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Must Listens: Tullian & Chandler

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2 more amazing audio resources came available in recent days and, in God’s grace, they are available for free…

This past Lord’s Day, Tullian Tchividjian preached at Covenant Life Church on Jesus + Nothing = Everything from Colossians 1:9-14. There are amazing quotes and lines and truths from this that you simply must listen to. He discusses the 2 manners in which legalism tries to sink its tentacles into our lives, which was very enlightening. But take time and listen.

Also, 9Marks just released their leadership interview for the month. It is entitled Engaging Your Generation and features Matt Chandler. They summarize this interview as: “Matt Chandler discusses his past year, his approach to preaching, and what it takes to engage this generation with the gospel.”

Grab both of these and be edified and built up.

Ask These Questions of Yourself, Men, … I Dare You…

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From Tullian…

He offers these for the men of his church “to understand and embody the life-giving power of the Gospel in their daily lives.”

Do you rejoice in position, power, accomplishments, entitlement, control, degrees, knowledge, status, authority, numbers, and rank?

Or do you rejoice in service, mercy, sacrifice, pastoral care, love, prayer, prudence, grace, relationships, and repentance?

Are you proud or humble? Do you put others before yourself?

Do you find your daily security and significance in your own accomplishments or in Christ’s accomplishment for you?

Do you seek first place or last place? Do you boast on yourself or on Christ? Do you talk about yourself a lot? Are you prone to envy and do you get defensive easily?

Do you weep with those who weep? Do you love people and look for opportunities to serve and shepherd them? Do you revel in self-confidence or self-sacrifice?

Do you have people in your life that you confess specific instances of sin? Do the people in your life find it easy to correct you?

This is what true Biblical manhood looks like. Examine your heart and where it is found lacking…REPENT!

The Gospel Brings You Into “A New Family”

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…so says Tullian Tchividjian:

“You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,” Paul said. In other words, when God adopts us, we not only gain a Father, we gain a whole new family: the Church. The biblical word for “church” does not mean a building or institution, it means “the called out ones.” It refers to those whom God calls out of slavery and into sonship. The Church, in other words, is people: people adopted by God, people who know God as their heavenly Father. When God saves sinners he saves them into a whole new community — the “family of God.” As Frank Colquhoun wrote in his book Total Christianity, “When Christ saves a man he not only saves him from his sin, he saves him from his solitude.” He brings us into meaningful fellowship with others who will help us along the way in our relationship with God. [a meditation from Tullian’s book Do I Know God?]

This theme of adoption is a key component of our Week of Prayer emphasis. I hope you are encouraged today by what God has done to give us access to Himself in prayer.