of his faith Paul affirmed certain doctrinal truths as the basis of his conversion. He did not simply hold to having a vision. One cannot simply have a great experience, affirm nothing of the gospel, and be born again. In order to be born again one must affirm certain doctrinal truths revealed in Scripture; namely that Jesus has died for our sin, that He has physically risen from the dead, and that the only proper response of mankind to these truths is repentance and faith (Acts 2:38, Romans 10:9-13). The gospel is not a dream, an ethereal or spiritual experience, or a vision. The gospel is revealed truth based solely upon Jesus Christ. Our souls must connect with objective, historical reality (namely the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture) and not rely on subjective perceptions. In order to be born again one must affirm what, “the gospel is.”

Believing in Vain

The more we move forward chronologically it seems that our souls detach from the meaning of the past. Last summer I stood in the very square in Timisoara, Romania where the Romanian revolution began. The Romanian revolution was not only a political event, but a definitively spiritual one. It was not the beginning of faith in Romania, but rather its coming out party. The revolution of December 1989 may have been fueled by political unrest, but it was ignited by prayer and open expressions of the Christian faith.

Though we were there just shy of the 20 year anniversary, and bullet holes still served as memorials in the architecture, it seemed to me that many Romanians, at least in the churches, have detached from the meaning of that event. In hearing the stories, the churches were full in the days following revolution, but not so much today. The same is true in America. Post 9/11 we were full of faith and patriotism. What the Romanians forgot in 20 years it seemed like Americans dismissed in 2 weeks. Now, March 2, 2010, we are full of confusion and marching toward Socialism. The human soul has a short memory.

Within one generation, probably 20 to 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul responds to the infighting, immorality, and assimilation of Pagan worship and heretical doctrine in the Corinthian church with a stern reminder. The resurrection of Jesus Christ will change the human soul, “unless you believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:2b).”

When most people read this passage, or hear me explain it, their question becomes, “Can someone lose their salvation.” My response is unequivocally, “No.” But I would also respond that the souls of truly born again people do not detach so easily from the meaning of the resurrection. Their faith is not in vain. The word “vain” means empty, worthless, meaningless. By their actions, there are many people who profess Jesus Christ, but demonstrate a version of faith that is “empty, worthless, meaningless.” They have believed in vain. Such people do not have eternal life.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ will impact one’s speech, habits, marriage, finances, attitudes, motives, morals, vision, parenting, commitment to church, service to community, ethics, . . . The resurrection impacts the very essence of everyone who believes it. Though many professing Christians would not verbally deny the resurrection of Christ, their ethic betrays them. They deny Jesus is the risen Lord by the way they treat their family and forsake their marriage. They deny the resurrection by their internet activity, speech patterns, attitudes, morals, lack of commitment, lack of stability, lack of direction, and lack of controlling faith. Their souls have detached from historical truth. Jesus Christ has risen. Those who have not believed in vain live under His lordship daily because He is alive.